Colby Rasmus might be available with the emergence of John Jay. Any takers on Rasmus manning center field for the Rangers? What do you think the Cardinals will demand since Colby's numbers have dropped considerably this season?

Why would you? The next CF is in this organization, recently promoted to AAA, and will be here in September, more than likely. I don't see moving prospects for a short-term fix a fix at all. Just one man's opinion.

Not a bad thought on a value-type play, if we could get him for the right price, as he does have 3.5 years of team control.

However, his acquisition would open up a whole new can of worms:

1) His CF glove is average-ish, but his bat is above average - so he is basically an inverse Craig Gentry.

2) He is another left-handed outfielder (would be nice to have some RH balance for flexibility)

3) Most importantly, because of his additional years of team control he throws a kink in the Leonys Martin development plan (he of the $15MM investment).

So on account of his fringy to average CF defense, Colby will likely be relegated to a corner spot (Martin in CF), which would obviously make Colby a backup/fourth outfielder (Cruz & Hamilton man the corners through 2012, at least).

Colby would be an excellent addition as a 4th outfielder and an obvious upgrade over Gentry/Borbon/Murphy - but I doubt the price will be right in terms of prospects for a 4th outfielder.

Seems like it would make better sense to go for Beltran for the depth/offensive boost this year, and plug Martin in as the long-term solution to that CF spot beginning either later this year or next year.

Everybody sure has placed a lot of faith in Leonys Martin who hasn't even played a Major League game yet. What if Martin is a fluke and does not pan out? Then what do we do?

I played against Colby Rasmus in high school in Alabama and I know that he is the real deal. It's only a matter of time before he blossoms into something special. Acquiring him for cheap would be a shrewd decision by the front office.

Martin has the tools. Not just my opinion and observation, but also that of just about every other true baseball person and scout out there. He was plugged straight in at AA and hit the ground running... and has yet to quit in AAA. I get that you like Colby. I just think it would be an unnecessary trade.

Don't get me wrong, Rasmus is a talent, he is young, and he has a great attitude (wants to be a team leader, etc.) That said, Wash wants a CF who can lead off. That ain't Colby. That will be Martin.

What Caleb said

Wow! Scott was right. That brawl for Spokane last night was a real brawl. Odor and Matt West will be in trouble for the worst of this one:

http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattlesports/2011/07/12/huge-brawl-follows-routine-grounder-in-spokane-indians-game/

Pass. Would cost close to the same as Beltran and is a lesser talent. I'm starting to warm to the idea of Martin coming up here this year anyways. If you combined all those damn prospects we sent last year for junk backups we would have some serious fire power in the trade market. We do not need a deja vu relapse of that again.

If you can buy Beltran for salary & a couple of crap prospects, you can try to move Murphy for relief pitching. Going into the playoffs you'd have Hamilton, Cruz, Beltran, and presumably Martin as your 4 OFs, with Chavez as 5, and of course Moreland. Let Beltran go FA & get a pick or two for him. Martin goes into the spring as starting CF. That's what I'd be doing, if I be JD.

Who would be your "crap" prospects?

And you would not get any picks for Beltran - see Pras article posted today - he has a clause in his contract making him arbitration ineligible after this season, thus no compensatory picks to whoever loses him at the end of the season.

Nice catch Caleb. The Met's won't eat the majority of his salary, and I don't want to give up youth and big $ for a 34 year old renta player in CF.

...and I think for that angle alone, with no compensatory picks, JD passes.
Now lets talk Reyes, K-Rod & Beltran to make it a real interesting gumbo.

...and I think for that angle alone, with no compensatory picks, JD passes.
Now lets talk Reyes, K-Rod & Beltran to make it a real interesting gumbo.

Yeah, thanks - as you can see I didn't read very carefully. If you get no picks and Mets don't assume a lot of his contract - hellllllls no to Beltran. And you sure as helllllls don't give up real prospects for that guy. In this economy, with 18 of the 30 teams seeing a decline in attendance, GMs are going to be saying "no" to the Mets if the Mets ask for anything good in return for Beltran or K Rod. Let the dumb Mets pay those stupid salaries - they are the ones who gave em out to begin with. Stupid, stupid, Mets.

The good thing is we got JD on our side - he's usually pretty savvy. And as was mentioned above in one of the comments, we lost quite a few prospects during last trade season, some of them for duds like Cantu who didn't do jack shizzle for the team in the late summer. They want to avoid doing that again, I'm sure.

Nice to see you agree, WWJDD. Dodgers did a similar thing with Kemp in 2010 on a two year deal, avoiding arbitration. He will be arbitration eligible next year, and a FA in 2013. I will be watching this closely. That said, the future is here in Martin, and he is close. We have control over him for 5, potentially 6 years, depending on when he is added to the active roster.

Not happening so no reason to justify it. texas has already invested in the Rangers CF of the future...