I hope you had a good Thanksgiving, and even as we speak, are picking your way through the skeletal remains of yesterday's turkey. Or, in my case, honey-baked ham. This week's bonus edition of SnakeBytes is, perhaps surprisingly, not entirely dominated by Justin Upton news. However, there is still plenty of that to go around, though the "Upton and Drew to the Mets for Beltran and Reyes" rumor has been consigned to the garbage-can, since it was clearly off. We'll start with the somewhat more reliable Upton news, so pass your plate...
Your Daily Weekly Upton
- [dbacks.com] Towers: Nothing new on Upton trade front - "I think he'll probably be here on Opening Day," said D-backs team president/CEO Derrick Hall. Kevin Towers said he hopes to have the process completed early next month. "I would say before the end of the Winter Meetings we should know. We're kind of walking through this thing slowly right now. If we are overwhelmed in a deal, great. If not, the fallback is we still have Justin Upton on our team, and that's a good thing."
- [Boston.com] Time to up the ante with Upton - "The same way he wined and dined Curt Schilling seven years ago, he needs to sweet talk Towers until he agrees to send Justin Upton to the Red Sox. Pass the stuffing and Jacoby Ellsbury to Towers. Ask him if he wants dark meat, white meat or Daniel Bard. Whatever it takes before the Diamondbacks come to their senses about dealing Upton."
- [Green Valley News & Sun] Upton is a budding superstar, not trade bait - "Nearly all trades are made for one of three reasons: To save money, to give a player a chance to start over, or as a rental. A potential Upton deal fits none of these categories. Upton is far too valuable to consider trading; he could repeat his disappointing 2010 season over the next five years and still be worth far more than the money he is scheduled to receive."
Other D-backs news
- [FoxSports] D-Back's Reynolds an option for O's - "The Orioles are sifting through the available names at first and third base, two positions where they want to improve. Diamondbacks third baseman Mark Reynolds is a trade possibility under discussion."
- [HamptonRoads.com] Birthday homers give Reynolds global acclaim - But it's not all bad news for Mark, "with his inclusion this week in Ripley's Believe It or Not! The Arizona Diamondbacks third baseman from Virginia Beach is recognized in Ripley's iconic daily cartoon for hitting home runs on his birthday - Aug. 3 - in back-to-back seasons..."
- [SFGate.com] SF Giants' shopping list starts with shortstop - "The Giants really want Arizona's Stephen Drew, but GM Kevin Towers will not deal him."
- [FoxSports] Former top prospect McCarthy drawing wide interest - "Brandon McCarthy used to be one of the best pitching prospects in baseball. Even now, he’s only 27 years old. Combine those factors, and you have a buy-low frenzy for teams in need of rotation help. McCarthy has been scouted heavily in recent weeks, with the Arizona Diamondbacks among the teams having interest, according to a major-league source."
- [Venom Strikes] When it Comes to the D’backs, I am Thankful for. . . - "I am thankful for many things in my life. One of them is the Arizona Diamondbacks. They may not be very good right now, but I am still thankful for all of the following reasons..."
- [FoxSportsArizona] Diamondbacks prospects making waves in Fall League - Jack Magruder reports on our players there. "It kind of proves to me that I can pitch at these high levels, and that was one thing that I wanted to prove, because I thought that I would be able to," Josh Collmenter said. "Getting the chance and having success just helped my confidence immensely and helped me trust all my stuff and my pitches."
Everything else...
- [FoxSportsArizona] Arizona Fall League: Five on the rise - And more generally, Jack M also provides five players who could make an immediate impact at the major league level in 2011.
- [AZCentral] Cardinals' president Michael Bidwill hears the grumbles - "Fans want to know when the team would stop losing, when the offense would stop floundering, if the playoffs were still possible... [Five losses] have dropped the Cardinals to 3-7 and to the bottom of the NFC West. Fans are frustrated, and Bidwill knows it." If you want proof of how fair-weather fans in Arizona are, read the comments - and remember, this team made the Superbowl in 2009.
- [SI.com] Hank Steinbrenner: New York Yankees made 'guys very, very rich' - "As much as we want to keep everybody, we've already made these guys very, very rich, and I don't feel we owe anybody anything monetarily,'' the Yankees co-chairman said Tuesday. Ooh. This could get nasty. I'll bring the popcorn...