Milwaukee Welcomes Baseball's GMs

Today is the official start of the GM meetings, happening this year in Milwaukee Wisconsin. I think the baseball Gods are smiling upon us because this is a beautiful day for the middle of November.

So the GM meetings are really just a precursor to the single most exciting event of the off-season, which is of course the winter meetings. However, there still should be some good things happening. Word on the street is there are lots of agents in town this year.

In Brewers news Reyes is still, naturally, a hot topic for conversation in the rumor mill. Tom Hardricourt stands by his view that the Brewers don't have the payroll to sign him. Another new word in though from Jon Heyman, saying that he hears the the Brewers' number one target is Reyes. Sounds like the Marlins have set the bidding now with a 6 year $90 million deal ($15m/year). I'm a little surprise by this. I didn't think right out of the gate we would get a 6 year offer... however I did think we would see something north of 15 million annually. Some skeptics out there say that the slew of offers being thrown out of Miami (to Pujols, Madsen, Buerle, and Reyes) are largly for show, good offers in and of themselves, but not really enough to sign anyone. We'll see...

In more realistic news Doug Melvin continues to show interest in Yuniesky Betancourt, saying that he talked to his agent. I get the feeling Melvin would like a one year deal, which Yu-Bet could probably be had on (considering a lot of people don't think he should even be a starting player...). There has also been a "tire kicking" on Rafael Furcal, the former Cardinal who hit six home runs last year, five of which were against the Brewers... So back to Reyes, Melvin did admit to speaking with the speedy switch-hitter's agent on the phone, once, and with "no numbers".

So hopefully some interesting developments will happen over the next few days here in Milwaukee. Also, congrats to Justin Verlander on his unanimous choice for AL Cy Young award winner. Great year.

Later.