Hitting the links

Sounds like the NY Mets are looking for a corner outfielder. Ryan Church is back on the DL, and Moises Alou isn't the sturdiest player anymore. According to this NY Post sportswriter, Randy Winn might fit the bill.

And are the D'backs interested in Barry Bonds? Eric Byrnes is probably done for the season, and according to Nick Piecoro, it sounds like management has at least discussed Bonds, who could help the team against lefties. Management didn't deny Bonds was a possibility, and in fact it sounds like he has been seriously considered.

Part of me wants to see Bonds play again, but not in the NL West division. I was kinda hoping he'd spend the rest of the season with Detroit, or another AL team I could root for. Which would definitely NOT be the Red Sox, who apparently also have discussed signing Barry for the rest of the season (even though it would be "three months of a PR nightmare", according to Curt Schilling).

Of course, for now he's still home in Beverly Hills, but someone is going to get desperate enough eventually. I should prepare myself to see him in another uni sometime this season.

And from John Donovan's mailbag over on SI.com:

Barry Zito is putting up numbers that will have him unemployed sooner rather than later. Is this the worst dropoff from a former Cy in history, and perhaps the worst free-agent signing in history?
-- Steve, Birmingham, Ala.

The contract -- $126 million for seven years, is definitely up there, isn't it, Steve? Absurd the second he signed it before the start of the '07 season, almost regardless of how he ended up pitching. I do want to point out, though, that Zito's decline has been more gradual than people realize. He never has duplicated that '02 level, but he had a couple of passable years right after that Cy. Not great years, but passable. And then he kept falling. The dropoff has to be among the worst for a pitcher who is still young and, by all accounts, healthy. Bartolo Colon dropped off after his '05 Cy, but that was injury related. Eric Gagne has fallen pretty badly, too.

I should point out that Gagne was a PED user during his peak - I suspect that explains his fall more than anything else.

Apparently now that they have C.C. Sabathia, the Brewers are interested in reliever Jack Taschner along with Ray Durham (to be used off the bench). Interesting. What would they give the Giants in return?

Tempering all this trade talk is Will Carroll's report on Baseball Prospectus that "the Giants have waved off inquiries on anyone but Rich Aurilia and Ray Durham." If this is true, then the Giants will only delay their rebuilding process yet again.