After digesting the cupcakes news, I don't have anything earth-shattering to add. But that other thread was getting pretty huge.
While I like this trade and the Harden trade (and wouldn't be opposed to trading Ellis, Duke, Street, Embree, and [if he's healthy] Chavez), I'm starting to have some FSU/Loria-esque suspicions that Wolff and/or Fisher may be looking to cash in their franchise-appreciation chips: clearing the decks of big salary commitments would be a good way to entice new principal owners (and who knows -- Wolff may be ready to either throw in the towel on Selig Acres at Fremont, or to disarticulate the development from the ballpark). I also wouldn't be surprised to see Beane go all Carlos Pena on Barton, and to throw him in to a potential Duke or Street deal as sweetener -- in addition to Barton looking entirely overmatched this year, Beane now has a wealth of 1B/DH options as well as a lot of potential high-OBP/low-power bats nearing readiness.
