Feelings, and Hunches, and Guesses...Oh My!

QUESTION: Can you see the Rangers taking a chance on either Mark Mulder or Randy Wolf? Do you see them trading for Tim Hudson by sending a C.J. Wilson to Atlanta? What do you see them going after in a bat? Barry Bonds? I hope not.

GRANT: The Rangers were never interested in Barry Bonds, so don't fret. There is some interest in Mulder and Wolf, but there are questions. Mulder won't pitch before the second half of the season; Wolf has never pitched in the NL. Atlanta might be willing to deal Hudson, but I think the Rangers would more likely have to part with Akinori Otsuka. I don't get the feel that talks with Atlanta progressed very far at all.

"That's our general philosophy," Schuerholz said. "And we have had Hall of Fame players. Let me repeat: We have had Hall of Fame-caliber players on this team, on this roster, over the 15 years that I've been here.

"And we've never given out any no-trade clauses."

Could Schuerholz see himself, this winter, backing off that hard-line stance?

"We haven't yet," he said. "You can name a lot of All-Star, Hall of Fame-caliber players who have come through here, and we haven't yet. That's my best answer to that."

"Ideally you'd like to acquire something without giving up something other than money," Stoneman said. "The two big guys (Aramis Ramirez and Alfonso Soriano) are gone now. I guess you say it becomes more likely, but not 100 percent, that a bat will come from a trade."

The Angels could package Shields with a pitcher such as Ervin Santana for Toronto's Vernon Wells, Atlanta's Andruw Jones or Boston's Manny Ramirez. But Stoneman...indicated a top-notch bullpen could be better.

So the Angels likely would have to give up a package, including starter Ervin Santana, trumpeted minor-league starter Nick Adenhart and perhaps setup man Scot Shields to get the Braves interested - and offer [Andruw] Jones a boatload of money in a new contract to approve the deal.

Sounds too complicated to me, and that means Stoneman might have to turn his focus back to Orioles shortstop Miguel Tejada, who was rumored headed to Anaheim before the July trading deadline last season until Tejada made it known he didn't want to play third base.