Seriously?

Frank Russo over at NY Baseball Digest has recently provided us with the following bogus trade “rumors” and speculation:

• A Carlos Beltran for Robinson Cano deal
• The Yankees are interested in Aaron Rowand

Those rumors were ridiculous to begin with, however, I must say that Frank really takes the cake with his latest trade gem.

When you write about baseball like I do, you hear all kinds of rumors. Some are wild and some are crazy and some are just plain insane. Tuesday night I received an email from a friend of mine who covers the Pirates who told me of a possible trade scenario brewing between the Pirates and Yankees. The Yankees would send Xavier Nady, Nick Swisher and Brett Gardner to the Pirates for center fielder Nate McLouth, (with New York paying about 80 percent of both Nady and Swisher’s salaries as part of the deal).

Now I want to make one thing perfectly clear. I am not the one who came up with this rumor/trade scenario, I am just reporting on it, so don’t shoot the messenger. McLouth has long been a favorite of WFAN host Mike Francesa, who has deemed him to be the next great Yankees center fielder. Personally, I do not believe for a minute that the Pirates would ever trade McLouth, even with Swisher, Nady and Gardner as a starting point for a deal.

Now, Russo was one of the first people that I can recall who reported that Xavier Nady was being shopped. That was a realistic report and one that has since been corroborated by multiple sources, although I’m not sure if it was Frank who specifically broke that story.

Either way, that doesn’t excuse this crazy ass trade “scenario”. Think of all the ways it doesn’t make any sense. Why would the Yankees send both of these very productive players away for one player? Also, why would they pay both of their salaries? Furthermore, the defense would be severely hurt by McLouth in CF. In addition, who would the Yankes acquire for RF (if anyone?) and how would they do that if they’re still spending on Nady and Swisher. Let’s not forget that if McLouth is the future CF, what happens to Austin Jackson? For all of these reasons (and more), this trade scenario makes no sense at all.

What’s worse is that Frank says, “I do not believe for a minute that the Pirates would ever trade McLouth, even with Swisher, Nady and Gardner as a starting point for a deal.” The biggest problem is that the Pirates would never trade McLouth, not that trading Swisher, Nady and Gardner for McLouth makes no sense (no matter how good he is offensively). To Frank, that’s what’s unbelievable, which I find problematic. This really falls into that crazy category of rumors and is one that maybe should have stay locked up and out of sight.

Meanwhile, the Braves still seem interested in Nady and Swisher…