Winter Meetings: Most Likely To Be Traded, Most Likely To Sign

Jayson Stark of ESPN, has his Winter Meetings preview up this morning with lots of good information to digest. Additionally, he surveyed 17 prominent executives, agents and scouts about the hot baseball storylines that are about to explode over the next week.

Who’s most likely to get traded?

Who’s the best bet to get traded during the winter meetings? We posed that question and got this response (with some panelists picking multiple players):

James Shields – 5
Asdrubal Cabrera – 4
Shin-Soo Choo – 2
Luke Hochevar – 2
R.A. Dickey, Elvis Andrus, Michael Morse, Josh Willingham, Jed Lowrie, Bruce Chen, Andrew Bailey – 1 apiece

Who’s most likely to sign this week?

Which free agent has the best shot to show up on a winter meetings podium near you (and Shrek) in the next few days? Here’s how the poll participants voted on that question:

Zack Greinke – 7
Cody Ross – 3
Anibal Sanchez – 2
Mike Napoli – 2
Michael Bourn (surprisingly) – 2
Marco Scutaro, Angel Pagan, Adam LaRoche, Edwin Jackson, Ryan Dempster, Kyuji Fujikawa – 1 apiece

I spent one wonderful week at the Gaylord Opryland in Nashville Tennessee where the Winter Meetings are being held. I was at our company’s Annual Sales Conference at the time. I thought it was one of the seven modern wonders of the world with this amazing small town built inside a controlled environment complete with rivers and waterfalls, bridges, an entire strip full of great bars, country western taverns, jazz clubs, restaurants and shops that all come alive at night – sort of like Mardi Gras in New Orleans.

The entire resort is so huge, which led to an extreme amount of walking, but it was well worth it because of all the sights. If you forgot something in your hotel room and had to run back for it, it could take you 45 minutes to go to your room and come back.

Every night after our meetings and workshops we’d walk down to the Hickory Steakhouse or the Cascades for some of the best steaks, ribs and seafood I’ve ever eaten. Then we’d end the night at our favorite bar; the Jack Daniels Saloon where they always had live music and a tremendous selection of beers and drinks. It was a very memorable experience for me. I still have one of the hats I purchased in one of the shops.