The waiver wonderland

Peter Angelos' cries of protest get louder by the day. And that, says a longtime Angelos watcher, "usually means things are not going his way."

There is no doubt now that Selig wants to move the Expos to Washington or Northern Virginia. Obviously, Angelos has reason to be unhappy about that. So Selig clearly is struggling to find a solution that makes him, well, less unhappy. (We're assuming ecstatic is out of the question.)

Predicting the effect of a Washington/Northern Virginia team on Orioles attendance is almost impossible. But there would be a clear effect on the TV market. So indications are that MLB is exploring ways to lessen that load.

There are rumblings that Comcast could create a second regional sports network, which would allow Orioles games to continue being shown in the Washington-Virginia metropolii. Angelos then could be offered a bigger chunk of the revenues from that network than the Expos for some lengthy phase-in period.

Seems reasonable to us. But then again, we don't own the Orioles.

The intense conversations between MLB and the Northern Virginia group these days appear to be a sign MLB is now in overdrive, trying to determine if this is really a feasible alternative to putting a team in Washington.

But there is trouble on that front, too. Earlier this year, MLB was assured by the Northern Virginia delegation that land and financing for their ballpark was a done deal. Uh, maybe not.

A recent Washington Post story reported that while the group "controls a site appropriate for the ballpark" itself, it still would have to acquire more than half of the land needed for the much-hyped 450-acre shopping, residential and commercial complex surrounding the park.

Meanwhile, the AP reported this week that Virginia House Speaker William J. Howell is strongly opposed to the legislative approval that would be needed to use any "moral-obligation bonds" to finance the ballpark. Moral-obligation bonds are more highly rated and carry a lower interest rate than bonds the stadium authority could issue itself -- but need the OK of the legislature.

So if MLB wants to make a decision on relocation in the next month, these are questions the Northern Virginia folks are going to have to resolve ASAP.

Finally, MLB always dismisses talk that this decision is affected in any way by the racketeering lawsuit filed by Jeffrey Loria's one-time limited partners in Montreal, which claims, essentially, that Loria devalued the worth of the franchise (and, therefore, their own investment).

But a ruling by an arbitrator related to that suit has been postponed again, until September or October. And one source involved in the relocation discussions admits that the timing of that ruling has become "part of the equation."

What that means, by one analyst's estimation, is that MLB undoubtedly can't settle with these partners until it knows how much legal ground they have to stand on.

So it's just one more reason for Major League Baseball and its commish to do what they do best -- delay a decision on the Expos one more time.

Phillies Rumblings

There's no argument here that the Phillies needed to do more at the trading deadline than they did. And, in fact, they essentially announced that to their fanbase by simply aspiring to do more. But not everything broke their way, either.

Multiple sources have corroborated that they had a trade done to send Placido Polanco to Oakland -- and could have parlayed that into either A's reliever Ricardo Rincon (in a two-way deal) or Yankees center fielder Kenny Lofton (in a three-way deal). Except Oakland had bullpen injuries and had to back out.

The Phillies also thought they had the makings of a deal for Steve Finley. But it now appears that Arizona would have taken the Marlins' offer on him, unless Finley had decided to block that deal because he preferred Philadelphia (which he apparently did, until deciding his west-coast options were better).

Eventually, the Phillies found themselves in such need to make a deal for starting pitching, the consensus is that they overpaid (with three decent prospects) for Cory Lidle. Even in that case, it's believed their preference was to trade for Lidle's teammate, Paul Wilson. But the Reds opted to hang onto Wilson, because they think there's a better chance they can re-sign him.

Now the Phillies are looking into dealing for an outfielder, with Pat Burrell probably done for the year. There are indications they were ready to make another run at Carlos Beltran, but he didn't make it through waivers.

Because Phillies GM Ed Wade wouldn't talk about dealing pitching megaprospects Gavin Floyd or Cole Hamels at the trade deadline, the perception of Wade in Philadelphia is that he's a guy who won't trade prospects. Ironically, the perception of him around baseball these days is that he might have traded too many prospects.

Just since last winter, the Phillies have traded Taylor Buchholz, Ezequiel Astacio, Nick Punto, Bobby Korecki, Elizardo Ramirez, Alfredo Simon, Javon Moran, Joe Wilson and Anderson Machado -- in deals that brought them Billy Wagner, Eric Milton, Todd Jones, Felix Rodriguez and Cory Lidle. So the reality is, they suddenly don't have much left above their very lowest levels.

"They're getting dangerously close to having an inability to go out and acquire players," said one NL scouting director, "other than signing free agents, just because they have so few projectable young players left."

If you don't count their short-season teams and their Lakewood club in the South Atlantic League, the scouting director said, "they're down to like three guys in the whole system" -- Hamels, Floyd and Ryan Howard -- who look like impact players in the big leagues in the near future.

Billy Wagner hinted before the deadline that if the Phillies didn't prove their commitment to win by making some deals, he might exercise his right to demand a trade this winter.

But now that the deadline has passed, and he has Todd Jones and Felix Rodriguez to keep him company in the bullpen, Wagner is softening that stance. His proviso this time is that he doesn't want to see the current roster overhauled, as disappointing as this group may have been so far.

"I have no problem coming back to Philadelphia if we keep this team together," he told Rumblings. "I feel bad that I haven't contributed more. I've been a grind on everybody. ... I feel like I've let my teammates down, and I feel I owe it to them to come back."

Asked if that meant he'd decided he wouldn't demand a trade, Wagner replied: "I won't say I wouldn't or I would. It depends on what this team wants to do, as far as bringing this team back. The reason I would want to be here is because of the chemistry in this locker room -- not the chemistry in the coaches' locker room or the owners' box or anything like that. ...

"I know our record might not show it, but this team is as good as any team in baseball. I'm not going to write this year off, because this thing is far from being over. But I just hope they look at the upside here for next year. This is a team that can win, with very few changes."

Really Rumbling & Grumbling

How did Randy Johnson not wind up with the Dodgers? Two weeks after the trading deadline, there are still people trying to figure out what happened in the final hours that caused a seemingly agreed-upon deal to blow up.

Two different baseball officials have told Rumblings that the night before the deadline, the two teams thought they had all the players agreed to in a Johnson deal. Arizona would have gotten Brad Penny, Jayson Werth and highly regarded pitching prospects Chad Billingsley and Chuck Tiffany.

Both sources said there had never been any meaningful conversation, up to that point, about including the Dodgers' best young pitcher, Edwin Jackson, in that trade. And one source said he believed the Dodgers were so sure the names had been settled that they had a tentative press release already written.

But then, the next morning, the Diamondbacks abruptly changed course and said they couldn't trade Johnson unless Jackson was in the trade -- a demand they almost had to know would be a deal-breaker.

At that point, the trade collapsed and never did get revived. But despite reports that Johnson had decided, earlier that day, he would approve a trade to L.A., an official of one NL club has his doubts.

"I find it hard to believe Randy would give his blessing and then that deal wouldn't get done," he said. "I don't think he really wanted to go. I just can't believe he would he have gone to the mound (for Arizona) on Friday night if he knew that on Saturday he was going to OK a trade to L.A. That just doesn't add up. In my view, there's a lot of spin control going on about this whole thing."

So the Unit now finishes out the year in Arizona. But you can bet those Johnson-to-the-Yankees rumors will explode again in November, when the Yankees can more easily put together a three-team deal, because they can (and will) sign free agents to replace anyone they trade.

More and more, it appears the Astros will use this winter to do a major renovation of their roster. But even though their goal is to get younger, that doesn't necessarily mean the return of Roger Clemens is out of the question.

One baseball man who knows Clemens says: "The early line is that he wants to come back. He wants to see what that team could do if they can get (Andy) Pettitte healthy and get (Wade) Miller healthy. He actually wouldn't mind leading those kids. So it will be interesting to see what happens."

We continue to hear that, as the Sporting News' Ken Rosenthal reported last week, the Twins were supposed to get two prospects, not one, in the crazy four-team Nomar Garciaparra, Orlando Cabrera, Alex Gonzalez, Doug Mientkiewicz trade that went down just seconds before the trading deadline.

But in all the last-minute confusion about who went where, the Red Sox and Cubs apparently never resolved which team was supposed to send that prospect to Minnesota. So when the small type settled, the Twins got only pitching prospect Justin Jones out of it.

Indications are that the Twins have decided not to pursue this further. But they are still in the market for another starting pitcher, after having missed out on Kris Benson.

And clubs that have spoken with them say they're still inquiring about another catcher -- which might suggest they're more concerned about Joe Mauer than their public pronouncements might imply.

Owners are supposed to discuss the World Cup at their quarterly meeting next week. But while no one has admitted it publicly, they have essentially run out of time to roll out the first Cup next spring.

The Japanese continue to balk at having Major League Baseball call all the shots. And a recent meeting to attempt to resolve that dispute blew up unhappily. So there is still no deal in sight that could get the World Cup back on the schedule any time soon.

"It's totally dead for '05," said an official of one club. "All the effort now is to try to resurrect it for 2006."

In Anaheim, Robb Quinlan may have seemed to come out of nowhere to become the fifth rookie in the last 20 years to roll off a 20-game hitting streak. But he was once the Angels' minor-league player of the year. And maybe their biggest challenge is to figure out a position for him.

It won't be third base, with Dallas MacPherson on the way. But one scout says: "If I were them, I'd play him at first and deal Casey Kotchman. I really like this guy. I see him as a 20-to-25 homer guy, an RBI guy and a dangerous hitter."

The more scouts see of the Indians, the more they think this is a team with a legitimate chance to steal the AL Central.

"The return of Bob Wickman and Bobby Howry have really changed their bullpen," said one scout. "Both of those guys' arms have really come back. And the thing about their staff is, they sent out the guy with the best arm on the whole team -- Jason Davis. If they need an extra arm down the stretch, they can go and get him."

The same scout called third baseman Casey Blake "the most underrated player in baseball."

Because Curt Schilling's record is so good (13-6, 3.61), one of the least-talked-about stories in baseball is how much pain in his ankle he is clearly pitching with.

One scout who saw him give up 10 hits, six runs and three homers to the Devil Rays on Monday said he has never seen Schilling show as little faith in his fastball as he did in that game.

"His pitches were up, and his velocity was down," the scout said. "And he threw a lot of change-ups, a lot of splits, and he was missing away. I've never seen him use his fastball less or have less command of it."

After taking five-alarm heat in New York for trading their most ballyhooed prospects for Kris Benson and Victor Zambrano, the Mets have to re-sign Benson.

Well, they began talking about that extension this week. And Benson's agent, Gregg Clifton, says one big reason for Benson's interest in staying with the Mets is the chance to learn from the likes of Tom Glavine and Al Leiter.

"The tough thing for Kris in Pittsburgh is that he always had to be the guy," Clifton said. "He never had those veteran guys around him to teach him the ropes."

One reason the Mets' end of those trades might not look so bad in the end is the two prospects they got back from Tampa Bay and Pittsburgh -- pitcher Bartolome Fortunato and second baseman Jeff Keppinger.

One scouting director we talked to raved about Fortunato's 97-mph fastball and projected him as a potential No. 2 starter. Keppinger, meanwhile, was described as "a hard-nosed guy" who is hitting .336 in Double-A, with just 19 strikeouts all year in 400 trips to the plate.

Another potential free agent traded at the deadline who is more likely to sign with his new team than people originally thought is Steve Finley.

According to one source who has spoken to the Dodgers about this situation, Finley almost didn't approve his deal to Los Angeles. Then owner Frank McCourt called Finley personally and reportedly told him, "We're not bringing you here to rent a player. We're trying to get the right guys to win now and in the future."

Finally, before we start debating whether DHs like Edgar Martinez belong in the Hall of Fame, we'd like to see people get serious about sending Goose Gossage, Bruce Sutter and the great closers of their time to the Hall.

After Dennis Eckersley's recent induction, Billy Wagner couldn't contain his frustration that more closers aren't getting their due. If the only apparent explanation is that relief pitchers are looked upon as guys who weren't good enough to be starters, that's an explanation that makes less sense than the NFL tiebreak formulas.

"I guess we're really not that important," Wagner chuckled. "So maybe we should just do away with relievers and let the starters stay out there -- and see how the game goes."

Well, we all know exactly how it would go. So let's start doing the right thing and electing these men to the Hall of Fame.

Triviality
Question: Chipper Jones just hit his 300th home run while playing for Bobby Cox. Can you name the only other active player with 300 home runs for any manager (even though it isn't for his current manager)? And can you name the only two other players who have hit at least 200 homers for their current manager?

Answer
Answer: Only other 300-homer duo: Ken Griffey Jr. and Lou Piniella. Only other current 200-homer duos: Andruw Jones-Bobby Cox, and Bernie Williams-Joe Torre.

Jayson Stark is a senior writer for ESPN.com.