Jerry Crasnick's Eight Questions for Baseball Executives article talks about your standard, high-priced free agents, like Jason Bay and Matt Holliday. And John Lackey.
ESPN.com polled 20 general managers, assistant GMs, personnel people and scouts. And "one AL Assistant GM" says Lackey will end up in Houston, while eight said the Yankees, four said the Mets, three said he'd re-sign with the Angels, while the Dodgers, Astros, Orioles and Brewers received one vote each, and one executive said he has "no idea."
I think this is highly unlikely, as Crasnick's poll puts Lackey's price tag at 3 years/$36 million on the low end and 5 years/$95 million or 6 years/$100 million on the high end. Lackey will use Burnett's 5-year/$82.5 million as a baseline.
However, this AL Assistant GM says Houston is the dark-horse contender:
"They need pitching badly, they have money and they need to win."
Obviously, his first and third points are right on, but his second point? That's up for debate.
However, in another ESPN.com article, Buster Olney says Seattle, Texas, and Milwaukee are the dark-horse contenders. How many dark-horse contenders can there be for one free agent?
And SI's Jon Heyman says Lackey is looking for a $100m deal. He also says that Lackey may want to pitch in Texas, but doesn't even mention the Astros as the Texas team for which he may want to pitch. And I'm guessing that Midland doesn't count.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
