JJO has a new blog post (Captip to The Crawfish Boxes for the link), detailing the inside track the Astros may have on negotiations with Soriano:
Soriano must approve a trade, but if there's one GM who can get Soriano to accept it's Ed Wade. Why? Well, Soriano is represented by the highly respected Peter Greenberg out of New York. Greenberg has represented Richard Hidalgo, Bobby Abreu and many of the top players who came out of the Astros' Venezuelan academy. He also has two players the Astros could have interest in signing to minor-league deals this winter — Kelvim Escobar and outfielder Endy Chavez.
As many of you remember, Wade had and loved Abreu in Philadelphia. On multiple occasions Greenberg has told me how much he respects and trusts Wade. Heck, he told me as much during our phone conversation on Monday and during our chat Tuesday.
JJO indicates that he wants Soriano as the closer soon. I want to see what the Astros would have to give up before passing judgment on it.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
