Will Carroll is on Crack

Title Track

Will Carroll writes:

The Cardinals continue to work on a deal for an outfielder. The latest discussions involve Brian Giles coming to the Cardinals in return for Jason Marquis. That part would be easy enough, so if this deal gets held up, it will be over minor details of money and additional prospects.

That part would be easy enough? That's a terrible trade for the Padres. Why trade the most productive outfielder in the Majors this season for Jason Marquis? Even if you don't re-sign a guy like Gilly, you get draft picks (See: David Wells and Cesar Ramos). Trading Giles smells a lot like giving up, but at this point it's hard to know what to make of things. Portland could win the NL West at this point and the playoffs remain a crapshoot. Perhaps the idea is that the Padres can win the West w/o Gilly and that Marquis increases your odds of stealing a game in the playoffs. I'm not seeing it, though.