Reporting From ... The Winter Meetings

We're still waiting for a big trade or a big deal to fall.

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Is the air conditioning working harder than the GMs in Vegas? Gives us some deals!

Jake Peavy is headed to the Cubs, or not. Francisco Rodriguez is going to be a Met. And CC Sabathia will be donning Yankee pinstripes next season. We think. Okay, at least with K-Rod we finally know. But mostly, we're not sure of much. Yet. Ah, the joy of baseball's Winter Meetings.

In the media room at the Bellagio, a lot of rumors are being thrown around, struck keyboards are echoing through the hall, and reporters are milling around on their cell phones, but, well, there's nothing actually happening. So far, this has been a bigger letdown than my ill-advised trip to Windsor, Canada when I was 18, only to find that the drinking age was really 19.

But let's step back for a moment. There's potential.

Just what are these Winter Meetings anyway? Everything we know suggest this event is like a combine sans the scouting, a warm place where GMs can gather and make trades. And while there's a level of truth to that, the trades that happen here are more of a side effect than anything else. And you don't see them happen. Billy Beane doesn't have a booth in the convention center.

The scene here is dominated by reporters, large men in suits and—because this year's convention is being held in Fabulous Las Vegas—a decent number of degenerate gamblers in cowboy hats, their pink haired chain-smoking brides and your usual corps of silicon-enhanced ladies of the night. Of course, none of these Joe the Fans get to see the "inside baseball" happenings of the Winter Meetings since their access is limited by hulking guards keeping their eagle eyes trained on everyone's stomach, looking for the proper credentials. My editor saw me making the four hour and change drive from LA, the same drive through Barstow and Baker that Hunter S. Thompson took so many years back, and thought it was a good idea. The plan was to take a "gonzo" approach to the Winter Meetings. The problem is, there's not much gonzo going on.

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Reporters stood and clapped for Greg Maddux following his retirement announcement.

That's because the meetings themselves are essentially a group of press conferences covering such riveting topics as "What the MLB Network Is Planning for This Upcoming Year" and the "Safety and Health Advisory Committee". The conferences all take place in an enormous ballroom, a massive space that Bellagio management enjoys keeping at around 30 degrees Fahrenheit, just warm enough to keep icicles from forming on the chandeliers.

The first conference given was by the Veteran's Committee regarding their Hall of Fame announcements, which turned into an event because of what a non-event it was: only one player got in. That was Joe Gordon, a former AL MVP for the Yankees and Indians. Meanwhile, the "post-1943 ballot" netted no Hall of Fame entries, the closest being former Cub Ron Santo who got 61% of the votes; a player needs 75% to get in. (Not a good day for the Tribune company, who announced their own bankruptcy yesterday afternoon.) Santo's exclusion caused a few Chicago-based reporters to get a bit testy with the Veteran's Committee, asking if they should change their voting methods, you know, since they're not letting anyone in.

Obviously, they said no.

Following up about a half-hour later—giving reporters plenty of time to search just who this "Joe Gordon" guy was anyway—was a quicky conference held by Tigers management regarding their trade with the Rangers for catcher Gerard Laird. It wasn't much of a surprise—news of the trade broke a few days ago.

The biggest event of the day came when Greg Maddux held a farewell press conference. During the half-hour or so he held the stage, Maddux spoke about his time in Chicago with pitching coach Dick Pole (which led to an unfortunate quote about "Dick being a big part of me during my time in Chicago"), what current pitchers he enjoys watching (Peavy tops the list), and if he'll end up coaching at some point down the road (he'll take a year off and we'll get back to ya).

As you'd expect, Maddux's exit was classy, ending with a chorus of applause by the men and women who've followed his career all these years. Into the Vegas sunset he went.

And while all of that is nice and good, we reporters need something more, we need a breaking story!

Does the fact that Padres GM Kevin Towers and Peavy's agent shared a 4-and-a-half-hour ride to Vegas mean anything?

Are the Yankees going to lure CC into their den of iniquity with a promise of gold?

Is Mark Teixeira really contemplating spending a good part of his career in Baltimore?

The feeling here is that players are in a holding pattern, waiting out others until their market value is set. And then there's the whole discussion about what exactly market value is in this struggling economy.

The big question might turn out to be if anything happens in Vegas at all. We just need a domino…or a poker chip, to fall.

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