With the winter meetings beginning on Thursday this should be a week of baseball transactions instead of one highlighting grand jury transcripts and steroid use.

Jason Giambi’s days in New York appear to be over. Not only are the Yankees letting the press run wild over their 120 million dollar first baseman, but they are intensifying their efforts to sign Carlos Delgado to replace Giambi at first base.

This means Seattle will be all over Richie Sexson as they try to upgrade the offense.

So where does this leave Giambi? Right here in Oakland, the only franchise in America that will take him back and allow him to recover the baseball skills that were evident, steroids or not, here in the Bay Area.

The Yankees will pay the bulk of his salary and the risk for the A’s will be minimal.

Right fielder for Oakland? How about Reggie Sanders? Juan Gonzalez will sign for peanuts, no down side. Go after Kevin Millar, he would be great in the clubhouse too.

Will Tim Hudson be moved?

Click below for the answer.I just have this feeling that the A’s are dying to pull the trigger on a deal for Hudson. They will never pay him his market value which will be at least 10 million per year.

Usually the A’s let their free agents to be play the final season then walk. The is pressure to get some bats in the lineup and I feel the Hudson situation might be different than those in the apst.

For some reason the front office keeps dropping hints through the papers about Marcus Giles. They must think he’s another Joe Morgan because if he isn’t than they will corner the market on number two hitters since Mark Kotsay and Jason Kendall already fill that spot in the order.

If Hudson goes it should be for someone like Austin Kearns or Adam Dunn, a hitter who can scare you. I think the A’s realize that Anaheim and Texas can outhit them and probably will get more explosive next season, so offense is where the A’s want to go. Instead of looking for the computer hitter who will walk, take pitches, and generally be more of what they have, they should set their sights as high as possible and try for an established outfielder who can intimidate the opposition.

That’s the only way I see justifying a trade for Hudson. Zito and Mulder have such favorable contracts that it would be foolish to move either of them before the end of 2006.

Pat Burrell would be worth the risk for Hudson. The Phils would pay some of his salary plus he is a big potential 40 homer guy who might prosper being home in the Bay Area.

The Giants can’t wait to sign Steve Finley. He is a true veteran and would further load them up from the left side, but he is a gamer and a winner.

Sounds like the Cubs are ready to sign Nomar and Todd Walker as their double play combo for 2005. Walker can’t play second base and this signing will be a big headache for Dusty Baker.

The Cubs still don’t have a reliable closer and keep talking about the Brewers Dan Kolb.

I think Magglio Ordonez is worth the gamble for the A’s or the Giants, provided he passes his workout test in Anaheim this week. One year for 6 million would work for either club if he can play without trouble.

Other thoughts:

Cal got shafted by the football coaches poll costing them the chance to play in the Rose Bowl and a 14 million dollaer pay off. They should have seen it coming.

The writers and talking heads said all week that Cal needed to show it was truly the number 4 team in the country when they took on Southern Mississippi or else lose their spot to Texas.

So what do they do, play a lackluster game and basically almost lose the game, don’t open up their attack, don’t put on a show, take their time running plays designed to eat the clock, and thoroughly are unimpressive.

Jeff Tedford makes a million plus per year, if he opens the offense and goes all out he could have paid his salary for the next decade with the Rose Bowl’s money.

So much for a good business decision.

Sammy Sosa will remain a Cub, other team’s will be wary of taking a chance on him because he may be the next to fall in the steroid mess. You can throw Mike Piazza into that box as well.

Hank Aaron is putting Bonds down now saying that Bonds assault on the record books may be tainted. Hank should look at his generation of players too before speaking out. In the 60’s greenies (amphetamines) were taken routinely in every major league clubhouse, so was “red juice” a high energy jacked up drink. All these stimulants make a great player super great, steroids too, just makes you that much better and if it didn’t work you wouldn’t find so many players using them.

Wonder what kind of a celebration the Giants plan when Bonds hits number 715?

Also if I rubbed an anti arthritis cream on my body and gained 40 pounds too I might think that something was amiss.

What about the “clear”? Maybe the Giants will give bottles of flaxseed oil away when Bonds goes past Babe Ruth.

By the way, check out the Ultimate Play by Play Experience link. Good stuff and I’ll be part of the program in Phoenix in January.