Padres All Star closer Heath Bell is the latest Padre to step to the edge of the contract precipice, looking down at the Padres future meager wage offerings and hearing the call of the Yankees or the Red Sox and their monetary sirens song.

This is what is wrong with the sport and in some waysm all sports in the 21st century. There is no longer any semblance of a level playing field when it comes to the buying and selling of players.

Your team is either a have or a have not, there is no in between. If in fact a team is lucky enough to develop or sign a player who takes off, reality soon rears its head, in the form of a trade for prospects, or an eventual huge free agent contract from one of the elite money teams. No where is this syndrome more pronounced than in Major League Baseball, where the name of the game is Gawd Bless Cave 23, and to blazes with everybody else….

The best us Padre fans can hope for is to see a few good prospects in their early years, acquired in a never ending round robin of development and trade, trade and development.

I am going to look at a few players who the Padres should be interested in dealing Bell for, if in fact they deal him at all. Padre fans are very vocal when it comes to the closer role here in San Diego.

All Time Saves leader Trevor Hoffman was retained past his prime as a nod to the power of Padre fans wishes. Bell hopefully will be retained,  since Padre fans deserve at least that much.

As in our power closer, as Padre tradition demands… 

Begin Slideshow