Hardball Heaven

All reports indicate that talks are cooling with the Rockies to acquire Todd Helton. Lots of different reports - one saying that Colorado was only willing to eat around $25-30 million of the remaining $90 million on his contract - and another saying the Rockies insisted on both Craig Hansen and Manny Delcarmen (in addition to Mike Lowell and Julian Tavarez). I'd only do this deal if Colorado absorbed half the money, and if either Hansen or Delcarmen was included. Another thing to ponder is that there's some bad blood between the front offices of these teams - stemming from all things, the aborted deal a while back for someone named Larry Bigbie. Adding fuel to the fire, some reports have said the Sox are pissed that the Rockies publicly threw Lowell and Tavarez' names out there so quickly. Could the Yankees be showing some late interest in Helton? They signed Doug Mientkiewicz in the offseason because they can't afford to play Jason the Juicer there anymore -- but Helton would be an upgrade. And that would be a little zing at the Sox. Stay tuned - something tells me this deal isn't completely dead.