Well, there's another reason to discount the Padres... If the money is close, would you rather play for a team that's unlikely to make the post-season, even with your help, or a team that made it last season without you...?

This is all academic of course, I don't think for one second that the Brewers will sign him and the Padres have to know that their only chance to land him is to blow away the other offers...



Or someone should go onto twitter and start a rumour about an imminent Braun for Hosmer trade?

It all smells of agent-speak to me. Consider where these rumours likely originated from - probably his agent (who else would know?).

We know (or at least have heard and have good reason to believe) that they were asking for the moon. Even if they didn't really expect to get that much, they may well be disappointed that not only does the top offer so far appear to come from a (currently) non-contending team, but also that the offer is as far below what they were looking for as it is. It's kind of hard to swallow that you'd be unhappy with that much money, but that's a discussion for another day...

I could be completely wrong (it wouldn't be the first time) but it just feels like they're hoping to get the White Sox to bid against themselves, or convince a contending team that maybe a division rival is involved so that they feel compelled to jump in and raise the stakes...

The writer of the article didn't claim knowledge of the specific teams, they were just speculating as to the possibilities - some of which, as you point out, seem a bit silly on the surface of it...