Winter Meetings Buzzkill

With the exception of the Cabrera/Willis trade, the MLB winter meetings were the usual hype machine without many tangible rewards for baseball fans. Millions expected Johan Santana to don a Yankees or Red Sox cap by mid-week only to find that Minnesota decided to keep their ace - for now. Don't kid yourself - there's only one real reason these meetings exist. That is to promote the game during the winter. Sure. The GM's talk trades too of course - but its all about networking with colleagues in one convenient locale while the media hypes the event to SuperBowl proportions. So while Brian Cashman and Pat Gillick talk golf, thousands of web surfers are scanning their favorite sites to see if their team struck a deal. That's the point. Does it work? To perfection. Even though we all realize not much will happen, we are nevertheless compelled to check in on any "progress" made during the week. The reality is there's just as much likelihood of a big trade right now as there was on Monday. Will Santana ultimately get traded? Will Erik Bedard move? What about Scott Rolen? We'll find out soon enough and some fans may get an extra present for the holidays.