This whole Brian Giles thing was fun, wasn't it? Even if it did seem to come out of left field. Yesterday, we had the report that the Sox had claimed Brian Giles from the waiver wire, causing all kinds of speculation: why would Boston want a solid-hitting outfielder when they have a full lineup and a full bench? Were there plans in the works to replace Coco? Is there really something going on with Papi's clicking wrist? The Providence Journal hit a conspiracy nail on the head yesterday and today when they speculated that the move might be a block to keep Giles from ending up in Tampa Bay or LA, citing Giles' partial no-trade clause to Boston as a block; presumably the clause would be a sticking point that would keep the Sox from having to worry about doing a deal they didn't like.ESPN now reports that Giles is likely to veto the trade, which I guess means the strategy worked: as long as the status quo doesn't change, Giles will remain with the Padres, no matter how many times they dangle him on the waiver wire. But I'll admit that the first thing I thought of was some sort of complicated flipping where the Sox acquire Giles just to shoot him off to somewhere else (Kansas City, maybe? For Mahay?) to get some more relief pitching. Not sure if it'd even work - I suspect there's something about waiver rules that would complicate things - but it's a slow day between games...
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