Mench trade off?

By Jared Trexler

The trades made in baseball are usually the ones you don't hear about.

Just hours after the Bucks County Courier-Times Phillies beat writer Randy Miller told the SportsTalk 950's Jody McDonald that Jon Lieber to Milwaukee was "verbally agreed to" BUT contingent on the Phillies adding another starter, MLB.com's Jim Molony is saying no dice.

http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article.jsp?ymd=20061205&content_id=1751300&vkey=hotstove2006&fext=.jsp

Was it too good to be true? Below is more confirmation, with Brewers GM Doug Melvin saying he approached Pat Gillick about Kevin Mench but that the Phils man in charge wasn't interested.

http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article.jsp?ymd=20061205&content_id=1751730&vkey=hotstove2006&fext=.jsp

Who is telling the truth? Is there really any truth or are both sides playing politics before a deal gets done?

Come to The Phanatic for the latest...

The Phanatic's Take:

Jared Trexler: For what it's worth, my source and my hunch tell me this deal is far from off. In fact, if he and I had to make a wager, we'd guess some variant of this deal will go down by the end of the Winter Meetings IF the Phillies obtain a starter...and that's a big IF. And the notion that Melvin called this some "Internet rumor" (thanks for the plug Bob), he should check that this trade was mentioned in three credible newspapers this morning (check our RUMOR MILL). Gillick is interested in Mench. Three newspapers, various internet sites and sources on the ground all are in unison on that count.