Winter Meeting Rumors (Giants-Reds)

Several rumors from the Winter Meetings in Nashville, Tennessee. The Cincinnati Reds are looking for pitching...the Giants, hitting. Two rumors have surfaced during the first day at Opryland.

According to MLB.com's Jim Molony, the Reds are interested in the Giants' Tim Lincecum (who isn't). Molony says the Reds won't include Jay Bruce in any deal, however. Why inquire then? Why would the Giants give up their best player for anything less than the Reds' top prospect? I guess it didn't hurt to ask.

At any rate, it's cool to see teams actually talking about even swaps of young players to fill their needs. So many trades these days are really just poor teams dumping off expensive stars to the rich ones.

The Reds want to acquire a starter, but they spent all their money on Francisco Cordero. The plan is to trade a young player for a cheap starter. Joey Votto and especially Jay Bruce would be near impossible to acquire. However the Reds will listen on Josh Hamilton and Edwin Encarnacion. They never seemed to like Encarnacion. Crasnick thinks the Cubs could work for Hamilton but they'd need to pony up more than Sean Marshall. Would Rich Hill be too much? It's been said in the past that the Rangers inquired on Hamilton. The Giants, meanwhile, would love to pry Encarnacion loose - Noah Lowry anyone?

Another version (XM Radio) has the Reds sending Jay Bruce and Edwin Encarnacion for Lincecum and an un-named Giants player.