2006 Bowman Chrome Draft Future's Game Prospects #FG7 Gio Gonzalez

I found it fascinating yesterday to sit at work* and hit the refresh button every five to ten minutes on the MLB Trade Rumors website.  While most of the baseball world was waiting to find out where Albert Pujols was going to end up, I was more interested in the Phillies alleged pursuit of pitcher Gio Gonzalez.

Gonzalez was originally property of the Phillies following his acquisition from the White Sox as part of the Aaron Rowand/Jim Thome trade in November 2005.  The Phillies then traded him and Gavin Floyd back to the White Sox in December 2006 for Freddy Garcia.  Ouch.

The experts speculated that the 26-year-old Gonzalez would join the Phillies rotation and the team would then trade away Cole Hamels before Hamels reached free agency at the end of the 2012 season.  Domonic Brown and either Kyle Kendrick or Joe Blanton would head to the A's for Gonzalez with the Phillies possibly ending up with reliever Craig Breslow as well.  While I liked the idea of acquiring Gonzalez, I hated the idea of possibly parting with Hamels.

In any event, an update came through at 2:04pm yesterday that the "Phillies [Were] Out on Gio Gonzalez."  So that's that.

Of course, it's only a matter of time before Ruben Amaro, Jr. pulls the trigger on some shocking out-of-the-blue move, just like he's done the last two winters.

*By "sit at work" I mean "focus on continually improving and enhancing myself while efficiently and diligently attending to my professional obligations."