I can believe that it rankles Prince a bit to be wearing Cecil’s jersey. But the bullying thing is total crap. I don’t see Scott Boras bullying 280 pounds of client.

If the bullying thing is true… no agent should ever be able to bully their client. If they are, the client should just tell them to f off and fire them, the agent needs them more than they need the agent.

I thought this was the dumbest thing I’d ever read when I found it yesterday, but Cormican sort of got me to start to think trading Howard is conceivable. I still don’t think Everett had any real inside knowledge, but there were a lot of non-saber people saying that the Fielder and Pujols contracts make the Howard contract look good. Ruben Amaro has basically even said that, and he probably believes it. Conservatively, I’ll bet a quarter or more of the front offices in baseball think that way too.

So here is a scenario where Howard is traded after 2012:

Howard’s rehab goes well and he returns to the lineup at the beginning of May. Even missing a month, with 5 months of hitting behind some combination of Rollins, Victorino, Utley and Pence, he could have enough opportunities to finish the season with over 100 almighty RBIs.

After 2012, Howard has 4 years/$105 million left on his contract. His luxury tax number is just over $22 million per season. If the Phillies trade him and eat 30% of the contract, they take about an extra $10 million hit towards the luxury tax in 2013. However, they might be willing to go over in 2013 to give them more flexibility in 2014 when the limit goes up. As long as they don’t go over two years in a row, they won’t have to pay the 50% tax.

So, say the Phillies get bounced in the playoffs again. If the Phillies re-sign Hamels (or sign Cain or something like that) and trade Howard, they can sell it to the WIP, RBI loving crowd as doubling down on the “pitching wins” strategy, and “shaking up” the complacent offense.

You wouldn’t get a true high ceiling prospect back, but maybe you could get Joe Blanton’s replacement. It’s hard for me to really think of the other side of the trade because it’s hard for me to put myself in the place of someone who would want Howard’s contract. But maybe it’s not insane to think that person might exist. The Blue Jays got Mike Napoli back for Vernon Wells.