Trade talks haven’t materialized in the manner general manager Ken Williams envisioned five weeks ago.
“I’ve had very few conversations this spring,” Williams said Friday.
Most of the attention has centered on third baseman Joe Crede, who can become a free agent after 2008.
Crede was struck on the right knee by a Nick Swisher broken bat while in the dugout Friday but didn’t need x-rays.
Williams said at the start of the spring that he anticipated making a couple of trades by the end of camp. He has been surprised by the absence of dialogue and lack of action.
“But it takes two to tango, and there’s nothing you can do about it,” Williams said. “You give your own assessment of your own team and you picture matchups in your head and you think there might be a need elsewhere.
“But in their minds, they would rather go in a different direction, whether it be for talent purposes or economic purposes or both.”
Linebrink’s back
With the help of a chiropractor and by sleeping on the floor with his feet on the ground, reliever Scott Linebrink said his back felt well enough pitch Friday. He threw a scoreless inning after not pitching in a game since March 15.
“We want to get back-to-back [days] at some point, but we still have a chance to do that next week,” Linebrink said. “If this was going to happen, it’s good it happened this week, where we still have some time to get innings under our belt.”
Message sent
Manager Ozzie Guillen spoke briefly with his players about increasing their intensity.
“Every time we don’t play good, I let them know right away,” Guillen said. “That’s how we’re going to do it this year. I don’t like how they play the last couple of games, and I say it in the paper and then I have a meeting.”
