There is a report on an Atlanta Journal Constitution blog that some unnamed AL scout says the Rays would do a Baldelli for Yunel Escobar and Chuck James "in a heartbeat."
The report goes on to mention how the Rays love Chuck James' majors record, how Escobar would be the future shortstop for the Rays, and how they would want Jarrod Saltalamacchia to flip for some pitching.
Okay now let me state my peace. Don't believe a word of it. Let's start with the latter two points, Escobar as our future shortstop? Did Reid Brignac fall off the planet overnight or something? Next why would we take pitching of a lesser caliber for Rocco just to get a guy like Salty and deal him for more pitching? In the end would that make more sense than dealing Rocco for two pitchers of lesser value? Not really.
All right now the big point I have to make on this subject. The AJC is / has been John Schuerholtz tool for a while. In fact our friends at Bucco Blog ran this story a week ago on how Schuerholtz used the AJC to force the Mariners into the Rafael Soriano for Horacio Ramirez deal.
Schuerholtz is a smart man, this reeks of him manipulating the media, and fellow baseball execs to believe the Rays are in effect looking to just dump Rocco and will jump on any half decent deal, however by having his local paper play it up like they are mad in love with the Braves deal, it may detract some other teams from making an offer.