Loose lips around Nashville

We were assured that the Jays were going to be quiet after locking up Matt Stairs and Johnny McDonald.

So what's this with the endless rumours coming out of Music City?

To wit:

• The New York Post has the Indians and Blue Jays discussing a trade that would send Alex Rios to Cleveland for Cliff Lee and Franklin Gutierrez. We shudder to think.
• Jeff Blair (The Only Toronto Baseball Writer That Matters!) has the Jays looking at Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain for Rios, with the possibility that the Giants might be interested in Glaus. (We'd take Cain, because Tiny Tim's weird pronated delivery is gonna mean arm trouble sooner or later.) McCovey Chronicles don't play that.
• Globe Junior (aka Robert McLeod) has the Jays sending A.J. hither and yon.
• The Washington Post is reporting on the Jays' interest in Erik Bedard, although they speculate that the starting point would have to be Rios AND Dusty Lambchops. Which is pretty steep.
• Roger Ebert's paper suggests speculates on Toronto media speculation around Ryan Dempster. Don't they realize that Toronto media speculates that every Canadian is going to the Jays?
• The San Diego Trib is reporting that Pads GM Kevin Towers is interested in Josh Towers. Try reading an entire article about how Towers is pursuing Towers, and how Towers likes Towers and thinks that Towers is a good fit for Towers' team, and tell us if your head explodes Scanners-style. Because ours almost did.

Rule 5 Tomfoolery
The Rule 5 draft is up tomorrow, and there are excellent posts on the history of the draft and some of the steals made by the Jays on both Home Run Derby and The 500 Level.