Joe Christensen clears up some rumors about Carlos Silva and Torii Hunter. On Hunter:

He plans to go to the winter meetings, which run Dec. 5-8 in Nashville. I think he's going to enjoy this free agent stuff to the hilt.

He gave one rather cryptic quote to The Pioneer Press: "There's other stuff, inside stuff, that people don't know about. Money has something to do with it, but trust me, that's just a percentage. We need to talk about stuff that needs to change before we start to get into deep talks."

I asked him about this, and he measured his words carefully.

"It has nothing to do with money," he said. "I'm telling you. People don't believe that. But all that matters to me is the ring."

I bet he doesn't play for free to get the ring. :-) Torii is an out machine that hits for some power. He's coming off his second best year at age 31. Hunter's not a franchise player, he's a good piece to a puzzle. The team that signs him needs to realize he's never had a good OBA, and he's likely starting to decline. So maybe it's good he wants a ring more than money, because I don't think he's going to get an enormous contract.