Winter meetings come to Disney World

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- Barry and Manny figure to be mentioned prominently alongside Grumpy and Dopey when baseball's winter meetings open Monday at Disney World.\nBarry Bonds and Barry Zito are among the most notable of the unsigned free agents heading into the four-day session of signings and swaps, and Manny Ramirez once again is being dangled in trade discussions by the Boston Red Sox.\nThus far, some general managers have spent nearly as wildly as they did in the great bull market following the 2000 season, when Alex Rodriguez got his record $252 million deal with Texas and Ramirez agreed to a $160 million contract with the Boston Red Sox. In the past two weeks, Alfonso Soriano got a $136 million agreement from the Chicago Cubs, and Carlos Lee was guaranteed $100 million by the Houston Astros.\nSome teams have shied away from big-name free agents, preferring to concentrate on lower-priced players and trade talks.\n"We're going to sign them to the value we think is right, not what the market is dictating," St. Louis Cardinals general manager Walt Jocketty said. "The market right now is kind of silly, and it may continue to be silly."\nBonds' agent, Jeff Borris, was angry with the Giants for not offering salary arbitration to the 42-year-old left fielder, coming off a $90 million, five-year contract with San Francisco, and he might step up his efforts with other teams. Zito, who spent his first seven seasons with the Oakland Athletics, is the top available free-agent pitcher in a market desperately seeking arms. Scott Boras, known for pushing for high prices, represents Zito.\n"The market has definitely spiked. There's no doubt about it," Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein said. "It's clear that there's a lot of available money to be spent, probably more holes on teams than players to fill them."\nBoston $51,111,111 bid just for the right to negotiate with ace pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka under baseball's posting system with the Japanese Leagues, and the New York Yankees offered $26,000,194 for Kei Igawa, projected as a No. 4 of five starters. The contracts for those two likely won't be resolved until later in the month.\nZito and Jason Schmidt, another free-agent pitcher, are expected to command big bucks and be a focus of the winter meetings.\n"You would wonder when the pitching is going to order itself," San Francisco Giants general manager Brian Sabean said. "There have been some signings, but they have not been sequential."\nAll the money committed thus far has caught the attention of commissioner Bud Selig, who repeatedly has warned teams about making lengthy big-money deals. Soriano's contract is for eight years.\nSome players regarded as less-than-top-line stars have gotten huge contracts, a group that includes outfielders Gary Matthews Jr. ($50 million over five years from the Los Angeles Angels) and Juan Pierre ($44 million over five years from the Cubs). After opting out of the final three years and $33 million of guaranteed money from the Los Angeles Dodgers, J.D. Drew is in the final stages of completing a $70 million, five-year agreement with the Red Sox.\nSelig isn't ready to draw any conclusions on whether teams have gone back to rash financial practices.\n"I want to let this whole thing play out; then I'll make a judgment. It's a little too early yet," Selig said. "I want another month or two to go by. I'll be able to give you an answer in January."\nBoston hasn't commented on its talks involving Ramirez. The Red Sox explored trades following the 2004 and 2005 seasons without finding any deals they liked.\nRamirez is owed $18 million next year and $20 million in 2008, of which $4 million annually is deferred, but his contract contains a pair of $20 million team options, and he might ask that they be guaranteed in exchange for waiving his no-trade rights.\nIn this market, that might be considered value by some teams.\n"I don't think anyone anticipated this spike a year ago. Otherwise they would have locked up all their players," Epstein said. "There are a lot of clubs with holes to fill so it should be an exciting meeting"