Larry Stone: As training camps end, spring swaps likely

It's not quite July 31, but the atmospherics of the end of spring training can sometimes spur a mini trading spurt.

You have teams discovering unexpected excesses as younger players show accelerated developments, and you have other teams discovering unexpected deficiencies as players, well, play ... poorly.

Put the two together, and it can spell swap meet.

That's not to say there will be a flurry of deals as opening day nears on April 5, but there could be a few players on the move. Here are some who are in the center of trade rumors:

• Jake Peavy, Padres. Peavy was on the block all winter, and nothing has changed. The Padres are going to be pitiful this year, and dealing Peavy could be the start of their rebuilding campaign under new CEO Jeffrey Moorad, who took over last week. The Brewers are the latest team to be mentioned as a possible landing spot.

• Nick Johnson, Austin Kearns, Wily Mo Pena, Nationals. Those zany Nats have a glut of first basemen/corner outfielders and are shopping around all these guys — and perhaps Josh Willingham, too.

• Melky Cabrera, Yankees. FOX.com's Ken Rosenthal reported that the Yankees are open to moving Cabrera. The White Sox could be in the mix if in-house center-field contenders Jerry Owens, Brian Anderson and Dewayne Wise don't impress. Trading Cabrera would open at-bats for Nick Swisher, beaten out for the right-field job by Xavier Nady. Swisher, however, could be dealt instead.

• Gary Matthews, Angels. Theoretically, the Angels would be open to dealing Matthews, considering they have an excess of outfielders. But Matthews still has $33 million remaining on his what-were-they-thinking, five-year, $50 million contract that runs through 2011. It's hard to imagine they'll find a taker, and Arte Moreno isn't ready to eat that money quite yet.

• Matt Stairs, Phillies. There's not going to be a stampede to get a 41-year-old player, but perhaps an American League team would be interested. The Phillies have three left-handed hitting spares — Greg Dobbs, Geoff Jenkins and Stairs. They covet ex-Mariner Dobbs, and Jenkins makes too much money ($6.75 million), so Stairs could be odd man out.

• Hanley Ramirez, Marlins. OK, relax, the Marlins aren't going to trade their franchise player. But according to The Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, Ramirez briefly rebelled against the team's strict new guidelines against long hair and jewelry this week by asking for a trade. Ramirez, who had to cut his cornrows and remove his gold chains, wrote "I'm sick of this s — " across his chest with a Sharpie on Thursday, and told the Sun-Sentinel, "I'm angry," before adding, "I want to be traded." According to the newspaper, "He was serious."

But after he left that day's game, Ramirez met with team president David Samson, head of baseball operations Larry Beinfest, and GM Michael Hill.

"Everything's great, I'm fine," Ramirez said. "My mind calmed down."

Off and running

The Giants' Tim Lincecum joked that he didn't know how to enter from the bullpen when he replaced Randy Johnson against the Mariners in the fourth inning Monday in Peoria.

"I was confused about what to do, so I went into a medium jog," Lincecum told reporters. "I didn't know if I should walk all the way because that would take too long, so I did a courtesy half-jog and then I went into a walk."

History lesson

The Red Sox are ecstatic with the improvement of Clay Buchholz, who is 2-0 with a 0.46 earned-run average in camp. That probably won't keep him from landing in Pawtucket, because Brad Penny is penciled in as Boston's No. 5 starter, but Buchholz is making a strong case to stay.

You might remember Buchholz for the no-hitter he threw as a rookie on Sept. 1, 2007 — his second career start. Last season wasn't nearly so triumphant, as Buchholz went 2-9 with a 6.57 ERA in 76 innings for the Red Sox.

According to research by The Boston Globe, only one first- or second-year pitcher since 1939 had a higher ERA than Buchholz in as many innings. Wouldn't you know it? I covered him: lefty Lee Guetterman of the 1986 Mariners (7.34 in 76 innings).

I remember well how overmatched Guetterman was that season (come to think of it, so was I, having never covered a pro team before). But to his credit, Guetterman came back to have a productive 11-year career, improving to 11-4, 3.81 for the M's in 1987. I'm still plugging away.

No love for his glove

Jack Cust is known as somewhat of a butcher in the outfield — and teammate Jack Hannahan might have come up with the explanation.

Last year, after Cust made several errors, Hannahan examined Cust's glove and found out that the pocket was inadequate.

"When Jack was dropping some fly balls, I asked to see it, and it was broken in badly," Hannahan told The San Francisco Chronicle. "So I got one of my gloves with a nice pocket and told him to use it. He's only dropped one since."

As an outfielder, Cust still makes a great DH.

"Jack doesn't know much about gloves," Hannahan said. "It was horrible. I couldn't believe he was using it."

That's a big hurt

In Joe Torre's recent book, it was revealed that Yankees players came to refer to the 15-day disabled list as the "15-day Pavano," in honor of perpetually injured phantom teammate Carl Pavano.

Now that his four-year, $39.95 million contract has expired (the Yankees getting nine victories for their money), Pavano is trying to catch on with the Indians.

It's not going so well. Pavano has a 7.41 ERA in five outings — and that's after his best showing of spring on Wednesday — six innings, seven hits, two runs against San Diego.

Notes and quotes

• Last year's opening-day right fielder for the Mariners, Brad Wilkerson, is vying with Chris Carter for the final spot on the Boston roster as an extra outfielder.

• Cubs pitcher Ted Lilly came back from the World Baseball Classic greatly impressed with the champion Japanese squad. He told reporters he was struck by their pregame practice regimen, as well as the way Japanese sluggers were often asked to bunt.

"They spend a lot of time on their defense, and they work on difficult defensive plays, not the routine ones," Lilly said. "That's something I don't see much of here."

• Taylor Tankersley, a former first-round draft pick by Florida, had a blunt quote after he was shipped back to Class AAA this week, having compiled a 20.25 ERA in spring: "Backing up bases doesn't exactly do anything for your confidence."

• And here's another snappy quote, this one from Pittsburgh pitcher Ian Snell, who returned from pitching for Puerto Rico in the WBC and found Pirates spring training to be not quite as exhilarating.

"Nothing against Bradenton, but there are all old people here," Snell said. "They don't really cheer or do anything."

Larry Stone: 206-464-3146 or lstone@seattletimes.com