The D-backs made an offer to Vazquez late last week and he is, as I wrote early in the offseason, one of their top targets at second base.

Is he the answer? Well, he's the answer in the sense that he is an affordable player that showed last year he could be successful when used in the right situations. No, he's not as good as Orlando Hudson. Few second basemen are, and that's why Hudson's going to command the kind of contract that he will on the free-agent market.

I think if they are able to sign Vazquez, the D-backs will then look to get a right-handed-hitting second baseman to play against left-handed pitchers. A couple of players they have talked to are Mark Loretta and Damion Easley.

I've been hearing all over that the D-backs have been going after Loretta, I have to agree -- not too bad of a fit. But, now the big headlines are that Jose Valverde is on the trading block. So my question is, with the D-backs already having trade talks with the Astros for second base, what are the odds of the D-backs trying to fill our bullpen needs with Valverde?
-- Eric B., Mesa, Ariz.

Loretta is actually a free agent, so they are not talking trade with the Astros for him. With regards to Valverde, one of the reasons the D-backs traded him last year was because he was starting to get expensive and they did not want to spend that much on a closer. One year later, he is even more expensive and is getting closer to free agency, so that is not going to happen.

Will the Diamondbacks trade Eric Byrnes to make room for Conor Jackson in the outfield?
-- Steven B., Phoenix

I think the D-backs would certainly like to move Byrnes and the two years, $20 million he has left on his contract, but I do not think they are going to be able to. It's just not a contract that other teams want to touch right now.

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The D-backs will have to hope that Byrnes' hamstrings will be 100 percent next year and that he will be the catalyst in the lineup in 2009 that he was for the first half of 2007. His hamstrings clearly limited him all year and that took away his aggressiveness on the bases, which is a key element in his game.

As for what they will do about Jackson, that could be tricky. Though he says all the right things, Jackson clearly prefers to play left rather than first, but as it stands right now it sure looks like he'll be back at first, at least for most of the time, in 2009.

If that's the case, then the key is going to be how he handles that mentally and will that have any sort of carryover to how he performs at the plate.