[OOTPRealTime]

It was a busy day at the Winter Meetings in Orlando yesterday. I met with more than a few of my counterparts and we discussed many things - nothing yet to fruition. I arrived and quickly checked in and wasted no time reaching out to Jon Daniels about picking up our trade talks. I sent him a text to find out where he was. He responded saying he was in the lobby and that I should come down - he was talking with Dan O'Dowd (Rockies) and Walt Jocketty (Reds) about some things.

Now, I know for a fact that Walt doesn't like me. He doesn't know me but he doesn't like me. He was pushed out of St. Louis and doesn't have many friends left there. His success this year would only give him more reason to make my first impression of the Winter Meetings as a GM a bad one. So, I let some time go by, checked some e-mails in the suite before heading downstairs. DK was heading down but wouldn't make it in until later in the day. He begged me not to pull the trigger on anything until he landed. I joked that I would "try not to." The truth is, I rely on Dan as much as my own knowledge. It is our responsibility to analyze everything we have gathered on a player to make decisions.

By the time I made it downstairs, there seemed to be a few breakout sessions between GM's, scouts and personnel people. I was invited to the Daniels gathering and despite Walt (in all his glory) being there, I headed over. I introduced myself as if I didn't know who they all were - they did the same. Walt had a smug grin on his face most of the time we exchanged pleasantries. I asked Walt and Dan if I could talk to Jon alone. Walt had a wise-ass comment to the effect of "hey, we invited you to this party and now you're kicking us out?" I countered with a quick, "Well, I know how you feel about trading in the division, so I figured you'd be disinterested." He gave a fake laugh and as he walked away, he told Daniels that he could top anything I have to offer. He knows we want a shortstop and it probably makes him a bit uneasy to think we might be able to acquire one of theirs.

I asked Daniels if Walt knew what we were talking about specifically. He said that he probably could figure it out but that he didn't tell him anything else. So, we took refuge in the Texas suite at the Dolphin hotel at Disney World and he had his crew up there. It was just me for now. We discussed where exactly we stood on the Leury Garcia trade. He said they were ready to pull the trigger on Garcia and Ogando for Wigginton, Ryan Jackson and Tyrell Jenkins. I told him that we were close on that but would like to get another player back to make it an even three-for-three. He said that probably wouldn't happen. We talked about a few other things, including the new instant replay rules and then parted ways. I told him that we were very close but that I needed DK here to make any final decisions.

I spent the rest of the day greeting some agents, players looking for work (Johan Santana included) and some recently graduated math wizards looking for work in baseball.

Once DK got in, I was pretty much spent. We went to grab a quick dinner at Shula's and discussed the trade one more time to make sure we were on the same page.

I'm fairly confident it gets done today.