Reasons For Nixed White Sox-Angels Trade Sound Very Goofy

White Sox CF Chris Singleton and P Jon Garland "were on the verge of being dealt" yesterday to the Angels for CF Darin Erstad, but Angels President Tony Tavares "nixed the trade," as Angels Owner Walt Disney Co. "didn't consider Singleton and Garland big enough names to be marketable," according to Mike Kiley of the CHICAGO SUN-TIMES. Kiley asks: "Sound a little goofy? Disney's stewardship of the Angels has not exactly been a smooth ride. This will go down as yet another chapter in the team's dog-eared history" (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 12/13). However, Tavares denied the marketability issue and said: "Since Disney has owned us, we have had autonomy to make deals unless it involved big money, like the $80 million we gave Mo Vaughn" (GLOBE & MAIL, 12/13). In L.A., Ross Newhan reports that the trade "was killed ... by upper Angels management." Newhan: "The long-held impression that business comes before baseball for Disney has been underscored by the contention of White Sox officials that the Angels withdrew for marketing and public relations reasons." Tavares said, "Marketing doesn't drive [the] baseball operation. If it was otherwise, [Jim] Edmonds would never have been traded" (L.A. TIMES, 12/13).