Upton to be Pulled Off of Trade Market by End of Winter Meetings

With the Justin Upton rumor mill having gone silent over the last few days, this news shouldn't come as too much of a surprise:

"Things have been quiet on the Upton front since last week and the team figures to know one way or the other by the end of the four-day meetings whether Upton will be a D-back come Opening Day.

'There comes a point in time when we've kicked the tires, gone through the process and you finally say 'We're keeping him,' Towers said. 'We should have a real good idea by the end of the meetings.'"

If you have dreams of one day becoming a Major League General Manager, I hope you paid close attention to what Kevin Towers did there.  Towers is a master at building a player's trade value.  By setting an artificial deadline (i.e. the end of the winter meetings), he's hoping some team will panic and overpay for Upton's services.  While I'd like to think that major league GMs are too smart and savvy to fall prey to such tactics, I know better.  Brian Sabean, Ned Colletti, and Dayton Moore are always lurking...