One, tossed off sentence in the latest column from Tracy Ringolsby of the Rocky Mountain News,

Mark Cuban's bid to buy the Cubs reportedly is $1.3 billion. Other franchises that are speculated to be available at the right price are St. Louis, Houston and Seattle.

I'm not very familiar with Ringolsby, but I think he's viewed as a credible reporter. My thought is that while it's probably not likely that the Astros are being shopped, McLane is probably willing to listen. Notice Ringolsby just says there's speculation that they may be available.

Drayton McLane's wikipedia page lists his age at 72 this year. He bought the team in 1992 for $115 million (NY Times article) and if I remember the last Forbes valuations correctly, the team could probably be sold for about four times that amount now. I'm not sure that I've ever read anything that talked about his family's involvement with the management of the team, so I don't know if there is an interest in continuing his ownership on a long-term basis. I wonder how the fact that the team will almost certainly finish this year having missed the playoffs for 3 years in a row will affect McLane?

My natural assumption is that the group that owns the Round Rock and Corpus Christi minor league franchises might be interested if there is a change to be made. I'm not sure how Nolan Ryan's current involvement with the Rangers might affect that possibility. If that's not practicable, there are plenty of wealthy folks out there who'd love to own a team. Maybe if Cuban gets rebuffed by the Cubs, he might look down the road to Houston?

Anyway, it's fun to speculate about baseless rumors. What else is the internet good for?