Why on Earth would Seattle want Bonds? How does he make them better at his price? They have plenty of positional talent with Sexson, Lopez, Betancourt, and Beltre on the infield, Johjima at catcher, and Ichiro, Adam Jones, and the perennially underrated Raul Ibanez (raise your hand if you knew his line this season was .289-33-123 this year...right). They need starting pitching badly. Meche is likely gone, Pineiro is an enigma, Washburn is a 4th starter now, and Woods and Felix are the future. They need to make a push for Zito or Schmidt or look to trade one of their OF surplus, likely Jeremy Reed, or Jeff Clement for pitching help. I still think Nolasco and a spect for Reed and Clement is a good deal for both sides, and if the Marlins can grab Soriano, too, even better.
Scott Boras is still only an agent, and Zito is too smart a guy to let $$$ get in the way of his own well-being. Landing Pudge in Detroit? No one else made an offer after he turned down the Marlins'...Boras was going to be embarrassed when his HOF catcher almost looked towards Japan. Beltran got a huge, huge, huge contract. That 7-year, $119 million deal is along the lines of what it's going to take for the Mets to land Zito, and to be honest, I know they're in New York, but they have a lot of big contracts to pay. If they offer him that, they've got a shot, but pitchers don't get those kinds of deals, especially pitchers who have not had a dominating year since 2002. (And before I get flamed, Zito has been very good the past four years, just not on par with his 23-5, 2.75 '02 campaign, and certainly not deserving of the largest contract ever given to a pitcher.)
