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Odds & Ends: Bonds, Armas, Strasburg

By Tim Dierkes [May 13, 2009 at 12:44pm CST]

Links for Wednesday...

MLB.com's Joe Frisaro says the Royals received righty Eric Basurto as the player to be named later in the Ross Gload trade.
Tom Glavine hopes to pitch in the Majors this month, according to MLB.com's Mark Bowman.
Back on May 3rd, Bill Shaikin of the L.A. Times wrote about the possibility of Barry Bonds signing with the independent league Long Beach Armada (the team already employs Hideki Irabu and Jose Lima). But Bonds' agent Jeff Borris said, "He's not going to do that."
It appears that Tony Armas Jr. signed a minor league deal with the Braves after the Mets released him.
Hal McCoy of the Dayton Daily News says Padres beat writer Tom Krasovic of the San Diego Union-Tribune will be out of a job come August. Sorry to hear it; Krasovic does excellent work.
MLB.com's Jonathan Mayo talked to Tony Gwynn about Stephen Strasburg.
Johnny Damon talked about his future again, this time with MLB.com's Bryan Hoch.
Jim Thome would like to return to the White Sox next year, based on his comments to MLB.com's Scott Merkin.

Comments

I know Strasburg is huge, huge upside. But... Can he please throw one MLB pitch before we write about him every single day?

Posted by: Rett Davis | May 13, 2009 at 12:50 PM

I wouldn't think it would be too hard to skip over the Strasburg links if you're not interested.

Posted by: Tim Dierkes | May 13, 2009 at 12:51 PM

Tim, can't agree more. Same can be said about all the manny articles over the winter, but there were always fun conversations in those threads. Keep doin what you do, you run by far the best baseball blog on the interwebz.

Posted by: metsknicksrutgers | May 13, 2009 at 01:14 PM

I don't mind all the Strasburg updates. If Bowden was in charge, he'd already be in trade rumors as Trader Jim doesn't respect pitching (although you aparently can't trade a prospect for a year after they are drafted). It also has possible impacts to the roster this season. Definately MLBTR worthy.

Posted by: TheBaseballOpinion | May 13, 2009 at 01:50 PM

Okay, all spring I've heard from Barry Bonds supporters about "all he wants to do is play baseball" and he's not the same cancer that he was for his entire career.

Well, now here's his chance to play baseball, but of course, he won't accept a deal with an independant league team. He doesn't want to show that he can't hit and can't field anymore.

This guy's a complete joke and a loser.

Come on, guys. Defend your persecuted hero now.

Posted by: Clint C | May 13, 2009 at 02:02 PM

First off, Clint C., have you seen him hit and field lately? Can you prove that he can't pick up a bat and get a hit? Secondly, he shouldn't play in the Ind. Leagues. He should be a Hall of Famer who truly is too good to play for anything less than an ML club. As far as I'm concerned, he was never punished for failing a drug test in the majors. If he did it, he got away with it. It's baseball's fault that they didn't catch him.

Posted by: soxfan93 | May 13, 2009 at 02:11 PM

If Thome is willing to take a cheap yet largely incentive laiden deal, I have no problem with him in the 2010 sox lineup. But if he's missing 3-4 games a week like he is now, no thanks.. his heal and back and legs and knees and shoulders aren't getting any younger.

Posted by: whitesoxfan424 | May 13, 2009 at 02:42 PM

soxfan93 -- that's part of my point, though. If Bonds really wanted to play, which is what he's been saying for over a year now, he wouldn't balk at playing SOMEWHERE for a month to show the major league teams that he can do it.

It's my believe that he can't, and that's why he isn't willing to try.

He wouldn't be able to get away with doing steriods anymore and probably can't do anything without them at his age.

You seem to be of the mindset that as long as you don't get caught, then whatever you did is okay. I'm sorry, but that is faulty logic.

Posted by: Clint C | May 13, 2009 at 02:58 PM

Tony Gwynn says hitting is like riding a bike you never forget how to. Tony should see if Alexei Ramirez has been riding around with training wheels.

Posted by: SoxLug | May 13, 2009 at 03:23 PM

RE: Strasburg

Go easy on him, Tim. I didn't read it as legitimately questioning your coverage selection, but rather simple irritation with all the hype that accompanies a kid who hasn't thrown in the bigs yet.

I'm sure plenty of people are sympathetic with that.

Beyond that - this is my first post on this site and I just wanted to give a salute your way, Mr. Dierkes. Helluva service you provide.

Posted by: TwinsVet | May 13, 2009 at 03:28 PM

I'd rather let Thome walk, and slide Dye or Konerko in at DH, preferably Dye. They also have a few young bats in the minors that could come up and fill that position if they can't play the field. I like Thome, but it's time for a youth movement, and start by letting him go. Then the year after that you let one or both of Konerko and Dye walk.

Posted by: rype123 | May 13, 2009 at 04:01 PM

Meanwhile David Cone and John Smoltz (two of the really great pitchers of the last 20 years) while still minor leaguers get traded for spare parts by the teams that drafted them.

Posted by: midtown | May 13, 2009 at 04:01 PM
------------------------------
Don't forget Johan Santana (the current best, for my money at least) being a Rule 5 from Houston to MN. Interesting observations about former "next big things" getting lots of hype all being Boras clients.

More than any other sport, MLB seems particularly horrible at projecting talent of pre-draft players.

Posted by: TwinsVet | May 13, 2009 at 04:09 PM

Tom Glavine this is to you:

PLEASE stop trying to make a comeback. I loved what you did for us in the 90's and the early years of this decade, but your time has come. We NEED to get Tommy Hanson to the bigs. The kid is money. So is Kris Medlen too btw.

Posted by: bravesfansc | May 13, 2009 at 04:27 PM

rype123, the sox are in the middle of a youth movement that is seeing them struggle incredibly to score runs. We have a lot of fast young guys who cannot get on base or get a hit to move men along. I'll take mashers, atleast they have the change of driving the ball.

Posted by: whitesoxfan424 | May 13, 2009 at 05:08 PM

Thome is one of the problems with scoring. It's not like he's mashing right now. The only every day player doing worse so far is Alexei, and he got benched. Lillibridge will be back on the bench once BA gets back. I don't mind keeping older guys, but Thome isn't the one. Unless you get rid of one of Dye or Konerko, but they are both playing well right now, and Dye has been good for the past couple of years.

Posted by: rype123 | May 13, 2009 at 06:38 PM

Midtown,
Porcello is 21 years old, hasn't pitched above A ball in the minors, and is with the big club making hitters look stupid. Now, the results haven't been that good, but his stuff is undeniably great and he's probably going to be around for a long time.

Posted by: PWHjort | May 13, 2009 at 11:00 PM

Thome is useless right now, why would ANYBODY want him next year. The entire defense except the left fielder plays him on the right side of the field. He can not make adjustments to the shift. So unless he hits a homer, he is pretty much an out. He has struck out a ton this year. He is slow, so even if he walks, it takes a homerun to score him. Having your 4 hitter hit under .200 is a killer.

Posted by: OmegaMan | May 14, 2009 at 08:37 AM

"Thome is useless right now, why would ANYBODY want him next year. The entire defense except the left fielder plays him on the right side of the field. He can not make adjustments to the shift. So unless he hits a homer, he is pretty much an out. He has struck out a ton this year. He is slow, so even if he walks, it takes a homerun to score him. Having your 4 hitter hit under .200 is a killer."

And in spite of all those struggles (and a fairly low .286 BABIP), Thome has still posted a .227/.352/.477 line.

Thome is a solid lefty bat that provides power and patience, and even if the White Sox don't bring him back next season, he'll latch on somewhere and smack some homers.

Posted by: scribbletone | May 14, 2009 at 11:28 AM

"And in spite of all those struggles (and a fairly low .286 BABIP), Thome has still posted a .227/.352/.477 line.

Thome is a solid lefty bat that provides power and patience, and even if the White Sox don't bring him back next season, he'll latch on somewhere and smack some homers."

I would hardly describe his current line as "solid". Homers aside, I suspect a lot of guys in Triple A can put up numbers like 227/.352/.477 .

Posted by: OmegaMan | May 14, 2009 at 12:32 PM

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Odds & Ends: Bonds, Armas, Strasburg

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