Barry Bonds Rumors
By Tim Dierkes [November 23, 2009 at 3:32pm CST]
On December 28th, 2006, the Giants signed 28-year-old lefty Barry Zito to a seven-year, $126MM contract with a full no-trade clause. At the time, it was the largest deal ever for a pitcher. Keep in mind that if Zito's 2014 option vests, his contract will end up paying $137MM. Henry Schulman and Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote that the Mets and Rangers were among four teams willing to go to seven years. The Mariners were also known to be in the mix. Zito's first three seasons with the Giants have resulted in 568.6 innings of 4.56 ball....
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By Tim Dierkes [November 13, 2009 at 3:15pm CST]
Another stash of links for the afternoon... FOX Sports' Ken Rosenthal says Red Sox GM Theo Epstein will have to be creative to keep the team competitive in both the short and long-term. Contrary to a report last month, Yahoo's Tim Brown says former Mets executive Tony Bernazard is not working for Scott Boras. Brown talked to Barry Bonds' agent Jeff Borris, who said he has not filed retirement papers because Bonds is "not retired - he was run out of the game." WEEI's Alex Speier talked to Jason Bay's agent Joe Urbon, who said "interest has been well distributed...
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By Ben Nicholson-Smith [August 14, 2009 at 9:44am CST]
Giants GM Brian Sabean tells Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports that the Giants were determined to draft Tim Lincecum in 2006. Sabean avoided watching him pitch in person because he was worried someone else would take him and he didn't want other teams to know how serious the Giants were. Here are some highlights from the interview: Sabean says the Dodgers are the best team in the NL. He says the Giants could have used a high-profile player to distract from Barry Bonds once Jeff Kent left. Sabean is confident the Giants want to keep him on as GM. The...
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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...
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By Tim Dierkes [May 6, 2009 at 6:22pm CST]
6:22pm: Jon Heyman of SI.com chimes in via Twitter, saying he hears "no dice on Pedro and Chisox." Heyman does suggest some team should be interested in Pedro. 9:04am: Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times was wondering yesterday whether a couple of free agents might be able to help the White Sox. DH Jim Thome has been bothered here and there by a heel injury, though he played in the last two games. Cowley asked GM Ken Williams if Barry Bonds would be Plan B if the heel injury worsened, and Williams emailed back, "No." Cowley quizzed manager Ozzie Guillen...
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By Tim Dierkes [April 29, 2009 at 9:03am CST]
Links for Wednesday... Danny Knobler of CBSSports.com grilled various Nationals about the possibility of the team signing Stephen Strasburg for big bucks. Righty Steven Shell elected free agency, while Nats reliever Wil Ledezma accepted a Triple A assignment according to MLB.com's Bill Ladson. Chico Harlan of the Washington Post discusses the Nationals' bullpen construction in this post. Yahoo's Gordon Edes chatted with Evan Longoria as part of his article about David Price and Matt Wieters starting the season in Triple A. White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen commented about free agent Freddy Garcia, talking to Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times....
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By Tim Dierkes [April 28, 2009 at 9:05am CST]
Barry Bonds attended last night's Giants game, and provided his typical nonsensical comments. Andrew Baggarly of the San Jose Mercury News has a transcript. Baggarly learned that Bonds is not retired, and his offseason injury was related to his quad rather than his hip.
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By Cork Gaines [April 17, 2009 at 7:47am CST]
On this date eight years ago, Barry Bonds hit his 500th career home run and on this date three years ago, Pedro Martinez won his 200th game. Both players are likely headed to Cooperstown, neither player has retired and yet both players are without a team. As we wrap up the second week of the '09 season, let's take a look at what is being written in the Blogosphere... Surviving Grady fancies the Red Sox new Canadian import, Jason Bay, who is helping Bostonians forget all about...what was his name? UmpBump puts together an impressive roster of players Ned Colletti...
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By Ben Nicholson-Smith [March 14, 2009 at 10:24am CST]
A few links for Saturday... Bart Hubbuch of the New York Post reports that Omar Minaya says the Mets won't sign Pedro Martinez. Buster Olney was on this one earlier in the week, but that was before the Mets had to shut Tim Redding down because of weakness in his pitching shoulder. According to Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle Bobby Crosby played third and first yesterday in a Spring Training game. He had never played first before and had to borrow a glove. Playing well at many positions couldn't hurt his trade value. We missed this one earlier...
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By Ben Nicholson-Smith [March 14, 2009 at 9:32am CST]
Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe heard from major league sources that the Red Sox will not sign Barry Bonds. They join four other teams who will not pursue him. Jeff Borris, Bonds's agent, asked GMs to consider Bonds in a letter sent to all 30 MLB teams.
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