Odds And Ends: Crisp, Spiezio, Lahey, Longoria

Here are a few notes from the MLBiverse... Terry Francona sounds like a manager that is frustrated and wishes the Red Sox would go ahead and trade Coco Crisp. After starting Crisp for the second straight game, Francona said "The more [Jacoby Ellsbury] plays, the better he's going to be, and I clearly feel that responsibility...I'm trying to balance [playing time] the best I can." It only took a couple of weeks, but Scott Spiezio managed to mess up his latest opportunity with the Atlanta Braves. After failing to show to his AAA Richmond game "ready to play", Spiezio was...

Braves Sign Scott Spiezio

According to David O'Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Braves have signed Scott Spiezio to a minor league deal. Spiezio, 35, hit .269/.354/.386 in 223 ABs for the Cardinals last year. Spiezio was released by the Cards in February when they learned of his arrest warrant related to a drunk-driving incident in December. The Cardinals paid him $2.4MM to go away.

Odds and Ends: Spiezio, Pavano, Gross, Jackson

Links, rumors... Scott Spiezio is in trouble with the law, and the Cardinals decided to release him for it. Joe Ostermeier notes that the Cards now have about $20MM in dead money on the payroll for '08. Evan Grant believes the Rangers would want Jose Ceda or Donald Veal in a deal for Marlon Byrd. Call it informed speculation, but Mike Berardino wonders whether Carl Pavano could end up back with the Marlins eventually. Ken Rosenthal recently wrote that the Padres were eyeing Gabe Gross. Tom Haudricourt found out that Kevin Towers never inquired on the Brewers outfielder, but that...