On this day twelve years ago, the Expos traded players to be named later and Jake Westbrook to the Yankees for pitcher Hideki Irabu. One of those Bronx-bound PTBNLs wound up right-hander Ted Lilly. The Bombers would deal Lilly to the A's a little more than two years later in a massive three-team trade. Here's a look at what's happening today..
- The Braves hold a $12MM option on Brian McCann for 2013 and veteran Chipper Jones would be sad to see him go elsewhere, tweets Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com. Jones, who will retire after this season, believes that McCann is the type of player that "you want to build a ballclub around," tweets Crasnick.
- Working as an analyst for ESPN, former Red Sox skipper Terry Francona got the chance to reconnect with his former team earlier today. Francona just got around to speaking with owner John Henry last month and Tito says that the conversation should have happened sooner, tweets Scott Lauber of the Boston Herald.
- If David Ortiz wound up going to arbitration with the Red Sox, players' union chief Michael Weiner says that it would have been a case for the ages, writes Brian MacPherson of The Providence Journal. The two parties settled at $14.575MM, the midpoint between $12.65MM and $16.5MM.
If I’m not mistaken Ted Lilly is left-handed.
They had a 50/50 shot of getting that right.
Ah… Mr. Lilly has been fooling us. He has had better velocity than we thought all along!
You are not mistaken.
What’s up with remaining in contact with Francona? He was fired for not doing his job. it’s not like managing a team is friends for life, even a lifetime job.
Is managing the Red Sox now the media’s pet peeve on what is going wrong in Bean Town and what they should be doing? Maybe Francona should take a look at what valentine has been doing this spring so far as to compared to what he did.. Actually going through drills, working out and regulars playing on the field more to get ready for the season and most important? No pet list with his buddies that cannot get released, regardless of how useless they are.
No Francona, you earned your isolation from sitting on those 2 WS laurels and getting lazy with your job that led to the firing.
His job is to babysit 3 or 4 guys who have zero chance of playing in that particular game who choose to spend it in the clubhouse as opposed to spending it in the dugout managing the game? That’s certainly an interesting twist, anyhow…
Yes, a manager with two World Series rings and a cushy studio job “should take a look at what” a guy with no World Series rings and who has been fired about six times is doing.
I’m a little creeped out at the thought of no Chipper, McCann, or Hudson in 2014, but I think that’s a pretty likely scenario. Some of these young arms need to pan out and Salcedo and Bethancourt need to start flashing some offense…..
Perhaps, in a perfect world, the Braves use the year Chipper just gave them to figure out how to use the money they would have otherwise paid him in 2013. Perhaps they figure out a way to extend McCann, who they know produces at the major league level, with that money. Perhaps they trade prospects, who we aren’t really sure will produce at the major league level, for a good outfielder.
IMO, the only way McCann gets an extension is if the Braves get new ownership who actually give a damn will dig into his/their deep pockets and give him the money he will have rightfully earned. But if Liberty Media is still the owner of the Braves next season, Mac is as good as gone at the end of the 2013 season.
I don’t recall a single Sox player coming to Tito’s aid when he left. As much as he had their backs, they threw him under the bus.