Kevin Towers of the Diamondbacks isn’t sure whether he’ll still have his job when his team turns its fortunes around, Barry M. Bloom of MLB.com writes. “When you spend $110 million and you’re 9-22 at the end of April, I wouldn’t be happy, either,” says Towers. “I’m also disappointed, but I still believe in the core group. I think they will get better. Will I be around to see it? I don’t know.” Towers also says the team’s poor start must have managing partner Ken Kendrick wondering if the Diamondbacks have the right GM and manager in place. Here’s more from around the big leagues.
- The Angels have promoted first baseman C.J. Cron, who is in their lineup tonight as their DH, Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register tweets. Baseball America’s Prospect Handbook 2014 rated Cron the Angels’ second-best prospect. The 2011 first-round pick got off to a great start this season for Triple-A Salt Lake, hitting .319/.369/.602 in his first 122 plate appearances there.
- The Braves feel like they’re getting a good deal in third baseman Chris Johnson’s recent three-year extension, MLB.com’s Mark Bowman writes. “He was looking for stability and we were looking to have a solid player at a tough position to man,” says GM Frank Wren. “When this contract is over, he’s 32. We all feel like that is when they’re in their prime. So it was another example of tying up a player long term, but not extending beyond their prime.” Johnson will earn $4.75MM in his first year of arbitration eligibility this season, and the $23MM deal buys out Johnson’s last two years of arbitration eligibility, plus one year of free agency, with a reasonable option for a second.
- The Tigers aren’t yet sure what they’ll do to address their shortstop position, reports MLB.com’s Jason Beck. “We really haven’t approached those specific topics yet,” says GM Dave Dombrowski. Beck suggests that reinforces the perception that it’s unlikely the Tigers will sign free agent Stephen Drew before the draft in early June.
It’s CJ Cron time!!!
Great to see Cron is gonna get a shot! The Ibanez experiment is just about over.
Tigers should just stick with there SS players until after June the sign Drew to a three year deal and trade him in the Offseason to a team like the Yankees.
Three year deal??? Just sign him for the rest of the season and let him be a FA again.
Get him on a three year deal as insurance in case Iglesias is not able to recover from his injury. Hopefully he does and if he does then trade him for an OF because Hunter might retire or then trade him for some prospects that we need. It’s a win win situation.
If he does recover now you have a player you can not move. Trust me he will sign with some team for the rest of the season and become a FA not tied to a draft pick.
You can trade him.
Yes but when everyone knows you have 2 SS and you have to trade one you get 10c on the dollar.
Need some clarification, “hopefully he does and if he does then trade him”….OK Who???? Are you saying if Iggy recovers you trade him or do you trade Drew??
Yes sorry about that hopefully Iggy does recover and then we can move Drew but if Iggy dosnt recover we still have a replacement in Drew.
Thanks, that’s what I thought you meant. If they do sign Drew, a 2-3 yr. deal would give the Tigers an insurance policy if Iggy does not recover to expectations. A good hitting (.250-.300) Shortstop is always a valuable asset and Detroit would have a valuable trade chip, worth even more if the contract went out to 2015 or 2016.
typical case of someone thinking the only job the 29 other teams in the league have is taking your team’s problems off their hands
No one has said this but I wonder if the trip to Australia had any effect on the D-backs. A lot of teams have complained about jet lag in the past
Wouldn’t that have also affected the Dodgers then?
On April 27th the Dodgers were 14-12. If you don’t include the 3 games in Sydney that would make them one game under .500. For that team I would consider that under performing…
And to answer your question further, not necessarily. Jet lag isn’t a given, and MLB has put these trips farther away from the in-state regular season to reduce the effect. That being said, it doesn’t necessarily effect the entire team but could effect a few individuals. In the case of the D-backs, the entire starting rotation was dreadful in the beginning of the season. If jet lag affected just the starters and no one else (I know they aren’t the only ones who have started slow) then that’s only 5/25 guys but still has drastic impact.
I’m not even arguing that’s the reasoning. I’m just surprised no one has brought it up as a possibility. It has been a problem in the past and I’m pretty sure it’s one of the reasons Grienke didn’t want to go