Former White Sox first baseman Adam LaRoche, who retired amidst a storm of controversy in Spring Training, has an outlook different than that of most ballplayers, ESPN’s Tim Keown writes. Now that LaRoche has stepped away from his big-league career after a disagreement with his front office about the presence of his son in his team’s clubhouse, he’s planning a lengthy RV trip with his family to the Pacific Northwest. LaRoche also stars in a reality show (Buck Commander) and owns a meat company. And improbably, in November, he joined with Brewers pitcher Blaine Boyer and a nonprofit to try to travel to Southeast Asia to go undercover to try to save underage sex slaves. “Something huge happened there for us,” says Boyer. “You can’t explain it. Can’t put your finger on it. If you make a wrong move, you’re getting tossed off a building.” Here’s more from the American League.
- Michael Brantley (shoulder) and Lonnie Chisenhall (wrist) have begun rehab assignments with Triple-A Columbus, so the composition of the Indians’ outfield seems likely to change soon, Cleveland.com’s Paul Hoynes writes. Part of the issue, in Brantley’s case, is that he missed most of Spring Training, so he needs to get enough repetitions in his rehab assignment so that he can be ready to play. “With Michael it’s about him building enough volume and feeling comfortable at the plate,” says Indians president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti The Indians’ roster currently includes four outfielders — Marlon Byrd, Collin Cowgill, Rajai Davis and Tyler Naquin. Of those, only Naquin is optionable. The 38-year-old Byrd, interestingly, shares that no teams showed interest in him before the Indians signed him to a minor-league deal in mid-March. “There was no interest … zero,” he says. “I would have to ask the 29 other teams what the reason was.”
- Veteran outfielder David Murphy does not plan to retire and is looking for an MLB job, the MLB Network’s Jon Morosi tweets. Murphy had opted out of his deal with the Red Sox in Spring Training. He had previously said he might retire if he did not get a big-league job.
I have to ask… Was LaRoche planning on taking his son with him on this great adventure?
Was trying to remember if he had ever had his (then) young son tag along on deer hunts with the Buck Commander show.. Finally looked it up and do NOT see his name in the titles, as Willie Robertson DOES, as does his brother Jase have their somewhat older kids tagging along on duck hunts in theirs..
Braves fans might like (or probably not) to know Chipper Jones was a co star of the 2010-11 show Buck Commander, as was Willie Robertson and that LaRoche made at least a cpl appearances on Duck Dynasty from my memory.. Without looking at credits on that one..
I have to ask. If LaRoche rescues a sex slave, is he going to introduce her to his son?
The Red Sox should sign Murphy and get rid of Panda even if it means eating 50% of Pandas salary. Murphy is a spark-plug player that can get things rolling when everyone else is in a slump.
Realistically, will you have a taker for Panda at half his salary? And will you have a team willing to give anything at all for him? Until something changes, he’s just a bloated player with a bloated contract. The only thing that might help is his age–someone takes a flyer on him.,
No and no. Those possibilities went away when he lost the starting gig and aren’t likely to come back unless he gets a significant chunk of playing time and excels.
Red Sox should bite the bullet and eat ‘whatever it takes’ of panda’s salary. They are using him and by sitting on a 25 man roster spot, he is actually blocking development of younger talent. Perhaps they are trying to set some sort of value for him, but he is getting no ABs
(Are not using him)
There’s a decently funny and off-color counterpoint, if you’re into that kind of thing, to the ESPN :LaRoche piece over at Deadspin. They’re right in that the ESPN article is a mildly insane puff piece.