Odds & Ends: Bonds, Bay, Astros, Mulder
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 between the two leagues."
- Astros GM Ed Wade spoke to MLB.com's Brian McTaggart about his unsettled bullpen situation.
- Dialogue has continued between the Brewers and Mark Mulder's agent Gregg Clifton, according to MLB.com's Adam McCalvy.
- NPB Tracker's Patrick Newman passes along a report indicating the Braves are interested in 36 year-old Japanese righty Hidetaka Kawagoe.
Sabean On Lincecum, Sandoval, Bonds, Posey
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 Giants aren't sure what position Pablo Sandoval will play long-term.
- Sabean is non-commital on the future of the catcher position. Bengie Molina's a free agent after the season and top prospect Buster Posey has reached Triple A.
Odds & Ends: Bonds, Armas, Strasburg
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 after the Mets released him.
- Hal McCoy of the Dayton Daily News says Padres beat writer Tom Krasovic of the San Diego Union-Tribune will be out of a job come August. Sorry to hear it; Krasovic does excellent work.
- MLB.com's Jonathan Mayo talked to Tony Gwynn about Stephen Strasburg.
- Johnny Damon talked about his future again, this time with MLB.com's Bryan Hoch.
- Jim Thome would like to return to the White Sox next year, based on his comments to MLB.com's Scott Merkin.
White Sox To Pass On Bonds, Pedro
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 about Pedro Martinez, who would conceivably become the team's fifth starter if Jose Contreras is booted. Ozzie's answer left the door just barely ajar:
"Pedro Martinez was mentioned in spring training, but just because a couple of his friends called me, and my job is to give Kenny the information. But that's it, no, Pedro, no, not right now. I don't know if we're going to because that's Kenny's decision, but right now that's not on my mind.''
According to Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune, top pitching prospect Aaron Poreda is not an immediate candidate if Contreras falters Thursday.
Odds & Ends: Nationals, Garcia, Bonds
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.
- Jason Whitlock of the Kansas City Star thinks the Royals should sign Barry Bonds, and current team members seem receptive to the idea. In separate columns, Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle and Andrew Baggarly of the San Jose Mercury News try to figure out why Bonds hasn't retired.
Barry Bonds Refuses To Retire
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.
Baseball Blogs Weigh In: Bay, Dodgers, Draft
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 "gave up on."
- The Ghost of Moonlight Graham shows that history does not favor pitchers taken with the top pick of the draft. In fact, they also show that of the best pitchers acquired via the draft in the last 20 years, only Dwight Gooden was drafted in the first five picks.
- Jorge Says No puts together a roster of the worst free agent contracts of the last five years.
- Feeling Dodger Blue looks at the Dodgers' most recent top picks, both pitchers, and both appear to finally be healthy.
Cork Gaines writes for RaysIndex.com. If you have a suggestion for this feature, Cork can be reached here or on Twitter.
Odds And Ends: Pedro, Crosby, Nationals
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 in the week: Bill Shaikin of the LA Times asked Angels GM Tony Reagins if he has interest in Barry Bonds and heard he has "none."
- Barry Svrluga of the Washington Post reports that acting GM Mike Rizzo signed Julian Tavarez to the Nats because he wants depth and doesn’t want his players feeling too comfortable about their jobs.
Red Sox To Pass On Bonds
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.
Odds & Ends: Pedro, Boras, Bonds, Fielding
Links for Friday…
- Which players have the biggest differences in fantasy draft position, comparing Yahoo and ESPN?
- Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram does not find it likely that the Rangers will release Frank Catalanotto and eat the $6MM owed to him.
- Gil LeBreton of the Star-Telegram suggests Rangers GM Jon Daniels will have some tough trade decisions to make as the team inches closer to contention.
- Amy Martinez of the Seattle Times examines the economic impact of Ken Griffey Jr.
- Jose Reyes says Pedro Martinez would like to pitch for the Mets, talking to MLB.com’s Marty Noble.
- Amusing article about Scott Boras by Matt Taibbi in Men’s Journal.
- The Twins again made it clear they’ll pass on Barry Bonds. Three other teams have also publicly rejected his agent’s advances.
- Fielding Bible guru John Dewan says defense is worth roughly half as much as offense.
- Hat tip to Baseball Think Factory’s excellent Baseball Newsstand for several of today’s links.
- Sorry about the three double-posts on the site. I am still waiting for TypePad to fix the issue.