According Dan Leberfeld of NY Jets Confidential, linebacker Calvin Pace has been suspended without pay for the team’s first four regular-season games of the 2009 season for violating the league’s substance abuse policy.
Pace’s suspension begins on Saturday, September 5. He is eligible to return to the Jets’ active roster on Monday, October 5 following the team’s October 4 game against the New Orleans Saints.
Pace is eligible to participate in all preseason practices and games.
And like almost all suspended players, Pace had no idea he was taking a banned substance.
“This is a situation that resulted from an over-the-counter dietary supplement that contained a substance that I did not know violated the League’s policy,” said Pace. “I am responsible for what I put into my body and I should have paid closer attention to the League’s guidelines.”
Tough break for a Jets defense that has been building excitement since the hire of new head coach Rex Ryan. Pace was outstanding last year for the Jets coming over from the Cardinals, quickly establishing himself as the team’s top pass rusher.
Although this is a huge blow for the Jets, this is a big opportunity for second-year player Vernon Gholston, who was an utter disaster as a rookie last year. If Ryan can get Gholston to understand pro schemes like Eric Mangini attempted and failed to do last year, then maybe the former Ohio State product can make a splash this season. Ryan sees Gholston as a potential Terrell Suggs in his defense, but Gholston has to learn the playbook first.
With the All-Star break quickly approaching, many MLB teams are trying to figure out whether or not they’ll be buyers or sellers later this month. It’s a tricky game front offices must play, because they don’t want to alienate their fans by suggesting that their club is already out of contention with half the season left to go, but teams also don’t want to miss out on adding a piece for the future because they’re hanging onto a veteran that won’t play a significant role down the line.
That said, I’ve compiled a ranking of the five most intriguing names that either are on the trade market, or could be. Granted, every player outside of guys named Pujols, Jeter and Howard could potentially be on the trade market, but I tried to keep the list to only those names that continue to pop up in the weekly rumor mill, whether their teams have officially those names as available or not.
Two names you won’t find on the list are Dan Haren and Jake Peavy, even though they have been brought up in various trade rumors. The Diamondbacks aren’t going to trade Haren unless some team offers a ridiculous package (as in multiple top prospects) and Peavy’s injury situation has all but killed his trade value. I would be shocked if either player gets dealt this season.
Though Denver does not want to trade Brandon Marshall, it will take calls. Won’t make them, but will take them. A 1 gets BM is my guess.
Schefter is usually solid in his reporting, so there’s no reason not to buy into what he’s saying. But that said, is this really news worthy? Even if the Broncos do plan on taking a stand and not dealing Marshall, they still would benefit from picking up the phone and listening to any offers. It’s not like if the Ravens called and offered two first round picks (not that they would) that the Broncos wouldn’t entertain the thought.
What will probably happen is that Denver will wait to see if Marshall reports to training camp in a few weeks. If he does, great – they can go about resolving the issue in-house. But if he doesn’t show, and there’s good reason to believe that he won’t, then the Broncos have to entertain the idea of trying to get something for him since he becomes a free agent at the end of the 2009 season. (Especially considering that it is getting more obvious that he wants out of Denver at any cost.)
- According to ESPN.com’s Buster Olney, the Red Sox might have interest in Rockies third baseman Garrett Atkins after Boston recently placed Mike Lowell on the DL. Colorado is searching for a reliever to help improve their bullpen.
- Rumor has it that the Braves’ increasing frustration with the talented, but immature Yunel Escobar could land him on the trade block. Considering he’s only 26 and is batting .293 with seven dingers and 40 RBI, there would certainly be a market for him if Atlanta does eventually make him available.
- Even though some believe that the Mets are still actively searching for offensive help, manger Jerry Manuel told reporters that the club “has enough.”
- The Arizona Republic suggests that if the Diamondbacks get a package similar to the one they got when they acquired Dan Haren from Oakland a few years ago, the club could still be willing to move the starting pitcher. A trade seems awfully unlikely though.
- The Mariners have reportedly started discussions with the Padres regarding a trade for third baseman Kevin Kouzmanoff according to FOX Sports.com.
“Brandon Marshall, what have you ever done?” Johnson said. “You went to one Pro Bowl, maybe two. You caught a bunch of balls because they threw them to you. Have you even won a playoff game yet? Guys like me and Michael Irvin, we all won rings. Win a ring first and then talk that way.
“He says he doesn’t want to play in Denver because he doesn’t have a quarterback now that Jay Cutler is in Chicago. Please. When I was with the Jets, our starting quarterbacks were Ray Lucas, Frank Reich, Neil O’Donnell, Glenn Foley, Rick Mirer and Vinny Testaverde. And he’s complaining about having to play with Kyle Orton? You should worry about making your quarterback better.”
Johnson serves as an ESPN analyst during the NFL season, and this offseason has been devoting his energies to his new show about decorating on the A&E network: Tackling Design. His opinions apparently never get rusty, no matter what time of year it is.
“I keep seeing where Anquan Boldin wants to be traded from Arizona, or he wants to be paid like Larry Fitzgerald,” Johnson said. “Anquan, you’re a glorified T.J. Houshmandzadeh, so cut it out. They’re the same player. You want $11 million? Why don’t you take the $8 million they’re offering and be happy? You’re not Larry Fitzgerald.”
Not that I disagree with him, but I love how Key essentially takes a dump on his former Jet quarterbacks while hammering Marshall. If I’m Ray Lucas, I’m thinking to myself, “Hey, thanks Keyshawn – and sorry I was such an inconvenience for you during your playing days.”
I see what Johnson’s getting at, but I don’t think it’s fair to call Boldin and Houshmandzadeh the same player. They’re both incredibly productive, but Boldin is a few years younger and therefore might command more money. Now, is he worth $3 million more than Housh? Probably not, but $9.5 mil a year would be incredibly fair for Boldin’s services in my opinion.
Zach Randolph was packaged for delivery to Memphis on Wednesday when the teams agreed to a deal that will bring back former Clipper Quentin Richardson, and open a starting spot for rookie Blake Griffin.
In a surprise, the Clippers didn’t do it to dump salary. Owner Donald T. Sterling actually resisted the move when a similar deal with Memphis came up on draft day, saying he wanted to do it only if it was a “basketball decision.”
When his people said it was a basketball decision, the deal was resurrected.
Nevertheless, with Randolph under contract for two more seasons at $33 million, and Richardson on the last year of his deal at $8.7 million, it will impact their bottom line, and, with their payroll now far below the salary cap after this season, can make them a major player in the big 2010 free-agent class.
With the move the Clippers’ projected payroll for the 2010 season is only about $32 million (plus whatever they have to pay Blake Griffin), so the franchise will be able to join the free agent frenzy of 2010.
I honestly don’t know what the Grizzlies are thinking. It’s not like Randolph has shown any signs in the last few years of being a piece to the championship puzzle.
The 24-year-old swingman, who played a key role in the Lakers’ run to their 15th NBA championship, is on the verge of leaving the club, sources close to the situation said on Wednesday.
With at least five teams pursuing Ariza, the Lakers are currently unwilling to pay him more than the $5.6 million mid-level exception.
Cleveland is making a hard push for Ariza, and the Cavaliers’ coaching staff was speaking with him on Wednesday. While Cleveland can only offer the mid-level as well, Ariza’s disappointment with the Lakers’ stance has moved other suitors ahead of his current team.
Ariza’s position doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. The Lakers traded for him and gave him the opportunity to flourish, yet he isn’t willing to stay even though they’re willing to match the best offer he’s getting (up to the mid-level). He apparently feels that the Lakers’ unwillingness to give him more than his market value is a slap in the face.
I suspect his camp is just leveraging these “bad feelings” to get the Lakers to raise their offer a bit, which they probably will.
Former Bulls guard Gordon will receive a five-year deal for between $55 million and $60 million, while former Bucks forward Villanueva gets a five-year deal for $40 million, sources told ESPN.com’s Chris Broussard.
Gordon rejected deals from Chicago in excess of $50 million each of the past two seasons. Milwaukee elected to let the 24-year-old Villanueva become an unrestricted free agent earlier this week, after the Bucks determined that matching any restricted free-agent offers would move the team closer to the luxury tax threshold and limit changing the roster.
It’s not surprising that the Pistons signed both of these players, but the value of the contracts seem a little high when taking the current economic climate into consideration. It seems like GM Joe Dumars is operating in a 2006 or 2007 mindset when the reality is that the demand for these players probably didn’t justify $11 million per season for Gordon and $8 millon per season for Villanueva.
There are only eight teams with significant cap space this summer — the Grizzlies, Pistons, Hawks, Thunder, Kings, Raptors, Blazers and Timberwolves — and Memphis, OKC and Minnesota weren’t expected to be big players this offseason. The Bulls were trying to re-sign Gordon, and they probably were in the same neighborhood of the two deals they offered over the last two years that averaged $10 million and $9 million per season, so Detroit may have felt they had to outbid Chicago to pry him away. But I just don’t think he’s worth it, given his defensive liabilities and his lack of size for an off guard.
As for Villanueva, he was intrigued with the possibility of playing with LeBron James and Shaquille O’Neal in Cleveland, but they could only offer him a mid-level deal, which would probably start at around $5.5 million per season. Even though his new contract’s $8 million per season average is the first thing to jump out, we need to focus on the first season. The contract could very well start at $6 million and go up $1 million per season for five years, which would add up to $40 million. They needed to outbid the mid-level deal to convince Villanueva to join a non-contender. Still, that’s a big commitment for a player who has a reputation for being a poor defender and has had his work ethic questioned at time. But at 24, Villanueva is still learning and is already a proven scorer.
This Gordon signing may indicate that Rip Hamilton will be moved before next February’s trade deadline. Though he’s getting older, he’s still a highly efficient scorer and he’d definitely be able to help a contender. I doubt that it’s Dumars’ plan to have $22 million locked up per season at one position. If Hamilton is moved, then the Pistons would be building around a lineup of Rodney Stuckey, Gordon, Tayshaun Prince and Villanueva.
A Chicago Cubs fan has vowed to eat only 500 calories a day until the team wins five games in a row.
Daniel Kamen, 53, of Buffalo Grove, Ill., said he plans to start his diet after the All-Star break in mid-July and continue until the Cubs either win five consecutive games or end their season for the year, the Chicago Sun-Times reported Wednesday.
“I’m going to motivate them,” he said. “I’m going to embarrass them into winning more games. They will see me get skinnier and skinnier, until maybe there’s nothing left of me.”
Kamen invited portly Cubs manager Lou Piniella to join his diet.
“It’s an official invitation,” Kamen said. “I’ll show him how to do it.”
This guy sticking to only 500 calories a day has as much chance as Milton Bradley hitting .300 by the end of the year. I give him two days before he’s hitting up the Wendy’s drive through and ordering a triple burger with fries and a frosty.
At the beginning of the 2009 MLB season, the Giants and reigning Cy Young Award winner Tim Lincecum set out to talk long-term contract and keep the ace in San Francisco for years to come. But according to Lincecum’s agent Rick Thurman, the Giants haven’t brought the topic up again since.
Not that they would, but the Giants can’t play games here. Lincecum is clearly the future of their staff and while clubs are always hesitant on giving young pitcher’s hefty contracts, Lincecum is without a doubt worth the risk. He’s essentially a freak of nature given his unique skills (he barely has to warm up, he has never had to ice after an outing and pitch counts mean very little for this young man) and he’ll probably be worth every penny he makes.
The Giants have a little bit of time since Lincecum’s arbitration years aren’t until 2011-2013. If they don’t mind paying him truckloads of money for one-year deals, they could go year-to-year (which Lincecum and his agent don’t mind because they’re not worried about him getting hurt) with his contract. But again, why mess around? He’s the face of the franchise and one of those rare players that a team just can’t let go.
The Giants are little more cautious these days with long-term contracts after blowing the Barry Zito deal. But again, Lincecum is going to be worth it and it would be shocking if the G-Men don’t enter long-term talks with him again after the season.
Posted by Christopher Glotfelty (07/01/2009 @ 6:21 pm)
Each of the men’s quarterfinals match-ups took place today, and when it was all said and done, Roger Federer, Tommy Haas, Andy Roddick, and Andy Murray had advanced to the next round.
Federer, closing in on his sixth Wimbledon title, reached his 21st consecutive semifinal at a Grand Slam tournament and extended his winning streak to 17 matches with another vintage performance on his favorite Centre Court.
It was Federer’s ninth win in 10 matches against Karlovic, who was playing in his first Grand Slam quarterfinal.
Federer’s next opponent will be Germany’s Haas, who upset fourth-seeded Novak Djokovic 7-5, 7-6 (6), 4-6, 6-3 to advance to his first Wimbledon semifinal. The 31-year-old Haas was the oldest player in the quarters, while the 22-year-old Djokovic was the youngest.
The third-seeded Murray swept Juan Carlos Ferrero 7-5, 6-3, 6-2 to reach his first Wimbledon semifinal and keep up his bid to become the first British player to win the men’s title since Fred Perry in 1936.
Murray will face the sixth-seeded Roddick, who served 43 aces and outlasted 2002 champion Lleyton Hewitt 6-3, 6-7 (10), 7-6 (1), 4-6, 6-4 in the day’s most competitive match. Hewitt battled back from two sets to one down, before Roddick broke for 5-4 in the fifth and then served out the match — which ended after 3 hours, 50 minutes when the Australian popped up a forehand half-volley past the baseline.
Haas led Federer two sets to love in the fourth round of the French Open, only to lose in five. He said he hopes to make amends on Friday.
“That would be nice,” he said. “I’ll give it my best shot. There’s not much he (Federer) can’t do. He’s obviously the favorite to win the title. I’m going to go out there and try to annoy him a little bit and see what happens.”
With Nadal out of the tournament, I assumed the final four would look something like Federer, Murray, Roddick, and Djokovic or Federer, Murray, Roddick, and Gonzalez. I don’t think anyone predicted 34th-ranked Tommy Haas to make it this far, let alone beat the fourth-ranked Djokovic in professional tennis’ most popular tournament. At 31, Haas is the oldest player out of the remaining four. He’s never made it to a Grand Slam final in his career and he unfortunately has to defeat Roger Federer if he wants to break that streak. However, he’s played well against Federer in the past, nearly taking the Swiss at the French Open before being outmatched.
You can catch the women’s semifinals tomorrow at 12 PM on NBC. The men’s semis will then take place on Friday at the same time and station.
Maynor signed the two year deal on Wednesday as the Jazz summer league team began a minicamp in Florida. The Jazz will play in Orlando starting July 6.
As the 20th overall pick in the draft, Maynor gets $1.3 million his rookie season.
The Jazz plan to use Maynor to back up starting point guard Deron Williams.
Maynor was the two-time Colonial Athletic Association player of the year at Virginia Commonwealth and led the league in assists per game his last three seasons.
Congratulations to Maynor, who, at 22 years of age, has a guaranteed job for the next couple years. He’ll get those nice summer months of vacation, make at least a million dollars during the season, meets countless women and professional athletes, and have his life changed forever. This is exactly how my life was at 22, only I’m lying.
Posted by Christopher Glotfelty (07/01/2009 @ 3:14 pm)
Cavaliers forward Anderson Varejao has decided not to exercise his $6.2 million contract option for next season. In doing so, he becomes one of the NBA’s desirable unrestricted free agents, including Hedo Turkoglu, Ben Gordon, and Ron Artest.
The hustling Varejao posted career-highs in starts (42), scoring (8.6), field-goal percentage (.536) and minutes (28.5) per game last season for the Cavs, who won 66 regular-season games but were eliminated in the Eastern Conference finals by Orlando.
Cleveland general manager Danny Ferry has stated his intent to re-sign Varejao and the Cavs may offer him a contract during the free-agency signing period which starts on Wednesday.
The 6-foot-11 Varejao sat out a large chunk of last season in a contract dispute with Cleveland, but has said he wants to stay with the Cavs.
Varejao, who is only 26 years old, still seems like a great fit for the Cavs. Since Shaq will only be able to put in around 20 minutes per game, the Cavs will need another versatile big-man down low. Varejao has spent his entire NBA career with the Cavs and is in his prime, so it will be interesting to see how his future unfolds.
According to a report by SI.com, Kobe Bryant has decided not to terminate the final two years of his contract and will remain a Los Angeles Laker instead of becoming a free agent.
Now the Lakers and Bryant’s agent will negotiate a contract extension. If they somehow cannot agree, he would earn $23 million next season and could opt out next June.
However, Bryant has spent his entire 13-year career with the team, winning four NBA championships and on June 19 he said, “I’m not going anywhere. I know I ain’t going nowhere, so it’s just a waste of our breaths just talking about it.”
Bryant has urged the Lakers to bring back unrestricted free agent forwards Trevor Ariza and Lamar Odom, who played key roles in the team’s recent run to its 15th NBA title.
Bryant will make a guaranteed $47.8 million over the next two years and could earn another $90 million with an extension. As the SI.com article notes, the Lakers can now turn their attention on retaining Ariza and Odom.
Check back for TSR NBA guru John Paulsen’s take on this subject later.
Posted by Christopher Glotfelty (07/01/2009 @ 2:25 pm)
The Arizona Diamondbacks and his fantasy owners can breathe a sigh of relief, as multiple doctors have ruled out the possibility of Brandon Webb having season-ending shoulder surgery. The D-Backs ace recently completed a three-city trip in which he saw shoulder specialists in each, all whom said surgery is unnecessary.
Instead, Webb will hold off on throwing for the next four to six weeks while going through an exercise regimen designed to stabilize his shoulder and strengthen the rotator cuff area.
All three of the doctors examined multiple MRIs taken of Webb’s shoulder and put him through tests to gauge its strength.
“Meister said he has seen pitchers with MRIs that look 10 times worse than mine and they are pitching without problems,” Webb said.
Webb said he first began to feel some stiffness in the shoulder during Spring Training and the doctors believe that it was a teres major strain. The teres major is a muscle located outside the shoulder joint. As a result of that injury, they told him, his shoulder became weak and what he is experiencing now is an internal impingement in the shoulder.
“Yeah, I feel a lot better,” he said. “I’ve had some of the best doctors in the world for this stuff look at me and they all say pretty much the same thing. Hopefully I can get this shoulder stronger, then start throwing a little and be back to make a few starts in September. The doctors said that’s a realistic goal.”
While I doubt the D-Backs will be in the playoff hunt come September, Webb can help breathe some life into the organization. Teammate Dan Haren has been excellent all year, but like Zack Geinke, he’s the only active pitcher on his team that is guaranteed to give you a good performance. When Webb returns, he and Haren will try to get back the good thing they’ve had in Arizona.
Although Webb’s contract expires at the end of this season, the D-backs hold an option for 2010 at $8.5 million or they can buy out the option year for $2 million. How he pitches upon his return will be a good indication whether or not the Diamonbacks will want to pony up or allow Webb to become a free agent.
The New York Times recently discussed how the NFL would be better served if it changed its overtime format from sudden death to something more fair.
One idea drummed up (although not by the NY Times, but by a Packers fan named Chris Quanbeck) was to have a silent auction between the two head coaches to determine field possession.
Quanbeck’s idea was to auction off possession of the ball in the natural currency of the game: field position. The team that was willing to begin closest to its own goal line would receive the privilege of possession.
Quanbeck and his brother Andrew described several auction options. Here’s the one that seems most realistic:
3). Silent Auction
Each coach writes down a yard-line at which they would elect to start their offense. The numbers are given to the referee in sealed envelopes; whichever coach picked the lower yard-line wins the auction and get the ball first. The game plays out in sudden death.
Fairness and drama — those are two requisites of any sport. As with the N.F.L.’s replay challenges and tennis’s Hawk-Eye challenges, the auction system aims for a more just conclusion but also to make it more appealing to fans. The sealed bids add strategy and suspense. They would lead to more second-guessing of coaches, which would be more fun for everybody except coaches (which is why it will be difficult to get this through the competition committee).
But how can this not be better for the league and its fans?
While the New York Times agrees that this is a great idea, I think this would be absolutely ridiculous. If we’re going to do all this, why not just keep the freaking coin toss? Why make this be a guessing game between the coaches, who have better things to worry about (i.e. trying to win a football game) then to try and figure out what the other coach will be writing down?
Why doesn’t the NFL just have the team mascots run around the field once and race for which team will get first possession in overtime? Or better yet, if the league is looking for more drama, why don’t we have the cheerleaders strip at midfield and the fans can vote on which team should be award first possession? I hate to crap on this guy’s idea, but aren’t we getting a little ridiculous here?
The NFL needs to either keep the current sudden death formula or adopt the college football format where each team gets at least one possession. Anything else would be too involved and seem unnecessary.
SI.com compiled a ranking of the 50 highest-earning American athletes and discovered that Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson are at the top of the list.
1. Tiger Woods
Pro Golf
Last Year’s Rank: 1
Salary/Winnings: $7,737,626
Endorsements: $92,000,000
Total: $99,737,626
Tiger sacrificed millions in appearance fees during his year off to recover from knee surgery, but replaced his lucrative Buick deal — voided by mutual consent — with a new one from AT&T.
2. Phil Mickelson
Pro Golf
Last Year’s Rank: 2
Salary/Winnings: $6,350,356
Endorsements: $46,600,000
Total: $52,950,356
Like Tiger, Phil no longer counts on a car-maker in his endorsement portfolio. (Ford chose not to re-sign him.) He still has lucrative deals with Rolex, Callaway, Exxon, Barclay’s and KPMG.
3. LeBron James
Cleveland Cavaliers (NBA)
Last Year’s Rank: 3
Salary/Winnings: $14,410,581
Endorsements: $28,000,000
Total: $42,410,581
LeBron has one more season left under his deal before he can opt out. If Cleveland doesn’t show it’s Finals-worthy by next spring, expect the Knicks to come in with a huge offer.
4. Alex Rodriguez
New York Yankees (MLB)
Last Year’s Rank: 6 (tie)
Salary/Winnings: $33,000,000
Endorsements: $6,000,000
Total: $39,000,000
We’re in the middle of A-Rod’s peak earning power in his middle-loaded, 10-year megadeal: He’ll make another $33 million in 2010 and then gradually decrease to a “normal” $20 million by ‘17.
The Big Bargaining Chip? Regardless of his trade to Cleveland, Shaq is in the final year of the five-year, $100 million deal he signed while with Miami. It’s the largest expiring deal in the NBA.
No. 10 Peyton Manning
Indianapolis Colts (NFL)
Last Year’s Rank: 9
Salary/Winnings: $14,500,000
Endorsements: $13,000,000
Total: $27,000,000
NFL’s top endorser has distributed $500,000 in grants in ‘09 through his PayBack Foundation to charities in Indianapolis, near his alma mater (Tennessee) and his hometown, New Orleans.
It’s amazing that the highest paid NFL player (Peyton Manning) barely cracked the top 10. Granted, the NFL only has a 17-game regular season, but you’d think that for what football players put their bodies through every season that they would make more than baseball players, golfers and basketball players.
Although he is pitching well this season despite his overall numbers, seeing Zito’s name on this list at No. 26 makes me shudder. He’s the third best pitcher (maybe fourth depending on how high you value Randy Johnson) on his own club, yet he’s the 26th highest-earning American athlete. Still, it should be noted that Zito donates $400 for every strikeout that he throws to the Strikeouts for Troops charity that he created to help hospitals treat soldiers that are wounded in military operations. In fact, as the article notes, a lot of the guys on this list give thousands of dollars to charities every year and that shouldn’t be overlooked.
Former NFL head coach Denny Green went on Sirius radio earlier this week and said that he has a hard time believing that suspended quarterback Michael Vick won’t wind up with Bill Parcells in Miami.
“I have a hard time believing that Michael Vick is not going to wind up with Bill Parcells, simply because [Parcells] has that creativeness that says no matter what it takes, he’s going to find a way to get Michael Vick. Now, whether it means convincing the commissioner or whatever it takes, Michael Vick is probably going to wind up at Miami because of the fact Bill Parcells is Bill Parcells.”
Yikes. It seems like with these comments, Green is just picking up a stone and tossing it as far as he can in hopes to hit water and make a splash. Not to discredit a man that has more NFL experience in one day than I will ever have in a lifetime, but there’s no way anyone should buy into what Green is saying. In fact, I fully believe that once Parcells catches wind of Green’s comments he’ll shoot down the idea of ever pursuing Vick.
Yes, Vick would be a nice fit in Miami’s “Wildcat” formation. But last time I checked, the NFL still only uses one football during a given game and the Fins already have Ronnie Brown and Pat White (whom they selected in the second round of April’s draft specifically for their “Wildcat” offense) on the roster. Why sign Vick and create a massive media circus for your team when you already have the players to run the scheme that best fits Vick? It doesn’t make a lot of sense and even for as creative as Parcells may be, he’s not stupid.
Again, this just seems like Green’s attempt to make something out of nothing. Had Miami not taken White in the second round of this year’s draft, maybe Parcells would be more inclined to sign Vick. But considering they already have the players for the “Wildcat” and Parcells might not be there in a year anyway, I highly doubt he would sign the dog fighter.
The Angels have leapfrogged the Rangers for first place in the AL West, although that doesn’t mean that they’re ready to stand pat with their current roster.
According to a report by FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal, the Halos inquired about Diamondbacks’ starter Dan Haren, who could have joined Jered Weaver, Joe Saunders, John Lackey and Ervin Santana (once he’s activated from the DL) to form one of the better rotations in the American League.
But as Rosenthal reports, Arizona didn’t want to part with Haren, who the club views as a significant piece of its future. Rosenthal writes that L.A. could have used “their surplus of catchers and middle infielders” to put together a blockbuster offer, but in the end the D-Backs couldn’t imagine a package that would be big enough to sway them to move Haren.
And who could blame them? Even though they’re a whopping 17.5 games back of the Dodgers in the NL West doesn’t mean that’d be more inclined to deal the 28-year old Haren, who leads the club in wins, ERA and strikeouts. With marquee pitching being such a premium in baseball, the D’Backs need to hang tightly onto Haren.
