Category: MLB (Page 372 of 448)

MLBPA to look into why Bonds is still unemployed

The MLBPA is apparently a little confused as to why the league’s active home run king is still umemployed.

The lack of offers to Barry Bonds will be examined by the baseball players’ association as part of its annual review of the free-agent market.

After speaking with the Los Angeles Angels during his annual tour of spring-training camps, union head Donald Fehr said his staff will examine possible collusion against Bonds and others.

“We always look at the free-agent markets every year and make judgments about them, and if we come to the conclusion with respect to any player that there’s a matter worth pursuing, we’ll pursue it,” he said. “But I’m not going to make any suggestions or accusations unless and until we come to that conclusion.”

One possible reason Bonds is still unemployed is maybe because his knees are shot and he can’t move. Here’s another idea: he’s an a*shole. It is strange that an AL team hasn’t picked up the phone and tabbed Bonds as their DH because obviously the man can still hit, but teams aren’t stupid – they know what kind of circus he brings to the clubhouse.

I’m still someone who believes Bonds doesn’t get enough credit for helping out fellow players. Giants’ infielder Kevin Frandsen has said in the past that when he was struggling at the plate last year, Bonds took the time to coach him in the cage. However, I don’t know if the MLBPA needs to look very deep as to why teams might not be interested injecting Bonds into their clubhouse.

Lackey out until Mid May

The Los Angeles Times is reporting Angels’ ace John Lackey will be sidelined until at least mid-May after being diagnosed with a strained right triceps.

The Angels’ rotation and, possibly, the team’s division title hopes, were dealt a significant blow Saturday when ace John Lackey was diagnosed with a strained right triceps, an injury that will sideline the right-hander until at least mid-May.

Lackey, who hasn’t missed a start in his six-year big league career but has been limited by a sore elbow to one exhibition start this spring, felt discomfort after Wednesday’s bullpen workout and said his elbow “locked up pretty good” Friday.

An MRI test revealed the strain, which is just above the elbow, on the outside of Lackey’s arm. His previous pain was below the elbow, on the inside of his forearm. Lackey, who was 19-9 with an American League-leading 3.01 earned run average last season, will be held out of baseball-related activities for three to four weeks and won’t throw until mid-April.

As far as fantasy purposes are concerned, Dustin Moseley is supposed to take Lackey’s spot in the rotation, but there has to be better options in your free agency pool.

Romano calls Girardi out for being a hypocrite

John Romano of the St. Petersburg Times calls Yankees’ manager Joe Girardi a hypocrite for not speaking out about how Shelley Duncan spiked Rays’ middle infielder Akinori Iwamura when sliding into second base in a spring training game on Tuesday.

And I don’t mind that Girardi felt Rays infielder Elliot Johnson crossed a line by bowling over Yankees catcher Francisco Cervelli in a spring training game last week. No matter what the Rays, or Pete Rose, or anyone else says, baseball has always had unspoken rules about the time and place for aggressive play.

What I do mind is that now Girardi is acting like a hypocrite.

The New York manager continues to tap dance his way around questions concerning Shelley Duncan’s spikes-high slide into Rays second baseman Akinori Iwamura.

Girardi tried to avoid the topic after Wednesday’s game, and then again 24 hours later. He said he still hasn’t seen a replay, despite video on ESPN, numerous newspaper Web sites and several YouTube posts.

And this is only spring training! Can’t wait to see how this plays out when the games actually matter.

Selig baseball’s best commissioner?

Richard Justice of SportingNews.com had something rather interesting to say in one of his recent articles – that Bud Selig is the best commissioner baseball has ever seen.

He brilliantly steered the sport from the dark days of the 1994 World Series cancellation to record-setting growth. He is the biggest reason baseball has labor peace, parity and attendance that has increased for four years in a row.

A new generation of ballparks has been built under his watch, and he expertly guided baseball into the Internet age.

His only fault is that he failed to quickly understand the impact steroids were having on the game. The same, too, is true of owners, general managers, trainers and doctors.

Steroids happened. We can’t ignore that. Selig also pushed for the best testing agreement in the sport’s history and had the guts to order George Mitchell to tell as much of the story as he could.

Okay, I don’t disagree that Selig has put asses back in seats. I also don’t disagree that he’s made the game profitable again. But to dance around the steroids issue by saying, “he failed to quickly understand the impact steroids were having” is a joke. He failed to understand because he was banking off it. If Selig wasn’t making money off of players hitting 500-foot home runs, do you think he would have jumped on the steroids issue a little sooner? Maybe even make himself look like a hero for trying to keep the game “clean?” Hmm…

Billy Crystal gets a piece in debut

Billy Crystal made his New York Yankees’ debut against the Pirates Thursday and to the surprise of probably no one, he was punched out. However, he did draw a 3-1 count and didn’t go down without a fight.

I don’t care what anyone says – he looked good up there for 60 years old.

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