Not a lot for baseball news out there: Andre Dawson is going into the Hall as an Expo, as it should be, so unless there is a big surge of votes for Tim Raines, Dawson and Gary Carter will forever be the only Hall of Famers wearing Expo caps. Is kind of sad, closing off the team of my childhood. Montreal has a great baseball history, I wonder if the Jays could push to get a Triple-A team there.
Jon Garland signed with the Padres, for one year and $4.7 million, with a mutual option. Jim Thome signed with the Twins for $1.5 million and incentives.
And in the National Post Alex Anthopoulos said that the Jays dropped Brian Bacock because
"We felt like we were going to need to potentially start clearing up some 40-man [roster] spots," said Toronto general manager Alex Anthopoulos when asked about the apparent flip-flop. "We liked him, but he was [only] good depth for us at the minor league level."
Which I'm sure is true but it sounds strange to drop the guy now because we are going to need room later. There is only one catcher on the roster so a spot would be needed sooner or later. He also said he is looking at the remaining free agents for pitching and bench players and that they have had trade talks.
At bluejay.com Jordan Bastian has a review of Dirk Hayhurst's book. And once again, I can't wait to read the thing:
Hayhurst's tome is worthy of being compared to Bouton's "Ball Four" -- considered to be one of the best baseball books written. Bouton and Hayhurst both show the humanity of ballplayers.
Pretty high praise there, but read the review, it sounds like it will be a great book. It is still two months before it is released. My Dad always told me no to 'can' wait' my life away, but I can't wait.
It's a bad idea to get too much of an emotional attachment to pitchers at the back end of the bullpen but I'm going to be so sad if Dirk doesn't make the team. He just seems like a great guy. I think the odds are long, we have a ton of arms. But he does have an option year left so he could be up and down with the team this year.