It's still early in Arizona, where the five NL West teams train, but that won't stop us from providing updates on some of those clubs. Here's the latest…
- Giants manager Bruce Bochy repeated that he's open-minded about who ends up playing left field in 2011, according to MLB.com's Chris Haft. Aubrey Huff, Pat Burrell, Mark DeRosa and Nate Schierholtz are all candidates to play left for San Francisco.
- Edgar Renteria told Andrew Baggarly of the San Jose Mercury News that he called the Giants' $1MM offer "a total disrespect" because of pride, not money. The 2010 World Series MVP went on to sign a $2.1MM deal with Cincinnati.
- Carlos Gonzalez told Jim Armstrong of the Denver Post that he doesn't expect to be overwhelmed by the attention that comes with national endorsement deals and his new $80MM contract with the Rockies.
- D'Backs GM Kevin Towers explained to Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic that he intends "to build [the Arizona] organization around young pitching." Pitchers like Daniel Hudson, Ian Kennedy and Jarrod Parker figure to be important contributors for the D'Backs' staff going forward. Kennedy, who was often grouped with Joba Chamberlain and Phil Hughes while playing in the Yankees' system, cautions against lumping pitchers together, though.
Chuck345
Renteria should know that sometimes you have to swallow your pride.
stl_cards16
Or go make twice as much money elsewhere.
Chuck345
Or just not complain about his poor wittle pride being hurt..
RossAndHeckler
Reds fans will be wishing for that $2.1MM back by the end of June.
Bust A Posey
Rent is lucky that the giants even offered him a contract.
YanksFanSince78
How is he lucky when he had others interested in him as well.
stl_cards16
Because they won a World Series! Shouldn’t every player be honored to get an offer from them?
wholenewworld
Thing is, Edgar, you were wildly overpaid, by about $10 million, for the past two years, by those darn, disrespectful Giants.
Now, someone who had pride, might just want to return some of that money. No? OK, then, lets call the Red’s contract market value for you. (It’s not.) So, you can’t give a $1.1 million discount to make up for a $10 million overpay? No? OK.
Respect? C’mon, dude. You’re a mercenary.
Yankee_Baal
I think that Renteria means that the offer was lacking real interest to retain him. Plus, you have to understand that even on their twilight years, this guys are highly competitive athletes and don’t see themselves has having diminished value.
It would have been more respectful from the Giants not to offer him contract at all, as the Yankees did with Matsui rather than trying to take their chances with an ultimatum type offer that showed no real commitment to him as an individual that did a very big contribution to their title.
CitizenSnips
Seriously. Guy sucks all season and somehow hit’s 2/3 his season total in homers in the World Series, gets MVP, and thinks he’s king.
Chuck345
Not saying searching for money is a bad thing. Just think it’s foolish that he says his pride took a hit because they offered a player who played half a season 1mm. His season wasn’t all that spectacular either. He had a great WS but he’s overdoing it with this pride nonsense.
Alex Foltz
exactly my thought. What part of the offer hurt his pride? Probably the “low” offer in terms of $$$. So it’s exactly about the money.
mainepadfan
I count 4 teams!!!???
stl_cards16
Let’s count em 1. Padres 2. Giants 3. Rockies 4. Dodgers 5. D-backs! There you have it…Welcome to the NL West
RepOak
And he’s a padre fan haha! Supposedly… Maybe your confusing with the AL west
YanksFanSince78
I’m very happy for IPK. I hope he has continued success with the Dbacks. Too many pitchers get disregarded because they aren’t bringing it at 94 mph or better. Good for him.
Andrew Sapiro
You stay classy, Edgar Renteria. Seriously, what is this guy smoking? You had two good ABs in the playoffs and had a couple other hits and suddenly the Giants are supposed to pony up respect after already paying you $18.5M for little in two years? Goodbye, thanks for the homer. You know it was a tie game x2 and the Giants could have won both those games without you in retrospect. Never been so glad to see a WS MVP leave as a Giants fan.
giantsfan4life
I’ve said before, respect is 2 ways, he basically stole 18.5 million from the Giants while being a near total loss during his time there then expects another huge overpay because of his reputation from 5 years ago.
As soon as he gives back the 18.5 million he never really earned in SF then he can talk about respect.
Tony
Not trolling or anything, but does anyone find this to be suspicious?
From Denver Post:
“Carlos Gonzalez’s profile isn’t the only thing that’s bigger. The Rockies’ star outfielder arrived in spring training weighing 222 pounds, 19 pounds heavier than he finished last season.”
Ryan Ward
Not really. He didn’t play winter ball because of the tendinitis in his wrist and thumb, so he probably spent more time working out.