Ringolsby: Bonds market may cost GM

Published June 22, 2007 at midnight

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Giants general manager Brian Sabean is being hung out to dry.

He has been forced the past three seasons to juggle a budget and build a roster around the declining abilities of Barry Bonds - not because Sabean and the baseball people in San Francisco wanted to retain Bonds but because owner Peter Magowan and the business folks have been adamant about keeping Bonds for marketing reasons.

Now, as the constant fade continues on the field, Sabean is being set up as the scapegoat for the Giants' failures. When he was working for the Yankees, Sabean played a key role in helping resurrect the Bronx Bombers' farm system during the time owner George Steinbrenner was banned from the game.

But in San Francisco, with the meddling from the marketing folks, who have Magowan's ear, Sabean has been forced to forgo long-term development because the franchise has been built around the aging Bonds, who can thrill the fans with home runs but has become a liability on the bases and in the field.

Value for the dollar

Los Angeles had the depth to win the National League West even before it went on an offseason spending spree. And that's a good thing, because the Dodgers had a free-agent fling this past winter that ranks right down there with Toronto's previous blind spending.

The Blue Jays at least got one strong season from reliever B.J. Ryan for the five-year, $47 million deal they gave him before the 2006 season. But his 37 saves a year ago don't make things any easier to take in light of his reconstructive elbow surgery this year.

And then there is A.J. Burnett, who signed a five-year, $55 million contract before last season and recently was placed on the disabled list for the third time in his year and a half with the Jays and for the ninth time in eight big-league seasons. At least it's a sore right shoulder this time instead of the right elbow that led to Burnett's stints on the disabled list in 2003 (twice, the second time for surgery), 2004 (once) and last season (twice).

The Dodgers, meanwhile, still are trying to figure out why they paid $44 million over five years for center fielder Juan Pierre, whose defensive limitations that are an issue in SoCal are no surprise anywhere else. But at least Pierre is healthy and never has lost his work ethic. What about the three-year, $47 million deal given to right-hander Jason Schmidt? His arm problems and steady decline in velocity the past three seasons were considered warnings that surgery was inevitable, which the Dodgers admitted this week.

Overheard

• The Yankees are willing to give up young pitching to acquire first baseman Mark Teixeira from Texas, but they won't deal right-hander Philip Hughes.

• Tampa Bay is mulling the release of outfielder Elijah Dukes, whose off-field transgressions have made teams reluctant to trade for him. Teams would rather gamble on picking him up if he is released so they don't make a real investment.

• The $925,000 salary of Florida's Aaron Boone makes the first baseman an attractive trade prospect, particularly in Minnesota, where the Twins want help at third base and could use Boone as a fill-in at first.

Sneak peek

Bad as the season has been for the Chicago White Sox, they actually feel fortunate that, while scrambling to try to shore up center field, they came up short in the bidding for Dave Roberts, who instead took $18 million over three years from San Francisco. For a look at the players that various teams were happily unable to obtain in the offseason, check out Tracy Ringolsby's team-by-team notes at RockyMountainNews.com/rockies.

Readers' turn

Ben Seccombe, of New York, writes: "Is there a chance the Rockies will consider moving (Garrett) Atkins during the season for a young major league-tested pitcher?"

Ben, Atkins would seem the most likely of the current Rockies to be used in a trade for impact help because of the development of Ian Stewart, a No. 1 draft choice who has shown big-league fielding ability to go with a left-handed power bat at Triple-A. With the presence of Jeff Baker, a right-handed hitter, the Rockies would have some protection for Stewart and could get Baker some at-bats by playing him at third against left-handed pitchers.

For responses to other questions or to ask questions of your own, check out the daily Rockies Pregame Report or the weekly Rockies Inbox at RockyMountain News.com/rockies. Two cents' worth

Add the title future Hall of Famer to any reference about Sammy Sosa. He has put up monster numbers, becoming the fifth player to reach 600 home runs in his career. The man hit more home runs in any 10-year period than anyone else in the history of the game when he totaled 479 from 1995 to 2004. He owns three of the eight 60-homer seasons in the history of the game and hit 40 home runs an NL-record six times. Along with that, it was Sosa who showed Mark McGwire how to enjoy the fan adulation when the two battled to break Babe Ruth's single-season home run record in 1998.

MILE HIGH WATCH

• Denver's pro sports teams are developing a strong connection with Vanderbilt University. Earlier this month, a year after the Broncos drafted Vandy quarterback Jay Cutler in the first round, the Rockies selected Commodores closer Casey Weathers in the first round.

"Sure," Weathers said this week when asked if he knew Cutler. "We had a class together, too, Rhetoric of Mass Media."

Rockies general partner Dick Monfort said Cutler told him, "Thanks for drafting my buddy."

• The Rockies someday could have the first all-Canadian starting battery - left- hander Jeff Francis and catcher Lars Davis, their third-round pick this year from Illinois. The only time a Canadian-born catcher has caught a Canadian- born pitcher was in Los Angeles, where Russ Martin caught reliever Eric Gagne.

• Chicago White Sox general manager Kenny Williams said he expects son Kenny Jr., a 32nd- round pick of the Rockies, to return to Wichita State in the fall. Williams played only 12 games in his first two years at Arizona and then sat out the 2006 season after transferring to Wichita State. His lack of experience is why the Rockies want to watch him in summer league action before deciding how hard to pursue him before the Aug. 15 deadline for signing draft picks.

• The Rockies' schedule was set up for three possible national television dates, but Fox has declined to pick up their games at Houston on June 30, Washington on July 21 and Atlanta on Aug. 4. That means those dates, which originally were day games, likely will be moved to evening starts.

ringolsbyt@RockyMountainNews.com

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