fringe

He'd be a great fit on the Giants. Tall, over the middle, route running possesion receiver. Drew Bennett, UFA, Tennessee Titans Bennett might not be considered a special wide receiver in NFL circles, but the UCLA product has great size and good hands as a second receiving option. An uncanny connection with quarterback Billy Volek in 2004 helped Bennett to 1,247 receiving yards and 11 touchdowns. With Vince Young being named the starter, production was up and down for Bennett, but he managed to reach triple-digit receiving yards in three different games, and totaled 737 yards with three scores. The Titans are closer to competing than previously though, it appears, but Bennett may look for work in a system focused more on the pass and with a chance to seriously compete sooner. Several teams could use Bennett to compliment a smaller and faster receiver, and if used properly, Bennett can put up strong numbers once again. discuss....

i only caught the part with LT at Simms jersey retirement. brought a tear to the eye. i was at that game, it was the only highlight of a dismal night.

i wholeheartedly agree with this. if reese can do this it would be like couglin stopping 'what's his names' fumbling.

Baseball is a much easier life if you can make it. And for 8 mill guaranteed, he's got time to see if it works out.

i agree that hes not the type, but you said he had little choice. he had a choice and he chose not to go for arbitration. partly because of his little piss incident. he wanted to smooth over his rep. but that wouldn't have mattered to an arbitrator, they just go by what the market is.

of course he had a choice, which was arbitration. florida was deatly afraid of that, so obviously he had a good chance of winning.

nicely written article, I thought. Last Shot for Ledee....

i'm efforting to get clarification on that from my sources in the giants organization. but it think he agreed to no entourage except for Turtle and Drama.

....When I think of him, he's in a New York Yankees uniform, a 24-year-old rookie, smiling, shrugging, lugging around that "next Mickey Mantle" thing or whatever it was New York was laying on him at the time. It was 1998. The Yankees were the best team I ever saw. ......moved silently, respectfully among the superstars, and there was hardly getting out of their way: Derek Jeter, Darryl Strawberry, Williams, Mariano Rivera, Tino Martinez, Tim Raines, Paul O'Neill, David Cone, Wells, Andy Pettitte, Hideki Irabu, Chili Davis, Orlando Hernandez. There wasn't a lot of room for ......, and not much use for him. Scott Brosius batted ninth and drove in 98 runs. The team scored nearly 1,000. Ten players hit at least 10 home runs, none as many as 30. This was a machine. ......'s time was out there somewhere, beyond this Yankees team, when Chad Curtis moved on or when O'Neill or Raines retired. So, he ran between Columbus and New York, playing in 42 big-league games. He mopped up around the veterans, took his at-bats where they came, and showed more in the way of athletic grace and promise than hard numbers. But, when October arrived, left field had become troublesome for manager Joe Torre. Curtis wasn't hitting. Raines was aging. And Shane Spencer was less tested than ...... even. So, in Game 1 of the World Series against the San Diego Padres, ...... started in left field. The Padres started 18-game winner Kevin Brown. Because ..... batted left-handed and was a capable defender, Torre took the flier. "Yeah,"..... says, "that's still so fresh in my mind. It feels like it was two months ago." Of course, ...... hit .600 in that series. He was four for six with a walk and a sacrifice fly against Brown in Games 1 and 4. The Yankees won in four and ....... it seemed, had arrived, at least seven months earlier than expected.

i thought the same but apparently the players union would file a greivance if they pulled it back now, saying it was due to what should have been priveleged info.

There was a great deal of negative fan feedback from the Sweeney thing. I think Barry may have alienated some of the faithful. That's why the Giants are standing firm on some points, they probably wouldn't mind if he doesn't sign now but they can't pull the offer back based on a 'first' offense.

Perhaps they may not: Unsigned Bonds Awaits Further Review The Giants and Barry Bonds agreed to a $16 million contract before reports emerged last week that Bonds had tested positive for amphetamines. Article Tools Sponsored By By MURRAY CHASS Published: January 17, 2007 Six weeks after they agreed to terms on new contracts, Barry Bonds and J. D. Drew remain unsigned. Bonds hasn’t signed with the Giants; Drew hasn’t signed with the Red Sox. That prompts a thought. If both contracts were to fall through, the Red Sox could sign Bonds to play left field and move Manny Ramírez back to his original position in right. The absence of a contract for the two is highly unusual. Free agents and clubs rarely take this long to complete contracts. Theo Epstein, the Boston general manager, and Scott Boras, Drew’s agent, have made light of the time it has taken them to complete the five-year, $70 million contract. Epstein was on vacation; Boras was attending to other free-agent clients, they said. Except general managers are known to negotiate contracts and trades by telephone while on vacation, and Boras is capable of completing one deal with his left ear while he negotiates another with his right. Drew’s questionable right shoulder has obviously created a problem for the Red Sox, and they are seeking ways to reduce their risk. Bonds’s $16 million contract created more issues for the Giants, but by the end of last week Bonds had backed off many of his stands and was prepared to accept the Giants’ positions. The Giants, however, suddenly slowed the talks, and a resolution has not been reached. A lawyer on the Bonds side said yesterday that they suspect the Giants, reacting to negative news media views in the Bay Area, are exploring ways of getting out of the contract. When an official on the management side with knowledge of the talks was asked yesterday if the deal could blow up, he said, “It’s possible.” Brian Sabean, the Giants’ general manager, did not return a telephone call yesterday seeking comment on the contract circumstances. His secretary, told what the call was about, said she did not think Sabean would comment. Given the chance to comment, Jeff Borris, Bonds’s agent, didn’t. “I can’t really comment on that situation right now,” he said when asked about the contract talks. Could the deal blow up? “I can’t comment on that,” he said. • The Giants did not offer Bonds a contract lightly. They agonized over their decision and even looked for alternatives before making the offer to Bonds, their left fielder for 14 years. He was not necessarily their first choice. They sought a free agent, Alfonso Soriano or Carlos Lee, and they pursued trades for Ramírez and Adam Dunn. Failing at each turn, they went back to Bonds. But before offering him a contract, they asked their baseball people for an evaluation of the 42-year-old Bonds as a hitter and a left fielder, and they spoke with some of the team’s veteran players to find out if having Bonds on the team would be a distraction, or be destructive in any way. The response they got was if they would be a better team with him than without him, they should sign him. Those conversations occurred before news emerged last week that Bonds had tested positive for amphetamines and that Bonds said the reason was a substance he took from the locker of a teammate, Mark Sweeney. The Giants haven’t reacted publicly to that incident, and it’s not known if they will use it in an attempt to get out of the contract. If they do, the players union would certainly challenge their action in a grievance. According to the lawyer on Bonds’s side and the official on the management side, the Giants had not raised the incident as an issue. The two sides had plenty of other issues to resolve, but contrary to published reports, the lawyer said, they did not include anything about the Giants’ desire to alter the guarantee language in the contract based on any legal problems that may envelop Bonds from the Balco investigation. One of the thorniest issues was Bonds’s entourage. The Giants erred five years ago by including a provision in Bonds’s five-year, $90 million contract that allowed his personal trainer and assorted other associates access to the Giants’ clubhouse. Bonds wanted to continue that arrangement, but the Giants adamantly opposed it. To get around Commissioner Bud Selig’s rule banning such people from the clubhouse, Bonds proposed that the Giants hire the members of his entourage so they would be club employees and legally allowed in the clubhouse. The Giants had no intention of agreeing to that idea, and even if they had, Selig would have seen through the subterfuge and voided the contracts. Bonds, however, gave up his effort to retain his entourage rights and will be naked in the clubhouse this year, if the contract is completed. Bonds made or was prepared to make other concessions as well. The two sides seemed to be a document away from completing their agreement, but they remain in disagreement. • The remaining issue could be who needs whom more. At this juncture, the Giants would not have a replacement for Bonds as their cleanup hitter and left fielder, but they could still seek one in a trade. Without the Giants, would Bonds have any way of hitting the 22 home runs he needs to break Hank Aaron’s career record? Would another team offer him a contract? If any other teams had been interested in Bonds, they have probably moved past that point. Selig and other baseball officials might welcome a breakdown in the talks between the Giants and Borris, but they can do nothing to facilitate it. Selig cannot call Peter Magowan, the Giants’ managing partner, and urge him not to complete the contract. That call would violate the labor agreement’s rules against collusion. Another collusion case would be far worse than a Bonds home run record.

funny, you seem to only remember the ones you got right.

They're trying to replicate what Big Hurt did for the A's last year.

In reviewing the '05 season, I felt Eli did well against single coverage but he got confused by the zone, which people threw at him more and more. I think it was x..... who said it was partly due to the receivers not finding the holes in the zone and I agreed. This season, I think there was very little improvement there, matter of fact the play calling got worse and Toomer got hurt so I would say if anything we regressed in the short passing game. As I watch the playoffs, I see all these teams running slant patterns successfully, something we hardly ever do. Everyone left in the playoffs (except Chicago) has a rock solid short passing game that keeps the defense off balance and unable to key on any one aspect of the offense. We need to develop that either with existing personnel and coaches or new ones.

IF you want to rally around a show off like Merriman, then you should expect other teams to give you shit. Tomlinson is a class act and the rest of the team should emulate him and Gates.

if the phillies are in 2nd and the marlins in last, they might trade dontrelle to tthe mets. although i think he wants to come back west for the long term.

he would have gotten ~12 mill in arbitration, even with the piss incident.

yea, i guess. maybe help win a pennant for another team after the break.

Why would he agree to this? (SA) Miami - Southpaw pitcher Dontrelle Willis, who helped make Florida a surprise playoff contender last year, signed a one-year Major League Baseball contract on Monday to remain with the Marlins. The deal, worth a reported $6.45m, allows the Marlins, who spent only $15m on salaries last year, to avoid an arbitration fight that could cost them dearly. Willis, 25, won 22 games in 2005 but slid to 12-12 with a 3.87 earned-run average last season. He helped the youngest club in the major leagues fight for a playoff spot into the final weeks of the season before ending 78-84. Willis, among the best pitchers when batting, is the career Marlins leader with 58 triumphs and 15 complete games and a co-leader with eight shutouts. His 223 1/3 innings pitched last year were fifth-most in the National League.

yea i agree, i'd be more inclined to hit free agents like lance briggs or cato june then take a sub par LB in the draft.

I would like a receiver such as Jeff Samardzija. He's a good possesson guy and its about time our offense got some hard to pronounce names.

i'm highly offended :glare:

3 to be exact and almost a dance contest trophy. if the giants call good plays, they have the offensive talent to get things done. you won't see many arms waving if we win. winning is a good deodorant