Though the LA Times’ Bill Shaikin already seeks to quash rumors of the Angels making a run at Barry Bonds in the off-season, the not-entirely-serious Scott Ostler of the SF Chronicle is beating the drums for the Sultan Of Surly to relocate to the East Bay.
Around the A’s ballpark these days, you hear a lot of crazy speculation. Like, with Bobby Crosby out, how about Nomar Garciaparra?
Crosby’s not coming back soon, and even though Nomar is a superstar no more (he’s hitting .262 for the Cubbies), he is a big-time player with the pennant-race experience the A’s lack.
It might work. But why not think bigger? Biggest?
Barry Bonds.
The Giants would love to dump Barry’s salary, for this month and for 2006, and his bizarre diva act has to be wearing thin with everyone at 24 Willie Mays Plaza, from the top down.
The Giants could trade Bonds and not tell him, let him find out from the team’s Web site. Sweeeet.
Besides, the Giants’ goal every year is to be in contention for a playoff spot into September, and they’ve already accomplished that.
It would be a big financial gamble for the A’s, but with a big upside. What if Bonds got smart and spent part of his rehab working on bunting? Even waddling and limping down the line after bunts to the left side against the shift, Bonds could hit .500.
A panic move by the A’s? Absolutely, and if the A’s aren’t in full panic mode, they should be. Crosby out. Rich Harden hurting. Mark Kotsay a zombie. Zito absolutely hammered Sunday.
The A’s say they expect Crosby to miss only three weeks, but amateur orthopedists like me can’t help but wonder if the A’s are being overly optimistic.
Likewise, the A’s are giving Sunday as the target for Harden’s return, but injured power pitchers are wildly unpredictable creatures.
The A’s would be crazy to gamble on Bonds, who might not hit another home run, but who’s crazier than Billy Beane?
And if you want evidence that a suspected steroid slugger, now presumed to be clean, can come back from ‘Roidville to be a productive power hitter, you have to look only at Jason Giambi.
The Chicago Sun-Times’ Mike Kiley, unsurprisingly, predicts that Nomar Garciaparra will not return to the Cubs in ’06.
The consensus belief is that the Cubs won’t offer shortstop Nomar Garciaparra another contract in the offseason, unable to risk the chance that he can return in 2006 as the player he used to be after physical problems held him back the last two seasons.
The Cubs aren’t prepared to say that directly with Garciaparra still playing for them, but manager Dusty Baker and general manager Jim Hendry agreed Sunday that rookie Ronny Cedeno could be on the verge of developing into the starting shortstop next year.
Hendry emphasized that Cedeno also can play second base, but the team’s offseason plan likely will be to re-sign veteran infielder Neifi Perez and pair him at shortstop next season with Cedeno, who would get most of the starts as long as he fulfills his promise.