We may have seen the last of Edgar Renteria in a major league uniform. The San Francisco Giant’s World Series MVP, who is 34 years old but has been playing for what seems like forever, was offered a $1 million contract to play for San Franciscso in 2011. That was not good enough for Renteria, who has claimed he will retire if he doesn’t get a decent offer to return to MLB.
Aside from his spectacular World Series performance this past season, Renteria only played in 72 regular season games, and was on the disabled list 3 times, which prompted the Giants to go out and sign free agent infielder Miguel Tejada, who played last season with the Padres.
Personally, I’ve always been an admirer of Renteria, from his days with the Marlins and Cardinals, but it appears his body can no longer hold up for an entire season, and MLB teams don’t pay you for what you did yesterday, only what they think you’ll be able to do in the future. It would appear that the Giants don’t see Renteria bouncing back and being much of a contributer in 2011. Perhaps it’s time for Renteria to hang it up and devote more time to building up the Colombian baseball league that he co-owns.
Jose Canseco still hasn’t given up his dream of getting back to the Big Leagues.
After finishing this past fall with the Laredo Broncos of the semi-pro United Baseball League, the 46-year-old OF/DH had his agent contact the Gigantes of Carolina of the Puerto Rican Winter League and see if they had any openings. Tito Lebrón, the general manager of the Gigantes, was quoted by the local paper El Nuevo Dia today as saying that Canseco was one of many backup options being considered, but that nothing had been decided yet.
Carolina is currently in third place in PR winter league. If they were to win the league, they would be the Puerto Rican representative in the Caribbean Series.
The ESPN Deportes article in Spanish: http://espndeportes.espn.go.com/news/story?id=1190918&s=beisbol/ligas-invernales&type=story
Canseco has been on Twitter proclaiming he could lead any league in home runs as a DH. Canseco hasn’t played in MLB since 2001, and in the last 9 years he has played in a number of independent leagues…that is, when hasn’t been writing books, testifying to Congress, starring in reality TV, or boxing.
Sportsrageous article: http://www.sportsrageous.com/jose-canseco-wants-to-play-in-mlb-again-12-13-2010
courtesy of arkansasonline.com
Brazilian centerfielder Paulo Orlando, whose breakout 2010 season with AA Northwest Arkansas (Kansas City), put him in the Texas League All-Star Game and on the radar of many other teams looking for speedy outfielders, was not picked up by any other MLB organization in this week’s Rule 5 Draft. The Royals had left Orlando off of the team’s major league 40-man roster, which meant that he would have been available to another team to draft him. Even the Royals were surprised he wasn’t drafted out of the KC organization. See KC assistant General Manager J.J. Picollo’s comments in this Kansas City Star article:
http://www.kansascity.com/2010/12/09/2508726/royals-expect-market-to-heat-up.html
No word yet if Orlando will start in AA or AAA next season. Much probably depends on how well things go in Spring Training. Unfortunately for Orlando, some of the perceived value he built up during the Texas League season was lost after a disappointing Puerto Rico winter league showing, where he started 0-18 at the plate and left the team after only 5 games. Not sure if the bad start and subsequent departure was due to injury, or just plain fatigue from the long summer season.
A GONE - courtesy of Reuters
The inevitable happened today: Padres All-Star First Baseman Adrian Gonzalez was traded to the Boston Red Sox for three minor leaguers and a player to be named later. Though the minor leaguers coming over to the Padres are considered some of the best talent in the Red Sox organization, none of them have yet played in the majors.
Gonzalez is set to become a free agent at the end of this upcoming 2011 season, and is expected to command a contract that could pay him over $20 million per year. Seeing as how the small market Padres would never be able to afford Gonzalez, they wanted to trade him before he became a free agent to get some sort of value in return. The Red Sox are expected to negotiate a long term contract extension with Gonzalez that would pay him closer to his market value.
As a Padre fan, I am disappointed Gonzalez was traded, but I understand the economics that drive MLB. I also respect that Gonzalez deserves to go out and earn as much money as somebody will pay him. Gonzalez has been a positive and active role model in the San Diego community. He has strong family ties to both Chula Vista (suburb of San Diego) and Tijuana, Mexico, and he has definitely given back through his foundation that works with underprivileged youth in the area.
On the diamond, it’s been awesome watching Gonzalez develop into the player he is now. He averaged 33 HR and 100 RBI per season during the 5 years he played in San Diego. In a pitcher friendly park like Petco, that’s an amazing feat.
¡Buena Suerte, Adrian!
This season’s Mexican winter league, The 8-team Liga Mexicana del Pacifico, is currently taking place in various cities in Northwest Mexico.
Currently in a tie for first place at 6-3 are the Cañeros of Los Mochis and the Venados of Mazatlán. Following them in a second place tie at 5-4 are the Tomateros of Culiacán and the Naranjeros of Hermosillo. In a 3-way third place tie at 4-5 are the Algodoneros of Guasave, the Aguilas of Mexicali, and the Mayos of Navajoa. Bringing up the rear at 2-7 are the Yaquis of Obregón. Not much separation yet, but there are still 2 months left to play.
The champion of the league gets to represent Mexican in the Serie del Caribe, taking place in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico in February 2011.
More information on the LMP can be found on their website at: http://www.ligadelpacifico.com.mx/