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Bonds files for free agency, ready to test the market

stevekstevek Posts: 27,582 ✭✭✭✭✭
Bonds files for free agency, ready to test the market

By JANIE McCAULEY, AP Sports Writer
AP - Oct 28, 6:49 pm EDT

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Barry Bonds is up for bids and on the open market.

The slugger filed for free agency Saturday, an expected move as he prepares to test the waters and determine what teams might have interest -- and whether San Francisco will step up to try to keep him in a Giants uniform as he attempts to break Hank Aaron's home run record next season.

"A lot of players are somewhat nervous or apprehensive about becoming free agents because of all the uncertainty," Bonds' agent, Jeff Borris, told The Associated Press on Saturday. "Barry has nerves of steel. That's also evident in the way he plays baseball."

Borris and the Giants have not had any official talks since the season ended about beginning negotiations on a new contract for Bonds, whose $90 million, five-year contract is up. But Giants executive vice president Larry Baer said Saturday he made an "organizing call" to Borris on Friday and expects the sides to begin serious discussions soon.

"We will talk to the agent within a week or two," Baer said in a phone interview. "His filing for free agency has zero significance on whether he will or will not return to the Giants. He filed for free agency five years ago and signed a $90 million, five-year contract. It's a pro forma activity players do before they sign or are re-signed."

It was thought such conversations might happen almost immediately after the season, but the Giants decided not to renew the contract of fourth-year manager Felipe Alou and said their first order of business was hiring Alou's replacement.

Bruce Bochy became San Francisco's new skipper Friday, and making a decision about Bonds and 10 other potential free agents will be next on general manager Brian Sabean's to-do list.

"He's not the only guy who will file for free agency, so we treat it as a formality," Sabean said Saturday of Bonds. "It's part of the process, no big deal."

Infielder Shea Hillenbrand and lefty reliever Mike Stanton, both of whom finished the 2006 season with San Francisco, also were among the 59 players to file Saturday on the first possible day.

Many wonder what Bonds' market value will be. His quest to become baseball's home run king -- Bonds is 22 homers from breaking Aaron's record of 755 -- is certainly attractive. But will his health and off-field issues cause some teams to shy away from signing him because they don't want to take that risk?

Not to mention the fact the seven-time NL MVP is 42 with two tender knees, is coming off elbow surgery and likely is headed into his final season of an impressive career that has led many to call him the best player ever.

Bonds has 734 home runs. After missing all but 14 games in 2005 following three operations on his troublesome right knee, Bonds batted .270 with 26 homers and 77 RBIs in 367 at-bats this season.

He has spent 14 of his 21 big league seasons with San Francisco and helped the Giants draw 3 million fans in all seven seasons of their stadium's existence. Yet owner Peter Magowan has made it clear the decision about whether to bring Bonds back will be about baseball and not just attracting fans in 2007, when San Francisco will host the All-Star game in its sparkling waterfront ballpark.

Bonds, admired by other players and managers for his ability to block things out, has done his best to keep his legal issues from becoming a distraction for himself and his teammates in recent seasons.

A grand jury is investigating whether Bonds perjured himself when he testified in 2003 in the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative steroid distribution case that he never knowingly used performance-enhancing drugs.

Baseball's new collective bargaining agreement, a five-year deal reached Tuesday night, gives the Giants more time to work out a new contract with Bonds if that's what they decide to do.

The previous labor agreement mandated that if the Giants had not offered Bonds arbitration by Dec. 7, they would be unable to sign him until May 1. Now, the club can still negotiate with Bonds even if it doesn't offer him arbitration by the new Dec. 1 deadline.

"It can be shuffled back," Sabean said Friday. "It maybe gives you more of an opportunity to keep him, but I don't know if it's as front-burner as it might have been had the rule been in place."


Comments

  • A761506A761506 Posts: 1,309 ✭✭✭
    I think there's a better than average chance that he winds up in Detroit. It would be a logical move for everyone involved. The Tigers need a power hitting lefty to specifically play DH, as they currently have no one who fits that bill, combined with the fact that Leyland has been his manager for many years and has always been outspoken about how much he likes Bonds.

    1 year at $15M would be money well spent for the Tigers.
  • yankeeno7yankeeno7 Posts: 9,243 ✭✭✭
    I think Bonds will be lucky to get more than 10 mill next season.
  • AxtellAxtell Posts: 10,037 ✭✭
    So when do the yankees sign him? He's the epitome of the yankee player as of late: overpaid, old, broken down, and bad attitude.

  • So when do the yankees sign him? He's the epitome of the yankee player as of late: overpaid, old, broken down, and bad attitude

    Sounds like a-rod ... oh wait, they already have him
    "An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind". - Gandhi
  • yankeeno7yankeeno7 Posts: 9,243 ✭✭✭


    << <i>So when do the yankees sign him? He's the epitome of the yankee player as of late: overpaid, old, broken down, and bad attitude. >>



    The never ending saga of Yankees obsession.
  • GriffinsGriffins Posts: 6,076 ✭✭✭
    wouldn't it be great if the owners did the same thing to him they did to Dave Kingman, and nobody signed him.

    Always looking for Topps Salesman Samples, pre '51 unopened packs, E90-2, E91a, N690 Kalamazoo Bats, and T204 Square Frame Ramly's

  • yankeeno7yankeeno7 Posts: 9,243 ✭✭✭
    Wouldnt hurt my feelings in the least! But the fact remains, he will put butts in the seats and bring income to whomever has him so he'll be signed somewhere if he doesnt stay in San Fran solely to break the record there. I think San Fran is the only city where he is loved...why would he leave even for much less money?
  • stevekstevek Posts: 27,582 ✭✭✭✭✭
    He'll of course stay as a Giant unless some American League team blows him away with an offer to be a DH - unlikely any AL team will do that in my opinion. Of course the Giants did trade Willie Mays - different situation though I know.
  • AxtellAxtell Posts: 10,037 ✭✭
    hahahaha yankee dorks out in full force...but please, tell me, how any free agent signing the yanks have made in recent years haven't been for overpaid, old, and ailing players? Bonds to the T.

    alpe, good to see you are so obsessed with me I am in your sig line - twice!
  • Ax - You are welcome....
    "An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind". - Gandhi
  • If bonds wants homeruns he needs pac bell park or another hitter friendly park with a short fence. Power hitter my asss if it wasn't for all these years with the giants and that short wall he wouldnt have this many homeruns look at the stats and how many he hits in sanfrancisco compared to the other long field parks. They built pac bell for barry and thats were he has to stay if he wants the record.

    Of course i wish someone would just break his leg and make him retire but thats just meimage
  • AxtellAxtell Posts: 10,037 ✭✭


    << <i>If bonds wants homeruns he needs pac bell park or another hitter friendly park with a short fence. Power hitter my asss if it wasn't for all these years with the giants and that short wall he wouldnt have this many homeruns look at the stats and how many he hits in sanfrancisco compared to the other long field parks. They built pac bell for barry and thats were he has to stay if he wants the record.

    Of course i wish someone would just break his leg and make him retire but thats just meimage >>



    Let's be realistic.

    I am by no means a Bonds fan, but to say he only hit those home runs because of that park just speaks to how little you watched him hit.

    I can't recall many home runs that just barely cleared that fence...and how many of them went into the McCovey Cove?

  • ConnecticoinConnecticoin Posts: 12,475 ✭✭✭✭✭
    What Bonds ought to do is try to repair his image -- sign with the Pirates for $6 million or so to end his career with the team he started at -- and give a boost to a struggling team (with a great stadium, though!).

    Will he do it?






























    imageimageimageimageimageimageimageimageimage
  • Even with the attitude Bonds has, I would not mind seeing him in a Tigers uniform, besides, I think Leyland can handle him as he did before. If not so much for his homers, it is his .450+ on base percentage that raises my eyebrow. I am sure his knee would be in better shape next year, Carlos Guillen and Magglio Ordonez played really well this year, after subpar seasons last year, although Magglio had the hernia in the mix. Personally, I think Carlos Guillen had an MVP year, and I bet he does not even get in the top 5 in voting. Also, whether you like him or hate him, if he gets anywhere near the record next year, people will come out and watch it, and it would be awesome to see him get it in New York!
  • yankeeno7yankeeno7 Posts: 9,243 ✭✭✭
    Bonds will lose at least 75 points off his OPB if he goes to the AL. AL pitching is much stronger than the NL and there is no way his knees are going to miraculously going to get better. Yes, he would put butts in the seats but I have my doubts that he will make a lineup much stronger. He did have a little bit of a comeback in the later season but he's not close to being the same. He has had to change his swing because he is in pain all of the time.

    Plus, no one is going to handle that ego, not even Leyland. Bonds isnt the kid he once was but has grown up to being much more about him. Bonds doesnt care about any team he plays for and only for his own good. He'll be a cancer in any clubhouse he is in.
  • softparadesoftparade Posts: 9,267 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Why does it not suprise me that toilet bowl easily condones a cheater coming to his team? Well, his team until the Twins win the division anyway image

    I can't wait for the Yankees to dump Sheff and Giambi...... the cheaters that they are.

    ISO 1978 Topps Baseball in NM-MT High Grade Raw 3, 100, 103, 302, 347, 376, 416, 466, 481, 487, 509, 534, 540, 554, 579, 580, 622, 642, 673, 724__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ISO 1978 O-Pee-Chee in NM-MT High Grade Raw12, 21, 29, 38, 49, 65, 69, 73, 74, 81, 95, 100, 104, 110, 115, 122, 132, 133, 135, 140, 142, 151, 153, 155, 160, 161, 167, 168, 172, 179, 181, 196, 200, 204, 210, 224, 231, 240

  • I'm kind of hoping the Tigers will go shopping for someone else and let Barry make his way to another team. Too much controversy, we're a young team that needs stability. Yes we need talent, and experience wouldn't hurt either, maybe another player is out there that could be a better fit. Here is hoping for a 2007 Tigers team that is even better than this years team. We had a nice run!
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