Recently signed Kansas City outfielder Jose Guillen and Baltimore outfielder Jay Gibbons have been suspended for the first 15 days of the 2008 season for “violating baseball’s drug policy.” The issue is human growth hormone. Others accused of such violations but not suspended include Rick Ankiel, Troy Glaus, Gary Matthews Jr., and Scott Schoeneweis.
Guillen is filing a grievance, while Gibbons is accepting his fate as-is.
Guillen, you may recall, just signed with the Royals for beaucoup bucks. It will be interesting to see how his signing and subsequent suspension affect Mike Cameron, who will miss the first 25 games of ‘08 …read more

Serious catch-up mode here. Free agent center fielder Torii Hunter has signed with the Angels. The deal is 5 years, $90 million, which is just nuts for a 32-year-old with a career OBP of .324. Hey, at least it’s not my money.
(Guest blogger TD — thanks, bud! — covered this transaction while I cavorted about the Pacific and was similarly unimpressed.)
I don’t really see how the Angels were even players here given that they threw $50 million at Gary Matthews Jr. last winter to play Hunter’s position. Matthews had a nice little Damion Easley type season, which isn’t bad, but …read more

All is not well in Anaheim. The name of new center fielder Gary Matthews Jr. has surfaced in an investigation of pharmacies that allegedly sell performance-enhancing drugs online. Angels owner Arte Moreno tells the New York Times that he is “not a happy guy.”
Seems Moreno had one idea of how Matthews should handle the situation, while the player had another. Quoth Moreno:
Address the press and say: “Yes, my name has been linked to this story. I’m sorry this has become a distraction and we’re going to try to clear it up as quickly as possible. I’m not asking him to …read more