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

I somehow missed this when it first came out, but Marc Hulet has done some nice analysis of the Rule V draft over at Baseball Analysts. Although much of what he says applies to current draftees, Marc also examines the draft’s recent history.
I’ve been working under the assumption that Johan Santana is the only good player to come out of the Rule V in decades, but that’s incorrect. Although Santana is the only guy to become freakishly good, several useful players have emerged, including Jay Gibbons, Chris Shelton, and Dan Uggla. I’m still not sure these few exceptions are enough …read more