This is one of those times when I might ask “do you want the good news first or the bad news?”<\/p>\n
Okay, here is the good news. The Minnesota Twins are giving veteran major league outfielder a fresh opportunity, following up on a season in which the 34-year-old’s only activity was for 28 games in the Atlantic League. Jones, a .277, 165-home run hitter for 1,302 major league games, hit .311 along with five round-trippers and 25 runs batted in for the Newark (NJ) Bears’ major league-loaded team for five weeks last June and July. He had slumped to a combined .147 average in 42 combined games with Detroit and Florida in 2008 after playing a minimum of 135 games in each of the previous eight major league seasons.<\/p>\n
“He’s one of the good, hard-working guys that we’ve had in this organization and he’s one of the guys that helped us become a playoff team,” praised Twins General Manager Bill Smith to MLB.com when Minnesota announced the signing of the left-handed hitter to a minor league contract and a major league spring training invitation.<\/p>\n
GREG BURKE LET GO BY PADRES<\/p>\n
Greg Burke had what seemed to be a solid rookie major league season in 2009, working 46 innings in 48 games and posting a 3-3 record with a 4.14 earned run average. Right-handers hit only .208 against him, but San Diego asked unconditional waivers Tuesday when it needed 40-man roster space after signing Yorvit Torrealba as its likely backup catcher.<\/p>\n
It is difficult to imagine Burke will be idle long, because he will play most of 2010 at the age of 27. The right-hander started his pro career with Atlantic City, NJ of the Atlantic League in 2005 (1-2, 3.70 in 25 games), then was inked by the Padres out of a tryout camp the next spring. His climb toward the majors accelerated in Double-A in 2008 and a 3-0, seven-save, 2.25 start in 13 games at Triple-A Portland, OR last season before joining the parent club.<\/p>\n
(This story is from the blog www.IndyBaseballChatter.com<\/a> written by Bob Wirz, who also authors a regular subscriber-only column, the Independent Baseball Insider. A free sample column is available upon request through the blog with column subscriptions available at www.WirzandAssociates.com<\/a>.)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This is one of those times when I might ask “do you want the good news first or the bad news?”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":452,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t