Braves GM John Schuerholz is stepping down but staying with the team, according to this report. He has built, re-built, signed successful free agents, retained popular stars at fairly reasonable rates, made savvy trades, developed a rich farm system, and turned over a team several times without a fire sale. If he’s retiring, perhaps he can be persuaded to un-retire to the shores of McCovey Cove in a couple years.
Also, just to note for the record, the Giants have fired hitting coach Joe Lefevbre and first-base coach Willie Upshaw. I can muster neither excitment nor cynicism. Click here if you want spirited repartee on said subject. As noted in that thread, I vote for Bobby Estalella as the new hitting coach. The ladies dig Bobby. Ladies at the ballpark are always a good thing. Not for me, personally, but for the general positive egalitarian spirit of the Giant fan base. Ahem.
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SMALL PRINT UPDATE: The Giants have removed Acosta, Blackley, McClain and Giese from the 40–man roster. Unless they’re claimed, they’ll stay in the minor-league system. They now have 35 players on the 40–man (guys on the 60–day DL don’t count), so there’s plenty of room to add mediocre free agents without fear of losing anyone!
I’ve also updated the salary figures to reflect 2008. It’s never too early to start counting beans. Figures of note:
* Zito jumps from $10 M to $14.5 M and is the highest-paid Giant.
* Randy Winn jumps from $4 M to $8 M and is second highest-paid.
* Bonds earns $5 M deferred from 2003 and possibly earns $5.8 M deferred from 2007.
* Correia and Chulk are likely eligible for arbitration.
* The team has a $1 M option on Tyler Walker. Given his excellent work coming back from surgery, I’ll assume for now the Giants will take it.
(All figures as usual are from Cot’s Contracts.)
