Ben Francisco, come on down. You’re the next contestant on “Does Anyone Around Here Know How to Hit?”
“Our best opportunity is to put other guys in the lineup at this point,” Toronto GM J.P. Riccardi told The Associated Press. “Obviously, reduced playing time is not something that he was interested in. In order to let him go forward and get on with his career, I think it’s fair to do it at this point.”
“I don’t know that we have the luxury of waiting two to three months for somebody to kick in because we can’t let this league or this division get away from us,” Riccardi said.
Wouldn’t it be cool if that was Tribe GM Mark Shapiro talking about getting rid of Jason Michaels instead of Blue Jays GM J.P. Riccardi talking about cutting Frank Thomas? Oh, an Indians fan can only dream. …
This article appears in Apr 16-22, 2008.