July 28, 2006
New Free Agents
It looks like Cuban stars Yulieski Gourriel and Eduardo Paret defected from Cuba. Here's the Spanish language article and here's the Google translation.
It seems Gourrriel is headed for the Yankees.
Update: Here's Gourriel's entry from Wikipedia. He's believed to be 22, which makes him an extremely valuable commodity. He's listed as a third baseman, but the Cubans often play him at second. So who's he going to replace, A-Rod or Cano?
Update: Baseball Think Factory was the first to notice this.
Update: Here's a contradiction. This story has Gourriel in Cuba on Thursday.
wasn't gourriel the guy they told us - over and over and over and over and over and over - that he would never defect becuase his family is in castro's government? i guess he'd rather live in freedom than get his extra rationed bread because of his connections. good for all these guys that defect.
Tim, yes, I remember Gammons saying that.
Play him at second, trade Cano for a pitcher.
Play him at second, teach cano to play first base, trade phillips and duncan for a pitcher.
click the "miami five" banner at the top of the prensa latina page for some good reading...
Hmm, replace the guy hitting .280/.400/.600 splits, or replace the guy hitting .325/.350/.440? Decisions, decisions. Oh, sorry, A-rod's slumping to .280/.385/.504 this year. Meaning he only out Ops-es Cano by 100 points instead of 200.
I guess if they could trade A-rod for a crazy return package this could be a debate, but no one has both that kind of money and those kinds of players to make the trade worth it or possible.
Oh, man, I would have guessed that Tony and the other members of Pastors for Castro would have another typical pro- Maximum Leader/anti-US take on this.
...
The Miami Five: just five spies for Castro, wanting to finish the work begun by the sweethearts at Pastors for "Peace."
how is anything i have written or promoted "anti-US?" The Cuban Five warned the US government of a possible terrorist attack in New York involving airplanes, which obviously fell on deaf ears.
Ralph, learn the facts before you banter your irresponsible hate speech.
Oh, tony, that's a good one.
I think you and the Pastors for "Peace" need to brush up on your facts. Mm-Kay?
The Cuban Five are Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerrero, Ramón Labañino, Fernando Gonzáles, and René Gonzáles. After being arrested in Miami, Florida in September 1998, they were indicted by the U.S. government on 26 different counts ranging from using false identification to espionage and conspiracy to commit murder. In June 2001, they were convicted of all 26 counts by a U.S. federal court in Miami and in December sentenced to varying terms in maximum-security prison: two consecutive life terms for Hernández, life for Guerrero and Labañino, 19 years for Fernando Gonzáles, and 15 years for René Gonzáles.
