Around the Horn in the NL East

There is quite a bit of little stuff going on around the NL East the last few days.

First off, the Braves signed all of their arbitration eligible players except for Jorge Sosa. Marcus Giles almost doubled his salary from a year ago to $3.85 mil, but still some people think he is underpaid. I have to wonder if Giles settling for less money than he may have gotten through arbitration is perhaps a symptom of the Chipper Jones contract restructuring. Long time Braves may now be afraid to take the team to the cleaners when it comes contract time.

Meanwhile, Jeff Francoeur was added to the World Baseball Classic roster.

The Nationals locked up their catcher, Brian Schneider, with a four-year contract. But it looks like Alfonso Soriano is going to try and take the Nats to the cleaners in arbitration, as he continues to be a thorn in their side while he resists any positional switch. And there’s still an impasse in the DC stadium talks.

The Mets continue to collect players as they sign a Japanese swing-man. Everyone must now learn to pronounce Yusaku Iriki.

In a tough love statement you don’t usually see made by management, the Phillies’ GM Pat Gillick has conceded that they will not win the NL East: “Are we going to win the division? No. We have to improve.” I wonder if he used that line a couple months ago when he was interviewing for the GM job. At least the Philly press is trying to turn his honesty into a good thing. But Gillick may be pissing off his best player as he tries to trade him away.