Poor Nick - his space in the sports section of the paper is getting squeezed for some reason. ;-) But he's got a couple of good pieces on his blog, first about Adam LaRoche, I didn't realize he had the same agent as Kelly Johnson - Mike Milchin, we love you! This was a nice bit: LaRoche "said he had offers that would have paid him more than what he’s going to get from Arizona but said they came early in the off-season...and came from teams that did not excite him as much as Arizona." Suck it, Giants! :-) He also talks about the release of Eric Byrnes, and Josh Byrnes addresses why we didn't wait until spring training. "Someone else would have had to be exposed to waivers to get LaRoche on the roster," Josh Byrnes said. "I just think when you start to add up the position players, now that Conor Jackson will probably play more outfield and effect Gerardo Parra. Then guys like Ryan Roberts, Cole Gillespie, Rusty Ryal, competing for depth in the outfield... It seemed pretty unlikely that Byrnes would emerge through that. Realistically, when a guy is getting MVP votes in 2007 and fighting for a job at the end of the roster three years later, I don’t think that happens too often in our game when a player reinvents himself in the same uniform and it really works out for all parties."