Dontrelle Willis went AWOL from the Orioles

[Big Bid'Ness]

From:hardballtalk

This morning we asked what was up with Dontrelle Willis and his heretofore unexplained trip to the Orioles’ restricted list. Jon Heyman has an explanation. Dude went AWOL:

The Orioles gave no official reason Sunday for why he was placed on the restricted list, but Duquette to CBSSports.com confirmed Willis left the team without permission following a difference of opinion about whether he should start or reliever. “He just left,” said Duquette when confronted with the information from other sources.

Wow. if Willis thinks he should start, he shouldn’t be on the restricted list, he should be on the insane list. For what it’s worth, Heyman says that Duquette says that he’d still like D-Train as a reliever. And really, the only way he’s going to have value to anyone is as a lefty specialist, so Willis should probably listen to Duquette.

And, you know, not go AWOL.

 

[Pugz]

dude should just go retire.

 

[cruzg24]

People should stop making threads about him....

 

[Big Bid'Ness]

People should stop making threads about him....

Tell him to stop being in the News.....

 

[Pugz]

eexactly. once he retires then we wont have any more threads lol

 

[Lake Louise]

eexactly. once he retires then we wont have any more threads lol

I don't know. He'll still be alive. The threads can just be "retired" "former" or "ex mlb pitcher Dontrelle Willis"
It may never end.

 

[RipCity32]

Poor D-Train :/

 

[Big Bid'Ness]

From:hardballtalk

Dontrelle Willis is filing a grievance against the Orioles

Dontrelle Willis was placed on the restricted list by the Baltimore Orioles list after, according to them anyway, he went AWOL as the result of his unhappiness at being forced to work from the pen instead of starting.

Willis, through his agent Matt Sosnick, says that is hooey — they say he left the team with consent — and they are filing a grievance. Jerry Crasnick of ESPN Reports:

Pitcher Dontrelle Willis is filing a grievance against the Baltimore Orioles, alleging that the club placed him on the restricted list and is preventing him from signing with another organization even though he left the Orioles’ Triple-A affiliate with the consent of a team official.

Willis received permission from Tripp Norton, Baltimore’s director of baseball administration, before leaving the Norfolk Tides last Wednesday, said agent Matt Sosnick.

Sosnick says that Norton said “we don’t want a player doing something he doesn’t want to do” and said he was thus free to leave. There are a bunch of additional quotes from Sosnick and Willis which strongly suggests that, at least in the minds of Sosnick and Willis, Willis had full permission to leave. If it was an open question, I’m not sure they’d be so forthcoming and adamant about it.

Oh, and there is a sick, sick burn of Dan Duquette in the last paragraph, when Sosnick responds to speculation that Willis might have offers to play in Japan or Korea:

“I have not been contacted by any Asian team about Dontrelle,” Sosnick said. “But I know that Dan has closer ties to Korea than I do, so maybe he knows something that I don’t know.”

Dan Duquette’s Orioles, of course, have been banned from any activity in Korea due to scouting misdeeds there. At least that’s what I hope Sosnick was referencing.