Jose Guillen was originally supposed to have been suspended the first 15 games of the season, but
Major League Baseball postponed the punishment for the first 10 days of the season while negotiating potentially harsher drug penalties with the players' association that may or may not include a retroactive pardon (or less likely, a longer punishment) for Guillen's sins. His 10 days are up and the two sides are still talking, so MLB decided to put things off another week. From
MLB.com:
General manager Dayton Moore was told the extension was through April 15 while negotiations continued on a joint drug agreement.
"I'm not real concerned about it, I don't have any control over it and the fact that they're lengthening it obviously is a positive sign," Moore said. "I don't think they'd lengthen it if they didn't feel like ultimately there was going to be some resolve."
Ordinarily you'd say that it won't make a huge difference what happens -- I mean, we're talking about the
Royals -- but in the "up is down" world that is the AL Central, the Royals are actually tied for first place.
Jay Gibbons is in the same boat as Guillen, although the timeline for figuring out his punishment is less important considering, you know, he doesn't actually have a job.
