It seems that not even Bobby Jenks can escape having to talk about a mention of himself in a book. It seems to be the "in thing" to do these days. It's not quite the magnitude of Joe Torre's new book, but former minor leaguer Matt McCarthy has written one describing his experiences as a player in the Angels system, where he had some interesting things to say about players like Jenks and Derrick Turnbow.Jenks isn't taking the claims or the quotes too seriously.
"It's just someone trying to make some money," Jenks said.As with all books, it helps to understand these snippets in the context of the entire book. What's interesting is that McCarthy couldn't have spent too much time with Jenks outside of Spring Training, they were never actually teammates in the minor leagues (nor was McCarthy a teammate of Turnbow's during McCarthy's one season in the minors.) One thing we can tell though is that we shouldn't invite Jenks to the Kotchmans for dinner. (The White Sox do not play the Braves this season, so we'll have to wait for any potential fireworks.)
In an excerpt of "Odd Man Out," a book to be published later this year, minor league pitcher Matt McCarthy wrote of one instance where Jenks arrived 15 minutes late to practice and was sarcastically greeted by Angels minor league field coordinator Bruce Fields.
"Just trying to help the Angels win a World Series," Jenks was quoted as saying.
Jenks said he never met McCarthy and that he was alerted of the book and the unflattering comments by Angels scout Tom Kotchman and his son Casey Kotchman, who now plays for the Atlanta Braves.
In the story, McCarthy alleged that Jenks told him that faking a back injury would get him out of weight lifting. The story adds that Jenks alleged that former teammate Derrick Turnbow was on steroids and that he was a bargain for the Angels after signing a $175,000 bonus.
