Montreal (AP)- After an intense week of negotiations, veteran utility man
Tony Phillips has finally gotten his wish--to get out of Hartford. Although
Phillips harbors no real ill-will toward Chrabascz, Chrabascz himself admitted
yesterday that, "Tony deserved better and we wish him all the luck. Last year
he was a major contributor to our ballclub and a BIG reason we went all the
way. This year we've gone a new direction and he deserves to play somewhere.
Although I was a little hesitant to deal to a division rival, I have the utmost
respect for Peter (Carbonetto) and don't expect us to compete for the division
title anyway this season." Phillips could not be reached for comment. Here's
the breakdown of the trade:
To Montreal: LF Tony Phillips 54-45-54 Age-36 Exp-16 50/62
To Hartford: *3B Gary Baker 31-24-49 Age-21 Exp-0 44/61
*RHP John Hunter 63-73-27 Age-20 Exp-0 FB-50 CU-66 SL-49
Of his new recruits, Chrabascz said, "Well, we're pretty excited about both of
these guys. Matt (Williams) knows he isn't going to be around forever and
we're hoping he can work with Gary (Baker). John (Hunter)has great stuff
already and hasn't played a single professional game yet. He's young and has 5
or 6 years to get even better than he already is and become one hell of a
pitcher. We've got Dennis (Lamp) already looking at tapes of him to see how we
can work on his control. All in all, I think it was a good trade for both
teams. I think everyone involved got what they wanted."
Gary Baker was reached via his carphone on the way to the airport and said,
"I'm extremely excited to be going to the defending World Champions, to be
perfectly honest. I've never been that crazy about Canada to begin with."
John Hunter was intercepted before bording his plane and commented, "Well, I
outta get to play out there at least. It's a very young, upstart club. I
think the next 4 or 5 years there are going to be very exciting, whether you're
watching or participating."
