The Angels are interested enough in Shea Hillenbrand that General Manager Bill Stoneman spent a fair amount of Thursday investigating the circumstances surrounding the Toronto infielder's falling out with the Blue Jays, which led to the team's designating Hillenbrand for assignment Wednesday.

"I'm fully aware of what happened," Stoneman said.
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In earlier talks, the Blue Jays asked for second baseman Adam Kennedy, but because Hillenbrand was designated for assignment, giving Toronto 10 days to either trade or release him, Hillenbrand could probably be acquired for a mid-level prospect.

Competition for the right-handed hitter could drive up the price, though. At least seven teams — the Angels, Dodgers, Milwaukee Brewers, Minnesota Twins, San Francisco Giants, Philadelphia Phillies and San Diego Padres — expressed interest in Hillenbrand Thursday.

"We've had a lot of interest," said Toronto General Manager J.P. Ricciardi, who is looking for starting pitching. "Some I've liked, some I haven't liked. We'd like to get a guy who could help us in 2006 or 2007, but that doesn't have to be the case."

Gibbons was angry and challenged Hillenbrand. "He had his chance...[same quote you've read elsewhere]"
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During [his Jays tenure], sources say, Hillenbrand had become a negative force -- a lot of the time just little stuff that had a cumulative effect -- in the clubhouse. There was concern that he was having an influence on some of the younger players.

"Every time we'd get on the way to doing something, certain guys just wouldn't allow that to happen and he was the leader," a source said. "It got old."
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"Gibby has a couple of buttons you can push," one source said. "Shea pushed both of them."

Hillenbrand also added that he wasn't the only one writing things on the board and that Zaun had scrawled the "paycheck" message. He said he only accepted responsibility when Gibbons asked the room about the messages because he had written the first part.

"It was a joke, but he didn't want to hear it," said Hillenbrand... "I didn't write what they're saying I wrote," he added. "What I wrote down was what I told you. There were other players involved and they were all writing things down and erasing them. It was meant to be funny."

Zaun avoided the media fray on the first night, but decided to tell his side yesterday when the Star asked about Hillenbrand's claim he'd written the "paycheck" message.

"Yeah, I wrote that down as a response to what he wrote," Zaun said. "I wasn't going to say anything until he brought my name up.

"(Gibbons) knows that I wrote the second part down because I went into his office after (the meeting) and told him it was me and why I did it."

Hillenbrand also suggested that Zaun may have been the anonymous player who called him "a cancer'' in a Toronto newspaper yesterday. No other players the Star spoke to yesterday — on or off the record — would go that far and a furious Zaun denied he had given the anonymous account.

"This is a sinking ship" — hell, the Star writes that almost every week and we still are allowed in the clubhouse.

So say the Jays can't find a trade for Hillenbrand that they want to make, and want to send him to the minors. Shea would not accept that--then what happens?

Two men enter; one man leaves.