ST. PETERSBURG - Baseball's home-run king is without a home, but that may change in the near future.
The Tampa Bay Rays said Monday that they have had some internal discussions about possibly going after the controversial Barry Bonds, and some players had a chance to react to the news Tuesday.
The responses to Bonds' potential arrival in Tampa Bay were mixed.
Pitcher David Price, the No. 1 selection in the 2007 MLB Entry Draft out of Vanderbilt, seemed excited about the idea of playing alongside Bonds.
"It would be great," the 22-year-old said. "I've been watching that guy play for 15, 20 years. He's been unbelievable."
Price first heard the rumors by reading a headline Tuesday morning and said he did not know much about the situation.
Other players said they would be happy to have Bonds if he did not disrupt team chemistry.
"As players, we wouldn't have a problem with it," first baseman Eric Hinske said. "That's out of our hands, that's upper management, so we just try to worry about who we have here now and just go about our business."
Hinske said Bonds' presence would certainly be felt on the field.
"(He would impact the team) in a big way," Hinske said. "He's Barry Bonds."
Veteran catcher Mike DiFelice, now in his second stint with the Rays organization, seemed a little more uneasy about playing alongside Bonds. He chewed a cup as he answered questions about team chemistry.
"To have him in the lineup, I don't think anybody would not like it," DiFelice said. "A big part of spring training is the chemistry that you have. Sometimes that chemistry doesn't necessarily have to have the best players. When you've got 25 guys going after each other, having their back and support and a relationship, that's going to get you extra wins.
"Hopefully Barry, if he does join our team, he'll be a part of that. If it's going to be a negative thing to have a player of his ability, then I'm not really that big of a fan of it."
Dan Feinstein, Tampa Bay's director of baseball operations, would not discuss the issue.
"We do not comment on players outside of our organization," Feinstein said. "We'll just leave it at that."
Fans poured into the Rays' spring-training facility Tuesday to watch the team play an intrasquad scrimmage, but they were also abuzz with the possibility of Bonds joining the team.
Anthony Janicki, 20, has been a season-ticket holder since the first season Tampa Bay played baseball in 1998. He bought new gear when the Rays changed their name and uniforms in the off-season, and he was wearing a Rays hat and Carlos Peña jersey on Tuesday.
He said he would not want Bonds playing in Tampa.
"It could be too much of a distraction, so probably no," Janicki said.
Bonds is the all-time leading home-run hitter in American baseball history with 762 round-trippers. He broke Henry Aaron's record of 755 home runs last season while taking heat for his possible use of performance-enhancing drugs.
Japan's Sadaharu Oh is the worldwide leader in home runs with 868.
