October 2007 Archives

The stage is set for Joe Torre to take over the helm in Los Angeles now that Grady Little has stepped aside for mysterious "personal reasons." Torre could be in Nasty Blue by the end of the week, and with...
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The Tigers and Braves just consummated the first trade of the off-season. Edgar Renteria goes to Detroit for two prospects, which means two shortstops we've mentioned as possible replacements for Omar Vizquel -- Renteria and the 25-year-old Yuniel Escobar, who...
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Please welcome La Malita, aka Monkeypants, aka Schnoodlehead. Born Saturday Oct 20 at 6.44 am. Healthy, happy, and very hungry. Mr. and Mrs. Malo are a bit busy these days, so forgive the sporadic postings. I'll post a picture or...
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One of the best players in the ALCS right now is a cheater. Not suspected, alleged, or theorized. He was caught and served a suspension. His name is Rafael Betancourt, and he is Cleveland’s best relief pitcher — arguably their...
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Breaking news: The Yankees offered Joe Torre a one-year contract and he rejected it. New York will have a new manager in 2008. The contract offered $5 million — a pay cut — and incentives plus a 2009 option depending on how...
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We’re all chomping at the bit for the Giants to do things that determine the makeup of next year’s team and beyond. Trades. Free agent pickups. Decisions on their own free agents. (Just put down the Feliz, walk slowly away,...
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Rockies in the World Series. National League Champion Colorado Rockies. The Rockies win the pennant! The Rockies win the pennant! Sorry, I can’t get with it. First, I don’t believe in blind league pride. Sure, I believe in pitchers who...
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Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports has the following note buried in one of his weekend columns: The Braves' front-office shakeup is expected to prompt the departure of scouting director Roy Clark, who could become Brian Sabean's No. 2 man with...
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As the D-Backs and Rockies battle to get to the World Series, the feel-good story line says congratulate these teams, for they have built themselves by saving money and rolling their own. America loves a bootstrap story: young, scrappy, energetic, homegrown. The Chron...
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Braves GM John Schuerholz is stepping down but staying with the team, according to this report. He has built, re-built, signed successful free agents, retained popular stars at fairly reasonable rates, made savvy trades, developed a rich farm system, and...
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Could this be the end of Joe Torre’s reign in New York? George Steinbrenner’s comments this weekend hinted as much, and now the voracious Gotham press is floating the names of possible successors. If Tony LaRussa doesn’t return to St....
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As you all know by now, the Cinderella Diamondbacks have no right to be playing for the N.L. pennant because they were outscored during the regular season. Their unlikely success is mainly due to a Cy Young winner at the...
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The Rockies and D-Backs are on the verge of playing for the N.L. Championship. Just a fluke, or a preview of the horrible neck-ache the Giants will have the next few years from looking up at the competition? Question: Which...
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After reading this post, I started writing about how Pedro Feliz’s defense might make up for his abysmal offense, but I just can’t do it. If he were batting ninth and the rest of the lineup was filled with the...
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I don’t put much stock in the public pronouncements of Brian Sabean. The man is a master, deliberate or not, of the hedged obfuscatory gobbledygook. He makes Bill Clinton’s “depends on what the meaning of ‘Is’ is” sound like a...
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Why is the one-game “play-in” to determine the wild card or division winner considered a regular season game and not the beginning of the playoffs? Before you brush it off as a semantic difference, consider that the Rox and Pods were able...
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* I don’t really care who wins. I just want every series to go to a final game and the Yankees not to win it all. Everything else, I’m equivocal. Yankees-Anyone in the Series would be fun. Cinderella Rockies? Fine. A-Rod...
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