I’ve never heard more unadulterated piffle in my life! AP writer Ronald Blum has the story. Scott Boras said that A-Rod is opting out because he didn’t know what the direction of the team would be since Mariano Rivera, Jorge Posada and Andy Pettitte were uncertain of their status, as well as the managerial limbo in the organization. Really now. Is any self-respecting Yankee-hating fan supposed to believe that nonsense?! If A-Rod really cared about what the others would have done, he had until 10 days after the World Series ended to make his decision. He didn’t even wait for one hour.

First, the Yankees have so much money, it did not matter if Rivera et al. re-signed. The Yanks would have bought people to play those positions. Please note I said BOUGHT not BROUGHT. I do not mean via a trade; I mean via a bank account. Do not try to use that “The Yankees aren’t over-spending anymore.” That line is garbage.

Second, even if the Yankees wanted to re-sign Rivera and Posada, sure they would wait, but at the end of the day, they would have paid top dollar for the duo.

I think this is an attempt by Scott Boras to hoodwink the baseball public and put the blame on the Yankees. This time I will side with the Yankees (even though the above rant may not reflect that view). A-Rod opts out? Then goodbye. Let somebody else pay for you and then we’ll see how well you do in the playoffs Mr. “ofer his last 18 with RISP”. Scott Boras needs to have some guts and tell the public that A-Rod wanted to opt out so he’s opting out. Or really tell the truth and say that I want A-Rod to make more money, so that I make more money

If the Angels go after A-Rod, then Vlad is the odd man out. It will be disrespectful to Vlad. The only real option where star-power is limited and cash is abundant-LA Dodgers. If A-Rod is trying to escape the scrutiny of the NY limelight then he has another thing coming.

It looks as though there’s a new bully in town and they are the Boston Red Sox. The Sox manhandled a Rockies team which found trouble scoring runs. If you’ve watched the Rockies for most of the season as I have, if they don’t score runs, then they can’t do anything else.

That’s not a knock to the team, but apart from the offense and the bullpen, the Rockies would not have made the playoffs. Without either of those two in the postseason, a sweep was bound to happen. Unfortunately, it happened on the biggest stage of all. I said before that I thought the Rockies had JUST ENOUGH pitching to win the series. Well, the starting rotation of old decided to show up for the World Series instead of the rotation that led them to the postseason on a hot-streak.

As it also turned out, I was wrong about the other team making the playoffs. I thought the Indians would have gotten the job done, even before the ALCS started. But, they had to prove me incredibly wrong.  The Indians just could not put Boston away.

Last but not least, for once, could commentators shut up about the non-DH advantage for the NL team in the series? Boston didn’t need a DH in Colorado. In fact, Daisuke showed everybody up with his 2 RBI’s. So please, from now on SHUT UP about the DH affecting the AL team when they play by NL rules. That analysis I would expect from Joe Morgan, but not real commentators and journalists

EDIT:

I started writing this before the NLCS and ALCS Series got underway. You can definitely see that.

Well…first off…I won my first ever fantasy baseball league. It was a pretty good feeling after being the last owner to make the playoffs and take the number 6 seed. I ended up with a below .500 record though. In the end, it was my Braves who made it so. As a fantasy novice, my team was basically made up of the Braves…from Chipper down to Soriano. Too bad they didn’t actually make the playoffs.

Now…the good stuff. The Rockies in the playoffs? The last time the Rockies made the playoffs was in ‘95. The last time the Rockies made the playoffs and the Braves were not in it? Never. Only this year has that phenomenon occurred.

I think the Rockies will win the World Series…and I don’t think that is hot air either! They have just enough pitching…just enough to win. Their offense is off the wall. It’s one thing to have a guy who will hit 50+ HRs and drive in 150+ RBIs a la Alex Rodriguez, but it’s a completely different thing to have three guys who can hit 20+ HRs and drive in 100+ RBIs a la the Rockies. Even their rookie shortstop Tulowitzki had 99 RBIs.

The Rockies have a solid lineup from top to bottom and they’ve peaked at the right time. A great winning streak to end the regular season against quality teams who were fighting for playoff spots only fueled their attitude.

My AL pick for the World Series would be the Cleveland Indians. I’ve been an Indians fan for a few years and I’m glad that they made it with the core group of guys they’ve had for the last couple years or so. A great 1-2 punch in CC and Fausto Carmona. I think their offense is a little lacking though. In a Rockies-Indians matchup it’s Hitting vs Pitching. It would be an interesting series if that happens….and I would pick the Rockies to win.

If the Rockies win, they would have been without homefield advantage in all three series…how odd is that?

The longest serving General Manager in baseball is no more. The former GM is now the Braves’ Team President according to Braves beat reporter Mark Bowman. Longtime assistant Frank Wren assumes the GM responsibilities. Both signed 4-year contracts, meaning that Schuerholz will be with the Braves into the next decade if all works out.

Schuerholz had been GM for about 17 years. That’s a long time. This offseason will be an interesting one for the Braves, more so now than in the past.  I have two questions though:

First:

Will Frank Wren want to make a huge splash to make his mark? I think if Liberty Media increases the payroll now it will be greatly unfair to Schuerholz who had to manoeuvre the payroll every year for the last few years.

Second:

How long has this been in the works? Was it Schuerholz’s decision to come out and talk about the Andruw Jones situation in order to leave a clean slate for Wren? If so, then that’s a classy thing to do. Schuerholz was the one who oversaw (is that a word?) Andruw’s career thus far, and to let Wren be the one to say they weren’t resigning Andruw would have caused fans to question Wren’s plan.

Let’s see what happens in the next four years.

Wow…it’s basically a month since I posted on the site. I’m really sorry about that guys and girls. I’ll try my best to be here till the playoffs are over…and then it’ll be on to my favourite time of the year: winter meetings et al.

I love the winter meeting period and the general offseason in baseball going through the end of the year. During that time there are more rumors than at the trading deadline IMHO. It’s great stuff…and don’t you just love it when some of the rumors turn out to be true? Examples from the last few years: the Tim Hudson trade, the Mark Mulder trade, the LaRoche/Romak for Gonzalez/Lillibridge deal and the Jennings/Asencio for Taveras/Buchholz/Hirsh- lots of trades to tickle our fancy over the past offseasons.

I hope that this offseason is no different. Obviously the talk of the town will be A-Rod, but that’s not going to be a trade. I highly doubt that it turns out to be a trade.