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

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.

A few days ago, the Diamondbacks added a little bit of bullpen help when they signed Bob Wickman.

We remember that the Braves designated Wickman for assignment because of his attitude. It’s a strange signing for the Dbacks though, because Wickman doesn’t like to pitch on days when it’s not a save situation. Well, for Arizona he isn’t even the closer so why did he sign?

Wickman probably just wants to pitch. A lot of people around baseball thought he was going to retire but apparently Wickman decided against that.  For the Dbacks, you really can’t have too much pitching can you?

The Astros ownership has finally come to it’s senses. Ken Rosenthal reports that the Astros’ manager and GM were both fired last Monday.

The manager, Phil Garner never impressed me and after looking at his career record as a manager, I can see why. Garner’s record is 985-1,054. That’s more losses than wins. That’s not good for a manager. Granted most of Garner’s losses were accumulated during stints with really bad teams a la the 90’s Brewers and the early 2000 Tigers.

Purpura, the GM on the other hand, made some good and questionable moves during his tenure- just like any GM would. Sometimes being a GM is a crapshoot, but if you’re a GM for a team with a big payroll, it’s a better crapshoot than the rest. Purpura engineered the Clemens and Pettitte signings. More recently, he convinced Carlos Lee to become an Astro.

The bad signings and acquisitions? High up on that list would be the Woody Williams signing and the Jason Jennings acquisition. The Jennings trade leaves a bad taste in the mouths of Astros fans, particularly because a lot was given up for a guy who posted decent numbers in Coors Field. It just goes to show that numbers lie sometimes. Another bad move? Preston Wilson. That’s all I can think of right now.

The Astros are a good team. It’s just that they are in dire need of some starting pitching. They have a decent offense that’s headed by Berkman, Lee and the rookie Pence. They just need to push harder and get some pitching.

In a bit of old news, Ken Rosenthal reports that the Dodgers have claimed Esteban Loaiza off waivers from the A’s. As Rosenthal rightly puts it, no trade was made. The A’s basically gave Loaiza to the Dodgers, with the latter assuming the remainder of Loaiza’s contract.

All of the people who tout Beane as a great GM should remember the Loaiza move for years to come. When Billy Beane first signed Loaiza, I thought it was a bad move for the A’s, and a particularly bad move for a low budget team. A 3-year $21.4 million deal for an average pitcher? Sure Loaiza was coming off a great year, but he played in the NL with the Nationals- a team that didn’t really have any goals, thus it was a no-pressure situation.

Beane redeems himself with this “move” to an extent. Why are the Dodgers accumulating average pitchers? I don’t know. Whoever said you can’t have too much starting pitching was hopefully talking about good pitchers.

In a bit of old news, the Braves designated Bob Wickman for assignment on August 24. This is obviously tied to Wickman’s alleged attitude problems.

Mark Bowman, the Braves beat reporter had the story. I believe that Schuerholz was thinking way ahead in his trade deadline moves when he acquired Octavio Dotel. I think he got Dotel in the event that Wickman would be released or traded because of his unwillingness to take one for the team in non-save situations.

The Cubs acquired outfielder Craig Monroe from the Detroit Tigers for the cliché PTBNL and cash considerations yesterday. It doesn’t hurt to add him especially since the Cubs have the payroll. Detroit designated Monroe for assignment last week and I have a story up about that.

Monroe’s designation by the Tigers was just one of a string of moves they made in order to boost the team. The Cubs add another outfielder but they’ll have a backlog when Alfonso Soriano returns from the DL.

To view Monroe’s Yahoo! Sports MLB stats, click here.

The Mets made a good move late Monday, acquiring the versatile veteran Jeff Conine from the Reds. Conine is more than a suitable replacement for the recently injured Damion Easley. The former suffered a left ankle sprain and his absence no doubt comes as a hit to the Mets since Easley has played 5 positions this year. Yep…5 positions.

ESPN has the story and the deal involves two minor leaguers being sent to the Reds. The Reds get two young players: SS Jose Castro and OF Sean Henry. I think it’s a good deal for both sides. To replace Conine on the roster, the Reds called up former Devil Ray Jorge Cantu.