Hot Stove Beginnings

Joe Torre made the only move that made sense for him. Pinella and Guillen are, at least for the moment, entrenched with the two Chicago teams. Mike Scioscia isn't going anywhere. Tony LaRussa reupped with the Cardinals. And the Giants are going to be horrific next year. The Dodgers have more than enough talent to win the NL West next year, and, sadly, it just isn't that hard to get to represent the National League in the World Series these days. And as the Cards proved in 2006, once you get to the Series, anything can happen. Although as the 2004 Red Sox, 2005 White Sox, the 2006 Tigers and 2007 Red Sox all proved, your pitching staff will have to channel the Keystone Kops in the field to allow a National League team to win. The Rockies might not have been swept by all of them, but I don't see Colorado having beaten the Indians, Angels, Yankees or Tigers if any of them had found their way to the Fall Classic. Anyway, Joe made the right move, as at 67 he probably didn't need to sit out a year. If he still wanted to manage, no need to raise questions about distance from the game as he approaches 70.
Newsflash time: Scott Boras is bottom-feeding scum, and loves it. And Alex Rodriguez is worse for allowing his agent to behave in such a manner. First, it's the middle of Game 4 announcement of the opt-out. The subsequent apology said, in essence, "Gee, was the World Series going on? I didn't realize that. So, so sorry!" Right. Then, the story gets out that the Yankees actually wanted to give this loser a five year extension at $30 million per. That $150 million, combined with the $81 still owed him totals in excess of $230 million. And Boras, carrying pure brass in his jockeys, told them that they were $120 million short of even having the conversation. I didn't think it was possible to make Mr. May-through-September any more despicable, but I was wrong! Oh, so wrong! How great would it be if the Yankees kept their word and refused to talk further with Team ARod, and every other MLB owner rented the integrity to avoid him at those prices. Yeah, I know some knucklehead like Artie Moreno will ask how high when Boras says jump, but the fantasy is nice. I do believe that the Red Sox have wised up since the attempt to send Manny to the Rangers for Rodriguez a few years ago.
The Sox need to resign Mikey Lowell, although the Yankees will make that harder if they really are done with Alex.