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Week In Review: 9/12/10 - 9/18/10

Sundays might mean hours upon hours of football for most sports fans, but around here it means it's time to look back at the past seven days on MLBTR. Here we go:

• We saw two contending teams acquire players this week, despite the fact that they won't be eligible for the postseason roster. The Reds acquired Willie Bloomquist for a player to be named later, and the Rockies did the same with Octavio Dotel.
• Enerio Del Rosario, who was designated for assignment by the Reds in order to make room for Bloomquist, was later acquired by the Astros for cash.
• Joe Torre announced this week that he'll step down as the manager of the Dodgers following this season. He'll be replaced by hitting coach Don Mattingly, whose contract will last for the next three seasons. Here's some additional media reactions to Torre's announcement.
• Oakland signed Akinori Iwamura following his release from the Pirates. He'll look to rebuild a little bit of the value he lost in Pittsburgh this season.
• Aramis Ramirez told reporters that he's staying in Chicago for 2011. No surprise there, as he'd be unable to match the $14.6MM his player option guarantees him.
• And in case you'd forgotten, Ramirez's teammate, Carlos Zambrano, is still planning on retiring once he finishes out his current contract. Ryan Franklin, on the other hand, is reconsidering a similar claim.
• On the other side of Chicago, it was reported that Kenny Williams and the White Sox would love to keep Paul Konerko around, but aren't sure they'll have the payroll available to retain the MVP candidate.
• Darren Oliver's 2011 option vested this week. He'll earn $3.25MM next season.
• This year's #6 overall pick and new free agent, Barret Loux, threw for the Astros and approximately 15 other teams this week. He's not in a rush to find a place to sign, but I doubt he'll have much trouble finding a taker.
• In one of the more unfortunate stories we've seen in awhile, Jason LaRue was forced to retire following a concussion suffered in a brawl between the Reds and Cardinals earlier this year. Best of luck in life after baseball, Jason.
• No surprise to hear that the Brewers won't pick up their half of Doug Davis' mutual option for 2011. Davis was torched through eight starts this season and will likely be looking at a significant pay cut next season.
• There was a lot of talk after Colby Rasmus reportedly requested a trade (though he later denied it), but Cardinals GM John Mozeliak did his part to silence the speculation this week by concretely saying that Rasmus will not be traded. Mozeliak also noted that the Cardinals could increase payroll over the next few years.
• We learned that 29-year-old Japanese righty Hisashi Iwakuma wants to join MLB. He'll be eligible for international free agency following 2011, but his team may want to cash in on  him sooner than that.
• Also, be sure to check out our Transactions page to keep up with all of the minor moves that happen throughout each and every week.

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