Some links pertaining to baseball's Eastern divisions for your Sunday evening reading:
- Peter Schmuck of the Baltimore Sun wonders if the reason we've yet to hear anything regarding Thursday's summit involving Orioles owner Peter Angelos and president of baseball operations Andy MacPhail is because Angelos has convinced MacPhail to stay with the club in an advisory capacity. MacPhail will give up his current title, but Schmuck believes Angelos would give him any title he desired short of co-owner to keep him around.
- Steve Melewski of MASNsports believes Buck Showalter should remain the manager of the Orioles, not take over the position of GM. That said however, Showalter needs to work closely with the new GM to honestly evaluate the organization on all levels to turn the franchise around.
- Rays manager Joe Maddon endorses his bench coach Davey Martinez wholeheartedly for the White Sox managerial opening, and told Dave van Dyck of the Chicago Tribune that he'd "do somersaults" if Martinez got the job, despite how difficult he'd be to replace.
- It's probably implied by the five-year deal he's seeking, but Jimmy Rollins won't be offering the Phillies a hometown discount, according to this MLB.com report from Todd Zolecki, Brian McTaggart, and Nate Mink.
- Tyler Kepner of the New York Times writes that Cliff Lee is one of the most popular athletes in recent Philadelphia history, and spoke with GM Ruben Amaro Jr. and the $120MM man himself about his decision to return to the Phillies last offseason.
- The Miami Sun Sentinel's Juan C. Rodriguez questions whether pitching for Ozzie Guillen and the Marlins and getting away from Chicago would make Carlos Zambrano a better citizen. While Zambrano could change in Miami, Rodriguez points out his declining K/9 and increasing WHIP as red flags that need to be considered along with his character.
As long as McPhail’s advisory role is something like McPhail giving advice and no one listening.
Sounds like Ozzie’s tampering with the Cubs/Zambrano. But I don’t think the Cubs would mind this kind of tampering!
Not being from the Baltimore area, I am not familiar with Peter Schmuck. But, I’ve got to say…”What a Schmuck!” or is it “What a peter!” Yeah, I know…I took the easy way out. Poor guy!
That would be the funniest combo in sports! What would happen in that locker room after a bad Zambrano start? I wouldn’t take him for free.
The only significant thing I took away from this article was gurgling as I sipped my drink because of the unfortunate name “Peter Schmuck”
Jimmy Rollins knows he’s not really an upgrade for contending teams, doesn’t he? Teams don’t pay $10MM extra for a one win upgrade….or maybe they do. I’d offer the discount and go with being a 1-team player, that seems like a classy thing to do.