Earlier today, Giants outfielder Melky Cabrera announced that he is removing his name from consideration for the National League batting title in the wake of his suspension. "I have no wish to win an award that would be tainted. I believe it would be far better for someone more deserving to win…I am grateful that the Players Association and MLB were able to honor my request by suspending the rule for this season. I know that changing the rules mid-season can present problems, and I thank the Players Association and MLB for finding a way to get this done." More from around baseball as Friday turns into Saturday..
- Nationals General Manager Mike Rizzo told Adam LaRoche and his agent they will talk about his future shortly after the playoffs, writes MLB.com's Bill Ladson. LaRoche has a $10MM option on his contract for next season but the veteran has made it clear that he hopes to remain in Washington.
- Danny Knobler of CBSSports.com tweets that some people in baseball believe that Dan Radison will be the Astros' next manager. Former catcher Brad Ausmus was said to be in the running for the job but he removed his name from consideration earlier this evening.
- Astros General Manager Jeff Luhnow confirmed that he has spoken with nine potential candidates for the managerial vacancy and has trimmed down the list somewhat, write Brian McTaggart and Clark Goble of MLB.com. However, Luhnow wouldn't say how many candidates remain in consideration.
- Athletics owner Lew Wolff believes his team's fight for a new ballpark will be settled within the next year, writes Danny Knobler of CBSSports.com. Wolff went on to say that he isn't interested in battling things out with the Giants in a courtroom.
Sell the team, A’s fans hate you and your partners!
Preach!
Anyone else think Wolff is basically signaling a surrender? Selig isn’t going to side with the A’s, his official decision is likely to be something where nothing happens and thus the A’s will stay in perpetual limbo.
Melky may have cheated, but he still seems like a reasonably guy. Most players would probably take the title.
PR stunt..
I think so too.
It’s ridiculous that he would even be up for the title-he’s suspended. He did not have the qualifying number of at bats. Just because they can add the missing number at bats and still award him the title doesn’t mean they should.
Just more proof that the players, agents and union run MLB….not the Commissioner, etc. To actually have MLB practically push the title towards Cabrera is preposterous.
Well, it’s a perfectly reasonably rule, but I agree that he shouldn’t have won the title anyway
Even still. I respect him for doing it.
The guy tried to set up a fake website in order to clear his name when he was already guilty. This isn’t humility, this is Cabrera pretending to be humble to get more out of his next contract. He might as well publicly say “Gee, I may have been cheating, but at least I can say I wish I hadn’t been caught.”
No he wouldn’t say that he would probably say “Thank you to the fans.”
i wonder if melky bows out if his teammate wasn’t in the running for the batting title
The rule change should be permanent. Why should a cheater that has been caught cheating ever benefit?
Imagine if Melky had season ending surgery instead of being suspended for steroids. The rule should still be in place for situations like that.
He still wouldn’t be allowed, as it should have been and never has been.before.
Cabrera is lucky the penalties for PED’s are so weak and MLB has such a weak kneed commissioner, or he would probably be looking at stiffer penalties, not even counting the out and out fraud purported with the web site he and his agents were involved with trying to cover it all up.
Both parties should get at LEAST a 1 year ban with weak Selig in office.
Idk, I think the penalties in place are pretty good. There are probably more nuances to the rules that need to be changed, such as automatically disqualifying a player from awards if he is caught using steroids during the season. A 50 game suspension without pay is pretty steep, and it just becomes more costly the higher the salary. And just from what I remember reading about the fiasco, his agents weren’t a part of the attempted cover-up, but a close friend of his he spent his time training with, one that “helped” turn his career around in Kansas City.
I think we need to thank the Melk Man for reveiling the fact that these rules can be suspended and now MLB has no excuse not to do it for someone else that gets caught in the future.
You said that the past few years Wolff. It’s getting old.
Wolff is just a greedy developer and moving to San Jose is just a leverage for his other interests.