Odds and Ends: Aramis, La Russa, A-Rod

A random smattering of links this morning…

• I wrote a postmortem on why the D’Backs beat the Cubs over at The Hardball Times.
• Just a whisper at the moment, but I’m hearing that the Angels could pursue Aramis Ramirez if the Cubs make him available.  They were in hard on him last year when he was briefly a free agent.
• Seems that Joe Torre is done as Yankees manager, but Tony La Russa is not interested.
• Another important date to mark down: November 10th.  That’s when Alex Rodriguez decides whether to opt out of his contract.  Right after the GM meetings.
• The Tigers will stick with Brandon Inge at third base next year, perhaps feeling that his defense justified his .236/.312/.376 line.  There is hope for a rebound, since he slugged .463 the previous year.  Plus Inge is locked in for $6.2MM in ’08, $6.3MM in ’09, and $6.6MM in ’10.
• The Mariners had a $2.7MM option on Chris Reitsma with a $0.7MM buyout and apparently some kind of option on Arthur Rhodes.  Both were declined.  Reitsma, coming off ulnar nerve transposition surgery in ’06, was supposed to be Seattle’s setup man.  He tried to pitch this year but the elbow wasn’t fully healed.  Rhodes had similar problems in ’06 and went under the knife for TJ in April.
• You may have noticed some of the in-post ads are showing as ugly blank white space or "This page cannot be found" errors…please bear with me as I try to get it back to normal.