Congratulations to the Milwaukee Brewers and St. Louis Cardinals, who will meet in the NLCS after each club won a superb Game Five tonight. This is the first all-NL Central NLCS since the Astros topped the Cards in 2005, and this is the first time Milwaukee and St. Louis have met in the postseason since the 1982 World Series. The NLCS begins on Sunday at Miller Park, with Zack Greinke getting the Game One start for the Brewers.
Some more news as we head into the weekend….
- There is plenty of reaction to Andy MacPhail's decision to step down as the Orioles' president of baseball operations. Peter Schmuck of the Baltimore Sun credits MacPhail with leaving the team in better shape than when he arrived, though this wasn't reflected in the win-loss column. MLB.com's Brittany Ghiroli provides a recap of MacPhail's most notable moves in Baltimore. Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com expects the next O's GM to have "a more aggressive approach [in free agency]…for better or worse" as opposed to MacPhail's practice of "letting the market play out."
- The White Sox seem to be looking to 2012 as a rebuilding year, writes MLB.com's Scott Merkin. After a year of seeing how young players develop in the Majors and seeing how rookie manager Robin Ventura adapts to the job, Merkin says Chicago could push for contention in 2013 if all goes well.
- With this youth movement in mind, Merkin thinks A.J. Pierzynski and Paul Konerko could be approached about waiving their no-trade clauses. Both players were somewhat open to the idea, though both clearly stated they wanted to end their careers with the White Sox.
- How did Juan Carlos Oviedo (a.k.a. Leo Nunez) keep his identity hidden for years? Frances Robles of the Miami Herald examines Oviedo's situation and the risks that some Latin American players take to escape poverty and reach the Major Leagues. Oviedo "was able to keep the secret for long, because he was living the dream that every Dominican boy imagines growing up. If he lied and succeeded, then the end justified the means,” said Charles Farrell, head of the Dominican Republic Sports and Education Academy. “No one was going to fault him for that, no one was going to blow his cover."
- Farrell also tells Robles that by his estimate, there are at least 30 current Dominican players using false identities.
- Ron Gardenhire says the Twins aren't likely to sign a top free agent pitcher like C.J. Wilson, reports MLB.com's Rhett Bollinger as part of a mailbag piece. "I think we're all smart enough to figure out that free agents out there, as far as pitchers go, if they're really good they're probably going to require a little bit more money than we're willing to pay them," Gardenhire said. "All the big shooters. And there's going to be a market for the rest of them."
- Mark DeRosa could be a good fit as a versatile bench bat for the Braves, provided he can stay healthy, writes MLB.com's Mark Bowman.
- With the Astros' possible move to the AL West in mind, Fangraphs' Reed MacPhail analyzes how each of this season's National League teams would've fared playing in the AL West.
I would absolutely LOVE to have Rosy back. Always liked him and I do think he’d be good and hopefully end his injury problems.
That story on Nunez/Oviedo am surprised you put on here Mark. That entire saga is enough to puke. Baseball is to blame? This sounds like some agenda currently going on already on a grand scale that is being kicked to the curb by wiser minds.
Yea, its really weird. Did he say there are 30 other players that he knows of with false identitys? This is like the Mitchell report 2.0 but with fake names. Lol
That story on Nunez/Oviedo am surprised you put on here Mark. That entire saga is enough to puke. Baseball is to blame? This sounds like some agenda currently going on already on a grand scale that is being kicked to the curb by wiser minds.
Too bad the Sox don’t really have prospects with a future significant impact.
See everybody gets down on the white sox minor league program and yet every year it seems we are pulling up some quality major leaguers. In just the last few years look at Beckham, Sale, Santos, Morel, Hudson, Richard. Granted none of these guys are superstars but they are all quality big leaguers. I think we have a few guys in the minors that will play an impact next year like De Aza and Reed.
sale was not a product of their system; he was drafted MLB-ready. beckham is a massive underachiever. santos has done well. morel is good but hasn’t done anything to be called a ‘quality big leaguer’
it’s not like the system is completely barren or unproductive, but people are right to call it a weakpoint of the organization
Beckham and Sale are not really products of the Sox farm system. They were with the big club within a year of being drafted. University of Georgia and Florida Atlantic developed those players. Beckham was better the day he arrived than he is now. That does not say much for the farm system and the player development of the Sox.
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I agree most people dont think they have a farm system and I think its because they dont have the sexier names like Trout, Harper or Montero but they have quality players. Hopefully Kenny ” I only draft athletic football players that have a basic understanding/talent of baseball” Williams will be gone before too long.
I would love to bring back DRo. I’ve been wishing we would get him back the past few seasons.
The Brewers and the Cards in the NL and the Tigers and the Rangers in the AL play-offs. another reason Baseball needs a salary cap! I mean year after year these high payroll teams win everythi…. Oh wait…What…? they’re what…? Oh… never mind!
Tigers have a payroll over 100 million. Not in the Yankees/Phillies/Red Sox class yet, but that is still large.
I get the sarcasm and all, but the teams left rank like this in terms of total payroll this year:
Cards: 11th ($109M)
Tigers: 12th ($107M)
Rangers: 14th ($92.1M)
Brewers: 17th ($83.6M)
So it is still mostly the top half of the spenders represented. And while the D’Backs were 23rd and the Rays were 28th, that is sorta balanced out by the facts that the Yanks and Phils were 1st and 2nd. If it were the Padres and Pirates and the Rays and the Royals I would join the party, but the big spenders still go to the playoffs more often than the money ball teams.
Twins need to stop being pussies and spend money.