Let's round up some links left over from Day Two of the GM meetings in Milwaukee….
- David Kaplan of CSNChicago reports that Kerry Wood is likely to return to the Cubs rather than retire, and may even sign a multiyear deal.
- Echoing Larry Lucchino's sentiment from earlier this evening, GM Ben Cherington told reporters, including ESPNBoston's Gordon Edes (Twitter link), that there's "an expectation" the Red Sox will expand their managerial search. Dale Sveum, the only candidate the Sox have interviewed twice, has reportedly been offered the Cubs' position.
- The Angels promoted Justin Hollander, previously the player development and scouting assistant, to director of baseball operations, according to Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times.
- Brad Lidge's agent, Rex Gary, declined to comment to Scott Lauber of the Boston Herald about which clubs had contacted him about the right-hander. However, Gary continues to say his client is open to any role: "He's listening. We’ll listen to whatever clubs want to outline. He certainly can close, but he's open to any other circumstances that presents an opportunity for him to succeed."
- The Angels are among the clubs who seem lukewarm about the idea of the Astros' move to the AL West, writes DiGiovanna.
Makes sense to have Wood back. Can’t think of better set up guys that are available for the price… He’s got plenty of gas left on his fastball & knows how to pitch. I like it.
Considering Wood’s age, ability, and willingness to give the Cubs a pretty decent hometown discount, I could see him getting the Wakefield treatment for as long as he’s effective.
What, are the Angels threatened by the mighty Astros?
Adding another team to their division means more travel and a quick check on Google Maps tells me that Anaheim to Houston would make for a longer trek for them than any other park currently in their division.
Additionally, currently the Angels have the advantage of only having to compete with three other teams for a playoff spot. Bringing in the Astros eliminates that.
All told, the Angels complaining about this makes them look rather petty considering the potential reasons to complain.
Yeah, Astros v Angels games are going to be a sure sellout at the big A. Never mind the fact that interleague games will probably double.
Yeah, Angels – Astros, zzzzzzz. Oh, wait, the AL West would then have every team that begins with ‘A’.
I’ll guess that the number of interleague games stays the same. At a minimum, mlb needs 162 interleague games. That’s 11 per team. Then guessing two weekends of only interleague games, each team gets ~6 more. 17 is close to what each team has now.
Adding the Astros to their division should mean LESS travel. They still have to play 162 games whether the Astros are in the division or not and this means not having to fill their final away games up with teams from the central and east divisions that are even farther away than Houston is.
It will mean less games against Oakland and Seattle… The only two AL teams closer than Texas.
However if the expanded interleague gives them more access to San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Arizona and Colorado, it may indeed help the travel situation.
“wonders if this will lead to the NL eventually adopting the DH”
This would be a dark day in baseball.
I’d prefer it be just an AL thing. Maybe playing AL rules in NL parks, or NL rules in AL parks during interleague would be fun though.
That just becomes awkward when building a roster though. Then you are signing a DH but not playing him a good amount of games, especially if your an NL team. If we are going full time inter league I would think they have to normalize the two and i don’t see anyway the Union would give up the DH due to job loss, there would be multi million dollar DHs being replaced by an extra middle reliever at league minimum.
The post dispatch article is from June…
Hurray for Wood!!! Welcome back buddy!!
3 years $12MM sounds about right for woody, maybe 15 if they really want to make a statement about how much they value him as a part of the organization for the future.
I still think Kid K is gonna end up like Wakefield…Here is a 3M one year deal..every year until you feel like leaving..
Kerry has said time and time again it isn’t about the money, its about the Family