I suppose the subject of managers has to come up, given all that has happened for the Red Sox and the Cubs this week. Honestly, I don't have much of a view on managers (other than Mike Matheny taking the role of the cutest one), but I will say I feel a bit bad for Bobby Valentine and his role as the new manager of the Red Sox. He's got a hell of a lot of clean up to do. The Red Sox have a starting (and now a closing) pitching problem, in addition to re-signing David Ortiz. I guess that locking up the liquor cabinets in the clubhouse would be the first step! As far as Dale Sveum goes, I don't have much of a feeling one way or the other about him. If the team can re-sign Kerry Wood and try to court Albert Pujols or Prince Fielder, that would be a great start. Recently having signed David DeJesus will help too, I would imagine. Also, I wish Greg Maddux had stayed in Chicago instead of going to the Rangers to help with pitcher development, but that's clearly my own issue. Enough said. Moving on...
It seems that as far as recent signings go, everyone is talking about the Marlins. First, they signed closer Heath Bell to a (I think) healthy $27 million/3 year contract. Basically, they won't need to worry about a closer because they will have one of the best. I could pull a Nelson from The Simpsons and point at the Rangers saying, "Haha!" that they got Mike Adams instead of Bell, but I won't. Plus Adams was the least of the Rangers rotation problems this postseason. I have to say that Bell provided the best moment in this year's All-Star Game when, on his way out to the mound, literally slid into place and flashed a great smile afterward. I'm not sure what it is about closers, but many of them seem to have unique personalities.
Beyond clinching a solid closer, the Marlins seem to be courting C.J. Wilson pretty hard. I've said my words about Wilson and they don't need repeating. Either way, it seems like the Marlins have plenty of vacancies to fill in their line-up. Personally, I would be trying much harder to lure starter Mark Buerhle to my team than Wilson. But that's just me and I don't make those decisions. Obviously.
There's just something about Buerhle that I've always liked and respected, beyond him being an excellent starting pitcher. I hope he finds a place that suits him, wherever that is. I will be curious to see just who the Marlins can sign, given that they've cast their nets out pretty widely so far. It seems safe enough to say that if they can nab Jose Reyes, others are likely to follow.
Quite a few teams seem to be interested in another favorite pitcher of mine, closer Andrew Bailey.
Perhaps because of the A's recent history of adorable pitchers (Haren, Zito, Street, etc.), I've enjoyed watching Bailey pitch. However, if the A's were to lose both Bailey and starting pitcher Gio Gonzalez (which they might), they would have no cuteness left! And where's the fun in that?
In addition to all of the other baseball news of the week, there was a bit of Giants news (sort of). No one seems to want to say for sure whether Brandon Crawford will be the starting shortstop next season, despite a fairly successful run in the Arizona winter league. I can mostly respect that. Or at least I did, until I discovered that the Giants were considering Braves shortstop Alex Gonzalez to be in his place. If the Giants are going to spend money on a decent shortstop, shouldn't he have much better numbers than the player you are putting on the bench? Not in this case, it seems. I don't have any feelings about Alex Gonzalez, really. It's just his numbers (or lack thereof) that bother me. Again, some of this comes down to benching one of the cutest Giants players in a long time and (potentially) replacing him with a player like Gonzalez. Of course, if Gonzalez had the looks of teammate Brian McCann, that would be another story. But most guys aren't Brian McCann. Therein lies the problem. I still think that Crawford's defensive strengths at shortstop make up for his lacking offensive strengths.
I mean, who in their right mind would want to replace that beautiful man? Not this fan! And I know I'm not alone in this. But I digress.
Despite having caught up on quite a lot here, there's still a few things I didn't even mention - Jonathan Braxton signing with the Royals, which makes their starting rotation look even stronger. Or the Cardinals being interested in Jimmy Rollins if Pujols doesn't re-sign. And so it goes.
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