Baseball Notes

Willie Randolf is going to manage the Mets. It's about time he gets a shot at Manager, but I sure will miss him. He's been one of my heroes since I was in Jr. High. Good luck Willie. Now at least I can watch a National League team with a little interest. Let's hope for Joe Girardi as a bench coach. He'd be my personal first choice. (But I'm not George, I know.)

Speaking of National League, what kind of name is 'The Washington Nationals'? The people in charge of getting the Expos to move to D.C. had quite a lot of time to think of a cool name and the 'Nationals' is all they could come up with? Lame.

Mel Stottlemyre is probably going to retire. I like Mel, but I really don't think this will hurt the Yanks. They have plenty of options there.They will probably promote Neil Allen from the minors. From what I've read, he's more than capable.

I keep hearing (reading) rumors about the Yankees maybe trading Jorge Posada. Sometimes for Randy Johnson, sometimes for Tim Hudson. First, Jorge is a valuable part of the Yanks pitching staff and I doubt they will part with him. He handles the pitchers very well. That in itself makes him valuable. He's also a switch hitter with power from both sides. Too valuable. I think they do need to rest him more during the regular season. He was obviously worn down during the post season.

The trade for Johnson would be insane. He is a great pitcher, but he's already 41 years old. He'll be done very soon. His stuff could disappear this year. I don't see this happening. I also don't see the A's giving up Hudson. He's just too good. They especially won't do it for just a catcher, so it would probably end up to be too expensive for New York.

Hmm... I just looked in on My Yankee bud Shannon. She has a post along these same lines. What can I say, great Yankee minds think alike. She makes a great point about maybe shipping Giambi back to Oakland in some kind of deal for Hudson, maybe Vasquez involved? Not bad. The Yankees aren't hurting for offense. They made out just fine without Giambi this whole year. Besides, that would give George and Cashman more incentive for bringing back Tino. That would be sweet! Good call Shannon.

Congratulations to Derek on his first Gold Glove award. Weird to think it's only his first. That seems wrong somehow.

Also congrats to Shef on the Silver Slugger award. He sure earned his stripes this year!

Well, I'm just wasting time writing as I think. I guess I should get going, to do something, whatever.

How long till opening day?