Baseball Banter

Now that the Chicago Cubs have hired Lou Piniella as their new manager they will, as expected, go hard after A-Rod. I figured at the end of the year A-Rod would end up with the either the Angels or the Cubs. With the chance to reunite with his old manager Lou I suspect Rodriguez may be willing to waive his no trade clause. It would be for the best. He can't handle playing in New York.

The Oakland A's firing of Ken Macha is ridiculous. He was a strong manager and guided the team to the playoffs twice in four years. Is it his fault GM Billy Beane is not the genius every sports writer who has a hard on for him says he is? Beane's completely out of control Moneyball ego is the problem with the A's. He thinks he knows better than everyone else in baseball what you need to win. Yet the A's can't make it to the World Series. Until Beane figures out that pitching and defense win championships the A's will continue to make the playoffs and be out in the first round. He continues to build his roster around guys who strike out a lot and try hit a lot of home runs - exactly the type of team that can't consistently beat power pitchers in the playoffs. Being able to steal a base, sacrifice bunt and manufacture runs is how to win. But hey, Beane is smarter than everyone else as not winning a single ALCS game in the A's last five playoff appearances clearly demonstrates. Remember this is the same guy who went nuts when staff ace Barry Zito was drafted in the first round because he was a high school pitcher, then threw a chair through the wall when the A's took Jeremy Bonderman, who will be pitching in the World Series for Detroit (who ended up with the Tigers in a trade that sent Cory Lidle to the A's), in the first round.

If any GM deserves the genius label it is probably Tigers GM Dave Dombrowski. He built the Expos into contenders on a nickel and dime budget in Montreal. He built the 1997 championship Marlin team, and now has taken the on death's door Tigers franchise to the World Series. He also turned Detroit back into a baseball town. And with that yougn pitching staff the Tigers are going to be good for a while.

I'm glad Steve Lyons has been fired by Fox. Not because of the comments he made, which I don't think warranted a firing, but because he's an awful color analyst. The only thing worse than listening to an outfielder talk about pitching mechanics and gameplans is a career 5th outfielder who hit lifetime .250. Now if Fox would sack the hopeless Tim McCarver my Octobers would be absolutely perfect.