A-Rod Still Interested in Signing With Yankees
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by Niteowl049
Baseball Notebook
A-Rod May Play For Yankees After All
Just when it looked like the chances of Alex Rodriguez returning to the New York Yankees were as slim as Juan Pierre and Reggie Willits hitting 50 homers in a season, he is talking to them again. I am surprised that A-Rod would be interested in playing for Yankees again. The latest reports say that A-Rod may re-sign for $290 million.
After all the speculation that A-Rod may join Joe Torre with the Los Angeles Dodgers or play for Los Angeles Angels, the latest development came as a shock since the Yankees had earlier seemed to be in the mood to let A-Rod go. If he does sign with Yankees, they should be back in playoffs again if their young starters, Phillip Hughes and Ian Kennedy can pitch well in all of 2008 season. It will be interesting to see what effect this latest news has on Mariano Rivera who is non-committal about returning to the Yankees despite a $45 million offer for three years.
The two teams most often mentioned in the A-Rod sweepstakes, the Dodgers and Angels, are now considering other options. They are both interested in acquiring Miguel Cabrera. The Angels are desperate to add another power hitter to their lineup. Vladimir Guerrero is a great player, but the Angels need another offensive threat to go with Guerrero, and Cabrera would definitely fit the bill.
Wedge, Melvin Named Managers of the Year
Eric Wedge was named the AL Manager of the Year and Bob Melvin was named the NL Manager of the Year. Wedge clearly deserved to win the AL award but the NL award could have just as easily gone to Clint Hurdle. The decision was made harder since the Diamondbacks and Rockies both finished 12 games out of first in 2006 so it went down to which team finished first of the two teams so that has to be the main reason for choosing Melvin. The Colorado Rockies had an excellent postseason until encountering the Boston Red Sox, but since postseason performance has no bearing on the voting Melvin was a good choice.
Hurdle didn't even finish second with Charlie Manuel, who guided the Philadelphia Phillies to the NL East championship taking second place in the voting.
Even though Wedge deserved to win the AL Manager of the Year award, it is puzzling that Terry Francona would only receive 13 votes. In fact, Francona has never won the award. Bobby Cox and Tony LaRussa lead active managers winning the award four times each.
Glavine Wants to Pitch for the Braves: Question is Will They Meet His Salary Demands
It is no secret that Tom Glavine wants to pitch for the Atlanta Braves in 2008. He practically begged them to sign him last offseason, but the Braves didn't even make an offer. After the Braves struggled with their fourth and fifth starters last season, they are more open to the possibility of bringing Glavine back to Atlanta.
Glavine declined his option to sign with the New York Mets, but he probably still wants the same money to pitch for the Braves. The Braves are already paying big money to three starters in John Smoltz, Tim Hudson, and Mike Hampton, who made $31 million of the $89 million Braves' payroll in 2007. Hampton who has not pitched since 2005 made $15 million while Hudson made $8.5 million and Smoltz made $8 million in 2007. So how can Glavine demand much without it pushing the Braves payroll dangerously close to $100 million even with the loss of Andruw Jones. Jeff Francoeur only made $427,000 last season, which is only $37,000 over the 2008 minimum salary despite having a 100 RBI season in 2006 so he is due for a big raise since he drove in 100 runs again in 2007.
Glavine does not want to return to New York, where he would have to wear a pPedro Martinez mask on days he starts after his embarrassing debacle on the last day of the season when he gave up seven runs in a third of an inning. Glavine was 11th on the Mets pitching staff in ERA with a 4.45 mark. Glavine could be expendable now that Pedro is healthy and he led all Mets pitchers that pitched more than one inning with his 2.57 ERA.
Glavine gave up 219 hits in 200 innings while John Maine gave up 168 hits in 191 innings, Oliver Perez gave up 153 hits in 177 innings, Orlando Hernandez gave up only 109 hits in 147 innings. Glavine allowed hitters to hit .281 against him while Hernandez only allowed hitters to hit .206 against him. So even if the Braves do sign Glavine it is questionable whether he can really help the team when looking at his 2007 statistics.
Signing Glavine would give them a veteran presence in the starting rotation but if he can't keep from having three months like he did in the 2007 season in which he had an ERA over 5.00 and culminating in September with a 6.10 ERA the Braves may wish they had not signed him.
