Friday, October 31, 2008 |
Miscellany Four Months Before Spring Training
- Rich Lederer actually coached Chase Utley as a youth (not his regular coach, but in a league All-Star game).
- Newborn twins Cole and Chase Ryan were named after the Phillies' infielders.
- Jeff Kent donated $15,000 to the Yes on 8 campaign. What to say?
- Andruw Jones would like to retire as a Brave. Inshallah.
- Torii Hunter disagrees with Mike Scioscia's call for the squeeze in this year's ALDS Game 4:
“It plays out in the back of your head all the time: ‘Why am I not in the World Series ? Why ?’ The season we had, we should have been there. But the way we played in the first round, we didn’t deserve it.” I burrowed in on the question still haunting Angels fans: Scioscia’s decision to squeeze. There are many who agree that Aybar should have been allowed to hit. But bunting in tight moments, isn’t that the way your team played all year, dink and dunk, drip and drop, popgun hits and speed ?
“No, no,” came a quick reply. “People say that, but that’s not how we played all year. You rarely squeeze. But in the regular season when you do squeeze you can do it because you’ve always got tomorrow.... If you lose you have tomorrow to make up for it. In the playoffs it is different. Totally different.” (Note: Hunter made sure to add that he wasn’t saying this to harpoon Aybar or Scioscia. “In the end, that is just my opinion. I’m not mad at anybody on my team. We have to do what Mike says and if my manager says to squeeze I have to go by what he says. We have to execute. It just didn’t work out.” )
- Mark Teixeira tops this year's Elias ratings, as if we didn't at least suspect that would be true. Francisco Rodriguez ranks sixth among all AL relievers.
- The A's declined Alan Embree's $3M 2009 option.
- Update: The Dodgers named their manager and coaches for AA Chattanooga (John Valentin will be the manager). The Dodgers earlier in the year replaced the Reds as the parent franchise in Chattanooga, ending their relationship with Jacksonville. That latter franchise signed on with the Marlins.
Jon has the complete list of coaches per affiliation.
Update 2: Also from Tony Jackson.
- Update 3: Also via Tony Jackson, three more Dodgers filed for free agency: Nomar Garciaparra, Jason Johnson and Mark Sweeney. "That leaves Jeff Kent and Rafael Furcal and possibly Pablo Ozuna (option) as the only potential free agents yet to file. Forty-man roster is at 32, not counting 60-day DL guys."
- Update 4: Chan Ho Park has also filed for free agency.
Labels: angels, athletics, braves, dodgers, phillies
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