Opinion

When the Los Angeles Angels decided to perform housecleaning within their scouting department, they fired one of the most respected members of the scouting fraternity in all of baseball. Today, that man has a new job.

Eddie Bane, who was dismissed by the Los Angeles Angels on Sept. 30, was hired today by the Detroit Tigers and will join their pro scouting department.

As the saying goes, if you can’t hit the baseball get the hell off the field was the theme coming into Game 5 tonight in the Bronx.

Instead, it was the New York Yankees who got the job done beating the Texas Rangers 7-2, in a must-win to stay-in the series game.

When the Yankees signed Mark Teixeira couple of years ago in the offseason, they thought they were going to get a guy who could be Mr. October. They thought they would have a leader.

But they've gotten nothing so far out of their petulant star. His injury served as a symbol of what has gone wrong for him in October.

The only good thing Teixeira has done is provide protection for Alex Rodriguez and play good defense. That’s all well and good, but for the money he is being paid, he should be doing better.

It’s almost trite to ask what people initially think about when they ponder the New York Yankees and the postseason.

Some will say a team resting on the ink of a paycheck, while others will say an indelible mark on baseball’s identity.

But when you clear the air on a seemingly endless argument, you’re left with the only topic that is forward focus: The 2010 ALCS.

One of the major themes of the Seattle blogosphere this offseason, at least as it pertains to any potential managerial hiring, is quite simply that we don’t have enough information as fans to form a quantitative opinion of the guy they hired.

The Mariners hired Eric Wedge to be their new manager, and the move was met with a mass consensus of indifference among Mariners fans.

Phillies' skipper Charlie Manuel has played things pretty much straight up over the past two postseasons and has two NL Pennants and a World Series ring to show for it. With his team finding itself down two games to one and the next two contests in AT&T Park, the time is right to veer from previous course. 

San Franciso Giants manager Bruce Bochy adjusted his lineup for Game 3 and it paid large dividends. 

Add another momentum-shifting RBI to Cody Ross' stellar postseason résumé.

A fourth inning single by the Giants right fielder opened up the scoring in Game 3 of the NLCS, giving Matt Cain (7 IP, 0 R) the only run support he would need in the Giants' 3-0 home victory.

San Francisco has found lightning in a bottle with Ross, who was only claimed off waivers by the Giants to block the Padres from acquiring him.

This week, the Seattle Mariners rebuffed fan demands and shunned fan favorite Bobby Valentine in favor of former Cleveland manager Eric Wedge.    

The score was 3-2 in favor of the Yankees. There were two on and two out for one of the most feared hitters in the game today, Josh Hamilton of the Texas Rangers.

The Rangers led the series two games to one, so this was a critical at-bat for the Yankees and their underachieving pitcher A.J. Burnett.

Hamilton hit a pop foul down the left field line—and then it happened.

The time is right; the demand is optimum.

With the apparent need for pitching in the Brew City already amassing to an extraordinary level this offseason, GM Doug Melvin needs to pull the trigger on a premier pitcher worthy of complementing an already explosive offense.