Preview/Prediction

Sometimes, all a manager can do is sit back and shake his head.

Joe Torre was forced to sit and watch a high-caliber team under perform and make too many mistakes in a forgetful 4-1 NLCS series loss to the Philadelphia Phillies.

In their four losses, the Dodgers actually outhit the Phillies 35-34.

Considering that they went 79-15 during the regular season when outhitting an opponent, that’s a pitiful result for the Dodgers.

The student has surpassed the teacher, so to speak.

Thirty-five-year-old Jed Hoyer is to be named the newest general manager for the San Diego Padres, replacing Kevin Towers who has held the position for the past 14 seasons.

The Padres were not expected to make a formal announcement over the weekend. Jeff Moorad, the newest Padres chief executive, did inform Towers that he would not be returning for the 2010 season.

One big factor that one has to accept, is that San Diego is not Boston. You do not have the luxury and the amenities that the Red Sox have.

After Game 6 of the ALCS was postponed due to rain, there was the Yankees veteran left-hander warming up in the outfield. He took sprints on the puddle-filled warning track.

It was as if Game 6 was still going to happen.

Andy Pettitte stood out there in an empty Yankee Stadium contemplating the importance of lifting his team to the World Series just one more time. 

The rain-soaked Pettitte later took a seat in the empty stadium. Yankee Stadium is most definitely not going to be empty for Game 6.

Despite what the media would have you believe, the New York Yankees haven’t won their 40th pennant yet. In fact, after Thursday night’s amazing comeback victory, the Los Angeles Angels are very much alive and kicking in the American League Championship Series. The Yankees may still be the favorite—especially as the series shifts back to Gotham—but the Angels aren’t done yet. They do, however, have an uphill battle in front of them.

Playing at home is a bit like having the serve in tennis: It confers a distinct advantage. As between two evenly matched contestants, the one with the home field/serve will win most of the time.

The Yankees "held serve" for two games at home, and then "broke the serve" of the Angels in the middle of three games played in Anaheim. It is this fact, and not the 3-2 tally, that suggests that the Yankees are the better team.

(If Los Angeles was leading 3-2 by virtue of their homestand, it would be far less clear they were the better team.)

The Aroldis Chapman sweepstakes have already begun. The Yankees, Mets, Rangers, Red Sox, and many other teams have already expressed their interest in the Cuban defector. Chapman has already arrived in the United States after being declared a free-agent and has started talks with Major League teams. 

The next step in this series of looks at roster moves that face the Tigers is to look at the arbitration eligible players who don’t have the option of turning their team down. These are players with three or more years of service time (usually—it’s explained here ) who are still under team control, but get to negotiate their salary through arbitration.

The Minnesota Twins offseason got off to a dubious start this week as two of the team’s perennial All-Stars, Justin Morneau and Joe Nathan, both underwent “cleanup” surgeries.

Luckily both Nathan and Morneau are expected to be ready and healthy for the start of Spring Training after undergoing their respective procedures to remove bone chips.

It was unofficially announced last night that Major League Baseball will only be using umpires with previous World Series experience for the Fall Classic this season.

The move comes as a result of numerous botched calls throughout the first two rounds of the postseason.

I'll admit this is mostly speculation, but there is quite a lot of reasoning behind my ideas. This is just free writing my ideas, so here it is, my 2010 Seattle Mariners offseason plan.

1. Swap Brandon Morrow and JJ Hardy. Morrow is expendable given our pitching depth, and Hardy has a great glove and a very potent bat.

2. Trade Bryan Lahair, Jose Lopez, Jason Vargas, Ryan Langerhans, and Carlos Peguero to the Florida Marlins for Jorge Cantu, Ricky Nolasco, and a B-type prospect.

3. Trade Jorge Cantu and Randy Messanger to the Twins for Nick Blackburn.