Baseball Thoughts

Just a couple of things I wanted to comment on concerning baseball's hot stove:

It's looking like Pudge Rodriguez won't be a Marlin next year, barring something big happening in either his or the Marlins' camp in the next seven or so hours.

The article states that he's looking for something like a five year contract at at least $10 million a year. Now, if I'm a team (and it's running 60/40 that I am), I'm liking Pudge's leadership, his skills and his bat, so he may be worth that money in today's market. But I'd have a hard time committing to a 5 year contract with a 32-year-old catcher who's played one full season in the last four due to various injuries.

Of course I'm thinking Cubs....and it makes me smile saying that, looking at Pudge's 2000 season, in which he played 91 games and his offensive numbers were better than any combination of Cubs catchers from any of the last 3 seasons.

But still, if you sign him to that contract, you've got to do it with some manner of team option.

In other news:

The Rangers and Red Sox are talking Manny Ramirez for Alex Rodriguez, in a swap of a huge salary for a mega-huge salary. I bring this up because were it to go through, it would leave the Red Sox with an extra shortstop in one Nomar Garciaparra.....

Meanwhile, the Cubs have a shortstop that hits .228 and strikes out 125 times in a season....

I'm just saying, the Sox want to beat the Yankees worse than anything (and I don't think the Sox are as much about winning it all at this point as they are about beating the Yankees)....I'm sure we've got something they could use.

But ESPN says Nomar would like to play on the west coast, if not in Boston.

Isn't Chicago on the west coast? In that it's in the western part, kinda, of the midwest, and it's on the shores of Lake Michi.....yeah, you're right. Never mind.