Tongues are wagging as Torre holds his
October 16, 2005The trend toward retreads is silly. But Macha is the first to become a retread by signing right back with his old team.
The Angels are expected to let Bengie Molina leave via free agency. In an extreme case of sibling rivalry, one reason is their faith in Molina's backup, his younger brother Jose.The Angels dangled Bengie Molina in trade at midseason, which shows what they think about Jose, who was born 11 months after Bengie.Paul Konerko's making money by impressing the very teams that might go after him hardest, the Red Sox and Angels.The Yankees' offer of $31.5 million for three years for Hideki Matsui sounds about right.Maybe this is the Vladimir Guerrero the Mets feared they might get when they declined to offer him a solid five-year deal. He looks hurt. He must be. He's making A-Rod look like a playoff hero.Center of attentionExecs are bracing for a players' market this year, as even some perennial penny-pinchers such as the Royals are threatening to spend.The Red Sox envision a four-year, $40-million deal for Johnny Damon. They love the fact he's tough and well-liked by his teammates. However, they won't be shocked if Damon gets more money elsewhere.Detroit looks possible, considering agent Scott Boras' recent successes there (Ivan Rodriguez, Magglio Ordoñez).Damon, Torii Hunter, Juan Pierre and Vernon Wells will be on the Yankees' wish list (off a bad year, Pierre might be more realistic than the others), but one name you probably can cross off now is free agent Brian Giles, who's never shown a bit of interest in playing in New York. For years his no-trade list allowed him to be dealt only to West Coast teams. The A's, who have to like Giles' 119 walks, are a likely destination.Manny, Bosox to meetAfter the Red Sox get Epstein's situation settled, they'll sit down with Manny Ramirez to see how badly - or if - he wants out now.If Ramirez switches agents, as Ken Rosenthal of Foxsports.com reports might happen, and particularly if he goes to Boras, that could enhance the chances of his becoming a Met. Boras facilitated Gary Sheffield's trade to Atlanta, his first choice. Word is out that Ramirez might want to come home (of course, he's been known to change his mind), and it doesn't hurt that Boras and the Mets have a solid relationship now, five years after the A-Rod fiasco.Judging the judgesIf the umpires had used common sense, when they realized not one of them had seen Kelvim Escobar's pitch bounce, A.J. Pierzynski should have been called out. Umpire Doug Eddings gets credit for admitting he isn't perfect. But baseball is sticking to its story that nothing went wrong. Nobody should be buying it.
Source: http://www.newsday.com/
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