Williams considered Konerko for Sox manager

Sounds a little unbelievable, right? Well, it wasn’t too far out there for White Sox general manager Ken Williams to briefly consider the idea of Konerko as a replacement for Ozzie Guillen.

“The report is not false,” said Williams with a wry smile, confirming a story originally coming from the New York Daily News on Konerko’s immediate managerial future. “It was considered long enough for me to realize that Paul is a very cerebral person, and he would probably drive himself nuts right now ...

Buckley: Theo Epstein on brink of joining Cubs

Theonooooooooooooooooo!

Two baseball sources have confirmed that Theo Epstein is on the cusp of leaving his job as general manager of the Red Sox to accept a position with the Chicago Cubs that is believed to include powers greater than he has in Boston, with an announcement expected to be made “within the next 24 to 48 hours.”

The hangup in the negotiations has been twofold. One of them is that Red Sox ownership was still hoping to have Epstein remain with the team. The other is ...

Sources: Orioles set GM candidates

Peter Brand Angelos.

The Orioles have assembled a list of six baseball executives as candidates to succeed Andy MacPhail as the team’s next general manager, sources told ESPN The Magazine senior baseball writer Buster Olney.

The candidates include current San Diego Padres vice president of baseball operations Josh Byrnes, who was formerly GM of the Arizona Diamondbacks, and former Houston Astros GM Gerry Hunsicker, who is currently the Tampa Bay Rays’ senior vice president of baseball ...

Deitsch: Terry Francona shines for Fox

My goodness, a Fox analyst who isn’t detestable?

Terry Francona woke up on Tuesday morning to something rare in baseball broadcasting circles: Glowing reviews from critics and viewers. TERRY FRANCONA HAS STAR TV POTENTIAL, proclaimed Newsday. Suggested New York Times sports media reporter Richard Sandomir: “Idea: keep Francona in booth when [Tim] McCarver returns for Game 3. Rare to have a mgr and a catcher in booth. “Yahoo! baseball writer Jeff Passan injected history. “Is Terry Francona ...

Posnanski: The Worst Contracts In Baseball

After that, I think of the guys we saw in the playoffs. There’s nothing especially surprising left to say about Alex Rodriguez. He’s 36 years old, and he played a lot of innings at shortstop, and his body’s beat up, and there’s no compelling reason to believe he can ever play 150 games in a season, much less be a dominant player. And he has SIX YEARS left on that deal. The thing about sports it that when a player starts regressing, the way A-Rod did two or three years ago, people ...

To the delight of the Mets owners and everyone like them, Judge Rakoff doesn’t like what

Irving Picard is selling.....Megdal, with the Rakoff walk-off.

And as the appeal makes clear, this is a process that will be multiplied many times over, in the vast number of Picard cases currently pending. So getting direction from the Second Circuit will eliminate a ton of potential litigation.

But Rakoff seems to assign blame on Picard for the sheer volume of litigation arising out of this complicated matter. Never mind that in his role as trustee, Picard would actually be derelict in his ...

Baseball Prospectus | BP Unfiltered: Internet Baseball Awards Are Here

Balloting concludes Friday, October 21 at 11:00PM PST.

HBT/Gleeman:  Jimmy Rollins wants to re-sign with the Phillies

… as long as they give him a five-year contract! 

During a press conference this morning Rollins made it clear that he wants to re-sign with the Phillies and spend his entire career in Philadelphia, but “I’m looking to get five years … if it’s going to be shorter, there’d have to be a fifth-year option, my option.”

Four years with a fifth-year player option is basically just five years anyway.

He turns 33 next month; good luck with that!

Dodgers change logo, nobody notices

If you didn’t catch this change don’t feel bad, nobody did. Nobody noticed. Maybe nobody cared…..

The major minor-changes involve:

the leading script into the ‘o’ of ‘Dodgers’, it’s there in 2010, it’s gone in 2012.
the ‘D’ in ‘Dodgers’ also had a slight change, specifically the curl in the 9-o’clock region of the logo, it’s much shorter in the 2012 edition.
the flight lines of the baseball have been corrected.

Tommy Lasorda must be rolling over in his baked ...

NJIT math professor calls Rangers and Brewers solid favorites for championships

Wanna see something majestic? Try the Bukiet list…

The Major League Baseball Division Series is underway and NJIT math professor Bruce Bukiet has once again analyzed the probability of each team advancing to the World Series. “Now that the Texas Rangers have won the opening game against the Detroit Tigers, the probability of this team winning the American League Pennant has jumped from 64 to 76 percent,” he said. “In the National League, the Milwaukee Brewers have upped their chances of ...

SNL: Tinyballs

SNL with another timely and hilarious parody….NOT!

Saturday Night Live isn’t always on the cutting edge of comedy and “baseball = steroids” isn’t the most creative joke, but I couldn’t help but enjoy this Moneyball parody from Saturday’s show. It features exaggerated muscle suits, Jay Pharoah eating a baseball and a wistful young daughter so wistful she can’t help but Wist when she hears the A’s are cheating. The only real downside is Ben Stiller still thinking “nervous, ...

Grantland: Jazayerli: Can Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder Carry the Brewers to the World Series?

Rany on the royal Brewers.

As consistently excellent as Braun and Fielder have been since joining the Brewers, this was probably their best year as a duo. Braun hit .332/.397/.597, leading the NL in slugging while setting a career high in walks (58) and a career low in strikeouts (93). He even stole 33 bases to go along with his 33 homers, becoming just the second 30/30 player in Brewers history. Fielder hit .299/.415/.566 with 38 homers without missing a single game. (In addition to their ...

Backman could leave Mets for Nationals

Wally Backman, a candidate for the Mets’ managerial opening last offseason, could soon leave the organization, according to a team source.

The fiery Backman, 52, is considering the possibility of joining Davey Johnson’s coaching staff with the Nationals—likely as the third-base coach. The Nationals have not yet officially announced Johnson will return next season, but that is considered a formality.

The source said 68-year-old Johnson may look to groom Backman for the managerial job, much in ...

ALCS GAME 3 CHATTER

Rangers (Lewis) vs. Tigers (Fister). 8:05. FOX.

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 10-11-2011

As the World’s Series approaches, Giants catcher Chief Meyers does some 1911-style trash talkin’:

Thomas and Lapp of the Athletics must find some way to stop such fast men as Devore, Doyle, Murray, Merkle, Snodgrass and Herzog, who have stolen 50 or more bases each, against the strongest catchers in the National league.
...

I am unable to say what Thomas and others on Mack’s team can do, as they have never faced such a fast baserunning team as we have.

Philadelphia catcher Ira Thomas, however, ...

FanGraphs: Carruth: Ron Hunt Got Hit Like Nobody Else

In contrast, consider Ron Hunt. A second baseman during the expansion era, Hunt made a couple All Star games but otherwise made little dent in baseball history, except in being hit by pitches. Ron Hunt was hit 50 times in 1971, which destroyed the previous record by a whopping 19. That number is made more interesting to me by Hunt’s 58 walks and his 41 strikeouts. He was hit more often than he struck out! That’s an incredibly rare, if not, unprecedented achievement over a full season. ...

Bud Norris: Does Brian Wilson Play Baseball or Work in Hollywood?

Think outside the fun.

The nation’s obsession with Brian Wilson is something I will never understand. He’s funny, he’s weird, and he’s quirky, but people act like he’s the first dude in sports to ever wear a beard. It’s simply not true. I have hard evidence saying that he’s the second. Anyway, he stars in a Taco Bell ad that has been playing quite a bit lately.

I don’t really understand the ad, and apparently I’m not the only one who’s unimpressed. Astros pitcher Bud ...

Plunkett: Moreno is not being impulsive, just hoping for a change

Impulse! The house that Moreno built.

Speaking publicly for the first time since dismissing his GM in the first of a handful of moves that promise to reshape the front office, Angels owner Arte Moreno said “it’s not a purge” or a knee-jerk reaction to a second consecutive year of missing out on the playoffs and losing money.

“I just felt we weren’t going in the direction we needed to go in and we needed a change,” Moreno said, emphasizing that he had come to that realization “over a period of ...

T.J. SIMERS Frank McCourt won’t own up to his responsibilities

He pulled his office out of the stadium. He talked to his rookie manager twice this season. He stopped sitting in his field box adjacent to the dugout, no doubt hearing a thing or two from the fans — the truth hurting.

But you know what? Donald Sterling sits at center court, almost everyone in the building sitting behind him with the chance to tell him what they think.

Sterling’s record as owner is abysmal, and although he should top the list of owners in hiding, he puts his picture in the ...

MLB.com: Feast Mode: Pujols’ huge night evens NLCS

Albert Pujols led an all-out assault on Shaun Marcum and a parade of relievers as the Cards handed Milwaukee its worst home loss of 2011, throttling the Brewers by a 12-3 score Monday night in Game 2 of the National League Championship Series. The game was over for all practical purposes in the middle of the seventh following the Cards’ fourth multi-run inning.
...
Pujols hammered a two-run homer to left in the first, a two-run double to center in the third and an RBI double to right-center in ...

Selig says expanded playoffs unlikely in 2012

I am not a Treasurer of Pennsylvania crook!

Postseason expansion is most likely going to baseball, but not as soon as next season, or at leas that’s the impression commissioner Bud Selig gave when he spoke to reporters before Game 2 of the National League Championship Series.

“I don’t know yet,” Selig said when asked if an expanded postseason could come in 2012. “I think that might be a little optimistic, but I don’t know yet.”

As for the idea of two more wild card teams, hearing Selig ...

MLB.com: Full Nelson: Cruz belts walk-off slam in 11th

Nelson Cruz, batting with no outs, hit a grand slam in the bottom of the 11th inning to give the Rangers a dramatic 7-3 victory over the Tigers in Game 2 of the American League Championship Series. It was the first walk-off grand slam in postseason history.

The victory, before 51,227 at the Ballpark in Arlington on Monday, put the Rangers up 2-0 in the ALCS with Game 3 scheduled for Tuesday night at Comerica Park in Detroit.
...
Mike Adams was the winning pitcher as five Rangers relievers ...

Jocketty: Votto won’t be traded

...unless Milt Pappas has a grandson or something.

Walt Jocketty angrily denied a report by ESPN’s Buster Olney that the Reds are listening to trade offers on Joey Votto.

“I’m tired of talking about it,” he said. “We’re not shopping him. We’re not entertaining offers. It’s frustrating. He’s one of the best players in the game. Why would we trade him? I wish people would stop writing about it.”

Votto name comes up in media speculation — yours truly is guilty — because ...

Griffin: Jays president Paul Beeston unplugged

“farreachinginterview” ain’t the word!

RG: The fact of Doc was that he wanted to go somewhere else and…

PB: Doc wanted to go. Doc made it quite clear that that he was not signing here at the end of the 2010 season.

RG: So to believe that if you had Halladay and Marcum and Romero and those guys that’s not based on reality.

PB: That’s not based on reality. Doc made it quite clear that he wasn’t going to be around at the end of the 2010 season so he would not have been here. Certainly we ...

Topkin: Tampa Bay Rays owner Stuart Sternberg writes e-mail to season ticket holders

Harrumph…might as well send them to the dead letter e-mail office.

Tampa Bay Rays principal owner Stuart Sternberg clarified in a letter e-mailed to season-ticket holders that his recent comments about the “precarious” future of the franchise were not a complaint nor meant to sound ungrateful about the support they do have, but the reality of their situation. Also, he provided assurance that the organization remains committed to finding a solution to the region-wide issue.

“It would be easy ...

Howard:  CC 2011 = A-Rod 2007

CC has a horrible body.  A-Rod COULD sell jeans.  Neither should be signed to superstar money in his late ‘30s

Jest.com: Too Much Moneyball

Forget Brad Pitt.  This is 2011’s best actor.

Keefe & Murti: Looking Back And Forward At The Yankees

This will be the fourth day that there hasn’t been a baseball I have cared to watch and it’s just weird. The Yankees went out in five games over the course of seven days and now I have to wait until next spring to watch baseball again.

As I always say at my local Interlocking bar (before getting tossed out on my keisler)...“Yankee fans are not baseball fans”

Yes, the Tigers do deserve some credit, but there is more blame to go around, and a lot of that blame goes to A-Rod and the Goof ...

Keeping Stadium Neighborhoods Alive in the Off-Season

There’s only one thing more depressing come October than the end of baseball season: the sight of an empty ballpark. All those vacant seats, the hot-dog concessions closed, the field empty, and the gates padlocked until the following spring.

It’s a bitter scene for baseball lovers. But it’s an economic conundrum for cities, too.

“A large percentage of most facilities built in the last 25 years have been financed with public money,” says Patrick Rishe, an associate professor of economics ...

McQuade: Fire Charlie Manuel…And Ryan Howard and Chase Utley and the Phanatic.

Dan McQuade is Lone Wolf McQuade. Charlie Manuel is the man that got in his way! Or maybe not…

While they’re at it, fire first base coach Sam Perlozzo and third base coach Juan Samuel; the Phillies had a terrible season running the bases. Fire hitting coach Greg Gross (seven career home runs when a player) and pitching coach Rich Dubee (a career minor-leaguer). Fire Mick Billmeyer and find somebody who can properly steal signals without getting caught.

Ryan Howard tore his Achilles on the ...