The Old Hot Stove

Jim Leyland and Joe Girardi took home manager of the year honors yesterday. Leyland's win was somewhat less of a surprise than Girardi's. To be fair, though, Girardi finishing at the top of the voting wasn't all that surprising either. The reason I bring it up is because it gives me a chance to rail on the Marlin's evil owner Wayne Huizenga... er... John Henry... er... Jeffery Loria. Right, Jeffery Loria. Hey, Jeff! Great call firing your manager because you're a control freak. I'm sure it won't be hard to start with a $15 million opening day payroll and be so competitive, that you almost make the playoffs next year. Don't worry... at least this year's opening day roster will have more than one batter with over 1000 ABs in the bigs. Maybe.

Boston is thinking about shooting a cool 50 mil over to J.D. Drew. Hey, what's another $50 million? Especially for a player who plays hard and everyone loves. With Manny in left, and Drew in right, are the Red Sox putting together the laziest outfield of all time? Is Bobby Bonilla available to play center? A Boston side note -- I'd like to be there when they tell John Henry that they bid 50 million dollars, not yen, on Megalon. That meeting would be good times.

No major signing activity thus far. Mike Mussina reupped for 2 years, at about 22-24 million. Fair enough. And I hate that I'm saying fair enough. That's an f-load of cash for being a "solid number 2." Heh. Sorry, this entire paragraph was a setup to allow me to use the phrase "solid number 2." Okay, I'll go back to the news now.

GMs are considering instant replay for baseball. You know, this is my favorite game, and I love how there's no clock. But come on people, do we really need to extend the game in an area where for 100 years we've been fine with the occasional missed call? Look at college football this season. Sometimes instant replay can do more harm than good. Although if baseball adopts instant replay and the Oklahoma Sooners somehow get screwed again, I'm all for it.

And finally... you've got to love Philadelphia. Pat Gillick comes in as the new GM last season, and by the trade deadline is trying to convince optimistic fans that the Phillies will not contend in 2007. Nothing like an organization that doesn't even believe in itself.