The big news this morning is not the Red Sox winning their second World Series in four seasons, but Alex Rodriguez's decision to opt out of the remaining three years and $91 MM remaining on his contract to test the free agent market. I think ESPN's Peter Gammons summed-up the initial reactions nicely this morning. He said, and I paraphrase, Dustin Pedroia and Jon Lester are celebrating a World Series, and Alex Rodriguez has never played in one. Maybe there's a reason for that.
Those are extremely harsh words more appropriate to the blogosphere than from the national baseball reporter for ESPN. If Gammons feels that way, I can't wait for the scorching of the Earth in the local New York papers and media.
In other Yankees news, the team appears to have settled on Joe Girardi as its new manager. I reviewed what a Girardi managerial tenure would look like for the Dodgers and hold it would look the same for the Yankees. Most criticsm will center around whether or not Girardi's one year of abusing the Marlins' young pitchers will continue with the Yankees' young guns.
Finally, the New York Post reports the Dodgers want to bring Joe Torre in to manage due to the schism between the veteran and young players. Hopefully, Torre could fix the situation as that is what is he most lauded for during his Yankees' tenure. I just wonder if his reputation would take the same hit that pitching coach Leo Mazzone's did when he left Atlanta as the greatest pitching coach in the world - and was fired a couple years later when the staff didn't improve.
Fantasy Sports:
Fantasy Sports with Chris Harris at 11AM.
Fantasy Football with Scott Engel at 3PM.
General Football:
NFL Losing Teams with Scouts Inc from 11Am to 12:30PM.
NFL Winning Teams with Scouts Inc from 12:30PM to 2PM.
General Baseball:
MLB with Steve Phillips at noon.
MLB with Buster Olney at 1PM.
Baseball Prospectus' Will Carroll transcript from last night.
General Basketball:
NBA with Marc Stein at 11AM.