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A Quick Round for your Wednesday morning…

• Nice choice on C.C. Sabathia winning the Cy Young Award. Throwing more innings should be counted in a close race. Josh Beckett had a great season and is the better pitcher, but the portly lefty was one of two reasons the Indians made the playoffs. Kudos to the sportswriters for going with a Cleveland Indian over the more popular Boston Red Sox.  Jake Peavy should be the runaway winner in the NL.
• It is somewhat laughable as to how many papers are proclaiming that Alex Rodriguez is a poor fit for their team and he shouldn’t be pursued. I don’t know why writers get so caught up in the contract numbers. It’s not like they are paying him. Obviously, the money is there to pay him. I don’t like how AROD conducts business, but he is one of the best, if not the best, player of his generation.
• The Baltimore Orioles seem to be intent on breaking up the team to start over. I am probably a lot higher on the O’s than most as I don’t think they are that far off. Trading Miguel Tejada, Melvin Mora, and hopefully Aubrey Huff for some younger, more dynamic talent would be great. If Bedard is healthy and Adam Loewen progresses the team has a chance to be respectable. Hopefully, Mr. McPhail gives this team an identity as it seems to be stuck in the dreaded “Let’s sign whoever will come here” zone. Hopefully the trade market will open up some possibilities.
• News out of Minnesota discusses how the Twins have about 25 million to spend this off-season, assuming they lose Torii Hunter and Carlos Silva. Unfortunately, this is the wrong year to have money. The Twins need a serious upgrade on offense to help support their young M+M boys. A trade for a thirdbaseman and signing a power hitting outfielder would do wonders for this team. With its young pitching and stellar bullpen, a decent offense could propel them back into the post season.
• An underrated free agent is reliever David Riske. He has had a solid career posting ERA’s in the low 3’s for most seasons and has proved durable. A 3 year deal for the 31 year old in the neighborhood of 4-6 million per season isn’t out of the question.
• The three big centerfield free agents–Hunter, Andruw Jones, and Aaron Rowand are all quality ballplayers. I love the way Rowand plays and Hunter is steady, but if I had to choose, I would sign Andruw Jones. The potential is too great to give up on a guy who had one lousy season. Perhaps the pressure of being a free agent weighed too heavily on him. My guess is that he is slightly undervalued, but should have the biggest impact out of the three.

That’s it for today. Enjoy the day. Fire Back!