And the Winner is...

Even though baseball season has ended, the hot stove has already heated up. Joe Giraldi will be named the new manager of the Yanks & there is speculation the Grady Little will be fired in favor of Joe Torre being readily available. Dusty Baker has recently been named the new manager of the Reds, and Barry Bonds is making a desperate last ditch effort to return to the Giants. There is a saying that goes,"any publicity is good publicity" and that is definitely the case for National League ball clubs, especially after the destruction of the Rockies in the World Series sweep by Boston. The Braves traded often traveled & under-appreciated Edgar Renteria to the Detroit Tigers yesterday, only to show that American League teams will always try to improve their offense so they can continue to beat up the junior circuit every October. Now if they could just swap the Phillies with the Oakland A's, that would make the picture even more interesting. The Baltimore Orioles are rumored to be shopping Miguel Tejada, and why shouldn't they, his homeruns have regressed every year he has played for them, not to mention his suspected use of performance enhancing drugs.

The free agent market likely will not be all that exciting. Some of the headliners for offense include Torii Hunter, Jorge Posada & Barry Bonds. The pitchers category is even more bland unless you are looking for a closer, than you have the option to choose between Mariano Rivera, Francisco Cordero or Armando Benitez. However, after watching the World Series, why not try and groom a younger arm bred in your organization like John Papelbon or Manny Corpas. If it is a starting pitcher you're looking for, Kerry Wood(with all his artificial limbs and insurance policy included) is out there along with Bartolo Colon, but the last time I checked, he just ate the entire Angels infield. And that leaves us with Alex Rodriguez(who opted out of his contract with the Yanks). Even more, he had plenty of face time during game 4 of the World Series with the exploitation of his contract opt out announced by super agent Scott Boras. The early reports are Boras will command anywhere from 27-30 million a year. We already know the Yankees are out of the running. Why would Boston want him when they can have Mike Lowell back for half the salary and they just won the championship without Arod. The Angels could make a run at him, but could be gun shy after signing Gary Matthews to a 5 year 50 million dollar deal last offseason with no big dividends in return. Perhaps he could go to the National League and feast on their pitching. The Cubs may try to sign him, but who is going to sign his paychecks with their ownership not being settled. The Mets are intriguing because they could afford him, but does he really want to stay in the New York media market that never embraced his presence in the first place. The Braves may have opened the door by trading Renteria and having announced that Andruw Jones will not return. That clears probably around 20 million in pay role. He could return to shortstop and play along side of Chipper Jones, and perhaps be taken in by the Atlanta media and fans. Could the departure of John Shurholtz mean the arrival of Arod, possibly, knowing Shurholtz's philosophy was developing strong young pitchers and building a solid infrastructure from the inside out. The Giants will have a huge hole to fill with the departure of Bonds, and will need to be players if they want to keep that beautiful stadium in the bay area filled with fans day in and day out. Their front office is not afraid to overpay for free agents, case in note Barry Zito.

So, what is the second largest market in America behind New York? Who has an abundance of young talented players basically making nothing, but could benefit from Arod coming in to be a mentor? Out of every team in the National League, there may only be one that Alex can go to and play in peace, blend in with the crowd & not have to worry about playing second fiddle to anybody. What other team could he play for and be re-united with his former manager? This team is none other than the Los Angeles Dodgers...