Odds and Ends for the beginning of the Baseball Offseason

To start this I guess I have to first say Congrats Philly. Although I was a little crushed night as I was rooting for the Rays and some of my one-time Twins. Sorry Romero you were just too long removed for me to be that attatched to you still. For the very least that was an interesting series and I think I am just going to refrain from commenting on the way Game 5 went down.

So now with the season over the offseason is under way as teams begin to pick up options and players file for free agency. As of this moment the big names filing free agency so far are Manny Ramirez, Mark Teixera, and Ben Sheets. Other notables that have become eligible for free agency are Ken Griffey Jr. and Edgar Renteria. It seems what may be the most interesting free agenting bidding contest this offseason may be the continued Manny saga. It almost sounds as their might not be as a big of a bid war for him as there will be for some of the big name pitchers expected to hit the market. Obviously Boston won't try to bring him back and it even sound that talent collecting Steinbrenner may not want to add Manny to his payroll either. The Mets even sound a little stand offish of the idea. I would have to think that all of these teams that are either out of the race or sitting on the fence may hurt Manny's paycheck down the road.

We have already see a pretty big trade for the offseason as well as Mike Jacobs went to the Royals for Leo Nunez. It looks like the Marlins are just trying to avoid the big contract again since Jacobs will get something for arbitration most likely. I am kind of surprised that the Royals pulled the trigger on their surplus of relief pitching this early into the offseason, but I guess gaining another bat like Jacob's can't hurt them.

There are a few other news breaking events that have happened, but I think I will leave it at that for now and wait to comment on things for another time. I hope you have enjoyed reading and will be back again!