Baseball Season Ends

Technically, it ended a few days ago as I really couldn't bring myself to care after the Dodgers were eliminated but since I consider the Sox my "American League team" and have done so for over twenty years now, I maintained the slightest bit of interest until tonight. With the Sox out of it and facing the idea of a Tampa Bay/Philly World Series [Bud Selig may kill himself tonight,] it's officially time to say "Wait til next year."

But the Hot Stove season is already in full effect with the majority of speculation falling in three spots: Manny, CC, and Peavy.

Let's take a look at some of the early rumors regarding the Dodgers so far...

It's pretty much a given that Lowe is gone. Penny is probably gone too. I'm guessing Saito will be gone. Blake too. I'm thinking Raffy will stay.

Really, that just leaves Manny.

McCourt was wishy-washy about it, talking about how it takes two to tango and all that jazz. It was him preparing Dodger fans that it's not gonna happen. I'm guessing the Dodgers will offer three years with an option for a fourth. Unless they highly overpay, I don't think that'll get it done. I can't imagine someone won't go four guaranteed. Maybe even five. I don't think anyone will go six like Boras is looking for but four or five shouldn't be a problem and I'm guessing that takes the Dodgers out of the Manny market unfortunately.

Joe Torre wants pitching - and made no secret about it. With Lowe and Penny gone, that'll leave Kuroda, Billingsley, and Kershaw in the starting rotation. McDonald might be a possibility for the fifth spot since he did well in his limited action in the callup. So, if you figure the Dodgers are shooting for at least one starter and maybe two, there are some targets already being mentioned that are pretty intriguing.

CC Sabathia is obviously the number one target for starting pitching for all teams this offseason. The Yankees are going to go in and go in big for CC. The rumors all say that Sabathia wants to stay on the West Coast but it'll take a pretty big offer to make him turn down the kind of dollars the Yanks are going to offer him. The Dodgers will make a big offer, I'd imagine - if for no other reason to make it look good that they tried. If I had to guess, I'm thinking Sabathia won't end up in Dodger blue. And frankly, I don't know if I'm that upset about that. Long-term, big dollar deals for starting pitching hasn't worked out so well in recent years for my team.

The number one trade target for pitching is going to be Jake Peavy. We've already heard that Peavy picked five teams that he'd waive his no-trade for with the Dodgers being one of them. The Pads are looking for middle infielders and young pitching to make the deal. I'd dangle Hu and McDonald - see what happens. If they want a lot more, move on.

There's been pretty persistent rumors of the Dodgers' interest in Robinson Cano for a while with Yanks fans thinking a Cano for Kemp was fair. While I wouldn't go that far, it's probably a conversation worth having since they apparently don't feel that Blake DeWitt is a good long-term solution at second base. With Kent likely to retire, second base will be a hole that needs to be filled this winter.

Juan Pierre and Andruw Jones have both requested trades if they won't be played. I have no problem with either of those - but I'm sure Ned Coletti will have quite a problem with making a deal for either. Both would require taking on a bad contract in return. Any ideas?

Nomar thinks he might retire. Might not be a bad idea for him. If he wants to stick around as a super-sub/pinch hitter for cheap enough, I'd keep him for that purpose as long as he knows his role.

Some talk about Randy Johnson possibly coming to the Dodgers or Angels. I could live with that as a 4th or 5th starter. It'd kinda be like Greg Maddux but... well, a lot different. If the price is right, I'm cool with that deal.

Saw some speculation today that the Cubs might be interested in Manny and might try to move Soriano or Aramis Ramirez to the Dodgers to clear payroll to accomplish that. I'm not overly fond of either of those deals but they're interesting ideas.

Okay... so, I know it's the time of year for weird rumors but this one took the cake for sure...

The Dodgers might be exploring trades for Russell Martin?

I'm going to hold firm and deny, deny, deny there's any way that's true until I hear more details.

It's gonna be an interesting six months.