Much Ado

The news cycle is full of stories confirming that Alex Rodriguez met with baseball officials concerning his association with tainted doctor Anthony Galea. According to Arod, the meeting went well and he has not had a session with federal authorities. Apparently, the main stream media hasn’t been able to find their PED fix this Spring Training, so anything related to Arod will have to do. In the past, there might be some concern that Arod would be distracted by the perception, but after last season, I can’t see this story having any impact.

Rodriguez acknowledged a New York Daily News report published on Friday that stated the three-time American League Most Valuable Player met with the MLB agents on Thursday.

“I did — I cooperated,” Rodriguez said. “They were very happy, and that’s it. I can’t really get into it too much.”

courtesy of mlb.com

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Trading Places

Did the Yankees err in dealing AJax?

In case you haven’t noticed, Austin Jackson has been absolutely tearing up the grapefruit league, while teammate Johnny Damon hasn’t been that far behind. So, did the Yankees make the right decision by essentially replacing Damon with Granderson and jettisoning Jackson for the honor? Obviously, it’s way too early to answer that question. Similarly, the jury is still out on the virtual swap of Hidecki Matsui for Nick Johnson. As the season progresses, we’ll keep track of all five players in the sidebar to the right.  In the meantime, provided below are the final spring training numbers for all.

 

Going
Austin Jackson: 15R, 2HR, 6RBI, .353/.429/.588
Johnny Damon: 7R, 2HR, 9RBI, .362/.413/.552
Hidecki Matsui: 5R, 1HR, 9RBI, .262/.347/.357

Coming 
Curtis Granderson: 4R, 0HR, 4RBI, .286/.375/.388
Nick Johnson: 12R, 3HR, 8RBI, .256/.434/.564

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Chris Rose Joins MLB Network

Without much fanfare, the MLB Network has added Chris Rose to its roster of on air talent. Rose essentially replaces Victor Rojas, who left MLBN to take a full-time broadcasting role with the Los Angeles Angels (a role made available by the untimely death of Rory Markas). The official release did not mention if Rose would continue his duties as host of FOX’ baseball pregame and post-game coverage.

The addition of Rose is MLBN’s highest profile, regularly contributing anchor. His addition also adds new blood to what has been a relatively stable roster of talent. Meanwhile, ESPN, faced with increased competition from MLBN, has gone on a hiring binge. Within the last few months, the World Wide Leader has added Nomar Garciaparra, Bobby Valentine, Aaron Boone and Doug Glanville to its lineup. The latter is ESPN’s most significant get as Glanville has established himself as an intelligent analyst in several other forums. Unfortunately, heavy doses of John Kruk insure that Baseball Tonight will continue to lose relevance, even though MLBN’s Harold Reynolds and Mitch Williams aren’t exactly thought provoking. Still, as MLBN celebrates its second season of baseball, it seems clear that it has supplanted ESPN’s Baseball Tonight as the cable program of record for the sport (perhaps best symbolized by Peter Gammons switch from ESPN to MLBN back in February).

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