Top News:
Tom Haudricourt / Brewers Blog:
Melvin extended; Sveum, Skaalen out — St. Petersburg, Fla. - Doug Melvin is staying as the Brewers' general manager but Dale Sveum will not be his manager. — The Brewers just announced that Melvin's contract has been extended for three years, through the 2012 season.
RELATED:
Tom Haudricourt / JSOnline:
Sveum strikes out — Brewers interim manager told team is looking for more experience — St. Petersburg, Fla. - Dale Sveum went from having a coaching job he loved to getting “the chance of a lifetime” to manage to being unemployed. — Sometimes, working in major-league baseball stinks.
Discussion:
The Griddle
MLB.com:
Brewers sign GM Doug Melvin to three-year contract extension — Club announces decision regarding interim manager Dale Sveum, hitting coach Jim Skaalen — MILWAUKEE — The Milwaukee Brewers today announced a three-year contract extension in which Doug Melvin will remain with the organization …
Jon Heyman / Sports Illustrated:
Yanks to pursue CC, Lowe, Teixeira … Determined not miss the playoffs for a second straight season in 2009, the Yankees' top executives have decided to pursue many of the game's premier free agents, chief among them starting pitchers CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Derek Lowe, and first baseman Mark Teixeira, among others, this winter.
RELATED:
Bronx Banter:
Bronx Banter: Adjourned — So the Yankees wrapped up their organizational meetings yesterday and they have their offseason plan in place. According to SI.com's Jon Heyman, the plan appears to be get everyone: … All this really tells us is that they Yankees aren't ruling anyone out and do plan to be big spenders this winter.
Marc Topkin / St. Petersburg Times:
Rays: ALCS Game 5 loss to Red Sox is forgotten — James Shields prepares for his start in Game 6 of the AL Championship Series, the first of two chances at home the Rays have to advance to the World Series. — Times] — ST. PETERSBURG — The route was not the one they would have chosen given …
RELATED:
Jim Caple / ESPN:Stunned Rays can only hope to put brutal loss behind them
Discussion:
Yahoo! Sports, Sports Illustrated, TBO Rays, Bats, St. Petersburg Times, The Bottom Line and Boston Globe
John Torenli / MLB.com:
Sutton stays hot for Scorpions — Astros prospect goes 2-for-3 with homer, three runs scored — Astros outfield prospect Drew Sutton continued his torrid hitting in the Arizona Fall League on Friday, going 2-for-3 with a homer and three runs scored as the Scottsdale Scorpions cruised to a 7-3 victory over the Peoria Javelinas.
Discussion:
Sliding Into Home
Richard Sandomir / New York Times:
Congress Questions Appraisals of Stadium — The chairman of the Congressional subcommittee investigating the tax-exempt financing of the new Yankee Stadium said that city officials could be prosecuted if the Internal Revenue Service determined they lied about the ballpark's property value.
Junior / FIRE JOE MORGAN:
“Jerry ‘Needs An Instruction’ Manuel” —Chris Berman (1955-2008) — KT covered some Manuel lunacy in the Gallimaufry, and there's more where that came from: — While the big offensive trio had respectable statistics or better, they didn't stop the September slide.
Joe Sheehan / Baseball Prospectus:
A Stathead Considers Chemistry — With apologies to Elvis Costello (or whoever the line belongs to), writing about this game is like dancing about architecture. — You need more. You need sounds, and feelings, and touch, and all the things that make an experience burn itself into memory.
Jose De Jesus Ortiz / Houston Chronicle:
Peavy says he'd waive no-trade clause to be an Astro — San Diego ace, who's a good friend of Oswalt, likes what team offers — San Diego Padres ace righthander Jake Peavy told the Chronicle he would waive his no-trade clause to join his friend Roy Oswalt with the Astros.
ESPN.com:
Four months after injury, Yanks' Wang fires pitch — TAMPA, Fla. — New York Yankees ace Chien-Ming Wang threw 25 pitches Friday in his first throwing session off a bullpen mound since hurting his foot in June. — Wang partially tore a tendon and sprained his right foot running the bases during …
Tatiana Siegel / Variety:
Columbia pitches ‘Moneyball’ to Pitt — Zaillian to write, Frankel to direct adaptation — Brad Pitt is adding to his busy schedule by playing ball for Columbia. — Steve Zaillian has signed on to adapt Michael Lewis' nonfiction bestseller “Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game,” and David Frankel is attached to direct.
