The Los Angeles Dodgers have finally filled baseball's final managerial vacancy, and the choice is... Grady Little. The former Red Sox skipper, best known for leaving Pedro Martinez on the field to face way too many batters in Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS, replacing Jim Tracy.
Still no comment on the news from SurvivingGrady.com, although one commenter suggested they now set up a West Coast sister site.
The truth is, aside from the bitterly ugly end, Little didn't do that bad a job in Boston, winning more than 90 games in both of his seasons there. He deserved the chance to manage again, though I was sort of hoping for his sake it would be in a smaller market with a less hostile media. But after dealing with Shaughnessy and Co., Grady should have no trouble saying "up yours" to the likes of Bill Plaschke.
One more winter meetings note: does the Blue Jays' signings of B.J. Ryan and A.J. Burnett remind anyone else of the year the Rockies signed both Mike Hampton and Denny Neagle the same offseason, expecting success? Don't be surprised if one of the new Jays' pitchers requests a trade to a city with better schools, while the other gets his contract invalidated after a misadventure with a prostitute.
And with A.J. and B.J. already in the fold, why haven't the Jays signed C.J. Nitkowski? D.J. Carrasco? R.J. Reynolds? T.J. Mathews? Vijay Singh?
UPDATE: David Pinto apparently had the same idea. Great minds.
Posted by Stephen Silver at December 7, 2005 12:35 AM