Brad’s gone too

Speaking of retirements, Brad Ausmus is hanging up his tools of ignorance for the last time today.

Never a big stick (he hit .251 for his career), Ausmus will be more known for slick glove behind the plate.  He won three Gold Gloves in his career.  More amazing to me though is the fact that Ausmus caught 1,938 games in his 18 year career.  That ranks 10th among all catchers all time.  Look through his stat board and you’ll see that he often led his league in many defensive categories like catcher putouts and catcher assists.

Ausmus participated in six postseasons and one World Series (in 2005 with the Astros).   

Saturday night tidbits

Changes in Free Agency

MLB and the MLBPA announced a few changes in how free agency will be handled.  Here are the changes in a nutshell:

  • Players will no longer need to file for free agency.  The process will be automatic.
  • Players can entertain offers five days after the last game of the World Series instead of the previous 15 days.
  • Teams must tender contracts by December 2 which is nine days earlier than before.

The changes will take effect beginning next offseason.

No tolerance for smoking hot Reds

Talk about trying to rain on someone’s parade.  The health inspector was called in on the matter of a few Cincinnati Reds smoking cigars in the locker room after clinching the Central Division championship. 

Players could be seen on TV smoking their celebratory cigars in the locker room handed out by Reds owner Bob Castellini.

Five people called a statewide smoking ban complaint hotline, said Rocky Merz, health department spokesman.

Five people need to get a life. Let’s face it, they were probably Cardinal fans.

MLB is taking attendance

Seventy-five years to one billion.

Twenty-one years to two billion.

Thirteen years to three billion.

What am I talking about? The amount of years it took MLB to reach these attendance milestones beginning in 1901. 

The milestone was the result of the 10,843rd person who passed through the Coors Field gates on Tuesday afternoon for the Dodgers-Rockies game.

Give or take a gate crasher or two.

Cubs’ Quade gets support

I was asked by a fellow Cub fan what I thought of interim manager Mike Quade.  I honestly told him I didn’t know a whole lot about him but I sure was impressed by his performance so far.  His 21-11 record is a long time coming.

Now I find out that at least a couple of the Cubs are coming to the plate for him too.  Pitcher Ryan Dempster and outfielder Marlon Byrd both have expressed support for him.

So says Dempster:

"He’s been very upfront, very honest with all of us. He’s been tremendously supportive, he’s given us a lot of confidence to go out there. What he’s done for the bullpen- those guys have really stepped up and he’s believed in them.”

Pretty strong words.  As for Byrd:

"The record speaks for itself. The way we’re playing, the way we’re executing, just all-around."

I won’t speculate if they’re just simply backing up their manager or making a statement on who they want for their next permanent manager but those statements (especially Dempster’s) are pretty telling. 

That said. the Cubs could have gone 32-0 under Mike Quade and that won’t change the fact that a certain former Cub second baseman has more star power than a ex-Carolina League/current Coach with a funny name.  Like it not, the Cubs organization knows that and they’ll have tough decision to make.

Or not.

Gaston gone

Cito Gaston is gone as Toronto manager.  On his leaving, he wrote a apparently heartfelt letter to the fans of the Blue Jay Nation published in the The Star. 

A couple points on Gaston:

One, in this day and age of musical managers, it’s hard to believe that he’s been with Toronto for twelve years (albeit with an eleven year break in between).  Not only that, his first six years were pretty phenomenal.  Five first place finishes placing second in his sophomore year.  It all resolved itself into two World Championships in 1992-1993.  Some, like Dave Perkins of The Star, think this warrants a Hall nomination for Gaston.

Which brings me to my second point.  Gaston managed to bring this success with little fanfare or controversy.  We don’t hear much Cito here in the Midwest and I think I mean that as a compliment.  The biggest controversy we heard about Gaston was that he didn’t get Mike Mussina into the 1993 All-Star Game in front of his home fans in Camden Yards.  Big deal.

Finally, is it me or is this the Year of the Manager Goodbyes?  Granted, Gaston hasn’t ruled out his options for the future but with Piniella and Cox saying sayonara to the game, it seems like there is some major transitions going on at the manager level.

via Baseball Musings

No Wood on the ball

My favorite Halos fan went on a rant today over email:

  I don’t know whether you have noticed, but the Angels have given 224 at bats in 2010 to a player who has no positives. NONE.

  He is batting .147, slugging .210 and has an on-base % of .176. He has walked 6 times and struck out 70 times. He also is no threat to EVER win a Gold Glove. He has ONE stolen base (you can’t steal first base, and he’s not a base stealer anyway).

  Is this unprecedented in the history of baseball? Probably not, because baseball has a long history.

If you haven’t figured it out, he’s talking about Brandon Wood.  I checked his game log on B-R and wow… He’s getting his playing time for sure.  My buddy can rest assured that Wood is improving.  He’s got three hits in September (he only got one in August). <—- Sarcasm

B-R rep shows off his photos of Cooperstown

BaseballReference.com’s Steve Lombardi has been posting a series of photo galleries of his recent trip to the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, NY.  I’ve been to the hallowed halls four times myself so I have a particular interest.

Here’s a link to his fourth installment.  From there, you’ll find links to his previous posts.