MLB Bullets Is Part Of The New Wave Of First-Time Managers

Rick Renteria becomes the first Cubs manager with a double initial since Tom Trebelhorn in 1994 and the only the third overall after Adrian Anson. This is the kind of hard-hitting information you can't get anywhere but here.

The Bullets are a little shorter today. There's mostly only three things going on in baseball right now. The hot stove league, new managers and Hall of Fame talk. Oh, and that thing with Alex Rodriguez.

• The two biggest names that could be traded this offseason are Max Scherzer and David Price. Marc Normandin says there isn't a lot of difference between the two pitchers, although the price on Price should be a lot higher because he's a year further away from free agency.
• Ken Rosenthal thinks the Nationals would be a good fit for Scherzer. Also, he wonders why the Pirates didn't give a qualifying offer to A.J. Burnett if they want him back. The market for a pitcher of Burnett's quality easily commands more than $14.1 million on the open market.
• David Schoenfield thinks the Tigers ought to hang on to Scherzer and go for broke in 2014, even if they can't afford to sign him long-term.
• Rosenthal also reports that Ervin Santana is looking for a deal north of $100 million and Ricky Nolasco is looking for one above $80 million.
• They don't call him "Robo-thal" for nothing. Rosenthal says that Curtis Granderson is not likely to accept the Yankees qualifying offer.
• Phil Rogers wants Granderson to come home to Chicago, to either the Cubs or the White Sox.
• The Rays and David DeJesus agreed to a new two-year $10.5 million contract. Yeah, but $8 million of that is for Kim.
• Grant Brisbee thinks any team signing Nelson Cruz is probably making a mistake.
• The Rangers locked up Martin Perez through the year 2020. Can someone photoshop Martin Perez into this picture?
• Joe Girardi thinks the Yankees won't be able to make any major moves this offseason until they know the result of the Alex Rodriguez arbitration hearing.
• That's a problem because the Yankees have a lot of holes to fill.
• Speaking of ARod, one of his lawyers said something stupid and inflammatory again. And it wasn't even the same one that was behind their earlier insanity.
• You may have already heard that the Cubs hired Rick Renteria to be their new manager. Anyway, Jay Jaffe says Renteria, Brad Ausmus and Matt Williams are part of a trend towards first-time managers in recent years.
• Only the Mariners hired a manager who had previously managed in the majors this off-season. Tracy Ringolsby says that new skipper Lloyd McClendon patiently waited a long time to get a second chance to manage.
• The Dodgers and manager Don Mattingly are discussing a new, multiyear contract.
• The Astrodome lost an election and will likely be torn down. Rob Neyer will miss it, but thinks it is time for it to go. Without baseball, he writes, it just wouldn't have been the same place.
• Craig Calcaterra takes on the preservationists who argue that the Astrodome should be preserved as an example of Modernist architecture. Similar to what Neyer wrote, without baseball, the main tenet of Modernist architecture, that form should follow function, doesn't apply. If it no longer has a function, there is no need for a form.
• By the way, Texans believe the Houston Astros did a better job than Congress in 2013.
• Speaking of elections, David Ortiz finished third in balloting for the mayor of Boston on Tuesday.
• At least one person in Boston noticed the Torey Lovullo story and thinks the Red Sox behavior was embarrassing.
• David Schoenfield examines the Expansion Era Veterans Ballot for the Hall of Fame.
• Jay Jaffe looks at the players on the ballot and would only vote for Ted Simmons. Not counting Joe Torre, who he'd put in as a manager, of course. But he doesn't think any of the players will actually get elected. Torre's a slam dunk as a manager, of course.
• Matthew Pouliot wonders if we're going to play the "Valuable" game in MVP voting (as opposed to just voting for the best player), then shouldn't we take the size of the player's contract into account? No one argues that a team gets more "value" from a guy making the major league minimum as opposed to the same player making ten million a year.
• Should the Cardinals move Trevor Rosenthal to the rotation?
• Yasiel Puig had reckless driving charges dismissed because he played ping-pong? Well, sort of.
• Jeffrey Loria sold a painting for $32.6 million, or just $6.4 million less than the entire Marlins team made last season.
• Finally, listening to ballplayers of a bygone era was hazardous to your health.

And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster.