Cards free agent Matt Holliday wants to play for Yanks or Mets. According to a person in the loop, Matt Holliday’s top choices in free agency are: 1) Yankees; and 2) Mets. The Oklahoma native is apparently not intimidated by New York. As of now, I’d say the Yankees don’t want to make another large purchase like that, in the wake of last winter’s shopping spree. The Mets? Based on Jeff Wilpon’s words from a few weeks ago, they’ll consider anything and everything. Of course, many industry folks are very skeptical that the Mets will actually do so. Holliday’s primary reservation about joining the Mets? Yup, hitting at Citi Field. Maybe they can alter the dimensions? Jerry Manuel hinted near the end of the season that wasn’t impossible. – Newsday
O’s Jeremy Guthrie to Mets?. The Orioles, I believe, began the 2009 season thinking they could challenge .500 in 2010 and potentially contend in 2011. After another disastrous conclusion to a season, Baltimore has to move that timetable back at least one year. Why is that important for Jeremy Guthrie? He is about to enter his first arbitration year and would be a free agent after the 2012 season, and as one AL executive said, “He’s no longer a core-group guy for when they are ready to contend.” Thus, Guthrie’s best use for the Orioles would be in obtaining a shortstop, first baseman and/or bullpen help to add to their growing stash of interesting, young talent. Guthrie is coming off, by far, his worst season (10-17, 5.04 ERA), and his strikeout rate fell for a fourth straight year, never a good sign. But Yankee hitters continued to praise his stuff. He might need a change of scenery, not just from all of the Orioles’ losing, but also out of small Camden Yards. Does a package of Ruben Tejada and Bobby Parnell begin to move the Orioles? The Mets should call. There is a really good pitcher inside Guthrie waiting to come out. – NY Post
Mattingly: LA media should be tougher on Dodger players. A couple of weeks ago, Dodgers hitting coach Don Mattingly told a San Diego radio station the media on the East Coast are so much tougher than those out West. “If a guy makes a mistake, they make a big deal out of it,” he says. “They don’t let them off the hook like you do on the West Coast.” That might explain why I’m so often called a “homer”; I just like athletes, and I can see it’s beginning to hurt our local teams. The players on the East Coast are forced to play better, Mattingly says, knowing they will be held accountable by the media. Mattingly, the leading candidate to replace Joe Torre as manager a year from now, says the Dodgers laugh at how much slips by the L.A. media. … “I think you should be tougher on the players,” he says. “Be really hard on these guys.” – LA Times
Source: Foxsports
