December 24, 2003 [LINK]
Trading frenzy
Talk about red hot competition in the A.L. Eastern Division! The Yankees picked up Gary Sheffield and Kenny Lofton but lost Andy Pettite, who will be sorely missed. The Red Sox's A-Rod for Manny mega-deal fell through, apparently because players' association officials refused to accept a "restructuring" deal that would have reduced A-Rod's salary by several percent. Well, that shows where their heads are... The Orioles went on a big league acquisition splurge and signed Miguel Tejada as well as Javy Lopez; Vladimir Guerrero is still a possibility. If one of those three teams doesn't make it to the 2004 World Series, there will be managerial hell to pay. Tom Verducci of Sports Illustrated thinks Atlanta may drop to 3rd place in the NL East next year. Yikes!
Expos back to San Juan
Well, it's not as if we didn't expect it. MLB announced that the Expos will be playing 22 games in Puerto Rico again next year. Supposedly that was part of a quid pro quo that made possible a bigger team payroll budget, which might have kept the slugging duo of Guerrero and Vidro on board. Hah! Lest their be any doubt about the collective commitment to the Expos franchise (zilch), it should be pointed out that Guerrero was not even offered salary arbitration.
The Miami city council voted down a proposed land grant that would have made possible a new downtown stadium for the Marlins, who would have switched their affiliation from the state level to the city level. For the time being, they'll stay put in Pro Player Stadium, as the "Florida" Marlins.