A couple of items from T.R. Sullivan today...
First, of course, is Orel Hershiser being granted permission to interview for the A's managerial job. Hershiser and the A's seems like an odd match...a knock on Billy Beane has been his reluctance to give much control to the manager, and given how ambitious Hershiser is, this doesn't necessarily seem like the best fit for him.
Sullivan also mentions that Thad Levine and Peter Woodfork are the two finalists for the assistant general manager job. As I mentioned yesterday, they are similar candidates, both part of the Daniels/DePodesta breed of Ivy League numbers crunchers.
Sullivan also has some thoughts on the ALCS, and Josh Paul's failure to tag A.J. Pierzynski on what should have been the third out.
He then goes on to opine on the "new" era of baseball:
That's the new post-steroids reality in baseball.
The two best offensive teams in the American League playoffs - New York and Boston - are sitting at home.
The White Sox and the Angels, who relied on speed as much as power, are still playing. They bunt; they hit and run; they score runners from third.
The White Sox have terrific starting pitching. The Angels have a lights-out bullpen.
The Rangers had better pay attention. Threatening single-season home run records isn't going to get them into the postseason. They need to start getting bunts down.
That's just silly. The Rangers are going to get a lot farther hitting homers than they are by getting bunts down. It isn't a failure to bunt that resulted in the Rangers being in third place this season...it was a failure to pitch well, combined with a failure to get on base enough.