Not much out there this morning...
I'm amazed, though, at how much attention the Kenny Rogers "spot" story is getting. Not that I'd be all that surprised if Kenny were putting something on the ball...a veteran lefty who relies on guile and movement to succeed, he's the type of pitcher who you'd think might go in that direction.
But I tend to believe that, if something crooked were happening last night, LaRussa and the Cards would have made a much bigger deal about it, both at the time and after the game.
And given that Rogers mowed down the Cardinals even after he removed the "spot," I am a bit skeptical of the idea that it was something he has to lean on to pitch well.
Evan Grant has a piece on Rogers' postseason renaissance, a much more positive piece than you'd expect to see from the D/FW media on Rogers.
Jim Reeves also has a column on Rogers, and what Reeves suggests was a mutual desire for a parting of the ways last year:
Still wishing he was pitching in Texas? Forget it. The Rangers couldn't keep him, and Kenny didn't want to play any more for Buck Showalter anyway, so that lament goes nowhere. It was a money year for Rogers in 2005, and money drives him crazy.
As much as the Rangers needed pitching and liked what Rogers could do on the mound, they couldn't forget his pre-spring training holdout threat, the organizational whispers that he used a non-pitching hand injury to duck a critical start against the Angels, his blowup at Rodriguez's expense, and the fact that he subsequently refused to apologize to the organization or to owner Tom Hicks.
"It was a bunch of little things that led to a bad situation," Rangers general manager Jon Daniels said by phone. "There was a meeting at the end of the year where we decided we wouldn't invite him back. It was not a money thing."
And Kat O'Brien touches on the managerial hunt, although there's not really any new news on that front.