The New York Mets today announced that Paul DePodesta has been named Vice President, Player Development & Amateur Scouting. DePodesta, a 15-year Major League Baseball veteran, was most recently an Executive Vice President for the San Diego Padres. He will report to Mets General Manager Sandy Alderson. From the official press release:  DePodesta had been serving as a special assistant for San Diego Padres, a similar role recently filled by the hiring of J.P. Ricciard for the Mets [...]

It’s an interesting question and one posed by Randy Youngman, a columnist for the Ocean County Register. The New York Mets are open to trading closer Francisco Rodriguez, who is entering the final year of a three-year, $37 million contract that will pay him $11.5 million in 2011. Would the Angels be interested in re-acquiring K-Rod? Possibly, if his legal problems related to an altercation with his father-in-law are resolved this winter. The Angels don’t have [...]

We are doing something new this offseason. We will be keeping all the rumors for the key free agents together in one post that will be updated as necessary throughout the Hot Stove Season. This way you can see how everything evolves chronologically. In the end we will also find out which baseball writers got it right and who got it wrong. Updated 11/8/10 Wallace Matthews of ESPN New York - The New York Yankees are wasting no time in taking steps [...]

Don Wakamatsu has been hired by the Blue Jays and added to manager John Farrell’s staff as bench coach. He will still be permitted to interview with Sandy Alderson for the Mets managerial vacancy on Wednesday. Wakamatsu is the first Asian-American manager in major league history. Original Post 7:55 AM Andy Martino of the Daily News runs down the week ahead as Sandy Alderson continues interviewing managerial candidates. The Mets’ managerial search returns to New York Tuesday, when GM [...]

One of the initial challenges that Sandy Alderson will face as the news Mets GM will involve the decision to either hold tight with the talent the Mets have or break up the core of players and basically start fresh. Right now, the Mets core centers around David Wright, Jose Reyes, Carlos Beltran and Johan Santana. They have a solid supporting cast which includes Angel Pagan, Ike Davis, Mike Pelfrey and a healthy Jason Bay. [...]

Steve Sidoti of 7 Train To Shea, had an interesting post this afternoon in which he looks at some of the parts of the book Moneyball that dealt with our new GM Sandy Alderson. Incidentally, I just started to read the book myself today. One of the things that Steve mentions in his post is Alderson’s three rules, which are: 1 – Every batter needs to behave like a leadoff man, and adopt as his main goal [...]

David Brody, who I follow on Twitter, was kind enough to send me a link to an interview Brian Costa of the Star-Ledger conducted with Terry Collins last May. He pointed me to a comment Collins made, in which he says he had no desire to become a major league manager in the future. Q: Do you still want to be a major-league manager again one day? Is that still a goal? A: “It isn’t. I did my thing. I [...]

Jon Heyman of SI.com is reporting that the Oakland A’s have won the rights to bid exclusively on Japanese right-hander Hisashi Iwakuma. Of course Oakland must now try to work out an actual contract with Iwakuma, as their winning bid only gives them the right to negotiate with him. If the two sides can agree to a contract within the next 30 days, the bid amount will go to his old team in Japan and [...]