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Terrerobyes: Waiting for Jose Abreu

Plus: More Jim Leyland retirement reaction, MLB managerial movement, and other interesting reads

By Jim Margalus
About 10 minutes after this handshake, Miguel Cabrera noticed that these batter's boxes were chalked backwards.
About 10 minutes after this handshake, Miguel Cabrera noticed that these batter's boxes were chalked backwards.
Jonathan Daniel

Today is the last day before the World Series begins, so if Jose Dariel Abreu news fails to advance over the next 24 hours, it may take a while for the ripples from the splash to reach the shore.

Usually, teams and players refrain from making major news during the World Series out of respect for the stage. You may remember Alex Rodriguez and Scott Boras announcing that he would exercise his opt-out clause during the early innings of Game 4 of the 2007 World Series, one of many files in the overstuffed cabinet labeled, "Hey, Maybe This Guy Struggles To Pick Up On Social Cues." Even Boras apologized for it.

So I imagine that if nothing is finalized by today, there probably won't be a grand unveiling until either the Red Sox or Cardinals win it all. Usually I like the World Series to take seven games, but here's one occasion to root for a sweep. It'll feel like seven games anyway, as long as Clay Buchholz pitches.

In the meantime, the Sox made up for a missed Family Time Draft Pick opportunity by buying Jackson Laumann from the Atlanta Braves. Laumann is the son of White Sox Director of Amateur Scouting Doug Laumann, and technically it's a trade for cash considerations, but "buying" sounds more old-timey.

Terrerobytes

The news of Jim Leyland's retirement inspired some nice tributes -- not fawning-nice, but illuminating-nice -- from insiders and outsiders. He's always been more than meets the eye, and for a chain-smoker who ate his postgame meal during the postgame press conference, he's always had a sense of propriety, which might be part of his heightened sensitivity. He's the guy who stopped arguing with an umpire for God Bless America, then picked up where he left off when it was over. He also delayed the announcement to give the Red Sox the weekend news cycles.

The first link is by Mike Rosenberg, who had plenty of interactions with Leyland as a Detroit beat writer.

The second is by David Roth, who has rounded up a bunch of great links and video -- including Leyland singing "Betcha By Golly, Wow" and chewing out Barry Bonds in Pittsburgh (Rob Neyer has the background on that one). Also, this tweet:

Bless You Boys highlighted an ejection that I never saw, in which Leyland pretty much rubbed Ed Rapuano's face in a mistake like I'd never seen.

Leyland's retirement leaves a pretty enviable job opening, and I imagine the other teams trying to hire a manager may be affected. Many of the names floated for the Detroit job have been mentioned in the Cubs' search -- Torey Luvullo, Manny Acta and Brad Ausmus, for instance. The specter of Dave Martinez looms, but he doesn't seem to be as prevalent as speculative candidate as, say, Kirk Gibson.

The Dodgers shouldn't need a new manager -- Don Mattingly's 2014 option vested with the NLCS appearance -- but Mattingly doesn't want to be a lame duck after ownership had left him twisting during the season.

The Reds went ahead and replaced Dusty Baker from within, promoting Bryan Price from pitching coach to manager. That gives Don Cooper an idea...

Neyer and Grant Brisbee have a category devoted to their posts about collisions at the plate -- the most recent example being the David Ross-Alex Avila collision that could've been worse than a patellar tendon strain.

Back to the World Series, Joe Posnanski writes about the beginning of Carlos Beltran's career, and there are some familiar refrains when it comes to players who look like the game's a little too easy.

Ben Lindbergh's last installment of his scouting school series wraps up with filing pro reports on multiple players over six innings.

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