Lance Berkman's return to Houston is a popular topic today, with the best takes I've found coming from Bernie Miklasz of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Astros senior director of digital media Alyson Footer. On to today's links:
- Bill Plaschke of the L.A. Times explains that new Dodgers trustee Tom Schieffer is "a hands-off-the-roster guy, famous for leaving the Rangers baseball folks alone during his tenure there, one of the main reasons he was chosen for this job." GM Ned Colletti will only have to make a case to Schieffer if he wants to go over budget.
- We have to recalculate our expectations of position players in their late 30s in the post-PED era, writes SI's Tom Verducci.
- WEEI's Alex Speier discusses the timeline of top Red Sox pitching prospect Anthony Ranaudo.
- The cases of Phil Hughes and Philip Humber demonstrate "the fickle nature of pitching," writes Joel Sherman of the New York Post.
- Geoff Baker of the Seattle Times wonders how much time the Mariners will give Jack Cust to start hitting. So far he's at .171/.326/.186 in 86 plate appearances, which means he's outhitting Carlos Pena.
- Player's union head Michael Weiner told ESPN's Jayson Stark the players are open to adding more playoff teams, but no proposals have been made and "it's just too early in the bargaining process to predict or guess where it's going to land." For much more on the topic, check out Stark's Rumblings and Grumblings column.