World Baseball Classic and other things

I read that Mike Piazza wants to represent Italy in next March's World Baseball Classic, a competition of the top baseball-playing countries in the world. I admire his commitment to his roots, but this is kind of like Alex Rodriguez or Pedro Martinez representing Spain.

The time after the end of the World Series is always bittersweet for me. I love the offseason maneuvering of the GMs to build their team for the coming season, but it is a very slow process, and there are whole weeks without a word of baseball news in the newspapers, even in New York, where every time George Steinbrenner or Joe Torre shows his face somewhere, reporters spring up like mushrooms to find out what's happening with the Yankees.

I am looking forward to watching Brian Cashman try to remake the old, broken-down Yankees into a younger, cheaper, more athletic group. As for the Mets, I am hoping that they sign a closer like Billy Wagner or B. J. Ryan, or find the next Bobby Jenks. This would make the Mets a playoff contender, and give them a real chance to finish 2006 with a better record than the Yankees, for the first time in many years. I would also love to see what young 1B Mike Jacobs could do with a full season of playing every day. He might be better than the free agents out there (other than Paul Konerko), and certainly is younger and cheaper. Since this is New York, though, they are probably out there right now, looking for the new Mo Vaughn, or baseball gods forbid, the old Mo Vaughn.