More 'Roids, and Kennedy shown the door

Ya know, some days you spend watching the second hand sweep the clockface while wondering, 'MAN will this day ever end?', and some days you're up to your waist in activity.

Today is one of the latter days.

Since my last post:

1. A-Roid admitted to using steroids while with the Texas Rangers from 2001-2003, in an interview with Peter Gammons. This was not during the Canseco years (in fact, Jose was out of baseball by then).

2. The Cardinals told Kennedy, "Thanks, but we're better without you. In fact, we're so sure we're better without you, we'll pay you $4 million to NOT be on our squad."

So there will be an open competition for the second base job.

Most observers were pretty down on Kennedy's time in St Louis - good glove, no bat. He did hit better last season, but not like what some projected. Here's what I find interesting:

- LaRussa is being reported as being the major driver in this personnel decision.
- Apparently things between Kennedy and LaRussa were worse than reported or suspected. This partially explains his lack of playing time last year, and why he allowed some frustration to be reported in the media. Also, for a club complaining about not having the money to sign folks like Sheets, being willing to throw $4M out the window with no return on investment just to get rid of this guy is very telling.
- Three members of the 2002 Angels played for LaRussa - Eckstein, Edmonds, and Kennedy. They've each left the team (via free agency, trade, and designation for assignment, respectively) in successive years. In the name of rampant speculation, I wonder if there's an underlying reason for the pattern.