INDIANAPOLIS
They put the “Winter” back in the “Winter Meetings” by choosing Indianapolis as the host city this year.
This is the farthest north baseball has convened its annual off-season affair since 1966 (Columbus, Ohio) 1979 (Toronto) and we all woke to an inch of snow on the ground this morning. Temperatures aren’t expected to break 40 degrees this week with snow and sleet are expected tonight or tomorrow morning.
(Larry Stone of the Seattle Times points out that the 1990 meetings were held in Chicago — which I believe is located north of Indianapolis but south of Toronto — in this column on past meetings wackiness.)
*** The Angels’ contingent is not scheduled to arrive until later today.
*** The Hall of Fame Veterans Committee announced the results of its voting and neither original Angels owner Gene Autry nor former Angels manager Gene Mauch gathered much support from their respective committees. Each got fewer than three votes — Autry from the 12-member committee reviewing pioneers and contributors, Mauch from the 16-member committee reviewing managers and umpires.
Long-time manager Whitey Herzog and legendary umpire Doug Harvey did earn more than 75 percent of votes required and were elected to the Hall of Fame.
Herzog’s Hall of Fame credentials were not burnished by his time with the Angels. He went 2-2 as an interim manager with the Angels in 1974 (after the firing of Bobby Winkles) and spent time in the Angels’ front office during the 1990s including two seasons as the team’s GM (1993-94).
*** Welcome to modern journalism — the lobby at the Winter Meetings site is traditionally filled with a milling mob of reporters toting notebooks and pens.
Look around the lobby of the Indianapolis Marriott this morning and you see fewer notebooks and more reporters thumbing away at Blackberries and the like, filing updates to the internet.
One veteran reporter passed me in the lobby and said, “Gotta go Tweet.”
*** Three years ago, Gary Matthews Jr. and Juan Pierre were the big off-season acquisitions of the Angels and Dodgers, respectively. Every year since, those two teams have arrived at the Winter Meetings looking to move Matthews and Pierre.
Both are on the block again this winter, to varying degrees.
OF Gary Matthews Jr.
Matthews wants out and the Angels would love to rid themselves of the remaining $23 million on his contract, thus giving them flexibility for other moves. But Tony Reagins will find that a tough pill to get another GM to swallow.
Dodgers GM Ned Colletti has a slightly easier job. Pierre has less money left on his contract (about $18 million) and has shown himself to be a more productive player than Matthews in a varying role with the Dodgers.
*** Don’t know who Tim Brown (Yahoo! Sports) is talking to — maybe Matthews? — but I can’t find anyone in downtown Indianapolis who thinks the Angels are going to find any market for Matthews.
*** The Mariners’ signing of Chone Figgins should become official any time now (though it might not be announced until tomorrow). Where Figgins fits into their lineup is certain to be one of the big questions for Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu when he does his 30-minute session in the media room late this afternoon.
Mariners' Ichiro Suzuki
Figgins at leadoff and Ichiro third (with a No. 2 TBA) would seem to be the most effective setup. But I talked to a former teammate of Ichiro in the lobby today and he admitted the Mariners might have to do a sales job on the future Hall of Famer to convince him to move out of the leadoff spot — and Ichiro has a lot of power to affect the Mariners’ decision-making.
You have to wonder, though, if Figgins would have agreed to sign with the Mariners if he thought he was going to bat second. Figgins takes a great deal of pride in being a leadoff hitter.
*** Sam Miller’s hero, Keith Law, explains on ESPN.com why the Winter Meetings were plunked down in the exotic locale of Indianapolis this year.
Getting away from Boston in mid-December sounds like a great idea, and past winter meetings have taken me to Orlando, Las Vegas, New Orleans and Anaheim, all of which were at least comfortable at this time of year.
So this year’s site isn’t exactly getting rave reviews from MLB front office types, like the one who asked me, “Who the heck wants to go to Indianapolis in December? Or ever?”
The answer: The minor leagues.
MLB’s winter meetings are actually not MLB’s affair, at least not in name. Minor League Baseball sets them up and uses them to hold meetings but also to attract vendors and hold a large job fair. The major leagues have just piggybacked on the minors’ meetings for most of the last few decades, and since MLB still lets the minors take the lead, they get a few decidedly minor-league destinations mixed in with the good ones.
This year’s other candidate? Wilmington, Del.
*** Consensus around the lobby is that Jason Bay is the “big-name” free agent most likely to sign during these meetings — if any do.
The Mariners remain the front-runner to pluck Bay from Boston (who could make a late charge if they think they won’t be able to land Holliday).
The Angels are definitely interested. GM Tony Reagins told me last week that Bay is “an attractive player” who “fits in some scenarios.”
Those scenarios probably don’t include re-signing John Lackey or trading for Roy Halladay. That would push the Angels’ payroll well north of last year’s $113 million — something Arte Moreno would rather not do.
Personally I thought Hernandez (left) roared down the stretch like Zenyatta and might have nipped Greinke at the wire. Unfortunately it sounds as if some voters made up their minds in June and didn’t at least consider Hernandez’s incredibly fast finish before they voted for Greinke.
