Thoughts about teams not playing in Fall Classic

Wednesday, October 22, 2008 | Feedback | Print Entry

There are two teams in the World Series, and 28 teams already preparing for 2009. Some pieces from the rest of the baseball landscape:

• The Detroit Tigers will have the tricky task of trying to improve their team at the same time that they are shaving payroll, and at the same time that other teams don't see a lot of value in the Tigers' farm system other than young pitcher Rick Porcello (who the Tigers won't trade).

The Tigers could theoretically dangle Magglio Ordonez in trade talks in an effort to get pitching, coming off a year in which Ordonez batted .321 with 21 homers and 103 RBIs. But Ordonez is due to make $18 million next year, and he will turn 35 in January at a time when the industry has become extraordinarily skeptical about the ability of players to consistently produce into their late 30s.  
 

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  • Buster Olney Buster Olney

    Buster Olney is a senior writer at ESPN The Magazine. He began covering baseball in 1989, as the Nashville Banner's beat reporter assigned to the Triple-A Nashville Sounds. Later, he covered the San Diego Padres (1993-94), the Baltimore Orioles ('95-96), the New York Mets ('97) and the Yankees ('98-2001). Olney joined ESPN The Magazine in 2003, after six years at The New York Times, and he's the author of the Times' best-seller "The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty," a book about the Paul O'Neill-Tino Martinez Yankees dynasty of 1996-01.

    He grew up in central Vermont collecting baseball cards and listening to Red Sox, Expos, Phillies and Pirates radio broadcasts, and was a rabid fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers. He graduated from Vanderbilt University the same year as hoops legend Will Perdue, and ranks among the all-time leading scorers in pickup basketball at Memorial Gym. He claims to have witnessed the Commodores' winning football season in 1982 (although anthropologists have not yet confirmed this).

    Olney also contributes to ESPN.com, ESPN Radio, ESPNEWS, "SportsCenter" and "Baseball Tonight."

    Follow Buster on Twitter: @Buster_ESPN

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