Dodgers Sale, Manager Carousel Top Offseason News

Terry Francona and Theo Epstein may team up on Chicago’s North Side.

Some St. Louis Cardinals fans may still be hung over after their club grabbed the 2011 World Series title a week ago.  But while the sport is in its offseason, all 30 clubs are already in hot pursuit of the 2012 championship.

St. Louis is not the only city celebrating recent events.

Dodgers fans from Brooklyn to Los Angeles are reveling in the news that Frank McCourt has agreed to sell the club following a tumultuous season in which MLB took control of the club.  The messy divorce between McCourt and his former wife Jamie appear behind the franchise once and for all.

The McCourts bought the Dodgers in 2004 for $420 million; the sale is expected to bring between $800 million and more than $1 billion. Handling the process will be the Blackstone Group LP, and several interesting names have emerged as the early frontrunners to buy the club.

Among those names are Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, former owner Peter O'Malley and a group of former Dodgers players headed by Orel Hershiser and Steve Garvey.  Fred Claire, who served as the Dodgers GM from 1987-98, is also hoping to land the club.

The manager carousel goes 'round and 'round

Three marquee managerial jobs are currently vacant, with openings in Boston, St. Louis and Chicago.  The Red Sox appear to be in total disarray after the departures of both GM Theo Epstein and manager Terry Francona.  Epstein has since landed on the Windy City's North Side and fired Mike Quade who just completed his first year on the job. All signs point to Francona rejoining Epstein with the Cubs.

Tony La Russa retired just a few days after leading the Cardinals to the championship, and St. Louis hopes to quickly fill the future Hall of Fame manager's shoes.  Francona is reportedly on GM John Mozeliak's short list, along with longtime Cardinals assistant coach Jose Oquendo.  Another name that has come up is former Cubs Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg, most recently seen managing the Phillies' Triple-A team in Lehigh Valley.

Joe McEwing, who was part of Ozzie Guillen's White Sox staff this season, and Rays assistant Dave Martinez are also on the list.

New Boston GM Ben Cherington has conducted two interviews for the job, former Red Sox assistant coach Dale Sveum and Phillies bench coach Pete Mackanin.

Postseason hardware starts rolling in

What's your first thought when you read about a player who just hit 21 homers, batted .301 with an .849 OPS, drove in 84 runs, scored the same and stole 14 bases?  How about a pitcher that was 17-7 with a 2.89 ERA and 1.12 WHIP over the course of nearly 220 innings?

Give yourself a pat on the back if the first thought that crossed your mind was, "I bet those guys play fantastic defense."  The stats above are the average 2011 seasons for the latest Gold Glove Award winners.

NL: Clayton Kershaw (P); Yadier Molina (C); Joey Votto (1B); Brandon Phillips (2B), Placido Polanco (3B); Troy Tulowitzki (SS); Gerardo Parra (LF); Matt Kemp (CF); Andre Ethier (RF)

AL: Mark Buehrle (P); Matt Wieters (C); Adrian Gonzalez (1B); Dustin Pedroia (2B); Adrian Beltre (3B); Erick Aybar (SS); Alex Gordon (LF); Jacoby Ellsbury (CF); Nick Markakis (RF)