Rosenthal's Notes

The hardest working man in show business thinks that the Mets are a good, or at least likely fit for A-Rod:

A-Rod would be something of a square peg in a round hole for the Mets, but the team could make this work. Not by trading Reyes, a dumb idea if there ever was one. No, by trying to make the pieces fit . . . Moving Reyes, 24, back to second would be counter-productive; Rodriguez, 32, probably would only be average at short, a position he has not played regularly since 2003. Wright, who turns 25 on Dec. 20, is too athletic to move to first, but possesses the speed and instincts to play left.

I'm not sure why, if moving Reyes to 2B is counterproductive, moving Wright to left isn't. If anything, taking a plus bat at third base and sticking it in left devalues it far more than taking a solid, but not necessarily exceptional bat at short and moving it to second, especially when you have a relative bargain of an option ($7.5M) on Moises Alou in left.

I've said it a couple of times already, but the Mets make the least sense to me out of any horse in the A-Rod derby. Not only do they not have a position for him, but they happen to play in New York, and I am convinced that A-Rod wants the hell out of New York. I think Boras will use the Mets to drive up bids from others, but a deal between them makes no sense for either side.

Also:

The Pirates will interview White Sox bench coach Joey Cora for their managerial vacancy, according to major-league sources . . .Cora, 42, graduated from Vanderbilt in 1985 with a degree in economics . . .

I didn't know that about Cora. I love learning that kind of stuff about players. That said, if he has an econ degree from a good school like Vandy, he's smart enough to know that taking the Pirates' job is a big mistake.