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Baseball Notebook: Brewers bring Sveum back to be hitting instructor
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Published: November 5, 2008
■ Brewers: Milwaukee hired Dale Sveum as hitting coach yesterday, bringing back the interim manager who led Milwaukee to its first playoff berth in 26 years.
Sveum had been a managerial candidate, but General Manager Doug Melvin picked former Oakland Athletics skipper Ken Macha last week, citing a need for experience.
Sveum took over as manager this year after the club fired Ned Yost with 12 games to go. Sveum finished with a 7-5 record, winning six of the final seven games to help Milwaukee win the NL wild card on the final day of the regular season.
The Brewers were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs by Philadelphia, the eventual World Series champion.
Sveum, 44, has said he wants to be a manager one day. He won a title with Boston in 2004 as third-base coach and was on the Red Sox staff in 2005 as well.
■ Cardinals: Pitcher Chris Carpenter had surgery yesterday to transpose a nerve in his right elbow, the same procedure that St. Louis slugger Albert Pujols had last month.
The Cardinals did not say whether Carpenter, the 2005 NL Cy Young winner, remained on a timetable to return by spring training.
Carpenter, 33, pitched only 151/3 innings over four appearances last season after recovering from reconstructive elbow surgery. went 0-1 with a 1.76 ERA and was shut down in early September.
Pujols underwent the surgery on Oct. 13 after complaining of multiple symptoms related to nerve irritation the final month of the season. Pujols said he felt numbness, tingling in his ring finger and pinkie, weakness in his grip and pain along the inside of the forearm.
After that surgery, the team said it expected Pujols would be ready for spring training.
Braden Looper, a starter the last two seasons with St. Louis, has opted for free agency.
■ Yankees: New York declined its 2009 options on first baseman Jason Giambi and pitcher Carl Pavano yesterday, making them eligible for free agency.
Giambi will receive a $5 million buyout rather than a $22 million salary next season, completing his $120 million, seven-year contract. Pavano gets a $1.95 million buyout instead of a $13 million salary, finishing his $39.95 million deal.
Giambi, the 2000 AL MVP with Oakland, hit 209 homers during his time with the Yankees. Slowed by injuries and in the center of controversy during baseball's investigation of the use of performance-enhancing drugs, Giambi failed to win any World Series titles during his time in New York.
Pavano was one of the biggest free-agent busts, spending most of the past four years on the disabled list. He made just 26 starts during the contract, going 9-8 with a 5.00 ERA.
■ Nationals: Washington sent first baseman Dmitri Young to Class AAA Syracuse on Monday, handing him his latest setback.
Young — the National League's comeback player of the year in 2007 — played in only 50 games this past season, batting .280 with four homers and 10 RBIs in 150 at-bats. He missed time with a lower-back injury and while receiving treatment for diabetes. He was shut down for the season after straining his left hip while running the bases during a minor-league rehab assignment in early September.
■ Dodgers: Los Angeles paid $50,000 yesterday to buy out the contract option it held on catcher Gary Bennett for next year.
Bennett played in only 10 games for the Dodgers last season, getting four hits including a home run in 21 at-bats and driving in four runs. He didn't play after going on the disabled list May 20 because of problems with his left foot.
Bennett signed with the Dodgers Dec. 17, a few days after admitting he used human growth hormone.
He was one of 85 players implicated in the Mitchell Report.
Bennett has also played for Philadelphia, the Mets, Colorado, San Diego, Milwaukee, Washington and St. Louis.
■ Blue Jays: Toronto claimed left-hander Les Walrond off waivers from the Philadelphia Phillies yesterday.
Walrond, 31, went 1-1 with a 6.10 ERA in six games with Philadelphia last season. Drafted by St. Louis in 1998,
Walrond reached the majors with Kansas City in 2003 and pitched for the Chicago Cubs in 2006. He has a career record of 1-4 with a 7.07 ERA in 23 games.
Walrond filled the roster spot created when catcher Gregg Zaun filed for free agency.
Zaun, 38, batted .237 with six homers and 30 RBIs in 86 games last season. He injured his elbow in June and lost his starting job to Rod Barajas.
A 14-year veteran, Zaun signed with Toronto in 2004 after playing with Baltimore, Florida, Texas, Kansas City, Hosuton and Colorado. He is a career .251 hitter with 78 homers and 405 RBIs.
On Monday, the Blue Jays made two waiver claims, getting pitcher Kelvin Jimenez from St. Louis and shortstop Angel Sanchez from Kansas City.
■ Miscellaneous: Mark Teixeira, Matt Holliday and CC Sabathia drew the highest marks yesterday in the annual player rankings by the Elias Sports Bureau.
The rankings are used to determine what draft choices are awarded as compensation for teams losing free agents.
Teixeira received the top overall score of 98.889, based on the last two seasons and done with a formula set by players and owners.
Teixeira was traded from Atlanta to the Los Angeles Angels in July, and hit a combined .308 with 33 home runs and 121 RBIs. Teixeira, a Gold Glove first baseman, has filed for free agency.
Holliday, an outfielder, got the highest NL ranking at 98.125. He hit .321 with 25 homers and 88 RBIs for the Rockies.
Sabathia drew a ranking of 98.110. He went 17-10 with a 2.70 ERA for Cleveland and Milwaukee, and has filed for free agency.
■ Miscellaneous: Jose Canseco has pleaded guilty in federal court in San Diego to a misdemeanor offense of trying to bring a fertility drug across the border from Mexico. A U.S. magistrate yesterday sentenced Canseco to 12 months' unsupervised probation.
Canseco told the judge he had gone to Tijuana looking for a substance to restore his testosterone levels in an attempt to reverse damage done by his admitted steroids use.
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