It's the season of change, and not just in Manchester (seriously, who names their team after a month-long quadrennial event?). The San Diego Padres, who once wore uniforms directly modelled on those sported by McDonald's employees, unveiled their splashy new look yesterday, just in time to bring Trevor Hoffman back as their closer. Hoffman's injury was a massive blessing in disguise; it allowed the team to buy out the ridiculous $10M option in his contract for $2M and bring him back instead for one year at just $2.5M. Speaking of good money after bad, the Pat Meares Era in Pittsburgh finally came to an end as well, as the worst contract extension in history expired along with the running feud between the useless ballplayer and the idiots who signed him. And hey, get your hot stove cranked up: the GM meetings, the annual precursor to baseball's transaction-filled winter meetings, start Monday In Phoenix.
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