• Oakland Athletics Vice President and General Manager Billy Beane announced today Ken Macha has been relieved of his duties as manager of the club.
  Macha compiled a 368-280 record in four seasons as manager of the A’s. He joined the Oakland organization in 1999 as bench coach and was named the 27th manager in franchise history on October 29, 2002.
• The Chicago Cubs have called a noon (CT) press conference for tomorrow to presumably announce the hiring of Lou Piniella as their manager.
• The Washington Nationals today announced that pitching coach Randy St. Claire will be retained for the 2007 season. The club also notified its other coaches that positions on the 2007 staff will be filled after the ongoing managerial search is completed.
• Major League Baseball (MLB) and the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) have announced that outfielders Carlos Beltran of the New York Mets and Jermaine Dye of the Chicago White Sox will be part of the roster of 27 MLB All-Stars traveling to Japan this November to play in a newly-formatted, best-of-five-game competition against their counterparts from Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) in "All-Star Series 2006."
• The Yankees announced today that infielders Andy Cannizaro and Nick Green have been outrighted to Triple-A Scranton and that Green has elected free agency. Additionally, catcher Sal Fasano (whose contract extended through the 2006 season) has also elected to become a free agent.
• The Tampa Bay Devil Rays added left-handed pitcher Jeff Ridgway to the 40-man roster and released first baseman Kevin Witt.

Q. Will the benefit of this be that both teams can get their pitching staffs back on normal rest in order?
WILLIE RANDOLPH: Yeah, I guess you can look at it that way. To me, come to the ballpark, and you're ready to play, you want to play. I guess you can look at it that way. I don't see where this necessarily makes a big difference. It's one game and sometimes guys go and do real well on three days. You want to look at the bright side of it, you want to stay on schedule, yeah, I guess so.

Q. You've been through a lot of years in baseball and around a lot of great hitters. In New York on a nightly basis, we see Carlos Delgado, charting all the at-bats in the book, is he one of the most studious and smartest hitters that you've been around?
WILLIE RANDOLPH: I would say so. I've been around quite a few but he takes it very seriously obviously. He studies the game and he brings that real cerebral approach to his teammates, obviously it's worked for him personally, but yeah, he's a guy who studies the game, gets involved in the situation of the game and he knows you're going to try to attack him and go after him. But he's going to have a plan to be ready to counteract that.

Q. Is the manager in you pleased to have a pitcher now being able to go on full rest?
TONY LA RUSSA: I think it's not just the pitcher for either side -- it's exactly the same for both guys. You don't want to have a pitcher pitch short if you don't have to. And I think more importantly, because I think both guys have been gearing themselves to go, so they are ready. I think the position players would have had to deal with the elements, the manager in me, Willie and myself, it would be dangerous and a lot to ask.