Report: Torre to Dodgers

Baseball Betting Lines

10/30/2007 - Westchester, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Los Angeles Dodgers are reportedly ready to fire manager Grady Little and replace him with former New York Yankees manager Joe Torre.

The Journal-News of Westchester, New York, citing two sources close to the situation, said the 67-year-old Torre could be named the Dodgers new manager on Tuesday.

Don Mattingly, who was one of the three finalists for the vacant Yankees job, is expected to join Torre in Los Angeles as his bench coach.

The Dodgers were 82-80 this season under Little and finished fourth in the NL West. Little, who called 2007 the toughest year of his career because of bickering between the team's veteran and young players, is under contract for the 2008 season.

Torre balked at a one-year incentive-laden offer to remain as manager of the Yankees after 12 seasons in the Bronx. The Yankees made the postseason in all 12 years of Torre's tenure and won four World Series championships.

But, the team has lost in the first round of the playoffs in three consecutive seasons and Torre is just 4-13 in his last 17 postseason games.

Torre has 2,067 career victories for sole possession of eighth place on baseball's all-time managerial wins list and ranks second on the Yankees all- time victories list. He's also managed the Mets (1977-81), Braves (1982-84) and Cardinals (1990-95) during his career.

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Work left to do: Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Kansas State

Texas joins Texas A&M and Kansas as locks after getting league win No. 11. Texas Tech greatly helped its own hopes and crippled OK State's with the two-point win Saturday. Is K-State the last reasonable hopeful? Could be an elimination match in Stillwater on Tuesday, at least for the Cowboys.

Work left to do:

Texas Tech [18-11 (7-7), RPI: 44, SOS: 12] A critical two-point win over OK State leaves the Red Raiders with Baylor and at Iowa State left. Get both and the Red Raiders likely are good to go. Get one and there could be some interesting comparisons with a K-State team that could finish two or three games "ahead" of them in the standings but doesn't have any of the quality wins Texas Tech has. Not a lot in nonconference play (against Arkansas in Little Rock being the best win, by far) to lean on.

Oklahoma State [18-9 (5-8), RPI: 50, SOS: 35] Still without a road win, the Cowboys now need to win two on the road just to get to .500 in conference play. It's hard to recall a team (OK, other than Clemson) falling so precipitously from lock status to almost certainly out of the NCAAs at this point. There are wins to be had in the last three, including a very big home game against K-State on Tuesday, but this team is reeling. Can you tell the pressure to win is getting to them with the way the final possession played out at Texas Tech? There are some good nonconference performances to lean on, specifically beating Missouri State and Syracuse on neutral floors and Pitt in OK City, but if the Pokes don't right this very, very soon, that won't be enough.

Kansas State [20-9 (9-5), RPI: 56, SOS: 96] It pays to be in the Big 12 North. The nine league wins are Colorado (twice), Missouri (twice), Iowa State (twice), Baylor, Nebraska and (a good one against) Texas. That helps explain the middling computer profile. The win over USC is nice, but the nonconference leaves a lot to be desired. The game at OK State in Stillwater on Tuesday is huge, as it could KO the Cowboys and leave K-State with a home date against Oklahoma with which to work.