I'm working on a longer piece looking at the development of the young cores for the NL West teams, but it's taking longer than I thought it would, so I'll post this for now.

The Rockies have received permission from the Yankees to talk to Butch Wynegar for their vacant hitting coach position. Wynegar joins Don Baylor and Greg Colbrunn as interviewees for the position.

The Snakes have offered Ramon Vazquez a contract. Vazquez will be a clear downgrade from Orlando Hudson, both offensively and defensively, and might not be much of an upgrade from Chris Burke or Augie Ojeda. Clearly Arizona is hoping Vazquez is able to repeat his production with Texas from last season, but an anomalous BABIP to his career leaves considerable doubt this will be the case. While the Rockies now currently project to have the division's best second baseman (so long as they don't choose to give the job to Clint Barmes), they are not out of the woods yet with both the Dodgers and Giants pursuing Hudson to some degree.

2009 Marcel Projected wOBA for NL West second basemen:

1. Jeff Baker .335
2. Blake DeWitt .331
3. Matt Antonelli .328
   
4. Ramon Vazquez .320
5. Kevin Frandsen .316

• Orlando Hudson .346
• Clint Barmes .307