CC Update & Some Other Stuff

More details are starting to emerge about the mega-deal the Yankees made with CC Sabathia. The contract is rumored to be for 7 years and for $161 million, which is $23 million per year. The deal also includes an opt-out clause, which CC can exercise after 3 years, which would be at the conclusion of the 2011 season. I did read, but can't remember where, that Sabathia was requesting an opt-our clause in any deal he made. I'm not sure how I feel about the inclusion of an opt-out clause. I can understand why he wants it. I can understand why the Yankees gave it to him. It doesn't mean he's going anywhere. But if it's not a match made in heaven, they can part ways. Moving on.....

It sounds like the Yanks are moving in on Derek Lowe. I'm resigned to the fact that the Yanks are going to sign either A.J. Burnett as Derek Lowe. I'd prefer neither, but if I had to pick one, I'd go with Lowe. I think Burnett has better stuff, but Lowe is much more durable and you can bank on him to start 34 games a year. I'd also go with the 4 year deal versus the 5 that Burnett is going to get. But Lowe scares me. I don't think he's that good. Sure he pitched well in LA, but that's a pitcher's park in a pitcher's league. He should do that well in LA. His last 2 years in Boston weren't so hot. Lowe posted an ERA of 4.47 in 2003 and an ERA of 5.42 in 2005. Those numbers scare me. I don't see him fairing any better if he returns to an even tougher AL East. I just don't see it happening.

And finally, according to Jon Heyman at SI.com, Big Bank Hank apparently wants the Yankees to sign Manny Ramirez. I wouldn't necessary mind seeing Manny in the Boogie Down. But I'd much prefer to see Mark Teixeira. If they're going to spend the money on offense, spend it on Tex. Unless some other roster moves are made, the Yankees don't really need another LF/DH.

Ah the hot stove. You have to love all the rumors and whatnot.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

All Is Quiet

Not much going out there in Yankeeland. Hal Steinbrenner has assumed control of the team, but other than that all is pretty quiet. As long as the person in the charge of the Yankees is named Steinbrenner, I'm happy. Hal and Hank definitely know what their father has meant for the team and for Major League Baseball. There's no way they do anything to change the way the ship is run. And even thought Hal is the control person, fear not Yankee fans, Big Bank Hank will still be in charge of baseball operations. Awesome. Hank isn't one to shy away from making some inane comment and I like that. You want a nice and crazy sound bite, Hank's your guy. He seems to be a lot more like his pops and I don't think he'll be afraid to let people know how he feels and what he wants. He might be a blowhard, but he'll do whatever he can to make sure the team wins.

Still no movement on the free agent front. CC remains unsigned. That makes me a little nervous. I'm beginning to think he'd prefer something else, even if it's at a lower salary. It's widely known that CC prefers playing in the National League. It's also widely know that he prefers to play on the west coast as that's where he was born and raised. Nobody is going to give CC as much money as the Yankees. Everyone knows this, including CC and his agent. If it was about the cash, he'd have signed already. At least that's what I think. What's really the difference between 6 years/$140 mill and 6 years/$120 million? Not much when you think about it. A few of us were talking about it at work and and extra $20 million wouldn't be enough for us to want to play out west if the scenario were reversed. $120 million is enough money for probably about 8 generations of Sabathia's to live rather comfortably. If he truly wants to play in the NL or play out west, the Yanks might need to dig a little deeper. I think he's going to slip through our fingers. Hopefully, CC does something soon so the Yankees can move on to other targets. What do you guys think? We going to land the big guy?

A.J. Burnett's agent wants a 5 year deal. If I'm the Yankees, I don't even bother. From what I've read, it sounds like they wouldn't even entertain the thought. They'll be tempted to if CC signs elsewhere and I hope they resist that temptation. I still think A.J. has the potential to be a huge bust. Five years is a long time and I don't think the risk would be worth the reward. Cashman is a creative guy. I'm sure he'll come up with something if need be.

As I said in my Say No Lowe post from a few days ago, I think the Yankees need to pass on Derek Lowe if the price tag is indeed $16 million per year. I'm just not a fan and I think his numbers will balloon if he comes back to the AL. $16 mill just isn't worth it to me. Hope it's not to the Yanks.

If the Yankees happen to swing and miss with the big 3, I have to think they'll make a huge push for Mark Teixeira. How can they not? I still think they should even if they sign all 3 of the above. Nick Swisher will be serviceable, but he's no Mark Teixeira. Adding Tex to the lineup would be preferred, but I understand they want to throw the $$ at the pitchers. I wonder what Cashman is really thinking?

I really thought something would have happened by now. I'm continuously hopping online to check for updates. I pretty much do this all throughout the hot stove. I pretty much live on MLBtraderumors.com. If you've never checked the site out, I highly recommend it. It's like a one-stop shop for pretty much all the news there is to print.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

Back In The Win Column, Yanks Win 8-0, Joba's Headed For The Rotation

I was not impressed with anything I saw tonight. Allow me to explain. Tonight was the start of bar league softball. We usually draw the 7:10pm start which means I don't see much Yankees baseball on Wednesday nights. By the time our game ended tonight, the score in the Yankees game was 6-0 and the 5th inning had just ended. My drive home is about 45 minutes and by the time I get home and take a shower, the game is just about over. I caught the tail end of the game. And since i missed all the action, I can't be impressed with what I didn't see.

If you didn't watch the game on YES then you missed some big news after the game. Joe Girardi was the on-the-field post-game interview. Joe mentioned that tonight marked the beginning of getting Joba ready for the rotation. They let him go 2 innings to stretch him out a little bit. I wonder if this directive is being handed down from above. You know Hank can't be happy with the current state of the Yankees. He's made his feelings about Joba becoming a starter known to everyone. It looks like Big Bank Hank is getting his wish a lot earlier than everyone expected. How cool would it be to be in the Yankees inner circle? I picture Hank chewing out Cashman and Girardi like his dad did with Billy Martin when he wanted Reggie Jackson to bat 4th. I think moving Joba to the rotation this early is a panic move. Personally, I'd rather see the Yankees wait until next season. Keep his innings down. We've all heard time and time again that youngsters who throw over a certain amount of innings are more likely to develop issues. If Joba is as good as everyone thinks he is, don't rush it. Assuming he slides into the rotation next month, I guess that leaves Ian Kennedy on the outs? You'd have to assume with Darrell Rasner pitching the way he is that Ike is the odd man out. I'm fine with that. He's not ready yet.

I think it's safe to say D-Raz has earned a spot in the rotation. I wonder if his intent tonight was to send a message to Girardi: I'll show you to skip my spot in the rotation. I caught some of the game on the radio during my drive home and was impressed with what I heard. Who wouldn't be impressed with 7 shutout innings? He picked up his 3rd win, dropped his ERA to 1.89, and most importantly gave the Yankee bullpen a much needed night off. Last night the pen throws 8+. Tonight, Joba goes 2 after a 3 day layoff. No harm done. Way to go D-Raz. Taking care of business.

The offense finally had a good night. 8 runs on 13 hits. I'd love to be able to declare that the offense is back but it's waaaay to early to even think that they have. I think it's safe to say that A-Rod is back. 3-for-4 with another HR, his 2nd in 2 games. I saw the replay of what should have been his 3rd HR. It looked pretty obvious to me on the replay. Not sure how that was missed. MLB and the owners definitely need to look into instant replay. I'm only in favor of IR in the case of reviewing a HR. That's the only time it should be used. It's such a big play int he game how can it not be? We've now seen 2 blown HR calls in 3 games at the Stadium. i hope they take a hard look at it. It was nice to see Cano chime in with a multi-hit game. It was a good time for me to take him out of my fantasy lineup. I'll take one for the team and leave him out for the time being. Abreu and Damon also came through with 2 hits a-piece. This team definitely fares a lot better when Johnny Damon does well at the plate. He's definitely a catalyst. All in all not a bad night offensively. I can't get too excited because this is what they should be doing on a regular basis. We've seen them put up a good game quite a few times, only to put together a string of horrendous performances. I'll get excited if they can score 5 runs or more for 4 straight games and more importantly, winning.

Not a bad post for someone who didn't see much of the action. Ian Kennedy is on the mound tomorrow. That's always an adventure. Not a bad night for Rasner to go 7. If Kennedy pulls off one of his "typical" outings, we'll need fresh arms in the bullpen. A 2 game winning streak would be nice right about now.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

ps- Joe Girardi is saying in his post-game interview that the plan all along was to get Joba ready for the rotation at this time in the season. Yeah, I'm not buying it. It's a panic move. This wouldn't be happening if the Yankees' fortunes were a little better.

Embarrassing

You think I'd be used to crappy performance after crappy performance by now. It's getting ridiculous to watch. The Yankees right now are flat out boring. It's difficult to watch. I can't be the only one out there that assumes once they give up 4 runs that the game is over, regardless of the inning. It's pitiful to watch such a potent lineup go out and do nothing.

Oliver Perez owns the Yankees. 3 straight wins against them. And he's not that good. Just another case of a marginal pitcher owning the Yanks. Absolutely horrible. I think it's pretty safe to say that the Yankees are not built to beat left-handers. It should get better when A-Rod and Jorge return but I'm starting to have my doubts.

Bobby Abreu is really ticking me off. When he struck out looking with 1 out and a runner on 3rd in the 5th inning I wanted to throw my remote control through the TV. He's just one of the many bats that we need to wake up! He's 3 for his last 18. During the ESPN broadcast, Jon Miller mentioned that Bobby Abreu has the best arm on the team. I'm nor sure Miller watches baseball sometimes. Abreu should have gunned down David Wright on Alou's 7th inning sac fly. As soon as I saw Wright break for home I thought they had him. But there's Bobby making an absolutely horrible throw. He also should have thrown out Ryan Church but the throw was offline. It could have been an entirely different game had he made those throws. Who am I kidding? They still wouldn't have scored. They had 3 measly hits.

There inability to hit when they need to is remarkable. Matsui lined out with 2 out and a runner on 2nd in the 1st. Melky and Alberto failed to get Giambi home from 2nd in the 2nd. Melky and Alberto failed to get Cano home from scoring position in the 4th. Damon, Abreu and Jeter all fail to score Molina from scoring position in the 5th. Cano grounds into a DP in the 6th. No hits from the 5th inning on. The lack of clutch/timely hitting on this team astounds me.

Chien-Ming Wang pulled an Andy Pettitte and melted down in the 4th inning. Wang was perfect through 3 and then the roof caved in. The 4th inning was such a crappy inning to watch. The inning went south when he walked Beltran. Giambi makes a great stop and makes a horrible throw to 2nd pulling Jeter from the bag. You've got to get the out there. The play was to first. You'd think Giambi would know he can't make that throw. Why try? Alou then accidentally hits a 2-run single. Weak. That inning should have never been that bad. If it's not the offense failing Wang, it's the defense. But that's baseball. Wang needed to take care of business and he couldn't quite get it done. The walk to Beltran killed him. I thought Wang pitched alright. not good enough to win, but better than his pitching line indicates. And big thanks to Ross Ohlendorf for totally having Wang's back. Not.

My buddy, who is a Mets fan, sent me a text message calling for the umpire's head for reversing the Delgado HR call. That's baseball. Every team is going to benefit from blown calls. As much as it sucks when it happens to your team, you'll eventually reap the benefits of bad umpiring. It's to be expected when you rely on the human eye to make those calls. If they ever bring in instant replay, it should only be on potential home runs. I wanted to text him back and tell him not to worry because the Yankees weren't going to score 3 runs anyway but I didn't want to drop the dime on the text. Am I the only one who wanted to mute the TV when miller and Morgan went on for what seemed like forever about the fair pole? Shut up already.

I have to think that if Hank Steinbrenner were watching the game he has to be thoroughly pissed and embarrassed that the Mets fans basically ran the Yankees fans out of the building. I now the volume of Mets fans is expected to be high since the two teams play a few miles apart from each other, but you can't have that in Yankee Stadium. You could hear the Mets fans all game. But listening to them roar with 2 outs in the 9th was ridiculous. I'm curious if there will be any Hank quotes on this, assuming he was paying attention.

The Yankees now need my boy Mike Mussina to be the stopper. Even if Moose is totally on I think the Yanks will be in for a battle as they are going up against Daniel Cabrera. Cabrera is no slouch and he's already pitched well against the Yankees this year. I think Moose will do well Tuesday but I don't see much coming from the offense. They really need Alex and Jorge back in the lineup. Thankfully Alex is back.

Sadly, it probably won't do a bit of good. Enjoy the off day.

J-Boogie

Words From Big Bank Hank

Hank Steinbrenner, aka Big Bank Hank, has dropped another nugget of gold into our collective laps with regards to Joba Chamberlain being a starter:

"I want him as a starter and so does everyone else, including him, and that is what we are working toward and we need him there now. There is no question about it, you don't have a guy with a 100-mile-per-hour fastball and keep him as a setup guy. You just don't do that. You have to be an idiot to do that. The mistake was already made last year switching him to the bullpen out of panic or whatever. I had no say in it last year and I wouldn't have allowed it. That was done last year, so now we have to catch up. It has to be done on a schedule so we don't rush him."

He also added, "I think once Hughes and Kennedy get plenty of starts and get Joba back, and with (Chien-Ming) Wang and (Andy) Pettitte, we will be fine."

Tell us how you really feel Hank. Now what I take from this is that Hank thinks that Joe Torre, Joe Girardi, and Brian Cashman, amongst others, are idiots. There's a vote of confidence if I've ever heard one. I don't think Hank knows as much as he thinks he does. There's a reason Hank is an owner and not a coach or general manager. I don't think Hank has a good understanding of what comes along with the day-to-day operations of managing a young pitching staff. You have to take into account innings limits for these youngsters. There's no way that Hughes, Kennedy, or Chamberlain should log 180+ innings this year. They'll each easily reach that limit if they start 30 or so games, which they would if they spend the year in the rotation. Stats have shown that guys that increase their inning more than a certain percentage develop arm issues and also they show not to be as effective. The last think anyone wants is for these guys to flame out before they're even in their prime.

The success Joba has had as a setup guy isn't going to translate to the same success as a starter. Joba can live off his 2 best pitches (fastball/slider) in a 1 inning. He'll need to throw a more variety of pitches if he starts. No guarantee that he'll be able to do is as effectively. The coaches know what they're doing. They're doing this for a reason.

I agree with Hank to a point but I think he's panicking because the Yankees are sitting at 10-10 and the pitching so far has been a problem. I don't think Hank would have made these comments if Hughes and Kennedy were living up to expectations.

Calm down Hank. It'll be OK.

Be back later with a weekend wrap-up.

J-Boogie

That Didn't Take Long

The Yankees have found and removed the David Ortiz jersey hidden in the concrete in the new Yankee Stadium. It sounds like Big Bank Hank unleashed the bloodhounds as soon as the story broke. Hank was quoted in the New York Post saying, "I hope his co-workers kick the s--- out of him." Now that's what I'm saying. Dude should get a beatdown. I'm surprised they actually went looking for it.

All is again right with the world.

J-Boogie

Not So Random Stuff

As I blogged a few days ago, I was pulling for the Yankees to hire Joe Girardi as Torre's replacement. I'm glad they saw it my way and went with Joe over Yankee fan favorite Don Mattingly. I really didn't hear or see much support out there for Mattingly. People referred to him as the favorite and I always found that to be an odd belief. Girardi was always the best candidate in my opinion. I think he'll serve the Yankees well.
It's being reported that the Dodgers have canned Grady Little and are replacing him with Joe Torre. Not a big surprise in my opinion. It also reports that Mattingly is being brought in to again serve under Torre as the bench coach. Again, I'm not surprised. It's a good move for both. Torre stays in the game and gets far away from the guys in Tampa. Mattingly gets more experience and is now part of the organization that drafted his son Preston. I get the impression too that Tommy Lasorda is a big Mattingly guy. He's always spoken highly of him when his name comes up in interviews. I think I speak for Yankees fans everywhere when I wish them both the best. I was listening to the 24-7 MLB channel on XM tonight and a guy called in and asked if anyone thought that Torre to LA would mean that the Yankees would lose guys, specifically Posada, Mo, and Pettitte, to the Dodgers. The hots of the show had a great answer, and one I agree with. The Dodgers have no interest in Posada with Russell Martin behind the dish. I can't see them approaching Rivera with Saito at the back of the Dodger bullpen. Pettitte, I can see leaving, but I don't see it happening. I'm real curious to see if Joe to LA will have any bearing on their desire to bring in A-Rod. Honestly, I don't see Torre wanting to put up with him if he doesn't have to. Maybe the list of potential suitors for A-Rod just got smaller. I hope so.
Speaking of A-Rod, I love the quotes I've read pertaining to this whole situation and how it went down. I'll start with Bob DuPuy, COO of MLB:
"We were very disappointed that Scott Boras would try to upstage our premier baseball event of the season with his announcement. There was no reason to make an announcement last night other than to try to put his selfish interests and that of one individual player above the overall good of the game. Last night and today belong to the Boston Red Sox, who should be celebrated for their achievement, and to the Colorado Rockies, who made such an unbelievable run to the World Series."
Well said. I especially love the part that mentions "selfish interests." Classic and it sums up A-Rod and Boras quite nicely. And Boras can be all apologetic and try to take the heat for this, but he works for A-Rod. He does nothing without client approval. Selfish doosh.
The next quote comes from Big Bank Hank. And this is probably the only thing he's said that I agree with:
"It's clear he didn't want to be a Yankee. He doesn't understand the privilege of being a Yankee on a team where the owners are willing to pay $200 million to put a winning product on the field. I don't want anybody on my team that doesn't want to be a Yankee."
Wow, Big Bank Hank. I'm honestly surprised you came up with this. My only critique is that you didn't use the word "painfully" in the first sentence. It was obvious that Alex didn't want to stay. If there was even a remote chance, he would have met with the Yankees brass and at least listened to what they had to say. He didn't even extend them the opportunity. That speaks volumes.
"We're not going to back down. It's goodbye." - Hank Steinbrenner
I only hope that the Yankees stay true to their word and don't even bother with him. He thinks he's bigger than the Yankees. He thinks he's bigger than MLB. We don't need that. Let him be a cancer somewhere else.
Despite all of that, and my current feeling of A-Rod, I do want to thank him for the last 4 years. He's truly a marvel and fun to watch. He did some amazing things and it was nice to watch him do that while he played for "my team." But in the end, he showed his true colors as a selfish man, who is only out for his own personal glory. Whatever. It's business. I hope he doesn't mind being the first player inducted into the HOF who will have the MLB logo on his cap, or maybe even no hat at all? He'd probably love it. Man, what a selfish doosh.
Stay true to your word Hank. Stay true to your word.
J