Today in The Journal News
-
- November
- 6
Andy Pettitte declined his option but still could return.
Scott Boras is at the GM Meetings seeking a buyer for A-Rod. Omar Minaya isn’t sure if he’s interested.
The GMs have a series of meetings today and instant replay will be among the topics. Back later with updates, rumors and whatever else we come across.
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on Tuesday, November 6th, 2007 at 9:28 am by Peter Abraham.
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Peter Abraham
Pete, any word on Mo and Po?
I really hope Andy comes back.
Go out and get us a scoop today, Peter!
So is this blog for or against instant replay?
Anyone out there, like me, think that the fact that Boston is about to retain Schilling may prevent them from having the dollars to spend on A-rod?
Think about this:
1. Red Sox retain Lowell at $14
2. Red Sox save the following:
$13 – Schilling
$6.5 – Hinske
$4.5 – half of Lugo’s salary (traded to NL team)
The savings from all of the above might have amounted to what they could spin off for Arod, per year. I think the fact that they may now be dipping into the bucket for $10 or so for Schilling may keep them out of the A-rod sweepstakes.
It’s looking more and more like a west coast team to me, and for less than what NY was willing to pay.
ARod will be a SF Giant. But if the Sox wanted him, they’d come up with the money.
I think there’s still a reasonable chance that ARod will be back. Obviously, it would have to be in such a way that would allow the Yankees to save face.
Instant replay will add time to games that already tend to run way too long. I think it sucks.
As for A-Rod, it would be nice to see a lottery among losing teams for his services…. with the understanding that the winner would make him an offer somewhere near the league minimum and no other team would touch him. How about $3.5M total for 10 years?
I hope A-Rod goes to the Mets. Get him out of AL and we get to boo him at least 6 games a year.
Fun for all!
Instant replay in playoff and WS games only! Not during the regular season, please. Watching games that run 4+ hours is the norm with the Yanks – imagine 5-6 hours – Yikes!
Looking forward to any tidbits you can give us today, Pete. News of Rivera/Posada would be much appreciated. Heard Jorge is asking for 4 years – I say sign him up. After his regular catching days are over, he’d be a great switch hitting DH and back-up catcher or even converted 1st baseman. Don’t let these guys get away, Cash!
Rebecca, I’m for the replay because the Yankees seem to get robbed more than anyone else. They could do it with limited use like football or in tennis when you’re allocated so many challenges and not charged with a challenge if win it. You could also have every HR ball and tag reviewed by the “booth” like college ball, but that would really break up the flow of the game.
Steve, IF the Sox want him they’ll find the money. They are flush with money.
Clay, it seems like the Yankees actions and words re: Alex have gone beyond the usual negotiating tactics. If A-Team is angling for a record-setting deal, do you really think that Alex would come groveling back? I’m not being sarcastic, I’m just trying to convince myself that there’s zero chance of Alex wearing pinstripes in the very near future. Come back and break the record years down the line, please.
Omar would give his right pinky to have A-rod. I can’t imagine that the fans and media would treat him any differently just because he’s a Met. It would still be a fishbowl, of course there mantra is not World Series or Bust, so he may actually be relaxed over there.
Against replay. It’s a slippery slope to automated pitch calling from there. And it’d take away those Billy Martin/Earl Weaver moments that are so entertaining.
Schilling back. Supposedly $8M + $2M incentives. Too bad he hated the Yankees so much. They wouldn’t have insulted him like that. lol.
Good, thats another season we can beat up on Schilling…
As much as I am a fan of Jeter, here is a great article on his defensive prowess:
http://www.billjamesonline.net/fieldingbible/jeter.asp
You guys against Instant Replay aren’t really thinking about it. You’re not going to add 1-2 hours onto a game. If anything, you’ll just be replacing the time that the manager comes out to argue on the field with an umpire reviewing the play.
IR needs to be executed properly. It can’t be used for balls/strikes. A manager should only be allowed 1, maybe 2 per game. There is already a fifth umpire in the stadium in case something happens to someone on the field. It wouldn’t be hard for him to watch the game, be able to view the replays and then radio down do the Crew Chief the correct call. You’re adding on maybe 5 minutes to the game, MAX.
I don’t know why people are against it. The umpires get progressively more terrible season after season and nothing will be done to fix it.
And to Mary Ellen, why only in playoff and WS games only? Blown calls during the season could cause certain teams to not make the playoffs in the first place. That wouldn’t be fair, would it?
“Watching games that run 4+ hours is the norm with the Yanks – imagine 5-6 hours – Yikes!”
i am against replay, but it’s not going to add 2 hours.
Steve, I get your point about the upside of instant replay – however, IMO because there are 162 games played during regular season, teams that are going to get to the playoffs will get there without the benefit of replay. But in short series, it becomes critical that close plays are called correctly, as there is no margin for error. So I do think in that context, it is fair.
Baseball by it’s very nature is a slow game, and depending on who’s pitching, it can even get more tedious. Maybe replay won’t add 2 hours, but no question it would lengthen the games.
I have been against instant replay before but this past season felt like one sharp reminder after another of how poor officiating has been allowed to become and how obvious it is to every viewer with all the camera angles we get today. This is not yesterday’s game in which the viewer could assume that the official on the field got a better look at what happened. We see it as well as, sometimes better than, they do. And that means we see how often calls are flubbed. It saps that faith in the way the game is played that baseball fans would like to have.
As to the time element, we see all those angles in seconds, why couldn’t the spare umpire see them just as fast as we do?
If you limit instant replay to fair/foul and HR/no HR, it really wont have that much of an effect on the length of games, because the amount you would use it would be limited itself.
Good point, DHC, but why do we have to settle for poor umpiring – they need to raise the standards they set for their crews. Just because we have this technology, it doesn’t mean it’s a substitute for the human element. That’s why I enjoy watching sports and don’t enjoy playing video games.
One approach to have instant replays without excessive delays would be to provide for it only to occur where the umpires decide that they did not have an adequate view and that it would be helpful in that instance (as opposed to everytime a manager feels wronged by a call).
I don’t need Bill James or anyone else to tell me Jeter is an average to below average fielder. All you have to do is watch the games. His range is very suspect and his arm very erratic. He seems to get the job done though and rarely if ever hurts the team in a big spot. With all that being said i think it’s time to put him out to pasture in the outfield. I think one of his strengths is going back on balls which would suit him fine as a centerfielder.
Mary Ellen, I agree with you completely on both your key points—preferring human to human interaction over human to machine interaction, and wondering why we’ve settled for such poor performance from umpires.
Where we differ, I guess, is that sometime last season I lost hope that this acceptance of third-rate officiating would reach a limit and those buffoons out there would be made to perform or make room for others who could and would perform.
Today’s N.Y. Daily News says Posada wants 4 years.
Thanks for the memories, Jorge.
The Yanks CANNOT give a 36 year old catcher 4 years for these reasons:
1. He won’t come anywhere close to the .338 he hit this year next year, in 2009, 2010, or 2011. History shows that: he’s a career .277 hitter who’s previous single season high BA was .287. If the 2008 Yankees catching tandem combined for .270 and 2008 Posada bats .285, the Yanks did the right thing. You don’t pay $13M or more a year for 15 more points on a BA and worsening defense from you catcher.
2. He’s one bad collision or other catching injury in 2008 away from being a 2-3 years @ $13-14M/yr. albatross (assuming he wants 4 years and $52-56M). Years ago I saw I-Rod’s season ended by him breaking his thumb on Mo Vaughn’s bat on a stolen-base attempt. That’s how quickly a catcher’s season could end/ be cut short.
3. He’s not an above average defensive catcher, he’s average at best and not getting better thus he’ll only get worse. So what he started his catching career late? He’s still endured alot of wear and tear. One could argue his being overplayed since being a starter has cancelled out his late start.
4. There has never been a catcher who has been everyday player productive for age 36-40 (really 37-41 cuz he turns 41 late in 2011).
5. The Yanks could make up for his 2007 HR and RBI totals as follows:
Michael Barrett, 6 years younger than Posada, signed to post 15 HR and 65 RBI + Jose Molina re-signed to post 5 HR and 25 RBI. Even if Barrett posted 13 & 54, Molina 4 & 22, how is
17 HR & 76 RBI from the catcher position with better defense than Posada crap?
6. He’s a greedy jerk. The Yanks have paid him top dollar throughout his career as a starter and he repays them with wanting max dollars and years. 3 years $40M isn’t enough for this guy? That’s 3 years for an old catcher and about $2.5M
more a year than his 2007 salary of $10.5M -more than respectful. He came off a career year? O.k. so what? $13+M/yr. is the highest salary for a starting catcher (I-Rod $13M for ‘08 only). 3 years $40M would be the most lucrative contract for a starting catcher. I’d offer him 3 years @ $14M/yr. = $42M. If $14M/yr. for 3 years at his age isn’t enough, he can go $#%^ yourself, too, along with A-Rod.
7. If the Mets sign Posada, big deal: counter that by signing Paul LoDuca and Ramon Castro who combined for 20 HR and 85 RBI last year (LoDuca 9 & 54 + Castro 11 + 31).
The only problem that I see with using instant replay is that we will find that the umpires are right much more often than not on the calls that are being reviewed. That’s what has happened in tennis so far while using instant replay. More often than not, probably about 80 percent of the time, the linespeople have made the right call in the first place. That’s probably the same thing that would happen in baseball, just a few of the calls would be overturned.
Posada won’t be catching for four years, but he’ll make a pretty good DH.
J-Dawg, getting one out of five calls wrong doesn’t seem like a small percentage of error to me. But maybe that’s just me.
Jorge could probably also play some first base along with DHing for the last year or two. The logjam at first will be broken well before then.
Using replay for fair/foul and HR calls only wouldn’t do much; I can’t think of a bad fair/foul call that I saw this past year (though I’m sure there were examples), and the umps can collaborate on home runs and reverse a call. The bad calls tend to be safe/out calls and inconsistent strike zones, and adding replay to those won’t improve the umpiring; it’ll get worse if replay is seen as a backup.
This isn’t football, with 22 guys piling on and the resulting difficulty seeing plays. Keep replay out of baseball and work on improving the umpiring.
bye Georgy
P.S. I’m against instant replay
just curious what other sites everyone goes to for their yankee news.
are there any other blogs out there that people go to?
i check this one about 10 times a day, but i need more rumors/info!!!
you guys are taking Instant Replay wayy to far… they’re not going to challenge every single call an umpire makes…
there would be a limit on it. managers aren’t going to go instant replay happy! look at football.. they only challenge when they really need it, or if they know the call was blatantly wrong.
AGAINST INSTANT REPLAY
Nobody wants longer games, certainly not the GMs who want fans to be happy and in a merchandise, beer, hot dog, etc,. buying mood.
The key IMO is to strive to limit the number of times or the categories of plays in which instant replay can be used. I wouldn’t even allow it until the playoffs. (And it cannot be used on balls and strikes – - EVER. With or without technology you cannot argue balls and strikes).
If they are considering regular season use, maybe you only allow instant replays after the 7th inning on disputed HRs near the poles or those over/at the top of the wall cases or fan interference. I don’t think anybody is talking about NFL-style challenges yet, but maybe I’m wrong. That would be a pain in the neck, and would need to be strictly limited in the number of times it’s available along with penalties of a strike or more if the challenger was wrong, as a disincentive to frivolous use and unnecessary delays.
The real slippery slope problem I see is if you allow instant replay in the regular season, how can you limit it in the playoffs when all the money is on the line. For the same reasons MLB adds extra umps for the playoffs, there would be similar pressure to have more instant replays and on more kinds of disputes all game long. FOX would just love to have the “thrill” of instant replays as often as possible if the replays were to actually mean something to the game’s outcome.
DHC- It just tells me that there probably isn’t a big need for instant replay like we thought. I thought that there was a big need in tennis, but most of the time the calls are right in the first place. The biggest problem is out or safe. They should stick an extra umpire beside second base. Many times the umpire isn’t able to get over where he can see the play.
As far as instant replay goes. First of all, there should never even be a disscussion about instant replay for balls and strikes. Just should never happen.
I’m also slightly opposed to using instant replay for safe/out calls.
The only place I could see it used, is on HR calls.
Thats only because there is normally no umpire out that far. So they’re making a call with a limited view. That, maybe, I can see as being instant replay eligable..
phil 27’ in ‘08 –
That was a great article. Pete, any chance you can get that to Jete?
Jorge will retire as a Yankee. He’ll get his four year deal and probably move to DH in two years. He’s the best catcher in the FA market and the Yankees have no options outside of Posada.
I can just see it now hold up the umpire has to go to the dugout to watch the video tape, 3 minutes later “after reviewing the tape the call stands it is a HR”
COM’ON THAT IS SO CHEESY, BASEBALL DOESN’T NEED THIS
Patch, I usually lurk here and discuss (under other monikers) elsewhere. I check out several blogs every day and sometimes find better discussion elsewhere, but never better reporting. If you are looking for Yankee news and updates, Pete is reliably ahead.
Wow. Short sighted about the Instant Replays. One thing it does is increases the number of correct calls from the beginning. When the umpires know their call can be challenged, they won’t go quite as much by assumptions.
Give 2 challenges. Have a penalty on it if the challenge is denied. A walk, and advance of bases. Something. The officials can decide also to watch an instant replay for calls they really are uncertain of.
Its time to move up to this century.
The article about Jeter was a hatchet job, nothing more. Its written as if Jeter is the worst to have ever played Short Stop. Come on. Its giving a lot of BS to justify the hate of Jeter.
That isn’t to say Jeter is the best SS out there, either. But learn to recognise a hit piece designed to fool people into thinking the premise wasn’t to make a Yankee player look bad, but to gain knowledge. Yeah right. Utter BS.
Not signing Posada either? Right, there are so many catchers out there that can do a real good job calling a game, throwing out runners, limit passed balls, AND handle a bat. Unless you’d rather have Veritek’s batting and BS.
Sign Posada, have him in place to mentor and train the next catcher.
Either that or blow up the whole team, put in the minor leaguers and start from scratch while waiting 10 years to rebuild.
If the Marlins decide to deal Miguel Cabrera, outside executives suspect they will follow a path similar to when they traded Josh Beckett to Boston after the 2005 season. “They [Marlin officials] know what they want and they don’t make many mistakes in evaluation,” an NL executive said. “I suspect, like with Beckett, they will target a few teams they know have what they want. They are not going to open this up to 29 teams. This will not be an auction. They will ask a big price, and if anyone says yes, they will do it.”
Considering how successful Beckket was with RedSox(I think he is the main reason they won the world series this year). A world series ring OVER a NL ROY & a NL no-hitter anytime. I think Yanks should trade for Cabrerra even if they have to include some high priced prospects.
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replay wouldn’t really add that much time to the game – say 2 replays a game (which would probably be the top end) would total what? 5 minutes? big deal – it’s a much bigger issue to have the pitcher standing around with his thumb up his rear end waiting for a decision. I’m all about getting the call right
Four years for Posada would be fine. Catchers have a history of making pretty good first basemen. And why are people so sure he’ll never hit like ‘07 again?
GivePosadaNada – “greedy jerk”? Is there some history I’m unaware of in which Jorge was greedy or a jerk? I doubt it. Your hostility seems a little over the top. We’re not talking about ARod here
Posada will be an awful DH in the future. He hits into a ton of double plays and outside of last season, has never hit for a high avg.
There is no way we should sign him for 4 years. If he’s serious about that and some idiot GM is willing to go there with him, they can have him.
If he catches another 2 seasons I’ll be surprised and I think he’ll probably split more and more time with the backup C.
Year 3 with the Yanks should/will be his “thank you Jorge” year with standing ovations and a big goodbye at the end of the season.
Anything more than 3 years is a mistake. He’s a catcher. They don’t play this long.
Unless you want him clogging up a roster spot 4 years from now like Giambi, you’d be silly to give him that money.
3 years at top dollar is a great thank you for all he has given to this organization.
If they go 4 years, it better be a team option.
NYY – the new server uses HTML so you have to use and bold (no spaces) or and italics. So far those are the only ones that I have found to work (and strong and the a href link but that’s a lot of typing when pasting the link will do).
open pointy bracket, b, closed pointy bracket (above comma and period) – grife – talk about sensitive html coding…
I give Peter Gammons 2 days to post a blog column about what an “anti-Arod” Schilling is for taking less money to stay with the team that he loves.
And, you know what? As much as I dislike Schilling, Peter would be right on.
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Looks like Rolen is now a player the Yanks are interested in, would be a salary dump for the Cardinals, he is still signed for 3 years at $12 mill per year. He’s pretty dang good defensively, but has had shoulder problems the last couple of years.
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What do people think about trade with the Athletics:
Yanks get:
-Eric Chavez (3 years at 34mil left)
-Dan Haren
A’s get:
-Giambi (one year left, plus we kick in 4or 5 mil)
-Alan Horne
-Brett Gardner (tearing it up in the AWL and is a high onbase percentage guy)
-plus another decent prospect
This frees up money for the A’s and they get to promote their 3B prospect plus it gets us rid of giambi and we get a potential number 1 or 2 starter.
codeI don’t agree with giving Jorge 4 years. He is a lifetime 0.280 batter. We need more than that from our first baseman/DH.
Really, anything over 2 years concerns me. After that we are overpaying, but I am OK with that to keep him a yankees.
More than 3, no way.
No way the A’s do that trade.
i like how the A’s are just going to “throw in” Dan Haren. Get real.
Steve M-
I like the idea, but nobody wants Giambi.. The Yankees would need to cover almost all of his contract to trade him, I’d bet.
And I also think theres some teams out there who don’t even think hes worth the roster spot anymore.
I don’t know where exactly the fact that Jorge hits into alot of dp came from. Go check it out, now look at Jeter and Bernie. He hits into what most players hit into.
RE. Give Posada Nada
I believe it was Ralph Houk who,when questioned about Mickey Mantle getting $100,000 per year for the remaining years of his waning career,said,and I’m paraphrasing here, “Pay him,somewhere along the line he was underpaid”
So with Jorge,though the economics are different,he was surely underpaid for years.
AP article about Wang and Torre and Girardi. Not to Wang perhaps rather than waiting until Spring Training to talk to your manager both sides should do it before that time
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/baseball/mlb/11/06/bc.bba.yankees.wang.ap/index.html
Yanks get:
-Eric Chavez (3 years at 34mil left)
-Dan Haren
A’s get:
-Giambi (one year left, plus we kick in 4or 5 mil)
-Alan Horne
-Brett Gardner (tearing it up in the AWL and is a high onbase percentage guy)
-plus another decent prospect
This frees up money for the A’s and they get to promote their 3B prospect plus it gets us rid of giambi and we get a potential number 1 or 2 starter.
First, I don’t think anyone wants Giambi. He can’t play any position, is owed $20 mil, and is oft injured. If I were any other team, he’s the last yankee I’d want.
And Second that second prospect would someone named Joba, Hughes, or Kennedy. This is Billy Beane we’re talking about here, not Jim Bowden. I seriously doubt Beane deals one of his best pitchers with no one to replace him.
Second, I’d be wary of Chavez. He’s been on the DL more often than Giambi, and that’s saying something.
The A’s arent throwing in Haren. We are ridding them of a horrible 3B contract and their top prospect is waiting to play 3B and the A’s love to give veteran HR hitters one year contracts ala Thomas or Piazza. Giambi would be healthy and we would help pay his salary. Also horne would instantly become the a top three prospect on the A’s. He was the eastern league pitcher of the year. Brett gardner is an intriuging prospect and we would also have to throw in another good prospect like marquez.
er.. third…
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Haren is also signed to a major leauge contract so hes making 5 or 6 million next year and is only signed for 2 more years. the A’s are trying to trade him
What article bashed Jeter?
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I would LOVE to see Dan Haren in a Yankees uniform.
I say yes to Instant Replay only during Playoff and WS games and then only for questionable home run calls, bang bang plays or caught stealing. No balls and strikes.
Thanks Steve M for the first big laugh of the day.
Why not throw Pavano in the deal too????
Steve M-
It’s really Giambi thats throwing that trade off.. Nobody wants him.
I think the other parts do make sense, because like you pointed out, they have a stud prospect at 3B.
But it would have to be another prospect on ourside instead of Giambi I think.
Also if Jorge’s numbers are higher, you have to take into account the team he plays for. There is always someone on base. So for player x playing on team xyz if no one is on base, the routine ground ball to ss would just be an out.
I hope Farnsy gets traded for Franklin Morales
The biggest problem with getting Eric Chavez is that he is another left-handed hitter. The Yankees are in need of a good righty hitter. Chavez is a very good player, but he doesn’t fit what the Yankees need at third, because he would add to an already lefty heavy lineup. Plus I would be worried about the tendonitis that he had in BOTH forearms last year. I don’t even see how he could swing a bat, much less play. But he fought through it.
Eric,
The trade actually makes sense. If you knew anyhting about beane you would know he is trying to unload chavez and haren. If anyone were to want giambi it would be the A’s because he still gets on base and can hit 30+ HRs if healthy and started his career there. He also would only DH which they have open right now. Horne and Marquez both are top AA pitching prospects and were on the AA allstar team. Plus Gardner is a typical beane prospect.
Joe G played with Kyle, so that might factor into what happens with Kyle. Maybe Joe knows a way to “fix” him. Or maybe he thinks Kyle is a complete ass and would want him traded.
I agree with the lefty thing with chavez, but lowel would be an awful fit. His splits are atrocious anywhere but fenway. I guess crede would be ok for a year or two but hes average at best.
Jack Cust outperformed Beane’s expectations last season so much as a DH and costs absolutely nothing to have on the roster, that he made Mike Piazza expendable. So why would Bean then take on Giambi, and take the bat out of Cust’s hands?
Beane might be willing to discuss Haren, but you better be including a minimum of Kennedy and AJax into that conversation.
on the fan: Jose Guillen, Matt Williams, et al newest names to come up in ‘roids/HGH hooplah
Steve M, why would the Yankees trade a speedster who can hit and get on base in Gardner ? he’s our Ellsbury IMO a little better when it comes to baserunning
Action isn’t getting traded either, neither is Tabata
Instant replay will not add two hours to the game as the rules will be that only certain things can be challenged and I would imagine that teams can only call for the instant replay only once per game. It’ll be a 5 minute delay if that and will not add 2 hours to a game.
They also won’t use it for steals or base tags. It’ll be for home run calls as those usually have the umpire meetings to make a unified decision. There aren’t that many of those, so it won’t really effect the game that much.
Posada will resign with the Yankees and it will be for 3 to 4 years and he will be a DH in 2 to 3 years. Posada is tough. Don’t underestimate him. He will continue to put up the numbers he has in the past two seasons. He has always been a good hitter and without the strain of catching, it will only help him retain the skill he has.
Scott Boras needs to fly away.
I would normally say that to get haren by himself we would need to include one of our elite prospects. But the fact that we are clearing the A’s of over 20 mil in salary plus giving them good/very good prospects should get the deal done. They could then go and use that 20 mil to get 2 more players to fill out their roster.
Brandon,
Gardner has no place on our team. His only value to us is in a trade. We have two much better OF propsects in tabata and action jackson.
I agree there Steve, but I wouldn’t deal Gardner so quickly