Santana using his leverage
Posted by: Peter Abraham - Posted in Misc on Dec 03, 2007 
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If Johan Santana is to be traded, he wants to be traded now.
It is now being reported that Santana and agent Peter Greenberg have informed the Twins that the lefty would not waive his no-trade clause once the season starts. I have Greenberg’s cell but I’m not calling him at 1:15 a.m. to try and confirm this.
Meanwhile, the Gaylord Opryland is a nightmare of a hotel. They actually print out a map to get to your room when you check in. Here was my route:
Walk 100 yards to an escalator, go up a flight. Go to another escalator and up another flight. Take a specific elevator up two floors, take a right and your room is down that hallway.
It was there – once I walked past 110 rooms. In the time it took me to check in and get to my room here, I could have checked in and played half a shoe of blackjack at The Palms in Vegas.
There is good news, however. When you place your wakeup call, you can have a “popular country music artist” deliver the message. The choices are Trace Adkins, George Jones, Vince Gill, Pam Tillis, Kellie Pickler, Montgomery Gentry or Wynonna.
I have 4,072 songs in my iPod. None by any of those people. Is Montgomery Gentry a person or a department store?
Give me Steve Earle or Hank Williams. I’d settle for Tim McGraw even.
It’s going to be a long week.
Can you sort songs into groups on an ipod? And is it really worth the money?
Pete just call him, he’s not asleep
im glad we will finally ahve an answer to this thing tomorrow sometime.. at least i think
There is also a rumor floating around that Johan has informed the twins that he will veto any trade that is not to the Yankees or RedSox.
http://www.projo.com/redsox/co.....e46cb.html
Not sure how accurate this is, but basically the Twins have lost whatever leverage they once had, but they created this mess by trying to play both sides for this long to wring out every last drop. Sounds like this will get resolved fast, regardless of what that resolution may be.
Pete:
You should have seen where they put us up my first week in London.
Yep, they gave us maps…
We joked about being in Stalinist Russia.
BTW, you know, the meetings next year are actually in Vegas…
Good night all!
Pete, many of those artists definitely won’t float your boat if you’re not hardcore country (and I’m certainly not), but you should really give George Jones a chance. He recorded a ton of junk, but there are a couple of collections out there that any rocker, rapper, or music fan period should listen to, because he has one of the best singing voices in music…he really inhabits a song when his heart is in it.
He recorded an album of duets with guys like Willie Nelson, james Taylor and Elvis Costello — that’s probably a good place to start. There’s also an old collection of him covering Hank Williams songs that’s on iTunes. These make for a better introduction than a wake up call in your hotel room, anyway.
you don’t have any george jones? you’re missing out, man.
i know you guys won’t be able to leave the hotel in nashville, but if by some miracle you get the opportunity, try fido, a little offshoot of bongo java, which is over by the college. great breakfasts.
LC – the answer to both of your questions is yes. you can make playlists for your ipod which contain whichever songs you like, in whichever order you prefer. and they’re well worth the money.
I’ve heard that rumor too.
Hank should lower the offer and hope the Sox do the same
kasey,
Thanks. I have this dinky mp3 player that holds over 1000 songs BUT you cant group them so if I want to hear a specific song I have to go through like 500 others first. It’s a pain in the ass tbh.
Apparently the Sox will only offer Ellsbury if they get someone else, an ESPN official says that is still the case despite the recent reports.
Santana’s preference to be traded now is not a surprise. He probably wants to shield himself from uncertainty and eliminate any distraction as soon as possible. It wouldn’t be fun for him during the season to lose a game and then a few minutes later be asked, “do you want to be traded now? Are you leaving?”
Pete, whatever you do, don’t ride on a tour bus in Nashville. It’s just three hours of your life that you will never get back. I had a terrible experience on the bus, but Nashville is a wonderful city.
Catherine,
which espn official?
Here’s the source.
http://www.nj.com/sports/ledge.....thispage=2
Pete just heard from a kid who played ball for me and now plays for UCLA….UCLA just fired football Coach Dorrell…Long overdue and enjoy Nashville…..Been there many a time……Yanks should just walk away from this for a day or so, and let Smith regroup……
catherine,
ohhhhh thats from the link i posted before lol i feel so stupid XD
Haha dont worry, but now he definitely should be taking Hughes off the table!!!!
from the previous thread:
“So again, please tell me why Hank is an idiot. I’d love to know why oh great knowledgeable one.”
hank’s an idiot because public proclamations of any team’s stance in a negotiation don’t serve ANYBODY. it’s feeding into the ridiculous public posturing that got them where they are to begin with. hank’s not taking a “stand” by giving minnesota a deadline. at some point in EVERY negotiation, one of the sides says – be it privately or publicly – “take it or leave it” and the other side has to make a decision. what did hank’s little pronouncement accomplish, other than to add to the ongoing yankees offseason soap opera?
and as far as deadlines and public announcements about the state of yankees business go, why don’t you ask a-rod how well the yankees hold their ground. last i heard from hank, they wouldn’t negotiate if alex opted out. that “ship [had] sailed,” so to speak.
what did hank’s latest adventure in clowning net the yankees, exactly? a deadline they could have just as well enforced privately? do you think hank endeared himself to the twins by putting them on the public hotseat, for making them the scapegoat for decades worth of deals where the yankees feel they got fleeced? what was the point?
the deadline itself is shrewd business. the announcement of said deadline serves nobody in this situation.
I disagree. I think the deadline is a good thing. The Twins are dragging everyone through this song and dance when this deal couldve been done already. The offers were on the table, not many teams involved, take it or leave it. The Yankees have to move with what they got. If the trade falls through we can look for other players, we can’t if the deal takes weeks. This needs to move quickly, time is money.
People want to get on Hank for everything but I don’t think its bad to have the owner involved. It’s his family’s money and he has to right to be a part of where it goes. I think he needs to trust Cashman more though and let the baseball people work the game. Hanks got personality, its not a bad thing.
Hank pull Hughes out of this deal
If it was a video wake up call, I’d take Kellie Pickler.
um catherine, i didn’t say the deadline was a bad idea. in fact, here’s exactly what i said.
“the deadline itself is shrewd business. the announcement of said deadline serves nobody in this situation.”
Putting the short fuse on the deal could help the Yankees save face. I don’t know what it’s like in other parts of the Yankee universe, but in this part there seems to be a strong “Save the Phil” contingent. Not like it matters to the Yankees, but it seems like a lot fans want Phil in the Bronx regardless of his chronic injuries and inferior stuff (j/k). Would the Yankees take that into consideration? Probably not, but it would be nice.
I don’t know why the Yankees didn’t protect him in the first place. There’s plenty of pieces to work a deal. And even if you had to put Hughes in why do it from the beginning (if he was on some of the original lists). He could’ve been the deal breaker, but now we’re talking Horne & AG as the deal breakers.
If the deal falls through, then they would probably go for Bedard or Haren. Can we agree that Hughes would not be on the table in those talks?
Pete,
I have been in Nashville on business for over a week now… (staying in the marriott down the street from Opryland) We were told by our clients to stay clear of the Oryland hotel at all cost due to the christmas show… they had no idea that the winter meetings were there. This week is going to be a Zoo for you.
Cheers,
Mike
mel,
of course. there is one pitcher in the world i would trade philip hughes for, and his name is johan santana.
The NY Times said that Beane asked for Kennedy AND Hughes for Haren. So basically that is not happening, but everyone knew that he would be asking for a lot.
Wow. I had no idea that Haren was that good.
That’s tough. Too bad they didn’t offer G-Unit’s Young Buck and his musical stylings as he is a popular artist for that area. I guess GM’s or other guests wouldn’t appreciate being woken up by an automated phone call featuring an assortment of gunshot sound fx and “G-Unit” chants. Although, you have to admit, it’d be one hell of an animated wake up call.
http://www.thebronxzoo.wordpress.com
People have been writing that they put Hughes into the deal to quickly. The Yankees put Hughes in the deal because the Twins valued (coveted) Lester more than IPK. Which is their right I wouldn’t know who’s better but personally I value Melkey very highly (walks a lot strikes out little will be great trust me) and think Crisp is the best 4th outfielder in that great American game of baseball. So a lot of you think if the Yankees stuck to their guns the Twins would have taken the better over all package of Leche and IPK but most teams would take the deal with best player in it which apparently to the Twins is Lester. Still I wouldn’t put Hughes in the deal at all now or later and what I think counts double cuz I’m very smart.
I don’t blame the A’s asking for Hughes and IPK. To me Haren has more trade value. They don’t have to trade him and he’s signed reasonably priced for three years and is younger and almost as good as Johan. Johan could slip and Haren could get better. You never know.
I know lots of people are saying that Hughes going isn’t all that bad since we’re getting Santana but if I see that the Yankees land Santana tomorrow and Hughes is gone, it’s going to be a horribly sad day for me. I have been waiting a long time to see him grow up and develop on the Yankees and you can bet that once he’s gone, he won’t ever return.
If it were me, I’d still only have IPK, Melky and one or two prospects in the deal. I’d even include Horne in the deal along with a somewhat lesser prospect if it meant Hughes was still with us.
The Yankees can and should fatten up their offer with a former first round pick in Eric Duncan and a couple zilches in low a ball. This way the people in Minnesota who are legitimately mad about trading Johan but aren’t very smart can believe they got a big haul. Wow 7 players they’ll say wow Eric Duncan was a first round pick hey put on a prairie home companion see what Garrison Keillor thinks of this. But you don’t trade Hughes
kasey,
Hank isn’t the only owner to do that. Arte Moreno has come out and said something similar about his dealings with the Marlins last week.
Personally, I don’t think it hurts the Yankees in their negotiations. And I’m not sure why you feel as though A-Rod and Boras “won” in the negotiation. The fact is, Hank has endeared himself to most Yankee fans because the media portrayed the dealings as Alex telling his agent to @#$@-off and coming to the Yankees himself. And we also got back the 21 million we lost from him opting out.
Bottom line, until something Hank does actually hurts the Yankees visibly, I’m a fan of his.
James..
that was pretty funny….we could also send along some dry, salted fish that their Scandanavian grandmothers used to make for breakfast for them…
1. fans who think alex came “crawling” back to hank, hat in hand, are suckers. here’s what happened: boras convinced alex he could get him 300 mil from somebody, so alex opted out on national television, which was a pretty big affront to the yankees and baseball in general. boras then came to the stark realization that he couldn’t get alex that much money elsewhere, that he had overestimated the market and the best financial situation for alex would have been to just re-up with the yankees. so then, suddenly, a-rod developed a conscience and went back to the yankees. if you believe he did so without boras’ blessing and involvement, god bless you for your naivete. the yankees, having publicly declared the end of the a-rod era, realized that they couldn’t actually find a better third baseman, so they took him back because all of the PR stunts made it look like a-rod came crawling back. the yankees saved some face, a-rod saved some face and, in the end, they ended up doling out 300 million dollars. now, you tell me how they “saved” money.
2. just because arte moreno does it, doesn’t mean it’s smart or right. when done privately, these deadlines are probably very effective in negotiations. when done publicly, they’re little more than a spitting contest between grown men. it adds nothing to the negotiation. if anything, it irks the twins management.
however you have to sell the a-rod contract saga to yourself to rationalize what happened, do it. here are the facts: the yankees said they wouldn’t deal with him if he opted out, alex opted out, the yankees ended up forking over 300 million.
I just wrote Johan could slip and Haren could get better and a duh on me. Carl Pavano could come out of retirement and win 25 games next year but we know hes not putting the Sega genesis down. I think what I meant was Haren has been getting better we don’t know where his peak is and Johan probably has. His peak is lovely but his playoff performance’s could have been stronger, longer.
Well, it’s officially here…The Winter Meetings….In a few days from now we’ll all have enough material to chew on…Disect and over disect each and every move…..Of course there’s A bobcat and a SJ44 who will explain to us what they think we don’t already know, or just explain to us thinking we know nothing at all….At any rate it’s the Hot Stove Season and it’s great……The best laid plans begin here and usually die by Memorial Day, or most certainly by July 4th…..So enjoy the days that are to come, and dodn’t get caught up in all the nonsense that you’ll be reading from the so call guru’s of the Ynakee blogs……Because so little of what we read is remotely close to what it really is true……Now is a time for false rumors and insane interpetations……Just have fun with it all, and remember there’s no one person who knows that much more than you…..
“Wow. I had no idea that Haren was that good.”
He’s not. He’s good, but Hughes will be better.
Does anyone have definitive info on Johan’s NTC for 2008? I read he had a full NTC for 07, but it is limited to 12 teams in 08 because he finished outside the top 3 cy young voting.
bkight, that is wrong. He has a full NTC right in 08 just like he had in 07.
Haren isn’t worth trade for. Neither is Bedard. If the Yankees don’t get Santana, they may need to take a gamble other players, like Ben Sheets, Mark Prior, Dontrelle Willis, Chris Capuano, or Jeff Francis. Or don’t do any of that and trade for a setup man.
Try a Vince Gill wakeup: the guy has a tremendous voice.
LOL Pete you need a Map AND directions to you hotel room? That’s just crazy! Why does MLB hold their meetings in a place like that?
Kasey- I don’t think it went ‘down’ quite the way you explained it either. There’s no way Boras would have given in that easily….that decision was most likely Alex’s (as he never really wanted to leave in the first place). I think Alex received some advice (from friends…lol) that he would need to eat a little humble pie if he wanted to go back to the Yankees. And I’m sure he did (Hank even said he had to ‘prove’ he wanted to be a Yankee) but the Yankees didn’t (should not have wanted to) humiliate him in public. What good would that do to humiliate one of your players in public, how would that effect the team morale? Either way the Yankees wanted Alex (decent 3rd basemen and Alex wanted the Yankees it was a WIN/WIN situation). I do agree with you that Boras was involved indirectly. Alex has already said in the past (with the 500 ball) that he was not good at negotiations so I’m sure that he would have been apprehensive about a 10 year deal $275 mil. Boras laid the foundation for Alex and Alex had to do the rest on his own. Then Boras was allowed back in for the bonus, NTC and other small details.
As for when the notice came that Alex was opting out, I think that was 100% Boras. I wouldn’t be surprise if the opt clause signature wasn’t signed a couple days before the announce “just as a precaution†and then the final day Boras convinced Alex that the Yankees would still be in the running even if he opted out and then Boras made the announcement as quickly as possible before Alex could change his mind. When Alex realized the Yankees weren’t going to be in the game (hey it takes him a little longer to get IT sometimes) he became upset, sought outside advice and got in touch with the Yankees.
Also the Yankees haven’t forked over $300 mil yet, Alex actually has to break the records first (which I’m hoping he does). As for the $27 mil a year that won’t be as high as it seems in the future. Heck we even have pitchers asking for $25 mil these days.
For the I-POD question, yes you can group your music by creating playlist.
Let me join the George Jones chorus-he wrote a great song called Good Year for the roses-which Elvis Costello covered (on Almost Blue) and has done a lot of good stuff.
I agree with YankeeDiva. A-Rod came crawling back, to the extent any pro athlete with his numbers “crawls”
anywhere these days. And it happened because Hank stuck to his guns. The Yankees didn’t have to cut off their noses to spite their faces – - and not sign A-Rod – - to prove they were right and A-Rod was wrong.
Pete…get some George Jones, Hank Jr, Hank 3, Shooter Jennings, and Waylon Jennings in your iPod NOW!!
We had a meeting at that place a few years ago, it’s nice but a dump at the same time. We never recieved so many complaints from members but the people were nice.
I would never go back there unless I had to.
George Jones, no contest.
Rogerk99,
Good to see there are other Elvis Costello fan out there.
Cheers!
Is Peter Greenberg any relation to Hall of Fame member Hank Greenberg?
the montgomery gentry line is very good.
gary gentry’s grandson, maybe.
It’s probably old news to those of you who have the blog and other sources running 24/7, but Pettitte is supposedly coming back according to an ESPN report.
Does that mean NY keeps Hughes in the Santana offer? If not, go for Haren instead?
How does our 5 of 6 rotation …
Wang, Santana, Pettitte, Moose, Chamberlain, Kennedy
- or –
Wang, Haren, Pettitte, Moose, Chamberlain, Hughes
Match up against the Sox 5 of 6 …
Beckett, Haren, Matsuzaka, Schilling, Buckholz, Wakefield
- or -
Beckett, Santana, Matsuzaka, Schilling, Lester, Wakefield
Just tossing it out there to see who thinks which would be better …
I’m assuming Moose gets the nod for the rotation out of spring training unless/until he has another noticeable decline in his abilities for any length of time, then one of the lads would get the call.
Unless Joba’s got a chance of being the 8th inning guy again, despite being slotted for the rotation all along.
PK – how did the Yanks recoup the $21mm they lost when Arod opted out?
Ahhh, Pete, good to have you back.