Yankees celebrate first victory
Posted by: Peter Abraham - Posted in Misc on Feb 15, 2008 
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Just spoke to Brian Cashman about the arbitration victory against Chien-Ming Wang.
“His is more of a simple case,” Cashman said. “He’s a tremendous pitcher and his isn’t one where you run down a player. He’s a special talent. It’s where he slots in a market of special players as a first-time eligible.”
The $4 million is the highest salary for a pitcher in his first year of arbitration eligibility since the Florida Marlins gave Dontrelle Willis $4.35 million in 2006.
Team president Randy Levine issued a statement:
“We are gratified and happy to have prevailed in this arbitration hearing. It is important to recognize and thank our entire team for their hard work throughout this process, including Brian Cashman, Jean Afterman and Mike Fishman from the Yankees, Rich Rabin, Ken Shaitelman and Kelly Brown from Akin Gump Strauss Hauer and Feld, and Rob Manfred, Dan Halem and Paul Mifsud from the Commissioner’s Office.
“It has been nearly eight years since this organization has gone to arbitration, and we do not pursue this process lightly. The Yankees only go to arbitration when we think the player and agent’s demand is over the proper market.
“We want to congratulate Mr. Wang and his representatives on their efforts. They did a credible job. It should be noted that the $4 million figure which we submitted is the highest arbitration award ever for a first-time arbitration-eligible starting pitcher. Therefore, this should not be viewed as ‘a loss’ for Chien-Ming Wang. He is a valuable member of our team and we felt that we had reflected this in our filing number.â€
Levine sounds like he’s accepting an Oscar for best performance in an arbitration hearing.
1-0!
eh, ehhhh???
I can understand why they did it, but they really don’t need to toot their horn. A much simpler press release would’ve worked. Bogus excuses in there.
I wish Levine would just be quiet and never speak again.
Now we know why Howard Rubenstein issues the press releases and not Randy Levine.
Another lousy p.r. job from the home of lousy p.r.
What a crappy way to treat a player–lording your arbitration win in public. If I was Wang, I’d get out of town as soon as possible. Maybe go somewhere they might remember a guy has 19 wins two years in a row, a great future, and should be getting schmoozed like crazy so he loves the organization.
Why the hell Cashman stays, I’ll never fully understand. And I say all of this as a fan of 42 years. I root for the Yanks in spite of the Yankee management, more times than not.
Randy Levine – you could put him in the dictionary next to “smarmy”.
i bet he’s the executive responsible for the huge sports bar obstruction that apparently will ruin the new Stadium’s bleachers.
Levine
Even though CMW did not prevail, it’s obvious the Yankees think very highly of him. It’s business. And setting the market for arbitration is important. If everything goes as planned, the Yankees will have several pitchers approaching the same point almost simultaneously. You have to think ahead.
CMW, if he continues on this path, will get his chance as a FA to set a different market. Think about it – Zito set an impossible market for FA pitchers. Caution is definitely warranted.
“CMW, if he continues on this path, will get his chance as a FA to set a different market”
I don’t really think so…I mean, won’t Beckett hit the FA market a year or so earlier at a similar age, with (probably) similar/superior credentials?
If I was Wang,I will go out get drunk!
Wang needs to pull a hamstring around the end of march and then come back to have another 19win season. Everybody will be happy.
The Yankees probably paid Akin Gump Strauss Hauer and Feld more than the 600k they saved.
Why in the world would you put out a press release like that?
Gloating that you “won” $600,000 when you have given away $40 mil. to Pavano? Tacky, stupid, and quite disgusting if you ask me.
I wish my boss would offer me $4 million in arbitration. Even if it were a 40 year contract.
This is bs. You can’t compare Dontrelle’s arbitration hearing to Wang’s. Revenues and salaries have all increased since that hearing. Wang deserved 4.6, and should feel insulted.
Pete, we all know that the arbitration for Wang has been quite rude though an ugly win for Yankees. To save USD600,000, Randy Levine, Brian Cashman, and another senior guy run to the hearing to assert that team’s most contribution pitcher is not worth for extra 0.6M. Sarcastically to know they are on behalf of Yankees, with team’s annual payroll more than 200M. I would buy it if Brian is in Marlins. Without CMW, Yankees could hardly go into playoff for the past two years. To think of how much has been spent in vain by Cashman on those stupid deals in the past few years, and if he is foresighted to have reached deals with Posada and Rivera, Yankees could save more handsome amount, so that they don’t have to spend four and half hours to “attack†CMW. Wang’s playoff record in 2007 was even challenged there, which made me think of Posada’s batting number 0.133, comparing with his regular season of 0.338. Posada, however, got annual payroll of 13.1M. CMW has been so low-profile that Levine and Cashman think it’s piece of cake to defeat him, reluctant to offer the compromise amount of extra 0.3M. CMW’s (46W18L) performance was even better than Dontrelle Willis (46W27L)in 2006. But Shallow-pocket Marlins were willing to offer 4.35M to avoid arbitration. This was the number two years ago. What’s annoying was Levine’s bold argument meaning that Yankees would spare no effort to go for arbitration when players’ request goes beyond the marketâ€. In a word,this is ugly and discrimination per se.