Angels still focused on Teixeira
-
- December
- 3
Good information here from MLB.com as Angels GM Tony Reagins says he remains focused on Mark Teixeira. Reagins denied reports that the Angels have turned to CC Sabathia.
It’s Dec. 3 and two teams have made the guy an offer. If that doesn’t change soon, the big lefty is going to have make his call.
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on Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008 at 12:24 am by Peter Abraham.
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Peter Abraham
Hopefully he won’t just flip a coin :/
I hope he jumps on board but you know someone will make a last minute play for him to see if they can lowball him.
Though in this market, the Yankees might have just the slightest advantage.
I wonder if the economy will make it easier for some to get tix to the new stadium next season…
It’s obvious he doesn’t want to play for the Yankees. Will be an interesting press conference, shud he accept.
Vince,
We don’t know that. We don’t know what is going behind the scenes. Obviously his agent is trying to drum up offers and those conversations aren’t public.
P.S. I wonder if Madonna lets ARod stay up late on a school night?
I still don’t think anyone knows what CC wants. He’s playing it smart…and so is his agent.
I’m sure he’ll have no problem playing in New York if that’s his choice. It’s beginning to look like he won’t have too many offers.
I’ve said it before, if the Yanks can get CC and Sheets they’ll be in good shape.
COme on. Vince is right why does it take CC so long to make a decision, Vince wants and needs to know now. Heck with spring training being months away and this being a 6 or 7 yr. decision Vince needs to know now.
Classic commentary from another scholar.
Vince can also read minds, to bad he does not have a mind of his own…
GHOSTBUSTERS oops sorry you didn’t say who I was over eager and went to fast
“It’s Dec. 3 and two teams have made the guy an offer. If that doesn’t change soon, the big lefty is going to have make his call.”
I agree 100% Pete. 140 million sitting on the table in this economy must look pretty good, just sayin’.
“It’s obvious he doesn’t want to play for the Yankees. Will be an interesting press conference, shud he accept.”
It will be the same as any other Yankees press conference. Huge media presence and a ton of questions if you’re curious heres my prediction:
CC meets Brian Cashman and Hal Steinbrenner/Randy Levine in front of the media they shake hands and exchange salutations. Then CC is introduced to the media in his very large pinstriped number 52 jersey. He has a big smile as he stands at the podium.
Reporter: “CC how does it feel to be part of the Yankees organization?”
CC: “Its an honor to wear the pinstripes. The history of this organization is great and I’m glad to be here”
Same ol’, same ol’. No player will come out and say “I’m only here for the money”. CC is a classy guy He’ll say what everyone else says at the press conference, “great to be here”, “its an honor to wear this uniform” etc.
I posted that the angels dont have any genuine interest and this all seems like a front from the start. In this climate, when teams are trying to spend expendable money on need why would the team with one of the best and youngest rotations in baseball make the highest bid for the most expensive free agent pitcher? They wouldnt. Further, the angels have been crying for years about someone to protect vlad in the lineup and they finally get their guy. And he hits like he is superman for them for the whole season and continues to hit like crazy through the playoffs. He is treated like royalty in anaheim for the moment. Why would they let him go to sign another player to fill a need they dont even have? I dont think they care that much about the yanks getting CC to get involved. And now that they offered garland arbitration and he made 12 million last season, it is crystal clear that the angels dont want CC. That move gave them six starters under contract for next season – all legitimate and good and one of which will be back by midseason at the latest. You have to think logically – tex fills a need for the angels and cc DOES NOT. plus, they gave up casey kotchman their starting first baseman to get him.
CC will sport a grin as wide as Milwaukee in his press conference and we’ll all believe he loved us best all along.
Is Doreen still around? I have a little complaint about a comment earlier. You compared pavano to Ben sheets. Now, the ONLY thing those two have in common is that they have the stigma of being injury prone and Carl certainly did his job to earn that title. But Ben Sheets has never pitched less than 100 innings in one season. Sheets has pitched 200 innings most years of his career. Last season, he pitched 198 innings. Yes, he does get injured quite frequently but WHAT ABOUT AJ BURNETT? Sheets has been in the league two years shorter and he has managed somehow to pitch over 100 more innings than AJ. AJ has pitched less than a 100 innings multiple times in his career. AJ only has good seasons in his walk years. So I guess it might be fair to compare Pavano to Burnett but not sheets. Sheets is a workhorse when he is healthy. Sheets has been to the all star game four times and started the thing last year which nobody seems to remember only a few months later. Sheets was lights out for three years in a row and he was lights out last year winning 9 games by the all star break.
Is sheets injury prone? Yes, he is. He has had about five injuries in his eight year career. However, Burnett has had 10 injuries in his 10 year career. And I read the article you sent me concerning his injury history and I am in medical school so I do know what they were talking about. i can say without hesitation that with all that articles talk about putting strain on his rotator cuff only two of his five injuries were even related to the rotator cuff. One, was a hamstring injury which is his upper leg, one was a inner ear infection, one was a torn tendon in middle finger and one was a herniated disk. The current injury is a muscle by his elbow, most likely the brachioradialis, anconeus or one of the flexors or extensors in his lower arm. None of these injuries have anything to do with the rotator cuff. And he seoarated one injury out to make it look like two injuries even though it occurred a couple of weeks later and in the same place – it was obviously not given enough time to heal. This was the rotator cuff tendinitis. The only other injury that involved the rotator cuff was in 2005 i believe when he tore the lattissimus dorsi muscle in his shoulder. Now, the torn muscle may have resulted in the tendinitis a year or two later but it is unlikely. So all of these injuries could be considered freak injuries except the last two and these occurred a year apart in 2005 and 2006. 2007, he missed time for a hamstring and middle finer injury which were totally unrelated to each other or the rotator cuff and last year, he didnt miss any time until the elbow injury in the last week of the season which has nothing to do with the rotator cuff.
Maybe sheets does have a motion that puts strain on the rotator cuff but his injuries dont really reflect this. Moreover, he has shown to be healthy for two years now only sidelined for strange injuries that are likely not to effect him again. And he has pitched a total of 340 innings in the last two seasons so he certainly is no pavano. Finally, with his small injury and strange history, sheets could fall into our lap for two years and 25 million. He is thinking about an arbitration deal worth 1 year and 13 million tops. If the yanks tell him they can offer him one more year at around the same yearly salary i think he will jump at the idea. When the contract is over, he will only be 32 – still young enough to get a major deal. And he can take the two years to prove that he can stay healthy and pitch like an ace. And when healthy, Sheets is an ace. Even when Burnett is healthy, he is not really an ace – he has never had a season where i look at the numbers and am in awe. Sheets has done so and could do it again as he is still in his prime. The worst that could happen is he is out for some time with minor injuries. This is the perfect market to get a pitcher of sheets caliber for a steal and sheets is in the perfect situationc oming off a career comeback year followed by a minor injury. Trust me, he will not end up like pavano costing us 4 million dollars per win. And he wont cost us anything close to 4 years and 40 million. Further, pavano only had one solid season before coming to the yanks. Sheets hasnt really had a bad season in his whole career yet. Unlike pavano and wright, these are the type of deals good GMs make – they buy a great product when the market is bad and the product is not in demand. It works out – we get an ace for the cost of a fourth or fifth starter last off season. It doesnt – we dont look like half the fool we looked after signing pavano, wright and igawa. Cashmans needs to stop going for the free agents everybody wants and start thinking outside the box. Any GM can throw money at CC and Tex but it is the small moves, the strategic moves that really make or break a team. Outside of maybe small and chacon, cash hasnt struck lightening in a bottle too many times and those were more luck than anything. If this payed off, it would look like a strategic play that stabilized our rotation rather than luck of the draw.
wow, stuart. I have no idea who you are, and you me. why the attack? It seems to me, though, that if someone offers me more money than anyone has offered anyone before (at a particular position/job) and I don’t take it, heck I don’t even answer, for three weeks, that would be a good sign for the person making the offer.
I’m simply making an educated guess.
shud be ‘wouldn’t be a good sign.’
Guys, you cant really lowball a guy that has 140 million on the table. And you cant really play it smart when you have two offers of 100 mil and 140 mil with no other team interested and nobody else willing to go up to 140. How do you play it smart? Act like you know what you are waiting for… They have two choices – continue to wait for an offer or take the 140 million. There really is not much to think about and there isn’t many ways to think about it.
Vince, dont feel too bad. I started questioning cashman’s intelligence and and his decision to not give abreu arbitration and duh took it as a personal attack. He got so annoying and rude that Pete actually had to intervene. I knew nothing about duh and he knew nothing about me. I think he was either in elementary school or a very angry person.
I agree with you on the not answering part. i dont mind CC taking his time – it is a pretty big decision for the guy but he could at least respond. I am pretty sure he hasnt said a word to the FO after being offered the highest contract for a pitcher in the history of the MLB. he cant say thank you but i am waiting to see what other teams on the west lay out on the table for me? But I guess it doesnt really matter either way. And i wouldnt take the considerable amount of time he is taking as a sign that he doesnt want to play in ny or for the yanks. He is just waiting for another offer so he can actually make a real decision rather than just pretend that he is deciding or he is waiting for another offer to see if the yanks would actually go higher as some have predicted. He is waiting for something that happily probably will never come. I cant say i feel bad for the man. He is probably the only Free agent that will be offered exactly what he wanted to begin with – a contract higher than santana’s and i dont even think he is better than santana.
dave, friendly advice: you should apologize to Jorge, he’s a good poster and a valued Mexican correspondent. He was on the Aceves story before anyone on here.
Man, this situation in Venezuela has got to stop. Another ball player has a family member kidnapped and held for ramsom. Sadly, Cub’s catcher, Henry Blanco’s brother was kdnapped and something muct have gone wrong, because they killed him.
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3740452
who is jorge?
***ransom***
is he duh?
Since no one wants to bother competing for CC with the Yankees he should meet with them try to hammer out the deal and if they won’t give him what he wants eliminate them from the process. Then the other teams will start bidding on him. The 100 million Brewer offer is not even real. It’s a “hey we offered a 100 million don’t blame us it’s not our fault” message to their fans.
I’m just glad his agent isn’t Boras telling us that a mystery team offered a 10 year 300 million dollar deal and that he has scientific evidence that 400 lbs pitcher’s never get hurt
http://yankees.lhblogs.com/2008/12/02/good-times-for-alfredo-aceves/
“CC will sport a grin as wide as Milwaukee in his press conference and we’ll all believe he loved us best all along.”
Like Randy Johnson did right? When a reporter asked him why he hadn’t come earlier he said that if he wanted to be a Yankee he would have been here a long time ago, classy overlooked moment of that press conference.
If jorge is duh than I am sorry but he personally insulted me multiple time on the blog yesterday because I disagreed with not offering abreu arbitration and spoke negatively about cashman which many people have done. It got so bad that pete had to intervene. I only mentioned it because stuart did the same thing above and i thought it was a very similar situation. I am sorry jorge and I am sure you are very nice in person.
cheka
December 3rd, 2008 at 3:09 am
“CC will sport a grin as wide as Milwaukee in his press conference and we’ll all believe he loved us best all along.”
Like Randy Johnson did right? When a reporter asked him why he hadn’t come earlier he said that if he wanted to be a Yankee he would have been here a long time ago, classy overlooked moment of that press conference
———————————————————–
So overlooked that’s it’s almost like it was never said.
For us baseball fans the winter is a hard season to get through. I love my G-MEN more than anything but they only play once a week. I dislike the NBA but I enjoy watching the Knicks from time to time. Love me some college hoops (Go Tar Heels!) but its meaningless until league play starts up. After this weekend college football will take a break for about a month. My point is that I love going online this time of year and reading the latest “Hot Stove Reports” and well it would be an understatement if I said its been alittle dry so far. Lets just hope that the upcoming winter meetings will bring us Yankee fans some much needed good news. At this point ill settle for just knowing CC is still alive and that he plans to pitch next year.
It may not matter to him, but I think it says a lot that one team made him an offer early but doesn’t really have the money to retain him, and one team made him a huge offer about 2 seconds after they were able to. Meanwhile a couple weeks later now and all these other teams aren’t even bothering to make him an offer.
They will. And maybe he’ll take one of those. But maybe he’ll consider the fact that one team wants him so badly they were willing to pay him the most money for a pitcher ever without another offer even approaching it, immediately, while every other team is too concerned with other people to even make him an offer. Seems like only one team actually wants CC as opposed to “I guess we’ll settle for him if choice #1 doesn’t pan out”. Maybe he’ll consider that when deciding.
cc is a very cometitive athelete. just watch him pitch and its obvious. like all baseball players, he’s played for all kinds of teams in all levels. and he’s played on all-star teams and summer league teams where you take off one uni and put on another and play with the guys you spent the whole summer trying to beat. same in college. now he’s been on 2 major league teams.
whichever team he joins for next season, cc is going to put on the uni and compete. he’s gonna give everything he has (and as we’ve seen that’s alot!) to win. if he chooses the yankees, he’s gonna be great. if he’s an angel, he’s gonna be great. he’s a great pitcher, and a very competitive guy.
sherman’s column today is really hard on andy PEDtitte:
http://www.nypost.com/seven/12022008/sports/yankees/if_pettitte_signs_elsewhere__in_bronx_he_141839.htm
i agree, pettitte need to sign the yankees offer and get ready for ST.
I wonder why CC doesn’t take the $140 mil. the Yanks offered and present it to other teams interested and tell them that he is going to take it if they don’t make an offer. That’s what Damon did to the Sox and other FA’s do it all the time. The fact that he is waiting may mean that he is hoping someone else makes him an offer.
of course cc’s hoping someone else makes him an offer, why wouldnt he? he’s got a $140M standing offer and his agent is going to shop around for more. of course his agent is going around saying that he needs other offers soon or cc will be a yankee, it just hasnt elicieted any other bids yet and may not. this is the way this works.
to this point he has only one offer really, the other offer isnt competitive. his agent wouldnt be doing his job if he wasn’t out there trying to get someone to force the yankees bid higher. this is cc’s big shot at humongous money and he’s gonna get every bit of it he can, its the american way.
yankees fans have to chill out like cash is doing.
The Yankees 2009 season doesn’t start and end with Sabathia but Cashman will want to know by the start of the winter meeting next Monday what Greg Grenske (Sabathis’s agent) plans to do so the Yankees can proceed with other plans.
I agree with Vince. The Yankees have made an offer that other teams probably will not duplicate in today’s financial times.
If C.C. was interested in pitching for the NYY and settling if family life, he would have accepted.
Perhaps C.C. may just accept arbitration and gamble that the economy improves in 2009 so his options improve next season.
Milwaukee for $100 million or the Big Apple for $140 million? I smell victory.
For all of you saying “CC doesnt want to play here, why cant he just make up his mind, etc”……….free agents normally do not sign until the second week of December. Barry Zito signed on January 2nd a few years back. Learn the facts before you come up with these absurd and factually incorrect conspiracy theories. You sound like a bunch of mopes.
Two chances he accepts arbitration. Slim and none.
Relax and let the process play out.
We have had enough people on here calling for panicked, moronic decisions to be made in the absence of real news. Let’s not add to the foolishness.
CC is probably waiting to see what LAD is offering.
“I agree with Vince. The Yankees have made an offer that other teams probably will not duplicate in today’s financial times.”
Duplication of the Yankees offer probably won’t be necessary. I’d guess if a lef coast team came up with an offer within 90% of the Yankees offer, say 6 years/$125M, that may well be good enough to lock him up.
“If C.C. was interested in pitching for the NYY and settling if family life, he would have accepted.”
It’s not that he’s not interested in playing in NYC as much as it is that he appears more interested in playing 3,000 miles to the west. I don’t see this as an afront to the Yankees or the city of New York. In addition to getting paid the big dollars, free agency is also about being able to pick a location, a lifestyle, etc. It’s six years of his life and more importantly to him, the lives of his family. Devoting some time to consider everything is not unreasonable.
“Perhaps C.C. may just accept arbitration and gamble that the economy improves in 2009 so his options improve next season.”
I’d say the chances of that are ZERO. At his age, coming off his most recent to seasons, his value will almost certainly never be this high again. Even in the current economy, he’s been offered the biggest contract ever for a pitcher. He’ll be signing w/ someone and I think it will most likely be the Yankees.
- last TWO seasons (not to)
CC’s silence means nothing more that that his agent is hoping (and working) for a better offer.
Having said that, it’s entirely possible that he doesn’t want to play and live in the circus atmosphere of New York and the Yankees. It’s not for everybody.
I mean, how would you like to be 6′7″, 290 lbs., and be forced to endure and ignore the daily wrath of self-promoting weasels like Mike Lupica, who doesn’t know if a baseball is pumped, or stuffed? (shudder) That alone would make sunny, laid-back Southern California look mighty inviting.
the angels wan’t the yankees to stay away from tex.this is why they claim they are interested in cc.
teams are afraid to bid on cc because they know the yankees will up the offer ending teams interest in him.
he will be a yankee.
“I mean, how would you like to be 6’7”, 290 lbs.,”
290 pounds??? One of his legs weighs 290. He’s three bills plus…easy.
or maybe there’s no benefit for CC to sign before the GM meetings where one signing could put teams in play that weren’t in play last week and drive up his offer.
He’s in the drivers seat and he knows it. Why rush?
The waiting game…continues.
Fred
I stand corrected.
I’ll bet he’s a machine at Mama’s Thanksgiving table. Keep the small children out of the way.
It’s good strategy to let this play out from CC’s side.I think he knows it’s the Yankees now….he just wants to see if he can extract another 10 mil from them.
Wouldn’t it be something if Girardi’s “no goodies in the clubhouse” rule was a deal breaker for CC ?
I’m thinking he likes him some Twinkies.
“I’ll bet he’s a machine at Mama’s Thanksgiving table. Keep the small children out of the way.”
He a pantload, that’s for sure. However, he moves pretty well for a big guy and his pitching motion is easy. I see him as an injury risk towards the end of a 6 year contract, but there’s not much there that should lead anyone to be concerned about injury the first 4 years or so.
the dodgers will not get him.they are cheap.
after listening to their owner & his wife i know he won’t be playing for la.
i just don’t see any team beating the yankees offer knowing that the yankees will increase it probably twice.
another thing.
this peavey situation is getting very interesting with atlanta getting vasquez.
“this peavey situation is getting very interesting with atlanta getting vasquez.”
Peavy is out there for the taking… i still think he’s the best fit for the 2nd addition to the Yankees rotation when compared to Lowe, Burnett, OPerez, Sheets, etc.
play the waiting game, and eventually the Padres are going to have to move him somewhere… and for much less than what they were asking for.
might only take 1 great prospect, plus 3 or 4 good prospects, for example, as opposed to two great prospects, with one of those MLB ready.
Fred
Agreed. He’s an athlete, for sure, albeit a very, very large athlete. He’s also a tough competitor and a down-to-earth nice guy, which has endeared him to his teammates.
Would be a great “get” for the Yanks.
if they get cc & peavey they will have a sick rotation.
cc
wang
peavey
joba
hughes
acevez
coke
giese.
they will be set with 26-33 million off the books in 11 months or so.
“this peavey situation is getting very interesting with atlanta getting vasquez.”
I think they may be out on Peavey now. Braves supposedly sending Lillibridge to Pale Hose in the Vazquez deal. I’d presume that takes dealing Yunel Escobar off the table and he was one of the key players in some of the Peavey proposals that were rumored. Lot of noise that they may be in hard on Burnett, perhaps willing to go to the 5th year. If they somehow pull that off, a rotation w/ Burnett, Jurens, and Vazquez is not bad. Figure young Tommy Hanson, the best pitcher in the AFL this year, is in the rotation soon and the Braves may have something.
Dave -
I wasn’t comparing their innate ability to pitch. Sheets obviously has better stuff when he’s healthy. But a lot of his injuries were of the ‘what the heck is wrong with this guy that he can’t stay healthy’ variety. If he (Sheets) was in New York, he would have been raked over the coals for some of his injuries. (In fact, in researching his injury history there was a link to a facetious listing of Sheets injuries, which I didn’t copy here because some of the items were, um, not in good taste, shall we say?) A lot of his injuries did not involve his pitching arm, but he missed a lot of time nonetheless.
I have no quarrel with Sheets’ ability when healthy, and he probably would give more innings in total than Pavano (who wouldn’t????), but at the salary he’d be making, Yankees fans would have little patience for the types of injuries and the frequency of those injuries if he was in pinstripes.
Heck, even Phil Hughes is being categorized as injury prone and therefore someone many would rather the Yankees trade. And there is no doubt that Sheets in the last few seasons has been injury prone.
If the cost of pitching wasn’t so high, perhaps you’d take a chance. I don’t think he’s worth the risk. And I do guarantee that the first time he was out with an injury, all public relations hell would break loose.
However, if the Yankees sign him, I will add his health to my list of prayers.
When did the spelling of the word should change to s h u d? Is it like when the NE 5950 got altered & ruined so lame ass players could look like street thugs?
Dave -
I also feel the same way about AJ Burnett, by the way. Not crazy about the Yankees going after him, but, again, if he’s signed, his health, too, will be added to my prayers.
Peavey has always been a matter of the talent cost and unlike CC he and his agent have openly signalled a strong desire to stay in the NL in a smaller market. I’d be much more concerned about his adjustment to NYC than CC.
CC is just waiting. There’s no rush and I doubt there is an ulterior motive. It’s reasonable to assume some teams told his agent “we can’t make an offer until after the deadline to accept arbitration so we know where we stand with certain players and the payroll”.
Sheets and AJ Burnett are comparable from a health-risk standpoint. Paguano doesn’t belong in a conversation with either of those guys. Look at the last four years:
AJ Burnett 50 Wins, 112 starts, 732 IP
Ben Sheets 41 Wins, 94 starts, 603 IP
Carl Paguano 9 Wins, 26 starts, 146 IP
Yes Sheets was a workhorse 2002-04 and Burnett was hurt a lot more in that time frame, but I think the last four years are a better predictor of future performance than those seasons.
Braves preparing a 5 yr deal for AJ?
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/yankees/2008/12/02/2008-12-02_yankees_watch_as_braves_make_pitch_for_a.html
I think the reason no other team has made an offer other than the Brewers is obvious. No team has quite the resources the Yanks do, and everyone knows this. The Angels aren’t as interested in him as some think they are. In fact today they said Tex is their #1 priority.
The Dodgers (also mentioned today on MLB.com) are first and foremost after Manny.
Boston isn’t going to throw that kind of cash at him and don’t need him as badly as the Yanks do.
Other teams mentioned- the SF Giants, don’t want to lock up another pitcher to that kind of money and years (see Barry Zito), so who does that leave? Oakland and Seattle play on the west coast, but there is NO way they front that money. The Padres are about the rebuild again, they aren’t coming up with that money, especially since they are trying to unload Peavy’s salary. The Diamondbacks aren’t big spenders and had a decent enough run last year to make minor tweeks to their team.
Phillies- no just won the WS, the Mets- no, have Santana. Cubs-maybe, but to date there has been no interest, but they have the money if they want to spend it. No one else in the NL has or will want to pony up the cash. In the AL who has the money besides us and Boston? Texas would be the only other team and they could be the only one that would make an attempt at him.
I still think CC comes here. He hasn’t made a decision yet because him and his agent are hoping for another offer. As for CC not wanting to come to NY. There has been talk since the middle of last season that he wouldn’t mind NY, and other players (from Cleveland and Milwaukee) have said CC can see himself in NY.
I don’t think he doesn’t want to be here as much as he just prefers the west coast.
I say he has that press conference by Christmas, wearing a pinstriped #52 jersey.