Teixeira is not immune to decline, but he plays a relatively undemanding position and has a great batting eye. His power is not going to go away either. So I don’t think he’s a threat to suffer the sort of decline that would make his contract a bad investment. Will he be worth $22 million a year in his mid 30s? No. But I doubt he will be as grossly overpaid as Giambi was either.

Giambi himself is a strange case. Unlike Teixeira, he is not a good fielding first baseman and probably never was. He was also a PED guy and had serious health setbacks that were probably related to his PED use. And yet even after all his missed time, he still was a big contributor in the last year of his contract. I doubt we would see Teixeira decline as muchas Giambi did.

If Swisher hits .300 this year everyone’s invited over my house next year for XMas. He is an OBP guy, who could possibly hit 25 HR though. Not too shabby.

I like what I’m hearing about pulling for Patt Burrell.

i would tend to agree with that which is why i like manny for a quick hit and a possible quick out in a few years.

I thought you were serious until I got to the .300 average part. Good one.

I thought you were serious until I got to the .300 average part. Good one.

although, i think you could justify the signing by recognizing that while his decline period starts at 32 or 33, and he’d be signed until 36 or 37:

1) you’ll pay the premium to optimize his prime years, which fall in line with the window some people feel the Yankees have with their aging core built around Jeter and Jorge, and Mo.

2) though he will be in decline from 33 to the end of his deal, his decline would still provide numbers greater than what the Yankees feel they can develop for the position internally, or when compared to players in the league, he’d still be among the top certain percentage in the league at his position.