Time for baseball to get back to work
Posted by: Peter Abraham - Posted in Misc on Jan 05, 2009 
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It’s Jan. 5, baseball’s wake-up call has arrived.
Spring training starts in 40 days and there are approximately 140 unsigned free agents. From big stars like Manny Ramirez to scrubby backup catchers, players are seeking jobs and teams are looking to fill holes in their rosters. There will be a flurry of deals and it will be interesting to see how desperate some big-name players get. You could see some notable players accepting cut-rate contracts.
The Yankees don’t have much to do. It still makes sense to strike a deal with Andy Pettitte but somebody will have to budge first. The Yankees could use a middle infielder. Maybe Brian Cashman will trade one of his extra hitters. But with the free-agent market flush with corner outfielders, he could do much better once the season starts.
Here are a few dates to keep in mind:
Sometime this week: The Yankees will announce their deal with Mark Teixeira. He agreed to a contract two weeks ago.
Jan. 12: Results of the Hall of Fame voting will be announced. This will be a happy day for Rickey Henderson and perhaps Jim Rice. Those who idolize Don Mattingly will grumble and point out he was just as good as Kirby Puckett.
Jan. 20: Salary arbitration figures will be exchanged. Brian Bruney, Melky Cabrera and Xavier Nady are the only unsigned Yankees eligible for arbitration. Bruney and Cabrera are likely to settle for one-year deals and modest raises. Nady, who is represented by Scott Boras, won’t be so easy. Hearings start Feb. 1 in Phoenix.
As for the blog:
Pinch hitter series: This will continue through Feb. 4. These are amateur bloggers who had the guts to express their views before a large audience. Please treat them with respect whether you agree with them or not.
We also will have a few special guests this month.
The pinch hitter roster is full, so please do not submit a post unless you’re been contacted. If anybody drops out, I have several people waiting for spots. It was first-come, first-served.
Registration: The IT people at the office are working on a system and we hope to implement it this month. The idea is to improve the quality of the comments section and allow regulars to register their names. A lot of you have asked for registration and it seems to make sense now. I’ll post the details once I get them. But I do not want registration unless it can be done correctly. We’re working on it.
As always, thanks for reading.
Just say no to Jim Rice!
He is not a HOFer.
Bob:
Nice try but voting closed Dec. 31.
Repost from Previous subject.
Randy I, I have a reponse to you meeting with Michael Burke when you were in high school. I had linked an exceprt from a book about him and the OSS that’s a great read. Unfortunately, the link his hung up in the filters.
Here’s what I printed and the name of the book.
——————————————————————————————
gb7-
the above was from an interesting obituary on burke in the new york times. no wonder he didn’t do good job with the yankees. he looked like he was a little busy.
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As a retired military guy and in SF, I would have loved to talk with him. What an amazing life. If you enjoy a book on history and intrigue, this is a great book. I’ve read this book 4 times. Another book is “The Catcher Is A Spy” about Moe Berg. Fascinating guy…strange, but, fascinating. He was on a baseball tour in 1937 in Japan. The secret pictures he took from the top of a hospital are the ones used as markers used by Jimmy Doolittle on hs bombing raid.
http://books.google.com/books?.....lt#PPP1,M1
I guess that you can’t have two links in one post. I forgot that you had also included a link. My error
“Bob:
Nice try but voting closed Dec. 31.”
Just to make sure im not too late on my voting and im really not sure when he is eligable. I would like to cast my NO vote to Schilling ahead of time if thats o.k. with you Pete. Ketsup shouldnt get you in.
PA, how will people be able to keep their known SNs? Will they need to be first in line, will you decide if two claim the same one?
What the heck is Andy Pettitte doing this week? Big Tex on tap, the question is will it be an exciting press conference where he admits to issues with the Red Sox or something along those lines or will he truly be another bland Jeter interview? I would assume it will be Jeteresque with lots of Don Mattingly idolizations mentioned.
registration, praise the newspaper gods.
It would be nice if the Yankees/Pettitte stalemate came to an end this week. Enough with the delay already! Offer him $12mil and call it a day.
Peter, if you had a HOF vote, who would you have voted for?
“The Yankees could use a middle infielder.”
How about giving Ransom a shot? I wish the Yankees would find the time to give these farm guys a chance at proving their worth. We don’t have to get all of our players via FA or Trade. Geez!!
“This is Rickey callling on behalf of Rickey. Rickey wants to play baseball.” and Rickey is going to the HOF.
Seriously, sign Andy and call it a day. And congrats on getting us a registration feature!! 40 days seems like forever…ughhh
Bob:
Nice try but voting closed Dec. 31.
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Darn. I really thought I would influence some voters. lol
I sincerely hope that Rickey’s HOF induction speech is the classic of the ages that we all expect. I hope Rickey’s been writing it for Rickey for weeks.
registration will be a good thing. i was against it at first, since i probably would never have started commenting here if i had to register. but that was a long time ago and this blog is worth it…
i’m guessing people won’t be able to add or change the messages they put in there names anymore, though…
i may have to go see the rickey speech in person.
I hope Rickey speaks about himself in the 5th person.
Tom,
Pete already listed his HOF choices. I recall he would not vote for either Rice (good decision) or Raines (bad decision).
For the sake of discussion, here are my choices:
Henderson – obvious. The greatest leadoff hitter of all time.
Raines – should be obvious. The second-greatest leadoff hitter of all time. That Rice has a shot to make it in and Raines probably doesn’t, even though the two players had about the same career OPS+ while Raines had about 750 more stolen bases and was a far more useful player, is one of the greatest absurdities in the history of HOF voting.
McGwire – no one seems to care that he was a lethally effective hitter anymore because he was among the roid guy with the second-highest profile (behind Bonds). There is only one legitimate argument to be made against McGwire in the HOF, which is that he should be excluded because of his drug use. There is no good argument against electing him based on his stats – he is undoubtedly one of the best power hitters ever. I say put him in and note on his plaque that his extremely impressive accomplishments are clouded by his involvement in the steroid scandal. It’s not a happy compromise, but the alternatives are worse, because they engage in denial.
Blyleven – 287 wins and 242 complete games. He was good enough for long enough that, if he had pitched for better teams, he easily would have surpassed 300 wins. He even has excellent postseason numbers, if that’s your thing. A good-to-great pitcher for almost 5000 innings deserves the HOF.
Smith – another omission I just don’t understand. Smith was clearly one of the best closers of all time regardless of how you look at his numbers. He doesn’t match up to Rivera, but that speaks more to Rivera’s once-in-a-lifetime ability than anything else.
I assume your call for politeness and respect has a lot to do with the reaction to Sam I Am’s post. And I really gotta take issue with you here, Pete.
“These are amateur bloggers who had the guts to express their views before a large audience. Please treat them with respect whether you agree with them or not.”
People are entitled to their own opinions. They are not entitled to their own facts. That was Sam’s flaw, and he rightly earned the (non-profane) lashing he got. If bloggers are going to make up history out of whole cloth, then they do not deserve respect for “having the guts” to basically lie.
The Ricky Henderson HOF speech should be a classic!!
I think eventually, many of those whose numbers are tainted with PED use will get in. The HOF is about the entire history of the game and the greatest of players (though there are number in that are dubious of that honorific).
Eventually we will see those suspected and known to have used PEDs. The biggest problem will remain that many who used are not known for certain, they hadn’t been caught or named in the biased Mitchell report.
This whole mess has called into question almost every player of this entire era. When we can see players like Pettitte and Byrd being guilty of PED use, how many others are tainted? How do you know for certain?
It needs to be duly noted as a problem within the sport. It is also imperative that players who really belong in the Hall of Very Good do not get into the Hall of Fame by default.
Mitchell’s report was terrible in naming those he did name, mainly because some believe it to be the end report. The ones not named in his extremely limited report get a free pass. Mitchell did a poor job with the report and Selig now thinks the scandal is at an end.
Pete: I’ve opposed registration on The Blog ever since it first came up, but recognize the accuracy of it “making sense now”. Just another testament to how the enterprise has grown & flourished, congratulations.
I was watching hot stove yesterday and they were saying that we might be going after Orlando Hudson for center field. I just wanted to get everyones take on this. I for one think we should just go with our youngsters now that we signed a big bat. Maybe a Figgins if he came cheap but not a must. We have 7 guys in the lineup that have hit .300 at one time in their career. I dont think we need murderers row plus Cano to win. Thoughts?
JeffG,
I understand where Pete is coming from. Sam I Am’s post contributed nothing to this blog. But neither did dozens of commenters slinging insults.
It’s not as if the insults accomplished anything positive. Sam I Am deliberately wrote an inflammatory piece. He wanted the attention, even if it 99% of it was negative. I am doubtful that he read the comments, thought, “hmmm, perhaps these angry people are on to something,” and changed the way he wrote about the Yankees. Instead, he invited those insulting him to visit his blog.
All the insults just made it harder to find the well-written responses to the post that did a far better job of exposing it as a hack job.
S.o.S.,
The Yankees are not going to acquire Hudson under any circumstances unless they make a blockbuster trade with Cano. There is no reason for any team to pay a premium for a top 2B and then convert him to CF (a position he has never played in the major leagues). That is purely a Playstation move.
Jeremy, very good points about the insulting comments burying the insightful retorts. And no one should ever name call or use profanity in this kind of forum where I assume a lot of kids come by.
But the drivel written by Sam was drivel not because it bashed Cashman, but because it was so ridden with falsehoods, inaccuracies, and outright lies. To ask people to treat that kind of chicanery with respect is disrespectful to everyone’s intelligence. Garbage is garbage, and I see no “disrespect” in calling it such.
JeffG,
I agree the piece was garbage for all the reasons you listed. I also think it’s fine (good, even) to write “This is garbage, here’s why” in a comment. That is probably the best way to make Pete think twice about posting such a terrible piece again.
I think Pete just wants to avoid getting 200 comments that say “You are an idiot” with no other content.
“These are amateur bloggers who had the guts to express their views before a large audience. Please treat them with respect whether you agree with them or not.”
Pete, well, how about telling the guest bloggers:
Gang…your audiences are excellent blog readers who are passionate Yankees fan or just fans of baseball. Please treat them with respect. As you are amateur bloggers, remember to check your facts and make sure your source is legitimate. Also be able to back up any opinion or claims you may express, so we may generate a healthy discussion.
Jeremy,
With the way the market is right now and his prior injury, i dont see them paying a premium for his services. I wouldnt mind having him at second if they were to pull the trigger on a trade for a Kemp(seems to have been the rumor this winter). But i dont want center field to be what first base was the past few years. They said that it was between 3 teams, us the mets and cant remember the third one.
I hope Rickey and Rock get in together.
S.o.S,
The Cano for Kemp deal has been bandied about for a long time, and it’s not happening. The Yankees have Austin Jackson in development for CF. They also know that Cano can be the best 2B in the league. They are not going to trade Cano for Kemp just to block Ajax and leave a vacancy at 2B.
Remember that if we trade Cano, there is no guarantee we can sign Hudson to replace him. If we can’t, we have just created a black hole at 2B when we previously had a player who can bat well over .300. Plus, if Hudson is really an injury risk, it makes this idea even worse.
That leaves the original idea of signing Hudson just to play CF, which will never happen.
What makes a lot more sense is going forward with the team as it’s presently constructed with Swisher, Damon, and Nady in the OF and Melky and Gardner available to fill in. I would even prefer revisiting the old Melky for Cameron deal.
Jeremy,
To not make a move because we have Ajax waiting in the wings doesnt make much sense. He still hasnt made it to AAA and we are already talking about keeping the seat warm in center for him. Kemp has a really high ceiling and has proven his talents in the big leagues. I hope Ajax continues to excell and make it to the bigs. But iv seen many young players slotted into the Yankees teams before making out of the minors and fail. I believe that the young minor league players are a crap shoot. Some live up to the hype and some dont. Lets hope Ajax can help the Yanks in the near future. If he ends up shining and we had pulled the trigger for Kemp, we can either move one of them to a corner outfield possition or trade the lesser of the two. I am satisfied with the team we have assembled though. Again this Hudson thing was mentioned yesterday on the new mlb hot stove.
I would prefer to use the 10 mil that we would be spending on Cameron for Pettitte. Thats if it was burning a hole in the Yankees pockett. Wouldnt mind going with Hughes instead and save the money for a later move. Use Melky in Center rather than Swisher or Damon. Have Swisher take some corner outfield starts and occationally center if Gardner doesnt make the team. I still think an outfielder is getting traded though.
No way the Dodgers trade Kemp for Cano now. They signed Blake to play 3B, have Dewitt at 2B and have Loretta backing them up. Cano is not a fit for the Dodgers.
It’s really difficult to think that Jackson could be trashed by the media and fans because he doesn’t break in with a .300 BA, 20 homers, 30 steal rookie season. He could very well reach that mark within 3-4 year time period, but, right now and even in 2010, he’s not likely to be that player. He’s going to give you a solid center field or corner outfield defense that year, with a .260-.270 BA, about 12-15 homers and 20 steals. Expecting more from him is not only setting yourself up for disappointment, but, likely to start complaining and whining about another over rated flop. A word of advice….tone down the expectations of an immediate monster and franchise saver.
http://nyymystique.blogspot.com/
New Yanks Blog
I know Rickey Henderson is an obvious first ballot HOF and this is Jim Rice’s year but does anyone else agree its Dawson’s year too?
is boras a future politician? cuz he sure can spin the dung around. btw, caught francesa calling some of his callers stupid – pot and kettle syndrome lol.
Yay, registration – finally. I’ve been posting on this blog a long time, and I’m one of those regulars who have stopped posting as much recently. Partly because of the holidays, but largely because of the vile personal attacks on Peter (and his family) and others. I’m happy to hear that its eventually going to be a reality and will wait patiently for it. I really think it will make this place much better.
I put first dibs in on my name. I’ve been using it since the beginning.