Spring training tickets go on sale today
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- January
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Just a reminder that spring training tickets go on sale today at 10 a.m. according to the Yankees.
To go Yankees.com for information.
If you’re thinking about going, get your tickets now. Good seats go fast.
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Journal News columnists Sam Borden and Rick Carpiniello are trying to decide what the best rivalries are in New York sports. Seems pretty obvious to me that it’s the Yankees and Red Sox.
They’re on the Faceoff blog discussing it if you want to share your opinion.
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Chad Jennings
Sam Borden
Josh Thomson
when do the cubbies game go on sale?
GREAT article…
http://umpbump.com/press/2008/.....-bad-idea/
cheapest tickets always worked for me. you can always sneak up
how 100 level sold out in 2 minutes ill never know
Anyone have any luck with tix yet?
Just got some for the game I wanted. 100 level seats on March 21st against the Tigers. NICE!
Rishi,
Good article and explanation of why a salary cap would not help. Reinforces again that the Steinbrenners choose to put their money back into the team, unlike the other owners who choose to pocket it.
I know, Fran! I got it off Neyer’s blog this morning…should be required reading for some people!
off topic i just wanted to say how much better i like sirus/xm’s baseball channel then i did a month ago. they got rid of that goofy guy in the a.m. and that annoying lamont germany guy (at least they’re not on in he morning anymore) joel sherman has been doing the morning show. hes interesting at least.
Section 118
The Phillies April 1,2009
See you all there
Alright! Got 4 tickets to the Sunday 3/15 game on the Tribune Deck Bar. Never watched a live baseball game from a stool at a bar before.
Also got tickets to the Sat 3/14 game, but my buddy took care of those.
best line of article.
Why do we attack the Steinbrenners for spending their income to do so? Shouldn’t the Nationals fans (all four of you) be angry that their team had a 2007 payroll of $37MM when the organization made $43.7MM? To me, that’s far more offensive than what the Steinbrenners are doing.
*off topic i just wanted to say how much better i like sirus/xm’s baseball channel then i did a month ago.*
when XM announced they were putting on a MLB only channel, as a XM subscriber, i was pumped.
then it seemed like they never really got a good idea as to what the shows were supposed to be, or what kind of formats to use, etc, and for the most part, i never listened to it.
that, and i just couldnt take all the rube trucker Braves and Cardinals fans calling in all the time.
so the fact that the channel failed to keep my interest was one reason of several why i got rid of my XM.
but if i hear that it continues to improve, i might think about signing back up.
WTF is Daniel Cabrera’s problem my GOD he took out Melky in Winter Ball WHAT IS HIS PROBLEM !
Is Melky okay? God I can’t stand Daniel. Who was it that said if a pitcher has no control he shoudn’t be pitching? (this was regarding Joba). Why doesn’t any (except us) call out Daniel for constantly hitting people.
Turntwo-
You are spot on.I hope this reshuffling of hosts is going to continue throughout the season and this is not just an off season filler.
I was never a fan of Mark Patrick (but liked Buck) the new pairings they have in both the morning and afternoon is great!!
Re Cabrera vs Cabrera I was watching the game last night and kept looking for Melky I turned it on in the 4th inning and wondered why I didn’t see him. I was impressed that Cabrerra had not hit any one and was pitching very nicely. of course being as I don’t speak Spanish I didn’t hear that he had in fact taken out Melky.
Does anyone have a link to an article about Melky getting hit? or a video? Anything?
Fans often get on ball players who want more money and call them greedy and hypocritical, etc. This has come up a lot with Andy.
But ultimately if the money doesn’t go to the players it goes right into the pockets of the owners and many owners just don’t care about reinvesting in their teams.
Case in point – the dodgers.
Earlier this fall there was a huge controversy over comments made by dodger owner Frank McCourt’s wife Jamie McCourt. For some reason she decided to get into the Manny negotiations in a very public way. This is what she said as she was criticizing the greed of free agents who are demanding so much money in this painful economic time:
“If you bring somebody in to play and pay them, pick a number, $30 million, does that seem a little weird to you?” Jamie McCourt asked in an interview at the Evergreen Recreation Center in East Los Angeles. “That’s what we’re trying to figure out. We’re really trying to see it through the eyes of our fans. We’re really trying to understand, would they rather have the 50 fields?”
So Jamie McCourt wants the fans to choose between the Dodgers signing Manny (profligate waste) and improving the community (nobel deed).
This amazing hypocrisy came to a head recently when it became known that Frank McCourt bought Jamie – not one but two new mansions in Malibu that were side by side totally $46M. Even for California that is one of the more expensive properties purchased this year. And this was on top of the multimillion dollar primary estate the McCourts already own.
$46M would build a lot of community baseball fields in LA.
Either the money goes to Manny or the money goes to buying the McCourts yet another beachfront mansion. That’s the reality of the situation for most teams.
No one in baseball is worried about how most people are doing in this economy.
http://www.sportshubla.com/200.....al-estate/
Dueling beachfront mansions.
Awesome.
Gives a new meaning to separate bedrooms, no?
J/K, of course.
“Cabrera vs Cabrera I was watching the game last night and kept looking for Melky I turned it on in the 4th inning and wondered why I didn’t see him. I was impressed that Cabrerra had not hit any one and was pitching very nicely. of course being as I don’t speak Spanish I didn’t hear that he had in fact taken out Melky.”
Gayle he took one in the elbow from Daniel according to reports last night.
About the salary cap, as I said on my blog last night:
“a grand total of seven teams in the league–Orioles, Nationals, Rangers, Blue Jays, Royals, Reds, Pirates–have not appeared in the playoffs in the last decade.
With the Orioles and Nationals, of course, there is a recent history of sordid ownership, and while the Royals and Reds have not had much recent success, both teams have a core of young players that will, quite possibly, make the teams much more competitive in the very near future.
A sweeping majority of teams have made the postseason at least once–many more than that–and a variety of teams have made World Series appearances, as well. If that type of scenario, or a scenario where a team like Tampa can go from worst to first, or, like the Mariners, from first to worst, does not speak for parity, then I’m not sure what does.
The idea of a salary cap, at least as presented to the casual fan, is to level the playing field, so to speak, right?
Well, baseball seems to have a fairly level playing field as it is!”
You can’t use basketball or hockey to counter it, because in those sports eight teams from each conference make the playoffs, so in essence, to make the playoffs in baseball your team has to be that much better.
And recent history would seem to indicate that, in fact, a larger number of baseball teams are, in fact, better.
how would they even implement a salary cap if they wanted to? wouldn’t the top annual payroll need to be higher than any one team’s in order to put it into place?
There needs to be a place on the team for both Melky and Gardner. Melky can play CF, Gardner brings speed on the bases (pinch running). These are little things we haven’t had in years (pinch running, lefties in the pen), that i think will help the yankees get back to the WS.
saucY: Something of that sort, anyway.
I’m under the impression that a salary floor is needed much more than a salary cap, though that impression is just a gut instinct and I could be wrong.
F the salary cap. A salary floor makes more sense. If you dont want to spend money, DONT BUY A BASEBALL TEAM!!!!!
What would the cap be? $5 more than whatever the Red Sox spend so it only affects the Yankees? Yankees pay money to the league to “balance it out”. Then cheap owners like the Twins owner (god rest his soul), who i think was the richest owner in the league, and didnt spend a dime, left Hunter, Santana, and others leave.
In football, there is a cap and the same teams are good every year. There have been more teams that won in baseball since 2000 than football,or basketball where the same 10 teams are good every year so apparently the cap has not helped.
And Cb they probably knocked one of them down since it blocked her view.
Tex’s new best friend:
I agree. If you can’t or don’t want to pay the appropriate salaries for a baseball team, don’t buy one!
there’s something to be said for managing smartly and investing wisely, ie, don’t sign a million type A free agents, but by the same token , it’s hard to win multiple World Series if you can’t retain players!
Juan Cruz for a 4th RDer? I’m in.
http://riveraveblues.com/2009/.....cruz-6692/
“F the salary cap. A salary floor makes more sense. If you dont want to spend money, DONT BUY A BASEBALL TEAM!!!!!”
Although I agree with your sentiment, I would revise your last sentence to read:
“If you don’t want to spend money, DONT COMPLAIN WHEN OTHER TEAMS DO!!!!!!”
As CB and SJ and other have noted, the Yanks have a unique business model – relative to the other 29 teams. Someone posted a link (12/23?) to a short CNBC article that essentially stated that Yanks are somewhat immune to the economic downturn because the Steinbrenner’s primary business IS the Yankees. Yankees Global Enterprises Corp yadda yadda yadda IS the business.
The Steinbrenners aren’t in the real estate or finance businesses first and baseball second. Seems like every other team is owned by a rich guy (or corp.) and the team is secondary. To those owners, the team is nothing more than another division of the little empire, and they approach it as such.
gianthinker: I’m in.
“And Cb they probably knocked one of them down since it blocked her view.”
I have little doubt about that. I’m serious too. People in LA do this all of the time. They buy properties for the land and knock down the houses to build better houses. I’d guess they could knock down both houses, join the properties and construct one custom made house to their liking.
I guess people in NYC do this as well to join adjacent apartments/condos so perhaps I shouldn’t be so critical of LA.
Oh the lives of the mega-wealthy.
Juan Cruz for a 4th rd. you have to do it. We have enough picks in the upcoming draft it takes 4-6 yrs. to develope unless they are extremely talented and the teachers are lined up in your minor league affiliates. Coke goes to the starting rotation or this could also trigger a future deal w. a guy like Veras or Ramirez.
CB: I bet if you showed them how environmentally damaging it is to do that, you could get (some) of them to stop.
…okay, maybe not.
With a plethora of young arms in the pen and more in the minors, I don’t see a fit for Cruz.
Don’t want to tie up more than a couple of relievers to multi-year deals and they already have two in Mo and Marte.
Let Bruney, Ramirez, Melancon, Veras, Sanchez, Coke, Robertson, and Albaladejo battle it out for the final 4 slots.
Since there is no salary cap I will use that premise for my daily Manny blog with my reasons to sign Manny and why this makes sense and works:
1- It will give us the bat we need behind Arod in the 5th spot fortifying what would now be the best lineup in baseball which we do not have right now. For the money we spend, why shouldn’t we have the best lineup in baseball?
2- It will negate the good moves that the Sox and Rays have made to date as they are still both picked to finish ahead of us by the MLB Hot Stove crew. With the money we spend we should have the team that is picked to win it all.
3- It will mortify the Red Sox fans to no end. Imagine the endless chorus of boos from the nation when Tex, Arod and Manny come to bat in succession not to mention the boos that Damon will have generated, priceless.
4- It could literally send Gammons to his grave, but not wished upon here. By the way his whining and shots at Tex and wife were way off base IMO.
5- It would give us a 2-3 yr shot at winning the WS as our current roster won’t, due to the fact that Damon, Nady and Matsui all come off the books next year. We will have to do this all over again next year and there is no guarantee that we will sign Holiday so sign Manny while he is there now.
6- It will only cost us a 4th rd draft pick where signing Holiday next year will cost us a 1st. Big difference as we continue building from within. Remember this roster that I am suggesting would still have 4 homegrown players in line up and at least 2-3 starters in rotation along with HG talent in pen. Not bad for a team buying a title.
7- Manny wants to be a Yankee and could boost revenues beyond where we are right now as we still have seats to sell despite what we may hear.
8- He doesn’t belong in the NL for obvious reasons and will produce better for us than he will with Dodgers as he will get pitched around more.
9- If we dump Nady and Matsui our payroll won’t increase so much and will come down more next year when Damon leaves and is replaced in OF with Jackson. We can live with the higher payroll for 1 season at the expense of winning a title in our inaugural year in new stadium.
10- Despite what happened in Boston I think he will be on better behavior and might actually loosen up our club house and Girardi while taking the pressure off Arod.
11- He will give the media and us more to write about one way or another. High risk high reward.
12- He is a proven winner and will help lead us to where we all want to get to.
13- Pettite might actually pay us to pitch here after this move or Mussina would ask back in to get that elusive ring lol.
14- You can add more if you want
Now CB, you can give me all of the stats you want on how he wouldn’t be that much of an upgrade over Matsui but the bottom line is that he is a clutch performer and brings some winning intangibles that stats don’t reflect.
Pitchers will be worn out by the time they get to the 6th batter so that the bottom of the line up will perform better and we will be in other teams bull pens by the 4th or 5th inning. Game over.
My last Manny blog of the week and I’m hoping that by Monday there are Manny rumors starting to fly just as happened with Tex.
Guiseppe it builds trade pieces for guys like Alba, Veras and Edwar. It’s something they should consider because Cruz is 28 and is a veteran relief pitcher in the ML.
What the heck is this fixation on Juan Cruz? The Yanks already had a clone of him last year – remember Farnsworth? Power pitcher who can’t throw strikes. The Yanks pen is set and the stregnth of the system is RPers. Why waste a picker (albeit a 4th rounder plus money) on something you don’t need?
Oh Yeah, I got my tics this morning too. 3/15 against the Twins.
Got my tickets for the 3/14 ss game against Houston. I was worried because it took a long time to get to the best available screen but I got two seat right behind home plate!
I would imagine that all tickets sold within an hour or so like in past years.
Guiseppe it builds trade pieces for guys like Alba, Veras and Edwar. It’s something they should consider because Cruz is 28 and is a veteran relief pitcher in the ML.
——————
But like I said, you don’t want to tie up too many relievers to multi-year deals because you’re stuck with them if they don’t work out for one reason or another.
The young kids can be moved back and forth to Scranton if they don’t work out.
They need that kind of flexibility in the pen.
“Don’t want to tie up more than a couple of relievers to multi-year deals and they already have two in Mo and Marte.”
Offer Cruz a one year $2M deal. There’s no market for him at all right now.
If he says no fine. But the yankees are now set up to exploit an inefficiency in the free agent market and should consider ever possibility of doing so.
NY Observer says Hideki bought a new 3 bedroom condo in Trump Heritage on the West Side. Doesn’t sound like a guy planning on leaving town anytime soon.
Wonder if the 3 Bedroom means he might have to sketch us a photo of a little Matsui soon.
Doreen said:
“What I do hope is that what they’ve saved on payroll they also reinvest in the team in terms of player development programs and hiring the best personnel for that facet of the team. It would certainly be money well spent and could have the added benefit of keeping the major league team’s payroll down even further (more cost-controlled players, fewer free agents maybe?).”
Doreen,
I do agree the yanks should invest heavily on player development in every way possible. But that cost is so minimal when compared to that of the major league club and stadium. Look at how much they spent on player development last year – running the best player development program in baseball is still extremely cheap compared to every other facet of a major league club. It takes almost nothing away from a teams ability to keep payroll at a high level.
Also, I know the yanks are paying for the stadium but they are also getting huge breaks in other areas due to the fact that they just built the stadium. I dont think the yanks should spend more than they did in the past but with all the extra revenue coming in, why do they constantly speak of lowering the payroll from last years total? Just keep it at the same level is all I ask.
As of right now, I’d prefer a bullpen of Rivera, Bruney, Melancon, Albaladejo, Coke, Marte, and Whelen. Move Veras and Ramirez in deals.
“But like I said, you don’t want to tie up too many relievers to multi-year deals because you’re stuck with them if they don’t work out for one reason or another.”
We’re not saying lock him up, we’re saying in this market sign him may a 2 yr. deal and then deal him in the deadline or deal the arms in the BP that don’t pan out.
“The young kids can be moved back and forth to Scranton if they don’t work out.”
Yeh and we need to build depth. This shouldn’t be an issue.
“They need that kind of flexibility in the pen.”
He gives them a certainty too, a vet that takes the pressure off the young kids in the pen, a stabalizer.
*is stuck in NY for all of March and thus can’t get any Spring Training tickets* Boo!
Is there a TV schedule for Spring Training games yet? Or is it still too early?
GB,
no Aceves? or he’s a starter in your mind?
pat
January 9th, 2009 at 12:28 pm
NY Observer says Hideki bought a new 3 bedroom condo in Trump Heritage on the West Side. Doesn’t sound like a guy planning on leaving town anytime soon.
Wonder if the 3 Bedroom means he might have to sketch us a photo of a little Matsui soon.
——-
With real estate down it could be a good investment opportunity as I would imagine he would be off to Japan in a year anyway.
…that wasn’t supposed to be bold, btw. silly blog.
GreenBeret7,
If that were the bullpen who would you want for the 8th inning guy? I would choose Bruney provided he can come in and throw strikes. He tended to have some wild streaks in him last season.
GB: I like Coke as a starter, even if I shouldn’t judge him on what he did last September.
Muffy….errrr….Doreen, more money is needed in the lower minors, because for whatever reaon, the lower minors are bereft of good infield coaches…Charleston, in particular…the have two coaches (pitching and hitting) plusthe manager. Ball players are often used on the bases for coaches, which if fine, but, that’s one reason the kids coming up are usually poor fielders….not enough hands on traiing/instruction.
GB7 who’s teaching the defense in the minors and how advanced are the hitting coachs there for Charleston ?
“I dont think the yanks should spend more than they did in the past but with all the extra revenue coming in, why do they constantly speak of lowering the payroll from last years total? Just keep it at the same level is all I ask.”
Given the new stadium the Yanks would be penny wise and pound foolish not to spend to the point where they are pretty confident they can win the AL East.
They need another starter and a CF to be that confident, IMO. A decent back-up middle infielder would be nice, too. They could get them from free agency or from a trade, but they need to get them.
In terms of spending, don’t forget that $9M of CC and $5MM of Tex this year is being paid as signing bonuses. MLB doesn’t count signing bonuses as all spent in the year actually expended, they are pro-rated over the life of the applicable contract.
That means that the Yanks actually have quite a bit extra to spend and still not have “fibbed” about not spending more than last year.
The Replacement Level Yankees Blog has some early standing projections based on the data at Hardball Times. The projections look rather encouraging (102W-60L).
http://www.replacementlevel.com/
Ed – American League, prepare to be scared! CC, Aj, and MT!!
January 9th, 2009 at 12:31 pm
GB,
no Aceves? or he’s a starter in your mind?
————————————————————
Ed, as of right now, Aceves would be the number 4 starter and Chamberlain as the #5. Of course, depending on further deals.
Fran
January 9th, 2009 at 12:33 pm
GreenBeret7,
If that were the bullpen who would you want for the 8th inning guy? I would choose Bruney provided he can come in and throw strikes. He tended to have some wild streaks in him last season.
————————————————————
I’d have both Bruney and Marte split the 8th inning, depending on whether the batters were right or left handed.
i CANT WAIT to hear all the complaints around baseball when the yanks sign matt holliday next off season talking about how the yankees are ruining baseball. oH it will be glorious.
Does any one else find it a little strange that while swisher has not played baseball since his last trade and the yanks gave up pretty much nothing useful to get him that the yanks would be fielding offers left and right for swisher? I mean why would his value go up now? And if it isnt up, why so much interest in the guy? its amazing how media’s spin on a player seems to change teams perceptions of that player. Swisher was traded for nothing but then, it seems as though hundreds of articles came out discussing swisher;s possible value – all of a sudden teams apparently think he is worth something much more than betemit?
The same could be said for sheets. He was one of the best pitchers in baseball last year. Came out in august for what doctors called a minor injury to his forearm comparable to that of a hamstring injury which takes a long time to heal but really isnt all that serious. He had an era of exactly 3 with a whip of 1.15 putting up better numbers than aj BURNETT in almost every single possible category that is relevant. But the media has made him look like carl pavano pretending that he is never healthy and would be a disaster to any team that signs him – newsflash – Over the last three seasons, sheets and Burnett are about equal in terms of starts.
Also, over the last eight years sheets has had less injuries and pitched more innings than burnett. Sheets also tries to pitch even when he is hurting which burnett does not ever do according to his manager. The medias spin of the two landed burnett 5 years and 82 mill while sheets coming off a much better season and a much better career with less injuries is probably going to sign a one year deal with an option and no more than 14 mil guaranteed at best.
The role the media plays in perception cannot be overlooked – while im sure sheets health records have red flags, i believe it is the public and media perception of sheets that has really put the nail into his coffin rather than the actual facts.
Of course, this is all mere opinion and i could very well be wrong but it does make one wonder… How low does sheets asking price have to go before he becomes worth it for the yanks to give him a chance? Burnett is certainly a big risk as well and the yanks decided to give him 82 million and five years based on optimism that he has turned the corner and the fact that he has the raw stuff to succeed. Why not give sheets a shot for about 70 million dollars less – sheets also has amazing stuff and comes with a risk that could be worth the price with an optimistic attitude.
“3- It will mortify the Red Sox fans to no end. Imagine the endless chorus of boos from the nation when Tex, Arod and Manny come to bat in succession not to mention the boos that Damon will have generated, priceless.”
And Jeter, Posada… you get the point. Not to mention the racism when Cano comes to bat.
Enter Sandman:
Encouraging projections!
Im sorry i meant to write sheets came out in late september with an injury. i dont know why i wrote he came out in august.
Rebecca–Optimist Prime–Staying to write the story
January 9th, 2009 at 12:35 pm
GB: I like Coke as a starter, even if I shouldn’t judge him on what he did last September.
————————————————————
I think, and, it’s only my opinion, that there will be plenty of opportunities for Coke to get tarts, maybe giving each of the other starters a day off in the rotation, along with long relief. I also don’t have an issue with having starters do their throw day (once a month) in rlief. It’s no more laborous and it lengthens the pen.
I mentioned this late last night. What do you guys think of getting Lilly from the cubs if Pettitte doesnt sign? He has one more year at 10 mil and if the cubs trade for Peavy i would think it wouldnt be too hard. Thoughts?
Others
Arroyo
Washburn
Rebecca,
Most definitely. If the Yankees give up anywhere near 680 runs, I really like our chances.
dave
January 9th, 2009 at 12:50 pm
Im sorry i meant to write sheets came out in late september with an injury. i dont know why i wrote he came out in august.
——
Because the media has made you buy into the fact that he has been hurt longer than he actually has lol.
gb7-
i have been surprised when i have been in a minor league clubhouse how few coaches there are. even at the triple a level there’s a manager, pitching coach, and a hitting coach. throw in the trainer and that’s pretty much it unless a special roving coach is in town.
i think there almost needs to be a quadruple a to get players closer to where they need to be to be ready for major league baseball with better players and better coaching.
i used to be in and out of the orioles minor league complex quite a bit in sarasota back in the early and mid 90’s and that place was loaded with coaches, but the old oriole way is long gone.
i do think the yankees have had a coaching drain the past few years that needs to be addressed. i was at the rays minor league site last spring and they really have some serious coaching going on.
i’m not sure the yankees have the same level of coaching in the minor leagues. when gardner comes out of triple a and can’t bunt, which he should be able to do as much as be able to breathe, that pretty much says all is not right at the yankee minor league level.
Brandon (CC & AJ now Marky Mark (they stilled over paid him) are Yankees)
January 9th, 2009 at 12:39 pm
GB7 who’s teaching the defense in the minors and how advanced are the hitting coachs there for Charleston ?
————————————————————
In Charleston, right now and last year, it was Manager Torre Tyson. Jeff Ware is the pitching coach and former Yankee Sherman Orbando as hitting coach.
“I like Coke as a starter, even if I shouldn’t judge him on what he did last September.”
Rebecca,
I agree that you can’t make too much out of September performances.
That said I also think it’s useful to try to dissect those performances, particularly if the player was successful.
Basically you have to try to see how much of the performance may have been due to random chance and how much due to real talent. With random chance you have to be concerned about regression. With real talent you have to be concerned about reproducibility and the capacity of the young player to make adjustments.
For example, with Brett Gardner’s much vaunted second call up I don’t see anyway that you could confidently say that his better performance was not due to random chance.
With Coke it’s very different. Simply put the quality of his stuff was outstanding. Perhaps the level of his dominance was related to random chance but there’s no doubt he showed tremendous stuff – the kind of stuff that would make him successful as a starter if he were able to reproduce it.
The combination of Coke’s dominant 2 seam fastball to right handers and his wipe out slider to left handers makes it a very real possiblity that he would make a very good starter. On top of that his 4 seamer was very good. His change is a question. But this 4 seam fastball, 2 seamer (huge tailing action) and slider are very promising as the foundation for making him a starter.
If he continued to show the kind of stuff he did at the end of last year the real questions with him is can he sustain that level of stuff and can he react to the adjustments major league hitters will make against him.
But his performance last year was not due to random chance or “small sample” issues as they are usually thought of. Coke was for real. And his stuff went past that of a relief pitcher.
Thought this was very interesting note in Heyman’s column today.Does anyone know if something similar has been done at the NEW Yankee Stadium or is it not far enough along to figure that out and also perhaps doing it now rather than in warmer weather would effect the results.
A secret batting practice session with David Wright, Daniel Murphy and Nick Evans last September at Citifield convinced all the players that the Mets’ new home won’t be the pitching park Mets people expected but rather a launching pad for home runs. And some within their hierarchy have used this inside knowledge to stump for Lowe, a groundball pitcher, suggesting he might work better than Oliver Perez, a flyball pitcher.
So glad Daniel Cabrera is out of the division.
“I think, and, it’s only my opinion, that there will be plenty of opportunities for Coke to get tarts”
that’s another problem with the minor leagues, low quality tarts.
Thanks GB, reading up on Sherman he had a good eye in the minors, went through struggles, good thing we have someone who knows the ups and downs of a minor leaguer teaching
16 seasons as a MILB .292/.364/.514 not bad, he struggled like hell in the MLB.
Yankeeray,
I know – now i AM having starting to believe the propaganda. haha!
Dont get me wrong guys. I am not saying that sheets medical record doesnt have some very big red flags – im sure it does. But when sheets own team wants to re-sign him for next season, the red flags cant be big enough that he does not warrant a contract. Especially since the brewers know him better than any other team in the league.
At some price, sheets becomes worth the risk but the question is the risk as big as everyone is making it out to be? According to the brewers, it is not. I am going to believe them over the rest of the teams who are just reading some doctors notes to form assumptions rather than being with sheets every step of the way and knowing the complete reality of the situation like the brewers do.
Enter Sandman: How many did we give up last year?
CB: How funny is it that the best move we may have made in 2008 was at the last moment to NOT trade Coke for the Nady/Marte deal? It’s far too soon to know for sure, but it’s those little ironies that make baseball so much fun.
Randy, I’m not sure when the ctbacks started, but, since started going to the Charleton games, it’s always been that way. Maybe it was the first cost savers implimented. They need at least a manager and at least 3, but preferrably 4 coaches at each level. ne thing they should loo at is having a local paramedic at the field to moonlight as a medic and have the coaches take sports trainer courses to fill that spot. I know a lot of paramedics that would love to watch games for free and pick up a few extra dollars. The instructor increases is a must, though.
Brandon (CC & AJ now Marky Mark (they stilled over paid him) are Yankees)
January 9th, 2009 at 1:03 pm
Thanks GB, reading up on Sherman he had a good eye in the minors, went through struggles, good thing we have someone who knows the ups and downs of a minor leaguer teaching
16 seasons as a MILB .292/.364/.514 not bad, he struggled like hell in the MLB.
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I believe that Obando also plaed in Japan. Not sure, though.
For those that still think the Yankees should sign Sheets, this article does a good job explaining his injury history and why he might be so prone to injury.
http://www.hardballtimes.com/m.....en-sheets/
CB if I were the Yankees buddy him up w/ Edwar and teach him that change up.
http://www.thebaseballcube.com.....ando.shtml
Yeh he did.
randy l
January 9th, 2009 at 1:01 pm
“I think, and, it’s only my opinion, that there will be plenty of opportunities for Coke to get tarts”
that’s another problem with the minor leagues, low quality tarts.
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Plenty of Southern flavored tarts in Savannah and Charleston. I would imagine that if Coke checked the stands or got friendly with Jeter, he could find some quality tarts.
“CB: How funny is it that the best move we may have made in 2008 was at the last moment to NOT trade Coke for the Nady/Marte deal? It’s far too soon to know for sure, but it’s those little ironies that make baseball so much fun.”
Rebecca god must have been shining down that day because it was because of a false medical report that Coke ended up staying. He was packed and ready to go. That deal was hard for me to like the one smile I had the next morning was when Coke ended up staying.
I think he meant starts
Brandon (CC & AJ now Marky Mark (they stilled over paid him) are Yankees)
January 9th, 2009 at 1:13 pm
I think he meant starts
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Brandon, a young pitcher needs both.
GB7 -
What’s with the “Muffy?”
Anyways, I do think the Yankees should spend money on the minor leagues. As randy l has said here and many times before, and as anyone with half a brain who follows baseball will query: How can you have a guy whose speed you laud, who you talk about being able to steal bases at will, yet who strikes out way too much, and not teach him how to bunt for a base hit??????????????? So, based on that alone, there seems to be something missing.
Dave -
I still think the luxury tax is a bit of a deterrent to the Yankees’ spending even more than they do. I would think that they have sat down with their finance people and discussed the very maximum amount of luxury tax they’re willing to pay. It’s a lot of money to be passing out to your competition. As I stated earlier, they’ve already had a hand in creating a second competitor for the division/wild card in the Tampa Bay Rays. Good for baseball, not good for NYY.
The Yanks definitely should sign Cruz.
GAYLE, I noticed you said you put the game on, didn’t see melky. How are you watching the games, Online or TV?
Brandon,
Next time you want to start your next Tabata rants, take a moment of zen, and just think about how important it was that Coke didn’t get dealt in that deal – for whatever reason
(And I dont’ think it had to do with medical reports – Will Carroll retracted that).
A change up would help coke but if he threw the way he did last year he might not even need it.
It’s not that uncommon for lefties to be successful effectively throwing 2 pitches. Look at Santana – he rarely throws his change up to left handed hitters. He’s basically two different pitchers. He’s a fastball/slider pitcher to left handed hitters and a fastball/change up pitcher to right handers.
Coke’s two seam fastball was so good and had so much tailing away action to right handers that he could use that to neutralize most right handers.
Whether the can continue throwing it that hard (94 on his two seamer) as a starter is another question.
Brandon: Creo en dios!
Playball-
It was on ESPN Desportes channel 173 on my time warner cable
Doreen
January 9th, 2009 at 1:17 pm
GB7 –
What’s with the “Muffy?”
Anyways, I do think the Yankees should spend money on the minor leagues. As randy l has said here and many times before, and as anyone with half a brain who follows baseball will query: How can you have a guy whose speed you laud, who you talk about being able to steal bases at will, yet who strikes out way too much, and not teach him how to bunt for a base hit??????????????? So, based on that alone, there seems to be something missing.
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Not sure what thedeal is with the Yanks not spending time on little things, but, whether these players are slap hiters or long ball bombers, every one of them should bunt at least 10 times a year and have daily bunting practice, along with almost little league fielding drills. Another thing is that they need to teach versatlity ad put them at different positions, from time to time, especially the infielders. That’s the one spot that the system is weak at…versatile infielders.
Brandon….did you see the tragic news, yeasterday? The Dodgers signed Erick Threet to a minor league contract.
GOOD TRADE IDEA (that will probably never happen)
Sign Jaun Cruz to fill a bullpen spot (will probably only cost a few million because he is a type A free agent) and trade Nady, Aceves and two young relievers/prospects for Aaron Harang. The reds get an outfielder which they need, a very capable starter especially for the NL with a good track record which they need and two young quality bullpen arms or one guy from the pen and one prospect – lets say jose veras and one of the starting pitchers in the minor leagues.
The reds could certainly use veras in their pen as could most NL teams. Would the reds do that trade? Aaron Harang is almost guaranteed to have a comeback season and Harang fills the role of innings eater that pettitte is deciding to leave most likely and the wide majority of those innings will be very quality. A rotation of CC, Wang, AJ, Harang and Joba is nasty and harang is probably a better option than any starting pitcher left on the free agent market. What do you guys think?
Rebecca,
Last year we allowed 727 runs. 680 RA would be about a 6.5% drop and, according to the projection, would be the 2nd-lowest total in MLB (behind the SF Giants).
http://www.baseball-reference......2008.shtml
“Brandon….did you see the tragic news, yeasterday? The Dodgers signed Erick Threet to a minor league contract.”
Oh lord OK GB you got me there.
dave
January 9th, 2009 at 1:28 pm
GOOD TRADE IDEA (that will probably never happen)
Sign Jaun Cruz to fill a bullpen spot (will probably only cost a few million because he is a type A free agent) and trade Nady, Aceves and two young relievers/prospects for Aaron Harang. The reds get an outfielder which they need, a very capable starter especially for the NL with a good track record which they need and two young quality bullpen arms or one guy from the pen and one prospect – lets say jose veras and one of the starting pitchers in the minor leagues.
The reds could certainly use veras in their pen as could most NL teams. Would the reds do that trade? Aaron Harang is almost guaranteed to have a comeback season and Harang fills the role of innings eater that pettitte is deciding to leave most likely and the wide majority of those innings will be very quality. A rotation of CC, Wang, AJ, Harang and Joba is nasty and harang is probably a better option than any starting pitcher left on the free agent market. What do you guys think?
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I’m sure the Reds would wet their pants at that. I hope you get a job in the Yankees front office. Go work your magic with for the Red Sox.
The yankees pitching projects to be absolutely fantastic this year. The numbers were even better than I’d have guessed off the top of my head. The distance in run prevention between them and boston and tampa – even accounting for the yankees poor defense – looks to be substantial.
That of course does depend on AJ Burnett being healthy enough to throw 180 innings or so.
I like Cruz as a general proposition but unless the Yankee purse is unlimited I would not plow another dime into relief pitching, and 2009 on the Yankees is not the time or the team with experimenting with turning him back into a starter.
To the extent we have money to spend it should be spent on a starting pitcher, a center fielder and a decent middle infielder to back up Cano, Jeter and ARod.
“Brandon….did you see the tragic news, yeasterday? The Dodgers signed Erick Threet to a minor league contract.”
GB, shhhh…you werent suppose to say anything. lol
Enter Sandman: Wow. With those sort of pitching numbers, we’d have probably been okay with last year’s offense…
…but probably best not to chance it
CB: I still see Burnett as being more reliable than others (I’m looking at you, Ben Sheets), so I’m pretty much okay with that.
Dave: You’re kidding, right?
This ain’t fantasy baseball…
Brandon (CC & AJ now Marky Mark (they stilled over paid him) are Yankees)
January 9th, 2009 at 1:34 pm
“Brandon….did you see the tragic news, yeasterday? The Dodgers signed Erick Threet to a minor league contract.”
Oh lord OK GB you got me there.
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LMAO. You’re killing me, Brandon. I wanted to see you explode.
“I like Cruz as a general proposition but unless the Yankee purse is unlimited I would not plow another dime into relief pitching,”
I agree. The Cruz thing is more a hypothetical move. They should in no way make any substantive trade offs that add to the pen and take away from other more pressing concerns. It would have to be from surplus money which likely isn’t feasible.
What an arm though…
You want me to explode than talk about Jose Tabata. Threets was a ok is he can he be this one day under good teaching but really I don’t care more because we have guys like WDR and Micheal Dunn in waiting, also that Croussett kid who should be in the U.S. in 09′.
“Plenty of Southern flavored tarts in Savannah and Charleston. I would imagine that if Coke checked the stands or got friendly with Jeter, he could find some quality tarts.”
gb7-
i think we’d better quit before we get too much in trouble debating the quality of southern vs. northern tarts.
on a serious note, i think one of the places that the yankees could really blow other teams out of the water is in putting a ton of money into the minor league system. it’s a slow process though because a really good system would be teaching a yankee way that would have to be understood by everyone at the minor league level.
at one point in the late 80’s ,rick petersen before he became a success as pitching coach with the a’s, sold the white sox a developmental program that all minor league and major league players had to take part in. it involved each players meeting with a developmental coach who gave the player a battery of psychological tests. the players would then with the coach set goals that they wanted to attain and then it would be decided and agreed upon how to achieve these goals.
frank thomas, for example , said he wanted to win a gold glove. petersen who was the developmental coach, asked how he was going to do that since he was a pretty bad fielder. they agreed on so many hundreds of grounders and pop ups a day to be fielded in practice. this was put into a daily log in thomas’ “book” that he had to fill in every day
so there were long term goals and daily tasks done to reach those goals . when thomas became a star, rumor has it , that he threw his book in the dumpster and that was that for petersen’s system with the white sox.
but a system that was a blueprint for a yankee way of doing things that all players and coaches could read ,understand ,and learn from would keep everyone in the whole system on the same page.
there is a yankee way. it goes back to the times of ruth. it just needs to be put into an organized system and into a written form.
randy: Agreed, though I have to say that the farm system is better now than it has been in ages.
GB I’m confused…didn’t petersen’s plan work?
Brandon (CC & AJ now Marky Mark (they stilled over paid him) are Yankees)
January 9th, 2009 at 1:46 pm
You want me to explode than talk about Jose Tabata. Threets was a ok is he can he be this one day under good teaching but really I don’t care more because we have guys like WDR and Micheal Dunn in waiting, also that Croussett kid who should be in the U.S. in 09’.
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Any idea where Croussett will be? Gulf Coast League, NY-Penn League or Sally League?
CB,
“The yankees pitching projects to be absolutely fantastic this year.”
So true. Plus, the offense projects to lead baseball with 887 runs–an unbelievable 200 run differential. However, I would guess our offensive projections contain more risk, given the overall age and injury history. Would you say that is correct? Do you have any idea what a reasonable range for our runs scored might be (likely best/worse case scenario)?
“Any idea where Croussett will be? Gulf Coast League, NY-Penn League or Sally League?”
Tough to say, some people believe straight into Charleston but you have to believe they bring him up like J.Ortiz and start him in the CL role for GCL or the NYPL.
OK, thanks, Brandon
“Plus, the offense projects to lead baseball with 887 runs—an unbelievable 200 run differential. ”
I do think it’s unbelievable. When all is said and done not many teams in recent history have generated run differentials of 200 and I’d be very surprised if the yankees in 2009 did.
Projections are informative but when you start getting up around 100 wins I’m skeptical. Not that the projections are wrong per say but that it’s just not likely to turn out that way.
What the projections tell me is that the yankees are likely a slight favorite and that the key to them winning the division would be their pitching outperforming the other teams.
All projections are also very early as rosters haven’t bee finalized (especially for boston who has no real catcher right now…).
In general pitching has way more variation in it due to injury. Even with the yankees questions in the line up i’d still say the pitching would have the most potential pitfalls – that’s just the way pitching is.
Though losing Posada is likely the single biggest problem they could face in 2009. That I’d agree with.
YANKS IN 2009
January 9th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
GB I’m confused…didn’t petersen’s plan work?
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What are you talking about?
Enter Sandman: Best case scenario, we score runs like we did in 2007, pitch like we did in 1998, have a bullpen that gives up about one run a month and we run away with the World Series.
Good posts Randy and GB about the lack of coaches in the minors. I saw Scranton play in Durham with Igawa (he pitched previous night) coaching first. I was knid of shocked.
Interesting about the pitching and runs allowed projections is they do not include Pettite or another (trade FA) starting pitcher. I would imagine compared to assorted Hughes, Kennedy and Aceves that Pettite or Sheets or Harang or someone tbd would improve the stats even more.
My bad I thought it was you who posted the story about Rick Petersen and Frank Thomas…
“I’m confused…didn’t petersen’s plan work?”
yanks in 2009-
the players hated it because it really was a lot of work, like home work. it was a giant notebook each player had and there was a lot of logs, tests, and things to fill out. paperwork basically.
with the advances computer technology the whole process would be put into a more user friendly format for players. give everyone an iphone for one thing. that’d get everyone’s attention.
If you ever noticed in a gym…many of the guys carry around notebooks and record what they do (sets, reps, etc..)
I would think the deliberate nature would make it more effective
If you think of Petersen sitting on the bench…he was always writing something down
Doreen,
Excellent drafting played a far bigger role in the rays success than the marginal sum of money they get from the revenue sharing. Its not like it all goes to the rays – it is put in a pool and divided equally among many teams. In the end, it isnt all THAT much. Besides, most of the rays great players are making almost no money at all. There entire team made 42 million last year the 2nd lowest in all of baseball. Outside of carlos pena and carl crawford, no one makes more than 4 million.
Their excellent player development program and superb drafting of players like crawford, Price, Upton, Shields and Sonnanstine over the years along with their very smart signings and trades like Garza, Kazmir, Pena and Percival is the reason they were competitive last season. Example, Sonnanstine was a thirteenth round pick in 2004 by the rays and was their fourth starter last year and James shields was a sixteenth round pick and was their ace last year and better than Kazmir. Both are making 1 mil or less. They picked up Scott Kazmir, an ace from the mets for Victor Zambrano who is in the minors now and he went on to be their ace for 3 consecutive seasons never making more than 500 grand until last year. Their best signing was carlos pena who they signed for one year and 800,000 dollars in 2007 and he finished ninth in mvp voting and a silver slugging award becoming the best player on the club. The rays payed him 6 mil last season – the highest salary on the team and he once again finished ninth in mvp voting.They also had two first picks overall and one second pick overall in the last few years all 3 currently in the majors turning delmon young into their third best starter – Garza who had better number than everyone on the yanks last year outside of mussina and made 400 grand. David Price who struck out 8 in 6 inning in the playoffs giving up 2 hits and is probably one of the best prospect in the game right now was the rays first pick overall in the draft in 2007 and set to be one of the best pitchers on the club next year making league minimum.
BJ upton was seond pick overall and stole 44 bases with 9 homers and a 380 obp for less than 500 grand. Carl Crawford who was also drafted by the rays is their second highest payed player at 5 million and usually one of the better players in baseball.The money from the yankees pocket played very little role im pretty sure. iT IS their consistently excellent draft picks making the majors every single season, there consistently high draft order (even though they pick players in every round that make the majors like shields – their ace last year and sonnanstine) and their ability to trade older declining players for the better prospects in baseball while making very intelligent signings that resulted in their success. If Cashman pulled off as many smart moves as Andrew Friedman with the yankees resources, we probably would have won the last 5 world series by now becoming the greatest dynasty in history. Everything the rays have touched in the last three years or so has in time turned to gold for the most part – it doesnt have a heck of a lot to do with revenue sharing at all.
“My bad I thought it was you who posted the story about Rick Petersen and Frank Thomas…”
it’s not easy to get me and gb7 mixed up. in the future, just remember i’m the older and wiser one.
You have to take RLYB’s projections with a huge dose of salt right now.
SG admits that the rosters haven’t been finalized, and points out that, right now, that means most teams have more budget than players compared to the Yanks (that is, the signing of the remaining free agents are likely to collapse the difference between the Yanks and the rest of the league to some extent).
That means we probably aren’t as good as the early projections make us out to be.
C’mon, Cash, spend some more $$.
Just think…it only took 10 years of drafting in the top three spots for baseball to realize how smart Tampa was at building an effective farm system.
Rebecca,
That sounds good–I’m going to expect that and complain a lot if they produce anything less.
CB,
Good points. I think you have good reason to be skeptical–last year alone supports that stance. (IIRC the Yanks projected to 97 wins?) I also can’t disagree with the pitching risk–if Boston gets more innings from Penny than NY does from Burnett I will so disappointed. Although, I guess I shouldn’t be, after all, they’re basically the same guy (at least that what I heard your friend Gammons say).
“(that is, the signing of the remaining free agents are likely to collapse the difference between the Yanks and the rest of the league to some extent).”
True. But that also assumes that there are free agents remaining out there that are likely to substantially close the gap which for all practical AL East terms there are very few as the Sox can’t sign Manny and won’t sign Dunn. Outside of them Lowe is the only guy remaining who could substantially alter the underlying dynamic.
Tampa is also not spending anymore money.
Boston has budget remaining – lots of it. The problem they face is that the money they have is no longer as valuable as it was 2 months ago.
Getting better for Tampa or Boston will likely come from trades. Boston’s available resources will only get them so far at this point in the off season, IMO.
Also – for both Boston and Tampa signing a Type A free agent would require giving up a round 1 pick which both franchises are reticent to do. I could have seen the sox signing Cruz for example but not for a 1st round pick.
Gb as Dave pointed out it wasn’t only high draft picks. It was some nice trades and pick-ups as well. What about Navarro who saw his year coming?
randy l
January 9th, 2009 at 2:13 pm
“My bad I thought it was you who posted the story about Rick Petersen and Frank Thomas…”
it’s not easy to get me and gb7 mixed up. in the future, just remember i’m the older and wiser one.
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I have to agree with you on that. You’re the OLD wiseguy.
Dave -
That’s great information about the Rays, thanks.
A question, though, comes to mind. Is luxury tax money to be used, if it’s used, only on player salary, or can teams use that money for player development? In which case, I would make the observation that money coming in from the luxury tax would help a team so inclined to develop on the minor league level and to put money into areas that will help them do more with less, so to speak.
And besides luxury tax, are the Rays in a good financial situation?
So, do the Rays use the monies more wisely than other teams?
The crazy thing about the Rays is…..think about them with Josh Hamilton in RF instead of Matt Joyce. Very, very easily could have happened.
Had Josh not been using they would love to think of that, unfortunately he was trying to recover from disease.
Greeneberet,
There have been multiple reports that the reds are VERY interested in nady and their outfield is looking incredibly weak. Throw in aceves who was would pretty good in the NL and some prospects or pen help and the reds may take a look or at least initiate some talk. Fact is, Harang is coming off the worst season of his career and lost some value.
Rebecca,
The reds reportedly have a lot of interest in nady and have some holes at the back end of their rotation – giving them an outfielder they REALLY like and a solid starter in the NL plus some bullpen help for a better starter doesnt seem all that far-fetched. Especially when harang is coming off the worst year of his career and his value is low.
Wave your hat,
I am not sure if your response about cruz was directed towards me but the point of the post was to add a relief pitcher off the market so we can use our own relief pitchers along with acaves and nady to trade for a starter. The point was to trade in the areas we have a surplus to get a starter who can eat innings.
Harang is better than any one currently on the market at filling the yanks most pressing need. The reds have interest in nady and we could exploit that interest.
dave-
while tampa bay appears to have a very good developmental system, i think that revenue sharing does have a big impact on their finances. maybe sj or cb has the approximate numbers, but it has to be substantial.
you didn’t mention getting garza was a result of trading one of those high first round picks( delmon young) they got every year for being so bad.
Yes, hey made a few good trades, but, they also knew they weren’t going anywhere and could afford to take risks on players that other teams had gven up on. Pena was a FA draft that 29 teams passed on. They got lucky on that after he bombed out of 6 organizations. He came back from no where in 2007, but, he also dropped back to his levels at Detroit in 2008. Now, we’ll see in he drops back more or stays at least even with 2008. They also wasted a ton of draft choices like Bobby Seay and Elijha Dukes, among others.
“So, do the Rays use the monies more wisely than other teams?”
doreen-
it seems the rays used yankee money last year better than the yankees did : )
randy l -
That’s my point!!
GB -
Look at how MANY of the rays draft picks made the major league club and there were many draft picks outside of the first couple of rounds that became one of the better players on the club. That isnt just high draft picks that is smart draft picks and great development as well. How many players have the yankees drafted outside of the top one or two rounds have had significant impact on the major league club? Further, How many bad draft picks have the yankees made in the top rounds? Just because you have a high pick doesnt always mean you make the right choice or that the player develops into a major leaguer. The rays have done a fantastic job through drafting as well as trades and signings. Of course, they dont have the pressure of constant success on their shoulders as the yankees do so the trades are an unfair comparison but the rays have certainly done a better job than most teams putting in only 42 million and becoming one of the best teams in baseball.
Cinncy may want Nady for Harang, but, NYY isn’t sending Aceves, Veras and another relief pitcher along and have NYY pick up the 25-37 mil price tag besides.
Once again…it took 10 years for the Devil Ray front office to become brilliant overnight. Sorry, but, it was being a 1-2-3 draft spot that made them brilliant.
Last year the team that arguably used it’s money the “best” and by a wide margin was the Marlins.
They were the most efficient team in the major leagues by far.
The Marlins paid only 272,000 per win. Tampa Bay was second most efficient at 850,000 per win.
The yankees paid the most per win at 5.2M/win.
Spending that much per win is worth it for the yankees due to the revenues making the playoffs generate. Now that money wasn’t allocated well in 2008 but spending $5M per win is more than reasonable for the yankees. The goal isn’t to be the most efficient financial team – the goal is to win.
The mets were second highest at 3.3M/win, then Detroit around 3.2M/win then Boston at 3.1M/win.
Perhaps more than anything this shows how out of wack spending is at the extremes in baseball on the high side but also on the low side.
The marlins are really inexcusable. If they spent even a little more money – say instead of spending one 1/3 as much per win as Tampa they spent 1/2 as much they’d likely make the playoffs in the NL.
But they’re owners choose not to.
“it took 10 years for the Devil Ray front office to become brilliant”
No it didn’t. That team really only turned it around in 2005 after Stu Sternberg bought it and Andrew Friedman became GM. Yes they had high draft picks for years and yes Chuck Lemar put a number of the pieces in place but what Fridman has done is remarkable.
There were only 2 high first round draft picks on their roster last year – upton and longoria. That’s it.
Revenue sharing and having high picks have been instrumental in the Rays success.
But the reason why they were so good last year is simply due to the fact that they are terrific evaluators of talent. That’s mostly it. What they’ve done in the later rounds of the draft is more impressive than what they’ve don in the first round in many ways and they’ve picked up many valuable players at reasonable contracts. It’s an outstanding organization that has fielded a very talented team.
it is clear that by being able to build one of the most successful teams in the major leagues and having the 2nd lowest payroll in the game that the rays are certainly using their money more wisely. Their attendance is still pretty poor even last season so I cant imagine they are in a very good financial situation compared to most of the teams in baseball. Perhaps, this season with their success last year, their attendance will improve. I would have to venture to guess that the rays will make more money this year than they did last year and will probably re-invest more. The carlos pena signing as well as the troy percival signing last year proved that they are putting money back into the team’s payroll when they feel like they should. Further proof of this is their signings this off season of pat burrell for two years and 16 million showing they are willing to spend money to win finally.
I am pretty sure the teams can do whatever they want with the money they receive from revenue sharing. if the team want to reinvest the money in their player development program Im sure that is an option.
Randy I
i DID mention that the rays traded delmon young for Garza. But that just shows that they could even fix a first pick overall that didnt work out for them. They didnt like how it was going with young so they turned him into their third starter last year and one of the better ones in baseball in 2008. That just further goes to show how many good decisions the rays seem to make each year.
new post—–
GB7,
Elijah Dukes had the talent to go in the third round. The problem was his attitude which the rays did not like. bUT LOOK at his numbers last year – pretty solid overall. 386 obp with 13 homers and 13 stolen bases in 276 at bats. iF you extrapolate that over an entire season, he could easily be a 30-30 player. That is definitely worth a third round draft pick. it wasnt like he was first overall like price or young or even upton. Bobby seay was not even drafted by the rays. he was drafted by the white sox and later signed by the rays. I cant think of any really high draft picks that havent turned into major league players that the rays have drafted at the moment – im sure there are some but they have done pretty darn good considering how many picks they have made.
testing one two three