The LoHud Yankees Blog

The Yankees have 16 players signed for 2009, 17 if you count Brian Bruney.

Here is what they’ll make in terms of salary:

Rodriguez: $32 million
Jeter: $20 million
Teixeira: $20 million (+$5 million signing bonus already paid)
Burnett: $16.5 million
Rivera: $15 million
Sabathia: $14 million (+$9 million signing bonus in 3 installments)
Posada: $13.1 million
Damon: $13 million
Matsui: $13 million
Nady: $6.55 million
Cano: $6 million
Swisher: $5.3 million
Wang: $5 million
Marte: $3.75 million
Molina: $2 million
Cabrera: $1.4 million
Bruney: $1.3 million (splitting the different on the figures submitted)

That comes out to $187.9 million. But it’s really $201.9 million as the signing bonus for Sabathia and Teixeira will be paid out before the end of the 2009 season.

The Yankees will need approximately $4 million more to pay the remaining seven 0-3 service time players who make the team. That makes the payroll $205.9 million.

I’m not including Kei Igawa’s $4 million as he is not on the 40-man roster. But it’s actual money. Plus Andrew Brackman gets $1.13 million this year.

You can calculate payrolls many different ways (25-man rosters, 40-man rosters, etc.) but it boils down to a few things:

1. If the Yankees have spent less than last year, which they are trumpeting, it’s not much less.

2. Does this mean there’s no room for Andy Pettitte absent a trade?

I learned the hard way never to say never when it comes to the Yankee. They’re not afraid to ask for money or to spend it. It doesn’t appear they have any room to sign a significant free agent, but it certainly wouldn’t surprise me if they did. Fiscal restraint is not exactly part of the team charter.

Melky Cabrera settled for $1.4 million from the Yankees.

He can earn an additional $100,000 in performance bonuses based on plate appearances: $25,000 each for 525, 550, 575 and 600.

Brian Bruney asked for $1.55 million in arbitration. The Yankees offered $1.1 million. Seems like there is a deal to be made there before a hearing.

Melky Cabrera, meanwhile, asked for $1.7 million. The Yankees offered $1.2 million. Cabrera made $461,200 last season.

This would be the same Melky Cabrera who hit .249 last season with 21 extra-base hits in 414 at-bats. He also was demoted to Triple-A in August and had 13 at-bats in September.

I wonder if the Yankees burst out laughing when he asked for a $1.23 million raise.

UPDATE, 5:52 p.m.: This just in, Melky has now signed. Working on the figure.

Brian Cashman is on vacation this week. But there are still deals to be done and the Yankees have agreed to a one-year, $6.55 million contract with Xavier Nady.

Nady made $3.35 last season, so he nearly doubled up.

Brian Bruney and Melky Cabrera are next in line. Assistant GM Jean Afterman could get those deals finished today.

I told this story to a friend the other day and she suggested I post it on the blog. So here goes:

Once you become a sportswriter, it’s considered unprofessional to ask for autographs and I never have. I like my job too much to do something that could endanger it.

But Mickey Mantle wouldn’t take no for an answer.

I was 22 when I started at the Norwich Bulletin, a small paper in Connecticut that had a great sports staff at the time. It was a great place to work and I was fortunate enough to cover some interesting events.

A few years into my tenure there, I was sent to write a story on a charity dinner at the Foxwoods Resort and Casino. Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford and Billy Martin were the guests of honor and they held a press conference.

There were only a few writers there and one or two television stations. We asked a few questions and when the formal part of the press conference broke up, I walked up to Mickey to ask him another few questions.

I had my notebook and pen in hand as I approached. “Excuse me, Mr. Mantle …,” I said.

Before I could get my question out, he grabbed the notebook and pen. “Sure thing, kid,” he said as he scrawled his name with those distinctive M’s. “Here you go.”

I told him I wasn’t trying to get an autograph. “Tough (crap),” he said. “You got one.”

I was tempted to throw ethics to the wind and get Whitey and Billy, too. But my conscience won out. Still, I had Mickey and that was pretty good. Drink in hand, he answered a few of my questions and we shook hands.

I tore that page out my notebook and added it to the modest collection of signatures obtained when I was a kid. I have Juan Marichal, Sparky Lyle, Paul Blair, Sen. Ted Kennedy, assorted Patriots, and the wrestler Don Muraco. I tried to get the Grand Wizard and was rebuffed.

As autograph collections go, it’s pretty lame. But having Mickey makes up for it.

I have long discouraged political talk on this blog and that is still the case. Baseball should be a haven from such serious topics and emotions.

But as a new president is inaugurated today, I wanted to share this interesting column from ESPN’s Tom Farrey, who calls on Barack Obama to make the physical fitness of kids one of his priorities.

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Meanwhile, the Faceoff blog on LoHud.comhas a good question today: Which athlete would make the best president?

I know Al Leiter wants to be. I’m sure Curt Schilling does, too. Many presidents have been good friends with athletes over the years.

My choice would be Larry Bowa. He’s make America show up early and run sprints. Go over to Faceoff and give your thoughts.

January is traditionally a slow month for baseball news. So for the second year in a row, we are showcasing other blogs with a series of pinch hitters.

Next up is Emma, who will be representing Bronx Banter.

Emma is a regular contributor to the Banter. A web editor and freelance writer living in Brooklyn, she grew up in New Jersey worshipping at the altar of Don Mattingly, and has written about baseball for the Village Voice, the New York Press, and Slate, among others. She’s currently writing a book about New York baseball fandom.

Here is her post:

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(Before I jump into the post, I just wanted to say a quick word about Todd Drew. Alex and Pete Abraham, among many others, have already written very eloquent and moving remembrances of Todd, and I don’t have too much more to add — but I’m glad that I got to meet him, and selfishly, I’m upset that I won’t get to read any more new posts from him. He will be missed; he already is.)

They don’t make corrupt baseball owners like they used to. Sure, the Yankees’ stadium shenanigans have been all over the news lately.

But whatever you think of the team’s questionable financial dealings with New York City, Randy Levine & Co. are a bunch of fluffy kittens compared to the Yankees’ original owners. As my grandfather used to complain: these modern guys playing today, they just don’t stack up with the old greats.

In 1903, American League President Ban Johnson was in such a rush to get a team into New York that he announced the move before securing either a ballpark or owners. This was a tactical error, since the National League Giants and Brooklyn Superbas (the proto-Dodgers) weren’t keen on the competition, and had enough contacts, friends, and paid-off officials in Tammany Hall to make Johnson’s life difficult: every time the AL tried to buy land for a ballpark, the Giants’ friendly politicians acted swiftly to either turn the proposed site into a protected city park or, failing that, put a road through the middle of it. Eventually, Johnson had to purchase a plot in secret from the New York Institute for the Blind, a feat he pulled off only by bribing his very own brace of Tammany officials.

That’s why the Yankees’ first owners were a shadowy group of Gangs of New York-style political insiders that boasted Frank Farrell and William “Big Bill” Devery as its most prominent members, two gentlemen whose criminal adventures make George Steinbrenner’s illegal contributions to Richard Nixon look like donations to the Jimmy Fund. Farrell, “the Pool Hall King of New York,” was the head of New York’s biggest illegal gambling syndicate; as one historian put it, he “owned 250 pool halls and almost as many politicians.” He had a saloon at Sixth Ave and 30th, where he became fast friends with Devery, a police captain at the station down the street.

Known throughout the city for his talent for graft and astonishing ability to wriggle out of well-deserved criminal charges, Big Bill — who at six feet-plus and 350 pounds was not ironically nicknamed — went on to become New York City’s Chief of Police. (Later he would repay the NYPD by stealing the interlocking NY design it had commissioned for a posthumous medal of honor — awarded to an officer shot and killed in the line of duty — for use as his baseball team’s logo.) Devery was, at various points in his career, charged with neglect of duty, failure to proceed against “disorderly houses” in his district, extortion, and blackmail, but was never convicted; little wonder, since he was also known for a cheerful willingness to bribe juries. As the Times put it, rather delicately, in their 1919 obituary, “Mr. Devery had a most picturesque and stormy career.”

Today’s unethical baseball team dealings, while sordid, are dull as dishwater in comparison. Still, at least some things never change. The soon-to-be-Yankees got off to a rough start in 1903, much to the consternation of outfielder Wee Willie Keeler, who told reporters: “With such an aggregation of stars as we have, we ought to do much better.”

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Thanks for the history lesson, Emma. Coming tomorrow: Gary from Yanks And More.

The 45-man provisional rosters for the WBC came out tonight. The Yankees had nine players from their 40-man roster selected, six by the Dominican Republic.

The Dominican roster includes Melky Cabrera, Robinson Cano, Damaso Marte, Edwar Ramirez, Alex Rodriguez and Jose Veras.

Derek Jeter is the only Yankee on Team USA. Alfredo Aceves (Mexico) and Francisco Cervelli (Italy) also were also chosen along with four minor leaguers: lefty Kai Liu (China), first baseman Jahdiel Santamaria (Panama), infielder Jorge Vazquez (Mexico) and catcher Zhenwang Zhang (China).

Keep in mind these are provisional rosters. Players cannot be added but some will be cut. The final rosters, of 28 players, will be announced Feb. 24.

Because they ended the year on the disabled list or had surgery, Jorge Posada, Mariano Rivera, Hideki Matsui and Chien-Ming Wang were either ineligible or simply elected not to play.

What would be best for Cano, staying in camp with the Yankees or playing for the Dominicans? Cano has been a slow starter (.238/.283/.328 in April for his career), so maybe playing competitive games for his country on a star-studded roster will help him.

That is if he plays. Manager Felipe Alou could use Alfonso Soriano at second. Or Placido Polanco. Or one of his extra All-Star shortstops.

Jeter and Rodriguez have their routines down and the WBC won’t change much of anything for them. Cano showed last year he needs a kick in the pants from time to time and he’s implementing a new approach at the plate. You can make a case that staying in camp would be for the best.

But the Yankees have little choice but to let him play if that is what he wants. Either way, he needs a comeback season after what happened in 2008.

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Sal Fasano is on Italy’s roster. How great is that? And Sir Sidney signed up for the Netherlands.

UPDATE, 7:33 p.m.: The complete rosters are now available here.

This was the view a few blocks from my place as of 5:30 p.m.

I grew up in cold weather. I went camping once in November. I covered the Great Alaska Shootout twice. I have L.L. Bean boots. In theory, I’m used to this.

But enough is enough. The iPhone weather application says it’s 66 in Tampa at the moment and will be in the 70s by the weekend. For the sake of complete coverage, I believe it’s imperative I leave now.

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Tim, a loyal reader, called this link to my attention. Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports has a good piece about one producer of maple bats who is balking at MLB’s new rules.

The provisional rosters for the World Baseball Classic will be released later on today. The Yankees are not going to have a heavy presence, which is a break given their need to get off to a good start.

Check back later for the info.

Lots of arbitration-eligible players are being signed today, a day before figures are exchanged. The Yankees have Brian Bruney, Melky Cabrera and Xavier Nady to take care of.

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If you missed it over the weekend, one of our guest bloggers, Drew, had an interesting interview with Marty Appel.