Today in The Journal News
Posted by: Peter Abraham - Posted in Misc on Jun 27, 2009 
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CC Sabathia and Alex Rodriguez were ready for the Mets last night.
Sam Borden ponders what the Yankees will do once Derek Jeter’s contract is up.
Xavier Nady’s season is over. This Subway Series notebook also has updates on John Maine, Derek Jeter and Gary Sheffield.
The Mets are battered writes Ernie Palladino.
I’ve written on the Jeter issue before. It’s going to, very shortly, dominate all talk of the Yankees.
Especially since right now it still doesn’t look much like the Yankees could fill shortstop within if need be.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/06.....176391.htm
Burnett didn’t even bother watching the tape of his Fenway Park disaster on June 9, when he lasted 2 2/3 innings and walked five batters. He left with the Yankees trailing 5-0.
“If a team goes out and gets me, I’m not going to watch that stuff,” Burnett said. “I’m going to watch myself shutting down a team. I believe if you see yourself doing right, you do right.”
** I guess is what AJ meant a couple of weeks ago when he said he wasn’t going to try and figure out what was wrong. I like his positive attitude and I guess whatever works for him, but I’m not sure how it’s a great idea to not look at what went wrong. If he doesn’t know why he was bad, how can AJ try and fix it?
I’m surprised he says he’s had his A stuff – it seems to me like he hasn’t had it all year (outside of the Tampa and Florida games) despite throwing 94
Yankees should sweep this series. They definently should win today. The Mets have no hitters. Tim Redding is awful. They should take advantage and sweep this series. I think Wang is going to pitch great on sunday. Its a big ballpark so flyballs arent going to hurt him and he has a weak lineup to pitch to. They Yankees have to get 3 or 4 games in the wild card before the All Star brake. Tampa, Rays, Anaheim are all winning.
I’m not worried about Jeter. He always does the right thing and he has a very good relationship with the Yankees……..
I’m not ready to proclaim the Yankees back – I wouldn’t be surprised if they struggled against Redding. The more important issue is how AJ pitches.
Girardi seemed last night like he was leaning towards sitting Jeter again tonight.
He’ll kill two birds with one stone if he goes through with it because Jeter’s ankle is still somewhat gimpy.
Yep, I would sit Jeter, too…….poor guy, he’s really sick. He shouldn’t even be in the clubhouse. He should be at home resting….and where he can’t spread the germs.
Gotta disagree with Sam.
I appreciate all that Jeter is, was and can be.
He is the Captain and the face of the franchise as well as MLB but the Yankees are a team and as such; no one single person is the Yankees.
“The negativity that surrounds steroids is certainly not something that I carry over to him. I do appreciate the fact that he admitted his mistakes. From here we move forward.”
Well said by Reggie.
Hopefully the mediots and self-righteous blog hosts learn someting from him and focus more on the game.
I think the comment that “He is the most popular player ever”, is extremely inaccurate (Ever hear of Babe Ruth?). That being said, he is by far, the most popular player on the team (Plus he is approaching 3,000 hits, which no one ever accomplished in a Yankee uniform). But, in my opinion, Jeter will not get another $20m contract (Nor should he). This team has at least two more huge contracts on the books for many years (Arod and Teixeira (Sabathia could be in the same boat unless he opts out)), and that has to be taken into account when deciding what to do with Jeter. Even more important than that, is quality YOUNG shortstop’s like JJ Hardy will become free agents by then, and you cannot afford to stop bringing in players of that caliber, because of sentimentality (That is what happened to the Yankees in the mid-60s and it took them 15 years to win another championship).
Finally, if Jeter is willing to take say 2 years at $12m per, then fine, let him DH or play the outfield, but if not, let him go.
“I’ve written on the Jeter issue before. It’s going to, very shortly, dominate all talk of the Yankees.
Especially since right now it still doesn’t look much like the Yankees could fill shortstop within”
we all know what’s going to happen. NYY will overpay in both money & years. And if Brian Cashman resists he will be overruled
LOL, Jeter taking 12M per year.
Mariano > Jeter
Jeter will retire a Yankee unless someones ego gets in the way- whether that be his or managements.
Money won’t be the issue. There are always ways around that.
meh, they’ll deal with Jeter’s contract when it’s time. whether or not you feel that his history with the team has earned him a little more money or an extra year on the next contract, the way he’s played/lived as a Yankee has at least earned him the right to not have to answer unanswerable questions…and should earn him enough respect from the fans to let things play out without constantly harping on the issue.
The future contract relies on things that will happen in the future such as, how will Jeter continue to play both defensively and offensively, what options will be available as far as a replacement, how reasonable are his salary demands? None of these things are known at this point and probably wont be for some time…personally I would just assume leave it alone and let it play out.
“Money won’t be the (Jeter) issue. There are always ways around that”
yes. like overpaying
“He is the Captain and the face of the franchise as well as MLB but the Yankees are a team and as such; no one single person is the Yankees.”
Mo and Posada were kind of relatively underpaid in thier previous contracts, so the new ones were kind of correction for that. Also, they were younger relative to what Jeter would be when he becomes free agent in 2010.
Jeter was very well paid in his previous contract, probably more than he is worth inspite of his intagibles. So, the Yanks really do not owe him any thing. This respect thing if it is linked to only how much they offer him, it is a bunch of non-sense.
Also, important to remember that Jeter agreed to a verbal deal last time and Goerge did not sign it right away as he was waiting for Detroit to set the record with Juan-gone. That never happened and in the mean time, A-Rod signed that historic deal. Then Jeter and his agent took Yanks for a ride and got about 50 mil more. Given all this, Yanks will offer him a respectable deal, better than any other team, but do not expect something the lines of A-Rod or even Mo and Po given his age. Also, they learnt with Po’s ridiculous deal length wise and they will not do that mistake again.
on Burnett, whether he watched the tape of the Boston game or not I imagine he makes adjustments after every start or at least works on correcting mechanics in some form. and if he’s not watching the tape, eiland probably is. Take the positive attitude and confidence as signs of having a good head on his shoulders and let the team and AJ worry about his game prep
From the other thread….
Trisha,
Yes. The winner, JT Wise of Oklahoma was drafted in the 5th round by the Dodgers.
It seems to me its the media, not the fans, and not anybody else connected to baseball, who can’t let the PED stuff go.
They now want to make everything out to be PED stories.
My question to the guys who can’t let it go is, “Where were you guys when Steve Wilstein was getting BURIED by his own peers”?
For those who don’t know, Steve was the AP reporter who first saw Andro in Mark McGuire’s locker and asked him about it.
He got pilloried by those in his own profession. Many of the same guys who are on their moral soapboxes tearing up Arod, Bonds and others on a daily basis, killed this guy for doing his job. Some even went so far as to call Selig and ask that his MLB credential get pulled.
Now, 10+ years later, not a single one of these guys have offered up an apology, in print or in person, to Steve. Not one.
My point is, the media didn’t care about it then, when PED use was in full bloom (and don’t believe the BS they didn’t know. EVERYBODY around the game at that time knew SOMETHING was up), why care about it now?
You know why? Its their way of taking shots at guys they don’t like. To that end, guys like Arod only have themselves to blame for acting like jerks to the media.
However, let’s be serious, if Arod treated the media like Nick Swisher does, nobody would be writing about PED use in every story about him.
Don’t believe me? Look at Andy Pettitte as Exhibit A. Very, very nice man who has pitched poorly for much of the season.
Yet, not a single story by anybody on the Yankee beat implies its because he’s no longer using PED’s.
Double standard? I’ll leave that for you to decide.
No other team will offer Jeter more money than the Yankees. He’s more valuable to the Yankee organization than any other team and that’s it in a nutshell.
I agree with SJ about Arod and PED usage in regard to the media. Just about every writer including Pete, can’t write a story about him without bringing his PED usage into it while Pettitte has been skate free this season.
SJ,
Really good point about the media and how they treat Alex vs. Pettitte and others.
Hokie, I’m AJ’s biggest fan so mostly my comment was because I’m an expert worrier – I would say the same thing about anyone else, lol. Good points, though – looking forward to tonight.
I agree with you SJ. Your points are more than valid. I don’t care what PED you are taking, it takes skill to hit a baseball. We don’t hear too much about pitchers (other than Clemens of course), I am sure there were more than a couple who have been taking them.
One thing I have learned about Cashman is, he is not brooding over Jeter like Hamlet. Instead, he has a plan to improve the team long-term (Like when he decided NOT to trade for Santana, because he did not want to give up Phil Hughes. In addition, he knew that Sabathia was going to be a free agent, and gambled he could sign him). He is currently stocking up on catchers, and starting pitchers (The two most valuable commodities in baseball), which will allow the team to have lots of trading chips in the future. Something very important to keep in mind: They have several more huge contracts (Nady, Matsui & Damon coming off the books (Which will save over $40m, from next year’s budget)), and with a weak free agent class coming up, they can sit it out, keep next year’s first round pick, and can put some of the savings into IFA’s (Like Gary Sanchez), and really load up on signing draft picks to restock the farm system (Heathcott, Murphy, Cotham, Black, Stoneburner, and Thompson are likely signs), and I could could see (Lyons, Gerritse, Bruno, Checo, and maybe even Aplin signed as well).
The Yankees replaced Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio & Mantle, and still won Championships. The same will be said for Jeter. The goal is to make sure that this team is competitive for years to come, not keeping Jeter happy and satisfied.
BBFan
You said:
“Jeter was very well paid in his previous contract, probably more than he is worth inspite of his intagibles. So, the Yanks really do not owe him any thing. This respect thing if it is linked to only how much they offer him, it is a bunch of non-sense.
Also, important to remember that Jeter agreed to a verbal deal last time and Goerge did not sign it right away as he was waiting for Detroit to set the record with Juan-gone. That never happened and in the mean time, A-Rod signed that historic deal. Then Jeter and his agent took Yanks for a ride and got about 50 mil more. Given all this, Yanks will offer him a respectable deal, better than any other team, but do not expect something the lines of A-Rod or even Mo and Po given his age. Also, they learnt with Po’s ridiculous deal length wise and they will not do that mistake again.”
I hope you’re right that the Yanks learned their lesson, BBFan. But I suspect that you’re mostly not. I don’t think nine years in the wilderness (without a title) and years without a post season series won, while their hated archrival has won two and almost won others is long enough. I think they’re that dense….
If you were guessing, what kind of length and $$$ would you expect when the Yanks resign “the Cap’n”?
Prediction: We won’t win another World Series with Jeter at short and Posada behind the plate. They can bash weak teams that way, but not good ones — which is all they’ll be competing (and continuing to lose) against with Jeter at short and Posada behind the plate (in my humble opinion). And I hope I’m wrong, but I’d give odds that I’m not.
(Not to mention that they’re carrying around a large and growing albatross contract with A-Rod (plus luxury tax) that gives away a huge chunk of any financial advantage they have against them.
Maybe we should just DFA Jeter. All this maneuvering years before his contract is due up stinks of Levine and Trost. Amazing that we would throw insane amounts to a player like A-Roid, AJ Pavano, etc. but must make sure that Jeter makes up their difference? How much more under a magnifying glass can we put him? There are 29 other teams that would love to have him. But as you can see we treat our own like junk.
It is getting so I can not stomach this FO and everything that they do as of late, from the new park (has anyone heard it referred once as the House that Ruth Built?!) to the horrendous on field management.
The core of this team is still the best part of it and while they might not win another world series, I’m glad they are still showing some what the pinstripes are all about.