The season pays off for Pettitte
Posted by: Peter Abraham - Posted in Misc on Sep 22, 2009 
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Andy Pettitte signed a one-year, $5.5 million deal with the Yankees that — after much negotiation — was laden with incentives.
Pettitte was able to earn bonus payments based on how many days he spent on the active roster and how many innings he pitched.
Tomorrow will be his 170th day on the roster. That will give him an extra $1.6 million, a figure that will rise to $2 million once the season is over and he reaches 180 days.
Pettitte also has thrown 184.1 innings. That has paid off to the tune of $2.25 million. He is 5.2 innings shy of another $750,000. If Pettitte gets to 200 innings, that would be an additional $750,000.
With two starts left, it’s likely Pettitte will only break the 190-inning threshold. When it’s all said and done, he’ll probably get $5 million in extras for a total salary of $10.5 million.
Given the state of the free-agent market last winter, that’s a pretty good figure for Andy and his agents, the Hendricks Brothers. The Yankees also will be pleased knowing they received the value of that many innings, a vast majority of them good ones.
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Speaking of agents, Scott Boras has a suite right behind the plate at Angel Stadium and almost always arrives early to watch batting practice and consult with his clients. At one point yesterday, Johnny Damon, Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez were literally lined up to speak to Boras.
Fans get riled up about Boras. But it’s important to remember that the players hire him to represent them. He’s only doing what they ask him to do. Given the amount of money in the game, a player has every right to get what he can.
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UPDATE, 4:05 p.m.: The new Boras ESPN commercial is hilarious. Watch it here:
If he doesn’t pitch well in the postseason, it means nothing.
i would want boras as my agent. It is his job to do the dirty work. Sometimes it is dirty, but he generally gets what he wants.
Given the amount of money in the game, a player has every right to get what he can.
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As does a sports writer (and all around good guy).
that new ESPN commercial with Boras as Scott Van Pelt’s agent is hillarious
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....8;index=19
Hate the game, not the playah.
“If he doesn’t pitch well in the postseason, it means nothing.”
This comment makes little sense. Pete’s write up was describing his incentives and how he has been prosperous from it. It hasn’t detailed how well he has pitched at all, he has been able to avoid injury.
Pretty stupid to say something like that about our only starting pitcher with big game, big time play off experience.
can’t Boras teach Johnny and Alex how to pronounce “Teixeira”?
“that new ESPN commercial with Boras as Scott Van Pelt’s agent is hillarious”
That commercial makes me smile everytime I see it.
And with that, I’m here for a big win tonight !!!111
Thank you Manny Delcarmen for being the worst pitcher on the Red Sox and somehow getting into that game last night, up 8-2. Only to blow it for your team. Could have been 4 games out. Now I know it’s only a matter of time before the Red Sox slide into first, but thanks for letting me sleep nice and baby-like last night! |O
Richie –
“… it means nothing” — Trolls ‘R Us?
http://www.baseball-reference......html?redir
Go here and see how Andy at age 37 is right around his career stats for this year. This means a lot to me as a big fan of Andy and probably a very great deal to Andy himself. He did his part to make this a special season regardless. That you are un-impressed unless certain conditions are met is not a terribly interesting factoid.
I also think Pete was taking occasion to comment on how the deal was kinda cool and worked out well, especially Andy.
Being a cynic is so charming. If you are so cynical why even waste your time on us.
w/o Andy we wouldn’t even be in the play off picture
Richie:
It means nothing? The Yankees don’t get to the postseason without those 184.1 quality innings from Pettitte. So, in fact, it meant a lot.
Dandy Andy
Given the amount of money in the game, a player has every right to get what he can.
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Yes because that money comes right out of the rich owners pocket right? No, it comes out of my pocket. Because of my tenuous job situation I’ve had to deny my two young sons from going to a Yankee game this year because it’s just not in our budget to blow $200 on a Yankee game when clothes and food are a higher priority. It makes me feel like crap but I’m sure Arod/Boras/Teix sleep just fine at night knowing that 95% of their fans can’t even afford to see them in person.
Interesting comments from Cashman about the playoff pitching staff. Looks like they’re only taking 10 pitchers.
http://njmg.typepad.com/yankee.....pardy.html
River Ave Blues has a good post on this and I agree with them that the 10th spot will come down to Joba vs Gaudin.
http://riveraveblues.com/2009/.....oct-17450/
Aura:
I understand how you feel. But the Steinbrenner family would not have lowered ticket prices $1 if they didn’t sign Teixeira. The profit the owners make is astronomical. I think the finances of the game are out of control but it’s not the fault of the individual player
Jimmy Beaner
You have too much faith in the Red Sox. They aren’t winning the division, and they aren’t going to the World Series. Stop acting like a pre-2004 Red Sox fan. The Red Sox are overrated and we will all see come postseason time.
Pettitte’s deal has turned out well for both sides. The Yankees get a reliable 3/4 starter, Pettitte gets his money.
Let’s blame the Yankees for the economy.
Thank you Manny Delcarmen for being the worst pitcher on the Red Sox and somehow getting into that game last night, up 8-2. Only to blow it for your team. Could have been 4 games out. Now I know it’s only a matter of time before the Red Sox slide into first, but thanks for letting me sleep nice and baby-like last night! |O
___
Don’t forget the fabulous Daniel Bard, the man, the myth, according to Gammons, the best prospect ever…
at least the Steinbrenners reinvest in their team
Aura, if you want to blame non sensical things, maybe you should have only had one son???
Aura–
Supply and Demand — Market economics
Are we to Socialize baseball tickets now as well?
Perhaps the Mets are less expensive?
Richie
Andy is one of the best pitchers on this staff. And one of the best postseason performers. How can you dismiss that ?
Bard is a younger version of Farnsworth. He has a hard, straight fastball that gets hit a long way too often. take a look at his results over the past 3 weeks. He’s given up at least a run in more than half of his appearances.
During Yogi’s career he worked as a maitre d’ in a restaurant and sold men’s clothing during the winter to make ends meet. Somewhere there must be a fair, happy medium.
I can’t wait until this weekend, Pete do we have potential pitching matchups for the Red Sox series yet? Thoughts?
The Red Sox bullpen is overrated. And wait till Billy Wagner pitches in a big spot in October. The guy is going to fail.
All the fans that complain about player salaries ask yourself, if you had that kind of talent wouldn’t you try to get as much money as possible? I know I would.
Just think about it, all of the guys Pete mentioned – Damon, Teixeira, Rodriguez are financially set for the rest of their lives. Their children, children’s children and children’s children’s children are set for the rest of their lives. They will never have to worry about making another cent and can basically buy whatever they want whenever they want it.
If you had the skill that could provide that freedom and stability wouldn’t you hire a guy like Scott Boras?
Damon just dropped Boras.
His new agent is Ari Gold
It’s funny that if Andy winds up earning $10.5 MM, he will get exactly what the Yanks offered him initially last off season. I’m pretty sure that that was the amount that he turned down. Cashman must feel pretty good about that too.
Ari: “Hug it out Johnny. Hug it out!”
“If you had the skill that could provide that freedom and stability wouldn’t you hire a guy like Scott Boras?”
i’ve always liked scott boras.
he’s often negotiating with billionaires who have bought their way into baseball.
they didn’t get to be billionaires being nice guys.
if he can beat them at their own game, i think it’s great.
Lloyd, GET IN HERE !
Better him than Adam Davies
Pettitte’s been great for us. Without him we’re not in the playoffs.
I really can’t stand the “if we don’t win the WS everything else is meaningless” fans. Is that how everyone lives the rest of their lives? With the expectation of perfection and complete 100% satisfaction or they get upset? I just don’t get it. How can people live like that? Do they just walk around upset all the time because life is imperfect?
I love baseball reference. It’s fun to pick out little factoids like how Andy’s having a much better season at age 37 than in his age 27 season in 1999 (when he posted a 1.59 WHIP and George tried to trade him for Adam Eaton + other Phillie prospects that never panned out). He’s never had the best control or stuff on the Yankee staff, but it’s hard to argue that anyone in the game has been more consistently reliable. I’d take a guy with Pettitte’s work ethic and mental toughness over anyone with more pure talent but lacking in those two departments any day.
repost:
(So here is what appears to be happening. My posts get hung up in the censor and when they appear, they appear at the time I would have originally posted them – go figure – so they somehow get inserted in the time frame, meaning that by the time they show up, people have moved on since it is actually much later than the time shown on the post! This might mean you are all very lucky not to have to read them at all!)
I still think this is interest worthy in terms of current fears and trepidation, so I will try it again! This time I will check the original post time vs. the actual post time just to see how long they get hung up.
**************************************
Hey all! It seems that my posts take a little longer than usual to show up. I think it may be because someone tried to pirate my account and Pete is being vigilant in making sure that my posts are connected to my account. I appreciate that by the way. Thanks Pete. (Either that or I am swearing a lot without knowing it!)
In any event, if my posts show up a little late in terms of context, you’ll understand why.
This one has no context to the present thread but I still wanted to share it with you. When I was driving today I was listening to WEEI and it would have done any NY fan’s heart good to hear it. Naturally they are bemoaning the Pats loss. But on top of it, there is a lot of bridge jumping over the loss to KC. This is the way the hosts presented it in an attempt to try to get the Boston fans to chill. To take the division, the Sux would have to go 12 and 2 while the Yankees played 500 baseball.
Now kids, whose case would you rather have? In addition the Yanks are one game away from clinching a playoff berth. The Sux are 7 games away from doing the same.
If anything should make you rest a little easy, it is the above information. And don’t forget that the Yankees could be 2 additional games up on the 2nd place team but for Rick Reed and an aberrant performance from Mo. What I am pointing out is that normalcy and reality would have had the Yanks typically taking the game the Mariners won in the 9th inning and the Angels taking the game the Sux won in the 9th inning. I THINK we can count on normalcy and reality more than aberrant happenings. I still have total faith in the Yanks ability to take it all.
For the less convinced I will continue to remind you about the Yankees backing into the last postseason they won the world series where in 2 weeks they blew an astrononmical lead and won the division with little time left to go, based not on a Yankee win but on a Sux loss. And they still went on to win the world series. Try to look at the body of work and not a weeks worth of baseball.
GO KC!
Great call Pat M. You called 2 out of 3 for KC. With Zack going tonight I think that is a safe bet. Wouldn’t it be a hoot if it ended up being 3 out of 3?
randy,
Good call, I agree. If the players don’t get paid where do the fans think the money is going? Lets say Tex signed with the Yanks for $150 mil rather than $180 mil. Who gets the missing $30 mil? The owners of course. It’s not like the fans get any breaks on ticket prices.
Ari’s too busy with A Rod and Tex to handle Damon. He passed Johnny over to Andrew Klein.
Girardi on with Francesa at 5 p.m.
Who is Ari Gold?
Ralph Kramden
September 22nd, 2009 at 4:42 pm
Ari’s too busy with A Rod and Tex to handle Damon. He passed Johnny over to Andrew Klein.
——————————————–
he’d be much better off with Lizzie, she’s got about 60 IQ points on Mr. Klein.
I’m surprised more contracts aren’t like Andy’s.
Often teams and players win or lose big with contracts.
In Andy’s case, both sides win.
abbreviated repost:
Boston fans are frantic. Be happy that you are on the end of the equation that says one more win (or Texas loss) and your team is in the postseason, and the Yankees would have to play 500 ball the rest of the way while the Sux would have to go 12-2 in order for the Yankees to lose the division.
I’d rather be us than them right now. Sux magic number to make the postseason is 7. Yankees can certainly breathe easier than they can.
JMO
Julio Mateo had his contract voided by the Cardinals for a supposed degenerative eye condition. Time to grab him on the cheap! The cards medical staff blows.
LOL – My company just raffled off tickets for tomorrow’s game and drew my name. Jackpot! I’ll have to reverse Pat M’s negative mojo.
I haven’t seen a Yankee game since 1985.
congrats Darrin- reverse the Pat M curse
I went to the game last Saturday in Seattle and had a pass to get on the field.
Check out some of my pics and other assorted ballpark shots.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bronxjeers/
Aura, et al who complain about ticket prices and player salaries:
There was an interesting article online about this, but I don’t remember where it is, so my summary will have to suffice.
Player salaries have absolutely no effect on ticket prices. Every company sets the price of its goods to maximize revenue based on market demand, not to cover costs.
Higher ticket prices mean more revenue per seat, but potentially fewer seats sold. Lower prices mean more seats sold, but lower revenue per seat. So every team runs the numbers, and determines what prices will balance those effects so as to maximize revenue. That is, they set the prices as high as possible without reducing demand so much that revenue is lost.
The only reason a team would change ticket prices is if the demand changes. If a team sucks and demand goes down, prices will go down. If a team performs well and demand goes up, prices will go up. Since ticket prices are already set as high as market demand will allow, teams can’t raise them just to pay huge salaries because higher prices at that same demand level will actually result in lower revenues.
The only effect player salaries has on this equation is tangential. Teams which perform better have a higher demand for tickets, so they can set prices higher. Good players tend to cost more, so these teams will also have higher salaries. But this is correlation, not causation.
Teams like the Yankees have high salaries because they have high revenues, not the other way around.
(09/22/09) The Joe Girardi Report on Mike’d Up with Mike Francesa:
http://bit.ly/UhudM
Bronx Jeers – great pics!!
Jeers, the captions are priceless! Great job.
it got dead in here
Thanks Rishi.
Rex –
Thanks for elaborating on my
“Supply and Demand — Market economics”
post — Nice to know I was right without even being as erudite (and no doubt charming) as you are.
“I would’ve gone to Ace if I needed more than 6 outs or it was earlier in the game. We only needed to get 6 outs and I normally would’ve gone to Robertson and Coke in that spot. They were unavailable, so I went to Bruney instead.”
Huh, Joe?
Translation Joe?
Bruney was the only warm body standing between you and Edwar?
Greinke pitching for KC tonight.
Can we get the magic # to at least 7?
Is it me or does Marte hardly pitch? You would think Joe would want to find out more about him…..I mean, I’m sure he’ll make the roster, but let the guy pitch. He had a dreadful outing that one time (probably due mostly to rust) – I’d much, much rather see him than Bruney out there.
Greinke ought to be able to beat Byrd. He is playing for the Cy Young and KC is playing for pride- they just moved up out of last place.
woohooooooooo
Expectation:
Greinke will beat Byrd easily.
Reality:
?
I’ve always loved Scott Boras. He’s fantastic at what he does, is extremely dedicated to his clients, is reportedly a wonderful family man, and also has been said to treat his employees phenomenally.
He gets a bad reputation as being some sort of monster just because he is good at what he does, which, in turn, means baseball salaries skyrocket and stars frequently leave their home team. He’s the best there is.
KC is one a few teams that despite being out of the race seem to relish playing the spoiler, or at least attempting to.
That win over Boston last night was pretty amazing when you look at how many runs Boston was up early in the game. Most would have pegged that as yet another Red Sox win. I know I did.
I think incentive-based contracts make great sense. Maybe if contracts like Pettite’s were more common, we would not see so many “contract year” players.
Great job, Andy!