The LoHud Yankees Blog

Sorry for the late notice. The Yankees sent this email yesterday, right around the time I was waiting for Randy Levine to discuss Derek Jeter. I saw it and then forgot about it. Anyway, if you’re interested, you still have a couple of hours. Here’s the announcement from the Yankees.

The New York Yankees and White Rose will team up once again to hold their annual Pre-Thanksgiving Food Voucher Giveaway on Thursday, November 18, beginning at 10:00 a.m. at Gate 2 at Yankee Stadium (corner of 164th St. and Jerome Ave.).

Bronx residents are invited to come to Yankee Stadium and pick up a food voucher, which can be redeemed at a local Met Food market or Pioneer Supermarket (while supplies last). Proof of Bronx residency is required to receive the voucher.

PLEASE NOTE: Vouchers will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis, and supplies are limited.

WHAT: YANKEES ANNUAL PRE-THANKSGIVING FOOD VOUCHER GIVEAWAY

DATE: THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2010

TIME: 10:00 A.M. UNTIL SUPPLIES LAST

PLACE: YANKEE STADIUM, GATE 2 (CORNER OF 164TH ST. AND JEROME AVE.)

Wally Matthews has the story.

A source has told Matthews that Derek Jeter is looking for at least a four-year deal while the Yankees want to give no more than three. They’re willing to pay top dollar, but they don’t want to sign Jeter into his 40s.

This is more or less as expected. Money is the easiest thing to discuss — it’s easy to assign Jeter’s stats to a dollar value — but the years seem to be the most difficult thing to determine. Even if Jeter bounces back from his 2010 season, it’s easy to imagine a significant slide within the next few years.

If Jeter is OK with four years, and the Yankees are OK with three, then the gap isn’t huge. To be honest, four years is kind of what I’ve been expecting.

Good looking out by good ole Sam Borden who just emailed me the latest status on Laura Posada’s Facebook page. It seems like good news for the Yankees catcher.

Update: Jorge is doing really good and has healed really well. He’ll be ready for next season!

With Brian Cashman already back in New York, team president Randy Levine briefly held court this afternoon. The bulk of the conversation was predictably about Derek Jeter.

“He’s a baseball player,” Levine said. “It’s a player negotiation. Everything he is and who he is gets factored in. This isn’t a licensing deal or a commercial rights deal. He’s a baseball player. With that said, you can’t take away who he is. He brings a lot to the organization, and we bring a lot to him.”

Otherwise, Levine didn’t say much we don’t already know.

Cashman flew back to New York to resume his pitching coach interviews. Levine said he expects Cashman to check in with Jeter’s camp soon, if he hasn’t already.

“I haven’t heard anything about Mariano,” he said.

According to Patrick Newman over at NPB Tracker, there’s a chance Marcus Thames could sign with the Softbank Hawks in Japan.

At the very least, Softbank seems to be pursuing Thames.

It seems to me that Thames could make more money in Japan than in the states, but he’s also coming off a strong enough season that I think he would generate considerable major league interest. Probably as a platoon player, but even so, I’m not sure he’d have to settle for a minor league deal this time.

Of course, it was a minor league deal that brought Thames to the Yankees this offseason, a signing that might have been Brian Cashman’s best deal of the winter. The signing happened late, and Thames wasn’t even on the 40-man roster until the very end of spring training.

Thames said several times that he was surprised to receive such little interest last winter, and I can’t help wondering if that process might have spooked him, leaving him to consider a quick jump to Japan if the opportunity feels like a good one. Hard to know for sure, though. This could be nothing more than one-sided interest.

Associated Press photo

In what seemed to be a two-man race, Twins manager Ron Gardenhire has finally won the American League Manager of the Year award, beating second-place finisher Ron Washington. Gardenhire had previously been the runner-up five times.

The Padres Bud Black won in the National League.

I didn’t have a Manager of the Year vote this year — I voted for the rookies* — but my vote would certainly have gone to Gardenhire. I’m actually a little surprised at how many second-place votes went to Joe Maddon. Nothing against Maddon, I just thought Gardenhire and Washington, in either order, were easy choices at 1 and 2.

Joe Girardi got one third-place vote and finished sixth in the final standings.

* My Rookie of the Year ballot: 1. Feliz, 2. Jackson, 3. Davis.

This morning has been even more boring than yesterday. A few executives have moved through the lobby, but none seem to be saying very much.

Word is Brian Cashman might have already left for New York to resume his pitching coach search. He’d previously indicated that he’d leave tonight, but if the meetings themselves have been as boring as the lobby, it’s hard to blame Cashman for changing his schedule.

By the way, we’ve reached the point that most of the writers have now gathered outside of a ballroom where some of the GMs are eating lunch. Best I can tell, there’s no reason to think anyone will walk out any time soon, and even less reason to think someone will walk out with news, but we don’t have much else to do.

As the second day of baseball’s general managers’ meetings gets started, I’ll pass this along: Yesterday, the House of Representatives passed a resolution — H. Res. 1529 — honoring Bob Sheppard. The resolution was voice voted with no opposition. Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy (NY-04) made the following statement in support.

“Today I ask my colleagues to support H. Res. 1529, commending Bob Sheppard for his long and respected career as the public-address announcer for the New York Yankees and the New York Giants.

On July 11, 2010, Mr. Sheppard passed away at the age 99 in his home in Baldwin, New York, in my district.

Mr. Sheppard was a constant in sports announcing for over fifty years.

His distinctive voice was recognizable to both players and fans.

Each game began with his trademark cadence- “Good afternoon ..ladies and gentlemen…and welcome…to Yankee Stadium”.

He performed the role as public address announcer at Yankee Stadium from opening day in 1951 through 2007.

And as the public-address announcer for the New York Giants from 1956 through 2005.

At the age of 62 he announced the World Series games, 2 All-Star Games, and has introduced more than 72 Hall of Famers throughout his career.

He will always be remembered for his clear, concise, and correct announcements and pronunciations, taking pride in the name of every player he introduced.

Bob Sheppard utilized his great oratory skills not only in the sports arena, but as the chairman of the speech department at John Adams High School in Queens and as a professor of speech at St. John’s University.

Bob Sheppard was honored for his fifty memorable years of service as the announcer at Yankee Stadium with Bob Sheppard Day, celebrated on May 7, 2000, and with a permanent plaque in Monument Park behind Yankee Stadium in the Bronx.

His memorable voice will continue to live on as the recorded introduction of Yankees’ shortstop Derek Jeter.

My resolution serves to recognize the legacy of Bob Sheppard and his distinctive announcing style as a revered tradition not only to the New York Yankees and the New York Giants.

But also to the games of baseball and football, and the field of sports announcing.

I want to thank the fifty two cosponsors of the resolution, including members who are fans of other teams.

Additionally, the resolution commends Mr. Sheppard for his fifty-two years of service in the field of sports announcing and his dedication to spreading his knowledge and skill through teaching speech at both the high school and college levels.

Today I salute Bob Sheppard.

I ask my colleagues to support the resolution.”

This winter, you can bet the Yankees will be linked to players other than Cliff Lee and Derek Jeter. Just this afternoon, they were reported to have interest in lefty reliever Pedro Feliciano and to have at least kicked the tires on Diamondbacks outfielder Justin Upton.

And we’re going to continue to hear these sort of connections all offseason. Some might lead somewhere. Most will be deadends.

“Right now it’s just a lot of people expressing interest, not necessarily making offers,” Brian Cashman said.

Feliciano makes obvious sense for the Yankees (and Cashman has acknowledged he’s looking for a lefty). Upton makes sense for basically every team in baseball — he’s still just 23 — and if he’s going to be moved, the Yankees have to at least make the phone call.

Whether it leads anywhere remains to be seen, but sometimes a player can be had for a lower-then-expected price. Just ask the Braves…

• The Braves traded for Dan Uggla today, and got him for a good utility man (Omar Infante) and a former Yankees minor leaguer (Mike Dunn). Granted, Uggla is going to make considerable money in arbitration, but that’s still not a ton to give up. At least not in my opinion. Dunn originally went to the Braves in The Boone Logan Trade.

• The other significant moves of the day were the Cardinals re-signing Jake Westbrook and the Marlins signing John Buck.

• The Rangers have also gone to Arkansas to meet with Cliff Lee.

• Roy Halladay won the NL Cy Young today, and he seemed to side with CC Sabathia in the AL Cy Young debate.

• The Rockies released reliever Manny Corpas today. He would be a very attractive option for most teams — and might still be — but he did just have Tommy John surgery, so he could miss all of next season.

Brian Cashman joked that he walked into a sword fight without a sword.

Standing in a room filled with media, Cashman didn’t want to talk about the details of today’s meetings, didn’t want to give his opinion on expanded playoffs and wouldn’t get into specifics about potential player moves. He talked quite a bit more about the search for a pitching coach, but wouldn’t say who or even how many will be interviewed.

The only juicy bit of information he provided was nothing but a tease.

“I’ve got a small player move that I’m working on that might get done at some point this week,” he said. “But it’s small.”

In the course of nearly a half hour, though, Cashman did drop a few little notes of information. Nothing huge, just a few nuggets to keep in mind.

• The starter-or-reliever questions are official finished for Joba Chamberlain. “Joba to the pen,” Cashman said. “We made that decision after spring training. We’re not looking to put it back. We told him in the spring, you’re a reliever now. That’s it.”

• Alfredo Aceves is healthy enough that he’s expected to pitch in Mexico this winter. “His rehab resolved,” Cashman said. “He was throwing bullpens (and) felt fine. We’re probably going to be talking about winter ball here at some point. He was trying to make it. He would have been a potential guy, believe it or not, to our surprise, if we got to the World Series.”

• Aceves never had surgery.

• Cashman is moving forward with the assumption that Damaso Marte will not pitch at all next season. “Whether (a lefty reliever) is available in this particular marketplace is what I don’t know,” Cashman said. “It’s certainly an area that I would like to have two lefties in the bullpen. I just don’t know if I’ll be successful or not.”

• That said, Cashman has no plans to dump Marte from the 40-man roster. He doesn’t think he’ll need that spot to protect anyone from the Rule 5. “You don’t just release a guy,” he said. “With our Rule 5 protection, I don’t feel like I have a roster crunch.”

• Cashman said he only way he could imagine a roster crunch would be if the Yankees made a trade in which they acquired multiple players, but he doesn’t expect that sort of trade to happen.

• Cashman said he has “zero” indication whether Andy Pettitte will be back next year. Pettitte told Cashman the same thing he’s said publicly: That if he had to make a decision right now, it would probably be retirement, but he’s not planning to make a decision right now.

• The Yankees consider Ivan Nova a legitimate rotation candidate for next year.

• Last year was the final year of Juan Miranda’s four-year contract, but he doesn’t have enough service time to become a free agent, so he’s still under the Yankees control. They don’t have to offer him arbitration, he will simply come into spring training as a 40-man player who’s out of options.

• Cashman listed Miranda, Ramiro Pena, Eduardo Nunez and Brandon Laird as players who could play a bench role next season.

Associated Press photos