Closer to Competitive Balance, But Not Close Enough

In this month's ESPN Magazine, Peter Gammons predicts that, come Labor Day '05, 16 teams will be within 5 games of either a division title or a wild-card spot. Seems like in spite of the Yankees' ever-escalating payroll, baseball is looking as competitive as ever.

Look at the Indians, for example. They're shaping up to be like the old A's and the Twins, a small-market team that has the home-grown chips to put together a trip to the playoffs. The small-market Padres might be looking at their first trip to October since '98, back when Kevin Brown was able to go two months without a trip to the DL. And the AL West might have 4 competitive teams, as will the NL East (if the Schmets' bullpen ever puts it together) and NL West (especially with Bonds on the DL). And perennial losers like the Orioles and Tigers are just a few players short of contending. So perhaps it's time for this blog to go - the Yankees can't be that bad, right?

But the fact remains, the Yankee payroll is still over $80 million higher than the Sox, and much higher than anyone else. This winter, the Yanks added payroll in guys like Johnson, Pavano, Jaret Wright, and Tony Womack, while maintaining such huge contracts like Giambi, Bernie, Jeter, A-Rod, and Brown. Cashman was supposed to shed some contracts this winter (ok, he got rid of Vazquez), but instead is stuck with players nobody wants.

And it remains to be seen how defeatable the Yanks will be this postseason. Even if Pavano and Wright don't pan out, you will see Cashman get his guy in July (Clemens?). And once the Yanks realize Bernie Williams has lost it, as well as Tino, and that Womack didn't really have it, you'll see the Yanks revamp their offense come July.

So if the Yanks have all the dough, and can get almost anyone they want, why is the game looking as competitive as ever? Simple. The other teams are lucky the Yanks have screwed up. A team that spends $180 million and still has a 4.70 ERA is very poorly run. If the Yanks had actually put together a pitching staff with money spent wisely, they could've put Oakland's old Big 3 to shame. But the fact they didn't made them much easier to beat, especially in the postseason. Basically, many teams (including the Sox) are lucky that the Yankees have screwed up so much.

This leads to another reason baseball's system is still unfair. While small-market teams have no margin for error, the Yankees can afford to make mistakes and still get new players. The Pirates were saddled with a huge contract like Kevin Brown's when they were stuck with Jason Kendall's huge contract, being forced to get the Raul Mondesi and Kenny Lofton table-scrap free agents that nobody else wanted. The Yankees have over $45 million invested in 3 big question marks for '05 (Giambi, Bernie, Brown), more than a few teams' entire payrolls.

The Royals invested long-term in Mike Sweeney and tried to build the team around the guy; it flopped, and now they're screwed. But if the Yankees make a big-money mistake like Kevin Brown? No problem, just spend another $15 million and get Randy Johnson. You can't tell me that's fair.

And as for the Twins and A's: this season, in my opinion, is the biggest test thus far of the "Moneyball" approach. And one of the successors of the Big 3, Dan Meyer, has already proved to be disappointing. And who knows if Blanton and Haren are more Hudson than Pulsipher? As the Schmets found out back in '95-'96, young studs don't always pan out.

And as for the Twins, guys like Morneau and Mauer are supposed to be huge, but what if they're not? And with Jacque Jones the next Twin to get overpriced, (after losing Guzman and Koskie last winter), you wonder if the team can keep affording to lose guys. The Twins have done very well, but they have no margin for error. If Johan Santana turns into the next Doc Gooden or Rick Ankiel or something, they can't just spend $15 million on an ace. They'll be in huge trouble.

So the game has gotten more competitive, I don't deny that. But is it more fair? I don't think so. On Opening Day, everyone has a shot. But come July when the Yanks are able to get the big names and fill their holes, we'll see just how fair things are.

Sierra at Cleanup? What Is This, 1990?

Looking at the Yankees lineup last night, you had all the usual suspects - A-Schmuck, Sheff, Shemp, Posada, and Bernie. In the mighty cleanup spot, who was there for the Junkees? Ruben Sierra!

For a second there. I was confused. I thought I was watching an old Ranger game on ESPN Classic or something. Where's Rafael Palmeiro? Where's Steve Buechele? Who's pitching today, Bobby Witt, Charlie Hough, or Nolan? I felt like it was back in Ruben Sierra's glory days, before he was traded for juice-boy Jose Canseco in '92.

Sierra had a hit in five tries yesterday, but his numbers have fallen big since those days. He's still solid as a pinch-hitter and an occasional role-player, but his days as a cleanup hitter are long over. In a big game, if Jeter and/or A-Schmuck get on, with 2 out, do you really want Sierra up there? You spend $200 million on your team, and a semi-washed-up 40-year old has-been is your cleanup hitter? Come on.

Between Sierra and Bernie, the Yanks have a few gaping holes in the lineup. And Sheffield and Posada aren't getting any younger. And let's see whether we see the '04 Tony Womack or the one that was cut left and right in '03. Not to mention the verdict is still out on Giambi. The Yanks scored a lot of runs yesterday off Wells, but will they get the job done in a big game in a big spot? Hmmmm.

Can the Yankees Go 162-0?

Yeah, anything's possible. The Devil Rays could meet the Brewers in the World Series. But we all know that that ain't happening. Same with the idiotic Junkee fans who think that their team will win some ridiculous number of games this year.

"What do you mean? Did you see the way they smacked around David Wells on Sunday night? Did you see how great Randy Johnson pitched? This is it, baby!"

As Manny Ortiz said the other day, one game does not a great season make. You have to play well throughout. I remember when the Junkees started out 18-3 a few years back, people said they'd win more games than any other team. Didn't happen. So Junkee fans, take it easy.

It's such a double standard. When the Red Sox swept them last April, the Junkee fans blew it off. "Ah, beginning of the year. They're saving their intensity for later on. Don't put too much stock into a meaningless series in April." Yet, the Junkee fans act like idiots when their teams wins one game against the Red Sox - on opening night! Get a life.

Gee, Where Have I Seen This Before?

"Usually calm Pavano is starting to feel pressure"

- headline of story in Newsday, 3/31/05

Tim Marchman (NY Sun): 2005: The Year the Junkees Collapse

Every year I preach that the Yankees are about to collapse, and they never do. I'm sticking with my preaching - the Yankees are about to collapse, and don't look like a 90-win team to me. They're horrible defensively, old and injury-prone, and boast a lineup consisting of five superb players and four mediocrities.
This strangely built $200 million team is as thin as a dime. I count nine potential Hall of Famers on the roster, but no one else on the team is very good, with a few exceptions like Hideki Matsui and Tom Gordon. The contrast with the Red Sox, who have three superstars and 22 solid players, is stunning. The Yankees have no sixth starter, no credible reserves in the infield, the outfield or behind the plate, and several regulars who could be among the worst at their positions in baseball.
The Yankees' underlying statistics were those of an 89-win team last year, and it's not clear that they got much better over the off-season. The real improvement, of course, was bringing in ace Randy Johnson, who represents a marked improvement over Javier Vazquez. But I'm not clear how that does more than offset the terrible Tony Womack and the continued disintegration of the team defense. This team looks to me to be clearly inferior to the Red Sox.
I pointed out last year that the Red Sox resembled the late-1990s Yankees more than any other team, and that the Yankees were coming to resemble the late-1990s Red Sox or Dodgers, weighted down with horrible contracts and structured without any apparent attention to depth or situational play. That's even truer today. Talent will make up for bad design, but this Yankees team is nowhere near as good as people think. For all that, they could well win 101 games again.
Joe Torre, Manager
The slow erosion of Joe Torre's managerial performance is an unremarked-upon but significant factor in the recent relative decline of the Yankees. He's still one of the best in the game, but his inability or unwillingness to solve the team's DH/CF/1B circus by simply settling on clear roles for his players had consequences in the 2004 postseason, as did his severe overuse of relievers Paul Quantrill and Tom Gordon, who wore out down the stretch. It's not like Torre to let problems fester or to overwork his pitchers in June without an eye to October, and this is one year where they Yankees can't afford these kinds of mistakes if they expect to finish atop the division.
Bench
The Yankees don't really have a bench. Ruben Sierra is a perfectly fine pinch-hitter, and John Flaherty isn't a problem as a backup catcher unless Jorge Posada misses significant time. Other than that, there's nothing. Rey Sanchez is a no-hit, used-to-field utility infielder on a team that has a no-hit, no-field second baseman and two iron men on the left side of the infield; a second baseman with a bat is what is needed. Perhaps prospect Robinson Cano will come up mid-season to fill the role. In the outfield, Bubba Crosby brings nothing to the table; what's needed is a superior defensive centerfielder to caddy for Bernie Williams. With such clear and specific needs for the bench, the assemblage of this group of players is a failure on the part of Yankees management. It's not like Williams's inability to field or Womack's inability to hit are well-kept secrets.
Bullpen
You'd have to think Mariano Rivera is going to stop being Rivera at some point, but he gives no sign that it's going to happen soon. Even the two blown saves against the Red Sox in October were hardly meltdowns. Worries about his durability are probably overblown; if there were any signs of him being overworked during the end of last season or the playoffs, I'd like to know what they were. Last year, opponents hit.269 against him with none on, .181 with runners on, and .139 with runners in scoring position
Tom Gordon and Paul Quantrill were simply overworked last summer. Quantrill pitched 95 innings and sported a 6.19 ERA in August and a 10.50 in September; Gordon's 89 innings probably contributed to his 6.97 October ERA. This was, again, a consequence of the Yankees' complete unwillingness or inability to find room in the vaunted $200 million budget for, say, a decent lefty specialist or long reliever. For some reason Mike Stanton has been brought back; perhaps he and Tino Martinez can get hitters out by radiating clutchness at them.

No Schilling, No Problem

Much to the Junkee fans' glee, it looks like it will be David Wells taking the hill come Opening Night. I say, let them get excited. And I'll be rooting for the Sox, but if the Yanks come out on top, I'm not gonna lose any sleep over it.

As John Sterling reminded fans incessantly in '98, the Yanks started out 0-3 and 1-4, at which point of course, George Steinbrenner panicked. And at the end of the day, the '98 Yanks still turned out to be one of the best teams in ML history (although the bragging about 125 wins was ridiculous. No team till '95 had 11 postseason games to win, and till '69 all they had were four games; and it's true, the Yankees had more chances than these other teams to lose in the playoffs, but to include postseason wins in their tally is just silly; back in '86, nobody talked about the Mets' 116 wins).

And last year, had Rivera held on in Game 4 of the ALCS, the Sox' wins in April would have proven totally worthless. And even with the Sox winning it all, nobody cares much for those April wins anyhow (and thankfully no one cares for that awful June series when Ortiz did his best Buckner imitation and Jeter made that catch in the stands, part of the $18 million intangibles package).

So I'm looking forward to Opening Night and games that count, but I'll keep it all in perspective. I don't care if Schilling's not there in April. I want him in October, good and ready to send the Junkees packing once again.

2005 Season: Let's Get It On!

As the biggest Yankee despiser on Planet Earth, you would think that I would want the offseason to last forever, to savor the 2004 ALCS collapse. Well, it was sweet (still is), but enough is enough - I want to see the Junkees embarrass themselves again in some meaningful games. I want to see Bernie Williams running back to the centerfield wall chasing balls that flew over his head. I want to see Randy Johnson and Kevin Brown sitting on the bench in their windbreakers waiting to come off the 15-day DL. I want to see Derek Jeter attempt those Rey Ordonez deep-in-the-hole throws to first only to have the ball sail into the seats. I want to see the Daily News discuss how Carl Pavano can't handle the pressure in the big city. I want to see a Peter Gammons report about how Jaret Wright misses Leo Mazzone. I want to see Shemp Matsui in an 0-48 slump, but Snorre refuses to bench him because of that meaningless 1300-game playing streak from Japan. I want to see Tony Womack come up to the plate in August with a .225 batting average and have Junkee fans rue the day they let Miguel Cairo get away. I want to see who this year's T. J. Nitkowski will be, a journeyman middle reliever picked up off the scrap heap because Mike Stanton can't record an out.

Oh, let the games begin.

Despiser Echo Syndrome? Yanks Start to Show Age

A few months ago, my compadre the Yankee Despiser predicted that this year's group of Yankees would go the way of the '04 Mariners - a solid veteran team that would suddenly break down physically. Personally, I disagreed- hence my prediction of another Yankee AL East championship (to be followed by another playoff collapse). But with Rivera, Bernie, and Jeter hurt, it looks like things may begin to be shifting the Despiser's way. Perhaps these injuries really are minor and the Yanks will be healthy and solid again. But perhaps they're a sign of things to come.

In today's Daily News, Anthony McCarron has a piece about the Yanks' beginning to show age. Despiser, you may be right yet again.

Besides, teams full of veterans don't usually win it all. One notable exception? The '01 Diamondbacks with the likes of Matt Williams and Mark Grace. But keep in mind they came awful close to losing. And if Cashman had gotten Mo some decent middle relief to avoid all those two-inning saves, and if the Yanks would've kept the infield back when Gonzalez hit, or if Mo doesn't make that error, things would've turned out a lot different.

Besides, the one huge factor the D-Backs had going for them was as good a 1-2 punch as we've seen recently, in Johnson and Schilling. (The Yanks don't have a rotation close to that caliber (Pavano and Wright are question marks and Moose is declining).)

And the same holds true for the veteran-filled '04 Red Sox. Their pitching was simply dominating. They had one clear ace in Schilling, and once guys like Pedro and Lowe stepped it up, they were unstoppable.

And the Yankees really are older than the Sox. The Yanks have a ton of 35+ guys on their team: Johnson, Mussina, Brown, Rivera, Sheffield, Bernie, Tino, and Womack. Plus, Posada is 33, which is old for a catcher, and Jaret Wright is an injury risk, too.

The Sox do have some 35+ers in Wells, Schilling, and Timlin (I don't count Wakefield because he's a knuckleballer, and those guys usually pitch forever, and Embree, a lefty specialist, also doesn't count - think of how long Jesse Orosco pitched!). But of all the other regulars, the oldest is Bill Mueller at 34; plus the Sox have OBP king Kevin Youkilis in case Mueller goes down.

The Yanks may be in trouble here. I sure wouldn't mind that.

Whatever Happened to Yankees-Mets in Spring Training?

As I've said before, I don't care much for spring training games. But since '97 when the Yankees and Mets have gone at it during the regular season, they've stopped having exhibition games. And I really don't know why. Are they afraid it would take away from the regular season matchups? They have Yankees-Red Sox, and that doesn't take away anything from the regular season matchups. If anything, it's one of the few spring games that actually draws a crowd. So why not Yankees-Mets?

Why am I so fixated on Yankees-Mets? Why do I care? One reason: it would be another thing for George to worry about. HE's already panicking over the Yanks 1-5 record, and wouldn't it be sweet for the Junkees to lose to the Mets just to really get him going! The Yankees-Mets matchuos in the past have provided for some memorable moments, such as George getting mad at Frank Cashen for calling the Bronx "Fort Apache" and George going postal on Mike Griffin, who blew a Yankee-Met spring training game. (See Bill Madden and Moss Klein's excellent "Damned Yankees" for more on those incidents.)

It's gotta be that George was behind this, somewhere. He gets enough stress seeing the Yankees play the Sox and his Tampa rival D-Rays (I think George is the only loser out there who stresses over Yankees-D-Rays games). A few losses to the Mets in the preseason, and he might fire a few more secretaries. But I want my Grapefruit League subway series, especially now that the Mets are competitive. The spring could use some more action.

Who Cares About Spring Training, Except....

I'm sure all the Yankee fans are excited about winning last night, as well as Jason Giambi's home run. I guess when you can't win the ones that count in October, you may as well get excited about the meaningless games in March. And take after King George and panic at the slightest sign of Yankee struggles.

After the first game last week, a Yankee fan I know was getting all excited about "The Grand Tanyon" Sturtze's performance. As a Sox fan, I have no idea who's pitching which spring training game. And in no way do I care. These games are meaningless, unless you're one of those "Baseball America" types who like watching all the prospects. And for a Junkee fan, that must be torture, watching that wretched farm system in action. My concern in the exhibition season? I just hope and pray no one on the Sox gets injured, and wait till April to start watching the games.

And Jason Giambi's home run last night? Meaningless. This is spring training, and either he's facing minor league pitchers who have nothing or experienced pitchers usually toying around with some new pitch or something. Let's see Giambi get a big hit in October. The only ones that come to mind are his 2 HR in Game 7 of the '03 ALCS. And if not for Grady Little, those go down not meaning a whole lot (and even with Grady, all anyone remembers is Aaron Boone.) But of course, Yankee fans made a big deal about Giambi's April grand slam against the Twins in '02.

So if Winfield was Mr. May, I guess that makes Jason Giambi Mr. April. And maybe after last night's performance, he's graduated to Mr. March. Now let's see a meaningful performance from Giambi, post-juice.

More Arrogance

From the NY Post:

March 4, 2005 -- TAMPA — It was the type of pageantry — and lineup — most major-league teams can't muster for a real Opening Day.
Even with Randy Johnson, Gary Sheffield and Jorge Posada missing with injuries, the Yankees rung in the exhibition season in their kind of style yesterday.
Airborne parachutists brought the first ball into Legends Field. An enormous American flag was unfurled in center field before the national anthem, and fireworks exploded beyond right field.
And in a show of military might (and the franchise's clout), a flyover from two F-15 jets topped off the pre-game ceremony.

- These losers ought to give it a rest; it's a spring training game, dammit! Nobody cares, it's meaningless. These guys think they're God's gift or something. Pathetic.

Players I'm Rooting For This Year

1) Jon Leiber - the Yanks cheaped out on their most consistent starter of '04 (okay, that's not saying a whole lot), and went for Jaret Wright instead. Dumb move. Lieber has been able to pitch without the tutelage of pitching magician Leo Mazzone. Wright looks like another John Burkett, just with fewer innings pitched due to injury. I hope Leiber makes the Yanks regret cheaping out on him.

2) Mike Lowell - this guy makes my list every year, thanks to one of Brian Cashman's many boneheaded moves. Lowell should be helped by the addition of Carlos Delgado to the Marlins' lineup. Lowell doesn't get much recognition, even though he hits at least 25 HR annually. Current Yankee 3B A-Schmuck might put up better numbers, though I'd love to see how he'd hit in that pitchers' haven in Florida.

3) Jose Contreras - who lost the hype faster - Contreras or Hideki Irabu? Unlike Irabu, there should be life for Contreras after New York, especially will fellow Cuban El Duque on the Pale Sox. I'd love to see this guy finally live up to his billing. He better win 20 games.

4) Carlos Beltran - the Yanks cheaped out on this guy, instead going for a 41-year old pitcher and a guy with one good season and not much of a track record. (Carl Pavano) We all know Beltran will do better than Bambi Williams; but I'm hoping his numbers kick Williams'. And I'm hoping he catches all those balls that Bernie can't get to, and gets a few clutch hits that the Chokin' Crankees could've used. Those Junkee fans will be begging for Beltran -- if the Mets keep underacheiving, they might be able to trade for him in a few years. And that better not happen.

5) Javy Vazquez - he had one bad half-season, and the Yanks said "sayonara." He didn't want to pitch on the west coast, and the Yankees couldn't care less. I respected Vazquez for saying "you'll regret it" when the Yankees traded him, especially since they treated him like dirt (or slightly better than one of George's secretaries). Vazquez, unlike Pavano, has a track record; from '00-'03, his highest ERA was 4.05, while Pavano's best was 4.30 in '03 (not to mention his 6.33 whopper in '01). Vazquez will have better numbers than Pavano this year, and the Yanks will regret it. Go Javy!

AL Central Preview

Wow, I haven't done this in a while. But I've still got 5 divisions to go.

1) Cleveland Indians --Before you start thinking how crazy I am, let's look at some numbers. This team won 80 games last year, while blowing 28 saves. If they win 10 of those games, they'd have 90 wins last year. Not bad, eh? And there's reason to believe they'll get better this year. Veteran additions Aaron Boone, Alex Cora, and Kevin Millwood add depth. Millwood, along with C.C. Sabathia, Jake Westbrook (3.38 ERA last year) and Clifton Lee provide a solid, though unspectacular, rotation. The bullpen should improve behind a healthy Bob Wickman and newcomer Arthur Rhodes. The team batted .276 last year, and as the young players like Casey Blake, Grady Sizemore, and that Jhonny guy (who spells it funny) keep improving, that number will go up. They'll get knocked out in the first round, but the Tribe is back.
2) Minny should make a run for it again. Santana and Radke lead the rotation, and they should have a healthy Joe Mauer behind the plate. But they'll miss Guzman and Koskie, and I see Joe Nathan as another Jeff Zimmerman: good closer for a year, but not long-term material. A close second for these guys.
3) The Chicago Mets will bumble into third again. They'll contend till early August, when El Duque will tire and that'll be the beginning of the end. The Sox are doing their best '82 Yanks imitation, losing sluggers like Carlos Lee, Jose Valentin, and Magglio Ordonez and getting speedsters Podsednik and the Japanese second baseman Iguchi. The pitching should do well (go Jose Contreras!), but the lineup has lost some depth. And the White Sox always find ways to screw things up. Plus, those hitters strike out way too much.
4) Tigers- another big signing in Magglio brings this team closer to relevance, but not much. The pitching is still a mess, even though Bonderman and Nate Robertson look promising. Percival and Farnsworth boost the pen, but this team doesn't quite have it yet.
5) Royals - back in their 5-month run in 2003, everyone was talking about what a genius Tony Pena was. Everyone's been real quiet since then, however. This team has made their share of mistakes, like signing Mike Sweeney to a long-term deal, but unlike the limitless payroll team in the Bronx, KC has no margin for error. They can't just buy another player after they make a mistake. The Royals may not be baseball's best-run team, but they're clearly a sign of the Yankees' negative impact on the game.

Randy the Risk

A few columns ago, I predicted that the Big Jerk, Randy Johnson, would have a solid regular season, but break down come October. Everyone's making a big deal about his injury now, and I agree that it's being overblown. Perhaps this is a small injury that they're nursing because it's only spring training. And maybe after this Johnson will be totally healthy and pitch incredibly for the rest of the year.

But alternatively, maybe this is the start of an injury-riddled year for a pitcher who's had such years in the past. And maybe my prediction was a few months too late.

Everyone talks about RJ's incredible '04 numbers (including Randy himself), but let's not forget his injury-filled '03 campaign. And this guy isn't any younger than he was back in '03.

So my point is, Brian Cashman is no genius for getting this guy. And there's no guarantee that RJ will bring the championhip back to New York. There's no guarantee he'll be healthy come October. Okay, the trade was a big deal, but not worth getting too excited about. The guy's an injury risk. And he just proved that again yesterday.

The New York Crankees - Newday's Jon Heyman

Great piece in the Newsday by Jon Heyman on the Yankees' chemistry, or lack thereof. Click here for the full deal.

Shemp Ain't Going Anywhere Next Year

Murray Chass in today's Times says that the Yankees may have hurt their chances of re-signing Shemp Matsui after George cursed out his agent Art Tellem. Though I'd love to see Shemp hitting homers in some other uniform, I don't think it's going to happen.

I think if there will be any effect from this incident on the Shemp negotiations, it'll be that Tellem may up the ante for the Yankees. If Matsui puts up the same .300, 30, 100 numbers he put up in '04, he'll command at least $12-15 million from the Junkees. But the Yanks will be willing to pay whatever it takes to keep this guy. If a similar incident had happened with a mid-market team like the Astros, then they'd be up the creek. And even if Tellem implicitly uses this incident to make the Yankees pay, the Yanks will do it. The Yankees will outbid any offer by as much as necessary. And Tellem isn't stupid enough to screw his client and reputation over an insult by an owner.

After all, Shemp is one of the few Yankees who hits well in the clutch. He is sound defensively, which is important especially when sharing the field with two awful defensive outfielders. Shemp's classy attitude is reminiscent of the late-90's Yankees, which George wants so badly (hence bringing back Tino, Stanton, and Mendoza.)

Most importantly, Matsui is the biggest PR boon for the Yanks. They have their deals with the Youmiri Giants, they have the Japanese reporters, the Japanese fans. Basically, Shemp is bringing in lots of cash to the Junkees. And George never saw a moneymaker he didn't like.

So George can say what he wants about Arn Tellem, but he'll pay whatever he has to for Shemp to stay in pinstripes. Even if it means Shemp will have to join the Junkees' grossly overpaid club that includes Brown and Giambi. And here's hoping Shemp starts playing like those two.

Sheff - Mondesi II

After Gary Sheffield has hit the back page of the Post again, now refusing to partake in some team functions and YES interviews, I think it's fair to say this is Raul Mondesi redux.

When the Yanks got Mondesi in middle of '02, everyone was worried about how that classless jerk would fit into the Yankees clubhouse. After all, Toronto had traded the guy for a can of beans after his fight with then-manager Carlos Tosca. And for the rest of '02, Mondesi seemed to behave himself. He couldn't hit much, but stil had one of the best outfield arms in baseball.

And in '03, Mondesi starting wearing out his welcome. And the last straw came when Mondesi left a game early in middle of July. The Yankees were so fed up that they, too, gave the ex-All Star to Arizona for a couple of no-names, David Delucci and Brad Prinz.

Sheff kept his mouth shut last year, and put up much better numbers than Mondesi. And I wouldn't be surprised if Sheff puts up such numbers again this year. But now, his true colors are starting to show. Can you say "clubhouse cancer"?

And with Sheff's production, the Junkees won't want to dump him like with Mondesi. Things are starting to get real interesting.

A-Rod Still A-Schmuck

I get sick every time I read or hear A-Schmuck talk about the famous slap-play he made in Game 6 of the ALCS. He said that he has no regrets, that it was a smart play because he nearly got away with it, and he implied that he would do it again if he had to.

That's what you call a jerk. First of all, it was a dumb play because Jeter would have been on second base had you gotten tagged out and instead, he was sent back to first.

Second, it's illegal! What ever happened to sportsmanship? What ever happened to a good, clean game?

I'd have some respect for the guy the said, "Look, I got caught in the heat of the moment and lost myself. Obviously it didn't make much sense, but I didn't think about it at the time." Or, "It was a dumb move, and I wouldn't do it again."

Instead, the classless loser prides himself on a move that may have cost his team the pennant. I hope Bronson Arroyo hits him in the fanny.

Message to Bambi: Don't Retire!

The New York Post had a piece the other day on how Bernie "Bambi" (thanks to Stick Michael for that one) Williams is considering retirement. But I don't want to see the guy go! The Junkees are so much more fun to watch with one of the AL's worst centerfielders. Not to mention Bernie's steadily declining power and average numbers. What was his last big hit? That homer in game 1 of the '96 ALCS? What was that, almost ten years ago?

Considering the Yanks didn't get Beltran, they oughta pick up Bernie's option next year. Joe Snorre needs some more late '90's guys in the clubhouse to make up for Brown, Sheffield, and A-Schmuck. Maybe they can get Bernie to pull off a Dale Sveum '98 and have him just serve as a bullpen catcher. And in true Yankee style, pay Bambi $13 million for it.

And who would take over for Bernie, anyway? Beltran is in Queens. Damon, a free agent after this year, is as appealing to Junkee fans as Pedro. Besides, Jesus Damon hits better with long hair and beard. And the farm is barren. Perhaps to appeal to a few pathetic Schmet fans (and to make up for Bernie's lack of defense), the Junkees will trade for Mike Cameron. But even washed-up Bernie can hit better than Cameron. So the Yankees have to keep Bernie!

And I'm sorry, Stick Michael, but the Bernie-Bambi comparison is inaccurate. Bambi has a better throwing arm.

Manny's Preseason Picks - AL East

Let's start with the East:

1) NY Yankees - even as a Yankee despiser, you have to admit that the Yankees are baseball's best from April to September. Come October, though, and you'll see the return of the choke. Expect Randy to wear down come the postseason, Pavano return to his pre-'03 form, Wright to get injured, the hitting to get older and worse, and Brown to bring the choke back to New York once again.
2) Red Sox - 3rd straight wild card. I like Wade Miller, think he'll be one of the biggest surprises this year. Arroyo will get better, and Renteria provides an extra catalyst for Manny and Papi. Clement has flown under the radar of Prior and Wood in Chicago, and should do better than Pavano. Sox can't steamroll over the O's as consistently as the Junkees, so they have to come in 2nd. But the Sox will prevail come October.
3) Orioles - Slammin' Sammy will help out, but can he pitch? Guys like Bigbie, Matos, and Brian Roberts will improve. Sidney Ponson and Erik Bedard can't beat the Yankees, though.
4) Blue Jays - Offense will take a slight step back, in missing Delgado. Hillenbrand and Koskie are nice pickups, but not much effect. Bounce-back years from Halladay and Miggy Batista give the pitching a boost, but not enough for the Jays to compete.
5) D-Rays - most mismanaged team of all-time, anyone? Gotta feel bad for Piniella and whatever fans are left down there. What a mess this team is.

Phil Mushnick on Snorre's Steroids Stupidity

From the New York Post:

February 20, 2005 -- OF ALL the responses to Jose Canseco's published claims, none seemed odder - or more disturbing - than Joe Torre's. In an interview seen on Ch. 2's Tuesday night newscast, Torre seemed to throw his support behind the darkness. He clearly suggested that steroid use in baseball - illegal steroid use - is a nobody's-business issue.
"I'm put off by books," said Torre, who in 1997 co-authored a revealing book about his life. "What goes on in the sanctity of the clubhouse," he continued, "like the sanctity of the kitchen at home, needs to stay there."
Coming from Torre, that's bizarre. Through his Safe At Home Foundation, Torre has valiantly lent his name and private experiences to bringing the "sanctity" of domestic abuse out of the kitchen and into the light.
That he's "put off by books" that violate both clubhouse and kitchen as secret-sanctified harbors flies in the face of his book and his very public personal stance against indulging domestic abuse as a behind-closed-doors, keep-out matter.
In fact, early in his book Torre details instances of his father's abuse of his mother, writing that she was once driven to threaten his father with a knife. Might that have been a kitchen knife?
And when Torre writes of how his family gathered to ask his father to get out and stay out, the meeting is held in the family's dining room, surely, next to the kitchen.
Torre lived with an old-world, traditionally secretive and illegal evil. He then nobly exploited his public stature to identify and combat that evil by meeting it head-on, dragging it, shoving it into the light.
That he would consider steroid use a what-happens-here, stays-here matter for the clubhouse or any house is shocking.

Wells and the Rocket

I must admit, I've never liked David Wells. In the last game of the '02 ALDS, he proved he was a quitter, giving up after Bernie botched a fly ball. And of course, during the '03 World Series, he was bragging about how he can still pitch even though he doesn't work out as rigorously as Roger Clemens. He promptly followed that up by lasting only an inning in his next start, pulling himself out due to his back. And his moronic statements to the press yesterday didn't help the cause.

I'm not a fan of players trash-talking. Takes too much away from the game on the field. Leave that to the thugs in the NBA. One exception: A-Schmuck has earned the response he's gotten. A-Rod is brash, egotisitical, and a sore loser. The message from the Red Sox: keep your mouth shut till you win something. It's right on target, and maybe A-Rod will get it. But for Wells to start mouthing off on Steinbrenner, Torre, etc. I could've done without.

But the Wells situation reminds me of the Clemens situation in '99. Yankee fans hated Clemens when he came to the Bronx. Just the year before, Clemens was called a "headhunter" by Derek Jeter and incited a brawl in Toronto. And when Clemens came to the Junkees the next year, it took a while for them to warm up to him. There were the cheeseballs who put on catching gear when he threw batting practice, etc. Point is, when a guy's on your team, like him or not, you root for him.

So I don't like Wells. I don't like his attitude or his big mouth. But like the Yankee fans cheering on Clemens in '99, I'll be rooting for the Boomer every time he gets out there. I guess it's part of being a fan in the free-agency era.

Same Old Sheff

So, Gary Sheffield has made headlines today for ripping Jason Giambi. Gee, why am I not surprised? Okay, last year Sheffield kept his mouth shut, played through pain, and was arguably the MVP of the Yankees. But this is the same Gary Sheffield who's had an attitude throughout his career, and had his infamous tirade in LA, complaining about not being paid enough. And considering this news, considering Sheffield's age, and considering the fact that he's off the "clear" and the "cream," I believe this is the beginning of Sheffield's wearing out his welcome as a New York Yankee.

And again, this is a sign of perhaps the worst chemistry of any Yankee team in the Joe Snorre era. I mean, pitchers and catchers just started and already you have one Yankee ripping a teammate. And this just won't help the sensitive Jason Giambi in attempting to come back under as much scrutiny as anyone in baseball today. Just wait till Johnson or Brown crack up.

Let's examine some of Sheff's wisdom:

On Giambi: "As his teammates, we want to win and we have to support him."

Gee, and your other statements are a fine gesture of support. What a great teammate, Sheff.

On himself: "I put my numbers with anybody. Wherever I have been there has never been a player better than me."

Guess Sheff has been hanging out with Reggie Jackson too much. But the comparison ends there. While Mr. October put together one of baseball's most clutch performances in Game 6 of the '77 World Series, Sheff's bat fell asleep as part of baseball's biggest choke effort in the '04 ALCS. Put your money where your mouth is, Sheff.

And I'm sure A-Schmuck is glad to hear that you are the better player. That comment will go over real well with him and his small ego.

(Speaking of A-Schmuck, kudos to Trot Nixon for speaking the truth on A-Schmuck. Trot doesn't have A-Schmuck's numbers, but as he proved in Game 3 of the '03 ALDS, he'll get the hits when they count. When was A-Schmuck's last clutch hit? Swatting the ball out of Arroyo's hand? What a loser.)

One more point: When I was a Yankee fan, my favorite player was the classy Paul O'Neill. Too bad his RF position has been supplanted by two of the biggest jerks in the game, Raul Mondesi and Gary Sheffield. Maybe Cashman ought to pursue another attidude-ful Dodger to help Bernie out. I think Milton Bradley would be a perfect fit with the Yankees' chemistry right about now.

The Old York Times on "What Did the Junkees Know Before Signing BALCO-Boy?"

A person with knowledge of the contract said that before they signed off on Giambi's seven-year, $120 million deal, the Yankees acquiesced to his request and removed all references to steroids from the guarantee language routinely included in contracts.
The Yankees were not innocents in this matter. They didn't say to themselves: Delete references to steroid use? Well, all right if you insist, but why would you want us to do that?
They wanted Giambi badly enough that they relinquished the right to suspend him or stop payment on the contract or terminate the contract or convert it into a nonguaranteed contract if he was found to use steroids. No other words were deleted from that paragraph of the contract, the person said.
That act alone made it difficult for the Yankees to try to void the contract after The San Francisco Chronicle reported Giambi's leaked testimony before a federal grand jury on Dec. 11, 2003. A hearing into a Giambi grievance over the termination would have produced some tantalizing testimony.
Union lawyer: Mr. Steinbrenner, before you approved a $120 million commitment to Mr. Giambi, did you have any idea or any suspicion that he used steroids?
George Steinbrenner: Umm. ...
Giambi was asked at a news conference yesterday at Yankee Stadium if he misrepresented himself when he signed the contract. Arn Tellem, his agent, answered for him.
"Absolutely, unequivocally no," Tellem said. He didn't spell it out, but he didn't have to. The Yankees' action three years ago spoke eloquently enough. Their willingness to delete steroids demonstrated that they clearly understood Giambi's representation.
The Yankees signed Giambi on Dec. 13, 2001. The Chronicle reported that he had told the grand jury that he used steroids during the 2001 season. He made sure his continued use of performance-enhancing drugs would not jeopardize his contract.

Bob Raissman on the Giambi Press Conference

Yesterday, in the media capital of the world, the Yankees staged what amounted to a media blackout.
They threw an invitation-only press party for Jason Giambi. Black tie was not required. Still, the color would have been an appropriate one for this black-eye session.
Anyone administering this fiasco can say an independent public relations firm, not the Yankees, orchestrated - and set the ground rules - for Giambi's bull session with notebooks and microphones.
They can say Giambi's agent, Arn Tellem, was puppet master for an exercise in obfuscation. They can say all the Yankees provided was a home - Yankee Stadium - for this charade.
Since the coming of what is known as "the Joe Torre era," an announcement concerning a Yankee player recovering from a hangnail is apt to be made at a press conference in which the entire media corps is invited and fed.
Yesterday, you had to be invited to dance.
A bootlickers' ball? If the shoe fits ...
A selective audience was in the house.
A select few in a completely controlled environment.
This way, Giambi - characterized yesterday by one Yankee mole as "soft and fragile"- did not have to face any real heat or a Duke Castiglione moment. The format where everyone - print and electronic - gets to pounce en masse was tossed in the garbage.
Think about it. If Giambi's "people" were actually controlling this event, then the Yankee organization - George Steinbrenner, Randy Levine, Brian Cashman - basically let a guy who has embarrassed them, milked them for $80 million and lied to the media, order them around like errand boys.
Can't you just hear Tellem and Giambi say: "Hey guys, we know we've made you look like jerks and are stealing money from you, but can we use Yankee Stadium on Feb. 10 to spin the media?"
The guys running the Yankees are too smart, too savvy, to let some double-talking agent and Body By BALCO play them for suckers. And they have too much ego to let Giambi and Tellem, who really are disingenuous schleppers in this scenario, tell them what to do.
That's why the Yankees bows were on this fiddle. The pinstripe suits conducted this orchestra.
By giving the impression they had nothing to say in running yesterday's festivities, the Yankees were distancing themselves from being portrayed as media manipulators and co-authors of any lies coming out of Giambi's mouth.
The fact Giambi's soiree was not covered live by the Yankees Entertainment & Sports Network, aka Al-Yankzeera, was the most telling evidence of the distance the Yankees attempted to put between the organization and Giambi's soiree. If Steinbrenner & Co. wanted the "press conference" on YES, it would've aired.
When it comes to the Yankees, the Giambi story is big. It would stand to reason YES would cover Giambi's meeting with the media live. When Giambi signed with the Yankees, YES covered the press conference live. Other momentous events, like Derek Jeter being named Yankee captain, were also carried live on YES.
Instead of getting live coverage yesterday, Yankee fans could only see a small snippet of video replay on WFAN's "Mike and the Mad Dog" simulcast on YES. Then, viewers were reduced to having to listen to a replay of Giambi audio - in steroid-phonic sound - while having their eyes glaze over watching Mike Francesa and Chris (Mad Dog) Russo listen to this drivel.
Man, that was riveting television.
This, again, showed that YES' marching orders come directly from the Bronx and Tampa. The right thing to do, if YES was a legitimate network devoted to covering all Yankee news rather than an extension of the team's PR department, would have been to air yesterday's Stadium session live.
Instead, there was a convenient excuse for shafting viewers. Since "ground rules" were set by the Giambi camp, no local TV outlet was allowed to televise the farce live. So, Yankee lackeys running YES could tell everyone: "Gee, we wanted to cover it live, but we were just following the rules."
Rules that will be broken if the "new" Giambi gets off to a hot start. Then, YES will air his postgame press conference live.
And media members won't need an invitation to attend.

Twins and A's: Not Proof

After another complaint to a friend of mine about the competitive imbalance in baseball, the guy brought up the Twins and A's as proofs that money isn't everything; after all, those teams proved you could be spendthrift and win!

Time to debunk that one:

The Twins have lucked out in that they're in one of baseball's cheapest divisions. While there's an elite big-market money club or two in each other division in baseball (AL East- Yankees, AL West - Angels, NL East - Schmets, NL Central -Cardinals/Cubs, NL West -Dodgers), the only team in the AL Central that comes close is the Chicago Mets a.k.a. White Sox. (Although Detroit, with Ilitch's Red Wings locked out, has stepped it up a few notches). And when Cleveland was spending tons of money, Minny didn't stand a chance. So Minny was lucky in that the Sox, Royals, and Tigers were severely mismanaged the past few years and Cleveland was rebuilding. And thanks to the chemically imbalanced schedule, the Twins were able to play these awful teams many times a year and put up a solid record. Basically, they came out on top of the heap.

And in the playoffs, the Twins never stood a chance. They've had a consistent lineup from top to bottom (not too many holes), but nobody sticks out at you and scares you. Torii Hunter is a solid player, and so is Jacque Jones, but I can think of at least 50 other guys I'd rather have up in a big spot. You can't tell me the Twins had what it takes to win it all last October, or the year before that. Having what it takes to win a weak division and having what it takes to win a championship are two different things. And the Twins could've used some serious dough to build a champion.

And like so many other small-market teams, they lack depth. After Johan Santana and Brad Radke, they have scrubs like Kyle Lohse and Joe Mays holding up the back end of the rotation. And in last year's ALDS, once the Junkees got to their middle relief, it was over. The Twins would've loved to have had LaTroy Hawkins last October. Too bad they couldn't afford him. Juan Rincon is okay, but can he handle October?

Okay, so they were able to re-sign Radke. But now, they've lost Cristian Guzman and Corey Koskie. I've heard they have decent prospects who are ready to play those positions, but prospects are always a risk. Koskie and Guzman may have been unspectacular, but were reliable everyday players.

However, I must admit, you have to give GM Terry Ryan credit. He's made some solid moves, like the trade of AJ Pierzynski for Joe Nathan. And even after losing Pierzynski, Hawkins, Guardado and Milton last year, his team didn't skip a beat.

And as a Red Sox fan, I'm forever grateful for the Twins for releasing David Ortiz. But that also had to do with money; he was due for arbitration after '03, and the Twins couldn't afford him.

Finally, this coming year, the Twins' reign on the AL Central is being threatened. The Tigers are spending again and are more of a threat, especially if their pitching holds up. If Cleveland's bullpen is effective this year and everything works out right, they can be this year's '03 Marlins surprise. And if El Duque and Contreras have something to contribute, the Sox are a threat.

And who knows? Maybe losing a lot of regulars and the reality of baseball's financial imbalance will finally catch up to the Twins.

Okay, this is too long. Next time, the A's.

Nobody Hates the Patriots

So much for the argument that the salary cap prevents dynasties. That's what the Junkee fans like to claim as to why a salary cap would be bad for baseball. But the Patriots proved otherwise.

There are tons of Yankee haters out there. As I've said before, an ESPN poll last October found 88 percent of fans rooting for the Red Sox to beat the Yankees.

So why don't people hate the Patriots as well? They seem to win every year....

Because in the NFL, the salary cap makes it possible for every team to compete and have a chance to win it all. If they don't, it's lousy management, bad coaching, or underachieving. So how can you hate New England? They didn't cheat; they don't have an unfair advantage.

The Junkees, on the other hand, have an unfair advantage, and their spending makes it impossible for some teams to compete. That's why people hate the Yankees but don't hate the Patriots. And I hope Mr. Selig realizes that a salary cap does not mean the end of dynasties.

Yankee Postseason Transaction Patterns

It's funny how the Yankees' postseason transaction focus seems to change every year. And since 2000, it hasn't really helped. Let's take a look:

Post-2000: Even though the Yankees won it all, they were kind of thin on the back end of the rotation with an awful Denny Neagle and a washed-up David Cone. So while other teams picked up marquee free agents A-Schmuck and Manny Ramirez, the Yanks' prize catch was Mike Mussina. Offensively, the team was identical in 2001, except for Knoblauch ending up in LF and the rookie Soriano taking over at 2nd.

And in the 2001 World Series, the Yankees' hitting was awful. So they canned ill-fated hitting coach Gary Denbo, got rid of David Justice (to the Mets for Robin Ventura), and what was the big splash that winter? Jason "BALCO" Giambi. The Yankees also finally got Rondell White, who they'd been trying to acquire for years. On the pitching end, the Yankees added Wells. And after all the "Mariano was tired" theories, the Yanks overpaid for Steve Karsay, Yeah, a lot of good it did them.

After 2002, it was the pitching that did the Yankees in. Their acqusitions the next winter? Jose Contreras, and for the leaky bullpen, Chris Hammond and Antonio Osuna. The Yankees were trying to fix that pen. Taking over for Rondell White in left was PR-puppet Shemp Matsui.

And fixing the pen was an issue lasting throughout '03, as the Junkees brought in a circus including Acevedo, Miceli, Orosco, Benitez, Gabe White, and Felix Heredia.

After Josh Beckett stymied the Yankees in '03, George decided the hitting had to be shored up. SO he went out and got Sheffield, A-Schmuck, Kenny Lofton, and Tony Clark (and I am forever grateful to George for getting him). As for the pitching, the Yanks didn't need to tinker, but after losing Wells, Pettitte and Clemens, something needed to be done. And Weaver had to go. So in came Brown and Vazquez.

After '04, the Yanks have focused solely on pitching -- 2 question marks in Pavano and Wright, and a sure but aging Randy Johnson. The offense is the same, except for Tino and Womack. Last time the Yanks went without improving the hitting? '01. They stayed with what they had, and look what happened.

Now, the Yanks may not run into Johnson and Schilling this October. But remember: they had trouble against Brian Anderson and Miguel Batista too, that October. And Bernie has gone down since then. as has Tino. But again, they do have Shemp and A-Rod now. So here's hoping Gary Sheffield turns in David Justice '01 next year!

Now Mendoza?

ESPN's rumor central reports that the Yankees are interested in Ramiro Mendoza. Wow, these guys really want to go back to the glory days. Maybe they can get Mariano Duncan to come out of retirement. This is one big joke.

Overhyping A-Schmuck

First it was his trash-talking to Curt Schilling. (Just go to the NBA, A-Schmuck). Then there was a piece on ESPN.com on A-Rod's intense off-season regimen, which also mentioned how A-Rod was disappointed with last year and was pumped for a huge year. Basically, there's lots of hype surrounding A-Rod as we enter this season.

It reminds of a few years back, when everyone made a big deal because Derek Jeter showed up to spring training more muscular than ever. Everyone thought, "wow, he's been good, but he'll be amazing this year!" And he proceeding to put up the same numbers he put up every year -- over .300, some power, but nothing eye-popping.

A-Schmuck would do well to keep his mouth shut and let his bat do the talking this year. He's not in hitter-friendly Texas anymore. Let's see if he can hold up to the bigger ballpark, the bigger crowds, and the bigger expectations. And his performance this year will tell us a lot more than anything he can.

ESPN.com: Pirates Owner Criticizes Spending

PITTSBURGH -- Pittsburgh's Kevin McClatchy lashed out at other baseball owners Friday for a return of free-agent spending that he fears may steer some clubs close to bankruptcy.

McClatchy, the Pirates' managing general partner, warned of a growing division between big-payroll and small-market clubs that could lead to contentious owners meetings and a much harder stance during the next labor negotiations. The current labor deal with players runs until December 2006.

"I don't know what happened, maybe they drank some funny water, but they all decided they were back on the binge," McClatchy said. "When somebody goes out and pays an average pitcher $7 million a year, then anybody who's an average pitcher says they need $7 million a year. That's very difficult, and when you're giving pitchers $18 million in arbitration, that also makes it difficult."

NL Cy Young Award winner Roger Clemens agreed to an $18 million, one-year contract with Houston, a record one-year salary for a pitcher and the equivalent of nearly half the Pirates' projected $40 million payroll. The Pirates' payroll is about $10 million less than that of the Washington Nationals, owned by the other major-league clubs.

Some teams criticized the New York Mets for giving a $22.5 million, three-year contract to former-Pirate Kris Benson, then for giving Pedro Martinez a $53 million, four-year contract and Carlos Beltran a $119 million, seven-year deal.

"I don't know about the bank vault being open," Mets general manager Omar Minaya said Friday. "We competed for Pedro and for Beltran with other clubs that were right there where we were and pretty much ended up paying."

The Pirates' payroll is about $10 million less than that of the Washington Nationals, owned by the other major league clubs.

After two offseasons with relatively few huge contracts, McClatchy was admittedly stunned with what he called a series of signings that were "ridiculous -- at best."

McClatchy's sharp talk mirrors that of the Orioles' Peter Angelos, who said first baseman Carlos Delgado's $52 million contract with Florida reflects baseball's "fiscal insanity."

McClatchy also questions how teams that only recently were talking about financial stress agreed to huge contracts. Arizona signed pitcher Russ Ortiz for $33 million and third baseman Troy Glaus for $45 million, both over four years.

"What you don't want to see is some of these teams spend themselves into bankruptcy -- that's not good for any of the league, that becomes a liability on all of us," McClatchy said. "I'm not sure if some of these people are writing checks with money they necessarily have, and that's a negative thing.

"You wonder how, since they were in a tough financial spot, some of the spending is going to work, how they're eventually going to be able to pay their bills. When you're drawing 1.7 million, and you take your payroll up too high, you just do the math," he said.

The Pirates, by contrast, have signed no free agents to major-league contracts and have handed out only two multiyear contracts -- shortstop Jack Wilson's $8 million, two-year deal and right-hander reliever Salomon Torres' $2.6 million, two-year deal.

McClatchy is rooting for NHL owners to reach a labor agreement that includes a cap or some other harsh salary restraint, something he said baseball badly needs.

"I'm disappointed, very disappointed in the other owners, and I think as we go toward a new collective bargaining agreement, there's going to have to be some sort of constraint put on because these other guys can't control themselves," he said.

McClatchy, who serves on baseball's executive council and long-range labor committee, is promising to be more outspoken in future owners meetings.

"I've think they've created a hawk," he said. "A lot of us are concerned and are definitely going to speak up."

Despite McClatchy's glum financial talk and the Pirates' 12th consecutive losing season in 2004, the team's annual Fanfest opened Friday to what was expected to be record crowds. Attendance was way up during the first week of the team's winter caravan, which featured Wilson and promising pitcher Oliver Perez.

Season ticket sales are up about 30 percent, partly because buyers who keep their seats the following season get the opportunity to buy 2006 All-Star tickets.

Yankee Fans: Scared of Mets?

With the Mets spending some dough, they're going to be better than in 2004. It's not like they can get much worse anyway, but my question is, how are the Junkee fans taking it?

Now this has nothing to do with my being a Mets fan. If you gave me a contract that said that the Mets would not win another World Series for the next hundred years, but neither will the Yankees, I would sign it RIGHT NOW!

But say the Mets have a 90-win season this year, raid the free agent market in '06 and make the postseason, win a World Series or two over the next five years, who knows? It may be 1986 all over again, when the Mets ruled New York and the Yankees were an afterthought.

We all know that the Junkee fans take pride in the Mets stinking up the joint over the past few years, and like the fact that they own New York. But the Mets still have a loyal fan base, so a couple of good seasons (and not 1999 with Derek Bell and Benny Agbyani in the outfield) and who knows - maybe the Mets steal the back pages.

The Yankee fans are shaking in their boots knowing that the Mets are on their way up. We'll wait and see.

Jason Giambi's 2005 Season: .225, 10, 40

No, it wasn't me making that prediction; it was Buster Olney of ESPN. He sees Giambi having a real tough go facing all the jeers and hecklers from the visiting stadiums, not to mention the Junkee fans if he indeed stinks up the joint.

So the Junkees will employ Tino at first, but how will they feel when he hits .270, 15, 80, which is decent for a middle infielder, but for a first baseman? And is he the guy you want up against Matt Clement in Game 6 of the '05 ALCS? Manny and I have already written about how washed up Tino is, and how the Junkees got him only for PR, and who knows - maybe my projected numbers are generous; he could do worse.

I bet the Junkees will regret not signing Carlos Delgado. They need a power first baseman, and they ended up with a guy that nobody else would have taken.

Okay, so they'll still score a ton from the other positions, but the less stability, the better.

Yankees: Done for Offseason?

George has an itchy trigger finger - he loves making deals just for the sake of making deals. Yet it seems as if the Junkees have nothing more to do - they have all their positions filled, even backup catcher, and their pitching staff, so George has to sit it out until April. Sure, he'll try to get rid of Brown, but until now there've been no takers; what makes him think that teams will suddenly jump on the Brown bandwagon?

So this is their team. As Manny Ortiz pointed out the other day, a rusty 1B/DH combo borne of PR, a second baseman who could easily revert back to 2003 form, a shortstop whose numbers are constantly declining, a third baseman who misses playing in a hitter's park, a left fielder who's pretty good, a center fielder whose defense has gone south (as has his offense), a right fielder with a barking shoulder, a catcher whose offense ain't what it used to be, and a pitching staff with question marks all over.

What I think is fascinating is Mariano Rivera. Okay, so he blew the save in Game 4 of the ALCS, which is not terrible, but overall, he's not what he used to be. Who knows - this may be the season where he breaks down. You never know.

Yankee despisers keep hope alive!

These Are Not Your Late '90's Yankees

I don't care who they try to bring back anymore. Mike Stanton won't cut it. Bringing back Tino is just a gimmick. I don't care if they have Luis Sojo coaching, or whoever. The days of classy players like O'Neill and Brosius playing for the Yanks are over. Much as the Yanks were ever-so-hateable during the dynasty days, you had to admit they were a classy team. Sure there were exceptions, like Wade "I'll Get My 3000 Hits Elsewhere" Boggs, David Wells, Darryl, etc. But now, the team is full of jerks. And the Big Jerk fits right in with the likes of A-Schmuck, Brown, and Sheffield.

If the Red Sox are a bunch of idiots, then the Yankees are a bunch of jerks. And the Big Jerk looks like he'll enjoy New York about as much as Jose Contreras and Eddie Whitson did. And unlike the idiots, the jerks have yet to win a thing.

One more point: to the Yankee fan salivating over Opening Day with Wells v. Johnson: I guess when your team pulls off the biggest choke in October, all you have to look forward to is April. Enjoy the thrills of the regular season, including those incredible games against the Devil Rays and Blue Jays. See ya in October.

Selig's Tax Dollars at Work

Well, the Schmets have beaten the Yankees in getting Carlos Beltran. And unlike Pedro, this is not a player the Yankees didn't want. Beltran is no prima donna and doesn't carry the injury risk that Pedro does. Not to mention the fact that he's 6 years younger than Martinez. Till a few weeks ago, the Yankees had their eye on Beltran. They wanted him bad. But when the reality of the luxury tax set in, the Yanks balked.

Before last season, Jayson Stark wrote about the potential impact the 2002 CBA would have on the Yankees down the road: "Now we're not accountants. And we don't want to be accountants when we grow up. But by our calculations, that means the Yankees' revenue-sharing and tax bills this year will be over $80 million. Within two years, they'll no doubt blow past $100 million.
That's $100 million over and above their payroll, which could be more than $200 million. There is only one franchise on earth that wouldn't be phased by that kind of I.O.U. And let's just say it sure isn't the Devil Rays. "

Perhaps Jayson was a bit off on this one. The Yanks got cheap here.

And without Beltran, the Yankees' offense starts to look a bit suspect. First base- an old man Tino brought back for PR, and steroid-addled Jason Giambi who they're stuck with- that's bad news.

Tony Womack is a BIG question mark at second base. I still can't figure out why George didn't go for Kent or Nomar. No one can tell me Womack is better. Gotta be due to the tax, too.

They still have Jeter and his incredible intangibles, athough the Yanks sure could use a few more tangibles from Derek.

A-Schmuck is still pretty good, but he clearly misses the friendly confines of Texas's hitters' park.

Shemp Matsui is consistent in left. But CF with Bernie is a disaster. He's done. And at 36, Sheffield isn't getting younger or healthier. Another oldie in Ruben Sierra will still get you a big hit once in a while, but isn't reliable.

The Yankees' pitching may have improved over the winter, but their offense, which was dead for the last 4 games of the ALCS, has not. Okay, they got rid of Tony Clark -- addition by subtraction. But the Junkees sure could've used Beltran. Thanks, Mr. Selig.

Jayson Stark: Yankees Still Face Tall Order

By Jayson Stark
ESPN.com
When Randy Johnson throws his first pitch as a Yankee next April, exactly one thing will be absolutely, positively guaranteed:
The Big Unit will take the Yankees to new heights on the mound.
The immortal Stefan Wever and Lee Guetterman (all 6-feet-8 of them) will be greatly saddened -- because they'll no longer be the co-answers to the trivia question: Who was the tallest pitcher ever to start a game for the Yankees?
But that, friends, is about the only thing His Unitness will guarantee.
If you're a Yankee hater, you should still feel free to rant, rave, grumble and mumble about (pick three): the Yankees' money, greed, egomania, Yankee-centric TV network, ticket prices, souvenir shop, parking nightmare, sound-system decibel level, owners-box guest list, yada-yada-yada -- whatever you think you have to vent about to get through this crisis.
But just remember: 10 months from now, all that angst could prove irrelevant -- because Unit or no Unit, there is still lots of stuff that could happen that could prevent the Yankees from winning the World Series.
Seriously.
Once again, we've been directed by the Citizens for Competitive Balance to write the Randy Johnson column everyone but YES network subscribers have been waiting for:
FIVE REASONS THE YANKEES STILL WON'T WIN (POSSIBLY) (IN THEORY)
1. THEY'RE OLDER THAN THE NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC
When the Marlins won the World Series two years ago, their entire roster included no pitchers, only one regular (Jeff Conine) and just one bench guy (Mike Mordecai) who were born in the 1960s.
Well, the '60s haven't gotten any more recent since then -- and you can look that up. But the 2005 Yankees, as currently constituted, will include (gulp) 13 players born in the '60s, a total of 19 players who will be 30 or older by Opening Day and (barring a Carlos Beltran signing) an entire starting lineup of guys who will be 30-something by the end of July.
We've never commissioned the National Athletic Trainers Association to do an exhaustive study of this, or anything. But one thing we still feel safe in saying is:
Old guys get hurt more than young guys.
Which could be great news for, say, Bubba Crosby, but possibly not-so-great news for several George Steinbrenner employees we can think of.
No one on this team, however, is older than the Unit himself. He'll be 41 Opening Day. He'll turn 42 by the playoffs. And he'll be 44 by the time his new contract extension expires.
So let's see now. Who's the last pitcher, 41 or older, to win 20 games? That would be Warren Spahn, who did it the year Johnson was born (1963). And Spahn, by the way, was the first to do it since Cy Young in 1908.
OK, here's another one: How many years has it been since a non-knuckleballer won more than 13 games in a season at age 43 or older? Oh, only 77 -- since Jack Quinn did it in 1928. During the Calvin Coolidge administration.
Even the seemingly ageless Spahn won just 13 games the rest of his career after a 23-7 season in 1963, at age 42. So history tells us the Unit is a much better bet to self-destruct than he is to go 24-3. (Consumer note: This offer not guaranteed.)
2. CARTILAGE IS GOOD
Yes, friends. Cartilage is, in fact, good. That's one of our mottoes in life.
We bring that up because the amount of cartilage currently found in Johnson's right knee would be approximately ... uh ... zero.
The last vestiges of that cartilage were yanked by surgeons after the 2002 season. Which led to a 2003 season in which Johnson went 6-8, 4.26, and spent three months on the disabled list.
Of course, had the Unit had another season like that in 2004, there wouldn't be much need for us to write this column. So the pursuit of accuracy compels us to report that he was able to compensate last year by getting regular injections of (and this is an actual medical term) elastovicous fluid in that knee.
And 290 strikeouts later, he was elected president of the Elastovicous Fluid Fan Club. (Which is an unpaid position, as far as we know.)
If Johnson duplicates that season this year, there's a good chance Joe Torre and Brian Cashman will be appearing in elastovicous-fluid commercials by Thanksgiving. But sooner or later, all 6-foot-10 guys are likely to miss their own personal cartilage. And sooner could, very conceivably, arrive this summer. (Key word there: conceivably.)
3. THEY DON'T GET TO PLAY THE BREWERS
The journey from the National League over to the American League doesn't look particularly perilous, in theory. No native guides, body armor or special inoculations are required by law before you embark, so it would be easy to conclude it's not that big a deal.
Except we can also think of four reasons to conclude otherwise:
Javier Vazquez. Kevin Brown. Miguel Batista. Mark Redman.
What do those four have in common? They were the four most prominent starting pitchers not named Curt Schilling who traveled from the National League to the American League last winter.
So how'd it go? Don't ask. Their ERAs inflated by almost a run and a half a game -- an average of 1.44. It's even money their 401K's didn't beat that rise.
Schilling, on the other hand, survived the journey slightly better, as you may have noticed -- going 21-6, 3.26, despite a soon-to-be-famous bum ankle which bugged him much of the year.
Well, you know Johnson is supremely confident he'll make a Schilling-esque transition. As opposed to a Redman-esque transition. Which he very likely will, if he's healthy. (See cartilage section above.)
Carl Pavano has a career ERA that's north of 4.00.
But accompanying him on this trek are two other prominent National League refugees -- Carl Pavano and Jaret Wright. And suppose their transition to AL life follows the model of those non-Schillings?
Pavano is coming from one of baseball's most pitcher-friendly ballparks (Florida's Pro Player Stadium), where he pitched in front of one of the best defenses on earth. You might also want to note he has won more than 12 games exactly once in his career.
Wright, meanwhile, is leaving a team (the Braves) that sprinkles all new pitchers with special Cy Young miracle flakes. So no wonder he won nearly as many games last year (15) as he had in the previous five seasons put together, stayed healthy all year and had an ERA (3.28) more than two runs lower than his lifetime American League ERA (5.50).
No matter how young those guys are or how electrifying their stuff may be, there is no reason to assume they'll march right into New York and combine for the same 33 wins and 3.13 ERA they rolled up last year. In fact, there's every reason to assume they won't.
And if they don't, who knows where Steinbrenner will want to banish them to -- the Hanshin Tigers?
4. THEY FORGOT TO SIGN CARLOS DELGADO, JEFF KENT AND CARLOS BELTRAN
We all admit that Randy Johnson is one talented human being. But he can't play first base. He can't play second base. He can't catch line drives in the gaps. He can't clone himself. And he can't perform orthopedic surgery in his spare time.
Which is one way of saying that this team did, in fact, have other issues heading into the winter besides its lack of left-handedness on that pitching mound.
What happens, for instance, if Jason Giambi shows up for work, declines all invitations to make himself invisible and spends another season in expensive, but not particularly useful, limbo?
Jason Giambi's health remains a major issue.
What happens if Tony Womack, now in charge of second-base affairs, reverts to being a .226 hitter again?
What happens if the Yankees don't sign Carlos Beltran -- and Bernie Williams continues to regress as a defensive center fielder?
What happens if Kevin Brown can't make it to the mound 30 times -- a feat he's accomplished exactly once in the last four seasons? Or what happens if, this time, the wall punches him before he punches first?
What happens if Gary Sheffield's shoulder keeps barking, or he finds some more ligaments to tear, or his BALCO testimony raises some federal prosecutor's eyebrows?
What happens if Wright turns out to be a one-year wonder, or Mike Mussina's elbow aches, or a bullpen full of 35-36-37-year-olds feels its age?
Yeah, we know what usually happens: The Yankees go out in June and trade for Jason Schmidt, Barry Zito, Ben Sheets, Juan Pierre and Paul Konerko.
But in case you hadn't caught on, the upper levels of this farm system are now thinner than Lindsey Lohan. So there's almost nobody to call up should all those old-timers get hurt -- and not much to use as trade bait to accumulate the next object of Steinbrenner's affection. Which is very dangerous for a team that essentially has been ordered to win the World Series. Then again, we said the same thing last year, too. And that didn't stop them from trading for some guy named Johnson.
5. NO $207-MILLION TEAM HAS EVER WON A WORLD SERIES
These Yankees are definitely the best team 207 million George Steinbrenner bucks can buy, all right. But in the long and glorious history of baseball, not one $207-million baseball team has ever won a single World Series. That's a fact.
OK, so it's also a fact that there has never actually been a $207-million baseball team before this one. But that's beside the point. Sort of.
If the Yankees have proved anything these last few Octobers, it's that there can be such a thing as having too many big-name, big-dollar players on one team.
The Yankees of 1996-2000 were a baseball team, not a Rotisserie team. They were about fitting all the pieces together, not fitting all the glittering 12-page bios into one 600-page media guide.
The Yankees of 2002-2004, on the other hand, have clearly been a team majoring in something other than chemistry. They kept accumulating All-Stars -- not rings.
What exactly did Mike Mussina guarantee them? How about Jason Giambi? Hideki Matsui? Gary Sheffield? Even (shudder) A-Rod?
This team committed nearly 400 million dollars just to those five guys over the last five offseasons -- and not one stinking shred of tickertape has landed on any of their heads.
So does Randy Johnson make these Yankees scarier, more imposing and (as accountants everywhere have noted) more expensive than they were before he arrived? Absolutely.
But so did A-Rod. So did Mussina. So did Giambi. So did many of the highly compensated gentlemen around them. But all the proof the Yankees need that funny stuff can still happen in October is that 6-foot-10 left-hander they just acquired -- because he has won one more World Series over the last four years than they have.

More Randy Johnson Optimism

(a) Peter Gammons pointed out that Randy Johnson has never pitched in a cold, wet April. In Seattle he pitched indoors, and Arizona is always a hundred degrees, so who knows how he'll respond to 40-degree nights in Junkee Stadium?

(b) Looking at his stats, he can be susceptible to the long ball. With the short right field porch in Yankee Stadium, who knows?

(c) He was not great in '03, so maybe '04 was a fluke, he got lucky, but he's really headed downhill. Then again, they didn't get him for April; they got him for October. So all he has to do is pitch four or five good games.

Again, I could be wrong, but I better not be.

Randy Johnson Nearly Done Deal

Let's look at the bright side of this, although I wish he'd stay a Diamondback:

(a) If the Junkees don't win it all in '05, it'll be a bigger embarrassment than had they not gotten Johnson.

(b) This will get the small market owners to push harder for a salary cap. Even though they have enough of a case as it is, once the Junkees have the top hitter (A-Schmuck) and the top starting pitcher (RJ), the Junkees will have no argument whatsoever to say that the system is fair.

(c) I read that in '04, they spent something like $85 million between revenue sharing and the luxury tax. Taking on another $16 million contract will inflate that number.

(d) If the Junkees do win it all in 2005 (please God, no!), Yankee despisers like me will be able to rationalize by saying, hey, they bought themselves a World Series title.

(e) They'll have to sign him to an extension, and chances are, he won't be any good in two years from now, so the Junkees will have another hefty contract on their hands.

When you hate the Junkees, you have to be optimistic!

But Can They Spend $200 Million?

I've heard the argument against owners like the Twins' Carl Polhad and the Tigers' Mike Ilitch many times. How can these billionaires cry poverty when they're too cheap to spend their own money on their teams? After all, Ilitch was all willing to spend his big bucks on the Red Wings (back when hockey existed), but was a cheap bastard when it came to the Tigers! But I don't blame these owners for acting the way they've been acting.

Think about it. Every free-agent signing is a risk. Aside from a few teams with crafty GM's (and the verdict is out on the A's in the post-Mulder and Hudson era), many teams are going to make mistakes. So it's not enough to ask these owners to spend an extra 10 million. Perhaps more like 25-30 million is more like it. And maybe more.

After all, the Yankees are the one team that can afford to eat a mistake, or a bunch of mistakes. Jose Contreras for 8 million? No problem, just sign someone else. Sterling Hitchock for $6 million? No problem, just get Jeff Weaver. No all-star in RF yet? Just trade (glorified salary dump) for Raul Mondesi. Mondesi turns out to be a mistake? Just sign Gary Sheffield.

But when the Pirates sign a Jason Kendall long-term and it turns out to be a mistake, they're strapped for a good few years. Only the Yankees can afford to eat their mistakes. These other teams have no margin for error. And no, they can't spend $200 million.

Besides, will the Twins be profitable by spending $200 million? In a small market? No YES network? I don't think so. So do you expect Polhad to ultimately waste millions just so his team could win? Come on.

In April, BusinessWeek wrote about how Boston has hit the limit on the amount they can spend:
The truth of the matter is that the Sox are hitting a wall. "We're maxing out on everything," [Red Sox owner] Henry admits. Every game is already sold out. Ticket prices are the highest in the majors. That means the Sox payroll has gone about as high as it can, which could have a severe impact on the team as early as next year. Four of the Sox' biggest stars -- Martinez, pitcher Derek Lowe, shortstop Nomar Garciaparra, and catcher Jason Varitek -- could become free agents at the end of the season. All are demanding huge new contracts, but "we can't afford to re-sign all of them," warns Lucchino.That's why sabermetrics has become such an important part of the Boston strategy. Henry is not a guy who goes in for half-measures. After buying the Red Sox, he first tried to sign Billy Beane. When that fell through, he did the next best thing: He hired Bill James, the writer and baseball thinker who invented sabermetrics, as senior baseball operations adviser.

The article also quotes baseball economist Andrew Zimbalist saying that the TV revenue gap between the Sox and Yankees is at least $100 million.

And if the Sox are "hitting a wall" with a $120 million payroll, what can you say for the rest of the teams!? If the Brewers tried spending as much as the Yankees, forget it! Either the owner or the team would go bankrupt. They're not getting YES network revenue. It just isn't happening.

And speaking of the Sox, in spite of their high payroll, I don't blame them for their spending. After all, with the Yankees setting the precedent by buying an All-Star at nearly every position, what do you expect the Sox to do, just sit there with their arms folded and say "forget it"? They want to win too. But in this league, if you want to win, you've gotta play by the Yankees' rules. And after the Yankees started putting their payroll on steroids, the Sox have done the best they can trying to compete.

And even if you'll tell me that the Yankees are just playing by the rules, and it's not the Yankees that are the problem, it's the system that's an issue, I think it's fair to say that the Yankees are the perfect poster boy for all that is wrong with the system.

Twins Owner Speaks the Truth

Although I have not been able to dig up quotes, I heard on ESPN-Radio that Twins owner Carl Pohlad complained about the state of baseball. He said that his team cannot compete because they keep losing too many players. Over the past two offseasons, his team lost LeTroy Hawkins, Eddie Guardado, Christian Guzman, and Corie Coskie to free agency, had to trade Eric Milton in a salary dump, same with A. J. Pierzynski.

Pohlad said that the system stinks (which everything agrees with, except Yankee fans), and Torii Hunter shared similar sentiments.

So we'll see what happens when the CBA expires in 2006. If owners like Pohlad can convince the others that they need to make drastic changes in the system (i.e. salary cap), who knows - maybe something happens. Then we can see the Junkees return to the AL East basement.

Looking Ahead: Hudson in '06

Anyone who knows anything about baseball knows that come 2006, Tim Hudson will be donning pinstripes.

The Yankees will offer him a huge amount of money, and no other team will come close; they won't be able to. Then the Yankee despisers will have to pray that his health deteriorates, or that he is the next Mike Mussina - okay, but not worth the big bucks.

The Crybabies are at It Again

What can you expect from a team that cries for a forfeit when the Devil Rays show up a few hours late after a hurricane? Well, team president Randy Levine had this to say about the Dodgers after the Randy Johnson deal fell through:

Last Friday a deal was agreed to with the only contingencies being [contract] extensions and physicals. [L.A.] got cold feet. As early as [yesterday morning] they wanted to go through with it. Their actions said something different. It's very disappointing. We will take a long, hard look before doing business with them again.

I'm sure the Dodgers are shaking in their boots by this dumb threat. How will they win without Eric Duncan and that guy Navarro?

I hope Arizona comes to their senses and decides to keep him. There's no dominant team in the NL West, so with Johnson, Ortiz, and a healthy Glaus, they may be able to squeak out a division title.

But Yankee despisers get to breathe for another few days.

Jeter, Rivera Welcome Back Giambi

I know, I know, it's a slow news day, and the beat writers have to come up with something, but how dumb is this? Hey Jeter, who died and made you God? Since when do you decide who's welcome and who's not? Same with Rivera. I thought it was dumb when the Mets used to ask Al Leiter and John Franco who they should keep and who they should get rid of, and now the Junkees are acting the same way.

What is Jeter supposed to say - "we want him off the team"? So that when Giambi comes back they'll hate each other? There's just no logic here. Just shut up, and everyone will be better off.

Yankees Starting Five: $67 Million

I saw this on Mike'd Up on Sunday night - when the Yankees get Randy Johnson, their five starters (Johnson, Mussina, Pavano, Wright, Brown) will all make $67 million in 2005, which is more than 18 teams' entire payrolls. But there's no problem with disparity, right Junkee fans?

By the way, check out http://yankeeschoke.blogspot.com - another great Yankee despiser site.

Wait and See; Renteria = Jeter?

Been busy lately, so not much time to blog, but a quickie here.

a) I'll admit. As a Sox fan, I was hoping for them to get Pavano. And yes, the Yanks will probably end up getting Johnson and Beltran. But remember last winter: After getting Brown, Vazquez, Gordon, and especially A-Schmuck, the Yanks looked like the team to beat. And what memorable moments did those guys provide? Brown, punching the wall and breaking his hand? Vazquez morphing into Jeff Weaver? Gordon barfing in the bullpen during game 6? A-Schmuck flailing at the ball in Bronson Arroyo's hand like a 2-year old during the ALCS?

Look, a lot of deals look good at the time. If you would've told me 3 years ago after Giambi signed with the Junkees that 3 years later they couldn't get rid of him fast enough, you would've looked at me like I was from Mars. Ask Schmet fans about Roberto Alomar and Mo Vaughn. And I remember my Yankee-fan friend telling me how Weaver was gonna win 20 games in pinstripes, and how the Vazquez deal will be viewed as one of the best trades in Yankee history.

Basically, a lot can happen. Let's see what happens come next October.

b) I may offend a bunch of Yankee fans and 16-year old girls with this one, but new Red Sox SS Edgar Renteria is as good (ok, arguably a drop worse) than Derek Jeter. Let's compare their numbers from '02-'04:

Renteria:

AVG .308
OBP .362
OPS .802
HR 34 (11.33 per year)
SB 73

Jeter:

AVG: .302
OBP: .371
OPS: .818
HR 51 (17 per year)
SB 66

Aside from the power numbers (a 6 HR difference per year for Jeter) and a slight edge for Jeter in OBP and OPS, the two are basically the same. Both are gold-glovers, too (Renteria 2, Jeter 1), although Renteria is probably the better fielder.

The major difference here? Salary. Renteria's getting about $10 mil a year from Boston, and Jeter about $19 mil. Is Jeter worth nearly double the price, Mr. Ca$hman? Maybe they pay him to be the first to high-five everyone. Or to pull off the tired "Mr. Torre" shtick. That's right. An extra $9 million for Jeter's priceless "intangibles." Too bad he can't rub Zim's head anymore.

Of course. Overpaying is part of the Yankee way.

Johnson and Beltran: Yankees in '05

Buster Olney, among others, are willing to bet the farm that both Randy Johnson and Carlos Beltran will wear pinstripes in 2005. Just another example of how the system stinks. The Astros want Beltran back in the worst way, but will not be able to compete in terms of salary, so they'll lose him. How can any Yankee fan with half a brain tell me that that's totally fair? Sure, they're not breaking any rules; they're taking advantage of a lousy system. Nevertheless, the fact remains that the Yankees are buying themselves another championship for 2005. Their payroll will be in the $200 millions, at least $50 million higher than the next team, so how a Yankee fan can get excited when their team buys World Series is beyond me.

As far as Randy Johnson, again, the other 29 teams know he's good, but they can't afford him, so the Yankees will get him. I guess the Yankee despisers will have to pray that this is the year he breaks down. I know, he was good in '04, but consider that Johnson has never pitched for a high-pressure team. Montreal, Seattle, Houston, and Arizona are places where the teams are happy just to make the playoffs. He seems like a sensitive fellow, so who knows - maybe he gets bombed in his first start, gets booed, and it's all downhill from there. One can only dream....

Pedro to Mets: Rubs Yankee Fans the Wrong Way

Yankee fans are probably upset that Pedro is going to New York. Sure, the Mets are nutjobs for giving this guy a 4-year deal, but with George, you know it's as much about being on the back page of the newspaper as it is about winning. And Pedro does that. He puts the Mets on the back page of the papers.

When Pedro made his "call the Yankees my daddy" statement, he wanted George to sign him. He thought that George was going to shell out the big bucks, but even George wasn't that stupid. Still, George must have assumed that he was going back to the Red Sox, so he didn't bother pursuing Pedro. So the question remains - had George known he'd become a Met, would he have pushed harder?

When the Mets dominated the papers in the mid to late '80s, it ate George up. New York has been Yankee Town since '96, and now the Mets are trying to grab some headlines.

But you can't tell me that George wasn't interested at all; why then would he meet with Pedro? Don't tell me to drive up Boston's price, because that doesn't work with the Red Sox. George had lukewarm interest, but didn't blow Pedro out of the water, so Pedro's a Met, and the Mets gain some points in the PR war.

Pavano: Another One-Year Wonder

Going back to the theme of George loving guys who had beaten the Yankees, here you go: Pavano in the 2003 World Series.

Now there's no doubt that he had a great season in '04 - 18 wins, 3.00 ERA. But two points:

(a) His lifetime record is 57-58. So we're not talking Tim Hudson here. For the first five years of his career he did nothing. He was 12-13 in '03, and last year he was his breakout year, so granted, as a Yankee despiser you hate seeing him picking up the pace, but at the same time, let's take it easy.

(b) You might say that unlike Vazquez, he has postseason experience. True, but you have to admit that pitching for the Marlins isn't exactly pressure. It's not like being a Junkee, where you have to win. They knew that even had they got knocked out of the first round, the Florida fans would have been happy that at least they made it that far. And after the '03 ALCS (Aaron Freakin' Boone), there was a letdown by the time the Series rolled around. Nobody was paying attention. So let's be fair.

Now to be honest, I would not have thought of him as a one-year wonder, but Harold Reynolds of Baseball Tonight made the point. "They're giving him four years $39 million because he had one good year?" So I'll take it.

Looking at Other Teams' Pockets

When the Yankees thought they had the Randy Johnson deal worked out, the only thing preventing Arizona from taking Vazquez was the money. Johnson is owed $16 million for one year; Vazquez is owed $35.5 million over the next three years (great job, Ca$hman). The D'Backs asked for the $19.5 million difference. The Yankees were only willing to give $12-13 mil. Now that the D'Backs have signed Troy Glaus and are on the cusp of signing Russ Ortiz, the Junkees are saying that, hey, Arizona doesn't need the money, so how dare they ask us for millions.

Hey idiots, what do you care how much money they have? They asked you for money - either you make the deal or you don't. Whether they have money or not has nothing to do with anything. This is not charity, where you want to make sure the recipient really needs it. This is a business. If you don't want to give them the money, then it shouldn't matter what their situation is. So they pleaded poverty to you? Who cares?

That's just dumb. I guess this was the Yankee way of covering themselves in case Johnson ended up being a bomb - "Hey, we did Arizona a favor. They really needed the money."

I'm telling you, being a Yankee despiser becomes more fun by the day.

Wright and Womack? Ca$hman Is Senile

Why do the Junkees fall in love with one-year wonders? First it was Chris Hammond a couple of years back. He had been a journeyman for years, had one solid year in Atlanta, and the Junkees picked him up. He stunk as a Yankee, so they got rid of him.

Yet, they're willing to pay Jaret Wright $7 million a year for three years despite the fact that he's had only one good year, and wouldn't you know - it was in Atlanta! Face it - Leo Mazzone, the Braves' pitching coach, is a magician. That's why so many pitchers did well there, and then faltered elsewhere. Wasn't Steve Avery supposed to be the next Tom Glavine?

Granted, Wright had a better year in '04 than Lieber did, but Lieber has a track record. I would have picked up the $8 million option. It's only a million more, and you know what you're going to get with him. I bet the Junkees are kicking themselves for letting him get away.

Then you have Tony Womack, who hit .224 for three teams in '03. He was pretty good for the Cardinals in '04, but think of this - his career OBP is .319. That stinks. Also, he was hitting ahead of Walker, Pujols, Rolen, and Edmonds. Now you could make a similar argument that with Jeter, A-Schmuck, and Sheffield, he'll see pitches to hit. But you can't deny that the Junkees are banking on the fact that he had one good year and therefore, he deserves a 2-year contract.

Or maybe they got him for the same reason they got a washed up Mike Stanton - they're living in the past. And they want to make sure that Game 7 of the 2001 World Series doesn't happen again.

Ah, joy in Yankee despiser land.

Felix Rodriguez? Are You Kidding Me?

Let's get one thing straight: Ca$hman was in idiot for giving Lofton a 2-year deal. In '02 and '03, Lofton wasn't signed until Spring Training. So what do the Junkees do? They give him a 2-year deal for $6 million. Insane! So now, to get rid of him, they had to take Felix Rodriguez off the Phillies' hands. Now anyone who has followed baseball over the past five years or so knows that Felix Rodriguez cannot buy an out in a big spot. He stinks. He's like Kenny Rogers and Armando Benitez - great when there's no pressure, but lousy in the big game. Anyone remember Rodriguez in the '02 postseason?

So what we're going to have is a repeat of Tom Gordon in '04 - amazing during the regular season, horrible during the postseason.

I tell you, between this, the whole Giambi thing, the Junkees' failure to get Randy Johnson (until now, at least), the 2005 season cannot start soon enough!

Void Giambi's Contract? Dream On

Here go the crybabies again. They signed a bulked up slugger they had to know was taking the juice, benefited from his 30+ homeruns in '02 and '03, but now are crying foul that his '04 season was terrible because he was off steroids. Hey, idiots, you knew he was doing it, yet you signed him anyway. Why didn't you look for it when you gave him a physical before signing him after the '01 season? Answer: They didn't care. Only now that he stinks is it an issue. Once again, another Junkee double standard.

Now Stanton? I Told You They Were Desperate

The Daily Snooze is reporting that the Junkees are close to re-acquiring Mike Stanton in exchange for Felix Heredia. I've said it a million times and I'll say it again - George is so desperate to bring back the glory days of '96-'00 that he's trying to get as many players from that era as he could. That's why there were talks of Tino Martinez a few weeks back. Now if only Cecil Fielder would come out of retirement...

You know as well as I do that Stanton will not be a set-up guy. In other words, he'll only come in when the score is 10-0. And the Junkee fans will give him a standing ovation the first time he takes the mound in pinstripes.

Has anyone bothered to look at the guy's numbers over the past two years? He had a 4.57 ERA in '03, and last year he blew six saves. Yeah, the 3.16 ERA is respectable, but do you think they'd have any interest in him if he were never a Yankee? No way, Jose.

What are the Junkees Waiting For?

Can somebody tell me why George and Ca$hman have been sitting on their hands doing nothing so far? Well, let's be fair - they did re-sign Miguel Cairo.

Maybe they are so afraid of getting burned, as they've gotten several times over the past few years, that they're going to sit back, see what happens, then jump in later to sign the guys they need. Of course, they run the risk of those guys getting picked up by other teams.

Maybe they don't have a plan. The Red Sox, the A's, the Giants, and some other teams have been thinking about which guys they want. They have guys they want to re-sign, and others to take their places in case they don't get who they want in the first place. That's why the Red Sox will not be held hostage by Jason Varitek or Pedro Martinez. No matter who stays and who goes, they'll be okay for '05. The Junkees, though, don't seem to know what they want. Sure, they'd love to have Randy Johnson, but other that that, there are talks that they may pursue Jaret Wright, Eric Milton, Al Leiter, Ron Villone (!), Russ Ortiz... otherwise, they don't seem to have much of a mentality.

That's why I could see them missing the playoffs in '05.