Jan
05
ESPN predicts Yankee-filled 2009
ByWhile numerous free agents have yet to sign, ESPN.com has already rolled out their MLB 2009 watch list, and the Yankees just dominate the list. Peter Gammons sees CC Sabathia as the biggest new face in a new place; Jerry Crasnick accurately puts Joe Girardi on the hot seat; and Rob Neyer tabs the Bronx Bombers as the team to win it all. Sounds about right to me.
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sounds right to me as well
Time to see if Girardi can manage.
Too quick to judge, but he has still yet a lot to prove to me. Like him as a person and I thought it was a good hiring. Just makes some odd decisions once in a while. But, when you watch every game theres a lot to nitpick at. I just hope we let Hughes grind out the 5th spot from opening day and see how the kid does.
Cheers to another 4 year Dynasty.
Girardi also has the dorkiest laugh ever.
I totally agree with you regarding Girardi. When he was hired, I thought it was a smart decision by the Yankees, and he did a nice job throughout the first half of the season. As the season went on, however, I began to question Joe’s decision-making more and more. With that said, it’s semi-impressive that he managed 89 wins last year with the likes of Rasner and Ponson making a significant amount of starts; this season, not last, will truly determine whether he’s the right guy to be Joe Torre’s long-term successor.
“With that said, it’s semi-impressive that he managed 89 wins last year with the likes of Rasner and Ponson making a significant amount of starts;”
That is why I consider last season at least a semi-success.
As for your last point, it seems that with the team he’s got now, he’s got a chance to be Joe Torre Part Two: average manager who has a fucking juggernaut out there to make him look good.
I’m not sure we have a “juggernaut” this year. We still need to get younger. Our outfield is a mess.
Our outfield is a mess.
I rather like all our potential outfield configurations. Whether it’s Damon-Gardner-Swisher with Nady and Melky on the bench or Damon-Swisher-Nady with Gardner and Melky on the bench, we have three good-to-great bats with the vets and no glaring holes defensively (the Damon-Gardner-Swisher configuration in particular would be one of the better defensive outfields in all of baseball).
I think the OF is actually a positive now. And, if Gardner produces well, which is entirely possible given his superior speed and ability to draw walks, it becomes a legit strength.
Girardi may be on the hot seat if the Yanks don’t make the playoffs this year, but not after a slow start or anything stupid like that.
… but not after a slow start or anything stupid like that.
What local media do you follow?
haha, i meant actually fired, he may be fired if they dont make the playoffs but not after a slow start
I can’t wait for one of the Uptons to be a Yankee. Hell, we should probably get both if we can.
Watching Justin, Jay Bruce, and Cameron Maybin just makes me feel like a failure since they graduated high school the same year I did.
I’m a year older than all those guys, and yet they will probably far surpass the fame and fortune that I shall acquire in my lifetime. Stupid douchebags and their “talent”.
Yeah, seriously.
I was at the Stadium when Maybin hit his first career homer off of Clemens. I turn to my friend and go, “This dude’s our age and he just hit a home run off of Roger Clemens. What the fuck are we doing with our lives?”
hey matt i was at that game to it was a saturday gameeee
See Matt, that’s what you do instead. You meet random people on the internet. Who like Manny a lot.
Ha! Nice! I was at A-Rod’s 500th homer, too. This year I was at Damon’s 6-6 game, Old Timer’s Day, and Brett Gardner’s walk off vs. the Royals in August.
But the coolest thing I saw was during warm ups vs. Cincy in June, Griffey’s son was shagging with the pitchers and what not. The kid climbed the left field wall and made a catch. Bobby Abreu was not watching.
I was one section away from Ken Griffey Jr’s homer #601 at the stadium last year.
Awesome.
I went to my first baseball game in 1995. I have yet to catch a home run or foul ball. Me = fail.
I still bring my glove to every game, because I know as soon as I dont a ball is going to come right at me.
I think it will be interesting to see if A-Rod can get to 600 home runs this year. He is currently at 553 so he needs 47 next year to reach it. If he continues his odd-year dominance I think he can reach it this year.
Also here are the players in front of him on the all-time list that he could pass this year. On the side is if I think he will pass them (barring injury).
Reggie Jackson: 563- Needs 10 to tie him and 11 to pass so I say yes
Rafael Palmeiro: 569- Needs 16 to tie and 17 to pass so I say yes
Harmon Killebrew: 573- Needs 20 to tie and 21 to pass so I say yes
Mark McGwire: 583- Needs 30 to tie and 31 to pass so I say yes
Frank Robinson: 586- Needs 33 to tie and 34 to pass so I say yes
The next guy on the list is sosa with 609 and I doubt he’ll hit 56 hom runs next season
One more thing, he will be only 33 years old to start the season. Wow
The fact that he’s 33 years old and only 56 HRs behind Sosa is freaking crazy. I really do love Rodriguez … I accept that he’s been in a vacuum in the playoffs since the 2004 ALCS. You’d think that’s bound to stop happening sooner or later. Besides that, the dude is a bull, and one of the best hitters of all time, right up there with Willie Mays and Ted Williams (though I will not say he is better than either of them at this point). I do not mind the thought of having the guy on the team for the next 9 years … he’ll be overpriced for most or all of them, but whatever. He’s the best player in baseball (besides Pujols) and he’s a Yankee … it only makes sense.
He’s no Dustin Pedrioia.
I kid, I kid.
Actually, according to Fangraphs‘ dollar-value system, Alex Rodriguez has been overpaid by $11M over his Yankee tenure. He has been paid, approximately, $120,400,000 in his six seasons as a New York Yankee; Fangraphs has him valued, approximately, at $131,400,000. Also, when you factor in the off-the-field value he generates, to cal ARod “overpriced” is just a matter of basing your opinion on the public perception of him as a human being, and ARod as a clutch hitter.
The Yanks also received $9 million annual payments from Texas for the first four years of his Yankee tenure, that was a huge reason they got him, remember.
I think the $275-300M, 10 year contract he got is probably $50M more than any other team would’ve gone but hey, that’s the Yankee premium. Overall though, you guys are right, A-Rod is worth it. I read a Vincent Gennaro article that came out right after he signed that deal and said he estimated that when you factor in his marketability and marquee value with the chase to be the HR king and all, the Yanks should net about $15M or more from the investment. Pretty good baseball player too.
One thing to consider when looking at A-Rods contract is that the Giants averaged about 39,000 per game in attendance from 2005-2007. That dropped to 35,000 this year without Bonds. There may be other factors in this drop, but it’s not like the Giants were any good during any of that time, so I don’t think it would be performance related.
If we attribute the drop to Bonds and the home run chase and assume about $50 per person, that works out to about $16M per year revenue – and this doesn’t even account for the actual baseball impact.
Actually, according to Fangraphs‘ dollar-value system, Alex Rodriguez has been overpaid by $11M over his Yankee tenure.
“underpaid”
Shit, my bad. So, yeah, the dude has been even worth more than his contract has paid him. That guy is really good at hitting baseballs.
I was looking at this the other day: ARod gets 6M for homers #660, 714, 755, 762 and 763.
He could conceivably hit all of those last three in the same calendar year (likely 2014, possibly 2013), which means when you factor in his base salary and the portion of his signing bonus he’d be due that year, he could make 46 million dollars in 2014.
FORTY-SIX MILLION DOLLARS.
Holy schnikees.
I doubt that he will hit 660 and 763 in the same year. If he does, he’ll be worth well more than $46M. Of course, all of those home runs will come in blowouts, so maybe he won’t be worth that much.
No, he’d be hitting #755, #762, and #763 in the same year.
He gets 6M for:
1) tying Mays
2) tying Ruth
3) tying Aaron
4) tying Bonds
5) passing Bonds
did they write that contract thinking Bonds would play in 2008? so that they thought that #3 and #4 would be further apart?
or are the actual HR #’s in the contract?
I think the names of Mays, Ruth, Aaron, and Bonds are in the contract, but not the numbers. So, if Bonds keeps playing and keeps moving those final two numbers, wherever they actually stop, that’s what he gets money for passing.
I’m just assuming Bonds is done when I say 762 and 763.
Interestingly, he gets nothing for matching/passing Sosa, Griffey, etc. Just those 4 plus the overall record.
and with tex in the lineup i have a feeling hell do even better, the pressure isnt all on him anymore
Yep, typical Gammonshi*. He, the Hall of Fame journalist, just couldn’t resist using the “$243 million” and miscellaneous statistics that wore out their welcome in 1870. And, after reading most of Moneyball , I find him even more irritating than I could have possibly imagined…
I love how Gammons has to throw in the part about Theo. The Red Sox are so classy. Thank you Peter Gammons.
Give Theo a $45 million payroll and see how well he does.
John Henry: “We’re cutting the budget, Theo, we gotta build a new park before Yankee Stadium III comes to fruition in 2067.”
Theo Epstein: “You mean we have to pay people less than or equal to their worth now?”
JH: Yes, that’s how most businesses are run, son.
TE: So no more Julio Lugos, JD Drews, Mike Lowells or Jason Variteks?
JH: Yeah, we should start focusing on players that are good.
A reunion seemed inevitable at the start of the off-season, but now it is uncertain. Pettitte has rejected the Yankees’ one-year, $10 million offer, according to a person with knowledge of the negotiations, and there is no standing offer for now.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01.....38;emc=rss
——
Bye Andy?
Joe will have more on this in a bit.
Wow. It just might be.
If this is true, bye, bye Andy.
Gammons had two blurbs in that piece, one about CC moving from Milwaukee to New York being the biggest transaction of 2008 and one about Matt Holliday (who was traded from the Rockies to the A’s) being the biggest FA on the market in 2009.
He mentioned the Red Sox three times and name dropped Theo Epstein, Jason Bay, and Josh Beckett.
… tool.
Speaking of name dropping…
… nah,
You know you want to.
Too easy. I used the “Gammons name-drops” name drop in the last thread. I must show discipline.
I was about to comment on the last one, but why not just keep it going here. Your sequiter(sp) over there, was almost as poor as, um, why can’t I think of an example of a really poor showing?
In 3
2
1
Naw. I can’t do it when being set up, it feels dirty and cheap.
STOP TEMPTING ME!!!!
Now is Neyer a Yankee lover???
But you do have people here who continue to trash maybe the best baseball writer ever in Gammons so you never know what goes thru there heads.
Neyer is a Royals fan … but he’s also a well informed, rational individual.
Shockingly, not everyone at ESPN has some Yankee-fan-inspired irrational hatred of our favorite team. Hard to believe, no?