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Bernie Williams still not retired

November 19, 2008 by Joe Pawlikowski 131 Comments

So I got to thinking about the 2008 season and where we failed, and the answer came to me in a flash: Bernie Williams! If they had Bernie patrolling the outfield, they would have made the playoffs. He brings the mystique and aura!

Seriously, though, the only reason I bring up Bernie is because of his feature role in a movie, “Keeper of the Pinstripes.” Newsday’s David Lennon caught up with the Yanks legend to get his thoughts on retirement.

“I’ll be 75 and still not announce my retirement,” Williams said last night at a pre-production party in Manhattan. “I’m still within this two- or three-year period where I can say, ‘You know what? Let me just work out … ‘”

It’s nice that he’s keeping himself in shape, but the prospect of him coming back isn’t exactly realistic. Brian Cashman invited him to Spring Training in 2007, but Bern declined. It’s now two years later. It seems that ship has sailed. Bernie seems to know it, too: “But I’m not really thinking about baseball right now. It’s always in the back of my mind, but I’m not really thinking of getting out there.”

We’ll always remember Bernie’s contributions to the dynasty. I just don’t want to see him trying to make a (probably futile) comeback.

Filed Under: Days of Yore Tagged With: Bernie Williams

As the Peavy turns

November 19, 2008 by Benjamin Kabak 129 Comments

Are they or aren’t they? That seems to be the question surrounding the Jake Peavy trade talks. While yesterday, Peter Gammons claimed that the Yankees were not in the running for Peavy, today, Ken Rosenthal has a conflicting report.

Writes Kenny:

The Yankees’ farm system is strong enough to match up with the Padres if the teams revive their discussions on right-hander Jake Peavy. The Padres, according to one major-league source, told the Yankees that a deal would be possible even if the Yankees declined to offer right-hander Phil Hughes.

The Padres scouted Hughes in a recent Arizona Fall League game, but the Yankees have zero intention of trading him.

There is, of course, one problem. Joel Sherman, the man behind yesterday’s five-year/$80-million A.J. Burnett offer that was shot down before the day was out (Oops. That was George King. The Post writers are all the same to me.), claims that Jake Peavy will not pitch for the Yankees. (If you insist on a link, tough. You know where to find Sherman, and you all should know our position on linking to The Post.)

Now over the last few weeks, we’ve heard a lot of back and forth on Peavy. Some claim he’ll pitch in New York; others say he won’t leave the NL or at least Southern California. Who knows? Certainly not Ken Rosenthal’s or Joel Sherman’s sources with any degree of certainty. If the unnamed folks knew, we wouldn’t be engaged in some investigation into Jake Peavy’s true motives.

What does seem clear, however, is that the Padres are viewing this trade more and more in terms of a salary dump. If the Padres are willing to put it out there that this deal can be consummated without Phil Hughes, they’re signaling that they need to dump Peavy’s contract while losing some negotiating leverage.

In the end, I doubt that this trade will get done or ever come close to completion, but it does provide us an interesting exercise in interpreting unsourced rumors and varying positions. In other words, don’t read too much into anything that isn’t a done deal.

Filed Under: Hot Stove League Tagged With: Jake Peavy

Coco Crisp traded to Royals

November 19, 2008 by Mike 65 Comments

Via MLBTR, the Boy Genius has reportedly traded Coco Crisp – perhaps the best available center fielder on the trade market – to the Royals for middle reliever Ramon Ramirez. Ramirez, as you may recall, was one of the two minor leaguers the Yanks shipped to Colorado for Shawn Chacon back in the day. He had a nice year in 2008, but really? It doesn’t seem like enough return.

Filed Under: Asides, Hot Stove League

Russo finalist for Stenson Award

November 19, 2008 by Mike 1 Comment

Kevin Russo is one of six finalists for this year’s Dernell Stenson Sportsmanship Award in the Arizona Fall League. The award was created to honor the late Dernell Stenson, an ex-Reds & Red Sox prospect who was murdered during a car jacking while playing in the AzFL back in 2003, and is given to the player who best exemplifies unselfishness, hard work and leadership. The winner of the league’s most prestigous award will be announced prior to tonight’s Peoria-Scottsdale game.

Filed Under: Asides, Minors Tagged With: Awards

Newsday: Burnett rumors off the mark, but…

November 18, 2008 by Benjamin Kabak 119 Comments

We began the day with A.J. Burnett, and we’ll end with the day with him. Courtesy of the soon-to-be-on-vacation (but more on that tomorrow) Kat O’Brien comes a debunking of the A.J. Burnett rumor and news about another team’s interest.

O’Brien reports:

The Yankees still are preparing a formal offer for righthanded pitcher A.J. Burnett, a club official said yesterday, but the Red Sox have become serious competitors to land him.

The Red Sox’s pursuit of Burnett complicates the Yankees’ plans. A source close to Burnett said that a half-dozen teams are in contention for his services: the Yankees, Blue Jays, Red Sox, Braves, Phillies and Orioles. The Red Sox, the source said, have significantly increased their involvement in the pitcher in the past 36 hours and are now “fully engaged.”

The Blue Jays already have offered a four-year, $54-million deal to retain Burnett, according to the Toronto Star. The Yankees’ offer is expected to top the Blue Jays’ in average annual value. However, a source shot down a report that the Yankees would offer five years and $80 million. They will not make an opening bid of more than four years or anywhere near $80 million, the source said.

The Yankees’ source said, “We’re just talking parameters.”

That’s a lot to digest. Take it all in.

First, the good news. The Yankees don’t seem to be offering Burnett that ludicrous five-year, $80-million offer reported this morning. As any sensible team would do, the Yanks don’t want to extend a pitcher, 32 on Opening Day, more than four years. While O’Brien’s source said the deal wasn’t for anything close to $80 million, I wouldn’t be surprised at a four-year deal with the same average annual value of $16 million per season.

Now, the guardedly bad news. The Red Sox seem to be interested in Burnett and are supposedly very involved. Now, I’m on the fence with regards to A.J. Burnett. I think he’ll be wildly overpaid, and based on his track record, he probably won’t avoid the DL during the duration of the contract he is going to sign.

But at the same time, we saw this year what a healthy Burnett could do. He struck out better than a man an inning, and during the second half, he went 8-2 with a 2.86 ERA. In 14 starts, he went 94.1 innings and struck out 105 while walking 29. No one on the Yankees did that this year.

He has the stuff to be an ace. He doesn’t have the consistency or the health to be a dependable starter. But that doesn’t mean I want to see him land in Boston. Yanks GM Brian Cashman has a plan this off-season. I hope that plan doesn’t include watching the Red Sox get better as the Yanks come up empty and have to settle for a Derek Lowe type. As tentative I am of embracing Burnett, he’s clearly the second-best option out there.

Filed Under: Hot Stove League Tagged With: A.J. Burnett

Open Threat Thread: Can a blogger get some hot stove action?

November 18, 2008 by Mike 212 Comments

I mean, seriously. These open threads are tough to write when the hot stove is running ice cold. Four years and $52M for Ryan Dempster? The D-Bags are interested in Ramon Vazquez? Yawn me. We had our fun with the “perhaps” 5/80 offer to AJ Burnett this morning, and there’s really nothing kooky about the AL MVP voting, except for an extraneous 5th place vote for Jason Bartlett. We need some hardcore hot stove talk, either that or AzFL games on TV.

Here’s your open thread for the evening, talk whatever you like. Hopefully something exciting will go down tomorrow, and until then listen to sound the ball makes off the bat of Bryce Harper. Only three years until he graduates high school.

Filed Under: Open Thread

The Varitek spin machine is working overtime

November 18, 2008 by Benjamin Kabak 47 Comments

Scott Boras must be getting desperate.

Over the weekend, the Boston Herald ran a story alleging Yankee interest in Jason Varitek. Michael Silverman wrote:

A $50 million contract worth some $13 million a year is not in the offing for Varitek. It should require something closer to a two- to four-year deal worth $10-11 million a year to sign Varitek. He is coming off a four-year, $40 million deal.

Teams expected to be in on the bidding include the Tigers and Angels. Do not dismiss the chances of the Yankees going after Varitek as doubt remains about whether Posada’s shoulder, surgically repaired last season, will allow him to catch in 2009. . . .

I dismissed this one. I figured that either Silverman was trying to rile up Red Sox fans or that Boras was attempting to scare the team into believing that someone might actually be interested in Varitek.

Today, I realized it was the latter as the Boras machine ramped up its work. Playing off of a post by Curt Schilling, Ken Rosenthal attempted to excuse Varitek’s bad 2008 by pointing to a divorce and a viral infection that went unreported for the entire duration of the season.

Meanwhile, Rosenthal drops this gem: “The impact of Varitek’s defense and leadership is not measurable. Nor is the impact of his physical and emotional difficulties last season.”

The impact of Varitek’s defense and leadership may not be measurable, but that’s a point up for grabs. What is measurable is the fact that he hit .220/.313/.359 in nearly 500 plate appearances. What is measurable is that he’s shown a fairly significant decline since his career years in 2004 and 2005. What is measurable is that, as a catcher turning 37 a few days after Opening Day, time and history are not on Varitek’s side.

Now, I’m in no position to comment on Varitek’s unreported injuries. Maybe he actually was injured, and maybe the Red Sox and the Boston media managed to miss that fact for an entire season. Or maybe Varitek, his friends and agent are trying to portray his grit and leadership as the defining characteristics in the hope that some team will give him a woefully overvalued contract.

But no matter the truth, I don’t want to see Varitek anywhere near the Yankees. He’s old; he’s pretty useless from an on-field perspective; and he’s one of the few Red Sox I actively would not root for were he to end up in the Bronx. The Yanks don’t need him; they don’t want him; and they have more pressing needs on which they plan to spend.

Filed Under: Hot Stove League Tagged With: Jason Varitek

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