Yanks fans are plenty aware of the poor contracts the team has doled out over the past eight, ten years. When your pocketbooks are that deep, it’s bound to happen from time to time. Thankfully, deep pockets also mean the ability to recover. At Jorge Says No, Josh goes over the worst free agent contracts from 2005 through 2009. Three Yanks made the list, and they’re fairly obvious: Carl Pavano, Kei Igawa, Kyle Farnsworth. A-Rod did not make the cut, although I disagree. The worst third baseman contract Josh found was Adrian Beltre, but he was eventually talked out of it, replacing him with Vinny Casilla. Sorry, but two years and $6.2 million for no production is still better than 10 years and $275 million for a guy who will be 42 when the contract expires. Make sure to check out the whole list; you should be able to name the whole outfield without peeking.
Who wants a Yankees-branded cell phone?
This week, tens of thousands of people who work in the wireless industry got together in Las Vegas for CTIA 2009. Hundreds of vendors have their products and solutions on display in a ginormous convention floor room — seriously, it takes five minutes to wade through the sea of people from one side of the floor to the other.
Over in the media room, press releases and media kits flood the walls and tables. Normally I just walk by without looking twice — perhaps taking a flash drive if they’re sitting out. One release in particular caught my eye. Why? The Yankees logo, of course. Apparently, a company called Quantum Telecom has partnered with MLB to issue licensed phones. Whoop dee freakin’ doo.
The only good thing about these puppies is the price: $49.99. The phone is unlocked, meaning you can use it with any GSM carrier in the country. Bad news: that means only AT&T or T-Mobile. Further bad news: The price tag, given that these are unlocked phones, makes it seem like they’re not the most functional devices. Check ’em out for yourself:
Is anyone really going to buy one of these?
Open Thread: Blacked out
The Yankees are playing the Red Sox in Fort Myers tonight, but alas the game will not be seen by those of us in the New York area. YES asked MLB Network to black the game out (as well as the ones on March 22nd and 28th), which is their right. I’m not sure why, but it’s dumb. Apparently no one ever bothered to ask them if MLBN could broadcast Yankees’ games. In case you’re one of the lucky ones who will be able to watch the game, here’s the lineup:
Gardner, CF
Ransom, 3B
Miranda, 1B
Nady, RF
J-Rod, DH
Molina, C
Shelley, LF
Berroa, SS
Pena, 2B
Scheduled Pitchers: Chien-Ming Wang, Brett Tomko, Mike Dunn, Anthony Claggett
Teams are only required to send three regulars on road trips, so they obviously took advantage of it this game. Here’s a slightly abbreviated hodgepodge of Friday Randomness links:
- Hey look, Michael Ynoa exists. Oh, and it’s not Inoa anymore.
- John Dewan, the man behind The Fielding Bible I & II, made a pretty significant discovery. Apparently defense is worth roughly half as much as offense. That’s higher than I would have though, but he backs it up with some evidence. (h/t MLBTR)
- Project Prospect profiled first round draft prospect Kyle Gibson. I am an unabashed Gibson fan (I love the combination of super projectability and college seasoning), so you’l be hearing lots about him between now and draft day. (h/t CBB)
- Things aren’t looking so hot for Dustin McGowan as he battles back from major shoulder surgery.
- Speaking of injuries, Alan Horne’s doing well on his comeback trail.
Here’s your open thread/game thread for the night. In addition to the Yanks, the Knicks and Nets are both in action tonight. Anything goes here, just be civil.
Parsing A-Rod’s compliments
Last night, Alex Rodriguez made some headlines by offering up an innocuous compliment to his fellow Dominican team member Jose Reyes. “I wish he was leading off on our team or playing on our team. That’s fun to watch,” A-Rod said. Warn the children! Sound the alarms! Make a mountain out of a molehill!
Immediately, the ever-objective media went into overdrive. Peter Abraham accused A-Rod of stirring up past history with Jeter. Marc Craig at the recently-decimated Star Ledger pondered the same thing. I’m sure the News and Post had some equally inflammatory coverage of this statement.
In reality, A-Rod didn’t say anything newsworthy, and he never insulted Jeter. In fact, as iYankees notes, he may have insulted Johnny Damon, but no beat reporter has mentioned that. After all, A-Rod said he wants Reyes leading off, and that role is filled by Johnny Damon. Rodriguez never mentioned that short stop position. He also never used the phrase “instead of” in reference to Jeter or anyone else on the Yanks.
But wait! There’s more. A-Rod said something else after those two sentences. “Anytime you have that type of speed… I mean, we have a guy in Gardner that’ll be fun. That’s probably the most fun you can have, watching those guys run.”
A-Rod is acknowledging what any normal baseball fan in New York knows: Jose Reyes is a young and exciting player who could emerge as one of the game’s top offensive forces and would be a contributor on any team. He has the rare mix of speed and power and has shown the ability to get on base at a rate that would allow him to fully exploit both skills, and gosh, he’s also fun to watch. Let’s put A-Rod in the stockade just for thinking it, and let’s leave off the part of the quote that contextualizes it too.
Stop the presses: Hank & Reggie have an opinion
So Alex Rodriguez and Reggie Jackson went out to dinner the other night, and Reggie had some advice for Alex because, you know, he’s dealt with this kind of PED thing before. Coming jointly from Hank Steinbrenner, the invisible executive, Mr. October told A-Rod to “hit the baseball and hit it when it counts.” Hit the baseball. And hit it when it counts. When it counts? When is that? Seems to me like it would be, I dunno, ALL THE FREAKING TIME!!! Reggie also some other words for A-Rod, saying he’s disappointed in him and that when he retired he was one of the best of all time and is sad to see his career accomplishment tarnished. You really didn’t think Reggie could go that long without talking about himself, did you? Even Neyer agrees this is retarded.
How to completely miss the point about defense
It pains me to link to this, but I have to if I want to make the most obvious point in the universe. So go here, to Dugout Central, which in general isn’t light on the flimsy analysis. For those who don’t want to waste their time, I’ll sum up Michael Walsh’s premise: Derek Jeter isn’t a bad defender because he doesn’t make a lot of errors. Not only that, but his errors, in general, are okay because they don’t cost his team the game. It’s great stuff, compelling and rich. Except that it misses the point by about as far as possible.
The quote that made me laugh the hardest: “Regardless of the conclusions of any individual study, scientific or otherwise, there is no question that Derek Jeter is nothing less than a solid defender.” Yes. Damn everything people have studied and observed over the years. Because Michael Walsh says that “to even infer that he may be the worst fielder in all of baseball is simply ridiculous,” it must be true. Because he said it. And Michael Walsh is smarter and has an acuter sense of baseball skills than everyone else in the baseball-loving world.
One sentence can debunk Walsh’s entire argument. I hand the mic to Pinto: “It’s not about the errors Jeter makes, it’s about all the balls that he never gets a glove on that other shortstops turn into outs.” Anyone who has watched the Yankees for the past decade plus can see that Jeter is poor getting to balls hit to his left. The stats bear that out, but we don’t even need them in this instance. It’s so obvious that anyone who has watched even a few other shortstops knows that Jeter’s range doesn’t stack up. Walsh attacks Yuniesky Betancourt and his 21 errors in 2008, but when the Yanks play the Mariners, or when I watch the M’s on MLB.tv (usually when Felix pitches), I’m always impressed by how quickly Betancourt gets behind the bag at second to make plays Jeter could only dream of.
Oh, and about that line that made me laugh the most: I lied. This one was by far the best knee-slapper in the article:
However, the 1997 season is a different story. That summer stands out as Jeter cost his team three contests during a season in which the Yanks missed the post season by only two games.
So this “research” and “analysis” comes from a guy who can’t even go to Baseball Reference and see that the Yankees did, in fact, make the playoffs in 1997. They did lose the division to Baltimore by two games, but they won the Wild Card by 12 freaking games. So that’s two counts of shoddy research by Walsh.
Look, I’m not here to say that if you think Derek Jeter plays solid defense, you’re an idiot. I am saying, however, that if you choose to make this statement you’re entering a shootout. Bringing a knife to the battle probably isn’t the best strategy.
Possible sign-and-trade mini-rant
In what could be the first step in an NBA-esque sign-and-trade move, the Twins made an offer to free agent reliever Juan Cruz late last night. Cruz, like The Orlandos (Cabrera & Hudson), has been having a devil of a time trying to find a job this winter because teams are unwilling to part with their first round pick to sign him, and now that Spring Training is underway his agent is really starting to feel the heat. You probably remember seeing the blurb earlier this week in which MLB basically said it would be willing to look the other way as teams try to circumvent the free agent draft pick compensation rules, and it’s looking more and more like this might actually happen.
Forget A-Rod and all the PED nonsense. If baseball is willing to essentially amend it’s rules with almost zero advance notice to the benefit of only some teams, then that’s the game’s biggest problem. The Yankees played by the rules and coughed up the draft picks needed to sign free agents this winter, ditto the Mets, Angels, and Dodgers, and now you’re telling me that other teams have a chance to operate under a completely different set of rules? Sorry, but that’s just not fair. If Juan Cruz wants to get paid, then he should have accepted arbitration. There’s a reason David Weathers and Darren Oliver have contracts for 2009 right now and he doesn’t. He doesn’t get to be above the system because his agent misread the economic climate. Life doesn’t work like that.
I swear, the Yanks (and the Mets, Halos and Dodgers as well) better raise some frickin’ hell if this is allowed to go down.
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