McCarron's live blogs have been very good. I always go to Pete Abe first out of loyalty, but I might have to check out the Daily News blog more often.

The fan in me says, I'm glad Giambi is putting in extra effort to succeed, including taking better care of himself. The cynic in me reminds the fan that Giambi is in a contract year, so it shouldn't be a surprise. In any case, I hope he does well this year.

Sigh and agreed. It would be nice to think that a guy making that kind of money might be incentivised to work hard after he got the contract rather than in anticipation of the next one but I guess "it is what it is". "Same as it ever was".

But even if Giambi gets bought out. If he can stay healthy and hit reasonably well, then he is looking at signing maybe a two year deal with some AL team as a DH. Given the going rates, it's not hard to imagine that he could make 20 mil over two years--after all, the Jays signed Frank Thomas to a 2-year, 18 mil contract.

So there is plenty of financial incentive, even for a broken down 37 y.o. DH.

That said, I don't put much stock in the "contract year" thing. No one has been able to prove that pending FAs play much better in their contract year, at least that I recall.

"Giambi is due $21.5 million for the 2007 season and another $21 million for the 2008 season. There is a 2009 club option that if picked up will pay Giambi another $22 million, but the team can buy out that 2009 option for $5 million, and if they do, Giambi will become a free agent in 2009 instead of the originally anticipated 2010 season."

So, in 2009, Giambi costs either 5 million or 22 million.

5 I think that Giambi is certainly bought out. Abreu was worth $14M (Yanks had to pay the $2M if they kept him or bought him out), especially given the dreck of available RF free agents. Giambi isn't worth $17M (gotta pay the $5M either way) unless he hits like he did in '05 or '06 AND plays 135-150 games. I'm not hopeful that he can do that in 2009.

Meanwhile, there are 3 free agents to be, any of who would fit in nicely, if not at 1B, then certainly in the LF/DH mix: Tex, Dunn, and Burrell. But that's for next offseason. =)

8 i would agree - it's not like he just got them.
but speaking of feet, i didn't really see that many of shelley's games at 1b last year - can he competently play first, just referring to him in the field - and i know our standards of competent at 1b have been all over the place of late.

and to mattpat - better thank latroy hawkins for you b'day present.

2 With or without Giambi, this lineup is very formidable. If he is healthy, however, then the lineup becomes ridiculous. What's more, if Abreu and Damon bounce back and Melky and Cano both improve, I think this lineup could score 1,000 runs, even if Arod and Posada regress some.

To me, his most glaring vulnerability is to the high heat.

He also pulls off sometimes, hitting weak-ass grounders to second Hideki-style, but other than that, he's so solid.

Are you looking for more consistency?

Or maybe more presence of mind with runners on the bags?

In addition, I'd also expect Cano to continue to improve his batting eye and also get a little stronger. I am probably more of a Cano fan than most, but don't think a line of .320/.370/.500+ is out of the question.

To me, Giambi is the face of this post-dynasty era of stupid contracts and overpaying for 'big' names.

Flashes of greatness is all we've ever gotten from the Giambino - I will dance a Papelbonesque jig when his contract is finally up.

To me, Giambi is the face of this post-dynasty era of stupid contracts and overpaying for 'big' names.

Flashes of greatness is all we've ever gotten from the Giambino - I will dance a Papelbonesque jig when his contract is finally up.

I also don't see what's wrong with being the face of the post dynasty era...after all, that includes 5 division titles and an AL pennant. Giambi might not have been a great contract, but it was far from stupid.

In terms of long-term contracts gone sour, what about Bernie's megadeal after 1998? Cliff is probably right that Giambi's was the straw that broke the camel, but I always thought that Bernie's contract, signed when he was "only" 29, is the one that really scared the Yanks away from a 7- or 8-year deal with Beltran.

Clearly, the last three years of the deal were less than stellar, but even at OPS+ of 107 and 108 in 2004 and 2005, Bernie wasn't wildly overpaid considering market fluctations.

I am not sure if the Yankees have soured on long-term deals in the first place. Didn't they just sign Arod to a 700 year deal?

Why one player is "clutch" like Andy even after having some truly awful playoff starts and another isn't even after having some great ones always escapes me.

25 agreed on the whole cluth thing. i read a nice piece by dan lebetard about this once - how certain players get this rep one way or the other and then it is hard to move either direction.

And I'm extremely high on him myself. He's by far my favorite hitter when he's on.

Those line drives in the left-centerfield gap and down the leftfield line send me to the brink of orgasm.

:)

He was on the hill in the Jeter flip game, no? 1-0?

Also, his relief work in 2003 against Boston was stellar.

And that stretch where he kept losing despite strong efforts, prompting him to snap, "Well, I can't hit for the guys, too, I can only go out there and pitch..."

The thing with Moose these days is you have to know when to get him out of there. He should have a short leash, don't give him an opportunity to cough it all up, because he will.

But until he falls apart, he's a strong pitcher.

:)

Sorry.

My main point with Bernie is that IF (and I grant your point, however, that it is an "if") the team did sour on long-term deals, Bernie's contract might have had more influence (tan Giambi's) in dissuading them from signing another late 20s CF to a seven year contract.

You're exactly correct about Moose.

But, all that aside, the thought of Jason Lane making the roster is already driving me nuts. The guy has never been anything but average to below average, has been terrible the past two seasons, and has a career OBP of .314. Ensberg in his worst year still beat that. Not that he's great, mind you.

I know there aren't great options per se for that last roster spot, and its never really going to be used anyway, but Lane is pretty much the WORST option, no matter what ST stats say...

Meh.

Hate to nipick, but in 12 you stated the Yanks have been extremly gun-shy about longterm deals. I agree they generally don't sign 'em like they used to -- but clearly, the new A-Rod deal does not suggest any hesitation by the Yanks to go very very long, and dig very very deep for the best available player.
The new Posada and Rivera deals could also be considered "longterm" due to the advanced ages of the players.

The Yanks probably wouldn't do the Giambi deal again, (if they could go back in time) but I'm not so sure that it changed the front-office philosophy about longterm deals -- just made them more selective.

And, since the Giambi deal, the only deal the Yanks have signed that's longer than 4 years is A-Rod's new deal. Everything else has been 4 years or less, even Cano's deal is only 4 years guaranteed.

The Yanks probably offer Teixiera 6 years - but he'll be only 34 when such a deal would end, which is fine. I'll bet we're done seeing 6+ year deal handed out to guys over 30 though.

Maybe I'm imparting too much to Moose, but I also think he knows how much the team needs him to pitch, at least halfway decently, to limit the innings on the kids. I bet he'll gut the year out.

Plus, of course, he's got 11 million reasons not to retire.

He's learning about getting old and how to deal with it. Being a young healthy athlete isn't the best training for that. Multi-system decompensation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decompensation) isn't easy to understand in any case.

But for the ARod deal, you are looking at a special case, where even hard rules are broken. I ask this. If he gets 700 HRs, will he looked at like Mantle? Willie? Bonds? The Babe? Will he be considered the greatest all around player since the Babe? Where will he sit on the all-time list? And what if he gets 800 HRs (hence the 10 year contract)?

70 years after he played, the name 'Babe' is still the iconic name in baseball. Will it be ARod in 2050? If so, can you really equate his (excessive) contract on 'normal' terms?

Also, Giambi, even WITH his bad years, has posted an OPS of .935 as a Yankee. Isn't that worth $17m/yr? Yeah, his injuries devalued the contract some.... but a bust? If he maintains a .925 OPS over the entire life of the contract, that's a bust?

Will Soriano have a better year then Jason? Tori Hunter? Beltran (.870 OPS as a Met)? BARRY ZITO? How many guys making $17 this year will be better then Giambi?

Is the bad rap due to unrealistic expectations? No WS? Injuries? PED user?

Besides, I think Cashman now is more about roster flexibility. Teixeira in 2009-2010 may be nice. But every year after that, he starts to clog things up, especially with Jeter and A-Rod and the ability to move youngsters into their much more important positions for added defense.

He talks about Kevin Towers and the Padres, Brian Sabean and the Giants - and then the Yankees. I thought it was an extremely reasonable question to ask.

This business about Andy apologizing to everyone and his mother recalls a great scene from Deadwood where Andy Cramed, the guy who Tolliver dumped in the woods after contracting small pox, lies there muttering, "I apologize, I apologize!"

And Jane comes along, as drunk as he is ill, and snaps at hi for apologizing so much!

The point being, I don't think Andy owes Suzyn an apology anymore than Andy owed one to Jane!

Your additions are quite accurate and do state more about area the article covered than I did. I didn't try to be misleading.

It is too easy to laud Towers; he outed a dead guy. Could W have known and could that guilt, assuming he is capable of such a feeling, be why he included steroids in his State of the Union speech? Canseco seems to think the Ranger management was aware. The Lords needed butts in the seats after the strike. HRs fill seats. That's easy. But did the Yankee owners and Joe know. That's all I was concerned about today. Look at all the names and the Yankee teams they played on.

61 Fair enough. .750 seems awfully low for me, especially since they'd presumably only hit when the matchups favor them. But, I agree. It will come down to how Duncan and his counterpart this year (Giambi - hopefully, Betemit) perform. Just to be clear. It's not that I'm opposed to Teixeira. It's that I like the flexibility of the current roster. I think that will be even more critical as Jeter and A-Rod continue to age.

Steroids was talked about, and made the papers more then 10 years ago. I would think multiple players getting shots in their asses would be hard to hide. And were they really trying to hide it?

After the FIRST hearings, did Bud lay down the law to owners? Tell them there would be multi-million dollar fines for neglegence? Did he give the impression he REALLY wanted to clean this up, and owners and staff would hereon, assume responsibiltiy? Aside from the 'improved' testing, did anything really change? Did Bud want to get rid of steroids, or just cover up better?

I believe it was up to Bud to lay down a mandate. The owners can't be serious if Bud (and Fehr) aren't.

I personally hold them responsible, as they were really the ones who could have stopped it. The owners, and everyone else, were just following Bud's lead.

As I see it, there were two types of people involved in baseball in that era: those who used, and those who were complicit to one extent or another. That covers pretty well everyone from clubhouse attendants up to Selig, in addition to all the players.

"[Mussina] also noted that four of the six hits he allowed came on two-strke counts.
'I didn't have an out pitch,' he said."

You haven't had an out pitch in four years, big guy.

""I didn't have an out pitch," he said.

I'm sure the many members if the Yankee Panic Society will proclaim that Mussina is finished. But you can make up a long list of pitchers who looked like bums the first week of March and did fine once the season started. The list of pitchers who looked great the first week of March and proved to be bums is even longer."

Tony Lazzeri *
Eddie Collins *
Frankie Frisch *

*signifies hall of fame

kinda sums it up when the only guys who's even remotely close OPS wise (Collins is the only one higher at .850 ish, Pushem up Tony is a wooping .003 OPS higher and Frisch barely cracked .800) in the hey day of the liveball era.

Granted that isn't completely fair, because this era pretty much is the best hitter era after the liveball days. but even looking at adjusted OPS it's pretty unbelivable.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/pi/shareit/jzHQ

there's still some sour sticking point ofcourse. like Cano's top PECOTA comp Mr. Baerga or Gregg Jefferies. but still it gives you a pretty good idea on where Cano possibly stands in the context of history. as long as he could avoid a Baergain path to say that he's a potential HOF candidate isn't really crazy.

One must understand that to have a young 2B at this age that can hit for very good average and significant pop and doesn't look like he needs to be escorted off 2B by the police is EXTREMELY rare. i'm not talking about rare in the context of a few year. I'm talking about rare in the context of the entire game's existence.

I also agree there's a bit of Giambi/Moose bashing that goes on at the end of long contracts, and it feels unfair. You could say they cash the cheques for weak end-of-contract years, they can take the fan-heat but it still feels off to deride them for slippage we all EXPECT to see. (We gonna do that to Posada in 3 years?)

The Arod contract has another element, as so many do now: perceived marketing value over and above on-field value. Pedro to the Mets was another example of that, so was Dice K, so was Matsui.

Turning on a mini-rant, this is why I hate some of the Yankee-bashing ... Bombers sell out or come close all over the league when they visit teams, putting money in other owner's pockets. They also now contribute (alas!) about a starting player's worth of money in sharing.

Bash the damned Marlins, who are running a scam. Field the cheapest team possible, take some revenue from hapless fans, and more from sharing. Make profit. Go to bank. Repeat.