Homeward bound
I wish I was
Homeward bound
Home, where my thought's escaping
Home, where my music's playing
Home, where my love lies waiting
Silently for me
- Simon and Garfunkel, 1966
I wish I was
Homeward bound
Home, where my thought's escaping
Home, where my music's playing
Home, where my love lies waiting
Silently for me
- Simon and Garfunkel, 1966
Our boy is back. Not much to say that hasn't been said already. Pettitte's not a savior. He's not an ace. He is a strong tie to the past, and he is a very strong frontline pitcher that should hold the fort until Phil Hughes eventually replaces him. I'll be thrilled to see his glare and his pickoff move on the mound at Yankee Stadium again, and hopefully he'll hang it up after his stint in pinstripes. I'd like to see him get that Yankee Stadium send off, a la Paul O'Neill. Welcome back Pettite. (Keep in touch with the Rocket, in case he's open to come back too.)
17 comments:
Pettitte is not the #2 you would prefer to have in a perfect world but he is by far the best pitcher the Yankees could have gotten. Pettitte is a huge improvement over Jared Wright, and if you look at this staff vs. the 2006 incarnation, thats who hes replacing.
I frankly wouldn't have cared if they gave him $20 million as long as its just for one (or in this case two) year(s). Now our rotation is competitive and gives us a ton of flexibility. Depending how long they sign Igawa for (and after the posting fee my understanding is that they will sign him for 5 million per year a.k.a. peanuts), the only pitcher under contract for 2009 is Wang. RJ is gone after 07, Pettitte, Mussina and Pavano are gone after 08 (that is IF Pavano makes it that long. My bet is that if Cashman believes there is a good chance RJ can pitch league average on opening day he'll get traded for $0.20 on the dollar. Maybe get a decent reliever out of it.)
This flexibility allows us to bring up to bring up Phil Hughes, Humberto Sanchez and/or Chamberlain/Clippard/Betances in 2008-2009 to join Wang and Igawa. This also gives the flexibility to pick up Zambrano and/or Santana. Good news all around.
One thing I wanted to get people's take on the possible Cabrera for Sexson trade. My gut says bad idea but I wanted to see what everyone else thought.
Somehow I can't see the Yankees going out and getting Sexson. I don't think they want to add that kind of payroll and it seems like overkill to me. It also flies in the face of everything Cash is doing right now.
IF something like this happens, it will make the Bombers a lethal offensive club the likes of which has never been seen over 162 games. Batting Sexson in the 7-8-9 area seems beyond unfair. It wouldn't kill me from a talent standpoint, but I would be disappointed if we added more payroll now.
Good get, but it won't get Yanks over the top - By Filip Bondy of Ny Daily News
"Pettitte is a solid addition, a smart gamble. But he is not the move that breaks a three-series playoff losing streak. Right now, the Yankees still figure to be just another one of eight teams playing baseball in October, nothing more. "
"Pettitte is now another Yankee starter who is not an ace. The team has a lot of those. The Yanks' main hope right now is that W@ng, a talented finesse guy, can somehow step up and embarrass people in October the way that Kenny Rogers did for the Tigers, only without the pine tar. "
"Since then, the Yankees haven't thought that large. They haven't really chased anybody who would put them over the top. They've just filled a pothole here, a wagon rut there. They lost the bidding war for Daisuke Matsuzaka, who may be a difference-maker. They've seemed oddly disinterested in other free agent pitchers."
W@ng is a finesse pitcher? Are you kidding me? He throws 94-97mph. This Idiot Writer Compares Him to Kenny Rogers. What a Joke...
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/story/478602p-402672c.html
Yankees–O's offered Pettitte 4 Years 66Mill?
According to todays NY Daily News Article by Anthony McCarron
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/story/478604p-402671c.html The Orioles apparently made a late, unsuccessful run at Pettitte, offering four years and $66 million, according to a baseball official. Hendricks would neither confirm nor deny any Baltimore involvement.
Do you think Yankees could sign Free agent Edgardo alfonso in minor league contract and possibly as backup infielder
If he's got a player option on the second year, then this is pretty much a two-year deal from the Chokers perspective-- either he retires after this season, is so good that he turns down the option and leaves (highly unlikely) or takes the second year in NY and they have to pay him for it. A true one year deal would give the team the option of not bringing him back for 08 if he sucks in 07. They don't have that option.
If horse-face puts up a 6.00 ERA this year in 120 IP, he is the one who decides if he gets that second year or not, not NY.
And this signing makes the bid on Igawa more curious-- wouldn't they have been better off throwing that $25 million at Clemens instead? How could he turn that down with his buddy back in NY?
Zup, there's more to it than whether or not Pettitte makes them a better staff or not. They have committed significant money and a spot in the rotation to Pettitte. The question isn't will Pettitte be better than having nothing there instead, it's whether Pettitte will be be better than who else they could have spent that money and and roster spot on. If they could have given that to someone else who is better than Pettitte, then it's not a good move for them IMO.
I think he actually will turn out better than the alternatives, actually. But I'm really glad that they spent $16-$32 million on Pettitte and $25 on the Igawa posting, instead of $55 million on the Matsuzaka posting. This is much better for us than that.
Manny is at least .400 against everyone on the Yankees in his career so I take that stat with a grain of salt.
No question, it is a great pickup because as many have said before, it enables us to let Hughes, Sanchez, Clippard time to develop in '07 and does not tie up a roster spot in say, '09, when Chamberlain, Kennedy, and Betances could be ready.
The posting by the angry Red Sox fan is curious b/c (1) the Red Sox have failed to sign Matsuzaka, so far (2) the effective cost will likely be in the $25m per range, which is probably more than any other player has received, ever, (3) the Yankees can always walk away from Iwaga now that we have Pettite in the fold. Finally, by commiting $70 to Drew, $36m to Lugo, and perhaps $90-100m in Matsuzaka, the Red Sox, who have shown an inability to spend before (see A-Rod, Damon, and Abreu) are going to be taking on a significant amout of financial leverage, which will impede them when a proven ace is available - say Johan Santana. Will Lucchino look to add payroll after dropping upwards of $200m in the '06/'07 offseason and finishing in 3rd yet again or will he get cold feet again, as he did with the 3 Yankees mentioned previously? Time will tell.
Lure of Yankees draws Pettitte in; Red Sox have issues
Cashman, who with president Steve Swindal got the organization refocused on development (ask their scouting people what it's like in the new Cashman World), not only refused to trade off Philip Hughes and gave Melky Cabrera a chance, but has also moved Gary Sheffield and Jaret Wright for four young pitchers, two of whom, Humberto Sanchez and Kevin Whelan, could be major parts in the second half of the 2007 season. He also signed Kei Igawa for depth and inventory.
Pettite may not be the dominant top-of-the-rotation guy he once was, but as he turns 35 in June he gives the Yankees a third proven starter with Chien-Ming Wang and Mike Mussina. Mussina was fourth in the AL in quality starts with 23; Wang sixth with 20; Pettite had 20 in Houston -- albeit far from the AL East. Now there is less pressure on Randy Johnson to rush back and no pressure as they spend half the season figuring out who will be the 4-5 starterts down the stretch between Carl Pavano, Igawa and Hughes. Now Scott Proctor can remain in the bullpen.
Pettite is a great signing on a one-year deal, even with the player option for 2008, and at the end of the season Johnson, Pavano, Jorge Posada and Abreu come off the books as Vernon Wells, Torii Hunter and Andruw Jones come onto the market. The next year, they can have Mark Teixeira at first base in their new stadium.
It's very different, now, and a lot more difficult for the Blue Jays, Red Sox and Orioles.
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?id=2692259
Hey Mike,
Thanks for the S&G clip. Way Cool. I consider the Pauls (McCartney & Simon) to be 2 of the all time great song writers/arrangers.
I Think the Sexson thing was only if Seattle wanted to dump him cheap.
While pitching USUALLY wins the PS, bear in mind that: Minn. didn't make it with an excellent pitching staff losing to the weak hitting A's; we did very well against Tiger pitching during the season and just choked in the PS.
I think somewhat above average pitching (us) and GREAT offense (us) can win it all... but the PS is always a crapshot, and the best team wins it all way less then 50% of the time.
Mike, I just discovered your blog and will be sure to read it often.
Sadly I see the same troll mass posts on your blog along with Pete's and the Newsday blog using dozens of different names.
Thanks for putting your blog out there.
What's Right and Wrong with MLB?
Quote:
The imbalanced schedule is very wrong, as Buck Showalter will tell you.
Interleague play is very wrong as well.
BOTH of these brilliant decisions came about solely because they either saved money for the owners or made some owners some quick bucks. But they both hurt the integrity of the game.
The postseason is diminished by interleague play and the integrity of the regular season is damaged by both the imbalanced schedule and interleague play. One of the beauties of baseball used to be that everyone played the same schedule which made baseball the fairest game around. No more.
The Wild Card is one of the things that is right because it helps ensure that the best teams are making it to the postseason. It's a rare year when the WC has the worst record of a league's playoff teams.
The DH is a great idea. It improves the quality of the game on the field in so many ways. No fan, but the extreme fundamentalists, wants to see pitchers bat. But the irony is that if you go far enough back in baseball's history, you'll find...voila!...designated hitters. I also have no problem if the NL wants to play without the DH. Heck, if they want too concede a higher level of play to the AL every year, God bless 'em.
It's kind of ridiculous that baseball continues to structure itself as a competition among markets and not as a competition of baseball teams. The idea of allowing the Yankees to spend multiple times more money on payroll than many of its competitors is 19th century anachronistic thinking.
Blaring sound systems exhorting fans to dance, clap, cheer, etc. are an abomination unto the Lord.
There are too many night games, especially in the postseason. Baseball wants to know why more and more kids are preferring football and basketball to baseball, look no further than the fact that kids can't see baseball's most important games each and every season for the last 30 years or so. Idiots.
And, finally, all baseball games should be played on natural grass, thank you very much.
got this from over on Sosh.
Gammons has edited his article on the Matsuzaka. He now reports, quite similarly to what DH3 posted, that Red Sox officials feel that Boras will bring Matsuzaka back to Japan for two years, then return to MLB with the intention of receiving $140 million over seven years.
sad part is.... he'll probably get it from someone.
Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch has reported that the Cardinals are feverishly looking for whatever is left in the pitching market and are considering a trade for Carl Pavano!
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/sports/stories.nsf/cardinals/story/F3AB43762890B864862572400015ED65?OpenDocument
"Rumored deals for the New York Yankees' Carl Pavano or the Philadelphia Phillies' Jon Lieber carry little heft, according to club sources, though the Cardinals have asked to examine the oft-injured Pavano's medical records."
Wow. That just made my day.
Mike -
I was hoping you could check in with EDSP and see what he's been up to during the winter months... [as there is no off-season for him].
Thanks.
"Quote from Idiot Redsox Fan"
"And is there any doubt that if the yankees won the bid he would of been signed already. Yankees dont play harball if they think your worth the money."
Couldn't be further from the truth. The Yankees and Cashman would not be doing their job if they didn't play hardball with players and agents. Wouldn't they have won the bid if they could just snap their fingers like that and get who they want? It's been reported that Matsuzaka was their main priority this off-season.
And what about Sheffield? They didn't play hardball? They better, or else they'd be in a lot of trouble.
http://boards.espn.go.com/boards/mb/mb?sType=mbread&tid=290700&tsn=17&st=1&sport=mlb&id=bos
Sorry to step on your Toes
http://www.nypost.com/seven/12102006/sports/sheff_deal_drove_up_sox_price_for_manny_sports_joel_sherman.htm
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