Powered by WKRP’s “Turkeys Away“, containing perhaps the funniest single scene in sitcoms in the last 30 years, here’s the news:
- Chad Finn of the Boston Globe recaps a Peter Gammon radio interview which contained some interesting nuggets on the BoSox, Boras and Teixeira, including this:
On why Teixeira chose the Yankees over the Red Sox when the conventional wisdom was that he would sign with Boston:
Gammons: As we saw over the time line, once Cashman went to his house — first Terry Francona and Theo {Epstein] went there — five or six days later Cashman went, and that was decided that the Red Sox were the stalking horse and the Red Sox would go to a number and then the Yankees will sign him. And the Yankees did a very good job of saying, ‘We’re not in it, we’re not in it’ . . . all along, that’s where he was going. Not because his father was a [high school] teammate of Bucky Dent, but he made it very clear watching it yesterday [and wading] through the baloney . . . Teixeira is Scott Boras’s ultimate client, and he’s very well-programmed . . . The Red Sox didn’t know it, and in the end there was nothing they could do about it. He wanted to go to the Yankees, his wife doesn’t like Boston — apparently she doesn’t like the stores on Newbury Street or something — and in the end that’s the way it goes.
On whether — or when — John Henry realized Teixeira was ticketed for New York:
Gammons: They didn’t know it. They were waiting on the day that he signed . . . they thought that they were going to get him. They tried to close the deal on Monday night [Dec. 21], and Scott [Boras] said, ‘Well, the Teixeiras are flying, and they haven’t quite done this, and they haven’t quite done that,” and he kept putting it off an all along it was to just finish the language with the Yankees. That’s the way it goes. The Yankees cut their $180 million and they got an extraordinary player. It’s going to be interesting. As you probably remember, there was a lot of testiness between Alex Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira when they played in Texas together . . . and I don’t think Alex really cares about communicating with other players, we know [that] from Derek Jeter. Also, we haven’t really seen Teixeira in a situation where the expectations are really that high, and he’s going to have to deal with them in New York. It will be very interesting to see how it goes with the Yankees.
- Kevin Kernan of Fox Sports (via the Post) gives a glowing portrait of Teixeira:
The look is pure pinstripes. As Mark Teixeira stood on the field of the new Yankee Stadium with the glistening facade in the background, a smile flashed across his face. He seemed like a player from another era, a throwback.
Quite simply, Teixeira was born to be a Yankee.
“He’s got that All-American look,” Brian Cashman said at yesterday’s press conference, introducing Teixeira to New York. “He’s Paul Bunyan, he’s well educated, he’s the All-American high performer and he’s not a loud personality. He’s very disciplined, structured, a hard worker that’s got exceptional ability. It kind of fits our clubhouse.”
When suggested Teixeira carries himself a lot like Derek Jeter, in that Captain kind of way, Cashman agreed, adding, “He kind of has those qualities.”
- At Newsday, Wallace Matthews draws comparisons between the signing of Teixeira and the Yanks’ last FA first baseman, Jason Giambi:
Giambi came to symbolize everything that was wrong about the post-millennium Yankees — overpaid, overrated, overpumped and underachieving. Never did he duplicate the kind of numbers that won him the 2000 MVP in Oakland and never during his tenure did the Yankees come close to fulfilling the burgeoning expectations that went along with the club’s ballooning payroll.
Now comes Mark Teixeira, as squeaky clean as Giambi was sweaty, as likably sincere as Giambi was ingratiatingly smarmy, and every bit as eye-popping, on paper and in person, as Giambi was on that December day in 2001. …
His transition to the Bronx should be smoother than Giambi’s for the simple fact that he is not replacing a Yankees legend but a legendary Yankees disappointment. Even if he gets off to one of his typical slow starts — Teixeira’s career average in April, .256, is nearly 40 points lower than his overall average — the fans at the new Yankee Stadium are not likely to indoctrinate him with that uniquely New York rite of passage, the rude welcome, that they gave to Giambi at the 2002 home opener when he had the nerve to take the collar in a 4-0 win over the Devil Rays.
Besides, at the new Stadium, the fans will have to be nearly as wealthy as the players. Less class resentment breeds more genteel behavior. …
… Since the Giambi signing kicked off the Drunken Sailor period of Yankees history, their free-agent contracts have been a worse investment than subprime mortgages. In fact, not since Reggie Jackson has a big-ticket free agent paid off for the Yankees.
[My take: Matthews is a bit harsh on Giambi, whose offensive production, while not at his 2000 season level, was still quite good for the first three years of the contract. As for Reggie being the last big-ticket free agent to pay off for the Bombers, I offer up Mike Mussina. Is it Moose’s fault the Yanks didn’t win a Series while he was in pinstripes?]
- The News’ Filip Bondy acknowledges the Yankees fixing some of their biggest issues this off-season, but …:
And there you have it: Nearly half a billion dollars spent on free agents during the country’s wrenching recession, just in time to populate a nearly $2 billion dollar stadium. Which assures … absolutely nothing.
The standings always look good in January, but then the games start and the chaos begins. This is still far from a perfect team. The Yanks’ outfield is substandard. There are still too many DHs. The catching position is worrisome, at best. The closer is coming off surgery. A fifth starter would be nice, because duty may yet beckon Joba Chamberlain back to the bullpen.
In the end, it won’t be CC Sabathia, A.J.Burnett or even Teixeira who decides this season. Ultimate success will depend instead on the health of Mariano Rivera and the comeback efforts of a handful of Yankees who were very nearly worthless last year.
Chamberlain, Chien-Ming Wang, Jorge Posada and Hideki Matsui all missed substantial chunks of 2008. Wang, Posada and Chamberlain, at the very least, need to contribute much more.
Without such additions, it will be hard for the Yanks to catch the Red Sox and Rays, or to improve on those 89 victories from last season.
- Jon Heyman of SI.com runs down the Yanks’ plans for dislodging their outfield logjam:
The Yankees are fielding trade offers for corner outfielders Xavier Nady and Nick Swisher. There’s been some speculation they might consider trading Hideki Matsui, too, but he has a full no-trade clause and is coming off knee surgery, so there’s really no way to trade him.
… Swisher previously had been penciled in as the Yankees’ first baseman but now becomes part of a crowded mix of accomplished corner outfielders. Swisher is a versatile player and can play some center field, as well. Some National League teams may be interested. However, Nady’s trade value is higher after a better offensive season, so he may be just as likely to be dealt. Nady, acquired by the Yankees in a midseason trade with the Pirates, combined to hit .305 with 25 home runs and 97 RBIs for the year, while Swisher finished at .219 with 24 home runs and 69 RBIs for the White Sox before being dealt to the Yankees after the season.
Johnny Damon isn’t in the trade mix, as the Yankees need him to be their leadoff hitter and part of a center field rotation.
[My take: So which player’s 2008 season was more of an aberration … Swisher or Nady?]
- The Boston Globe is reporting that the BoSox are getting close to signing Rocco Baldelli …. and John Smoltz.
- Happy 33rd birthday to the “American Idle”, Carl Pavano. Anyone taking odds on whether he’ll strain his rib cage blowing out the candles on his cake? Also, now that he’s with Cleveland, do we call him the “Infirmed Indian”?
- Jason Giambi celebrates his 38th birthday today by returning to his first team, the A’s. PeteAbe has the highlights of the A’s press conference, in which Giambi was very thankful for his time with the Bombers.
- Brian Boehringer turns 40 today. The Yankees lost him to the Devil Rays in the 1997 Expansion Draft.
- On this date last year, Goose Gossage is voted into the Hall of Fame by the BBWAA on the 9th try. Gossage had a lifetime 126 ERA+ and was a 9-time All-Star while saving 310 games. He is the fifth reliever voted into the Hall, but the third in the past five years. He joins Hoyt Wilhelm, Rollie Fingers, Dennis Eckersley and Bruce Sutter as relief pitchers enshrined in Cooperstown.
I think that Dave Winfield guy paid off pretty good, too.
Also, now that he’s with Cleveland, do we call him the “Infirmed Indian”?
Our luck The Idle will be the next Cy Young.
Surely, there were other big-ticket free agent signings since Jackson that worked out for us. And, no I won't call you Shirley.
As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly.
Best of luck to Jason. And I have to decide whether it's worth a two hour drive to Cleveland simply to boo Pavano.
Gammons is a jerk. He makes up stuff, because he cannot stand to say he doesn't know. And he is too much of a homer to be a voice of baseball.
How can you not like Newburry Street? Great shops. Great restaurants. I know how you could dislike Fenway. It is an uncomfortable dive, inhabited by loudmouth, unknowledgeable fans. The bathrooms make the ones in the old stadium look inviting. They cheer at inappropriate times and don't follow the games. The box seats face in the wrong directions in right field. The irregular shape of the field and the monster should make the place off limits for a major league park. Fly balls and late swings are rewarded. Hard line drives to left become singles. And every game, regardless who is playing, the fans chant, "Yankees Suck." Who would want to play there?
Gammons: The transcript reads like the whining of a petulant child. He has pretty much been reduced to mouthpiece for Red Sox management (his relationship with the team defies any sense of journalistic ethics), which is probably why ESPN has been slowly phasing him out.
Matthews: Wally Matthews has been a hack his whole career, which explains his slow descent down the NY media food chain. Not only is he over the top in his potrayal of Giambi, but his suggestion that the Yankees signings since 2001 represent investments as bad as sub-primes is, well, incredibly ignorant. I am sure there are many banks who wish their sub-prime investments paid of like the Yankees roster management, which has created a perennial contender capable playing to crowds in excess of $4mn.
Bondy: I wonder if Flip knows that the Yankees are not paying $250mn in up front costs? Judging by his comments, I guess not. Also, does close to $2bn mean $1.5bn? In that case, I guess $250mn in free agents is kind of like close to nothing? Finally, I am not sure why so many writers are getting hung on the it "doesn't guarantee them anything" theme because it’s really a facile argument. Of course, the Yankees are not guaranteed anything…this is sports for goodness sakes. Does the lack of a guarantee mean you don’t try to improve your team? Where is the logic in that? Finally, the catching situation is worrisome “at best”. What? If Posada is healthy, the catching situation’s best case scenario is very positive. This article was a waste of the paper upon which it was printed.
Heyman: I’d really like to the Yankees to keep Nady and Swisher (assuming they can’t get something very valuable back in return). Simply dumping a productive player because of a perceived glut doesn’t seem to make much sense, especially with concerns about Matsui’s health and Melky’s/Gardner’s effectiveness.
Ha yeah Gammons is so transparent. You can tell he's annoyed at the situation ... calling Teixeira "programmed"; his remarks about Mrs. Teixeira, dripping with distain. I doubt he would have said that on ESPN - strictly preaching to the choir stuff there.
I didn't really like the Giambi signing for what it represented and ultimately it was a bad deal, but Wallace goes a little overboard. Also, to be fair, Giambi was a class above Teixeira at the time.
[6] Giambi was a very productive offensive player, so the deal is really not as a bad as most think. Clearly, G's rapid defensive decline and steroid issue were damaging to his overall value, but ultimately he did produce. I also think people's perceptions are colored by the backloaded nature of that contract, which saw Giambi paid the highest salaries during his least productive seasons.
All in all, I think the Yankees pretty much broke even with Giambi, who has you mentioned, was an offensive player on par with Pujols and Manny at the time of the signing.
[7] I still think it was a bad deal, and it really went rotten in a poetic kind of way. Like I say, I disliked what iit represented in terms of the team. But it was a bad deal because ultimately they didn't get what they paid for; he never equalled what he had been and he certainly didn't exceed it.
Ingratiatingly smarmy? Is that what they call nice nowadays? He was beloved by his teammates and generous to a fault. Are we New Yorkers so cynical that we can't appreciate some decency? Come to think of it, I'm not sure I can.
I ageree that the back end of the contract in the midst of his decline ( I cringed when he had to throw a ball) made it appear that we weren't getting a good return on investment. However, I never had one of those visceral we-have-to-getrid-of-this-guy fits of pique.
[3] http://tinyurl.com/6osng2
Pigs, however, are another story. : )
[9] I was so taken aback by Gammons' use of "smarmy" to describe Giambi that I had to go look it up to make sure I'd been using it correctly all these years.
M-W defines smarmy as "revealing or marked by a smug, ingratiating, or false earnestness." That's never been my impression of Giambi. Earnest, yes, but never falsely so, and certainly not smug. Even the use if "ingratiatingly" smacks of fakeness. I like A-Rod a lot, but I think that "ingratiatingly smarmy" could be fairly used to describe his public face much of the time. Giambi? No way.
I have no love for Peter Gammons and his shriveled up turkey neck. I find him a disgrace to sports journalism. He is getting more insane and apparent with his hate for all things Yankee.
I stay away from Gammons, to me Kurkjian and Olney are great reads. I don't care if anyone criticizes the Yanks, their players, coaches, ownership, etc, but I hate the way Gammons tries to make it sound so genuine and with merit.
He should go play his guitar with Theo so he can keep thinking like he's relevant.
In the words of Tony Montana, eff'em.
[5] "Finally, I am not sure why so many writers are getting hung on the it “doesn’t guarantee them anything” theme because it’s really a facile argument. Of course, the Yankees are not guaranteed anything…this is sports for goodness sakes."
So true. But what gets me even more is that the same hand-wringing media who complain that the Yankees are ruining the game by "buying championships," which supposedly undermines if not eliminates competition, then turn around and gloat that Yankees' spending does not guarantee championships. Well which is it boys?
Peter Gammons is so twisted and bent out of shape about the Yankees signing Mark Teixeira that he's making snide comments about the man's *wife* interviews now.
I could almost understand and even laugh at the old coot when he did his blatant Red Sox shilling on ESPN over the last x number of years. "Defective baseball" will always go down as one of my all time favorite baseball moments, and it occurred during a meaningless game in the middle of May.
But really, when you get to the point that you start bitching about another man's wife in public, its time to retire.
I used to like Gammons commentary, and at times still do, but his comments on the Tex situation, especially regarding Tex's wife not liking the shopping on Newberry St sounds more like high school gossip than sound reporting. He truly is a Boston homer and unless he wants to further lose credibility in journalism, should quit reporting stupid petty stuff such as 'tension between Arod and Tex' and the inability of 'Arod and Jeter' to communicate.
[1] You took the words right out of my mouth. There was another place that completely forget about Winfield and his ten-year contract - I want to say it was the MLB Network, but I'm not sure. They were talking about long-term contracts and they completely missed Winfield.
How anyone could is beyond me.
[14] et al - I too used to love Gammons, but now I avoid his stuff. It makes me sad. He seems to "play to the crowd" when he's in a Boston-area publication or show, but is usually much more reasonable and objective when he's not - or when the Red Sox are otherwise not involved. I greatly miss the old Peter Gammons, who was a national baseball journalist first and foremost, and was the same everywhere. I don't understand the change at all, and I don't like it.
By the way, there is no way the Yanks are trading Swisher unless they get back a RF or LF in return. They need him for the next few years, badly.
Damon and Matsui's contracts expire at the end of this season, Nady is a free agent (for the first time ever, AND, BTW, a Boras client), and the only OF bat of any real value on the market next offseason is Holliday. And its even worse if you look ahead to the 2010 offseason.
Finally, the only OF prospect anywhere near helping is Jackson in CF. Shoot, the 40-man roster has but 6 OF on it: Nady, Damon, Matsui, Swisher, Melky (CF) and Gardner (CF). I can't see the Yanks getting, in trade, a guy who's Swisher's age or younger, has the same good-to-great bat AND glove at BOTH corners (and can cover 1B as needed), and is as cheap as Swisher is for the next 4 years.
Its much ado about nothing.
[1] Winfield, like Moose, never won a world championship. But Goose did, and the Yanks signed him a year after they signed Reggie.
[17] And more recently, Wade Boggs and Jimmy Key helped deliver the 1996 World Series crown.
[7] A decline through the life of the contract certainly should have been expected (burly sluggers generally do not age well), so Giambi met expectations for 4 of his 7 Yankee seasons:
2002 (Age 31): 155 games, 172 OPS+
2005 (34): 139, 161
2006 (35): 139, 148
2008 (37): 145, 128
The other three years were disappointments:
2003 (32): 156, 148
2004 (33): 80, 90
2007 (36): 83, 108
[17] [18] I reject outright the notion that the player (I thought it was team) has to win a WS crown for his free agent signing to have "worked out." But your general point is well taken, that there have been numerous FA signings since Reggie, some of them high profile, that have worked out fine for the Yankees.
[22] Decline or not, it's pretty hard to consider Giambi 2003 a disappointment.
Shaun,
The fact that Gammons used to be credible probably is the worst part of all this. If this was, for example, Michael Kay behaving like this over the last however many years, you could write it off. But Gammons very suddenly turned unto this insufferable homer after years of building a reputation. The mini-feud with Carl Pavano over who Pavano rooted for growing up should have been warning signals. Uttering the words "defective baseball" on a nationally televised broadcast should have had ESPN questioning what the hell was going on.
But this bitter, whiny, rude, and frankly mean spirited interview with a snarky comment thrown at a ballplayer's wife is so far beyond acceptable.
Mattpat, you're exactly right, and that's what makes me so sad. I met Gammons very briefly at one of his pre-2003 "Hot Stove, Cool Music" events, and he couldn't have been a nicer guy, or more objective when talking about the Yanks and the Sox (and everything else).
[21] If you sign a reigning MVP at age 31, you should expect 3 years of MVP-caliber performance. An OPS+ of 148 for a first baseman (51.8 VORP) is not an MVP-caliber performance (despite the BBWAA voters who voted for Morneau or Howard this year). Thus Giambi's 2003 campaign was indeed a disappointment.
[22] et al...right on!
Gammons is a bitch.
Frankly I'm psyched about Gammons' asinine comments because it will motivate Tex that much more to rake against Boston (not that I doubted his motivation after the introduction!)
[24] If I sign the reigning MVP at age 31, I pretty much don't expect him ever to repeat his MVP performance. However, if I was asked if I would be satisfied that he would lead his team in nearly every important offensive category at age 32, I'd be pretty satisfied.
Giambi had OPS+ of 126, 130, 153, 187, 197, 172, 148 at age 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32. That is almost a perfect career arc. 148 OPS+ at age 32 was perfectly predictable. To be disappointed with that is to have unrealistic expectations.
[20] Winning the World Series is more than just the goal of the Yankee organization. It's an essential part of their business model, especially when there is another team playing across the Triboro. When the Yankees invest in a big-ticket free agent, they expect either a sustenance of World Series glory (in the cases of Gossage and Mussina) or a return to World Series glory (in the cases of Jackson, Winfield, Boggs, Key and Giambi) as the return on their investment.
Actually, I would say that no free agent signings "worked out" as perfectly as those of Boggs and Key. They were brought on to be veteran role models to guide a young team toward a championship, and they did exactly that.
[26] If a 25% drop in production (197 to 148) in his first two years (and continued decline from there) was perfectly predictable, then it was a bad contract. The Yankees' expectations were probably for an arc that hit the "good spots" (172 at 31, 161 at 34, 148 at 35, 128 at 37).
[28] Then it was a bad contract. Really, your expectations are, IMO, unrealistic. The dude was not going to OPS+ near 200 for the length of the contract. The Yankees will always overpay in years and $$$ to get what they want. If you expect Giambi or CC or Teixera, etc, to produce at their MVP/Cy Young peak for the whole contracts you will have to get used to disappointment.
I, on the other hand, recognize that the Yankees will always pay too much to get the big fish. Therefore, I adjust my expectations accordingly. As for good contracts or bad contracts--I think that this is largely an irrelevant issue.
[27] "Essential part of their business model"...and yet, they are making money hand over fist despite a relative drought in WS championships. I think your understanding of the Yankee business model is perhaps flawed.
From the standpoint of competition on the field, it is IMO deeply wrongheaded to "blame" (essentially) one player for a team's failings. The Yankees did not win the WS from 1979 through 1996. However, this was not the "fault" of Winfield (for example), who was more years than not the best player on the team. The Yankees got what they paid for from Winfield. That they screwed up with the rest of the roster is independent of the goodness or badness or paidoffness of his individual contract.
[27] "Actually, I would say that no free agent signings “worked out” as perfectly as those of Boggs and Key. They were brought on to be veteran role models to guide a young team toward a championship, and they did exactly that."
I believe that your memory is at least partially mistaken. The Yankees signed Key when negotiations with Maddux (and also Bonds!) fell through. Key was NOT signed for his veteran leadership. Rather, he was the big signing for the team in 1992/1993, whose role was to be the anchor of the pitching staff. That the team around him happened to get better by 1996 so that, as his skills declined after a major injury, the team won, says little about his initial contract. His contract "paid off" not because the happened to win the WS, but because e was a very good pitcher for three out of four years with the team (the other lost to injury).
way late here, catching up on the Banter..
Gammons..that interview is almost hard to believe..I don't mean this in a nasty way at all but I wonder if he has not been the "same" since his illness..?? I know from some family members that post-illness their comments seem to come out with little filter..can't think of any other explanation for that comment on Tex's wife, that was just bizarre...not familiar with the "defective baseball" incident though..
Giambi...not the best, not the worst signing, but see little value in even discussing it now, is the Hot Stove that boring that the tabloids need to get into that??
[18] Winfield won a title with the Jays in 1992.