Arizona and Philly in the NFC title game …. in Arizona?

Back to baseball:

• Michael Silverman at the Boston Herald reports that the recent Teixeira two-step has left the BoSox with some animosity towards Scott Boras:

The Sox, meanwhile, are, at least for now, done with Boras. One well-placed source said the club will never deal with him again unless it can be guaranteed that talks are being conducted honestly. We would take that threat a little more seriously if Boras’ clientele list were to shrink dramatically, but since that is not realistic, we will take it as a sign of just how badly the club felt it got stung by lies from Boras. They are in a “fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me” mode right now, with the Teixeira talks feeling like the last straw to them.

Before Teixeira, it was the failed negotiations with another Boras client, right-handed high school pitcher Alex Meyer, the Sox’ 20th-round draft pick this past summer, who came close to signing but ultimately turned down what was estimated to be a $2 million signing bonus. Before Meyer, it was some needless and excessive behind-the-scenes drama in the Daisuke Matsuzaka talks in December 2006, the Johnny Damon talks a year earlier and of course the Alex Rodriguez talks after the 2003 season.

Having lost out on Teixeira, the Red Sox feel an urgency about their offense. Their inquiry to the Marlins about Hanley Ramirez’ availability speaks to that. As good as the core of the lineup still is, there is a pressing need to beef up with an elite slugger. Teixeira was that guy, and he was the perfect guy. To complain about the process, or Boras, publicly would smack of sour grapes. The Sox know this. Boras is not going away and the Red Sox’ resources and long-term strategy survived the latest Boras encounter.

Still, Teixeira left the club somewhat shell-shocked, some executives taking it more personally than others. It will take a bit longer for the shock and the hurt to dissipate.

• Jack Curry of the Times reflects on the similarities between Rickey Henderson … and Manny Ramirez:

“Rickey did his own thing,” said (Dennis) Eckersley, who was Henderson’s teammate on the A’s. “I never saw anyone like him. It’s like Manny being Manny. Rickey was Rickey.”

Even though Henderson was more known for his speed and scoring runs and Ramirez is more known for his hitting and driving in runs, they have a lot in common. (Don) Mattingly said that Rickey used to disrupt opponents and Manny does that now, forcing them to plan strategy around one dominant player and to worry about might happen next.

“Rickey was a lot like Manny, just in a different way,” Mattingly said. “He changed the game. Manny can do that, too.”

When Mattingly was Henderson’s teammate on the Yankees, he was amazed with how flawless Henderson’s hitting mechanics were and how knowledgeable Henderson was about the strike zone. Mattingly said that it was difficult to know how good Henderson was without being his teammate.

When Mattingly was Ramirez’s coach last season, he saw some of the traits he used to see in Henderson. Ramirez has the same type of plate discipline, work ethic and confidence. In addition, Mattingly said Henderson and Ramirez are both much more intelligent players than they are perceived to be.

• Curry has another article with a deeper appreciation of Rickey:

Henderson stole more bases (1,406) and scored more runs (2,295) than anyone, he had the second-most walks (2,190), and he notched 3,055 hits, regal statistics that prove he was a tremendous player. Henderson was also the best at talking about himself.

He needed no coaxing to cruise into Rickey-speak, a mixture of a streetwise preacher and an eccentric professor. He would talk about how he felt or how his salary was unfair or who owed him money from card games or about teammates whose names he did not recall. Through all of Henderson’s chatter, Don Mattingly considered him a baseball savant.

“He kind of got his words jumbled sometimes so some people thought that he wasn’t smart,” said Mattingly, Henderson’s teammate on the Yankees. “But he was. Rickey knew exactly what was going on.”

Eckersley called Henderson “a game changer,” a disruptive force with a strike zone as small as a shoe box. Seeing Henderson lope to the plate and crouch into his stance was nightmarish for pitchers. O.K., Henderson’s body language shouted, try to throw me a strike. Once pitchers did, Henderson would use a swing that Mattingly called, “one of the best I’ve ever seen” to connect.

• Kevin Kernan of the Post has an article which shows that there is mutual admiration between Teixeira and Mattingly:

“Teixeira’s a great player, there’s no question about that and I appreciate the way he plays and I think the Yankee fans are going to enjoy him,” Donnie Baseball said. “I had lunch with him a few years back, so I knew he was a fan. He seemed like a really good kid.”

Told that a Mattingly poster remains on the wall of Teixeira’s old bedroom at his parent’s home, Mattingly laughed and said, “Oh, geez.”

It is the way that Teixeira plays the game, with respect, the same way the Yankees New York Yankees captain played it, that impresses Mattingly most.

“That’s a great feeling to realize you had impact on somebody by really just being myself, more than anything. That’s the best part because I never really tried to be a role model or anything like,” said Mattingly, who once again will be Joe Torre’s hitting coach with the Dodgers in 2009. “I really tried to be myself and play the game the way I learned to play it and love playing it and when that rubs off, it’s kind of a nice thing to see.”

Mattingly said he can see some of his style in the switch-hitting Teixeira.

“His swing is a little different than mine in that he is more of an upper-cutter, more of a power swing than I had him,” the former MVP said. “But when you look at guys and you hope that you shaped the way they play and I see some of that when I look at him.”

• At ESPN.com, Buster Olney leads us through the red tape of Type A free agents and compensation picks:

I wrote earlier this week about the weird box in which some of the unsigned Type A free agents — like Cabrera and Varitek — are trapped. Some teams like those players, but are turned off by the idea of giving up a top draft pick to sign one of them, which kills the players’ market values.

Theoretically, the Yankees could provide some relief. Because they already have signed three Type A free agents — Mark Teixeira, CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett — they are set to surrender their picks in the first, second and third rounds. It really wouldn’t hurt them to sign another Type A free agent, because all they would give up would be their fourth-round pick. Signing Cabrera, for example, would cost them significantly less than it would cost the Marlins.

In theory, let’s say the Marlins needed a shortstop (we know they don’t) and wanted to sign Cabrera to a two-year, $16 million deal — but they didn’t want to give up their top draft pick to do it. They could, in theory, pick up the phone and ask the Yankees to sign Cabrera to what the Marlins wanted to pay; the Yankees would give up only a fourth-round pick, and the Marlins could trade a prospect to the Yankees to offset the value of the fourth-round pick. Cabrera would have to waive his right to block the trade because any free agent signing a multiyear deal cannot be traded until June.

In short, Cabrera could get the contract he wanted, the Marlins could get the player they wanted and the Yankees could get a little extra value for their fourth-round pick. Everybody would win except the White Sox (who presumably would be apoplectic, because they are in line to get a first-round pick). Makes some sense, eh?

• MLB.com reports that 2007 1st round pick Andrew Brackman, recovering from TJ surgery, should be with the club for spring training next month.
• The Post has a rundown on the Fall and Winter League performance of some of the Yanks prospects.  Of note:

The returns from stud center fielder Austin Jackson in the Arizona Fall League were underwhelming – more than one strikeout per four at-bats, a .298 on-base percentage, and worst of all for the gifted speedster, two stolen bases in 28 games.

• Andy Fox turns 38 today.
• On this date in 1984, FA Goose Gossage leaves the Yankees and signs with the San Diego Padres. He’ll save 25 games in 1984 and help the Padres to their first appearance in the World Series.
• On this date in 1997, the Padres acquire the rights to 27-year-old pitcher Hideki Irabu from the Chiba Lotte Marines. Irabu says he only wants to play for the Yankees.