Cliff Lee is the object of the Yankees’ desire and Brian Cashman has not minced words in swooning over the star pitcher. Now that the Red Sox have signed Carl Crawford to a crazy deal the pressure is on for the Yanks to keep pace. I’ve gotten used to Lee as a nemesis and wonder if he’ll end up back with the Rangers or even the Angels though I certainly wouldn’t be surprised if he comes to the Bronx either.

The Yanks sound desperate to get him. The latest has them going to seven years. Is that knuts, a wild pitch, or just the price of doing business?

Speaking of wild pitch, dig this great marathon MC Serch and OC freestyle from the old Stretch Armstrong Show:

And if that’s not your speed, how about this:

Or, for those of you who speak Spanish:

Update: Chad Jennings with some Rule 5 fun.

Update: Over at Newsday, Ken Dawidoff breaks down Derek Jeter’s new contract.

Update: Joel Sherman has the details on several contract offers the Yanks have made to Cliff Lee.

Well, I keep trying to write a Cliff Lee post and the latest news keeps changing. Yesterday the reported rumor, which remains unconfirmed, was that two “mystery teams,” not the Yankees or Rangers, were willing to offer a seven year contract. This seems hard to swallow, however, since at that point the Yankees hadn’t even been given the chance to make an official offer. Today, we heard that New York may be plotting a six-year, $140-150 million offer, which sounds to me much more probable, but also like the outer edge of reasonableness. By now they may well have made it. And in his Winter Meetings press conference today, Joe Girardi called Lee “everything you want” and described him as “important” to the Yankees’ plans.

I wouldn’t be too upset if the Yanks miss out on Lee – as Cliff Corcoran and others have pointed out this offseason, there’s very good reason to be wary of signing a pitcher like Lee to a big, long term contract. It would help the Yankees next year but likely trip them up by 2015, if not sooner. And while I would love to watch Cliff Lee pitch every five days, because the man is an artist, I just don’t know that it will justify the long-term price.

Anyway, the absolute latest news is that Lee’s agent is leaving the winter meetings (with the cryptic words “We’re going somewhere.” Right. I hope he meant “we’re getting somewhere,” but that’s only slightly more illuminating). So nobody knows anything yet.

Wait — scratch that: bowing to their destiny, the Royals have signed Jeff Francoeur, just as you knew they would. Bring on the equally inevitable epic Posnanski post!

UPDATE: The Yankees did indeed make an offer today, widely reported as six years and in the neighborhood of $140 million. I’ll be curious to see if there really was any “mystery team” out there willing to go seven years.

Some fans love to play armchair manager or, especially these days, armchair GM. I like to play armchair shrink, not because I have any training as a social worker or as a doctor but because in an era where athletes are over-exposed and yet distant and sheltered, I find it amusing. It floats my boat, being a yenta. And when you get right down to it, so much of sports coverage these days is about being a yenta. The truth of it is we don’t know anything about these guys. Derek Jeter, Jim Thome, name a “good guy.” I have no idea what they are really like and I don’t know that I’d trust any writer–especially a writer–who claimed to know otherwise.

Some of my baseball pals don’t want to know anything about the players. Just keep it to the playing field. The more they know, the harder it would be to root. But it has always been complicated to separate the artist from his or her work. What do you think of when you watch Charlie Chaplin? Or Woody Allen? Can you watch a Roman Polanski movie and not think about the man behind the camera? What about Elia Kazan? My wife won’t watch any movie with Mel Gibson anymore. Can you watch Alex Rodriguez and still enjoy him? Can you enjoy sports and art without being a moralist? I can, but sometimes it is easier than others.

So I enjoyed the show of emotion from Derek Jeter yesterday and had fun reading into it. Helps keep me warm as the weather gets colder.

Today is the third day of the winter meetings. Still nothing doing on Cliff Lee though the tweets and posts keep a coming.

We’ll keep ya posted…

Update: Yanks getting ready to show Cliff Lee their money-maker?

Here’s Chad Jennings on Carl Crawford.

There was a press conference in Boston yesterday to introduce Adrian Gonzalez as the newest member of the Red Sox. 

“I’m very excited that everything was able to be worked out,” Gonzalez said, “and I’m very excited to be here in Boston, and ready to beat the Yanks.”

That was cute, trying to fit in on the first day. It just about sums up the difference between the Yankees and the Sox. You’ll never hear a star player in New York mention the Red Sox in his debut press conference (okay, maybe Johnny Damon did, but that’s different). Gonzalez is a load as a player and I’m sure he’ll cause some real agita next year. But this was cute.

All eyes remain on Cliff Lee. He’s been such a good nemesis for the Yanks the past few years now I’m starting to feel that he’s going to foil them again, leaving us with uncertain thoughts about A.J. Burnett to keep us warm this winter. If the Yanks lose out on Lee and Andy Pettitte retires, we’ll have something to chew on, won’t we?

Update: The Nats are hungry to be Money Boss Players.

Update: Cause for celebration: Jay Jaffe has been elected to the BBWAA.

I went to the winter meetings once, back in 2003. I shared a room with Jay who was the first blogger I ever met (lunch at Christine’s polish diner on 1st Avenue, February, 2003). I am thrilled by this news. Few are more deserving than Jay. Raise a glass with me!

Update: Nah, it’s not the Nats who supposedly have a 7 year offer out there for Lee. But it is someone, according to Jon Heyman.

First night of the Meetings. Nothing big to report for the Yanks yet.

Dandy Don Meredith passed away today and we lost a guy who used to make us laugh. The Jets and Pats play a Monday Night football game tonight that actually means something, a throwback to Meredith’s day. It is a big, over-hyped game and I’m eager to see it though I will feel no pain at the outcome–ah, the pleasures of being a slave to just one team! That said, Let’s Go Jets.

Otherwise, if I hear anything on the baseball front I’ll let you know and vice versa.

Update: Here’s a nice wrap-up of today’s Yankee doings from Chad Jennings.

[detail of painting by Fred Garbers]

Once again, Marvin Miller has been left out of the Hall of Fame – this time by a single vote.

Pat Gillick got voted in. Nothing against Pat Gillick, who as they say is “a good baseball man,” but he was not one tenth as influential on Major League Baseball as Miller was. And I believe George Steinbrenner should be put  in as well – he didn’t get the votes, this time – but I imagine that he’ll get there at some point in the future; whereas it seems likely, at this point, that Miller never will.

Almost none of my reaction to this is printable (so to speak) on a family blog. It’s just so infuriatingly stupid, or spiteful, or both. I’ll let Miller speak for himself, something he is, as always, more than capable of doing. USA Today quotes from the statement he released:

“The Baseball Hall of Fame’s vote (or non-vote) of December 5, hardly qualifies as a news story. It is repetitively negative, easy to forecast, and therefore boring.

“A long time ago, it became apparent that the Hall sought to bury me long before my time, as a metaphor for burying the union and eradicating its real influence. Its failure is exemplified by the fact that I and the union of players have received far more support, publicity, and appreciation from countless fans, former players, writers, scholars, experts in labor management relations, than if the Hall had not embarked on its futile and fraudulent attempt to rewrite history. It is an amusing anomaly that the Hall of Fame has made me famous by keeping me out.”

Miller has made a point of never groveling or indeed campaigning at all for a place in the Hall of Fame, and he’s not changing course now. And he’s right here: the Hall is a repository of baseball history, but it’s not the only one. Anyone interested in the facts can do a little research and decide for themselves just how important a role Marvin Miller played, and his lack of inclusion in the Hall of Fame takes nothing away from his accomplishments. And for such an anti-establishment figure, maybe that really is more fitting.

Still, I would sure love to have a word with the  committee members who didn’t vote for him. That word wouldn’t be printable, either.

The Winter Meetings opens on a busy not as the Red Sox will get Adrain Gonzalez after all.

Jayson Werth, to the Nats, for many dollars.

Hey, Now. And they’re just getting warmed up.