EVIL~! alkeiper

If I hear one more post about how a team needs seven proven starters just in case, I'm going to scream.

Of course you're right. I'm just looking at a value loss/added view. It just illustrates a point that although the Yankees added a bunch of expensive talent, they also lost a lot. You're right, the Yankees have #'s 29 and 76. But then the Yankees got them by losing two early picks last year, so it works out even. There are six supplemental picks so far, and nine more Type A free agents are on the market. That could work out to 15 total, if they all choose different teams.

I wonder how this will effect Ryan Howard's next arbitration figure.

Good call! Jones vs. Valiant appeared on Starrcades two years apart!

Now, for the non-Yankee fans, here's why the team is still in trouble. 1. The Yankees really haven't gotten better. Abreu, Mussina, Giambi and Pettitte produced exactly the same win shares last season as Teixeira, Sabathia and Burnett combined. The real question for the Yankees is whether or not they get improved contributions from Chien-Ming Wang, Phil Hughes, Jorge Posada and Joba Chamberlain. 2. Their core players are into their 30s, including Posada, Jeter, Rodriguez, Damon and Matsui. These guys are more likely to get worse than get better. 3. Derek Jeter is still the starting shortstop. C.C. Sabathia may not look so good when all those grounders start rolling past him. 4. The Yankees surrendered three rounds of draft picks. Four years from now they've got a lost draft and a bunch of aging players. You think they'd learn by now.

Wasn't Gumby's contract $160 over 8 years? Backloaded, so the last years of the contract were around $23 million a year. The Yankees lost Jason Giambi, Bobby Abreu, Mike Mussina this offseason, and maybe Andy Pettitte as well. I'm not going to begrudge them signing three free agents.

Well the Yankees DID need a first baseman. You know what's truly crazy? If 8 years, $170 million is accurate, they are actually saving money over their former first baseman.

I just think any team signing Teixeira to this type of contract is lunacy. He's not a HOF caliber player. His last two years have been good, but among the great players I also spot players like Andre Thornton, Alvin Davis and Howard Johnson who had similar age 27-28 seasons. When Alex Rodriguez got his first contract he'd had four seasons better than Teixeira's best.

BA ranked them Anderson one, Bowden two. I buy that, Anderson hits for average, power, and sports good plate discipline. He's 20 and has already handled pitchers as high as AA.

Really? Bay and Drew have .500+ career slugging percentages. I'd have no issue batting them cleanup in my lineup.

I'm trying to figure out why the Red Sox are/were determined to sign Teixeira in the first place. A. They won 95 games last year. B. They have both a good 1B and DH in place. C. Their #1 prospect is a 1B with a .400+ career minor league OBP. Now I can understand making an incremental improvement if you have the opportunity and can get a good player at a good price. But for $180 million?!

Remember when I-Rod signed with the Marlins and we all laughed?

He's from Maryland. How on Earth are we going to paint this as a negative?

ARE there any top heavyweights? He just faced a top five guy and from all accounts outclassed him in the ring. It's a bit surprising that Holyfield has only been KO'ed twice.

The Dusty/Corino match is on Dusty's dvd. I don't remember black & white there but I'll double check. It doesn't bother me personally. What an awful match that six man is. It's almost good in a bad sort of way. Styles' commentary is WAY over the top, and the weapon shots looked terrible. Having a battle royal break out at the end was cool though.

Watching the Glory Days documentary of the 1980 Phillies, former owner Ruly Carpenter mentioned a potential trade with the Texas Rangers over the winter of 1979 that would have removed three star performers of the 1980 season. Narrator Dallas Green states, "of course, we won't mention the players involved," while showing a clip of Tug McGraw. What was that trade? What would it have entailed? Paperofrecord.com carries archives of the Sporting News. Searching for "McGraw" over the period of 1979 would bring up potential trade rumors, I would think. Sure enough, we find our answer. The Phillies seemed keen on acquiring an ace reliever. Whispers of offers to the Cubs for Bruce Sutter are mentioned, but the big one is a package to the Rangers for Sparky Lyle. Specifically, the Phillies would have sent Tug McGraw, Larry Christenson and Bake McBride to the Rangers for Sparky Lyle, outfielder Johnny Grubb, reliever Adrian Devine and maybe shortstop Pepe Frias. Swapping Lyle for McGraw must have looked good at the time. Sparky Lyle at the time was the greatest lefty reliever of all time. Lyle however was hanging on the precipice. He bombed in 1980, producing a 4.69 ERA with Texas. Tug McGraw meanwhile battled tendonitis, but after a three week stint on the DL he came back and posted an amazing 0.52 ERA from July through the end of the season. I count 12 one-run victories among his appearances. Given that the Phillies won the NL East by a single game, surely that trade costs them the pennant. The rest of the package looks a little more interesting. Bake McBride was the starting right fielder and a good player. McBride hit .309 in 1980 with 52 extra base hits. Among right fielders, he was middle of the pack. Grubb meanwhile was a lefty slugger, a tremendous platoon player in the era. With Grubb, the Phillies likely platoon him in right field with blazing rookie Lonnie Smith. Offensively that's a good move. Defensively with Smith in right and Greg Luzinski in left? Thank god Maddox was the Secretary of Defense. Adrian Devine had a good ERA in 1979 but it was a fluke. He struck out merely 22 batters in 66.7 innings pitched. Sure enough, he had a 4.82 ERA the next season and never again pitched in the Majors. Frias was just an awful hitter. So that trade costs them 1980. McBride faded after the season. Christenson gave the Phillies about 350 quality innings the rest of his career. McGraw had another good season in 1981 and hung on three more years. Grubb was a quality player but not a star. Oddly, the Phillies snagged Sparky Lyle later in the season in a September trade, sending Kevin Saucier after the season for a PTBNL. 1981 was the strike year, that is almost impossible to gauge. One wonders if the Phillies in 1982 could have contended without Christenson pitching a full season. And of course in '83 they won the pennant. In retrospect, the trade costs them a World Championship. Thank goodness it did not happen.

The AP's version of events. And SI.com's blogger.

This is why us east coasters get aggravated come playoff time. As for CBS, I don't think they got hosed. The guy doesn't win anything extra for being exactly right. Heck, it could be perfectly legitimate. They've had what, over 15,000 guesses over their lifespan? Someone is bound to get lucky.

How pathetic is it that the most trumped up heavyweight fighters of our decade (I'm looking at you too Johnny Ruiz) can't even dispatch Evander Holyfield in his 40s?

Joe Sheehan? Is that you? I haven't read much of Sheehan lately, so I don't understand the joke. Daniel Cabrera is Washington bound on a one year contract.

Probably not in those words. Baltimore with Teixeira would have a chance to become a competitive team. That would give them a core of Teixeira, Brian Roberts, Nick Markakis, Matt Weiters and Adam Jones. Four of those guys could be top 5 at their positions within the next two years. I'd like to see Teixeira to the Nationals. They need a good player, and it'd give more star power to the National League as well.

Ellis was part of three notable games. 1. He pitched a no hitter, while on the influence of LSD. 2. He pitched a game against the Reds where he determined to hit every batter he faced. He hit Rose, Morgan and Dan Driessen, and walked Tony Perez trying to hit him. 3. He was the starting pitcher the game Pittsburgh fielded the first all black/latino starting nine in MLB history.

Nah. I noticed the last post on the main page.

I'm on record with my Belle & Sebastian love. Tigermilk, If You're Feeling Sinister and The Life Pursuit are all excellent albums. Check out "Meat and Potatoes" if you can find it, it's a b-side from the Funny Little Frog single.

I have a sneaking suspicion that the State of Pennsylvania is going to have to pay for a lot of those problems too. Actually, Hanover Township is just across the river in New Jersey.