The 2008 MLB Offseason Thread

[Dobbs 3K 0]

I almost hope they do sign him, just to add to the hilarity. It would pretty much force MLB to take a long hard look at the situation, which I don't think they'll really do as it stands today.

[Brett Favre 0]

Don't be upset at the Yankees. Be upset at the Pirates for not using any money. There are 66 Type A/Type B free agents. The Yankees haven't signed all of them.

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

So then why did Boston let him go the first time?

He was coming off the worst season of his career and he had a myriad of personal issues. The decision to let Lowe go in 2004 had more to do with his attitude and off-the-field stuff than his pitching. By all accounts, he's cleaned up his act considerably over the past four years.

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

Don't be upset at the Yankees. Be upset at Going back a bit, it turns out the Yankees can sign Manny Ramirez because there are more than 62 Type A/Type B FAs:...

 

...There are 66 Type A/Type B free agents. The Yankees haven't signed all of them.

Where did you get that number, CW? I have it at less than 62.

 

Even if the number is greater than 62, I believe that the number you can sign has some relation to the number lost. You can sign N (where N is players lost) or 3, but not N+3... something like that. I honestly am not smart enough to explain it. Suffice to say, everything I read would indicate that the Yankees are done signing A/B free agents.

[Brett Favre 0]

It turns out that there are 62 type A/B FAs, but 66 in total, and it depends on how many FAs in total. We'll see.

 

I think they lost four (Abreu, Mussina, Giambi, Rodriguez) but I'm not sure if Mussina counts because he retired.

 

 

[Shooter in a Wedding Dress 0]

When I said "better at the game", I meant it in the same sense Henry did when he said they were no longer in a position to financially compete with the Yankees. We won, everyone tried to be us, but 8 years later there is still only one Yankees. This is a team that's the focus of the biggest city in the world of course they're gonna have more money than anyone else. The day I start seeing Brewer's hat's on people who don't follow baseball in Arizona or fucking Hawaii I'll concede that the Yankees are no longer the best at "the game".

 

For all this talk about the Yankees ruining baseball I'd love to see how the ratings are affected by people tuning just in the hopes that the Yankee's fail. Of course we've got more money, we've got more haters than most teams have fans.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

So popularity equals success. Got it.

 

For all this talk about the Yankees ruining baseball I'd love to see how the ratings are affected by people tuning just in the hopes that the Yankee's fail.

 

Glad you asked. Ratings are way down.

[garfieldsnose 0]

Lots of cockiness coming from the Yanks fans here.

[garfieldsnose 0]

So popularity equals success. Got it.

 

For all this talk about the Yankees ruining baseball I'd love to see how the ratings are affected by people tuning just in the hopes that the Yankee's fail.

 

Glad you asked. Ratings are way down.

 

Betcha it's because the Yankees haven't won the WS. That's what everyone and their mother supposedly want to see, right?

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

So popularity equals success. Got it.

 

For all this talk about the Yankees ruining baseball I'd love to see how the ratings are affected by people tuning just in the hopes that the Yankee's fail.

 

Glad you asked. Ratings are way down.

 

Betcha it's because the Yankees haven't won the WS. That's what everyone and their mother supposedly want to see, right?

Fun fact: The highest rated World Series in history was Phillies/Royals in 1980.

 

And to counter the cockiness, if Yankee fans want to see world series winners in Yankee Stadium, the date is May 22-24.

[Brett Favre 0]

I'm sure the Yankees can look at the mirror other days of the year.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

I'm sure the Yankees can look at the mirror other days of the year.

For the record, I don't wish to be antagonistic towards you or some of the other Yankee fans on this board. There are certain fans that just inspire it.

[garfieldsnose 0]

Look in the mirror to see what? It's not like this group of players got them their 26 World Championships. Putting on the Yankee pinstripes doesn't automatically make you a winner.

[the max 0]

[The Niggardly King 0]

[bob_barron 0]

So popularity equals success. Got it.

 

For all this talk about the Yankees ruining baseball I'd love to see how the ratings are affected by people tuning just in the hopes that the Yankee's fail.

 

Glad you asked. Ratings are way down.

 

Betcha it's because the Yankees haven't won the WS. That's what everyone and their mother supposedly want to see, right?

Fun fact: The highest rated World Series in history was Phillies/Royals in 1980.

 

And to counter the cockiness, if Yankee fans want to see world series winners in Yankee Stadium, the date is May 22-24.

 

Fun fact: Comparing ratings from the 1980s to today is apples and oranges.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

Ok Bob, they also outdrew any individual series in the 1980s.

[Failed Bridge 0]

I wonder what the price tag on Ben Sheets looks like right now. I'd just like to see Tek resigned, the bench bolstered (love to see Kotsay come back), and another starter added (Penny or Sheets if the price is right).

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

I wonder what the price tag on Ben Sheets looks like right now. I'd just like to see Tek resigned, the bench bolstered (love to see Kotsay come back), and another starter added (Penny or Sheets if the price is right).

I bet the question is years rather than money.

[KingPK 0]

Penny maybe, but I'd rather they keep developing someone like Masterston or Buchholz instead of giving an injury risk like Sheets 3 or 4 years. Varitek I'd only like back for one year so they can focus on finding their catcher of the future; I have very little hope that he will be anything but a sub-.250 hitter.

[YourKock'sReallyGreat 0]

It's being reported that the Nationals offered Tex 5 million more total than he received from the Yankees.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

Sheets will be lucky if he can find anything more than a two year deal from any team right now, unless he's willing to take a huge discount. I'm guessing he'll end up signing somewhere for 2 years and maybe 20-25 million or so.

[Shooter in a Wedding Dress 0]

Al can I ask where you get ratings for a season that hasn't happened yet? I was talking about the year coming up my friend, the Yankees haven't inspired this kind of backlash in years and I guarantee you a lot of the people here griping about how it's ruining baseball will be following very closely so they can be one of the first to say "see I told you so!!!!".

 

It's hilarious, they're spending LESS than they did last year at this point, yet when that money was going to Giambi and Pavano no one seemed to be talking about how the Yankees were ruining baseball. Now that they put that money towards actually good players that other fans thought they'd see on their team, the Yankee's are evil and ruining baseball again.

 

Sorry for being happy that my team has a really good shot this year. I forgot I root for the Yankee's, I won't be allowed to justify my fandom until they all make under a million a year.

[Psycho Penguin 0]

Al can I ask where you get ratings for a season that hasn't happened yet? I was talking about the year coming up my friend, the Yankees haven't inspired this kind of backlash in years and I guarantee you a lot of the people here griping about how it's ruining baseball will be following very closely so they can be one of the first to say "see I told you so!!!!".

 

It's hilarious, they're spending LESS than they did last year at this point, yet when that money was going to Giambi and Pavano no one seemed to be talking about how the Yankees were ruining baseball. Now that they put that money towards actually good players that other fans thought they'd see on their team, the Yankee's are evil and ruining baseball again.

 

Sorry for being happy that my team has a really good shot this year. I forgot I root for the Yankee's, I won't be allowed to justify my fandom until they all make under a million a year.

 

Que?

[Dobbs 3K 0]

Well, the Yankees aren't necessarily done with adding salary this off-season, so I wouldn't jump the gun on that just yet. Also, pretty much everyone knew Giambi and the like were overpaid...so it was inevitable that the overall Yankees payroll would go down a bit. They are still well ahead of everyone else as far as payroll, so it's not like it's a huge difference in the long run.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

Shooter, let me clarify one or two positions. One, I think the financial success of baseball is historically unrelated to the health of the Yankees. The current national media environment places a lot of attention on the Yankees and Red Sox, which is unfortunate. The Yankees and Red Sox have garnered a disproportionate number of fans, but that does not increase interest in other teams as a whole.

 

The Yankees are not ruining baseball. The perception that New York teams attempt to buy pennants dates back to 1922, and probably further than that. People overestimate the impact of free agents. Acquiring free agents has several problems.

 

A. The trickle of players becoming free agents has become so small that you need to hope an impact player is available precisely when a spot opens for him. Often, you are settling for the best of a lesser bunch of players on the market. This becomes a bigger problem when you've determined that you MUST fill a spot with a proven player to make a championship run this year.

 

B. A player only becomes a free agent after 6-7 years. Unless he reached the majors at a young age, this means he usually becomes a free agent around the age of 30-31. Players begin their decline stage around age 30. Thus, you are paying big money for a player's downward spiral.

 

C. In order to sign the best free agents, you must commit several years. This means that you must either play subpar players later on, or buy them out for exhorbitant sums of money. In the case of the Yankees, this means that their DH is a butcher in left field with a 108 OPS+, their catcher may not be able to physically catch, and they are paying $19 million to one of the worst defensive shortstops in the league (and whose bat can not carry him elsewhere).

 

I'll be honest, when I look at the Yankees right now I'm not even sure I see division favorites.

[Shooter in a Wedding Dress 0]

There is no way you can tell me the Red-Sox/Yankees thing hasn't helped baseball, and I'm pretty sure MLB makes some revenue from games. No one's saying they're singlehandedly the reason baseball still exists I'm just saying, suggesting the Yankees are in anyway bad for baseball is stupid.

 

And I didn't say anything about WS champs right off the bat but if you were a Yankee fan Al, would you be feeling better than you were? How is adding two pitchers who could be number 1's on any other team and the biggest hitter available not something worth getting excited over?

 

There's this weird conversion of people feeling like Yankee fans deserve nothing because they've had so much for so long and then coming back with "well how long has it been since the last one" everytime an arguement comes up. It's just useless anger towards the Yankees even by people who claim they don't have it yet start arguements with Yankee fans for no reason. When all these threads are worth is speculation and bickering, I have no problem saying...

 

Ha-ha-ha, sucks for you, go Yanks.

 

With a very large smile on my face by the way.

[naiwf 0]

The Yankees are bad for baseball because their existence virtually ensures that a small market team can never keep a player in their prime unless they make a deal within their first year or two like Longoria or Braun did. It's somewhat asinine that the Yankees will lowball their own players until they hit FA status and then if they want to keep them will offer them far more than the market would offer since that's the advantage they have over every team. For example Wang is getting peanuts (relatively speaking) after being a consistent winner for the team, but a guy like Burnett's going to make three times as much as him because he's a FA that the Yankees coveted. I love the idiotic argument that I've been hearing all week on WFAN that because the Yankees sellout three road games a year for certain teams that they're a net positive to that team's bottom line when they steal their top players year after year.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

There is no way you can tell me the Red-Sox/Yankees thing hasn't helped baseball, and I'm pretty sure MLB makes some revenue from games. No one's saying they're singlehandedly the reason baseball still exists I'm just saying, suggesting the Yankees are in anyway bad for baseball is stupid.

 

Sure it's bad, because no one seems to care when the Yankees and Sox are not involved. And that imbalance is a very bad thing for the game.

 

And I didn't say anything about WS champs right off the bat but if you were a Yankee fan Al, would you be feeling better than you were? How is adding two pitchers who could be number 1's on any other team and the biggest hitter available not something worth getting excited over?

 

I doubt I would feel better. One, the best players are mercenaries that I didn't see come through the farm system (which is the great fun of being a fan of this Phillies club). Two, they have not addressed the core problems that have plagued the team the last few years. Namely, the lack of team defense, the lack of flexibility and the lack of farm system depth. And third, you can't get a damn worthwhile ticket to Yankee Stadium unless you're connected to someone.

 

There's this weird conversion of people feeling like Yankee fans deserve nothing because they've had so much for so long and then coming back with "well how long has it been since the last one" everytime an arguement comes up. It's just useless anger towards the Yankees even by people who claim they don't have it yet start arguements with Yankee fans for no reason. When all these threads are worth is speculation and bickering, I have no problem saying...

 

I don't know where this comes from. I enjoy discussing the merits of all 30 teams, and the Yankees seem to be the subject of choice at the moments. If anyone wants to talk about the relative merits of the Brewers, Dodgers or Rangers, I'd love to.

[Brett Favre 0]

Yankees have paid market value for their free agents.

 

Seeing as a lot more baseball fans reside in New York over lets say Kansas City, it only makes sense that the Yankees spend more money to make the team good, for people to watch. This helps generate more revenue all around.

 

And naiwf, it's tough to take you seriously when you have guys like Beltran, Delgado, and Santana making the money they're making on your team's roster.