The 2008 MLB Offseason Thread

[YourKock'sReallyGreat 0]

New rumor is that the Brewers would send Cameron and Hall to the Yankees for Cabrera and a pitching prospect. Supposedly the Brewers have no interest in Kei Igawa, though. Also not sure about the cash aspect...which is totally ridiculous, since the Yankees will be spending over 200 million this off season. Why the hell should Milwaukee have to eat any of Mike Cameron's contract, who is relatively cheap by New York standards?

 

Hmmm...assuming this trade happens, what did I say about the 2009 Yankees before?

 

Also, Czech, I don't think Escobar will be starting on Opening Day. I doubt Gamel will either. I think they will both still be in AAA. I guess Gamel could be up if they simply can't acquire any kind of proven 3B, at which point maybe they'll platoon him with Mike Lamb or something.

 

 

Regardless of if they are going to trade him to the Yankees or not, the Brewers picked up Camerons option this year to trade him. In 2009 money he is not worth 10 million a year. I dont know how many teams are interested and can afford to take on Mike Cameron. It was Mike Cameron's agent who started the the Brewers are interested in Igawa rumor.

[Smartly Pretty 0]

If these Marquis-to-the-Mets rumors don't die down the Mets rotation might not look so hot.

[jimmy no nose 0]

Apparently Manny Ramirez is threatening to retire because he's so upset about the lack of interest he's generating and wants a "serious" offer immediately. That might be effective if anyone in the world believed him.

[YourKock'sReallyGreat 0]

Apparently Manny Ramirez is threatening to retire because he's so upset about the lack of interest he's generating and wants a "serious" offer immediately. That might be effective if anyone in the world believed him.

 

 

He has nobody to blame but himself. Manny being Manny has cost him 10's of millions of dollars. If he wasn't such a head case he would get at least 5 years 125 million. Omar Minaya of the Mets would love to get him but the Wilpons are completely against it.

 

 

Oooo and I am sure he will come out of retirement the first Monday of April.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

He has nobody to blame but himself. Manny being Manny has cost him 10's of millions of dollars. If he wasn't such a head case he would get at least 5 years 125 million. Omar Minaya of the Mets would love to get him but the Wilpons are completely against it.

 

I agree he has no one to blame but himself (and maybe his agent). But he's not going to get that kind of contract, even by being on his best behavior. The guy is in his mid 30s. He's not going to keep hitting like he did for the Dodgers indefinitely.

[garfieldsnose 0]

Still waiting for the season when the Yankees buy their own WS trophy. Pretty soon the government is going have to bail out the Yankees.

 

Here's to hoping they crumble. Cheers.

 

 

I think it's pretty sad that the team you root for just won the World Series and you are far more concerned about the Yankees.

 

 

Far more concerned? No. You can think it's sad if you want, but that's not what's going on here. God forbid I say something bad about the Yankee$.

[YourKock'sReallyGreat 0]

Still waiting for the season when the Yankees buy their own WS trophy. Pretty soon the government is going have to bail out the Yankees.

 

Here's to hoping they crumble. Cheers.

 

 

I think it's pretty sad that the team you root for just won the World Series and you are far more concerned about the Yankees.

 

 

Far more concerned? No. You can think it's sad if you want, but that's not what's going on here. God forbid I say something bad about the Yankee$.

 

 

Ok well I am not going to get into a pissing contest with you but I remember not caring about other teams when the Yankees won in 96, 98, 99 and 2000. I was too far more concerned about how great my team was at that time.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

Yankee hating will never go out of style. If they lose 100 games, I want them to lose 105.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

Didn't the New York tax payers pay like $300 million for their new stadium, and now they just spent $160 million on one player? How big of a joke is that?

[KingPK 0]

Apparently Manny Ramirez is threatening to retire because he's so upset about the lack of interest he's generating and wants a "serious" offer immediately. That might be effective if anyone in the world believed him.

 

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

 

Brand new Red Sox uniforms were revealed today. The road unis are a complete redesign, focusing on traditional navy lettering they used in the '80s.

 

Road alternates are navy, matching the bright red used for the home alternates.

 

The hanging sox logo replaces the 'B' on the cap for the home and road alternates. Also, the hanging sox is now the team's primary logo, replacing the existing baseball with Boston text and hanging sox inlay (the "Circle Sox" logo).

 

I'm a big fan of the road redesign. If they remove the names from the backs of the jerseys I'll be ecstatic. I could care less about the alternates, and the hanging sox hat is stupid, in my opinion. The B is just as iconic as the sox.

[Guest Czecherbear]

The primary logo is much improved, since they use that Tuscan lettering for everything everywhere and the old slab-serif Boston for...nothing else. The road uniforms look horrible: why would you get rid of the uniform that the Red Sox wore in both championship-clinching games?

 

The socks hat is extraneous, better left to batting practice or fashion cap.

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

The road uniforms look horrible: why would you get rid of the uniform that the Red Sox wore in both championship-clinching games?

It's a tradition thing. The new ownership group beat red to death on the last round of uniform redesigns. Look at the uniforms throughout history. Start in the late '30s and go forward. The road unis are gray with navy lettering. Boston on the front, plain font numbers on the back. I'll advocate simplicity of design and an element of tradition over fancy modern uniforms every day of the week.

[Precious Roy 0]

Late on Sabathia, but there's not much to say that hasn't already been said. Yes, they overpaid. Yes, he would have preferred to play in California. Yes, all the uncertainty in the economy hurt the market for him. Yes, the Yankees still wildly overpaid! Yes, the New York media is fixated on comparing him to Johan Santana and seems intent on downgrading Sabathia now that he's in the fold. I'm just glad my team got the best pitcher on the market, a guy who seems to be a genuinely likable personality who'll be fun to root for, who's improved in measurable ways over the course of his career, and when he's on his A game is as good as anyone out there. I hope for everyone's sake he can live up to the price tag.

 

I don't know what to think about the Yankees apparently closing in on Burnett. Even at his best I think it's highly debatable if he's one of the 20-25 best starters in the game, and with his injury history and inconsistency I'd be very hesitant to give him a 5 year deal at that kind of money. I'd rather have Ben Sheets on what would likely be a shorter, cheaper more incentive based contract. He's really no more of an injury risk and at his best is pretty clearly the better pitcher. Lowe I do like but I wouldn't want him on anything longer than a two year deal and I don't know how good of a fit he'd really be for the Yankees. I'd roll the dice on him for a year or two, but no thanks on a 4 year deal.

 

I'd be happy with Cameron for one year. The shine came off Melky this past season. It was his year to sink or swim with CF all to himself and he regressed and ended up demoted to the minors. Sooner than later Austin Jackson is going to get his chance and Melky is clearly no longer in the long term plans, so it makes sense to get a year of a proven commodity like Cameron while Jackson waits in the wings than to risk another season of the total blackhole of suck that was Melky at the plate in 2008.

 

I'm not crazy about Cameron or anything, he'll be 36 when this season starts, his OBP has never been anything special, I'd be happy with his career number of .340 but would go in expecting less, and he strikes out a lot. But as far as realistic center field options go he's one of the best for this team.

He's still good in the field and has some pop in his bat and hasn't really shown any signs of slowing down yet. I think you could reasonably expect another career average-ish year out of him, which all in all is above average and a pretty good deal when you're only counting on him for one year. Plus, it adds a needed righty bat to the lineup and if it's true that he's tight with Sabathia that could be a good thing as well.

[bob_barron 0]

Didn't the New York tax payers pay like $300 million for their new stadium, and now they just spent $160 million on one player? How big of a joke is that?

 

The Yankees paid for their own stadium. As did the Mets.

[devo 0]

What? No they didn't.

 

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/bronx/...eport_sa-3.html

 

And just to show I'm not playing favorites, here's the sheet detailing the taxpayer costs for both Citi Field and the new Yankee Stadium.

 

http://www.fieldofschemes.com/documents/Yanks-Mets-costs.pdf

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

Didn't the New York tax payers pay like $300 million for their new stadium, and now they just spent $160 million on one player? How big of a joke is that?

 

The Yankees paid for their own stadium. As did the Mets.

 

Ummm...

 

NEW YORK (AP)—The Yankees and Mets are asking the city for $450 million more in public bonds to finance their new ballparks, on top of nearly $1.5 billion they were already granted, according to the city’s Economic Development Corp.

 

The teams requested the additional financing in applications filed with the city ahead of a public hearing on the funding next month. The applications have not yet been made public, but the city shared details in response to questions from The Associated Press.

 

In the Yankees’ application, the team is asking for another $259 million in tax-exempt bonds and $111 million in taxable bonds, on top of $940 million in tax-exempt bonds and $25 million in taxable bonds already granted for its $1.3 billion stadium.

 

The Mets are requesting an additional $83 million, on top of $615 million already approved for their $800 million park.

 

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ap-m...p&type=lgns

 

[bob_barron 0]

The Yankees paid for the stadium through bonds that the city bought it sounds like. It's not like other stadiums, where the city foot the bill.

 

This is what I got from wikipedia-

 

Rather than the $800 million value affixed to the stadium (which is for the stadium and not for the parking garages, highway improvements and other items associated with the construction), independent analysts have set the tab for the complete project closer to $1.3 billion. The city's share includes allowing the Yankees to occupy 22 acres (89,000 m2) of Macombs Dam Park and John Mullaly Park (which is already used for stadium parking on game days), and to build parking garages on those parks. City-funded artificial surface will be placed on top of those parking garages to make up for the lost parkland. The city would retain ownership of the land, but would not charge the Yankees rent or property taxes. The city currently charges rent at Yankee Stadium; no sports teams pay property taxes in New York. In addition, the city would foot the bill for acquiring scattered parcels of land near the waterfront, about a half-mile away, and building smaller parks there, even though the project was precipitated by the Yankees' desire to acquire the current parkland. The cost of renovating the existing parkland would be about $25 million; building new parkland will cost $150 million. That cost includes demolition costs for the historic Yankee Stadium, which would be completely torn down. The building's destruction would be paid for entirely by the city and replaced with parkland. The city will also issue tax-exempt bonds for the Yankees' new stadium. The Yankees would repay those bonds with payments in lieu of taxes; the Yankees have not paid taxes.

 

The Yankees have arranged for the lease on Yankee Stadium to be classified as an 'operating lease' even though many accountants think that the Yankees' early involvement in the building of the stadium should have precluded operating lease accounting. This is extremely important to the financing because it means that the Yankees will be able to keep significantly more revenue from the stadium and will not have to share it with the rest of Major League Baseball.

 

New York state taxpayers will pay $70 million to help the Yankees build parking garages (as authorized by the State Legislature). The parking garage project would cost $320 million. City and State taxpayers will forgo up to $7.5 million annually in lost taxes resulting from the sale of $225 million in tax-exempt bonds authorized on October 9, 2007, by the New York City Industrial Development Agency (administered by the New York City Economic Development Corporation) to finance construction and renovation of the parking garages.[15][16] However, if the parking revenues are not enough to pay a reported $3.2 million land lease to the City of New York, the entity that will operate the parking garages and collect revenue will be able to defer that payment.[17] State taxpayers, through money that has accumulated from the MTA's budget since the 1980s, will also pay all of the costs of a train station on the Metro-North commuter railroad.

 

In addition to the public subsidies and billions of dollars of increased revenue, the Yankees will benefit from a change to Major League Baseball's 2002 collective bargaining agreement (CBA), which allows teams to deduct new-stadium building costs from the revenue-sharing payments they make. For the Yankees, whose $200 million player payroll makes them the largest contributor to the revenue-sharing pool, this means 40 percent of their share of the price tag may be borne by the remaining 29 baseball teams. All told, the Yankees and the taxpayers can each expect to pay about $450 million, and the Yankees will cover the remaining costs from diverting revenue sharing payments that would have been paid to the other baseball teams.

__________________

 

I didn't like the idea of the Yankees taking away parkland, and the residents having no say about it. Three minutes too late Cheech!

[bob_barron 0]

Yankee hating will never go out of style. If they lose 100 games, I want them to lose 105.

 

When the Yankees haven't won in 8 years, and your team just won the World Series, it does make you sound a little stupid.

 

I do think that the city bending over and allowing the Yankees to do whatever with their new stadium was bullshit, especially since they don't even need one to begin with.

 

And I liked the idea of Citi Field being renamed Citi and Taxpayer Field.

[Guest Czecherbear]

It's a tradition thing. The new ownership group beat red to death on the last round of uniform redesigns. Look at the uniforms throughout history. Start in the late '30s and go forward. The road unis are gray with navy lettering. Boston on the front, plain font numbers on the back. I'll advocate simplicity of design and an element of tradition over fancy modern uniforms every day of the week.

Start in the late '30s and go forward, and the Red Sox didn't fucking win anything. It's not just that the greys were in the set, that's what they were wearing when they got the final outs in St. Louis and Denver. That's what's on the commemorative book covers and all that jazz. Besides, there was nothing fancy nor modern about the 1990s/2000s road greys: they said "Boston" on them in the same lettering as "Red Sox" on the whites, and used the same old-time numbers as the whites, all in red trimmed with navy. You make it sound like they were wearing Oregon football uniforms out there. No. They got it right and now they over-tinkered to create this "traditional" contrivance, which just makes them look like they're wearing cheap replicas, or worse yet, Yankees uniforms. Like I've been saying over and over, you can't go backward when you're redesigning. These aren't the old days of just rounding up some letters and numbers and sewing them on some flannel and there you go. Things have to look the way they do for a reason. That's what ostensibly drove the sprucing-up of the primary, so what is the point of these road uniforms?

[Cartman 0]

New logo = Garbage

 

New Uni's = Garbage

 

There's nothing wrong with the friggin B or the circle logo so leave it alone. Terrible.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

Fantastic snippet from Joe Posnanski's blog, regarding the Kyle Farnsworth signing.

 

But I will also pass along what one longtime observer of Farnsworth said: “The good news is it’ll reduce wear and tear on Joakim Soria’s arm. Because now, he will never, ever be given a lead.”

[Dobbs 3K 0]

I'm not a BoSox fan, but I actually kind of like the new look.

 

Face it, anyway, the new hat is done purely for merchandise sales...I bet it's a huge seller.

[Cartman 0]

It should sell huge, especially the pink ones.

[Bored 0]

Phillies have signed Raul Ibanez to a 3-year, $30 million deal. So I guess not having any interest in keeping Pat Burrell had nothing to do with possibly upgrading their defense in left field.

[Boon 0]

I'm not a BoSox fan, but I actually kind of like the new look.

 

Face it, anyway, the new hat is done purely for merchandise sales...I bet it's a huge seller.

Gotta find a way to make up for freezing ticket prices somewhere.

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

Aren't merchandise sales just split between all 30 teams anyways? I've never really bothered to read the CBA that closely, but I thought that was the case. In that respect, there is very little monetary gain by changing the unis.

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

Phillies have signed Raul Ibanez to a 3-year, $30 million deal. So I guess not having any interest in keeping Pat Burrell had nothing to do with possibly upgrading their defense in left field.

What the hell? There must be some behind the scenes stuff with Burrell that we don't know about. Not only is a far superior player than Ibanez, he's five years younger. The fact that he wasn't even offered arbitration, yet they went out and spent $30 million on Ibanez suggests that there is something fishy going on.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

I thought it was just jersey sales that are split up? I could very well be wrong, though.

[Guest Vitamin X]

The road alternates are way better. The new road uniforms make the Red Sox look like the fucking Mariners. Seriously, look at this:

 

and look at that.