Nov 19th 2008 11:45PM by Josh Alper (author feed)
The Moose has vamoosed. Mike Mussina told the Yankees today that he will retire rather than return for the 2009 season. It’s not a shocker, the pitcher had been openly contemplating hanging up the spikes since the season ended, but it will impact the way the Yankees handle their offseason moves.

Mussina is the rare athlete who walks away while still having a lot to offer the game. He had his first 20 win season in 2008, rebounding from a miserable 2007 by altering his pitching style to one based on beguiling hitters instead of blowing them away. He’s the first pitcher since Sandy Koufax to walk away from baseball after winning 20 games.

And, while he may not have Koufax’s credentials, he may be joining the lefty in Cooperstown someday. He finishes his career with a 270-153 record and a 3.68 ERA. Mussina is 19th all-time in strikeouts and 13th in strikeout-to-walk ratio. He’s also one of only 21 pitchers in history that is more than 100 games over .500. 16 of the others are in the Hall and the other four — Roger Clemens, Pedro Martinez, Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine — are certainly deserving of enshrinement. He fell short of 300 wins, though, and falls behind those four and some other contemporaries in the baseball firmament.Continue Reading

Nov 18th 2008 6:55AM by Matt Watson (author feed)
It’s been almost a year since Jim Leyritz decided to get drunk and take the wheel, a horrendously stupid decision that ruined his life and took the life of a young mother. What’s he up to these days? Making ill-advised pleas for public sympathy by blaming the dead mother for the accident and whining about how the Breathalyzer unit attached to his car’s ignition makes going out to eat “bothersome.”
“He cannot leave the car with a valet, because it cannot be started by the valet,” his lawyers said in a statement.

And he “can’t eat things like chicken Marsala,” said his ex-wife, Karri, because certain foods cause false positives.
Two thoughts immediately come to mind: 1) how come the valet guys aren’t sober enough to pass the Breathalyzer? 2) a woman is dead, and we’re supposed to care that he “can’t eat things like chicken marsala?” Pity him.Continue Reading

Nov 17th 2008 11:34AM by Will Brinson (author feed)
In and around the city of Cleveland, there’s a great deal of consternation regarding the fanhood of one LeBron James. He is, as has been noted in the past, a “huge” Yankees “fan”. Okay, he’s actually definitely a pinstripper, but most people (myself included) are a little distraught over the bandwagony nature of his pulling for the Yankees.

However, that doesn’t make his opinion about whether the Bombers can land CC Sabathia any less interesting.
The Yankees have formulated a proposal to Sabathia that would exceed Johan Santana’s $137.5 million, six-year contract with the New York Mets both in total and average.

Asked before Cleveland’s game against Utah on Saturday night if he thought the Yankees would win the Sabathia sweepstakes, James smiled and said, “We’re gonna get him. Absolutely.”
Now, to me, it’s particularly interesting because CC is essentially facing a similar situation to what Bron will deal with in the future, i.e. TONS of money to go play in New York, or a little less money to kick it in the midwest.

Obviously, CC’s not on the same level as James, and he has much less at stake, personally, with his previous team (Milwaukee) than Bron does with the Cavaliers. But that doesn’t make the Big Apple any less enticing.

You also have to wonder, if LeBron is saying these things, whether or not he’s made any calls in CC’s direction, requesting his presence in New York. It might be a stretch, but if he’s making himself inherently more invested in the state of things in NYC, well, I can’t possibly consider that good news for anyone in and around Cleveland.

Nov 16th 2008 4:00PM by Mullet (author feed)
Brewers GM Bob Melvin thought he had a shot at re-signing CC Sabathia with a five year $100 million deal … only to find that the Yankees have seen that offer and raised the Brewers another season and another $40 million. Melvin, selfishly, and with a twinge of sour grapes, doesn’t think that the Yankees need to go quite that high.”It sounds like they’re overbidding,” Melvin told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “If the speculation is true that we’ve offered CC $100 million, why would you offer $140 million? Why wouldn’t you offer $110 million?”I’ll tell you why. Because the Yankees decided they wanted Sabathia long before the Brewers unexpectedly decided to make a strong offer. They’re not bidding against them, they’re bidding against the previous standard for lefty starters (Johan Santana’s Mets contract.) I mean, can you picture the Yankees sitting around their Tampa offices muttering to themselves, “Let’s wait and see what the Brewers do”? It doesn’t work that way in the Bronx.Continue Reading

Nov 16th 2008 10:48PM by B (author feed)
Great, now we’re getting to that point in the offseason where every news update is about how the Yankees are “interested in” the big free agents and how some guy from some network interviewed them and they totally said they’d love to play for the Yankees, and on and on and blah blah blah. We’ve been doing this comic long enough to know the two great truths about the Yankees, and they are presented to you in chatroom form below.

Have the Yankees considered getting new uniforms? It works for everybody else. Maybe they can get a mascot. Make him a vague, shaggy grey thing named “OPS the Dog!”

Tonight’s giant-sized Dugout is after the jump.Continue Reading

Nov 15th 2008 10:25AM by Josh Alper (author feed)
The Yankees didn’t waste any time letting CC Sabathia know how much they want him to wear pinstripes next season. On free agency’s opening day, the team reportedly offered him six years and $140 million. That would be the largest package ever for a pitcher, coming in just above the salary Johan Santana got from the Mets.

Hank Steinbrenner confirmed that the Yankees made an offer, but wouldn’t confirm the numbers. He also said that offers for Derek Lowe and A.J. Burnett wouldn’t be far behind.

“Yes,” Steinbrenner said when asked if an offer was made to Sabathia. “And we’re prepared to make offers to Burnett and Lowe.”

It seems like only a matter of time before the Yankees end up with Sabathia. While the Dodgers have called to show interest, there aren’t going to be many other bidders. The Mets, rumored to be competitors, now appear to be out of the running and the simple financial realities make the Yankees heavy favorites.

They’ve opened the bidding at a record-breaking price and will move up the ladder in ways that other teams aren’t able to match. Thanks to the $80 million or so they’ve got coming off the books from last year, they have more money to spend and want to make a Sabathia-sized splash.

Nov 14th 2008 9:00AM by Josh Alper (author feed)

There’s only one word that fits as a tagline for the 2008 New York Yankees: Failure. Failure to make the playoffs for the first time since 1993, failure to inject youth into an aging lineup and rotation and failure to make anything meaningful out of the highest payroll in all of baseball. Harsh, perhaps, for a team that won 89 games in one of the toughest divisions in recent memory, but the Yankees don’t get graded on a curve.

There were some individual successes. Mike Mussina won 20 games for the first time in his career. Mariano Rivera padded a legacy that will land him in Cooperstown exactly five years after he stops entering to “Enter Sandman,” and Alex Rodriguez, despite more tabloid headlines and awful statistics in the clutch, had a year that would be a career best for many players.

But the disappointments were more pronounced. Neither Phil Hughes nor Ian Kennedy made Brian Cashman look smart for refusing to trade them for Johan Santana. Melky Cabrera regressed so far that he ended up in Triple-A and Robinson Cano looked more like a future plumber than a future star. That’s created huge holes in center and the rotation, and called into question how well the Yankees are developing a wave of players that can carry them when the remaining stalwarts fade into the sunset.Continue Reading

Nov 14th 2008 2:30PM by Tom Fornelli (author feed)
Yesterday we learned that the Yankees plan to woo CC Sabathia away from his desire to play on the west coast for a National League team by literally driving a truck full of money to his house and offering it to him. It’s not a bad plan when you think about it because it’s a lot harder to say no to $150 million when you can actually see it. Whether their plan will actually work remains to be seen, but as it turns out, the Yankees aren’t the only team in New York planning on making a pitch for the free agent.

The Mets — who last winter invested $137 million into Johan Santana only to see the team collapse and lose the division to the Phillies again — are planning on making an offer to Sabathia as well.The latest Subway Series tussle could be over none other than CC Sabathia, the Daily News has learned, as the Mets Thursday apparently joined the Yankees in pursuit of baseball’s biggest free agent prize.

A high-placed Yankee source Thursday reacted to the development by saying: “The Mets are in it? Great. Bring it on.”Continue Reading

Nov 14th 2008 3:00PM by Matt Watson (author feed)
When the Padres kicked off the Jake Peavy sweepstakes last month, they knew his no-trade clause would make things more difficult than your standard salary dump. He was only interested in going to a handful of teams, and all of them were in the NL.

And then, after the Padres kicked off talks with the Cubs and Braves, Peavy threw another wrench into the mix, saying he’d block a trade to teams on his original list if he felt they were gutting their roster to acquire him. (In other words, sure, he’d like to play for the Braves … but not if Yunel Escobar isn’t there.)

With so many hoops to jump through, it’s not a surprise the Padres have talked for a month without getting a deal done. From the San Diego Union-Tribune:
“We’ve had advanced discussions with the Cubs and Braves, which are Jake’s priority teams,” General Manager Kevin Towers said last night, “but at this point in time, I do not see a potential deal with either club.”
Towers admitted to having discussions with the Dodgers, but it doesn’t take a front office mole to figure out that his preference is probably to avoid handing him over to a division rival where he can haunt his former team several times a year for the length of his contract. So what are his options?Continue Reading

Nov 13th 2008 2:46PM by Tom Fornelli (author feed)
At midnight tonight teams from around the league will be able to start talking to free agents and offering them contract offers. As you’re well aware, one of the most prized free agents on the market this winter is CC Sabathia, and I wouldn’t be surprised if his phone rings 15 times before 12:02 AM.

While Sabathia hasn’t come out and said he wants to play anywhere specific, it is known that he’d prefer being on the west coast and on a National League team if possible so he can hit. Well, one of the teams that wants CC is the Yankees, and they’re neither of those things. So they know that if they want to convince him to come to the Bronx next spring they’re going to have to make him an offer he can’t refuse, and word is they’re going to do just that.One Yankee executive said, “we have to separate ourselves.” Translation: They must divest Sabathia of his dreams of the Pacific and the batter’s box by going to a financial region relatively quickly that no other franchise would even consider, especially in this plummeting economy.Continue Reading