Dec 22nd 2008 12:41PM by Matt Watson (author feed)
Brian Cashman wasted no time (and fewer words) pouring water on last night’s “Manny Ramirez to the Yankees!” rumor. In a text message to MLB.com beat reporter Bryan Hoch, Cashman said, “Not true.”

Taken at face value, his response would suggest the entire report is wrong … but what if he only meant the part about a deal being close?

Is he disputing that the team even has interest in Manny? Or just that the team hasn’t begun actual contract negotiations with Manny? Who knew a two-word response could leave so much room to read between the lines? Stay tuned.

Dec 21st 2008 7:00AM by B (author feed)
I’m getting sick of this. The sports media world has their own Elite Liberal contingent and they’re dead-set on running the name of the New York Yankees through the mud. Everywhere you click it’s “the Yankees spend too much money” on this, and “the Yankees spent too much money” for that, and “Sabathia has enough money to float in the river and declare himself a sovereign nation.”

Somebody on this site needs to make a stand. The Yankees are a baseball team like everybody else. Just because YOUR team can’t do what they do doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be allowed to do it. Hey Royals fans, if you woke up tomorrow morning and the Royals had given 200 million to Mark Teixeira and 200 million to Manny Ramirez and signed five pitchers and got ready to destroy the AL Central next year, wouldn’t you be the happiest people on Earth? Of course you would.

This morning’s Dugout sets things straight and explains it all, after the jump.Continue Reading

Dec 22nd 2008 6:00AM by Mullet (author feed)
This is a rumor. This is only a rumor. Had this been an actual signing you would have been followed by official information, news, or instructions. But if you’re a squeamish Red Sox fan, I instruct you that you still might want to turn away.

Because if this turns out to be true, the mental image of Manny Ramirez in pinstripes could turn your stomach. But Impacto Deportivo reports that Ramirez and the Yankees are close to a $75 million dollar deal over three seasons, and that an announcement could come Monday or Tuesday. The way that false rumor and misinformation is flying out there (I’m looking at you, Scott Boras), who knows what’s really going on. And who knows what this has to do with Mark Teixeira. I mean, could a well placed Manny being Yankee rumor force the Red Sox to become a factor in the Teixeira bidding? Oh Mr. Boras … you are sly.

But there have been rumblings that this could happen. So unless you’re squeamish, go ahead and wonder about things like whether Manny’s bat can bring the Yankee lineup back to the upper echelon, or whether Derek Jeter will be able to rein in Manny in the clubhouse, or even whether Hank Steinbrenner truly doesn’t care about dreadlocks just yet. But just be advised that this may, or may not be a false alarm. This concludes this Major League Baseball rumor.

Dec 19th 2008 12:25PM by Matt Watson (author feed)
Once upon a time, it would’ve been silly to question Ben Sheets’ durability: he averaged 34 starts and 224 innings for three straight years beginning in 2002. Unfortunately that’s when the wheels fell off, as he averaged 21 starts and 134 innings from 2005-07.

He seemed to turn the corner in 2008 with 31 starts and 198 innings, but a torn muscle in his pitching elbow sidelined him late in the year and in the playoffs. As a free agent this winter for the first time in his life, his timing couldn’t have been worse. Just when it looked like he was able to rebuild his image as a reliable workhorse, he reminded everybody just how fragile he’s been the last several years.

For a while it looked like the Yankees might roll the dice by giving him a two-year deal, but after committing nearly a quarter of a billion dollars to CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett, that door has apparently been closed. From Joel Sherman of the :
Keep hearing from multiple sources that the Yankees will have nothing to do with Ben Sheets. They have real concerns about his health, especially they fret about the righty’s history with back ailments. The Yankee theory is they already have taken their health gamble by investing in A.J. Burnett for five years.
Continue Reading

Dec 18th 2008 1:20PM by Matt Watson (author feed)
In light of yesterday’s report the Orioles have dropped out of the race for Mark Teixeira, Andy MacPhail went on the defensive, telling Dan Connolly of the that he’s not yet given up:
“We have indicated before that we have flexibility,” Orioles president Andy MacPhail said yesterday. “I don’t think anyone expects [Teixeira’s agent, Scott Boras] to lean over and accept the first proposal.”

[…] “If they came back to us and told us what it would take and we thought that it made sense for us, then, yes” the original offer could be altered, MacPhail said.
MacPhail wouldn’t disclose details of his initial offer, but by all accounts the Orioles low-balled Teixeira in hopes he’d accept a discount to play for his hometown team. Predictably, that strategy doesn’t appear to be working, especially since the O’s are believed to have offered seven years while everybody else is talking about eight.

Whether MacPhail can make his offer more competitive remains to be seen, but it looks like Boston has set the bar — two general managers negotiating with Boras confirmed to Nick Cafardo of the that the Red Sox have the highest offer on the table.

The Yankees could throw a wrench into everyone’s plans if they decide to jump into the mix, but cites a team source who says they’re “monitoring the situation” before deciding if they want to get involved. “We may not make an offer. If the money gets too rich, then we won’t,” the source said. You know the economy is getting rough if the Yankees are concerned about spending too much money.

Dec 18th 2008 2:08PM by Matt Watson (author feed)
For a brief minute last week it seemed certain that Mike Cameron and Melky Cabrera would switch teams, but Brewers GM Doug Melvin confirmed that the proposed trade with the Yankees has officially died. What happened? Apparently both sides took the “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” mantra a little too far, refusing to follow up discussions that began during the Winter Meetings with a phone call.

Melvin told the , “I haven’t heard from (Yankees general manager) Brian Cashman, and I haven’t called him. Cashman confirmed as much to the , saying “He hasn’t told us, we haven’t talked since Vegas.

Pick up the phone, fellas, there’s still time to get this deal done! Or … maybe not. Talks first began to stall when the Yankees asked the Brewers to either pay a portion of Cameron’s $10 million salary or take on the remaining $12 million Kei Igawa is owed over the next three years. The Brewers balked, and uless they have a change of heart, this deal will likely stay dead. As a Yankees official told the :
“Maybe he thinks we’ll be upset and jump back in,” the official said when informed of Melvin’s comments. “We didn’t think Cameron was worth $10 million - and we still don’t. I guess (Melvin) finally got the message.”
It sounds to me like the Yankees drew a line in the sand. Unless Melvin suddenly feels like subsidizing the Yankees’ outfield, this one probably isn’t going to happen.

Dec 18th 2008 5:45PM by Will Brinson (author feed)

It was good times in Yankee-land on Thursday afternoon. The Other Lil’ Boss gathered his cronies together as the media swarmed for the event, all to introduce CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett as Yankees. Together the two will make roughly $240 million and boy-oh-boy were they excited to join such a happy and winning-tradition-rich family.
“There were some attractions on the West Coast,” said Sabathia at the news conference, which was televised live in New York. “But when it came down to it and really thinking about what I wanted, as far as having a chance to win every year, there really was no other place to go.”

[…]”This is a dream come true,” Burnett said at the news conference. “I’m looking forward to it; it’s going to be a fun ride. I want to pitch in the postseason, and I’m here to win.”
Well, of course it’s a dream come true. You just got paid $80 million, A.J. I mean, not to be so cynical as to believe that both guys really didn’t want to win every year, but come on. If you want to win every year, you take less money to play somewhere you want to be in order to help make your team better.

If you want to get [over] paid more money than you will ever need while hoping you didn’t totally mortgage your soul, you go play for the Yankees.

Dec 17th 2008 1:45PM by Andrew Johnson (author feed)
Free-agent first baseman Mark Teixeira is expected to make a decision on his new team in the very near future, potentially even in the next 24-to-48 hours. In the meantime, we’re all stuck devouring the latest scraps from the rumor mill.

On Tuesday, I wrote that Teixeira should choose the Orioles. Now, according to ESPN’s Buster Olney, Baltimore has essentially dropped out of the bidding, by refusing to upgrade its initial seven-year offer.
“The Orioles are out of it, unless Teixeira really, really wants to play there,” said one source.It’s not all that surprising that the O’s are falling behind in the chase for Teixeira. They can’t offer him the chance to be on a winner, at least right away, they don’t have the financial resources that the Red Sox, Angels or Yankees do and they aren’t a Tom Hicks-esque wild card in the bidding like the Nationals appear to be.

On the flip side of things, the Red Sox appear to have moved to the front of the line for Teixeira’s services. A general manager of one of the five teams involved in the bidding told Nick Cafardo of the as much.Continue Reading

Dec 17th 2008 4:38PM by Matt Watson (author feed)
Lest you thought that the Yankees’ interest in Manny Ramirez extended no further than Hank Steinbrenner’s daydreams, the cites an unnamed baseball official who claims the Yankees are “going hard” after the slugger, perhaps even readying a three-year deal with an annual salary worth anywhere between $22 million to $25 million.

Of course, the also cites two other sources who expressed doubt that the Yankees would go beyond two years, but either way everyone seems to agree that the team is seriously considering him. Will he accept a two-year, $50 million deal? Unless he’s serious about retiring, it may be the best offer on the table.

While every other team with big budgets to blow are wrapped up in the Mark Teixeira sweepstakes, Manny could end up being a relative bargain — if not in terms of annual salary, at least in terms of not having to make a decade-long commitment. And while the Yankees have never struggled to keep the turnstiles spinning, Ramirez does offer a great deal of star power, which certainly can’t hurt as the Yankees open up a new stadium.

The worry, of course, of course, is that he’ll resume the “Manny being Manny” act that convinced the Red Sox to trade him, but the reality is that his “act” was as much the product of a suspicious and unforgiving media as anything else. Take a look at Manny’s actual performance before he was traded — he was still the hardest out in the lineup and the team’s most productive slugger. If the Yankees look through the hype, I think they’ll see he’s worth the gamble.

Dec 16th 2008 3:15PM by Andrew Johnson (author feed)

Mark Teixeira, merely the best free agent left on the market, is set to choose a team before Christmas. It’s probably fitting then that there are four calling birds (and maybe a fifth looming giant) in pursuit of his services.

Teixeira is the ideal Scott Boras client. First and foremost, he’s a tremendous ballplayer, but he’s also calm and collected with the press, a family man, and, most critically for Boras’ purposes, seemingly completely willing to go to the highest bidder.

Let’s assume for a second that Teixeira isn’t a Boras-bot sent from the future to lighten up some billionaire owner’s wallet. Let’s assume that big Tex will consider a wide variety of factors as he makes the most important decision of his baseball-playing life.

Which team, then, should he sign on the dotted line with?Continue Reading