Brewers really got hosed. The loss of Sabathia got them the Yankees first round pick. But Teixeira is higher ranked on the Type A free agent list than Sabathia so the Angels now get the Yankees first round pick. The Brewers get their second round pick which will wind up being about 50 picks lower with all the sandwich picks between the 1st and 2nd rounds. And if the Brewers were to go out and sign a Type A of their own like Juan Cruz they will lose their own first round pick. Real fair system where losing Sabathia and signing Cruz knocks you completely out of the first round.

And the Blue Jays now get bumped down to the Yankees third round pick for losing Burnett, a guy they thought they'd get a first rounder for losing. At this point it actually makes sense for the Yankees to sign more Type A free agents since at this point they would only lose a 4th round pick.

Brewers deserved to get screwed in the first place for hiring the fat hired gun for a half season for their playoff push.

Much the same situation for the Angels and Tex.

If you get a bigtimer for a half season or less you should make a commitment to hang for the long term.

No doubt baseball economics really sucks! But look at our real life economic situation.......

This is the dumbest statement I have seen this year. And I have seen some real winners...

Though all the teams that lose type A's do get a sandwich pick between the first and second rounds for each type A they lose.

True but it's just a silly system where the Yanks could go out and sign Oliver Perez and the Mets get a 4th round pick for it while the Red Sox could sign him and the Mets get a 1st rounder. At least add an extra sandwich pick for a team instead of moving the picks down to the 2nd to 4th rounds.

Or give them the option of getting the teams 1st rd pick the next year

Then the Blue Jays would be choosing whether to take the Yankees third round pick this year or their first rounder in 2057.

Love it... I'm borrowing this





F*CK the Yankees. Enough is enough. I hope they get buried again by the Rays and Sox. Spending inflated prices on moderate players is a sure way to ruin the sport. What the hell has Texiera done that merits an all-time type contract? I can name 50 first basemen that are better than him, easily, in the last 25 years. Come on... Now it's going to be $800 for a family of 4 to sit in the upper deck at the "new" Yankee Stadium. I don't understand the fervor in buying a championship. Nobody will consider it legitimate.

The Phillies won theirs this year the right way. A good mix of homegrown talent sprinkled with some decent free agent pickups to fill the gaps. Not some ridiuclous buying spree of every aging free agent out there.

The dumbest statement?
 

Dumbest? I still think wise franchises know that it is not so smart picking up a player for a pennant run when said player will soon be a free agent.

I really think the DUMBEST STATEMENT HAS TO BE THIS EXCHANGE:

"We still gunna wager on whether Andruw Jones hits 31 or more home runs this year?" -Scudsbrother

"Sure, what do you want to bet?"
- Cannon Shell

You should change your name to Shell Shocked!

Andrew Jones hit 31 HRs in 2008?!?! Now that is a real winner!

yeah teams should be criticized for TRYING TO WIN!!! That is a real winner. I would rather my team just keep turning a profit and never taking a risk to WIN THE WORLD SERIES!!! Yeah lets make it so that only the Yankees and Red Sox ever make a move. You are obviously have no understanding of baseball and should stick to something a little less mentally challenging like figuring out who could possibly be contenders for horse of the year.

Phil the truth of the matter is it is going to be ridiclously expensive to go the Yankee games regardless of what they spend on payroll. The real enemy of the fan in cities like NY are the Corporations that buy up seating at inflated pricing. If people stopped coming they would adjust prices. But even at high levels they still get 4 million people a year. The true culprit for the Yabkees spending ability is MLB and the players union that refuses to incorporate a realistic salary cap and revenue sharing plan like the other sports have. While a free market is often used in the Yankees defense it really isnt a free market as the other teams are at a huge competitive disadvantage and if they decided that they would rather not play the Yankees any more then the Yankees would suddenly be fairly worthless. It is an extreme example but they need the other teams to compete against and there has to be a competitive balance. The reality regardless of what you hear is that the Yankees have done a terrible job at constructing teams this decade which is why they have lost. If they start to do a better job which in my opinion they have this off season they will make baseball a lot less interesting which it cant afford to do. Though I agree that having the Yankees/Red Sox/Mets/Cubs as foils to root against makes baseball more appealing, if they start to become the only teams to win (except obviously the Cubs) the sport will be hurting. And I would be hard pressed to find 5 or 6 1st baseman better than Texiera the last 25 years. He is the 2nd best 1st baseman in baseball (Pujols a clear number ), in his prime and hits from both sides. The pitchers are far greater risks than him.

Merry Christmas everyone!

I am taking a break as the kiddies are finally asleep.

The Yankees have put themselves in a "no win" situation. With that type of payroll, its world series title or utter failure even if they get there and lose. And even if they win it, the title was "bought". I dont think that there are too many real Yankee fans that see this and are pleased.

Im not piling on Stickhorse but I loved that Milwuakee went for the gusto this year when they had the chance to rent sabbathia for half the season. Opportunities for small market teams like the Brewers to actually contend don't come around too often and its great for baseball when they do.

Much like what happened in the eighties, economics and age will catch up with the Yankees and they will be forced to start over...eventually.

Very hard to cheer for this team. I do think they make the playoffs though. If midseason comes and its close, they will rent a couple of more players. They do have a couple of more prospects on the farm than Chuck wants to admit.

Who are these prospects that I have missed?

First of all, amen to this great post and i will address it in another post. But...5-6 first baseman in the last 25 years? Can i give it a shot?

Melancon and motero to start with.

Sure as soon as you tell me about these hidden, major league ready gems in the farm system

add brackman

When can Montero play? Not soon at the major league level behind the plate though he can suddenly really hit he is still in the lower levels. Melancon is not highly rated, most likely will be a middle reliver.

Brackman is a ways away too

Okay, you win there. Here are my first baseman better than TEX in the last 25 years. This should be fun to chew on:

1. Don Mattingly
2. Jeff Bagwell
3. Eddie Murray
4. Rod Carew
5. Will Clark

I know it may be difficult to include Maguire in those talks, but Todd Helton's name needs to be somewhere in the mix too.

He and Mattingly are very close at age 28 but Tex hits from both sides and Donnie baseball only had 5 good seasons and was pretty much done at 29.
Bagwell may have a little better raw numbers but Tex is a far better fielder and bags peaked in a very suspicous era.
eddie murray was a better player
carew was not a great 1st baseman, his overall career is hall of fame worthy but he simply had no power and outside of his 1977 season which was unbelievable he is not the player that tex is.
Will Clark was a good player but is not in tex's league either

I understand that most havent seen the guy play that much but he is a very good hitter, has power, makes contact, takes walks, superior defender and shows up to play.
his career average season:
612 Ab's
101 runs
177 hits
40 2bs
36 hrs
121 rbis
79 bb
124 k
.290 avg
.378 obp
.541 slg

keep in mind he has dramatically dropped his k rate and raised his bb rate the last 2 seasons and plays Gold Glove defense

Helton was a very good player who will always be downgraded a bit by playing in Colorado. But his numbers are really good for 5 or 6 years

Donnnie baseball was better in the field, hit for better average and was just a more dominant all around player. We can only use those years up to where TEX is now because it is impossible to say what TEX will become. Isnt that fair?

5 or 6 years?? He played 35 games in '97. Starting in '98 he hit over .300 for 10 straight seasons. His OBP was over .400 for the last 8 straight of those 10 seasons. Also had 8 straight years where his SLG % was over .500 and 4 of those years it was over .600, including 2000 where he was damn close to .700.

Frank thomas has great numbers but was mainly a 1st baseman for 4 season because he was a brutal fielder. Palmiero has numbers and was a really good player but is more tainted than even McGuire. Morneau is looking like a really good 1st baseman too but needs to do it longer, Giambi had a few great years at the plate but juiced and was always a bad fielder, Delgado was a great hitter but not so great in the field. Who else is there?

Steve Garvey?:)

No way was he better in the field, no way. Mattingly's peak is not superior to what Texiera has done. And if we include Mattinglys 1990 through 1995 seasons it aint even close. I was being nice but if Mattingly had played in Texas most wouldnt even remember him now.

he played in Colorado. He had 6 seasons where the numbers were great even for there but Coors field was such a good hitters park it is hard to get an accurate read on him, Larry Walker too.

Please dont get him started...

Ok...I won't.


Merry Christmas Chuck:tro:

Merry Xmas to you too!!

??? Don mattingly was a 9 time gold glove winner and is widely considered the second best fielding first baseman of his era behind Hernandez who was probably the best ever.

No doubt Mattingly played in Yankee Stadium which is pretty friendly to lefties, but he didnt play in the juice era and he didnt play in a launching pad like the ballpark...during the juice era. (not to imply that texiera was ever involved).

Compare Mattingly's first 6 years to Texiera's

Mattingly


1984 23 NYY AL 153 603 91 207 44 2 23 110 1 1 41 33 .343 .381 .537 156 324 8 9 8 1 15 MVP-5,AS
1985 24 NYY AL 159 652 107 211 48 3 35 145 2 2 56 41 .324 .371 .567 156 370 2 15 13 2 15 SS,MVP-1,AS
1986 25 NYY AL 162 677 117 238 53 2 31 113 0 0 53 35 .352 .394 .573 161 388 1 10 11 1 17 SS,MVP-2,AS
1987 26 NYY AL 141 569 93 186 38 2 30 115 1 4 51 38 .327 .378 .559 146 318 0 8 13 1 16 SS,MVP-7,AS
1988 27 NYY AL 144 599 94 186 37 0 18 88 1 0 41 29 .311 .353 .462 128 277 0 8 14 3 13 AS
1989 28 NYY AL 158 631 79 191 37 2 23 113 3 0 51 30 .303 .351 .477 133 301 0 10 18 1 15 MVP-15,AS

Texiera

2003 TEX 146 529 66 137 29 5 26 84 1 2 44 120 .259 .331 .480 254 0 2 5 14 14 0.811
2004 TEX 145 545 101 153 34 2 38 112 4 1 68 117 .281 .370 .560 305 0 2 12 10 6 0.930
2005 TEX 162�† 644 112 194 41 3 43 144 4 0 72 124 .301 .379 .575 370 0 3 5 11 18 0.954
2006 TEX 162�† 628 99 177 45 1 33 110 2 0 89 128 .282 .371 .514 323 0 6 12 4 17 0.885
2007 TEX-ATL 132 494 86 151 33 2 30 105 0 0 72 112 .306 .400 .563 278 0 2 13 7 7 0.963
2008 ATL-LAA 157 574 102 177 41 0 33 121 2 0 97 93 .308 .410 .552 317 0 2 8 3 12 0.962
Total 840 3187 518 906 205 13 203 624 11 3 400 665 .284 .371 .533 1698 0 17 55 49 74 0.904



At the same time in their respective careers,

Mattingly: Texiera

5 gold gloves 2 gold gloves
3 silver slugger 2 silver sluggers
5 all star appearances 1 all star appearance
1 MVP 0 MVP


Chuck, its not even close. Mattingly was a better player. You can't factor what Mattingly did from 1990-95 in comparison because we don't yet know what TEX will do. Be fair here. I realize that yankee fans hold Mattingly's career in a higher regard than his overall career should probably dictate. However, if we are looking strictly at his first six full years, they compare favorably to Texiera and a lot of other really good ball players. Mattingly was widely considered the best player in the game from 1984-1986. No one would say that about Tex.

It is very close and you are using some things that are not really valid. Texiera has consistently shown more power than mattingly did. Not to mention that Tex's K's have decreased and his OBP has steadily risen which leads one to believe that his further production will be at the very least as good as it has been and most likely better. Not to mention that he has had the last 2 seasons interupted by mid season trades. The gold gloves are a flawed argument as Tex would have 4 in a row if he had not switched leagues the last 2 years and All star appearances are a poor way to compare players due to the fact that it only takes 1/2 of the year's numbers, is heavily tilted towards big market teams and in essence is a popularity contest. The reason that Mattingly was considered the best player (for perhaps 2 years) is that there was a gap of great players during that period. If he had played in an era with Bonds, Arod or Pujols not to mention Manny he would not have been consider such. Let us not forget that his big rbi years came with the addition of Ricky Henderson hitting in front of him. Texiera has never had a player of that caliber leading off in front of him. Mattingly had 1 really outstanding season that is better than Texiera's. And the fact of the matter is that Mattingly does have a track record after his peak where he simply was a league average player. Understanding that it was due to unfortunate back issues is one thing but the odds that Texiera will fade as badly as Mattingly is highly unlikely and by 2010 will easily have eclipsed him as a player.

The slugging pct over the same period of time is nearly identical. Mattingly led the league in doubles three times over that era. No, he didnt hit as many home runs, but the LEAGUE didnt hit as many home runs and he more than makes up for that with a MUCH HIGHER Batting average and a higher on base pct.

What he will likely be in 2010 doesnt matter for what we are discussing because he could get hit by a bus tomorrow and we will only have his current body of work to judge him by. What Mattingly did after his first six years are also immaterial. That being the case, the numbers and the awards clearly point to mattingly.

I do admit that from a numbers perspective, it is very difficult to find five better than TEX. Could that not be more of a result of the era than the quality of player? I would venture to say that we could take a top position player from ANY position today (except pitcher) and compare him to top players from the 80's at the same position and the numbers would be favorable to the player of this era. I was looking at the year Keith Hernandez won MVP. He was an MVP first baseman with 11 home runs.

While it is different eras the awareness of what constitutes value in players has also changed. The year Hernandez won he actually tied Stargell and won witht the help of a media surge that decided he was valuble versus straight stats similar to the year Kirk Gibson won. While I agree that Mattingly had a few really great years if you take his entire career he isnt the player that Texiera is now. The thing that everyone misses about Texiera is that he still is improving and there is no reason to believe he has peaked. Regardless even if i give yoy Mattingly begrudgingly and Murray that still leaves a lot more to go.

Settle down, I'm not criticizing teams for trying to win. I'm criticizing teams for being too impatient and sacrificing their future for a quick fix. Better to be a contender year after year than to sell out for an unsuccessful title run.

The better franchises have it figured out. Build your team for the long haul. Beat your opponents in the draft. I will concede that once in awhile you might have to pick up a free agent during the season. The Dodgers picking up Manny midseason was not a a typical move for them.

The Red Sox are a great example of building a solid team via the draft.

Patience is still important in building a successful sports franchise just as it is in managing a stable.

Whoa. I agree that Boston's front office is as shrewd as there is out there but the keys to their championship teams WERENT built through the draft. The first title was led by Manny (free agent) Papi (free agent) and the pitchers were all a result of trades or free agency. Granted, it is fair to say that they had to draft and develop the prospects to trade away for a Josh Beckett but lets not act like the Red Sox are this homegrown championship contender like Tampa or Philly. A majority of Boston's regulars during their title runs did not come up through their system.

Okay, you gave me Mattingly (I admit...one of my favorites) and Eddie Murray (one of the most underrated players ever to play the game). Lets try a couple of more. I won't get cheap and try to include Pete Rose.

Cecil Cooper. Please dont tell me Tex is better than Cecil Cooper was during his prime.

The Red Sox have picked up free agents but not typically in midseason like the Brewers and Angels last year. Picking up free agents in midseason is not the answer to success.

No doubt the Red Sox don't have the homegrown talent that TB and Philly or even LA. They do have a solid nucleus of homegrown talent right now. Pedroia, Ellsbury, Youkilis and Veritek on offense along the arms of Lester & Papelbon.

When the Yankees were at their peak they had Leyritz, Jeter, Rivera, Williams and Pettitte.

Still believe the good ones must be patient, don't go for the quick fix; start with a solid draft.