Indianapolis here we come
My friend Don Butchie AKA Donnie Baseball is already fed up with the off-season, in fact it gives him the Shpilkes to say the least. Well Don B you can lay off the Brioschi because starting on Monday the winter meetings start and the team will began to be defined, in the meantime tune in to my Kentucky Wildcats who are 8-0 BTW, and enjoy the ride until March.
Of course as we know the Yankees will be working with a budget this year so don’t expect brand names a plenty under the Christmas tree or in Don’s case his 8 special days might just bring him the same pieces the Yanks had plugged in last year only a year older and with a smaller check to cash every two weeks.
As we all know pitching is the top order of business for the Bombers. It starts with Andy Pettitte and works from there. Pettitte will have to keep the boss posted on his 2010 decision to either wear the pinstripes or stay in Texas and be the family guy. Once that matter is solved Cashman and his crew can plan accordingly.
The back up plans are as follows Roy Halladay, John Lackey, Rich Harden, Justin Duscherer, Ben Sheets and Erik Bedard . All brand names, with Halladay and Lackey commanding the big bucks, while Harden, Bedard, Sheets, and Duscherer are penciled in as probably low risk high reward types. I wouldn’t mind seeing a low risk high reward type coming to camp even if Pettitte decides to come back again, that would give Girardi flexibility with his use of Hughes and Chamberlain. Hughes might start in the pen to keep his innings down then start to stretch out as the season takes shape to eventually become a starter. Chamberlain if he doesn’t get traded is scheduled to be a starter and for the first time without the Joba Rules intact. Hughes’s spot if and when he becomes a starter would then be taken over by perhaps Robertson and a cast of characters the Yanks have been grooming on the farm to bridge the gap to the Greatest of All Time # 42.
Matsui and Damon are the next priorities. Both should be back when the amount of years and the amount of dough works out in favor of the new Yankee budget, whatever that may be. Of course as we learned last year the Yanks can and will lay in the weeds and strike with a big purchase ( see Teixeira) at the last minute, something that will continue to keep Boston shaking in their boots all winter. Source
Cashman gets His Marching Orders
Well the Boss held a nice summit at the old Hacienda in Tampa and the boys figured out how much dough they will spend in the next few months on their roster payroll. First word on the bricks from Big Tony Mccarron is pitching pitching and more pitching, sprinkle in Matsui who’s agent Arnie Tellem will meet with Cashman at the winter meetings starting on Monday in Indianapolis, getting Johnny Damon back in left field and finding out if Andy Pettitte wants to take out the garbage, watch his kids play high school sports, and rearrange the garage next year or man the bump every 5 days on the road with all his buddies laughing and carrying on like college kids all while he makes anywhere from 5 to 10 plus million bucks for his effort, is also high on the bucket list.
Hopefully he’ll pick toeing the bump with the men, but if he doesn’t Doc Halladay and John Lackey will be the large bulls eye for this winter. The Yankees’ payroll should drop from the roughly $206 million it was last season, the insider said, but probably not by much. The Yankees have about $45 million coming off the books with their own free agents, though they are due to pay roughly $15 million in raises to other players. So if they add several pieces, they’ll likely be close to their 2009 figure. Source
Tiger, bad kitty bad, Grrrrrrrrrrr! Source
How much greener does the grass get ? Source
Johnny Morosi writes, forget Miggy Cabrera getting traded from Detroit, sorry Redsox.. Source A Source B
Twitter reports from Jon Heyman and Buster Onley claim the Yankee budget will float in around 190 to 200 million Source
It’s Hammer Time
George had all the boys over to his Digs in Tampa to hammer out the budget for 2010, fly on the wall for that little congregation. No substantial news came out of the meeting as of yet, but the vibe I got from the YES Yankee Hot Stove Show, Matsui could be back. The panel of 2 was split 50/50 on his return with a friendly wager between the two combatants implemented. Source
Yankees manager Joe Girardi will be in Tampa on Thursday, along with general manager Brian Cashman, for meetings with team ownership to finalize the Yankees’ plans for the offseason. The most important piece of business at the meetings will be to hammer out the team’s budget for acquiring new talent.
“We do have an older team and that is some concern,” Girardi said. “We got younger last year and possibly get a little younger this year. I’m not sure if we will or not. The hardest thing is if we win as a group, there’s a bond there and you don’t want that bond to be broken.” Source
Boston comes to their senses and hires a SS
Cubs look to land Jason Bay Source
Yanks start to Tamper in Tampa
As Mike Francessa would say, the Yankees will start to tamper in Tamper today.
Well kids it’s been 4 weeks since the World Series and most of us have the jones for baseball, with that 4 months away we have the Hot Stove to chew on. Starting today we’ll have some chicken on the bone with Cashman heading to Tampa to meet with the front office to determine the Yankee game plan for 2010.
So far you hear rumors from the publications around baseball, the 500 pound gorilla in the room from the Bronx is ready to trump any offer to any major star they covet, but the vibe you get from Cashman is the Yankees will work with a budget, and payroll will decrease in 2010. That’s all fine, but that concept could fly out the window if and when Boston starts to heat up their check book, and unlike the Yankees John Henry has already started to get antsy. He’s raised ticket prices 3 %, and his new baseball policy for MLB has hit the bricks where he is calling out the bottom feeders in MLB to spend some or all of the revenue sharing money the big markets kick back to them. This could mean Henry is ready to spend and he doesn’t want that investment to help the weak brothers in the league.
Henry is no longer enamored with floating the have-nots, especially if they don’t throw the money back on the field. You can’t blame him, these franchises are paying off their purchasing debts, and riding the NY, Boston, Chicago, LA, Philly etc coat tails all the way to a mortgage payment, that means they’re getting the franchise they purchased paid for without having to field a competitive team, the MLB free market suffers and the home town fan suffers. Further reason you can never give the owners the stick, they can’t be trusted never could and never will, it’s the reason we have the MLBPA in the first place.
Henry’s proposal has some holes in it that I’m sure the MLBPA will float to the top after it tears it apart. Memo to MR Henry :So, revenue sharing is the most anti-American business practice ever seen in a free-market system. Except for the original anti-trust exemption gained by the owners a century ago. And the players draft, and later compensation system, which removes from the player his right to participate in a free market.
If baseball wants to stay away from a cap system and continue with its tax system, they should institute a reimbursement program for the small-market teams. Instead of just giving them $80 million dollars and HOPING they spend it on players, give them the money only AFTER THEY SIGN the players. How much they get would be determined by who they signed and for how much – together with their revenues, etc.
Anyway the Yankees will start to wet their fans appetite starting today. The Beacon light will be focused on Damon, Matsui, and Pettitte, what happens to that trio will determine who we’ll see in spring training. We have all heard the rumors ad nauseam, now that the stove has been lit, we should start to see the high stakes poker game start to heat up. The Yanks are working from a position of power this winter, the top 2 gunslingers on the bump are in place, it’ll be fun to see who the Yanks float in and around them.
Pettitte, Hughes, Chamberlain are the incumbents for the rotation, Pettitte, Damon and Matsui will be dealt with first, hopefully all the I’s and T’s will be tended to, one way or another. Source
Congrats to Girardi for winning the March of Dimes Sportsman of the Year Award. Here Girardi does his best Jeter interpretation when asked about the up coming winter dealings. Source
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Boston 10.0 Why Holliday is a better fit for Boston then Bay Source
No shortage of picks to fill the holes in Boston, but are they all square pegs trying to fit into a round hole Source
Everybody loves a Weiner, the new Boss, same as the old Boss? Source
