More Mark Teixeira Signing Reactions

He cites the national economic struggles as a top reason the Teixeira/Yankees deal is makes no sense.

Mike Lupica of the N.Y. Daily News wonders if the Yankees have spend enough this offseason to buy a World Series.

Welcome, new guy. Proofread your stuff before posting, lol. Merry Christmas!

while I do agree that it is fully within any team's right to spend whatever they want, it still doesn't mean it's in the best interest of the game itself. I know I'm not the only fan who thinks that when any major free agent comes up, they are either going to Boston or New York, and that's it. It just takes the fun out of things for other teams. Now, I'm a diehard Braves fan, so I know I don't have it that bad, because at least they tried to toss some $ around, just didn't work out(though I am estatic they did not sign A.J. Burnett for that kind of $- good luck with that one). It just seems that there are only a few teams that are major free agent players every year, and I honestly think it's bad for the league. I understand the Yanks are paying $20 mil+ in luxury taxes, which is fine, but what actually bothers me the most is that the Yanks can make a bad signing (Carl Pavano, Jared Wright, etc) and it doesn't kill them because they seem to have a bottomless pit of $. If my Braves, for example, paid big $ for a guy and it didn't work out (Mike Hampton anyone?), the salary ramifications truly hinder the organization's ability to add any additional pieces they would like. The Yanks don't have that problem, and can easily eat a bad contract if necessary. THAT is why many baseball fans want to see the Yanks fail, and since the days of Brosius, Charlie Hayes, Sojo, etc...you know...ROLE players, the Yanks have not won anything with a team of superstars and their bloated salaries, and that makes fans of other teams happy! I also know the Yanks are supposedly cutting salary and may in fact have a smaller overall payroll than last year, but in 2008 they spent over $70 million more than the next closest team! So...in my eyes, and many others, it DOES look like they are trying to simply buy another World Series ring, and many fans don't like that and want nothing more than to see them fail!

It's not about BUYING a WS... its about giving your team the best chance to do it.. Yankees did what they felt was necessary to be able to achieve that goal.. Yanks cant build through the draft if they cant get a top10 pick.. unless they tank a few seasons to do it..

Yankees' payroll hasnt gone up people.. its gone down.

I love how the media is spinning things for Boston to make it sound as if they "drew a line" and didn't want to cross it. They drew a line and didn't want too cross it because they had no idea that there were any teams, other than then maybe the Nationals, that had an offer in. Why compete against yourself when you feel your offer (money and competitiveness) are the best on the table? Cashman played it well. He knew that Boras would probably offer him one last chance to beat any existing offer and they did so by an avg salary increase of $1.5 mil per year. Since when has any team with the media coverage as big as the Yanks ever been able to keep something like this quiet? That indicates to me that it happened at the very last minute. The Yanks probably had internal talks about Tex or Man-NY and had an idea of what they were willing to pay for either of them. If Boras called and the figure were too high they would've passed. If Boston signed Tex I GUARANTEE you the Yanks would've pounced all over Man-NY.

I know Man-NY is probably on his flight back from Brazil saying WTF??? Luccyyyyy (Boras)!!!!!! What did ju do????!!!!!

I'm a Red Sox fan, and have no problem defending the Yankees here.

While the Yanks are obviously a better team going into next year, they are also deeply committed to next years core roster for the next 5-8 years.

What people should remember is the Yankees overspending makes it very difficult to find trades for their players if they don't work out.

These players are all great but there is no gurantee for the Yankees other then the fact that they will have to honor these contracts for a very long time.

Other franchises who don't lock into big contracts like this will have a ton of flexibilty over the course of the next decade.

If you think this is nonsense just look at Giambi/Pavano and how these bad contracts hurt the Yankees for the better part of this decade already.

The Reward of these players is all people focus on but if fans took their frustration away for a second they would see the Risk is extremely large too.

The only thing that upsets me with this situation is the lack of rules in place to protect the Brewers/Blue Jays from being the ones who are penalized for this.

With all the sandwich picks, and the Yankees 3rd round pick being extremely late, the Blue Jays are basically ending up with a 4th round pick for the loss of a Type A free agent.

To put this in perspective, if some team signs Jason Varitek the Red Sox will get a 1st round pick for Tek while the Brewers get a 2nd round for Sabathia.

The ranking system and compensation system should change but other then that its all good by me.

Ben Jones,

Where exactly does Sherman's column suggest that the Yankees aren't getting younger...?

"Don't ignore age as a factor in this. Teixeira turns 29 in April. Last year, the Yanks spent too much of the season depending on the too inexperienced and the too old. But since the start of last year, they have added Xavier Nady, who will play next season at 30; Nick Swisher, who will play next season at 28; CC Sabathia, who turns 28 in July; and A.J. Burnett, who turns 32 in two weeks.

This gives them significantly more players in their prime, and should be of great benefit if Robinson Cano Robinson Cano , 26, bounces back from a poor season; Chien-Ming Wang Chien-Ming Wang , 29 in March, returns to 19-win health; and Joba Chamberlain Joba Chamberlain , 23, can avoid the DL.

The Yanks suddenly have a lot more players who could be considered near or in their prime."

And to YanksFanSince78, before you rail on the reporting, please read the article to make sure that the synopsis posted here actually matches what the reporter said... Merry Readingcomprehensionmas!

The yankees overspending doesn't necessarily hurt them, because they can eat big contracts and still spend on someone else! they already had giambi, pavano, etc. making huge $ and still signed A-rod! tell me one other team that can do that!

kangaroo:

I agree w/ you to an extent but they also get a sandwhich pick which should put them somewhere between 30-45 overall.

My apologies to Mr. Sherman...Get on your j-o-b Mr. Ben Jones, your post was misleading... :)

Ps. There's no way I would trade Wang, regardless of whether or not Pettitte signs. The whole point of signing CC and AJ is to provide depth to the staff with proven talents. Every great team has a good 1-3 combo. Joba and Hughes are not locks at this point to provide anything in 09. If they each have good years (Joba and Hughes) and guys like Brackman or Betances or even Kennedy have super 09's then maybe you listen to offers in winter of 09-10, especially if someone's talking young position players(OF, SS) but not this year!!

Schellis,

I disagree. Overspending by a few teams has led to great strides in the development of players at younger levels.

The more teams pull away with payroll, the more other teams are forced to invest in player development.

If you go back to the 60/70/80's before salaries spiked the developmental leagues were poor and the opportunity to make it to the major league level was low.

Now, more and more younger kids are getting a chance to move up and prove their talent on a big stage. Last year alone numerous kids came up and helped their teams by filling in holes, where as in the past teams would have just swapped one lousy vet for another.

I also think the emphasize on development is playing a huge part in the resurgance of the quality of MLB because you are seeing the Veterans working harder then ever before to keep their jobs.

I don't know why everyone says this is such a big blow to boston. We have a championship caliber team already. I dont think this is bad for boston at all. It guarantees they sign that extention for Youk, it puts us on the market for Holliday.

The Yankees signing Teix is bad for the REST of baseball except the red sox. I still think we are going to win 95-99 games and possibly the division. This is bad for teams like the nationals, orioles and brewers who lost out on major parts of their rotation/lineup. As a reminder once again, the Red Sox looked at Teix as a bonus. nothing more.

the yankees that is.

I think that that signing was not good for baseball as a whole. So much for talks of little disparity in baseball.
Don't get me wrong. It's a great signing for the Yankees. They had the money to do it, it improved their defense, gave them more offense, and pushes Swisher/Matsui as a depth guy who can sub in everywhere.
But as good as it is for the Yankees, like I said, it's not good for the rest of baseball. "Small market" teams like the Nats or even O's lose out in adding a guy who brings fans to the park and improve revenue, not to mention to improve a lousy team, while a good team like the Yankees (lets face it, even without Teixeira, they are still in the upper echelon of baseball teams in the league) get even better. So the poor get poorer...
Selig needs to add in 100% revenue, like someone mentioned, to help "smaller market" teams to actually stay competitive. The salary cap idea would be an extreme, as baseball wouldn't be baseball with a salary cap. No Evil Yankees, no Big Bad Red Sox... I know people would argue that you don't need a huge payroll to be very competitive (Twins, Marlins, Rays come to mind), but I say bullsquat. To win it all, you need to have money, and thats what makes it harder for teams like the Padres, A's, Royals to win it all, especially since athletes go where the money is (see Sabathia, CC, et al), which leaves small market teams to hang out to dry.

why dont the yankees just buy other baseball teams? isnt that a better way of insuring that you win?

Yes and let's not forget that the worst run team in professional sports has spent three quarters of a billion dollars over three years and has only two playoffs wins for it. They are desperate to BUY a World Series so they and their fans do not look totally foolish.

"Yes and let's not forget that the worst run team in professional sports has spent three quarters of a billion dollars over three years and has only two playoffs wins for it. They are desperate to BUY a World Series so they and their fans do not look totally foolish."

The comments just keep getting better and better!
The goal of any owner of a professional sports team is twofold..to make money and to win. The Yankees have done that better than any other team. If that is "worst run" Ill take it everyday of the week.

OH and Phil Sheridan,

Shut The Fuxk UP!!!

The Yankees are bad for baseball? Didn't your team win the world series? Why the hell are you complaining? It's people like this who overlook the fact that our current payroll is DOWN!!! You want me to say it in spanish? ABAJO!!! Smaller market teams have no shot oh please... Sheridan is just mad that the Phils feasted on a small market team and now is afraid that if their team reaches the World Series they will have to contend with the Yankees or another High Payroll team Like Boston!

(not trying 2 disrespect Phils Fans)

1b: Youkilis/Teixeira--Teixeira(ny)
2b: Pedroia/Cano--Pedroia(bos)
ss: jeter/lowrie--Jeter(ny)
3b: arod/lowell--Arod(ny)
LF: damon/bay--Bay(bos)
cf: ellsbury/Gardner--Even
RF: Drew/nady--Even
c: posada--Yankees Red Sox dont even have a catcher as of now(ny)
Yankees 4 Red Sox 2 Ties: 2

Beckett/Sabathia --Sabathia(ny)
Dice-K/Wang-- Wang(ny)
Lester/Burnett--Lester(bos)
Wakefield/Joba--Joba(ny)
Masterson Buchholz Hughes Pettitte--Even

Iron

When you see as many world championships from your team in your lifetime that Yankee fans have seen in theirs, come talk to us.

Oh and by the way, if you are going to call someone else an idiot, please learn to count. The Yanks won in 2000, thats not 10 years.

"When you see as many world championships from your team in your lifetime that Yankee fans have seen in theirs, come talk to us."

The sure sign of a has been - living in the past. I grew up a Yankee fan - went to the stadium many times to see Mantle, Berra, Howard, Maris, Ford etc. Sat in the bleachers and watched double headers when bleacher tickets were $1. Steinbrenner not only ruined the team but ruined baseball.

"And if you're old enough to have seen those guys play, I feel for you, because your posts make you seem like youre 12."

When facts and logic fails the fallback is always name calling. Since 2001 what has the Yankee $2 billion bought? Maybe the need for Yankee fans to revert to living in the past?

First of all I was the one called an idiot by a poster. Second of all none of your arguments are germane to whether or not baseball fans in cities other then New York, Boston, LA or Chicago should have the opportunity to see "a quality competitive team every year." My original post was that the Yankees were poorly run - what would be their chances if they were held to a salary cap? $2 billion without a World Series - what if the playing field was even like in other sports? Do you really think you would ever see a World Series again?

Must be the Christmas season - now I have to say you are also right (partly). Blame should be placed on MLB. That being said - the results of decisions made by the Yankee front office has resulted in a competitive team, not a championship caliber team. They should be held accountable by the fans. Teams like Minnesota, Florida, Atlanta put a competitive team on the diamond almost every year with much smaller budgets. A level playing field. like football, hockey and basketball would mandate a team make wise decisions, develop a professional minor league system, and spend their money wisely. Note that the NY Rangers are on top of their division - not based on outspending their rivals, but based on putting together a winning team using all the above criteria - a formula that all other teams in their division could have taken advantage of.

They are held accountable, which is why they went out and filled their holes with the best available players.
However, you and I both know the game isnt played on paper, and there are many other factors that go into winning. Sometimes things go right and other times they dont.
The Yanks have a shot every year and I cannot ask for more than that.
I dont buy into the comparing baseball to other sports. Its a different animal with the amount of games and the TV rights. What works for Football and hockey would not necessarily work for baseball.

Look at it this way the Yankees are "threatening" to sign Manny to a 3 year $75 million contract. $25M a year. Tex around $23M a year. Sabathia $23M a year. Burnett, $16.5M a year (average money a year.) Swisher $5M a year. Already they have spent $51M a year for 3 players and now Manny which will equal $76M? This is a joke. They are ruining the game with their dumb old money. They were -$45M operating income according to Forbes when they did the survey April 2008 and now they are going to be in major MAJOR debt. Another 76M to the debt! They better raise the ticket prices and get full houses every game or they are screwed.

The NFL busted the union - that is the obstacle.

And you should hope that sanity never raises it's ugly head and parity comes at last to baseball. If it did I might even look at the Yanks with a less critical eye when I remember Mick, Whitey, Scooter and Yogi.

"And if you're old enough to have seen those guys play, I feel for you, because your posts make you seem like youre 12."

When facts and logic fails the fallback is always name calling. Since 2001 what has the Yankee $2 billion bought? Maybe the need for Yankee fans to revert to living in the past?
____________________________

Iron, nothing is ever guaranteed. The Rays did a great job (losing for 10 years) of stocking draft picks that finally put it all together this year. Did they win? No? What did $2 billion buy us since 2001? 2 trips to the world series and 5 other post-season appearances. I'd rather have a chance every year than no chance at all in the last 15 (see Pirates, Royals).

The owner of the Brewers is fed up because he lost a first round draft pick.
Trust me, he loves the money he gets from the Yanks.

Iron: Other teams DO have a chance!!! The Yanks haven't won in the last 8 years meanwhile the Rays, Brewers, Twins, Marlins, Padres, D'backs, etc have all had shots at it since. There are glaring difference between MLB and all other sports (draft pick trading, player roster size, non-guaranteed contracts, etc). You can talk about a salary cap but the reality is that it would kill small market teams and lead to contraction.

Here's why Mark Attanasio is full of it. He was willing to pony up 100 mil for CC. Now that CC is off the table why isn't he willing to spend that same 100 mill on other players? Are you telling me CC alone will help win next year but Randy Johnson, Ben Sheets, Brian Fuentes and Adam Dunn wouldn't?

Randy = 1/9 mil
Sheets= 2/26 mil
Fuentes= 3/30
Abreu= 2/28

That's 93 million dollars on 4 major improvements to the team. Plus if he traded Cameron to the Yanks and used the 10 mil from Gagne's expired contract that would give them an additional 20 mil to use or put back in their pocket.

WHY IS HE PUTTING BACK IN HIS POCKET??? In the NL Central, with those additions, they could compete for another couple of years.

If hockey isn't contracting then MLB will not contract. If there is a level playing field, with a ceiling and a floor, then it is up to the fan base to determine for the respective owners whether or not they are putting a good product on the field. A competitive product would mean more interest and tickets sold. These cheap skate owners like Peter Angelos wouldn't be able to hide behind their small market status to pocket the cash. As to those that point out that the Yankees haven't won a Series in eight years - that goes to my original post that they are mismanaged by the front office.

Iron Nat: The Yanks are not mismanaged. They have done a poor job in terms of drafting in the past (pre-2005) but a GM's job is to put talent on the field. If a team is good enough to win a division and to make it to the playoffs then it's good enough to WIN a world series. If the 09 team fails then the blame is on the players, coaches and manager, certainly not the GM/FO.

I'm going to sum this up for everyone.
- The Yankees got younger
- They have a lower payroll than last year, even with the 3 biggest Free Agents signed this year
- There are not many great free agents next year, so why wait?
- More contracts are coming off the books next year
- Curt Schilling Weighs in? He hasn't been on a scale since Arizona
- How are the yankees bad for baseball? Just because they have money, but do employ more people than any other team with the YES network, Stadium jobs and careers in the organization
- All yankees haters brainwash themselves to think the yankees are buying World Series... They didn't say all this last year when the yankees had a higher payroll than they do now.... any yankee hater, don't quit your day job, blogging and baseball are not for you. Peter Gammons, you can quit your day job, i thought reporters were not supposed to be corrupt, but lets let Gammons spread the Propaganda. Shout out to www.nomaas.org

Tex wife didn't like Boston but she is going to love hearing from her husband what a jerk Girardi is. Tex doesn't know that Girardi is a headcase and reacts very badly when they lose.Good luck Tex next year. You are going to need it with Girardi.

As a Sox fan in NYC, I still get to see Teix play. Now I just won't have to try to deal with the crowds at Sox-Yanks games to do it.

It was interesting to look at the actual numbers that Youkilis and Teixeira put up last year and career avg. over 162 games. Teix is indisputably an upgrade, but the Sox fans who are in panic mode now aren't recognizing what Youkilis does for the team. They're both Gold Glove defenders with plus offense. Teix's is a bigger plus, but the Sox can make up for it in other positions (SS, C).

I don't really agree with the writers who are talking too much about the risk of these long-term contracts. How much risk is there in signing a guy to 1B/DH until he's 36? Not too much, really. It's not like they're giving a 40 year old short stop a 6 year deal.

Having Teix would have been great, but the FO picked a figure and stuck to it. The Yankees picked a bigger figure. That's not a game of chicken you really want to get into, is it? 8/168 becomes 8/180 becomes 8/188 becomes 8/200? No thanks.

The NFL is still the best professional sports league. No sport can come close to it right now.

These opposing teams better stop saying that they arent afraid of the Yankees acquisition of Mark Teixeira because as we all know the Yankees arent afraid to make drastic moves and according to many newpapers they are shopping one of their excess outfielders (maybe to pursue Manny?)

Yankees put in $100 million in revenue sharing, they basically pay the marlins, nationals and D-Rays Payrolls... than those teams managers and General Managers have somethign to say... if there was no revenue sharing, and probably no yankees, there would only be 26 teams, inclusing 0 in florida, anyone from florida mad at the yankees.. hang yourself.

Peter Gammons says the Teixeira signing serves as a reminder that there's the Yankees, and there's everyone else.

Nuff said

They can suffer at the gate, sure, but if good players put fans in the standsm put good players on your team. If your not producing good young players, and your no signing any proven players, atleast get better scouts. If young players really help a team succeed, pirates and nationals would be better. No one can deny, the pirates are getting better after so many years, nationals have had a lot of busts in their drafts ever since they become the nationals.
If the smaller market teams were smart, they would trade a lot of their first round draftees for already proven players because their first round draftees could be busts. If they lose at the gates... Tell them to sell the team to Mark Cuban so fans will show up. If you can't afford to put a good team out there... Business 101, cut your losses.

Besides, the yankees havent spent more than $420,000,000 yet, they will only be spending slightly less than $63 million on these 3 players... (Annually)... They are not getting $420 million from the yankees until all of their contracts are up, and they finish in pinstripes. Writers are to blame for the remarkable use of saying the yankees spent $400 million dollars, where?... i only see $63 million that these players are owed throughout this year. Which is less than the $88.5 million the yankees have let go. They will wind up trading Matsui, Damon, Swisher or Nady. Damon and Matsui are both owed 13 million, swisher about half and nady 3.35. Either way, with any trade of those 4, the yankees have spent less than $60 million.
Some reason... people don't understand that.

so Teixeira and Boras used the Red Sox to drive up the bidding by other teams, notably the Yankees, when Tex had no intention of going there in the first place? That's business, and probably not unethical, but it doesn't speak well of Tex. If he didn't want to go there, he should have said so from the get-go.

Then again, he's probably just a tool and Boras is calling the shots.

"Yankeegirl49, this is why so many Yankee fans are hated.

Intelligent Yankee fans with class never use that excuse. But ignorant fans like you always use that when someone else beats you in an argument. Honestly I don't think anyone f_ucking cares how many championships the Yankees have won besides Yankee fans like you. The Yankees will never learn. The best way to win is by making small moves involving role players and bringing up players through the minors. How did they win in the 90's? With role players and homegrown talent. Look at the Phillies, they won with Howard, Utley, Hamels, Victorino, J-Roll, and other role players. You can't buy heart and a desire to win."

Ok, so someone posts this about what they HAVE NOT done:
"Let's see, your team averages, with the tax, $200 million a year and haven't won the the World Series in ten years - that seems like $2 billion dollars. Seems like the idiots are in the Yankee front office."

But Im ignorant for posting WHAT THEY HAVE DONE??? Um, yea ok.
Apparently people do care how many they have won, if they keep bitching about how they do business.
I know why Yankee fans are hated, I dont need you to tell me. In fact I want you to keep having a reason to hate. People dont hate other teams that lose, they hate teams that win all the time.

Oh and by the way...stating that I have seen more championships is not an excuse, its a FACT!

i know, but if we didnt buyout giambi, and signed all of last years players to contracts and respent the whole $88.5 million on them, no one would be complaining, because the yankees didn't get better. We got better with less money, Red Sox's luck will run out, and me and Wek are the most knowledgable people on this website.

I agree, espeically considering that NFL teams play about 90% less than MLB games makes it more exciting
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I meant to say NFL games, not NFL teams

I wish everyone would stop crying about how much the Jankees spend on the payroll.. it's a fact, they did it, they have done it and have been doing it since 1977, so please GET OVER IT and stop these constant whining posts regarding it that amount to nothing but spam and ruin entire topics.

"How long till all this Teixeira signing talk boils down and dies because its bringing all the dumba.sses over to MLBtr to play."

Wow MelonisRex, don't know how missed your post regarding being fed up with the same exact thing.. Guess we both got fed up at the same time huh?

The answer is very simple. New rules for determining the standings. Take the amount of wins and divide by the payroll in million dollar increments. Wins per million dollars spent. Yankees last place every year.

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Lmao, that is one of the stupidestt things I've ever heard

Mike923,

Obviously not not winning a World Series. When I said losing year after year I meant teams like Pirates, Kansas, Washington, San Francisco, San Diego, etc., who do little to improve their team and have a real shot or at least be able to compete within their division and instead just pocket the profits. After losing so many years and having a really low payroll, you would at least be able to get more than a few decent average to above average players with all the saved up money.