Red Sox To Sign Kevin Youkilis For Four Years

BOOOYAA!

YUSS!

YESSSSSSSSSA.... what a deal!

This is an outstanding deal. Ryan Howard made 10 million in arb last year. Given that Youk's 08 season matched Howard's 07 season, with Youk being the far superior defender, he should have been worth atleast 10 million this year. So if he made 10 this year, and lets say 12 in 2010, then this means that Boston locked up 2 free agent years of Kevin Youkilis for roughly 9 million dollars each. Just outstanding. While the Yankees are paying Tex (who was very similar to Youk last year) over 20 million a year for his services. Way to go Theo.

Tim, you are right, but you would still think that buying out 2 free agency years would cost close to 40 million in itself, let alone buying out 2 free agent years and 2 arb years (where Youk could have hit the jackpot) for 40 million total.

It is weird how many reporters experienced group think continually harping on the 10 mil difference yet there has been little acknowledgement that the sox probably would have had to do something like 220 as opposed to 180 just to get him.

Good signing here. The money is just about right factoring in his arbitration years. With the option they can see if he wears down or not. Somewhat surprised he gave them that many free agent years. The yankees fans can sit back and envy what it is like to sign your guys without getting extorted.

I don't see how the money is "just about right". At this rate, Youk would have made from 20-25 million in the next two arbitration years alone. Then for 2 free agency years, at this rate, the guy would have made 15 mil a year at the minimum. I think a 4 year/50 million dollar deal would have been more fair, but I still think that going year to year and hitting free agency Youk could have made near 60 million in the next 4 years. This is a wonderful deal for Boston.

big surprise...

Players don't sign like this with the Yankees because .. why would they.

Boston still plays a sad song about being unable to compete with New York.

Youkilis could have gotten 10-15million more if he went year to year.

Fact is... the Sox are in closer position to winning the WS again, so why wouldnt he resign there? Why wouldnt Smoltz? The sox already have 5 guys to pitch, Smoltz is a 5million insurance policy that could be 3 times as valuable.

It looks as though Youks likes where he plays and prefers financial stability to the chance of a huge payday. Seems to make a great deal of sense, in these tough economic times.

Age well or not, he'll only be 34 at the end of this pact (35 on 5th year option) and it's a steal of a price for a GG 1st baseman that has equal offensive numbers to a guy like Tex anyway the past 2 seasons. Hrad to find any negatives for anyone Sox fan to this deal and have to figure that Youk really wanted to stay to agree with this hometown discount. Really hope Papelbon will agree to a likewise such deal next.

I guess that takes care of that! I'll Take Youk's #s at 40 mil vs. Teix at $190+ (which is what the BoSox would've had to pay at minimum to overcome the home-wife discount NYY got).

Nice work, Theo.

_______________________

hahaha

Papelbon breaks the bank.

Walkoff..... I guess. If Youk has a good agent, he would have made the 10 million that Howard made last year, they were extremely comparable last year, with Youk getting a big edge defensively. I am assuming that he gets a slight raise in the 2nd year of arbitration, and if he maintains a 900 OPS, there is no reason he couldn't get 15 a year as a free agent. I look at it as 15+15+12+10=52. You are right though, this is all assuming he keeps up his current level of production. But all things considered, I think this is a wonderful deal for the Sawx.

One part on not signing teixeira that is worth comparing/noting or whatever you want to call it is that this deal right here probably would not have happened. The red sox usually go year to year for luxury tax reasons. They probably could have still done the pedroia deal but youk would have been unlikely if they had committed a lot to teixeira.

nrmax - please explain how 91 R, 29 HR, 115 RBI, 62 BB, .390 OBP, .569 SLG is a match for 94 R, 47 HR, 136 RBI, 107 BB, .392 OBP, .584 SLG

Now you see where some of the Varitek money went.
10 mill for a .317
or
10 mill for .220

"Papelbon breaks the bank."

You may be right. One advantage there is the Sox have a multitude of nice, young relievers that have a chance to take his place eventually hopefully if they do not manage to sign him long term and let him walk.

"I'm thinking Youk agreed to this deal because he loves playing in Boston and he knows that he, Pedroia, and Ellsbury are the future leaders of that team."

Scary with Ellsbury long term.. He's represented by Boras and the chance of getting him signed long term are pretty much -0-before he hits FA, at least that is 5 years from now.

"Given that Youk's 08 season matched Howard's 07 season ..."

If by "matched" you mean "hit 20 fewer home runs," then sure.

"nrmax - please explain how 91 R, 29 HR, 115 RBI, 62 BB, .390 OBP, .569 SLG is a match for 94 R, 47 HR, 136 RBI, 107 BB, .392 OBP, .584 SLG"

You just explained it yourself..... .312/.390/.570 for Youk..... .270/.390/.580 for Howard. Those are very comparable. I couldn't care less about any of the other useless statistics you threw out there. The only one that matters is HR's, where Ryno obviously has an advantage, but the rest of those stats have no value at all.

"Of those 5 guys you mention, 4 spend part of last season on the DL. Your insurance policy can't pitch until June at the earliest. Keep the dream going!

Posted by: Tex's New Best Friend | January 15, 2009 at 03:38 PM "

yanks fans are in denial. smoltz could pitch in april if he had to. hes been throwing already for a couple months, his fastball is 90+. the red sox told him to take his time coming back though cause they dont need him.

Do they not use more than one season worth of data in arbitration? If they do not I could see youk getting 10 mil. If they do he would not have done it. I also think howard got "extra credit" for his MVP. Youk put up howard like numbers yes but it was only one year. He was +100 in ops and slugging over his previous years. Howard always did it. One thing youk would have going for him is I think the way they calculate defense would overrate youks abilities at first(they are def above average but def not the best). I kind of doubt you was a lock for 15 mil at this point. He is still a first baseman with one year of an ops over .850. He definitely could bank but it was not a given so they reached a good middle ground.

mattyc - please get your head checked. this is why i can't stand boston fans. youk has played 1 good yr. he has topped 20 hrs once. he has topped 85 rbi once. he has hit over 300 once.

do not compare 1 stellar yr of youk to teixeira's career. teix has done that 5 times while winning gold gloves.

please people. that's why he was paid what he was paid. consistency

This is a good move by the Red Sox to lock Youkilis up during the prime of his career. I didn't realize he was already going to be 30. These are the kinds of moves I like to see players and teams make to keep their own home grown players. It also shows loyalty by the player to the organization. Even as a Yankee fan I'll say there really isn't a better team to play on than the Red Sox, besides the Yankees. Both these teams command respect due to their histories and commitment to the game.

"Comparing Tex and Youk is moot. BTW, would Boston have thought Tex's contract was insane if they had gotten him to sign instead of him choosing NY?"

It's not moot when it comes to payroll flexability over the next 7 years.

Bourne's identitie's, he may have less HR's, but Howard is barely able to move at 1B either while Youk is a GG'er.

Tex's new girlfrind, keep dreaming of the days when in centuries past your team won titles. Now come back to reality where your team can't even make the dance with a bloated payroll of aging stars. These are called "Shattered Dreams"!

1 season without the playoffs?
Did the Red Sox make the playoffs in 2006? With the 2nd top payroll?

Get off your high horse.

"please people. that's why he was paid what he was paid. consistency"

He was paid what he was paid because he is very overrated and he ended up in a market where a lot of teams needed a 1B. Tex is a good player, nothing incredibly special. That deal will go down as an awful one, just like Giambi's deal did, just like Todd Helton's deal did. Adam Dunn and Tex are comparable players, and Tex got this mega deal while Dunn will struggle to get two years. Tex is OVERRATED. Good player, not nearly as good as people think.

Youk is a good baseball player, plays hard, thinks hustles, works at his game.
Those are things that I see, stats, are for the television audience.

Anyone mentioning Tex, or with anything negative to say about this extension needs to fellate a gun barrel. This is a fantastic contract.

"These are the same people who were counting the minutes before Tex signed with Boston for $170 Million."

The Sox coveting Teixeira for that price and Youk signing at this price are not mutually exclusive. As a Sox fan, I would've been uncomfortable, but willing to see as much as $180 shelled out for Teixeira. That said, this is a relative steal compared to the Teixeira deal. Their production is comparable enough that it's easy to say four for $40 with a club option is a much better deal than eight for $180. Half the time, but at under a fourth of the price for about 85-90% of the production and equivalent defensive ability plus added versatility in the ability to play third base.

"mattyc - please get your head checked. this is why i can't stand boston fans. youk has played 1 good yr. he has topped 20 hrs once. he has topped 85 rbi once. he has hit over 300 once."

I think it would be wise for you to get your head checked. Telling somebody to get their head checked, then citing batting average and RBI makes you look like the stupid one, not the other guy. Most people that discuss baseball here already know that batting average and RBI are two of the more meaningless statistics in evaluating an baseball players offense.

And okay, maybe I overestimated what Youk was worth. It is a good question of what kind of sample size they use to decide arb cases, because I remember Oliver Perez winning a case last year where the only explanation could have been that his 2007 season was the only season used. I also assumed Youk would continue posting numbers like 2008, which is premature. At the same time, Boston will get a ton more value out of Youk then NYY will out of Tex. I am not even sure that for the next couple of years I would choose Tex over Youk if they had the same price tag. Tex is a good player, I just think it was amazingly stupid that any team would be willing to pay 20 million over 8 years to the guy.

obsessions - i agree with what you said and would run my club with the same philosophy. i don't disagree with youk's value to the team relative to price.

YOUK>TEX

ALL DAY

"Did Boston beat Tampa or did Tampa beat Boston? Did the rest of us miss where Boston won the world series last year?"

They came within a game of the World Series. The closest the Yanks got to the playoffs last year was the 300 or so Rite Guard commercials I had to see with Jeter in them while trying to watch teams that knew how to hit when it matters.

"I think it would be wise for you to get your head checked. Telling somebody to get their head checked, then citing batting average and RBI makes you look like the stupid one, not the other guy. Most people that discuss baseball here already know that batting average and RBI are two of the more meaningless statistics in evaluating an baseball players offense."

nrmax - i actually do know baseball and the sabermetrics you want to discuss. i'd be happy to. however the whole premise of my attacking you is because i took offense to the howard/teixeira comparison when your side is extremely faith built on youk's performance going forward. those guys put up a resume that youk is not close to matching - yet

that said, i agree with not overpaying, agree youk's value, agree comments about stats i used.

but realize that the arbitrators aren't sabermetric guys. they will look at the bottom line and say "this guy doesn't match X"

Okay, if you came at me and said that, I would have been much more civil. However when you come at me and ask do you mind telling me how in the world they are comparable(when the 2 seasons I were comparing were very comparable), I will shoot back at you. If you were to say, although their OPS and such are similar, and arbitrator would likely not see it that way because of the methods of comparing they use, I would have been on the same page. Anyway, no hard feelings, just a misunderstanding.

I understand the system is flawed. But when you first came at me, you seemed like one of these kids that evaluates players based on meaningless stats like RBI and BA and runs. You never made the point that you were trying to look at things through the eyes of an arbitrator or a writer. These guys don't evaluate players very well, this we can agree on.

Less than 30 minutes to turn into a pi$$ing match and not even with Sox-Yanks Fans...

How about starting over again people.

IF RBI'S are a useless stat to use then so are HR's. Tell me who's more valuable:

Jason Giambi with his 32 hrs and high obp

or

Justin Morneau with his 23 hrs, 129 rbis, high obp and .300 avg?

RBIS are important but just like every other stat it doesn't tell the whole story. If some idiot were to say that Aubrey Huff were a better hitter than Hanley Ramirez because Huff had more RBIS , then yes that would be a stupid arguement because

a) Hanley bats more in the leadoff spot

b) Has horrible obp teammates.

The game is still all about who scores the most right; and not about which team hits the most homeruns.

So say that a guys RBI's don't tell the whole story and not "RBIS are meanigless" because until hr's become the barometer on how games are won and lost then a guy who can drive in runs is still a valuable commodity in baseball. A guy Giambi hits a lot of "meanigless" hrs, when no one's on base.

No problem. It just gets old having so many people coming at you everyday basing their opinions on Hits, Runs, RBi's, Batting Average, Strikeouts, etc. I thought you were one of those guys. No worries. Now I have another fellow Met fans who I can discuss the sabermetrics side of the game with (I assume, based on your handle, that you root for the Mets?).

YOUK>TEX

ALL DAY

Posted by: glen_quagmire | January 15, 2009 at 03:58 PM

TEX>YOUK

ANY DAY. TWICE ON SUNDAYS.

I liked this kid from the time I saw him play in Double AA. Years back many people kept saying trade Youk, for this guy or that guy. This shows you why Theo Epstein is a great GM, patience. He knew his value, and talent.

Ah, Nixa. Tex seems to be the one subject that we constantly disagree on. While I know he is a good player, I feel like most fans overrate him which may cause me to underrate him. I just feel like 1B being one of the easiest positions to find offense, that throwing that much money towards Tex, who is probably a top 5 1B in baseball isn't very responsible (Albert, Berkman, Howard, Youk, Tex fits in that group). He just isn't that much better then the competition to justify that kind of cash. If you look at the second tier 1B around the league, guys like Gonzalez, Delgado, Fielder, Pena, Konerko, Miguel Cabrera, Connor Jackson, Nick Swisher(I know I missed some guys for sure), and then up and comers like Chris Davis, Joey Votto, James Loney, Casey Kotchman, Yonder Alonso, Brett Wallace, etc, It just seems like there are a lot of good first baseman out there, whether you sign a second tier free agent, or draft and develop a guy, they all seem like better options then paying one of the best of the bunch over 20 million per for 8 years when there are pretty good 1B options all over if you know where to look, and while they may not be as productive as Tex, they will also come for a fraction of Tex's price tag.

"nrmax88, read my posts and tell me what arguEment we are agreeing on again? Oh yeah, I read what you said about me on the other post so don't act all innocent about the attacks. You had it coming!"

Good job. Intentionally spell words wrong. You will really show me. Yes, I called you an idiot in another topic. Who said I am acting innocent. I think you are a flat out dumbass/moron/idiot/fool/whatever else you can think of. Why? Because for no reason at all, you tried to start a pissing match with Yankee fans. I can only guess why you would do that unprovoked. My first theory was, yes, because you are an idiot. And in the post, I was debating why I think this is such a great contract for Boston (something I know you agree with because everything the Sox do is perfect in your eyes). You tell the person who I am debating with not to listen to me because I am an idiot, yet you are simultaneously arguing the same point that I am, that Youk was a great signing. I will try not to respond to your posts anymore, since I know it is like trying to argue with a 6 year old, but I cannot make any promises. Most of the gems you post just warrant a response.

Comparing Dunn and Teix? Are you kidding?

Dunn has 300 more career strikeouts than hits. Teix has about 300 more career hits than he has strikeouts. That alone gives an indication as to who is better. Teix = gold glove. Dunn (and Giambi, for that matter) = defensive liability.

I'm not hating on Dunn (he's good in his own respects), but let's not get ridiculous here. Teix is probably the 2nd or 3rd best all-around 1B in the league.

Contracts aside, I'll take Teix over Youk.

It is just me that I have trouble believing 4/40.

Youkilis got 3million in 2008 and damn near had a MVP season, third in voting.

Second year arb, he could get close to 10million, more than 10million in his third year. Teixeira is not an unrealistic comparison and he got 200million a year.

Free agent Youkilis is worth more than 10million a year.

Is it just me that it doesn't seem right? 4/50 perhaps?

1. Teixeira is overrated. Period. Is he a top 5 1B in MLB? Yes. But he's still just that, a first baseman. If he can't play his position well as he ages, he's gotta go to DH.

2. You've GOT to give some credence to the fact that Youkillis is a plus defensive 3B. Teixeira has never played 3B. I'm not saying that Youk is worth more than Teixeira, but his ability to play 3B is a HUGE plus.

3. However, you just can't compare Youk and Teixeira. You just can't. Teixeira is entering his prime, Youk is in the middle of it. Youk is more likely to regress IN THE NEXT FOUR YEARS than Teixeira. You just can't compare the guys.

YOUK!

I'll say it again Theo kills Cashman in terms of getting bargain contracts. You got guys like Pettitte making stupid money and you have Theo making great deals like this.
_____________________________

This is the one of the worst comments I've ever read. PLEASE STOP COMPARING AN EXTENTION OF A PLAYER UNDER CONTROL VS A FREE IGNING. Boston offer Tex $21.2 mil per year over 8 yrs. The Yanks offered $22.5 mil per year.

You can't compare what a team pays a gur under control w/ NO COMPETITORS w/ what a guy is payed in the open market. Doesn't make Theo any smarter than Cash. It wasn't like Theo was choosing EITHER Tex vs Youks. If they signed Tex then either they extend Youks now or try to extend him over the next 2 years. As for Youks, why not? It's security for him. He's had 1 All-star year and the extension guarantee's him against injuries and/or slippage. Neither will probably happen but if it does he still get's payed.