Odds And Ends: Hinch, Manny, Longoria

Wow Ken Davidoff, what a low blow. You were writing every chance you could that the Mets were idiots for not signing Manny, and that they would be sorry. What a fricken hypocrite

Peavy is either a Padre or he leaves the NL West IMO.

I just can't see the franchise player being traded to a division rival.

Richard Justice is a genius. I've only been writing the same thing for 2 years now.

Unfortunately, for Houston, the return they would receive on all of their players is dramatically lower than what they would have seen at the trade deadline last year.

Roidmirez, (brillant name, btw. I see what you did there) I hope you don't drink. Otherwise you're a giant f'ing hypocrite.

Tyler Kepner of the New York Times says the contrast between what the Yankees owe Alex Rodriguez and what the Rays owe Evan Longoria illustrates the difference between the AL East rivals.
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This has to be the dumbest, most short sighted article ever written. How do you compare the salary of a 2nd year player to that of a 15 year vet? Wow....genius...the 2nd year player makes a tiny % of what the 15 year vet with the HOF numbers.

That's like saying the Royals are so much of a better team/organization because their stud pitcher Greinke is making $3.75 mil and the White Sox stud pitcher Buehrle is making $14 mil. Those two pitchers are operating under two completely different bargaining positions.

What happens 5 years from now when Evan is making the bug bucks and some new hot shot prospect hitter comes into his own? Does that make that other team so much smarter.

Stupid article. You want to bash the Yanks, bash them because our players are hitting, pitching and fielding like AAA ball players right now. Bringing up the salary differences between Evan and Arod and the differences in their production thus far is the absolute worst conversation to discuss.

Tim Sullivan of the San Diego Union-Tribune wonders if the Dodgers will have enough payroll flexibility to take on Jake Peavy's contract, now that Manny has been suspended without pay.
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Is today the day writers go extra dumb. Why in the world would ANYONE think that the Padres would EVER consider trading Peavy to a rival team in their own division? Would never happen. And if it did the GM should be shot. In addition, any conversation would have to center around Kemp and one of Billingsley or Kershaw. Padres would never offer Peavy and Dodgers would never pay what he's worth in players.

Everyone, today is Tim's birthday! Let's all wish him a good one, and a many thanks for this great site!

As for the management team, I absolutely think that there are too many chefs in kitchen and that the "head's" of the organization are over cooking Cashman's grits. The biggest mistake they made was drawing the line in the sand and stating publicly that if Arod opted out that they wouldn't negotiate with him. They should have played it smoother. I would have no problem with them extending Arod and giving him a $2 mil salary bump per year. At the time he was perhaps the greatest hitter in the AL and a fine defensive 3b to boot. I do beleive that Cashman has a plan and as the GM he should be allowed to work it independent of the bean counters and marketing guru's who are more concerned with selling executive suites vs making the best baseball decisions.

YanksFanSince78-

With the management team, my problems are moreso with everyone else but Cashman. I think that Cashman has actually been a pretty good GM (the Swisher trade was an absolute raping of KW).

My problems are moreso with the way that the management has dealt with assorted situations pertaining to ticket prices, the stadium itself, and their treatment of a very loyal fanbase.

They made this great stadium, but apparently it has some design flaws that make it more prone to home runs. Isn't that something that the management should've looked into BEFORE starting the season?

I just think that a team like the Yankees should have some of the best of the best at the helm, and I think it's abundantly clear that that isn't the case.

With the management team, my problems are moreso with everyone else but Cashman. I think that Cashman has actually been a pretty good GM (the Swisher trade was an absolute raping of KW).

My problems are moreso with the way that the management has dealt with assorted situations pertaining to ticket prices, the stadium itself, and their treatment of a very loyal fanbase.

They made this great stadium, but apparently it has some design flaws that make it more prone to home runs. Isn't that something that the management should've looked into BEFORE starting the season?

I just think that a team like the Yankees should have some of the best of the best at the helm, and I think it's abundantly clear that that isn't the case.
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I agree with everything you said. I feel Cashman does NOT have complete control but stupid fans and media will apply 100% of the blame. I am a bit concerned with the stadium mojo.

" The true measure of how that deal will work will be how well the FO can replinish the farm and thus use home grown and cheeper players to offset the huge salaries. Something that they've done a mediocre job of doing thus far."

That's a major part of the problem, for sure.

Teams can have big salary guys, but they need guys that are making near the league minimum as key cogs as well, otherwise the payroll will just get out of control.

The Yankees really need Joba, Hughes, Jackson, and the other young guys to factor into their future, because otherwise this team will just keep spending money on free agents, and often times that just leads to bigger debts down the line.

I think people get too crazy about this whole steroid using thing also. People act like if you take a PED, you are a horrible person. Yes, it is ultimately your decision what you decide to do, but in a generation where steroids are everywhere, they are so easy to do, there was no testing for the longest time, can you really blame these guys? I liken it to a kid in highschool being peer pressured into smoking pot or getting hammered. It doesn't make them bad people, just guys who made bad decisions. Another thing that has to be taken into account is that cheating has been a part of baseball since they very, very, beginning. Once the steroid era is done with, it will be something else. We go back to the days of the Brooklyn Dodgers and NY Giants, there were stories that the Giants were stealing signs from the catcher, and had a signal on the scoreboard so the hitters knew what was coming. What about the Black Sox scandal? How about the generation of spit balling pitchers? What about the guys doing crap loads of speed and amphetamines in the 70's and 80's. How about guys doctoring the ball with a nail file or some vaseline? What about using a corked bat? How about guys using cocaine before games back in the day? Cheating is just a part of baseball, it always has been, and it always will be, and steroids are just the flavor of the week, if you will.

I am not saying it is okay that these guys cheated, but nobody ever seems to put themselves into the shoes of these players. What would you do at your job if a coworker (your competition) was doing something that enhanced his job performance unfairly, and took away opportunities and money from you? What if you were given the chance to enhance your performance in the same manner? I know that some people have integrity, and if not integrity, some people just fear the long term ramifications of juicing, but at the same time, if all of us were presented with an opportunity that we knew to be somewhat wrong, though it offered us a chance to become rich and famous, a huge number of us would jump at it. Everything in life if relative to the environment you are in, and in this particular environment, guys were juicing up all the time, with no ramifications, so in turn, the good players take PED's to perform better, the other good players take PED's to keep up with the other guys who are doing it, the minor leaguers do it to reach the majors, other guys do it because they feel like they have to level the playing field, and the guys who really get hurt in this whore scenario are the people who are clean.

If you want to blame somebody for this, blame Bud Selig. The man, for the longest time, never gave anybody any reason to be clean. The clean guys were losing their jobs, the dirty guys are getting filthy rich and putting up huge numbers, and Bud Selig and MLB profited like never before because of this steroid era. There was never any incentive at all for a guy to stay clean. Think about that, his peers that are cheating are making big bucks, putting up huge numbers, without any ramifications, whereas his other peers who are clean are being sent down to the minors, losing their jobs, etc. Can you really blame some of these guys?

The Yankees are screwed in a few regards. First, they completely misjudged the economy and their revenue potential in the new stadium. Second, their payroll is overblown not just this year but for the foreseeable future as well. They've already got $165 million in guaranteed contracts committed next year to only 11 players. For 2011, the numbers are $134 million committed to only 9 players. Finally, due to their little free agent spending spree this last offseason, they've lost most of their top draft picks this year. That comes on top of failing to sign their top pick last year. The future is not bright in the Bronx.
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Wrong..the Yanks still have a 1st (29th overall) and a 2nd (76th overall) pick in this years draft.

Plus the Yanks have a ton of pitching prospects in low A and AA and had a decent AAA staff which at the start of the season included Hughes, IPK, Aceves and Melacon.

Position prospects are where we are low with Montero, Ajax and ROmine being the best of the bunch. All the other top prospect are all frmom the 08 draft and haven't really done much outside of low A ball.

If the idea is to keep the payroll around $180-200 mil then we should be able to stay active in FA and pick up smaller pieces when we need to. I just don't see a major deal like that of which Holliday would seek if he had a great year. The Yanks shouldn't touch any mega $100 mil plus deals for a couple of years.

Winter of 2009-Shed $40 million (Damon, Matsui, Pettite, Molina and Nady)

Winter of 2010-Shed $35 mil (Jeter and Mo).

Obviously Jeter will be extended, but hopefully at something a lot less than $20 mil. The key is to replace these expiring contracts with younger and cheeper players like Melancon, Ajax, Hughes, etc.

nrmax88, what exactly do you offer to anyone on this site other than the fact that you really enjoy listening to "WHAM" in your mothers basement on Saturday nights?