Damon Yankees!
The consensus on Sports Final last night was that Johnny will most likely be a Yankee come spring training. Steve DeOssie at least. Dan Roche thinks that maybe Cashman is playing the Red Sox so that they'll overpay and overcommit (5 years/$55 mil).
Sunday night, in bed, watching Lobel. Fantastic.
Total diagonals of all TVs: 30"
sportswatching is usually late at night downstairs only
yr dead to me. I want everything I gave you back.
love RL
Done deal? 4 Years 52-54 million.
Does he get booed first appearance at Fenway??
I wouldn't boo him, but he will get booed.
What is the move, Coco Crisp?
Crisp? Jeremy Reed? I have no idea.
This is just awful.
;)
Jeter
Damon
A-Rod
Giambi
Shef
Matsui
Pretty sick...
The Sox aren't anywhere near as solid, obviously, but check out 2-7:
Loretta
Ortiz
Manny
Lowell
Varitek
Nixon
If Youkilis is playing first and Graffanino is on SS (or 2B), we're not doing too bad. Maybe this is going to be okay.
Starting:
Schilling (until Beckett proves otherwise)
Beckett
Wakefield
Clement
Arroyo
(I'm missing that young dude from St. John's...)
Setup:
Timlin
Chad Bradford
Closer:
Foulke?
---
Oh yeah, we all knew Mike Myers is a Yankee now, right?
Pappelbon and Hanson (from St. John's).
I imagine Bronson will (sadly) be off the team by opening day.
Schilling
Beckett
Pappelbon
Wakefield
Clement
Don't forget Mota.
So:
Schilling
Beckett
Bronson
Wells (remember him?)
Wake
Clement
Papelbon
Pen:
Foulke
Mota
Seanez
Timlin
Hansen
Van Buren (the Cubs prospect we signed a while back)
Looks pretty good so far, with more to come, I'm sure.
But SS is the most interesting development... Some young guy from AA, who knows?
Youk at 1st makes sense.
Bronson to Seattle for Jeremy Reed.
I don't think so. We might need to give more.
I say this: keep infield minor leaguers in the system. I'm sure co-GMs BJ know this...
You're right- maybe another pitching prospect, too. think this gets done in the next 24? 48?
I agree with <a href="http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/articles/2005/12/21/for_sox_a_little_off_the_top?mode=PF">CHB </a> that it makes the front office look bad; I'm not sure the team is worse off. Damon's definitely a stellar leadoff man, maybe not the best in the business. Can we get Ichiru?
Second: Goodbye, Johnny. We have too many players with giant egos. Johnny wanted to go to The Stadium to prove himself. In Johnny's small mind, "The Yankees have the best players. I am the best player. I must be a Yankee"
Third: This is an embarassment to the front office, but not because of what they did _now_, they played this just fine for now, Johnny is not worth $13/year, I think there is an unwritten policy at Fenway that nobody is worth more than $10/year anymore. This is an embarassment for what they didn't do last year. Teams that respect their players and want to keep them sign them to contract extentions before their contract is up. Makes the players happy, makes the stars stay, everyone wins. The new policy of letting everyone go to free agency is short sighted. If your goal is to constantly rotate your roster, then fine, but if you want top players, they don't want to go to a team that they don't have security with, and a team that lets contracts expire is not secure. If I were a big time free agent, I would probably not sign with the Sox for this reason. I think this will hurt the team in the long run.
If I don't see Dave Roberts or Carlos Beltran or similar in center next year _and_ Miguel Tejada or Julio Lugo or similar in SS, I'm picking a new team to root for. Candidates: Mets, D-Rays, B-Jays, Nationals.
</lorber>
If Johnny was given a contract extension for 10 beans a year he probably would not have signed it. Do we know if that happened?
Which stars have we lost via the no-extension policy that we wish we hadn't?
Garciaparra? I don't think so.
Martinez? Maybe.
Mueller? Probably.
It's not just the players we lose, though, it's the players that we can't sign... Johnny was looking for 7 years and took 4 with the Yankees since he knows that if he's great for 3 they may give him another 2 in an extension. He knows The Sox won't do that. Other players think that way.
<i> The Red Sox did not want to re-sign Johnny Damon. He signed for Yankee OF slot money ($13M). It's what they were paying Bernie. We know that. And we know that if handed the opportunity by the Red Sox, the Yankees would be more than willing to sign Damon for that.
We don't want him. We don't want Pedro. We don't want Lowe. We don't want Nomar. We don't want Millar. We don't want Mueller.
Instead, we want to set about building the 28 year old AL All Star Team of 2009, while remaining competitive (read: WC hunt every year) until then. Somebody obviously took the top under-25 prospects book of 2004 and has set out to acquire as many of them as possible. All the while, retaining certain veterans who play the game the "right way" until such time as they are no longer useful.
It's a work in progress. Grade: Incomplete. I'm OK with that; I just wish Theo would have come out from hiding in his self-imposed exile and stand up assertively like a man and say what his plan is. I fully expect after Damon and Manny's deals are done that he will "come back".
How convenient.
The young fair-haired boy will then be fully able to take credit for the eventual success - while not having to bear the brunt of criticism that LL will take (once again) on his behalf. </i>
No one gets signed for that long or that much anymore. I think Johnny picked the best deal for himself (maybe, he might not be the best centerfielder the Stadium has every seen), I don't think there was any extension scenario that he would have been pleased with that the Sox were willing to offer.
There was an exchange something like:
"DR: What would it have taken to keep you here for 4 years, 46 million, 48 million?
JD: Red Sox fans don't want to hear that right now, and it's sort of a waste of time."
Damon's "soul" was on ebay for a few hours as well.
I won't boo him...