All is quiet … on New Year’s Day (even the news):
- Are Mets Lowe-balling Derek?: Reports from the Times are that the Citi Fielders offered FA Derek Lowe a three-year, $36 million deal.
- Which non-Yankees team will blink first and sign the next free agent?: ESPN.com’s Buster Olney reports that free agent spending by teams other than the Bombers has decreased by $244 million from this same point last year.
- Fun fact: CC Sabathia tied for the lead in shutouts in each league in 2008. More fun facts included in Jayson Stark’s annual compilation of the wild and wacky.
- If you are interested in hearing Frank Deford talk about the same stuff he wrote about the Yankees yesterday (calling them the “Antoinettes”), go to NPR.com.
- Yankees Minor League Transactions during the past week (Baseball America)
- On this date in 2006, Paul Lindblad passed away at the age of 64. Lindblad, noted for his solid years in the A’s bullpen during the 70s, finished his career as a late-season addition to the Yanks playoff run in 1978.
I wish you all a happy and healthy New Year. I’ll be back on Saturday.
Among those mL transactions is the news that the Orioles signed Chad Moeller.
last year wasn't the yankees' only big signing arod, which happened way past new year? so olney is telling us that if you take away the 3 biggest contracts so far this offseason, spending is way down since last year. good to know!
happy new year.
Rodriguez signed on Dec. 13, 2007. They also spent a good chunk of cash re-signing Rivera, Posada, and Pettitte and gave a smaller deal to LaTroy Hawkins.
That said, is your point that the only reason other teams are spending less is that the Yankees have out-bid all of the big offers that the other teams have made for CC, AJ, and Tex, whereas last year, all the Yankees really did was re-sign their own players?
[3] yes, you diminished my point by actually looking things up, but if the yankees sign the 3 biggest free agents, non-yankee spending is gonna be down.
"All is quiet … on New Year’s Day"
New album due out on or about March 2!
Frankly, not to be OldYanksFan Scrooge, but I'm glad the holidays are past (and all the happy, merry well-wishing is done) and we can get down to serious business.
1) Will the Yankees re-sign Andy?
2) Aside from minor stuff (and 1 above), are the Yankees done for the winter?
3) If 2 is No..... then who?
With Swish in the OF now, methinks the CF issue will be backburnered a while. And if we do NOT pick up Andy, there seems little on the market to fill that spot. Garland? Smoltz? PEDRO???
Another way to look at Yankee v. non-Yankee spending is that the three players the Yankees signed received contracts that were very close to what their agents were originally seeking in their opening bids, or perhaps around 10% less.
That probably won't be true of any other top free agent, as for example, Manny and Lowe will likely end up signing contracts that are drastically below their opening bids.
[6] John Harper had this note yesterday:
I suspect Pettitte will be back, but if not I sincerely hope they just use someone they already have. I'd love to see Hughes or hell even Kennedy (maybe I'm a glutton for punishment) given another chance. I mean, if Hughes actually performed to his alleged capabilities, he would be better than Pettitte anyway. The only problem would be innings pitched between him and Chamberlain.