Gammons..that interview is almost hard to believe..I don’t mean this in a nasty way at all but I wonder if he has not been the “same” since his illness..?? I know from some family members that post-illness their comments seem to come out with little filter..can’t think of any other explanation for that comment on Tex’s wife, that was just bizarre…not familiar with the “defective baseball” incident though..

Giambi…not the best, not the worst signing, but see little value in even discussing it now, is the Hot Stove that boring that the tabloids need to get into that??

I believe that your memory is at least partially mistaken. The Yankees signed Key when negotiations with Maddux (and also Bonds!) fell through. Key was NOT signed for his veteran leadership. Rather, he was the big signing for the team in 1992/1993, whose role was to be the anchor of the pitching staff. That the team around him happened to get better by 1996 so that, as his skills declined after a major injury, the team won, says little about his initial contract. His contract “paid off” not because the happened to win the WS, but because e was a very good pitcher for three out of four years with the team (the other lost to injury).

I, on the other hand, recognize that the Yankees will always pay too much to get the big fish. Therefore, I adjust my expectations accordingly. As for good contracts or bad contracts–I think that this is largely an irrelevant issue.

[27] “Essential part of their business model”…and yet, they are making money hand over fist despite a relative drought in WS championships. I think your understanding of the Yankee business model is perhaps flawed.

From the standpoint of competition on the field, it is IMO deeply wrongheaded to “blame” (essentially) one player for a team’s failings. The Yankees did not win the WS from 1979 through 1996. However, this was not the “fault” of Winfield (for example), who was more years than not the best player on the team. The Yankees got what they paid for from Winfield. That they screwed up with the rest of the roster is independent of the goodness or badness or paidoffness of his individual contract.

Actually, I would say that no free agent signings “worked out” as perfectly as those of Boggs and Key. They were brought on to be veteran role models to guide a young team toward a championship, and they did exactly that.

Giambi had OPS+ of 126, 130, 153, 187, 197, 172, 148 at age 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32. That is almost a perfect career arc. 148 OPS+ at age 32 was perfectly predictable. To be disappointed with that is to have unrealistic expectations.

Gammons is a bitch.

Frankly I’m psyched about Gammons’ asinine comments because it will motivate Tex that much more to rake against Boston (not that I doubted his motivation after the introduction!)

The fact that Gammons used to be credible probably is the worst part of all this. If this was, for example, Michael Kay behaving like this over the last however many years, you could write it off. But Gammons very suddenly turned unto this insufferable homer after years of building a reputation. The mini-feud with Carl Pavano over who Pavano rooted for growing up should have been warning signals. Uttering the words “defective baseball” on a nationally televised broadcast should have had ESPN questioning what the hell was going on.

But this bitter, whiny, rude, and frankly mean spirited interview with a snarky comment thrown at a ballplayer’s wife is so far beyond acceptable.

2002 (Age 31): 155 games, 172 OPS+
2005 (34): 139, 161
2006 (35): 139, 148
2008 (37): 145, 128

The other three years were disappointments:

2003 (32): 156, 148
2004 (33): 80, 90
2007 (36): 83, 108

Damon and Matsui’s contracts expire at the end of this season, Nady is a free agent (for the first time ever, AND, BTW, a Boras client), and the only OF bat of any real value on the market next offseason is Holliday. And its even worse if you look ahead to the 2010 offseason.

Finally, the only OF prospect anywhere near helping is Jackson in CF. Shoot, the 40-man roster has but 6 OF on it: Nady, Damon, Matsui, Swisher, Melky (CF) and Gardner (CF). I can’t see the Yanks getting, in trade, a guy who’s Swisher’s age or younger, has the same good-to-great bat AND glove at BOTH corners (and can cover 1B as needed), and is as cheap as Swisher is for the next 4 years.

Its much ado about nothing.

How anyone could is beyond me.

[14] et al – I too used to love Gammons, but now I avoid his stuff. It makes me sad. He seems to “play to the crowd” when he’s in a Boston-area publication or show, but is usually much more reasonable and objective when he’s not – or when the Red Sox are otherwise not involved. I greatly miss the old Peter Gammons, who was a national baseball journalist first and foremost, and was the same everywhere. I don’t understand the change at all, and I don’t like it.

I could almost understand and even laugh at the old coot when he did his blatant Red Sox shilling on ESPN over the last x number of years. “Defective baseball” will always go down as one of my all time favorite baseball moments, and it occurred during a meaningless game in the middle of May.

But really, when you get to the point that you start bitching about another man’s wife in public, its time to retire.