The signing of CC Sabathia brings to mind the issue of large—shall we say heavyset?— pitchers. While few doubt that the 28-year-old Sabathia will help the Yankees immensely in the first two to three years of his contract, there are questions about his long-term staying power. How exactly have plus-sized pitchers aged over baseball history?

My immediate thoughts turn to two hefty lefties, Mickey Lolich and Wilbur Wood, who were dominant in their twenties, but pretty much past their prime by the time they reached their early thirties. Wood wasn’t helped by a freakish injury that occurred when a Ron LeFlore line drive nailed him in the kneecap, but the knuckeballer had already started to fade by that point. Already huge by his peak, “Wilbah” really took on grandiose proportions as a member of the White Sox in the early 1970s, once allegedly tipping the scale at about 280 pounds. By the age of 33, Wood was no longer effective. By 36, he was out of baseball and headed toward fulltime life on the farm.

Lolich never became as large as Wood did at his peak, but conditioning remained a problem throughout his career. By age 33, Lolich’s body had started to show signs of wear and tear. Though still adequate, he had clearly left his prime years behind. By 36, he was injury prone. Two years later, he was finished.  

Then there is the case of Sid Fernandez, another left-hander with a bad body who compounded his problems with a painful delivery. Fernandez enjoyed even less longevity than Wood and Lolich. El Sid started to experience serious arm problems by the age of 30, and soon lost his effectiveness. By age 34, Fernandez was headed to retirement.

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While everyone was talking about CC, AJ, Melky and Mike yesterday, the Yankees lost four players in the Rule 5 draft, the most of any organization (the Angels lost three pitchers, the Rockies were the only other team to lose more than one player in the major league portion of the draft). To me this is evidence of how well stocked the Yankees farm system is, at least in terms of pitching.

Remember, the Yankees traded away Jose Tabata and three pitchers (Ross Ohlendorf, Jeff Karstens, and Daniel McCutchen) at the trading deadline (Tabata, Karstens, and Ohlendorf are all on Pittsburgh’s 40-man roster; McCutchen is not yet Rule 5 eligible). They traded two more pitchers in the Nick Swisher deal (Jeff Marquez and Jhonny Nuñez, both now on the White Sox’s 40-man, with Nuñez being replaced in the Yankees’ system by the non-Rule 5 eligible Kanekoa Texeira), let Darrell Rasner head off to Japan, cleared out another eight spots on the 40-man roster via free agency (some of which were filled by players activated from the 60-day DL), filled the remaining empty spots on the 40-man, and still had enough talent in their system to be the most targeted organization in the Rule 5 draft. That’s impressive.

Since I didn’t address them at the time, here’s a quick look at the six men added to the 40-man roster this offseason as well as the four men taken in the major league portion of the Rule 5 draft yesterday and, for yucks, the two taken in the Triple-A portion of the draft.

First the 40-man additions listed in rough approximation of their proximity to the major leagues:

Steven Jackson – RHP

The last remaining player from the deal that sent Randy Johnson back to Arizona after the 2006 season, Jackson utilized an improved split-finger fastball to have a break out season in relief for Triple-A Scranton this year. After the All-Star break, Jackson posted a 0.87 ERA while striking out 26 in 20 2/3 innings against just eight walks and no homers. On the season, he struck out 91 in 79 2/3 innings while allowing just four homers. A big righty who will turn 27 in March, Jackson could be part of the fungible minimum-wage portion of the Yankees bullpen in 2009.

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I’m wearing a “My web browser went to the Winter Meetings and all I got was this lousy t-shirt” … umm … t-shirt, and I bring you this news:

• BP.com’s (and new BBWAA member) Christina Kahrl analyzes the Sabathia signing:

Which brings us back to the simple fact that having Sabathia set for three seasons is a great bet, and an absolutely worthwhile risk to take on if you want to win in baseball’s best division, regardless of whether the deal’s segmented or not. Is it a gamble? Of course it is, but if the Yankees get seven years of good work, or even three or four of great work and some less so, it will have been worth it. With Wang lined up as an extremely different kind of rotation regular, and with the gaggle of young talent lined up behind them, they’ve got a good front end on a staff already operating with the benefit of better depth in the pen. If the bet was on Sabathia’s being a unique talent who might make all the difference over Mark Teixeira being a great first baseman over seven years (for the sake of argument), I’ll take the pitcher in this instance, acknowledging that finding a first baseman who can help you score runs is easier than the Yankees have made it for themselves in recent seasons.

• Staying with BP.com, here’s an interesting Q&A from a chat with BP’s John Perrotto:

Dante (NY): With the Yankees signing CC and most likely add Burnett or Sheets, is Phil Hughes still as untouchable as ever, even with their huge need for a young/solid catcher?

John Perrotto: They are willing to trade Phil Hughes, who other teams are starting to see as really nothing more than a No. 3 or No. 4 starter.

• Mark Feinsand of the News reports that the Yanks are still leaving the door open for Andy Pettitte, but that the door will be closing if they secure one or two more FA pitchers.  Also in the article is this little tidbit on a potential new revenue source for the team:

One of those may come in the press box at the new Yankee Stadium, where a source said the club is considering charging media members for wireless Internet access at every home game.

A Yankees official said the idea has been thrown around, although it is unclear whether it will happen or how much the team plans to charge if it decided to go ahead with the plan.

• Newsday’s Ken Davidoff wraps up his coverage of the Meetings with an analysis of the Yankee moves:

Yes, it was obnoxious that the Yankees had to bid against themselves and offer $61 million more than the next offer to convince Sabathia to come to New York. But look, if we had said a month ago that the Yankees would sign Sabathia to a three-year, $69-million deal, wouldn’t Bud Selig have said, “Where do I sign up?”

While this technically is a seven-year, $161-million deal, it’s spiritually three years for $69 million. Is there any doubt Sabathia will use that opt-out after 2011? In signing this deal, he has sent a telegram to the Giants: “You have three years to get your house in order for my arrival! See you then!”

Burnett, though? People love his stuff, which he displayed in fine form by leading the American League with 231 strikeouts this past season. But he just doesn’t take the mound enough, most industry people agree, to justify five years and $80 million.

“We know him better than anyone,” a Blue Jays official said Thursday on the condition of anonymity, “and we wouldn’t give him five years.”

• The Post’s Joel Sherman points out why the Yanks may be targeting certain pitchers over others this off-season:

If you want to know what is so alluring to the Yankees about Sabathia and Burnett, take a look at the strikeouts-per-nine-innings leaders in the majors: Burnett was third (9.39) and Sabathia was fifth (8.93).

Yankees starters have finished in the bottom half of the AL in strikeouts per nine innings each of the past three years, which has put more balls in play to expose a poor defense. But the Yankees also are thinking about more than just getting back to the playoffs with a swing-and-miss brigade. They believe power arms win in October, and they envision lining up Sabathia, Burnett, Joba Chamberlain a Joba Chamberlain nd maybe even Ben Sheets and blowing away playoff opponents.

That is why they agreed to pay a pitching record $161 million to secure Sabathia. And that is why they seem to favor Burnett over Derek Lowe, although Burnett is an annual injury risk and Lowe is one of the best bets for 30-plus starts and 12-plus wins around …

But their organizational philosophy has become, it is the job of the manager, pitching coach and training staff to get the talented players on the field. One Yankees official recently said, “Darrell Rasner is a great guy, but I can’t teach him to miss a bat.”

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Okay, so the Yankees have landed the big fish, with CC Sabathia agreeing to a seven-year deal worth roughly $161 million. Now what? The rumor mill has had them going hard after first Derek Lowe, then A.J. Burnett, with Ben Sheets and Andy Pettitte serving as backup options who could be had with shorter term contracts.

This prompts two questions: Exactly how much money to they have left to spend? and What about the offense?

With regards to the first, let’s do the math on the money coming off last year’s payroll and how much of that has already been spent:

all costs in millions of dollars; *estimated prorated portion of 2008 salary

In addition to the above, the Yankees have four arbitration eligible players. Three of whom had poor 2008 seasons and thus are unlikely to have much negative effect on the bottom line. Those three are Chien-Ming Wang, Brian Bruney, and Melky Cabrera. The last is Xavier Nady. The Yankees paid Nady roughly $1.12 million of his $3.35 million salary last year. Nady would cost the Yankees an extra $2.23 million even without getting a raise and is coming off a career year. It wouldn’t be unreasonable to expect his salary to exceed $5 million in 2009. To make things simple, I’ll just round down the Yankees net savings in the chart above to $40 million.

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What’s the over/under on the number of words dedicated to Sabathia today?  Anyway, here’s the news:

• Buster Olney of ESPN examines the concerns for C.C. Sabathia as he approaches this new challenge:

Sabathia will get the largest contract ever for a pitcher, Joel Sherman reports, and he is embracing the pressure of going into New York as a savior. That challenge eventually destroyed Chuck Knoblauch and confounded Roger Clemens for most of two seasons. It’s a challenge that still seems to gnaw at Alex Rodriguez.

… Sabathia’s personal puzzle will be to find a way to block out the external pressure and not allow it to compound the internal pressure that he already places on himself, and that pressure is as large as he is. He has been at his worst in the past when he has pushed himself too much — examples include after Bartolo Colon left the Indians and Sabathia wanted to become the ace, and perhaps at the outset of the 2008 season, as he began his free-agent year. The worst thing Sabathia can do is to try harder. But he will be remarkably accountable, owning up to his mistakes quickly and adjusting, and I’d bet that he’ll figure out the emotional puzzle and pitch effectively for the Yankees.

• BP.com’s Jay Jaffe has a thorough (and somewhat sobering) analysis of the Sabathia signing, which ends with this:

The Sabathia signing won’t put the Yankees over the top by itself, particularly given that it now makes Boston the favorite to sign Teixeira to upgrade a more potent offense than the Yanks can muster and that the young and already stocked Rays have frontline starter David Price and even more top prospects still on the way. Sabathia can’t be expected to match the dominance he showed in his Milwaukee stint because the American League, and the AL East in particular—statistically the toughest five-team division of the Wild Card Era—is a more difficult place to pitch; at the very least one can expect his strikeout rate to drop, since he’ll face designated hitters instead of pitchers. His Cleveland numbers are a better guide to his future performance than his Milwaukee ones.

In all, the move makes a splash in New York by putting most of the Yankees’ eggs into one very big basket and by compensating for the type of deal Cashman apparently wishes he’d done last winter. While it may pay off in the short term, it may prevent them from addressing other big needs, and could very well net them bigger headaches down the road.

• Also at BP.com, Joe Sheehan voices a similar concern on the signing and how it impacts the structure of the team:

Despite the perception around the Yankees that pitching was a problem last year, this contract gilds a reasonably attractive lily, making the rotation strong and decreasing the pressure on the bullpen due to Sabathia’s tendency to work deep into games. On the other hand, signing Sabathia puts $23 million a year in a place other than the offense, which was the team’s real problem in ’08 and projects to be something less than dominant in 2009. The Yankees needed a big bat more than they needed a big arm, and while the two aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive for a team with the Yankees’ money, if signing Sabathia makes it even slightly less likely that the Yankees sign Mark Teixeria, it was probably the wrong move for them.

• Yahoo!Sports is reporting that the Sabathia contract has an opt-out clause after three years.  The Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel reports that Sabathia’s agent was pushing for an opt-out clause regardless of where C.C. signed.

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As an admitted (but not recovering) math geek, I decided to take a look at just what the Yankees would be getting for their investment in C.C. Sabathia.

Based on his seasonal averages to date, and assuming Sabathia stays for all seven seasons, here’s the breakdown (hmm …. perhaps I could have chosen a different word there … oh well).

Annual average salary: $23,000,000
Per win (based on 15 per year): $1,533,333.33
Per game (based on 34 per year): $676,470.59
Per inning pitched (based on 222 per year):$103,603.60
Per strikeout (based on 186 per year): $123,655.91
Per batter faced (based on 27.15 per game): $24,918.74
Per pitch thrown (based on 99.4 per game): $6,808.40

Just because I think the Yankees need Mark Teixeira more than they need CC Sabathia doesn’t mean I’m not thrilled that the Yankees have landed the big lefty. CC Sabathia is, in my opinion, the best pitcher in baseball. He’s 28 years old, left-handed, a work horse who can give you 240 innings a year, and he’s only gotten better throughout his career. I’m not concerned about his weight. I’m not concerned about his workloads. And I’m not concerned about the length of the seven-year, $161 million contract the Yankees just gave him. He’s an ace, a horse, and the thought of having him and Joba Chamberlain as a pair of opposite-armed aces atop the Yankee rotation well into the next decade give me goosebumps.

Here are a few things to like about Sabathia.

• Though he was just 17 when taken by the Indians with the 20th overall pick in the 1998 amateur draft and started 33 games in the major leagues as a 20-year-old rookie, the Indians were careful about his workloads through his age 25 season, extending him past 200 innings just once in his first six major league seasons and rarely allowing him to throw more than 120 pitches in a start (and never as many as 130).
• Though scouts have always griped about his weight, Sabathia’s only DL stay resulted from a groin strain early in the 2006 season. He missed a month, threw eight shutout innings in his second start after returning, and didn’t have any reoccurrences.
• Sabathia’s walk rate declined every year from 2004 to 2007. The only reason it didn’t go down again in 2008 was that he set an impossibly low standard in 2007 by walking a mere 1.38 men per nine innings.
• Sabathia’s strikeout rate increased every year from 2002 to 2006 and he set a new career high by striking out 8.93 men per nine innings in 2008.
• Something of a fly ball pitcher in his early twenties, Sabathia has a 1.41 GB/FB rate over the past four seasons.

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Juan Carlos was ready for the meeting at 5:30 a.m. Coffee was brewed and donuts were lined up neatly on the stainless-steel counter.

The Bronx’s top baseball minds not at the Winter Meetings in Las Vegas – Javier from Walton Avenue, Fat Paulie from Gerard Avenue, Reggie from Mott Haven and Jon from High Bridge – would soon arrive to discuss the Yankees and CC Sabathia.

“Baseball is big business for me,” said Juan Carlos as he finished readying his cart. “They can’t do their meetings without my coffee and donuts.

“Once they went on so long that I had to send a kid to Twin Donuts for more,” he continued. “That was one of their marathon sessions last year when they were determined to keep Phil Hughes in pinstripes. They haven’t gone to those lengths yet this winter.”

Juan Carlos expects that to change today.

“The talk should really heat up,” he said. “Brian Cashman may be wrapping up a deal with CC on the other side of the country, but these guys are going to have their say in the Bronx.

“I can see another marathon session coming,” Juan Carlos continued. “This time I might need to add a lunch menu and possibly even dinner.”

Juan Carlos laughed and said:

“I could probably just send that kid back to Twin Donuts. These guys would eat donuts for breakfast, lunch and dinner if the baseball talk was good enough.”

CC certainly makes it good enough.

Powered by the great guitarwork of blues/jazzman Melvin Taylor, here’s the news:

• Late-breaking news …. (7:06 this morning): Joel Sherman of the Post is reporting the Sabathia has accepted the Yankees offer.  I’m sure we’ll see about the validity of this article throughout the day.
• I sprained my Ankiel tripping over this news: the Post’s Joel Sherman blogs that the Yanks have expressed some interest in the Cards’ Rick Ankiel, and mentions that the Cards like Ian Kennedy.
• Lifestyles of the rich and famous Yankees: Tyler Kepner of the Times writes of the diligence shown by C.C. Sabathia in asking all sort of “living in NYC” questions during his talks with the Yankees.  Sabathia (the person) impressed Brian Cashman:

“I walked out of there saying to myself, ‘That’s exactly the type of person I thought he was from afar,’ ” Cashman said. “Now I get a chance to meet him up close and get a sense of the person. He’s a quality guy. Whether he picks us or doesn’t pick us, I think he’s going through this process with genuine, sincere effort to make the best decision for himself and his family, simple as that.

“We’re not being played, we’re not being manipulated, we’re not being used. I just think that he’s making an informed decision.”

• Cashman goes to San Fran for the night (but it wasn’t for a Jeter/A-Rod type of sleepover): Newsday reports that Brian Cashman had a third meeting with Sabathia last evening in San Francisco:

The Yankees have renewed optimism about their chances of signing CC Sabathia after general manager Brian Cashman met with Sabathia for a third consecutive day. Last night’s meeting was a last-minute affair for which Cashman jetted to San Francisco for the evening, multiple sources told Newsday.

Earlier in the day, a Yankees official told Newsday “things are going in the right direction” with Sabathia. That became quite apparent once Cashman canceled his planned daily meeting with the New York media. Media relations director Jason Zillo explained in an e-mail: “Brian is off hotel property and unavailable for the rest of the evening. This was not scheduled and he/we apologize for the inconvenience.”

Cashman is believed to have gone alone to the San Francisco area, where Sabathia lives, as manager Joe Girardi was seen at the Bellagio later yesterday.

• Not Right Said Ned: MLB.com notes that Dodger GM Ned Colletti clarified what C.C. Sabathia supposedly said to him about wanting to pitch for L.A.:

Colletti clarified his chance meeting with Sabathia in the Bellagio Casino on Sunday night, on the eve of the four-day Winter Meetings, saying it wasn’t Sabathia who said he wanted to play for the Dodgers but that “he’s told us in other ways, not directly to me.”

• In that same article, its noted that the Dodgers consider Sabathia “special”:

Even more intriguing, Colletti revealed that Sabathia is the kind of pitcher for which the Dodgers might relax their unwritten rule limiting contracts for pitchers to three years, although the club hasn’t decided how far it might go for him.

“We’ve tried to stay short, three or less, but in special circumstances it might be more depending on the age, the health history, like that,” said Colletti. “He would be worth a consideration.”

• ESPN reports that the Giants also met with Sabathia Monday night, and would meet again after the Meetings.
• Lowe spark of high-payroll boys: MLB.com notes that the Yanks and Phils are now the two leading pursuers of Derek Lowe.

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Alex Rodriguez has always been an easy target.

He had a can’t-miss sign on his back as a teenager. Strike one.

He is now labeled as the best player in the game. Strike two.

He is paid like the best player in game. Strike three.

Last week Rodriguez announced that he’s going to play for the Dominican Republic in the 2009 World Baseball Classic and it seemed like the whole world took a shot at him.

Back in 2006 he debated playing for the Dominican Republic where his parents are from and he spent part of his childhood or the United States where he was born. He chose the United States and some people in the Dominican felt slighted. Most people in the United States feel slighted no matter what he does.

Rodriguez brings some of the controversy on himself. He tends to be too open and honest and allows the media to pick apart who he knows and where he goes and what he wears and how much he cares.

Rodriguez doesn’t have many flaws as a player, but he certainly has some as a public figure.

I have flaws, too. I make mistakes and haul around plenty of emotional baggage. My friends and neighbors also have flaws. We all live in old buildings and ride crowded trains and some made the mistake of being born poor the same way Rodriguez was 33 years ago just across the Harlem River in Washington Heights. Maybe that’s why everyone around here pulls for the guy when it seems like the rest of the world wants to shoot him down.

I suppose we could be out of touch or it might just be that people in this neighborhood understand what it’s like to be an easy target.

Powered by the new Monty Python website, here’s the news:

• A C.C. (opt-out) Rider included?: MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy has some interesting news regarding the Brewers’ offer to Sabathia:

The Brewers may have upped their offer to free-agent ace CC Sabathia before a face-to-face meeting at the Bellagio, and team officials may be mulling another new twist: an opt-out clause midway through the deal.

The Chicago Tribune cited “sources” Monday indicating that the Brewers had already added a sixth year to their initial proposal, and that general manager Doug Melvin was “considering a willingness” to add a clause that would give Sabathia the opportunity to opt out after three seasons. In that scenario, Sabathia could be a free agent again in the 2011-12 offseason as a 31-year-old.

But that report was topped by SI.com, which reported that the opt-out clause could be presented after just two years, when Sabathia would be 30. SI.com was among the outlets reporting that the Brewers were only considering adding the sixth year, and had not yet done so formally.

• However, C.C. may have already made up his mind … or Ned Colletti may be playing games …. if ESPN.com is to be believed:

Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti told ESPN.com’s Jayson Stark on Monday that he ran into the free agent on Sunday night in a hotel lobby and the left-hander told him that he wants to be a Dodger.

• According to the MLB.com “Hot Stove Blog”, the Colletti has not even begun speaking to the Yankees about the availability of Robinson Cano.
• Jayson Stark and Jerry Crasnick are noting that the Yanks are making motions towards A.J. Burnett, possibly offering more money per year than other suitors but not the fifth year Burnett is seeking.  Nonetheless, it appears Burnett is leaning towards Atlanta.
• Joel Sherman of the Post writes that none other than Mr. October was brought into the Yanks’ meeting with C.C. Sabathia on Sunday.  A little star power never hurts, right?  Sherman also reports that Jorge Posada began his throwing program at the team’s minor league complex in Tampa.
• Yanks want to be short-Sheeted?: Mark Feinsand of the News reports that the Yankees plan to offer Ben Sheets a two-year, $26 million deal.
• According to ESPN’s Jayson Stark, Bobby Abreu (along with Raul Ibanez) is drawing interest from the Cubs.
• Ken Rosenthal of FOXSports.com reports that the Cardinals may be a new suitor for A.J. Burnett.

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As we wait for the Winter Meetings to heat up…

Things changed on the 145th Street Bridge yesterday. The wind barreling down the Harlem River stung my face and the new buildings going up at the old Bronx Terminal Market cut down my view.

That view of the old Yankee Stadium has been dying for a long time. I just didn’t want to see it because my whole life has been spent believing that everything I love would always be there.

That has spared me the trouble of ever saving anything. I love scoring baseball games, but don’t save scorecards. I love opening packs of baseball cards, but I’m not a collector. I love writing baseball stories, but have never saved any of them.

Maybe I’m too interested in what’s next to care about the past. Or maybe that’s just the easy way out. Looking forward has always given me hope and I don’t look back because Satchel Paige said that something might be gaining on me. He was, of course, correct.

Paige was always correct although his direction was sometimes off. The new Yankee Stadium has been closing on me for a while now, but it wasn’t sneaking up from behind. It was coming head on all along.

I should have seen it during the last night at the old Yankee Stadium and when the team contacted me about a relocation plan and when my seats at the new Yankee Stadium arrived a few weeks ago. But old habits die hard and I continued to focus on what had always been in front of me.

Then standing in the bitter cold on the 145th Street Bridge it struck me that the new view – which includes parts of both Yankee Stadiums – might be even better than the old one.

It won’t last forever so I took something to save: A picture. It’s not as sharp as a memory, but it already has me thinking about keeping my scorecard from Opening Day.

With memories of my father, who passed away on this day 14 years ago … this update is for you dad:

• Bryan Hoch of MLB.com has a rundown of the top starting pitchers to be had,  including for each the teams interested, latest chatter, reasons they haven’t been signed yet, and chances of them being signed during the Meetings.
• George King of the Post offers a preview of the Yanks plans for the Winter Meetings.
• Over at the Times, Dan Rosenheck writes of the differing qualities of a save, and how K-Rod’s gaudy 62 save season was actually less impressive than Mariano Rivera’s:

A far better way to measure a reliever’s value is a statistic called Win Probability Added, which compares a team’s chances of winning a game before a pitcher takes the mound to the same figure once he departs. So the closer who protects the three-run lead in the ninth is credited with only 0.035 wins — the difference between the 96.5 percent likelihood of victory when he entered and the 100 percent when he left — while the setup man keeping a game tied in the eighth gets 0.113 wins, for increasing his team’s odds of victory from 36.5 percent to 47.8 percent.

Rodríguez’s 3.33 W.P.A. was only the fourth best among American League closers last year, trailing Mariano Rivera, Joakim Soria and Bobby Jenks. Many of his official saves were insignificant; on Aug. 12, he received one for recording a single out with a four-run lead and two runners on. And some of his blown saves were excruciating, like the walk, single and game-winning homer he surrendered to blow a two-run cushion on July 9.

• John Perrotto of BP.com offers a team-by-team preview for the Winter Meetings.  The Yankee section is pretty much as we expect it.
• Pete Toms at the Biz of Baseball surveys the changing landscape of televised coverage of baseball, especially in light of the launching of the MLB Network on New Year’s Day.  Here’s a reference to the thinking of teams like the Yanks that have their own RSN (Regional Sports Network):

Clubs also see themselves as better able to grow their brands locally when they control the local TV content.   Sports consultant Marc Ganis said of the Yankees’ RSN,  “YES has not only been a financial success, but also a critical success creating programming and implementing sponsorships that bring fans closer to their favorite team and players that likely never would have been done with a non-team-affiliated broadcaster,”

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Is it me, or has the three-week time frame since the Yankees extended the six-year, $140 million offer to CC Sabathia represented a Dead Zone? John Harper noted as much in today’s Daily News.

Perhaps the greatest hitch in the lack of offseason movement so far, as many local scribes have hinted, is Scott Boras, who not only represents Sabathia, but the three other major names in whom the Yankees are reportedly interested: Mark Teixeira, A.J. Burnett and Derek Lowe. Maybe it’s also because the local headlines have reflected a fascination with the Plaxico Burress PR disaster and the BCS College Football mess.

As we all know, New York, despite its fervor for the Giants, Jets, Rangers and the Knicks, is a baseball town. Keeping up with everything at this time of year is no small feat. I applaud our Diane Firstman for linking the hell out of the coverage, which can get messy.

Every year, I try to observe which reporter has the goods on the story — or stories — and gets the jump on his competition. Here’s how you know: When a reporter from a competing newspaper — and yes, they all read each other — credits you by name in a column, you’re on point.

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Jose Calero believes in gods.

He figures the gods are against him if the elevators aren’t working when he delivers pizzas to one of the tall apartment buildings. If he has to climb above the fifth floor he becomes convinced that the gods hate him.

“They always show their feelings,” Calero explained. “If things go bad then I try and do good and make the gods happy. Things are always better when the gods are on your side.”

Calero doesn’t believe in a specific god.

“I believe in all gods,” he said. “There are different gods for different things: Elevator gods and money gods, too. Once I was out of cash and wasn’t even going to be able to buy groceries, but I found $20 on the ground. The gods were looking out for me.”

The gods gave him a landlord who lets the rent slide sometimes and friends who look out for him.

“I’ve got it pretty good,” Calero admitted. “I just need the gods for the little things like elevators and money and baseball.”

Calero paused and dug around in his pocket. He pulled out a coin and flipped it in the air.

“I bought a newspaper this morning and got this back as change,” he said. “I thought it was a quarter at first, but it’s a coin from Panama.

“That’s a sign from the gods,” Calero continued. “Mariano is from Panama and next year is sure to be his best ever.”

Someone pointed out that every year is Mariano Rivera’s best ever.

“But this will be even better,” Calero insisted. “He will save the final game of the World Series and lead the parade downtown.”

Calero smiled.

“There is no stopping us now. The baseball gods are on our side.”

  They don’t make ballplayers like Joe Pepitone anymore. I’ll leave that up to you, the reader, to decide whether that is something good or bad for our great game.

By the time that Topps issued this card as part of its 1968 set, Pepitone had established himself as arguably the most colorful character in the history of the Yankee franchise. That was certainly a tall task of grand proportions, given the precedence of former oddball Yankees like Frank “Ping” Bodie, Lefty Gomez, and manager Casey Stengel.

Considered a can’t miss-prospect who was fully capable of playing all three outfield positions and first base, Pepitone first reached the major leagues in 1962, joining a Yankees team that featured a conservative front office and a staid approach to playing the game. Pepitone’s flamboyance ran counter to the Yankee way. Incredibly vain, he arrived at spring training flashing a new Ford Thunderbird, bragging about his new boat, and wearing a new sharkskin suit. When the young star didn’t hustle during the regular season, he was greeted with angry catcalls from his veteran teammates, reminding him not to “mess with their money.” They were referring to their almost annual World Series shares, which they felt would become threatened if Pepitone’s lack of hustle continued.

Off the field, Pepitone’s love of the fast lane reflected the lifestyle preferences of established Yankees like Mickey Mantle and Whitey Ford. Yet, there was something different about Pepitone’s way, which was less discreet, less subtle, and far more palpable. In perhaps his most blatant indiscretion, Pepitone occasionally didn’t show up for games, leading to speculation that he was being pursued by bookies for unpaid gambling debts.

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You can read it in the Sunday Papers … but start here:

• Tyler Kepner of the Times has an article on the arrival of Scott Boras at the Winter Meetings.  Here’s an excerpt:

Boras’s guiding principle is that it takes only one team to set the market, and he offered a hint of that theory when asked his opinion about the effects of the overall economy on baseball. “I think there are 30 economies in baseball,” Boras said, referring to the 30 major league teams, and adding later: “We know baseball had record revenues, and the profits that are in the barn for many owners are extraordinary. There are clubs that run their business appropriately, and we all know it’s good business to have good players.”

• Bill Madden previews the Yanks and Mets tasks at the Winter Meetings.  He includes a decidely different opinion on the issue of arbitration vis-a-vis Pettitte and Abreu:

As of yesterday, only eight of the 171 free agents had signed, and while the slow market figures to pick up somewhat in Vegas, other than the Yankees, Red Sox, Angels and, to a lesser degree, the Braves, the depressed economy appears to have most teams  disinclined to enter into expensive long-term contracts.

That is why Cashman wisely chose not to offer arbitration to Abreu or Jason Giambi, neither of whom is likely to get more in multi-year offers than they were making in one year with the Yankees.

• The News’s Anthony McCarron has the latest on Brian Cashman’s pursuit of C.C. Sabathia.
• SI’s Jon Heyman may have some unpleasant news for Cashman …. Sabathia is anticipating the Brewers upping their initial offer:

Brewers general manager Doug Melvin reportedly will meet with Sabathia’s agent Greg Genske at the winter meetings, and while reports have indicated that the confab will provide Melvin a chance to gauge Sabathia’s interest, more importantly, it is believed that the Brewers will either at that meeting or soon after signal a willingness to enhance their initial bid.

• McCarron also catches up with former Yankee star Ed Figueroa, who now owns two restaurants in Puerto Rico.
• The Post’s Kevin Kernan details the work Ian Kennedy has been doing this off-season to correct the flaws apparent in his 2008 performance:

The former USC star went home and worked with pitching guru Tom House, who has been the Trojans’ pitching coach the past two years.

“I got some tips and started applying those and it made the break of my curveball better and the command of it extremely better,” Kennedy said from Puerto Rico. “Now I know what I have to do. Before I was just throwing it to throw it and try to throw it for a strike and not have any idea.”

Essentially, Kennedy is holding onto the baseball longer, and that makes a difference in break and command. As a result, he can make in-game adjustments to get the results he needs.

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The guys gathered around Juan Carlos’s coffee cart watched a desperate move on the Grand Concourse this morning.

A woman trying to catch a bus bolted across four lanes of traffic. She sidestepped a delivery van and just missed being clipped by a garbage truck before reaching the other side through a wave of screeching tires and screaming horns.

The guys shook their heads.

“She might be nuts,” someone said, “but she’s got guts.”

“Maybe she’s late for work,” someone else offered.

“I can’t imagine any job being that important,” another said.

“Are you kidding?” someone snapped. “A job is all that stands between any of us and living on the streets. Lose your job, lose your home, lose your life. I would take a chance like that if I was late and the boss might fire me. Any of us would.”

They all nodded.

“I guess keeping your job is worth just about anything these days,” someone else said. “You just have to calculate the risk and give yourself the best chance to make it.”

“So it’s kinda like stealing a base?” another asked.

“Not exactly,” someone said. “It’s like stealing home.”

Powered by A Bit of Fry and Laurie (hat tip to Jon Weisman for the link), here’s the news:

• At BP.com, Jay Jaffe puts on his GM’s hat and tries to fix the Yankees.  Here’s some highlights:

Withdraw the offer to Sabathia, which has been on the table since November 14.
Sign Teixeira.
Swisher becomes the primary right fielder, in a platoon with Nady.
Short-term CF solution by swapping Hideki Matsui to the Giants for Randy Winn.
Wang and Chamberlain are rotation locks, Hughes or Kennedy will take the number five spot. Alfredo Aceves is my seventh starter behind whichever of those two is sixth, and that at least one spare is stretched out at Scranton. That leaves a need for two starters. For one spot, I sign Derek Lowe.  Having signed Lowe, I’ll go high-risk/high-reward for the other spot. I’m going to sign Ben Sheets to a two-year, $30 million deal with a vesting option for a third year.

• As you probably know by now, Brian Cashman has met with Scott Boras regarding Mark Teixeira, and will talk to C.C. Sabathia this weekend as per Tyler Kepner at the Times).
• Think you have the Yankees’ next moves figured out?  Here’s some info from Buster Olney at ESPN:

They want to sign Sabathia, and if they cannot do that, then they intend to take the millions that would’ve been spent on the left-hander and chase after Teixeira, while bidding on Lowe. The Yankees also have had internal discussions about second baseman Orlando Hudson, whom they would sign, presumably, if they were to move closer to the long-considered swap of Robinson Cano to the Dodgers (or some other team). If the Yankees were to trade Cano to L.A., they almost certainly would insist upon an elite pitcher like Clayton Kershaw or Chad Billingsley in return, and in failing to get that, they’d lock in on outfielder Matt Kemp.

• Over at the News, Mark Feinsand has this quote regarding the Yankees’ concern over someone making Sabathia a better offer:

“He’s got one suitor besides us, and that’s Milwaukee,” said one Yankees official who dismissed San Francisco as a legitimate contender. “He’ll have to make a decision: Does he want to leave a lot of money on the table?”

• Feinsand also echoes the Times Kepner on Cashman’s meeting with Boras, but has the focus on a different Boras client:

… to discuss the 36-year-old righthander (Lowe). Cashman was not reachable for comment, but it is believed that no offer was made, though that could come later this week or during next week’s winter meetings in Las Vegas.  Cashman is also believed to have discussed other Boras clients, including Oliver Perez and Mark Teixeira, but Lowe was the focus.

• Pick-3: Over at LoHud, Pete Abe offers his readers a poll to choose which of Lowe, Sheets and Burnett the Yanks should sign.   There is also a “none of the above” choice.  (Sheets is leading at time of this post). Pete also has an interesting post on a study done by Sports Management grad students at Manhattanville College.  Here’s an excerpt:

The students charted the win shares and durability of frontline players and bench players and broke them down to hitters, starters and relievers. They then compared all 30 teams.

As you might expect, starting pitching is what separated the elite teams from the rest and there was a wide disparity. That was particularly the case with the Yankees. But what struck me was that the offensive production was in a pretty tight range. The frontline players of most teams played close to the mean.  In other words, starting pitching is what mattered, particularly the depth of starting pitching. The students, who are all fans of the Yankees, commented that Brian Cashman was doing the right thing by focusing on starting pitching.

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I lean on Red Smith’s words like the counter at the Crown Diner and the bar at Ballpark Lanes and baseball all the time.

“Over the years people have asked, ‘Isn’t it dull covering baseball every day?’ My answer: ‘It becomes dull only to dull minds.’ If you have the perception and the interest to see it, and the wit to express it, your story is always different from yesterday’s story.”

Those are the baseball-writing basics from one of the greats.

Everything starts with the basics. Pitchers locate the fastball and hitters drive the ball back up the middle. Newspapermen usually lean against the bar and deal with it all tomorrow.

Smith used to share the pages of the old New York World Journal Tribune with Jimmy Cannon.

Cannon was also one of the greats, but is probably best known for his often imitated one-liner columns titled: Nobody Asked Me, But…

I loved the style as a young reporter and used to carry a collection of Cannon’s columns around with me like a crutch. An old newspaper editor encouraged me to swipe the idea.

“You had better learn how to steal if you’re gonna make it in this business,” the editor said. “There are only so many good ideas out there and the smart guys usually get ‘em first.”

Cannon was one of the smart guys so I grabbed his idea and ran. I have pounded out many of these columns in past lives, but now I’m just another old righty taking the mound to see if I’ve got anything left on my fastball.

Nobody asked me either, but…

I hope Jason Giambi gets a good deal to play ball somewhere, but I don’t want it to be in the American League East. I would hate to pull against the Big G.

I’m at every Yankees home game and I watch every road game on television.

I know that’s not normal.

I realize I’m crazy, which means I’m not crazy. I think.

It’s really insane to score every game, but I do it anyway.

I’ve had good ideas: Blogging about baseball.

And bad ideas: Becoming an art student through the mail.

I bleed Yankees blue and will defend my team and everyone on it until my last breath.

I believe Derek Jeter is the most important man in this city.

I also believe Alex Rodriguez will lead this team through October.

And that Mariano Rivera will get the final out of a glorious baseball season.

I know that Jorge Posada is the toughest man in the world.

I have faith that Andy Pettitte and Bobby Abreu will be Yankees on Opening Day.

I believe Robinson Cano is going to have the biggest comeback season of all time.

And that Hideki Matsui will bounce back strong, too.

This will be Joba Chamberlain’s year.

But Chien-Ming Wang will win the American League Cy Young Award.

It’s impossible not to love Johnny Damon.

Phil Hughes is going to pitch a lot of big games in the Bronx.

Humberto Sanchez is already a big star in the Bronx and now everyone else will get a good look at him.

I certainly wish Mike Mussina well, but I have no idea how anyone can walk away from baseball while they can still play.

I like the World Baseball Classic, but I want to love it.

If I could pick one ballplayer – living or dead – to have dinner with it would certainly be Josh Gibson.

I’m proud to be on the staff here at Alex Belth’s Bronx Banter. But I think the blog might get more readers if it was called Derek Jeter’s Bronx Banter.

Pitchers and catchers report in 71 days. I’ll be leaning against the bar until then.