Omar Minaya is set to meet with free agent Carlos Delgado today. Delgado will get together with the Marlins and Rangers later this week, but according to Dayn Perry, it behooves the Mets to ink the Puerto Rican slugger. Perry delineates a recipe for Met success in a recent column for Fox. Ever the Yankee fan, here’s the bit that struck me:

Minaya’s work this off-season in tandem with the Yankees’ largely clueless additions have positioned the Mets to be the New York team for seasons to come.

The signings of Carl Pavano, Jaret Wright, Tony Womack and even Ruben Sierra have been heavily criticized this winter. Some have argued that the Yankees would have been better off with Carlos Beltran and Javier Vazquez than Randy Johnson and Pavano (and Bernie Williams).

Just how close are the Yankees to falling off their perch as Kings of New York? There has been talk every year for the past four or five seasons that this will finally the year that the Bombers dip. They are too old, their farm system is barren. Personally, I expect that they’ll eventually fall off. It just seems like the natural order of things, despite of the team’s imposing payroll. Whether it is this year, 2007 or beyond, I can’t say. They are still team stacked with talent. I don’t know if their off-season has been a bust, but it’s discouraging that other teams seem to be smarter than the Yankees these days. What do you think? Are the Yankees one serious-injury-to-Jorge Posada-away from missing the playoffs? Would Carlos Delgado make the Mets serious contenders? Which one of these?

With the sale of the Brewers now complete, George Steinbrenner is officially the senior-ranking owner in baseball. Murray Chass has an appreciation, of sorts, today in the Times:

I thought longevity might prompt Steinbrenner to do an interview for this historic development, as he did seven years ago on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of his purchase. But a request through his publicist, the ubiquitous Howard Rubenstein, elicited no telephone conversation, only remarks delivered through Rubenstein.

…I was, in a way, disappointed that I didn’t have the opportunity to speak to George directly. I haven’t always enjoyed talking to him; in his talking days, he too often had a forum to make outrageous statements. But now that he infrequently talks to reporters, it would be good to be able to have a chat every now and then – mostly then. But now would have been preferable.

Even baseball people, however, have noticed that Steinbrenner is more invisible than visible these days, more silent than verbose. It’s as if the Yankees have constructed a shelter around him. People in baseball talk about it and wonder if he has a health problem that he is hiding.

I’ve been fixated with what will happen to the Yankees once Steinbrenner passes on–or becomes mentally or physically unable to run the team–for some time now. He’s the only Yankee owner I’ve ever known, and for most of my life I’ve considered him a bully and a bore. But he’s also financed six World Serious winners. Love him or hate him, for better or for worse, we’ve grown accustomed to his face.

Coming Soon?

All-Baseball.com’s prospect expert, Bryan Smith profiles the best young talent in the country over at Wait Til Next Year. Here is what he has to say about a couple of Yankee hopefuls:

Melky Cabrera– OF- New York Yankees- 20

I have never made it a secret of my obsession with Melky Cabrera, dating back to his days with Battle Creek earlier this past season. To me, heís been the Yankees second-best prospect for months, with or without Pudgito. His numbers show the general trend of what happens to a player when he moves up the ladder, but in no way would I call his FSL performance a drop-off. His ISO rose to .150, probably park-related, and really a drop in average was the only poor sign. You have to love a player with a K% (K/AB) under 20, and he was at 13.5 in the Midwest League, and 17.7 in Tampa. Both, for such a young player, to fare this well in full-season ball is quite the accomplishment. Heís a few walks away from being a clone of Bernie Williams at the same age, so that should get all you Bombers fans salivating. Given the problem in centerfield and Duncanís block, I really see no player in this organization thatís more likely to stay with New York other than Cabrera.

Robinson Cano– 2B- New York Yankees- 22

For some reason Iíve always had an internal bias with Cano, though one particular Yanks fan that reads this site has made that notion a hard one to keep. Well, so have his numbers. He really showed his dominance over Navarro as a player this year, looking better than Dioner in both Trenton and Columbus. His performance in AAA was far less than dazzling, but even a .144 ISO has to be respected given his youth and his position. While the Yankees signed Tony Womack to a two-year, $4 million deal this winter, they could have done far worse than have handed Cano the job. I donít see his ceiling ever being over an .800 OPS, with a line looking like .280/.340/.420 probably about what type of player he can be. Looking at this position across the league, thatís a commodity that many teams would like to buy.

Bryan does a terrific job. Go check it out.

Flipping It

Jon Weisman and I got some great responses to our pieces last week about baseball cards. As luck would have it, Hank Waddles wrote post about the same subject the day before Jon and I posted ours, over at Broken Cowboy. Worth a look. Lastly, following up on yesterday’s entry, be sure and read SG’s piece on Jason Giambi over at Replacement Level Yankees blog.

There are many questions concerning the 2005 Yankees: Will Randy Johnson stay healthy, how will Carl Pavano and Jaret Wright perform, will Alex Rodriguez have a more productive season? And that’s just for starters. But the biggest mystery, the $64,000 question, as it were, is what can we expect from Jason Giambi? On Saturday, Jack Curry reported that the Yankees are prepared for Giambi to play first base and DH this year. In addition:

Arn Tellem, Giambi’s agent, said yesterday that Giambi intended to meet with reporters in February before he goes to spring training. Tellem added that Giambi had begun two-a-day workouts and described him as working out intensely in preparation for the 2005 season.

“His spirits are very good, Tellem said in a telephone interview. “He’s feeling the best he has in a long time. He’s very determined to come back and show everybody he’s the quality player he’s always been.”

I hope that Giambi comes back and plays well. He’s going to have some kind of cloud hanging over his head–the media attention and the abuse he’ll hear on the road should be relentless–but I don’t think it will bother his teammates too much. Both Joe Torre and Brian Cashman have left Giambi messages this winter. He hasn’t returned their calls. I can understand why Giambi hasn’t spoken with the media, but I don’t get why he would’t return Joe Torre’s call. What’s up with that? I don’t get it.

The players and owners agreed on a new drug policy yesterday. It isn’t especially strict, as they still won’t test for amphetamines (greenies) or human growth hormone. But for now, the newspaper pundits seem to be appeased. True to form, Marvin Miller, is less than impressed.

Every so often on my morning commute through Washington Heights I see a small family consisting of a mother and a father and their two sons get on the train. The boys must be six and seven respectively. They both have round faces that seem even chubbier by their round glasses. They wear navy blue overcoats, and the required Catholic School attire: gray pants, white shirt, and a tie. The mother and father, who look to be in their early forties, are always well dressed and, if not formal, at least neat and proper. The father, who seems like a strict disciplinarian, will lovingly lean down and comb one of his son’s hair to the side. When the boys leave the train with their mother at 86th street, the father waves goodbye to them, and continues to smile and look for them after the train has begun to pull out of the station.

I’ve made eye contact with the father on several occasions, nodding to him and smiling as he dotes on his boys. On one occasion I told him how nice it was to see a father being so affectionate with his children. Anyhow, I saw the family this morning, while I was reading the rags. I didn’t make any contact with them, I observed them from 181rst street down to 86th. At 110th street, the younger son pulled out a small stack of playing cards that were held together by an old rubber band. He removed the band and looked at the top card. Then he open the stack to the middle and proceeded to flip through them using his left hand to slide the cards from left to right. The gesture really brought me back. I wonder who teaches kids to sort through cards that way, I thought. Duh. His older brother, of course.

I started to remember how important baseball cards were to me when I was seven, eight years old. Never mind that this boy was looking at Pokemon cards. I’m sure that baseball cards don’t dominate the card market for kids any longer. But that doesn’t matter so much in the long run. The cards are still held together by an old rubber band, and carried in close to the vest. The fact that the cards are graphic and contain crucial information makes them vital to a young boy.

I wonder how kids trade Pokemon cards. Do they flip them or what? I used to collect baseball cards–Topps cards–but never cared for them particularly well. (I’ve saved them, and have the good ones in a plastic sleeve, but the cards are all bent and busted around the edges.) I flipped them all sorts of ways–I used to love flicking them against a wall–and enjoyed buying packs and getting doubles and triples of lousy players in the search for a Reggie Jackson or Pete Rose All-Star card. (Loved that awful gum too and the smell it gave to the entire pack.) Some kids would buy an entire set, which they would keep in mint condition, but that never appealed to me. I liked to play with my cards. I treasured the statistics on the back of the cards and the dopey facts they’d revealed about a player.

What about you? Were baseball cards an important part of your childhood? Do you still see kids flipping and trading them? I started collecting cards in earnest during the 1979 season, but have a bunch from 1977 and 1978 too. I was actively involved with them through the 1984-85 seasons, when comic books took over. Anyone got a favorite year? I especially loved the 1978 cards and there were a couple of years in the early-mid seventies that were great-looking too.

(more…)

Carlos Beltran was introduced at Shea Stadium yesterday morning. A few hours later, Randy Johnson made his debut in the Bronx. Johnson made the back cover of the Post and the News. Beltran and the Unit split the back page of Newsday, as well as the front page of the Times.

When was the last time the Mets and Yankees held boffo press conferences on the same day? What I want to know is: Who will get the back pages of the News, Post and Newsday come tomorrow? Will they split? What? Any predictions? (I’m guessing that both will have a blurb on the front page of the Times.) Cliff Corcoran, recently back from bacation, offers his take on the Johnson deal:

Yes, Johnson is 41 years old, but he’s shown no sign of slowing down. Remember that Nolan Ryan, an inferior pitcher (just one 30+ RSAA season in his career) with a similar career path, posted a 138 ERA+ while striking out 203 men at age 44, and that Roger Clemens, who is more than a year older than Johnson, posted a 145 ERA+ while striking out 218 men this past season. And, yes, Johnson’s right knee conjures up memories of Andre Dawson as he’s had all the cartilage removed and has to receive lubricant injections before every start. But, frankly, that doesn’t really bother me. Johnson was easily the best pitcher in the NL last year pitching on that knee, which is on his plant leg, not his push leg. What’s more, Johnson doesn’t rely on his legs the way fellow aging fireballers Roger Clemens and Curt Schilling do. Rather, he uses his height and long arms to sling-shot the ball to the plate using an upright delivery. Both Vazquez’s and Johnson’s contracts last through 2007 and I believe that, despite Johnson’s age and knee problems, it is not only possible, but actually likely that he will out-perform Javy Vazquez over those three seasons.

…The Yankees have sent the future packing in an attempt to guarantee themselves a championship in 2005 (in a broader sense, the Yankees traded Halsey, Navarro, Juan Rivera, Randy Choate and Nick Johnson and cash for Randy Johnson). And that’s how this trade must ultimately be judged. The addition of Johnson puts the Yankees closer to that elusive 27th World’s Championship than any other player in baseball would have (after all, Barry Bonds can’t pitch). Should Johnson deliver a championship to the Bronx by 2007, the trade must be seen as a success. Otherwise, barring the complete collapse of all three of the players they sent to Arizona, it must be seen as a costly failure, something that just might come to describe the Yankees as a whole before too long.

Over at Baseball Prospectus, Joe Sheehan isn’t thrilled about the moves the Yankees have made this off-season:

Vazquez makes $36 million over the next three years. The Yankees have spent an additional $7 million a year, plus a decent catching prospect, plus staff filler in Halsey, for what may or may not be an upgrade. Vazquez had a lousy second half, and bore too much blame for the Yankees’ inability to reach the World Series. A year ago, there’s no way anyone would have dealt him straight up for Randy Johnson. Is it possible that the two players have diverged in value that much in the course of one year?

No, it’s not. The Yankees have once again thrown a large amount of money at a situation without actually solving it. Signing Carl Pavano and Jaret Wright didn’t improve the rotation as much as it added payroll, and the additions the Yankees have made on the hitting side–Tony Womack and Tino Martinez–are an embarrassment. The Yankees have more than $100 million in new contracts this winter, pushed their 2005 payroll well over $200 million, and they still have Bernie Williams patrolling center field.

That last point is the salient one. The Yankees have been in need of a center fielder for at least three years. Williams, great in his day, has seen his defense decline past inadequacy. Worse still, he’s coming off his second straight season of an EqA in the .270s, not only driving his overall value down but making it less likely that he can be an asset as a DH.

Though they aren’t in exactly the same situation, I’m reminded of what Bill James wrote about the Bombers in the 1988 Baseball Abstract:

The New York Yankees are trapped on a treadmill. Although they have not won anything since 1981, the Yankees have the best winning percentage of any team during the decade, or should I turn that around: although they have the best winning percentage of any team during the eighties, the Yankees have not won anything since 1981. The are acutely aware of this, and so the winter of 1987-1988 was spent in frantic preparations to make the 1988 team season the season in which the great nucleus of this team is surrounded by a cast good enough to lift the Yankees…onto the championship rung. there is an irony in this, for it is exactly this philosophy that creates the treadmill from which the Yankees are so anxious to escape.

…The problem with the Yankees is that they never want to pay the real price of success. The real price of success in baseball is not the dollars that you come up with for a Jack Clark or a Dave Winfield or an Ed Whitson or a Goose Gossage. It is the patience to work with young players and help them develop. So long as the Yankees are unwilling to pay that price, don’t bet on them to win anything.

I don’t know that what James wrote is exactly true now, but in general, his point is right on. Eventually, this treadmill effect will burn the Yanks like it did in the eighties. That’s why some writers are understandably upset that the team didn’t sign Beltran. He would be keeping them young. It’s hard to believe that the Yankees will replace Bernie Williams with someone nearly as good or as young.

Carlos Beltran wanted to be a Yankee. According to multiple reports, his agent, Scott Boras approached the Bombers on Saturday evening and said Beltran would wear the pinstripes if they gave him a six-year, $100 million deal. The Yanks passed. The Astros offered Beltran more money, but they wouldn’t give him a full, no-trade clause. So he moved on to his third cherce, the New York Mets, who were the highest bidder, offering him a seven-year, $119 million contract. Nice work if you can get it.

The Yankees, who are often criticized for their spending habits, are sure to be knocked in some circles for letting Beltran get away. He would have made them younger and better at a key position. If they had not over-paid for Carl Pavano and Jaret Wright, perhaps they would have been able to ink Beltran. (Come on, which deals do you like better: Pavano and Wright, or Matt Clement and Wade Miller?) Irregardless, it speaks to the reality that the team is likely stuck with Jason Giambi‘s contract…and Kevin Brown‘s too. Even if they are intent on dumping Brown, they will still have to eat most, if not all, of the money owed him.

So, Beltran now plays for the Metropolitans. I think they paid too much for him, but he makes them a better team. Now, if they have the chutzpah to go and get Carlos Delgado, they sure will have a promising team in 2005. However, Tim Marchman thinks the deal could come back to haunt the Mets:

It’s far too early to tell whether Beltran’s contract was a mistake, but there are some real reasons to think that it is.

Foremost among these is that Beltran has never been a truly great player. His hitting statistics are not those of a superstar, and put in the proper context, they’re less impressive than they seem. For most of his career Beltran played his home games in Kansas City’s Kauffman Stadium at a time when it inflated offense more than any other park in the American League. (In 2002, for instance, it increased run scoring by 17% as compared to an average park.) Despite that, Beltran’s career on-base average is .353, and has never risen above .389. His career slugging average is .490, though he has slugged above .500 the last four years.

Adjusting for league and park effects, and weighting his last three seasons so that each is worth twice as much as the last, Beltran looks to be worth about 30 runs a season more than a league-average hitter. That’s a very good number, but it’s not superstar-level. The same method shows Bobby Abreu, whom few think of as a great hitter, as being worth 49 runs above average per season.

The Mets also signed Miguel Cairo as well as the Korean left-hander, Koo Dae-sung, who had been rumored to be going to the Bronx. The Yanks? They’ll have to settle for Randy Johnson, who is due to take a physical today. Cue the strings. The team also signed Ruben Ruben Sierra to a one-year deal to do the cha-cha, hit a couple of dingers and strike out a whole bunch.

Have you ever read something that you feel describes you to a tee? Yesterday, I read a couple of articles that resonated so strongly with me that I just had to share them with you. They are from the PBS website, from a show called, “Do You Speak American?” and are about how New Yorkers talk and relate to the world. Deborah Tannen, a socilolinguist, explains:

New Yorkers seem to think the best thing two people can do is talk. Silence is okay when youíre watching a movie (though it might be better punctuated by clever asides), or when youíre asleep (collecting dreams to tell when you awake), but when two or more people find themselves together, itís better to talk. Thatís how we show weíre being friendly. And thatís why we like to talk to strangers

The Yanks, not making money? Say it ain’t so. Richard Sandomir takes a look at the financial state of the Bronx Bombers today in the New York Times:

Andrew Zimbalist, an economics professor at Smith College who has written about baseball finances and who consulted for the players’ union a decade ago, said the numbers might not add up for the Yankees.

“If you do a profit and loss, I don’t think there’s a plus at the bottom,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t make sense for Steinbrenner.”

Zimbalist and other sports business experts said that beyond Steinbrenner’s craving for more World Series titles, his goal is to build the value of the team and the YES Network, in which the Yankees and the former owners of the Nets are majority owners. That goal prevails, even if it means operating at a short-term loss. Last May, the Goldman Sachs Group arranged lending worth $225 million to the Yankees to help finance losses, provide working capital and consolidate debt.

The experts saw the acquisitions of Johnson, Alex Rodriguez and other marquee names as a strategy to keep nearly four million fans jamming Yankee Stadium annually, to keep the team winning and to keep YES ratings high.

It may not be a coincidence that the addition of huge stars with enormous salaries has come since YES went on the air in 2002.

Meanwhile, the team is close to agreeing to a contract extension with Randy Johnson. Steven Goldman weighs in on the boffo deal in this week’s Pinstriped Bible:

Under most circumstances, it would be fair to say that the Yankees were acting rashly in dealing Javier Vazquez, a 28-year-old of proven quality of whom the worst can be said is that he had a few bad months. At the same time, whatever the cause of his four-month slump, physical, psychological or mechanical, the Yankees proved unequal to correcting it, and they obviously lack confidence in the pitcher’s ability to fix it himself. It makes sense, then, to acknowledge that someone else might have better luck diagnosing his problem and move him on.

…But there’s one exception to the rule, although trying to characterize it seems silly: you make an exception for gods. The official definition of pitching gods is like the judge’s definition of obscenity: you know it when you see it.

And speaking of boffo, the hottest topic in baseball right now is where Carlos Beltran will land. His agent says that five teams are in the hunt. Various reports say that the Cubs and Yanks are invovled–and there is a rumor that the Mets have already agreed to a deal with him. Yentas, start your kvetchin’. I’ve thought all along that Beltran will return to Houston, but who the hell knows. Think the Yanks will swoop down and nab him at the last moment, or what? And should they? What do you say?

Congrats to Boggsie and Ryno. Mets to make an offer to Carlito. And a fond farewell to Will Eisner, a true New Yorker as well as one of the great comic book artists of em all.

So says the headline on the back cover of El Diario this morning. And it’s true, Bud Selig signed off on the Randy Johnson-Javier Vazquez deal yesterday. Players still need to take physicals and the Yanks now have until the end of the week to work out a contract extension with the Big Unit. From what I’ve been able to tell reading the papers, nobody expects anything to trip things up at this point.

Interestingly, it looks as if the Yankees are not aggresively pursuing Carlos Beltran. According to Murray Chass:

The Yankees will not sign Carlos Beltran, the most attractive, and expensive, position player on the free-agent market. But it’s not just that the Yankees will not be signing Beltran. The story would be that the Yankees will not even try to sign him.

That was the surprising signal from a baseball official over the weekend. The official, who is in a position to hear such things, heard last week that the Yankees did not plan to pursue Beltran.

“Someone told me the other day, if they get Johnson they wouldn’t go after Beltran,” the official, who refused to be named, said. “Even the Yankees have to have a limit.”

Omar Minaya and Fred Wilpon, on the other hand, courted Beltran in Puerto Rico yesterday. Lee Jenkins reports:

Beltran has met with the Mets and the Yankees, but there are critical differences. George Steinbrenner played host to Beltran in Tampa, Fla., but Wilpon went to Puerto Rico and, along with Minaya, visited him on his home turf. Such a minor move could foreshadow a major one.

The Yanks not interested? Chass thinks it could be the story of the off-season. The Mets out-bidding The Boss? Say it ain’t so. My feeling is that Beltran will return to Houston, but never underestimate General Von Steingrabber…right? While I can understand the Yankees’ reluctance to sign a player to a six or seven year contract, the truth is, Beltran would make them younger, and better, at a key position. Dayn Perry writes:

Any number of teams can use a potent offensive center fielder, but the Yankees especially need him. Bernie Williams hasn’t been able to pass muster defensively for about three years now, and the Yanks badly need to shift him to DH. Beltran would be a mammoth defensive upgrade and add another quality bat to the lineup.

Larry Mahnken agrees:

Brian Cashman has said the Yankees aren’t necessarily going to go all-out to sign Beltran. Please think again, Cash, they need to go all-out for Beltran. They need to overpay him, if that’s what it takes. They need a young, good player at a key position, who plays good defense. They need Carlos Beltran. Give him $18 million if that’s what it takes, this is something that the team needs to do to win long-term.

Hey, at least this week won’t be boring. The newest member(s) of the Hall of Fame will be announced this afternoon. Other than Boggs, does anyone else get in? (I think that Ryno has a shot and hope that the Goose makes it but I ain’t holding my breath.)

Today, the proposed Randy Johnson trade will reach Bud Selig’s desk; tomorrow, the Hall of Fame class of 2005 will be announced. Up next for the Yanks: Carlos Beltran? (Meanwhile, out west, here’s a couple of items of interest.) You may click when ready.

The Yankees and Diamondbacks agreed in principle to a trade yesterday that would bring Randy Johnson to the Bronx and send Javier Vazquez, Brad Halsey, Dioner Nararro and between eight and nine million in cash to Arizona. There will be plenty of “The Rich Get Richer” articles wailing about how unfair, or just plain absurd it all is. And why not? These kind of pieces while obvious and easy are based in truth, especially when you consider that the Yankees’ pitching staff will make more than the entire payrolls of some teams. Here’s Murray Chass, for starters:

This is what happens when the Yankees don’t win the World Series for four consecutive years. Losing breeds big eyes and bigger paychecks for other players. Steinbrenner’s soldiers are ordered to find superstars who will enhance the team’s chances of getting to and winning the World Series. Damn the dollars, full speed ahead.

Ever since Ban Johnson introduced the Highlanders, spending and spending some more has been a time-honored Yankee tradition. And so has bitching about it.

If the Johnson signing becomes official next week, the Big Unit will be reunited with his former Seattle teammate, Tino Martinez, who apparently will be back with the Yanks next season. Martinez is close with Derek Jeter and Jorge Posada. According to Buster Olney, he was a legitimate clubhouse leader during the 96-01 championship run, even though his coaches and manager were never especially in love with him. I have to admit I feel funny about Tino’s return. While I always liked him, I wonder if this is a “You Can’t Go Home Again” scenerio. Maybe, I’m reading too much into it, but is bringing Martinez–a hyper competitive player–back going to undermine Jason Giambi‘s attempts to get his career back in gear? Perhaps the Yankees are still hoping that they can rid themselves of Giambi before the season. How I don’t know. Maybe they think that Tino will help motivate him. Who can say. I know that Martinez is probably as good a back-up as Tony Clark was last year, even though Tino has never been a bench player before. What do you guys think, will Martinez have a positive, negative or benign impact on the 2005 team?

Jaret Wright was officially introduced as the newest member of the Yankees yesterday afternoon. More importantly, the Diamondbacks and Bombers continued to discuss a trade that would bring Randy Johnson to New York. According to Lee Jenkins in the New York Times:

A trade for Johnson, six months in the making, is finally close to fruition.

The Yankees and the Arizona Diamondbacks continued negotiations yesterday, and the Diamondbacks appeared as though they would take pitcher Javier Vazquez, the minor league catcher Dioner Navarro and one other prospect, probably the left-hander Brad Halsey, for Johnson. With that package, the Yankees figured to give the Diamondbacks $8 million or $9 million to offset Vazquez’s contract. Arizona could then package Navarro with its own prospects and send them to the Dodgers for Shawn Green.

Johnson and the Yankees constitute a match made in Big-and-Tall heaven.

Reportedly, the deal could go down today or tomorrow. However, Bud Selig would not sign off on it until next week and the Yankees and Johnson still have to work out an extension.

Paying the Price

In the most recent edition of The Pinstriped Bible, Steven Goldman compares Jason Giambi’s current situation with that of Charlie Keller, who played left-field for the Bombers in the Forties. Goldman is always entertaining, but he’s essential reading for Yankee fans because of the historical perspective he brings to his columns. Anyhow, he concludes with some sage words about The Man Who Wasn’t There, Mr. Giambi:

Prior to his power explosion of 2000 (for the purposes of this exercise, we will assume that the 33-home-run season in 1999 was his age 27-28 peak), Giambi was a very productive player. If he had never blossomed into a .340 average, 40-home-run hitter, his .296/.381/.497 averages would have made him a wealthy man for the rest of his life. Giambi has, or had, the ability to excel in the major leagues.

For some reason he allegedly felt the need to do something more when what he had was enough. That does deserve some kind of award, but not a wiser-than-thou, smart-alecky one. What the controversy has done to his career, his reputation, and possibly his health is a cause for sorrow rather than superiority. He’s pitiable. Who wants to say that about anyone?

There are rumors of the Yankees pursuing Carlos Delgado, as well as placeholder types like Tino Martinez. Delgado, at least, is intriguing, but so is a comeback from a healthy, all-natural, new-outlook-on-life Giambi.

The number of times that has happened in baseball history: zero. What’s your pleasure, Mr. Delgado?

I have always liked Carlos Delgado but I’d rather see Giambi come back and have a decent season. There is so much to look forward to in 2005, but I’m more curious about what happens to Jason Giambi than just about anything else.

It has been another memorable year for us Yankee fans. Am I right? So maybe it wasn’t memorable in the way we’d like, but it had more than its fair share of good parts. I just wanted to take a quick moment to thank all of the professional baseball writers out there, particularly those here in New York. As you know, I link to their stuff often. I really admire the job they do. I know this site would be a while lot different if I couldn’t excerpt and refer to their work. I’m also thankful for all of the great baseball writing there is to be found on the Internet, most of it done by amateurs like myself. Sometimes the sheer volume of writing is overwhelming, but I just try and share what makes an impression on me with the rest of youse.

Having said that, here are some links’n’things to keep you busy for a minute:

1. Rich Lederer’s three latest Bert Blyleven articles (one, two and three) are a must for anyone interested in the Hall of Fame election process.

2. The final 2004 edition of “Rivals in Exile,” from Ben Jacobs and Larry Mahnken.

3. Our pal Sully’s look at the contracts of seven Red Sox players, including their newly minted captain, Jason Varitek:

This one is gonna hurt. His offense is solid but his defense continues to slip. Varitek right now is the very worst catcher in the American League with respect to throwing out runners. I am willing to accept that he adds something in the clubhouse and that his handling of a pitching staff may even shave a little off of the team ERA. But all of the magical, intangible pixie dust in the world doesnít change the fact that catchers decline quickly and that even in his current form, Varitek is a very good and not great player. His .882 home OPS since 2002 is remarkable but it also appears that a lot of the credit for his success belongs to the cozy dimensions of Fenway Park. His road OPS over the same stretch of .760 isnít quite as impressive and may be more indicative of his true value. By 2007, I think Varitekís contract will be an enormous drain on the team and the $6 or $7 million dollar player we all know and love right now will probably be worth about $2 or $3 million by then while being paid $10 million.

(more…)

By Brian Gunn

When Alex asked me to guest host a segment of Bronx Banter, it seemed only natural that I should write about movies. See, I may have grown up a Cardinals fan in the suburbs of St. Louis, and Alex may have grown up a Yanks fan in New York, but when it comes to movies we’re from the same neighborhood. We’re both nuts about Bob Altman, Pauline Kael, and Robert Towne, and we’ve both seen Hollywood from the inside out, each of us working in the film business at various times (just like another All-Baseball scribe, Jon Weisman).

I originally wanted to use this space to talk about some of my favorite baseball movies (Bull Durham, Bad News Bears, even that almost-masterpiece Cobb), as well as some of my least favorite baseball movies – like, say, Field of Dreams. But I didn’t feel right talking about Field of Dreams because I hadn’t seen it since it came out 15 years ago. It’s possible, I thought, that it had improved over time. After all, the film was made for guys like me – yuppies in their mid-30s, about to have families of their own, maybe feeling guilty about their relationship with their dads. If I was going to write about it I needed to see it again, hopefully with an older and wiser perspective. So I rented it on DVD, thinking maybe I’ll actually like it after all these years

The Yankees and Diamondbacks spoke on Monday, several times yesterday and may be close to a deal that would send Randy Johnson to New York and Javier Vazquez, prospects and cash to Arizona. Joel Sherman reports that a trade–there are two possible variations on the table–could be completed as early as today, while according to the Daily News, Johnson has already told a few of his teammates that he’s headed for the Bronx. Stay tuned…

By Cliff Corcoran

Submitted for your approval, Alex Rodriguez’s 2004 season:

.286/.375/.512
.301 EQA
36 HR, 106 RBI, 112 R
28 SB (88 %)

Those are some pretty numbers, especially when they’re coming from your 28-year-old third-baseman who just posted a 106 Rate in the field and is under contract for the next six years. Those numbers represent what just might have been the greatest season ever by a Yankee third baseman, and was at worst one of the four best alongside Red Rolfe’s 1939, Graig Nettles’ 1976, and Frank Baker’s 1918.

So why do they seem so disappointing?

Back in February, I contributed a piece to this site that debunked the myth that Alex Rodriguez is, or was on his way to becoming, the greatest shortstop ever to play the game (Honus Wagner has him beat any way you slice it) and gave lie to the oft-touted fact that Rodriguez is, or has been, the best player in the game (ditto Barry Bonds). Those misconceptions of Rodriguez’s standing in the game might answer my question in part, but they’re only part of the story.

(more…)

By Alex Ciepley

It’s often easy to figure why you’re a fan of a team. I’m a Cubs fan because my father is a Cubs fan. I was raised on WGN and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. And if there’d ever been any doubt of my eventual loyalties, my fate as a Lover of Lovable Losers was sealed during the heady days of Sandberg and Trout and Durham in 1984. People love their teams because of their family, or geography, or perhaps just as a whim. But no matter the reason, it’s usually easy to find out.

Is a person’s disdain for a team as easy to trace? The Yankees are often called an easy team to hate. But what’s the real motivation behind this feeling? Red Sox fans, gluttons for punishment, may despise the Yankees for beating them year in and year out (at least until this year!). A modern day Mets fan may be down on the Yanks for stealing their teams’ thunder, always one-upping them on the raggy back pages.

I hate the Yankees, too, though in ways both more abstract and more specific. I’m bugged by the way Jeter sticks his ass out on an outside pitch. I shudder at the way A-Rod make millions a year but still frosts his hair like a cheap escort. I can do without Bernie’s record album or Giambi’s deodorant commercials.

(more…)