The Yankees could sport an updated version of the M & M boys if they manage to lure Japanese infielder Kaz Matsui (no relation to Godzilla Matsui) to New York this winter. According to the Daily News, moving Alfonso Soriano to the outfield and convincing Matsui to move from his natural position of short to second base if part of Boss George’s master plan.

Another Matsui sure would make for some clever headlines.

For many, the answer is simple: “yes.” The statisitics prove that Jeter is a below-average defensive shortstop. If he moved to third, he would still be a good offensive player. Plus, the Yankees could find a slick-fielding shortstop which would help address one of the team’s most glaring problems: the up-the-middle defense. Then again, for many fans, the answer is equally as simple: “no.” Derek Jeter is the greatest shortstop in Yankee history and there is no need to move him at this point in his career.

I am for Jeter changing positions and have been since the 2002 season. He is considered a “true team player” who puts winning above individual achievements. While I don’t doubt that he is a “team-guy”, I’d like to see him put to the test. Great players have changed positions before. However, I seriously doubt that Jeter will be moved anytime soon. At least not as long as Joe Torre is around. Maybe the Yankees will consider moving him for 2005 or 2006; that all depends on how rapidly Jeter’s already suspect fielding continues to decline.

Steve Goldman addressed the $64,000 Derek Jeter question with clarity and poise last week in his Pinstriped Bible column:

Is it asking too much of a player with the ego necessary to be a star in professional sports (for that indomitable will to always appear at one’s best is as much generated by self-adulation as by a sense of honor) to swallow his pride and admit that another man is his better? This winter Jeter and the Yankees have an excellent chance to demonstrate that pride of winning comes before pride of self.

I don’t think it’s too much to ask. I’ve heard people say that if Alex Rodriguez was ever traded to the Bronx, A Rod should move to third, not Jeter. Jeter has to stay at short out of respect. For what? Jeter’s feelings? Puleeze. When did this become a diva cat fight? I thought all Derek Jeter wanted to do was win championships. Last I checked Alex Rodriguez has won two consecutive Gold Gloves and is one of the 10-15 greatest players in the history of the game. Now, let’s talk about respect.

Of course, it is highly unlikely that Alex Rodriguez will ever play for the Yankees, just as it is unlikely that Derek Jeter will be asked to move his position in the near future. Still, I think it has become increasingly clear that moving Jeter out of short would be the best thing for the Yankees.

I don’t know if I’ve ever written a post concerning the commisioner of baseball, Bud Selig. There are some things I just don’t have the stomach for. But Selig has made the news on several fronts recently, most notably in America’s Heartland. Doug Pappas has been all over the disaster area that the Brewers have become, and Jay Jaffe wrote several good posts explaining the current situation too.

If that’s not enough for you, Jayson Stark has a column over at ESPN about how Bud and MLB have continued to make a laughing stock of themselves with regards to the Montreal-San Juan Expos:

“It’s like a whirlpool,” says one baseball man who once worked for the Expos, “that has turned into a cesspool.”

It is a shame that they will not make a competitive offer to keep Vlad Guerrero, who is possibly the greatest player in franchise history (taking nothing away from Rock Raines or Andre Dawson

Peter Gammons’ latest details the Yankees’ off-season plans. The priority in the Bronx? Pitching, pitching, pitching. But Gammons suspects the Yankees will also sign Gary Sheffield, and then move Alfonso Soriano to the outfield, making Bernie Williams a DH, and creating an opening for a good fielding second baseman.

Is A-Rod likely to end up in Boston? According to a report coming out of the Dominican Republic, the Sox and the Yanks are the only two teams Rodriguez would consider playing for. Gammons adds:

There seems to be some feeling that the ice is beginning to melt on their Manny Ramirez-Alex Rodriguez offer, which would save the Rangers $96 million in present-day value. Ramirez, Rodriguez and the Red Sox want the deal, and the way the A-Rod-Buck Showalter-John Hart freeze is going, if they don’t do the deal, they might not be there at this time next year.

I don’t think I’m being overly paranoid in thinking that the Sox could actually pull off a blockbuster deal that would bring Rodriguez to Beantown. Do you?

Rich Lederer has the third installment of his blogger-interview series up at Rich’s Weekend Baseball BEAT. David Pinto is featured this week. Pinto writes possibly the most popular baseball blog going, Baseball Musings. I like how David is honest about wanting a job with a major league club as a statistical analyst. He’d be great at it, don’t you think? I also like how David would accept a job as a professional blogger. (Mmmm, profesional blogging.) Check it out. Also, don’t miss Rich’s article on “The Worst M.V.P Seasons Ever” too. As usual, quality is job one over at RWBB.

Yankee GM Brian Cashman has been the busiest of worker bees over the past several weeks, gathering information concerning trade possibilities and the free agent market. The Yankees have yet to make a move, but the front office will meet Monday to devise their plan. A few things seem certain. According to The New York Times:

Cashman said that besides Pettitte, the Yankees wanted to retain two of their other free agents, catcher John Flaherty and reliever Felix Heredia. They would also like to re-sign David Wells “as a nonroster invite,” Cashman said.

… Cashman said he was confident that first baseman Jason Giambi could play a full season in the field next year after having surgery on his left knee on Tuesday. That would seem to make the Yankees more comfortable trading Nick Johnson, who played first base throughout the American League playoffs.

“Nick’s a valuable commodity, whether we hold on to him or as a trading chip,” Cashman said. “If he’s going to be here, he’s going to help us. If not, he could help us in trade scenarios.”

And finally:

“We’ll definitely have discussions with whoever Kazuo Matsui’s agent happens to be.”

The prevailing thought in Yankee land is that Boss George will sign Tampa-native Gary Sheffield to play right field in New York. It also feels as if Nick Johnson will be traded before Alfonso Soriano gets moved. (Drag.) Perhaps George will get something done special for Turkey Day.

Speaking of Tampa, the Cardinals dumped former Yankee first baseman Tino Martinez on the Devil Rays for two minor leaguers

The Houston Astros spoke with Andy Pettitte’s agents yesterday and of course, are very serious about bringing the southpaw home to Texas. The Red Sox have joined in on the fun too, and are interested in bringing Pettitte to Boston. What a coup that would be. Except it’s unlikely to happen. Boston’s main goal in showing an interest in Pettitte is to jack his price up and make George pay through the nose. It’s been my contention all along that Steinbrenner will overpay to keep Andy in the Bronx regardless of what Boston does, so we are right on course.

Jason Giambi had surgery on his left knee yesterday. He will undergo rehabilitation this winter and should be ready for spring training.

Barry Bonds won his sixth MVP award yesterday, easily beating out Albert Pujols and Gary Sheffield. No other player in the history of the game has won the award more than three times. Yet instead of soaking in the magnitude of this achievement, there is a cloud of skepticism hanging over Bonds’ head. Has he been juiced up? Has he cheated? Columnists, start your soapboxes. (In fairness, Rob Neyer has a good appreciation of Bonds over at ESPN.)

Alex Rodriguez has not been suspected of using performance-enhancing drugs like Bonds has, but the brightest star in the American League isn’t exactly the most popular kid on the block either. He makes too much money. He plays on a losing team. He’s selfish, a jerk. (Why can’t he be more like the saintly Derek Jeter?) How can a player on a last place team be the MVP? According to Allen Barra:

Americans are always embarrassed about the subject of the big money paid to professional athletes because, at heart, we know they’re paid that because it reflects how much more we care about them than the things we say are more important. The notion that the Texas Rangers and owner Hicks were bamboozled by Boras in the Rodriguez deal should have been dispelled long ago. First of all, with deferred payments and the interest that began accumulating on the Rangers’ money before Rodriguez was even paid his first salary, the sum the Rangers pay A-Rod every season surely comes to considerably less than $25 million.

Second, and more to the point, the Rangers didn’t exactly reach into their pockets to pay Rodriguez. They had the money for his contract because Fox Sports Net bought the 10-year cable rights to the Rangers and Dallas Stars hockey games for $250 million, and paid another $250 million for both teams’ local broadcast rights for 15 years, according to some sources (Forbes reported the latter deal at $300 million). The Rangers, presumably, got the lion’s share of that money. The TV deals boosted the value of the team, as reported in Forbes, by 16 percent, and the addition of A-Rod beefed up their revenues considerably. The Rangers jacked up their ticket prices by an average of 10 percent for Rodriguez’s first season, 2001, and finessed several new endorsement deals, including a sponsorship pact with Radio Shack.

The question that should have been asked three years ago was not “How can the Rangers afford to pay Alex Rodriguez $250 million?” but “Why don’t the Rangers use some of the money produced by those deals and the acquisition of Rodriguez to buy some pitching?”

Is Bonds even more disliked than A Rod? ESPN should run a poll asking that question. Barry Bonds surely must be on drugs, he’s beyond selfish, and one of the biggest jerks since Ted Williams.

What gives here? These are two of the greatest players in the history of the game and yet journalists and fans alike seem to spend more time running them down than admiring their achievements. Well I can’t tell you that either player is a personal favorite of mine, but I can tell you that I stand in awe of their accomplishments on the field. For me, that is enough. For those who choose to belittle Bonds and Rodriguez, all I can say is “You’re missing out on greatness.” And that’s your loss.

Carlos Delgado assumed that he was going to win the A.L. MVP. I have always enjoyed watching Delgado play–even when he is killing the Yanks–but you know what happens when you assume…

“If they were going to pick somebody from a team that didn’t make the playoffs, I think that would have given me an edge,” Delgado said. “But that’s what I get for thinking, I guess.”

Hey, you said it brother. Meanwhile, David Pinto has an excellent post about why people should stop whinning and learn to accept the fact that the best player in the league is usually the M.V.P. as well.

Major League Baseball has asked the Yankees to open the 2004 season in Japan. What a homecoming for Godzilla, huh?

Meanwhile, the other Matsui, Kaz, is headed for the States. But he doesn’t look like a fit for the Bronx. Not if Boss George gets his man Sheffield. Sheffield is a borderline Hall of Famer who is coming off his greatest season. But he has a history of being a headache too. Reader John Litt sent me an e-mail yesterday hoping beyond hope that Sheffield doesn’t wind up in pinstripes:

“Please, please, please, please, please, not Gary Sheffield. Gary Sheffield disgraced the game, disgraced it in a way that few players have, and was never punished, never apologized. These are Gary Sheffield’s words about his time in Milwaukee:

“The Brewers brought out the hate in me. I was a crazy man. . . . I hated
everything about the place. If the official scorer gave me an error, I didn’t think was an error, I’d say, `OK, here’s a real error,’ and I’d throw the next ball into the stands on purpose.’ “

That’s from an article in the LA Times by Bob Nightengale on 9/1/92, quoting a previous article. Nightengale goes on to talk about Brewers’ fans “mistakenly believing that Sheffield’s quote was an admission that he wasn’t performing up to his ability.” Excuse me? I don’t know how else to read the original quote.

Nightengale’s article continues, “Sheffield said Monday: ‘What I said was out of frustration. They want to take something and run with it. Why would a player purposely make mistakes? I’d never do anything to hurt the team. You get paid to play.’ Sheffield said the only time he may have made an error purposely out of anger was when he was in the Brewer minor-league system.”

…The fact that it was a decade ago really doesn’t matter to me. And furthermore, it was only a couple of years ago that he demanded a trade from LA because he wasn’t happy there, either. He not only demanded a trade, but it basically had to be to Atlanta or New York, so he could be closer to his family. Not surprisingly, the Dodgers traded him; after all, we know what Gary Sheffield can do if he’s unhappy.

I don’t want this guy on my team. I don’t care how he hits. Not now, not ever. Please, please, please, please, please.

I think that Sheffield would be fine in New York for a brief period of time. If he remains healthy, he should be productive as well. But I can understand why John wouldn’t want him around.

Every year, I eagerly await Roger Angell’s year-end wrap-up of the baseball season in The New Yorker. This year, Angell’s overview of the 2003 playoffs is available on-line. I haven’t read it yet myself, but that’s no reason not to link it anyway. I’ll follow-up with my reaction sometime tomorrow (thanks to Baseball Primer’s “Clutch Hits” for the link).

The issue of performance-enhancing drugs in sports is one that makes columnists drool. Unfortunately for us, their columns are more concerned with editorializing and moralizing than giving us straight information. They are usually a platform for a writer to tell us everything that is wrong with sports and our culture in general. But Derek Zumsteg has a sensible and rationale piece on steroids-in-baseball over at Baseball Prospectus. This one is free, so stop by and give it a look.

Alex Rodriguez won the American League MVP award yesterday after coming close on several occasions (much to the dismay of Jayson Stark). Yankee catcher, Jorge Posada placed third. But Rodriguez’s celebration was upstaged by trade rumors and a report that he does not get along with Texas manager, Buck Showalter. Here in New York, there is a lot of ink being spilled over the possibility of Rodriguez playing for the Mets. The Daily News reports that a trade is unlikely, while Joel Sherman suggests it is a move the Metropolitans need to make.

Christian Ruzich, The Cub Reporter, has launched a new blog here all-baseball.com, The Trasnaction Guy, a site that will ostensibly record each and every transaction that takes place in the world of major league baseball. Ruz will give us the facts on each deal and offer some off-the-cuff comments to boot. Go over and check it out, then link it, and put it on your favorites list, because chances are you will be spending a lot of time there in 2004.

Rob Neyer is often attacked as being anti-Yankee. But he’s also slammed for being anti-Red Sox, anti-Braves and just about anti-every other team too. That is one of the perils of writing a national column, I suppose. Anyhow, in his latest piece, Neyer has some positive things to say about the Bronx Bombers:

The Yankees do have to find some starting pitchers because they’re losing at least one and quite possibly three, but they could begin next season with exactly the same starting lineup and be a pretty good bet to win 95-100 games. Anything that happens in New York gets magnified, almost beyond recognition, but this was a good lineup in September and it’s a good lineup right now.

Which isn’t to say the Yankees shouldn’t try to get better. One of the reasons they haven’t missed the postseason since 1994 is simple: they’re always trying to get better, and that’s not something you can say about every winning team. Some winning teams seem happy to tread water, but when you’re treading water it’s easy for a shark to take off one of your legs at the knee.

Speaking of sharks (he wrote, clumsily switching metaphors), a baseball team might be said to resemble a shark: if you’re not moving forward, you’re dying. And while it’s not precisely true that the Yankees are always moving forward — remember Hideki Irabu, anybody? — it’s true that they’re almost always trying to move forward. If they don’t run into a bunch of injuries, the Yankees will be better next year than they were this year.

Actually, according to Woody Allen in “Annie Hall,” relationships are like sharks. Woody tells this to Diane Keaton as they travel back to New York from a weekend in Hollywood (she loved it, he was miserable). “Relationships are like sharks. They have to keep moving forward,” in order to survive. “And what I think we have here is a dead shark.”

Peter Gammons is credited for inventing the ‘Sunday Notes’ column when he wrote for The Boston Globe in the 1970s. These days, Gordon Edes is the top baseball scribe at The Globe, and his version of the ‘Sunday Notes’ is top-notch. Check out the latest from the Hub.

Who will win the A.L. MVP? Alex Rodriguez or (gasp) Shannon Stewart? Jorge Posada, David Ortiz or Carlos Delgado? Which one of these guys will take home the hardware? The results will be announced later today and one thing is for sure: the race is wide open. According to a report in The Daily News:

Anything is possible, because 10 players received first-place votes from the 28 voters, said Jack O’Connell, the secretary of the Baseball Writers Association of America, which presents the award. It’s only the third time in history that the number of players receiving first-place votes has reached double-digits – 1977 (11, AL) and 1947 (10, NL) being the other years.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” O’Connell said. “Sometimes, when you’re going through the ballots before actually counting, you know who’s going to win. I saw Roy Halladay’s name so many times, I knew he was going to win the AL Cy Young. But I have no idea who is going to win this until I count up everything.”

O’Connell added, laughing, “I’m just hoping it’s not a two-way or three-way tie. Those trophies are expensive.”

Steve Goldman, who pens “The Pinstriped Bible” for YES, offers a history of the MVP award over at mlb.com. Like most everything Goldman writes, this article is well worth your time.

Over at Rich’s Weekend Baseball BEAT, Rich Lederer has the second installment in his interview series up today, which features none other than yours truly. We talk about the Yankees, some of my experiences in the film business as well as my baseball relationship with my girlfriend and father.

I got to thinking about fathers and sons again late this summer when Jay Jaffe posted an article about Bobby and Barry Bonds. Jay wrote about how Dan Le Batard’s article about Bonds made him look at the superstar with a different sensitivity; he also talked about his own dad and how they remain close today. He has a much different experience with his father than I do with mine, but we share one thing in common: baseball bonds us together (if you’ll pardon the pun).

Baseball gives my dad and me something to talk about. It’ a safe, comfortable place. My old man isn’t an active fan by any stretch of the imagination, but he does have a history with the game and he certainly has an appreciation for it. More than anything, he respects how involved I am with it. He is also proud that I write about it almost everyday.

My father and I had a volatile and difficult relationship when I was growing up, but have a mindful and loving relationship now that I’m an adult. Again, baseball gives us something to talk about. Oh, we also talk about show business and the arts and New York City history. And we make like a pair of old yentas and gossip about the family too. But as imperfect as our relationship has been, baseball has always been a constant. Dad’s attraction to the game may be superficial, but his willingness to invest himself in it as a way to relate with his son is anything but. For that I am grateful.

And that’s the truth: tthhhppppt.

The talks between the Yankees and the Diamondbacks have reportedly cooled over a possible Curt Schilling deal. But Brian Cashman continued to check in with the Expos, White Sox and Dodgers. Who would you rather have in right field? Gary Sheffield, Vlad Guerrerro or Magglio Ordonez? Decisions, decisions. It’s tough to be rich and willing to spend, huh?

Mel Stottlemyre is officially back as the Yankees pitching coach, and George The Benevolent has also hired Darryl Strawberry as a spring training coach.

Can you feel the love? Or is that last night’s dinner repeating on you?