The announced bullpen is: Mo, Joba, Hawkins, Farnsworth, Traber, Ohlendorf, Bruney and Albaladejo. 

It seems Joey G. is discarding his desire for a long reliever (do we take back his demerit?).  I like this group but wanted Patterson instead of Bruney.  Glad to see Ohlendorf and Traber. 

 

 

 

 

Are we reading Summer of '49 or no?

We were voting and discussing and then nothing.  

The minimum for a PA diary is 300 characters but I can't think of anything else to say.

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It's hard to believe that listening to Arod and watching some clips from his 500 chase last summer was the highlight of the baseball week but it was.

I think that he addressed everything, Boras, the blonde, steroids, Yankee fans, etc.  It was fairly well edited, but he seems like he wants to put everything in back of him and be an extraordinary Yankee in the next 10 years and I welcome that.

Mean batting cage he's got there.  He says it simulates a major league baseball field and he imagines himself at the plate at Yankee Stadium, 2 outs, bottom of the ninth.  And he homers.

He said he works out there every day of the off-season and he is in incredible shape.

Katie Couric probably knew, for her own reputation, that she had to ask him some hard questions and she did, but he handled them okay.  He's still not terribly charismatic but he's more relaxed, it seems.

He would probably go further with fans if he talked more about growing up with a single mom who worked 2 jobs.  

All in all, a good interview.  I'm really burnt out from the Mitchell Report thing and the newest challenge to being a Yankee fan so it was good to feel good about it.

Thanks Arod for the positive vibe.  Welcome back to the Yankees.  

NY Daily News reports that after a spirited debate, Yankee front office is ready to package Hughes, Melky and one other minor league pitcher for Santana.  Apparently one person, presumably Cashman, had to be convinced but they were ready to pull the trigger.

The Yanks had declared Joba Chamberlain off limits, and the Twins told them that Ian Kennedy, the third of their three prized righthanders, wouldn't be enough. According to the club source, there was spirited internal debate in the organization via conference calls about whether to make Hughes available.

Among the prominent people on the calls were GM Brian Cashman in New York, and owner Hank Steinbrenner and superscout Gene Michael in Tampa. Though the club source wouldn't say who needed to be convinced, it is no secret that Cashman has wanted to build the team around young, homegrown players, and saw the three pitchers as the centerpiece.

In any case, the club finally agreed to put Hughes in a package that includes center fielder Melky Cabrera and at least one other lesser pitching prospect still to be negotiated, as of Friday night. And by doing so they believe they are the front-runners to land Santana, the two-time Cy Young winner.

With that development, the Yankees are the front runners in the Santana sweepstakes.  

I'm not happy about giving up Philly.  I'm really not.  I'm sorta on the fence about getting Santana only because so many big names have blown up in our faces before.  I'd rather lose giving the kids a chance than watch another bloated salary come in and not perform.  Hopefully I'm wrong and that doesn't happen.

There's a post over at RAB about how the boys (as in Hank and Hal) are handling things.  The poster over there likes Hank's blathering.  Some agree, some think the boys (especially Hank) have mishandled things.

When the season ended it was "OMG!" time...they "fired" Torre (as the story goes) and Donnie Baseball, a Yankee icon is in Dodger Blue, they brought in young and tough Joe Girardi who has no experience with a bunch of veteran superstars, Arod opted out, Mo, Po and Pet were FA's, Bowa, arguably the best 3rd base coach in baseball was also LA bound.

THE YANKEES WERE IN SHAMBLES!!!  Lions and Tigers and Bears, oh my!

And Hank just wouldn't shut up.  

Well we all know how things have gone and most Yankee fans seem to be breathing a sigh of relief and not even that worked up over Mo and Pettitte not being re-signed yet.  In fact, most Yankee fans are kinda on the boys' side where Mariano is concerned and overall everyone likes how they handled the Arod optout and crawl back or the Boras stare down.

There was an article in the NY Daily News today about Arod's displeasure with Boras because Boras convinced him that Big Stein would never let him go...but they never banked on Hank saying, "We don't want anyone who doesn't want to be a Yankee." They say that stung him as well as their pursuit of Lowell because Arod didn't want to be in Boston and who else would need him/afford him?
Apparently Hank rattled them pretty good.  Does anyone think he didn't mean it?  I think he did.

Some people think they overpaid Posada.  I don't.  I think he was THE MOST IMPORTANT of the 3 FA's (Mo, Po, Pet) to resign.  Jose Molina, bless his heart, is a great backup catcher but not good enough to be the Yankee every day catcher...so we got the deal done.

Andy may or may not come back...and Mo is being not Mo (I don't know who he is) but I don't fault the boys for this non-signing.  I'm blaming Mo.  No one is going to match the Yankee offer and no one should.  If he goes to LA (though I don't know why he would), that would be terrible but we can and will survive it.

So what does everyone think now?  I'm sleeping better at night and have the old "off season Yankee optimism" again.

I am not about to throw my arms around the boys yet...I'm sure they have plenty of F up opportunities to come...and Hank will undoubtedly shoot his mouth again at the wrong time...but right now I'm actually happy with how things are shaking out.  

Thoughts?

According to the Daily News they are trying to work out how to compensate/share revenue with Arod in the event he breaks the HR record and that, plus some minor language, and a physical is all that is standing in the way of the agreement being finalized.  Milestone clauses are not allowed so they're trying to figure out how to construct it so that he gets some percentage of what the Yankees stand to make from Arod's quest to bring the HR record back to the Bronx.

Boras is working on the contract (as we all knew he would be) and keeping a low profile in Miami.

If we get through the weekend without a public announcemet, Arod will be officially reintroduced on Monday.

Breaking news from the Daily News:

THANK GOODNESS!!! The one of the "old" trinity (Mo, Po, Pet) we can't replace has signed for FOUR MORE YEARS!

Jorge Posada, the 36-year-old free agent catcher, will remain a Yankee, sources familiar with the negotiations told the Daily News Monday night. After being schmoozed by Mets general manager Omar Minaya Monday afternoon during a lengthy lunch at Le Cirque, Posada and his agents finally received the offer from the Yankees they had been hoping for all along. The Yankees offered Posada a four-year, $52 million contract - the same deal they gave both Johnny Damon and Hideki Matsui two years ago - to remain in pinstripes. The deal will become official pending a physicial and final contract language being ironed out. Lets hear a big hip and a hip!

The Broadway stage hands strike went into day 3 without any budging from either side.

Among the "human interest" stories that the local news has run in the past few days were the couple from Scotland who bought tickets to TEN Broadway shows this week, hoping to see everything they could get tickets for.  While they have tickets to one or two that are still playing, most of the trip, that took much planning and saving, is a bust.

Another story is how children have come from far and near to see the Grinch Who Stole Christmas to find that the grinch really did steal Christmas.  Almost every NYC news station has had some footage of children crying as well as bad puns about the grinch producers.  

Although the stagehands have the support of most people in theater, except for the highest paid actors, most people working in the theater are feeling a tremendous financial pinch.

NYC is losing millions of dollars a day.

The Broadway stagehand strike is having a tremendous impact on the NY holiday season, it is a financial nightmare and is breaking hearts everywhere.  

But, have no fear that this story has NOTHING to do with baseball.  You didn't think this had ANYTHING to do with baseball did you?  

WRONG.

The NY Daily News interviewed a couple from Massachusetts who had to return to MA on Sunday without seeing whatever it was they came to see over the weekend.  As they boarded their Amtrak train they reported that they were very angry and were sure it was revenge for the Red Sox winning the World Series.

Excuse me:  WHAT?????????????????

Do those people in Boston have nothing else to freaking talk about????

NEWSFREAKINGFLASH:  THE BROADWAY STAGEHAND STRIKE HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE RED SOX.

Get a life Massholes!

I'm sorry but this just made me CRAZY.

When we were winning World Series, the Boston Red Sux fans said to me, over and OVER again, "Oh, I see you bought another championship."  which boiled me completely.  It's about not getting props you deserve but as the highest paid baseball team, it's hard to refute.

I have been listening to Rockie fans over at Purple Row whine about how their whole team doesn't make what Dice-K makes and that is why they are in the predictament they are in.  They say, "Economics dictates we won't be here again any time soon."  (nice to have faith boys).

WTF?  I HATE being in any kind of position to defend the Sux against this kind of hating (esp since it was their argument about us for years) but if that formula ALWAYS holds up, then the Yankees should win every single year and teams like the Rockies should have NO chance of being in the World Series EVER.  

The other thing is that when I've been in other parks around the country to see other teams play the Yankees and heard that argument from those fans (esp when the Yankees were administering a beating), but the stadium was half empty and the owners weren't spending money on the team (that they had to spend).  And I'd be thinking, well you don't have the money because the fans are lame and don't show up unless they wind up in a playoff (and then the bandwagoners come out) and the owner has the money and won't spend it.  There's no ad revenue because no one seems to care about your stupid team.  That's not our fault.

I can't even throw it in the RS face, "Oh the Rockies won't give you your due because they say you BOUGHT the championship." because I think I hate that argument more than I hate the RS.  Which means I REALLY hate that argument.  Plus if the RS say "Well if that's true, why aren't YOU in the WS?" they would be right.  So I don't go there.  

I KNOW that economics play a role but it's not the only role and you can't fall back on that when you're losing to a better team who has a bigger payroll.

Someone mentioned it in another thread or on another board but it's weird how the Yankees are part and parcel of baseball even when they're not even playing.  

When I eavesdropped on Let's Go Tribe during the Tribe/Sux series, the Yankees came up in every single game.  They were ticked off that Torre was the big news and not their playoff game but they also mentioned the players and the fans (not favorably of course but WHY were they thinking about the Yankees when they were PLAYING the Red Sox???)

Then I eavesdropped on Purple Row (the Rockies blog) for the first two WS games and they constantly made comparisons to Jeter, Arod, Matsui (mostly not favorable, but why our players?).  They even noted that the longest regular season 9 inning games in history were Yankee-Red Sox (noting the patience of the RS batters).

I'm always lost in a Yankees world so I am used to Yankee fans and Mets fans and RS fans talking Yankees and I "sorta" understood the diaTribe from Cleveland, but the Rockies fans?  I didn't even know, up until this week, who even played for the Rockies yet they know all about us.

I don't think that if the Sux weren't in the WS people would be talking about them.  Why is everyone always talking about us?   Let it go people.