Eh, it might still be early enough to steal him later then. If you know the other people you're drafting against, you stand to gauge it better. If they aren't Yankees fans, chances are, they'll be going by last year's performance, and undervalue him. So it's okay that they asked for more? Because they didn't do as much to upgrade their ballclub? So doing less earns you more? You sound like a Liberal. :smile:
After looking at some numbers I'm not even all that worried about the Yankees exactly. I know they are going to be good, but they were good last year. Teixeira isn't THAT big an upgrade over what Giambi gave last year, and Sabathia isn't going to be any better than Mussina was. If Pettitte doesn't come back, Burnett is about the same as what he gave, and that's if he stays healthy. If Pettitte does come back, they're going to be a lot better. Before you guys jump on me, I'm not saying they aren't going to be good or they didn't make good moves. I'm just saying they won 89 games last year and got (offensively anyway) slightly better at 1st base and improved the rotation only if Pettitte comes back. To me, they were going to be good even if they just kept what they had. My worry is the Red Sox. They are in for a huge decline offensively with Lowell and Ortiz being huge question marks. They are in a somewhat severe need of power, and Teixeira would have provided that now and in the future. They also have no catcher. They still have excellent pitching, but I fear they are in danger of becoming the Astros of a few years ago.
Factors you didn't account for: Wang will be healthy and pitch all season. Posada will be healthy and be the full-time catcher over Jose Molina. Joba Chamberlain will start the season in the rotation. Instead of trotting out the likes of Darrell Rasner and Sydney Ponson, they will feature CC Sabathia and AJ Burnett. Offensively, an outfield of Damon, Swisher, Nady is better than an outfield of Damon/Matsui, Cabrera, Abreu. Teixeira is a better overall player than Giambi. Even at the plate. He presents a threat to both get on base and provide run support from both sides. I understand where you're coming from, but the Yankees are significantly better on Christmas Eve 2008 than they were on All Hallows Eve 2008. EDIT: Just for clarification, Wang replaces Moose's production from this year. Burnett and Sabathia replace Rasner and Ponson if Pettitte returns. Obviously Joba and Pettitte would play for themselves.
you're right, if you add what they lost (abreu and giambi, pettitte and mussina) compared to what they gained (teixeira and swicher, sabathia and burnett); then this team is aboutttt the same on paper. I think what a yankees fan has to depend on is for : Wang to be back Matsui to healthy (was one of our best hitter last year when healthy) Cano to return to form Joba to continue dominance while they watch his innings Phil Hughes to improve over last year if he gets a chance (shouldnt be too hard considering how terrible he was last year) The young bullpen to gel/improve (Mo and bruney are our only proven guys and marte struggled once traded, finished season strong though) Melky not to suck as bad (def cant count on that) Posada to play a fair amount of games (offense is much more potent with posada than molina)
Right or wrong, good or bad, most are saying the Yankees are the team to beat now. Can they be beat? Sure. It's a long season. Boston's biggest challenge may be to get a catcher that can handle the staff as well as Varitek did as it appears he won't be back now. People overlook the importance of that. His offensive numbers wouldn't have mattered all that much.
It's not the defense asshat, it's the relationship he has with the pitchers. Pitchers are much more comfortable with Varitek behind the plate then some AAA nobody.
ok well his defense and his "gamecalling" abilities are what red sox fans laud him for. his relationship with the pitchers is not worth his atrocious offense, especially considering the talent they have in their rotation. i could call a game for the sox.
The Sox are going to be just fine. I fully expect that they will take the 25 million that they didn't use on Teix for this season and use it to add cheap depth to the corner positions (Pat Burrell or Adam Dunn perhaps) and they will probably sign either Sheets, Smoltz, or both to fill out the end of the rotation. Ortiz is 33 and his health is certainly a concern, but 2007 was actually one of his best seasons and I'm looking for him to surprise a lot of people this year with a strong performance. The Sox were one game away from the world series last year, and that was with a lot of under-achievement and injuries on the team. They will, most likely, have another relatively uneventful season, winning 90-95 games, and compete for a spot in the playoffs. My only real area of concern is catcher. Clearly something has to be done, but whether that involves trading for one of the two Texas catchers, bringing in a filler for '09 and waiting until the Joe Mauer sweepstakes begins, bringing back Varitek, or some combination of the above (or something entirely different) remains to be seen. The longer things drag out the more it appears that Varitek will return and be the starting catcher. In that case, hopefully his '08 offensive campaign was more a result of his messy divorce than a decline in skills and he can put together an '07 like year while the F.O figures out a long term solution. That solution doesn't look like it's coming from the farm system.
I think Theo and Co. are going to wait for Mauer, that way we can offer just a hair under the Yankees and lose him, too.
Well here it comes. The Yankees are going to ruin baseball for both New York teams and major market teams. Two congressmen have proposed that MLB should have a salary cap if stadiums across the country are going to be subsidized by taxpayer dollars. Two bills are going to be presented to Congress next year mandating a baseball cap on the countries national pasttime if taxpapers are subsidizing stadiums. Barack Obama, a Chicago Cub fan, is rumored to approve such a bill. THANKS YANKEES.
