ESPN's Buster Olney and Sports Illustrated's Jon Heyman are now reporting that the Yankees and Mark Teixiera have agreed to an 8-year, $170 million deal.
This, on the heels of announcing that prices to an exhibition game against the Chicago Cubs to open the New Stadium will be slashed to 1923--yes, you read that right--1923 prices, is enough to make your head spin.
Among the questions to be asked now are:
1) Is Teixiera really worth that deal?
2) Have the Yankees reverted back to a 1980s buy-everything-in-sight model? You know, the one that didn't work?
3) What do you do with recently acquired 1B/OF Nick Swisher?
4) How many countries have smaller GDPs than the Yankees' corner fielders?
Anyway, uh, I guess you can all consider it baseball's Christmas/Chanukah/Kwanzaa/Festivus present...
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Everything's Bigger with Tex
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I know it's a lot of money. I'm not sure anyone could question each of the signings. I'm just glad it's not Manny. As great a player as he, you know Manny would quit on the team at a crucial moment.
ReplyDeleteTex is a very good player and we should have him for a long time
4) How many countries have smaller GDPs than the Yankees' corner fielders?
ReplyDeleteAnswer: Two. Niue (population 2,000) and Tuvalu (population 12,000)
I don't think this is a regression back to the 80s philosophy so much as a perfect storm. It was a great free agent market (great players plus some good ones to use as bargaining leverage) that meshed well with real needs. The other thing to keep in mind is that the league has been getting more competitive in the areas that the Yankees used to dominate (international scouting, OBP focus), and smaller teams are extending young players rather than trading them or taking them to arbitration. The techniques of the mid-90s just won't build a champion now; this is our best bet.