MFYs in 2015: The Eroding Continues?

[Frayed Knot]

From the previous thread:
JCL: MFYs traded Frankie Fistpump (Francisco Cervelli) to the Pirates for LHRP Justin Wilson



Gotta like MFY Prez Randy Levine's recitation of "Thank God. Thank God. Thank God" [acc to today's NY Post] in reaction to ARod's deal no longer being the highest in dollar amount in the wake of Giancarlo Stanton's contract with Miami.
- Yeah, like that gets you and your guys off the hook for the deal you agreed to with the soon-to-be 40 y/o.
- Like the Marlins somehow out-stupid'ed you even though the Stanton deal will end before he hits the age that ARod is already with a contract that still has three years to run.
- Like Stanton's signing at age 25 more or less matches matches on a per year basis the one ARod first signed 13 years ago (when MLB revenue's were, what, half what they are now?) and that YOU then doubled-down on Seven Years later somehow indicates an equivalency or even a trumping.
- That the multi-million dollar bonuses "for promotional purposes" that you've already paid several times and will have to pay at least one more of in the future for passing various career HR milestones based on the concept that this guy was set to be the new "clean" HR champ who would return the HR record to its 'rightful place' in pinstripes is somehow now less of a bad idea because of the Stanton signing?
- And how are those milestone celebrations going anyway, and just what were you thinking while making those deals?: That he really was the clean player in a dirty era simply because he told you so (doubtful since you guys skimmed that topic on Giambi pretty nearly), or did you really buy the story that he did do junk but only right up until the moment he signed with you at which point he gave it up?

No, Randy, there's nothing about this Stanton signing that puts you and your gang in an even slightly better light.

[Centerfield]

Stop it FK. It totally lets them off the hook.

I think they should keep doing it.

In fact, they should sign A-Rod to an extension. Jeter too.

[Ceetar]

I dunno, Stanton's contract seems primed for the Yankees to do a similar doubled-downing with him in say 7 or so years as he's getting creaky.


I wonder how they treat A-Rod passing Mays? I suspect since 6 HR may take most of April, or longer, they'll have time to start transitioning to a redemption story.

Here's how I see it going:

1. A-Rod looks healthy and mobile in spring.

2. Yankees start 10-9, with A-Rod OPSing .920 with 4 HR.

3. Yankees realize he's still awesome (more importantly, he's keeping them relevant) and start publicly praising him. He's a changed man!

4. Passes Mays. Promotional items for sale instantly. Someone knocks the current World Champs here somehow.

5. A-Rod continues to do well, though not MVP well except in the eyes of Yankees hacks. He's main reason they hover near .500 and "in it".

6. Compelled by this story, Yankees brass and hack-writers start campaigning for him as the 'comeback player of the year' and this is all the precursor towards a forgiveness of the steroid era in general by those writers you otherwise are voting against Bonds, et al.

7. Piazza, Bonds, Clemens get into the Hall of Fame.

8. Yankees, desperate for relevancy after a 77-85 4th place season forgive Clemens and want to claim a new Hall of Famer as their own.

9. OF ALL THE MOST DRAMATIC THINGS celebration at the Mall at Yankee Stadium III next season.

[Frayed Knot]

Ceetar wrote: I wonder how they treat A-Rod passing Mays?

Well, to start with they'll cut him a check for Six Million Dollars - cuz it's in the contract that they have to.
Not sure that they'll be much in a celebratory mood after that.

[Ceetar]

Frayed Knot wrote: Ceetar wrote: I wonder how they treat A-Rod passing Mays? Well, to start with they'll cut him a check for Six Million Dollars - cuz it's in the contract that they have to. Not sure that they'll be much in a celebratory mood after that.

see I was figuring the opposite "crap, we better market this enough to make back at least 7 mill"

[Frayed Knot]

Yeah, good luck with that.
Celebrating a tainted achievement for a player that both team mgmt and the fan base hates over a record no one really cares much about is a pretty tall order.

[MFS62]

Ceetar wrote: Ceetar wrote: I wonder how they treat A-Rod passing Mays? Well, to start with they'll cut him a check for Six Million Dollars - cuz it's in the contract that they have to. Not sure that they'll be much in a celebratory mood after that. see I was figuring the opposite "crap, we better market this enough to make back at least 7 mill"

They'll make a profit because Steiner Sports will sell the ball for $20 million and split the proceeds with the MFYs.
Later

[Frayed Knot]

Hiroki Kuroda is apparently going to leave the MFYs and MLB in order to take his talents to Japan Beach for 2015. Not really sure if this is a good thing or bad.
- On the one hand he'll turn 40 before the season opens and isn't exactly a CY contender.
- On the other he's been reasonably solid for them this past year when, unlike in 2013, he was good down the stretch which helped to team stay on the fringes of a playoff spot, and he's been reasonably reliable and steady for them over three seasons now [33, 32, 32 starts - 600+ IPs of mid-3.00s ERA over that time].

IOW, he kind of filled the Bartolo Colon role for them by being the older guy who could be depended on to take the ball every time out and be decent more often than not. The biggest difference is that he was more expensive [$16 mil/yr*] and also more important to them than BC is to us on account of having few if any better/younger guys as a logical replacement.





* more evidence that BC is not overpaid for his role in this market

[Edgy MD]

Maybe they want Colon back.

[Edgy MD]

Although the circumstances are apparently different from those of Brien Taylor's and hopefully the outcome is different, I can't help but think about Taylor when I read that 2012 Yankees first round pick Ty Hensley was apparently brutally beaten --- like, continually beaten after being knocked unconscious.

Although, being that the story had been missed for two weeks, and the initial report comes from the player's lawyer, it isn't exactly clear what the circumstances were.

[Centerfield]

That is just not right.

There are plenty of Yankees that deserve to be brutally beaten before you get to that kid.

[Vic Sage]

BOC right there, CF.

[Edgy MD]

Batting Stance Guy wrote: Yankees acquire Chris Martin after a conscious uncoupling from Rockies.

[MFS62]

Meeting with A-Rod will have to wait until Spring Training:
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-league-stew/report--yankees-reject--clear-the-air--meeting-with-alex-rodriguez-054658194.html

Later

[Guest Mets Guy in Michigan]

I don't know if the MFYs can take any high ground here. They certainly knew what they were getting when they signed him the second time.

[Frayed Knot]

Meeting with A-Rod will have to wait until Spring Training: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-league-stew/report--yankees-reject--clear-the-air--meeting-with-alex-rodriguez-054658194.html Later

And now the team is threatening to fight him in court over those bonuses they had written into his contract for the 'milestone' HRs, claiming he obtained those incentives under false pretensions (and they of course had no idea he was dabbling in steroids, no way they'd ever deal with one of those).
The first one of those bonuses -- $6 million worth -- is due after (if?) he hits just six more HRs and catches Willie Mays.

[Edgy MD]

Such a case could only serve to further dilute both parties' credibility.

Might make sense to settle at 50% and walk away without another public war, but... A-Rod's already screwed himself out of the Hall of Fame, so what good, he might think, is trying to rebuild his credibility? Money is all he can garner at this point, so I'm guessing he's going to fight to garner all he's contractually entitled to.

[nymr83]

Of course, the Yankees can say that talent, not contract size, determines playing time and let him rot on the bench. Sure his lawyers could sue and claim he was benched only to avoid hitting contract milestones, but then the burden of proof is on him rather than on the Yankees.

It wouldnt even be all that unreasonable to say that Headley won the 3B job outright because we expect him to produce better than a guy who turns 40 in July and didnt play all of last year.

My guess is Arod gets the 6 million for 6 more homers but never reaches the incentives after that.

[Ceetar]

Nymr83 wrote: Of course, the Yankees can say that talent, not contract size, determines playing time and let him rot on the bench. Sure his lawyers could sue and claim he was benched only to avoid hitting contract milestones, but then the burden of proof is on him rather than on the Yankees. It wouldnt even be all that unreasonable to say that Headley won the 3B job outright because we expect him to produce better than a guy who turns 40 in July and didnt play all of last year. My guess is Arod gets the 6 million for 6 more homers but never reaches the incentives after that.

so what, they're going to play with 24 men for 3 years to save 6million?

[Edgy MD]

Yeah, I don't see them keeping him on the bench forever without at least giving him enough rope to hang himself, with no guarantees that he will.

[Frayed Knot]

His playing time is going to depend on how well he produces. The team might hate him and are currently all high and mighty about him being a disgrace to the pinstripes, but if he proves he can still hit he'll get his ABs one way or another [DH, 3B, 1B]
He's almost certain to pass Mays barring another big injury, but it's just as certain that the Yanx don't want to pay him that ($6mil) bonus so that's where the first fight is going to come. Ruth would be the next milestone but, at 60 HRs away at this point, that's a threshold he may never get to even if he does play more or less regularly. I think if you told the Yanx that they'd get 3 seasons out of him at 18-20 HRs/per they'd sign up for that in a heartbeat.

[MFS62]

The MFYs may be on the decline, but their recently retired shortstop keeps on winning:
https://celebrity.yahoo.com/blogs/celeb-news/derek-jeter-s-girlfriend-hannah-davis-lands-cover-of-2015-sports-illustrated-swimsuit-issue-014243524.html

and

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nbc-yahoo-sports/derek-jeter-reportedly-explored-purchasing-buffalo-bills-192944723-nfl.html

Later

[Guest d'Kong76]

Yankees' free-spending past a problem in the present
Chad Jennings - The Journal News

The problem with the Yankees is that they're already committed to players who have declined faster and more drastically than expected.

The biggest problem with this Yankees offseason?

It wasn't passing on Max Scherzer or not trading for Troy Tulowitzki. It was making the decision in 2007 to re-sign Alex Rodriguez. It was pushing payroll in 2008 to sign Mark Teixeira. It was giving CC Sabathia an extension in 2011. And it was deciding last winter that Carlos Beltran was a safe-enough bet to warrant a three-year deal and $45 million.

The problem with the 2015 Yankees isn't that they've gone cheap or stopped adding players. It's that they're already committed to players who have declined faster and more drastically than expected.

The Yankees didn't go into this offseason oblivious to their offensive shortcomings. They scored more runs than only two other American League teams last season, an offensive disappointment that got hitting coach Kevin Long fired.

But where were the Yankees going to find the necessary upgrades this winter?

The outfield corners are usually good places to find power, but the Yankees have Beltran for two more years, and they just signed Brett Gardner to one of their more favorable contracts. Designated hitter should be an obvious chance to upgrade, but the Yankees' get-out-of-jail-free card on Rodriguez expired. First base is typically a power position, but Teixeira is signed for two more years with a full no-trade clause and no indication that he's willing to waive it.

So what did the Yankees have left?

The open spots for an offensive upgrade were second base (where there were no impact hitters available), shortstop (where the Yankees could have rolled the dice with Hanley Ramirez's defense or given up the entire farm system for Tulowitzki) and third base (where the Yankees re-signed Chase Headley, choosing defense and on-base percentage over pure thump).

So the middle of the Yankees' lineup looks a little too familiar. It looks a lot like the middle of last year's Opening Day lineup. The biggest difference? Rodriguez at DH instead of released-by-mid-July Alfonso Soriano.

Fact is, power is getting harder to find. As disappointing as Teixeira has been lately, his first three months last season were actually pretty powerful by today's standards. If he'd maintained his .474 slugging percentage the second three months, Teixeira would have finished 12th in slugging in the American League. Believe it or now, Gardner and Jacoby Ellsbury were top 30 in slugging last season, and Brian McCann's brutal Yankees debut still placed him in the top 20 in home runs.

Are there ways to find more power this season? There might be, but they all seem to involve Beltran staying healthy, Teixeira staying strong and McCann building on his powerful September. Role players such as Chris Young and Garrett Jones might add some pop here and there � and Rodriguez could be surprisingly productive � but the middle of the Yankees' lineup is going to hinge on the guys who are coming back, not the guys who were added this winter.

The Yankees did little to upgrade their disappointing lineup this offseason, but that had less to do with the players they didn't sign, and more to do with the players they already did.

[bmfc1]

So much for the MFYs retiring the numbers of all-time greats: http://nypost.com/2015/02/15/andy-pettitte-will-have-no-46-retired-join-monument-park-in-august/

[Frayed Knot]

It's the slippery slope theory come to life, once you retire Guidry's digits then you essentially have to do Petite too.
While Guidry may have had the better peak, AP had 100 more starts as a Yank, almost 100 more wins, 1,000 more innings pitched, plus won more championships and will get more HoF consideration.

[batmagadanleadoff]

I get what you mean about the slippery slope up there in The Bronx over retiring uniform numbers, but Pettitte's probably not the poster boy for any of that. He'll deservedly get Hall of Fame votes and if his Yankee career was instead, as a Met, he'd be the franchise's second best pitcher all-time (career, not peak).

[Guest Mets Guy in Michigan]

I don't think Pettitte gets in the real Hall until they deal with the other confessed 'roid users.

It also will start getting awkward when Clemens and ARod don't have their numbers on that wall and people like Pettitte do.

I could see the MFYS putting a guy like Pettitte in a team Hall of Fame, like the Mets have done with some of our heroes who aren't quite Cooperstown worthy. But retiring the number seems a bit too far.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Aren't you in favor of the Mets retiring Carter or Hernandez's numbers?

[Guest Mets Guy in Michigan]

batmagadanleadoff wrote: Aren't you in favor of the Mets retiring Carter or Hernandez's numbers?

Carter, for sure, though they waited too long. I can understand the case for Hernandez. One is a Hall of Famer, the other is a pivotal figure in the team's history. Both of whom, I think, had more impact on Mets than a roided Pettitte had on the MFYs.

[Frayed Knot]

batmagadanleadoff wrote: I get what you mean about the slippery slope up there in The Bronx over retiring uniform numbers, but Pettitte's probably not the poster boy for any of that. He'll deservedly get Hall of Fame votes and if his Yankee career was instead, as a Met, he'd be the franchise's second best pitcher all-time (career, not peak).

Pettitte isn't the poster boy for the slippery slope, Guidry was. Once they retired his number they took any prospect of even having a debate about Pettitte totally off the table.