The Yankees
 

Are in the process of having the worst offseason ever. Womack, Wright, and Milton all apparently have been signed.

And mlb.com just stopped selling these:

Tony Womack!?!?! Congratulations!

Well I was just informed Milton hasn't been signed yet, so there is still some hope. This Wright deal is just insanity. I'm stunned by it.

Wright looked like a fairly good pitcher to me. Why do you dislike him so?

The Yankees are slowly sliding towards that mid 80's level of mediocrity.

He's sucked for most of his career and this past year was with Leo Mazzone in the NL, so I doubt he'll be able to repeat. Especially not with Mel Stottlemyre staying on as the Yanks pitching coach.

Slowly? Fuck that, they just did it in one day.

Sportsline had him ranked as the #12 starting pitcher in baseball last season FWIW. Granted the year before he was listed among the worst.

Like I said Mazzone and the NL. I just don't see why Lieber's option wasn't picked up.

It was an $8 million option. He's not worth close to that in today's market. I'd rather have Milton for that amount (even though resigning Lieber on the open market for two plus incentives would've been best).

Eric "Fly Ball" Milton ? you're kidding right ?

Win Shares:
Leiber: 11.5
Milton: 8

Take into account further that Milton had Polanco and Rollins (along with Byrd) defensively- while Leiber had WilCairo/ "past a Diving Jeter" and Bernie Williams...

This cracks me up. :D

You see he wasn't worth $8 million a year, and then Kris Benson signed and now he is. Milton is just horrible, you though Javy let up a lot of home runs just wait till Milton gets in there, he let up 43 last year. Unless the Yankees know something about RJ that we don't this pitching staff is just terrible.

I'm convinced that George wants Milton back so he can pretend like the Yankees didn't get completely fleeced for Chuck Knoblauch. If only he had room for Guzman...

As an ex-Yankee fan and a current Nationals fan, I'd gladly support any effort to get Guzman back to the Yanks.

I was glad to see MAZZONE help get Wright's career back on track.....however I predict a 6-13 6.47 era season for him w/o Leo.

They should have taken the option and I think Leiber is an overrated pile of doo.

Well he is left-handed so moving from Philadelphia which seems to be a good HR park to NY should help him some. Of course facing DH's won't help him much at all.....

Just watch out when they buy Pedro, R. Johnson and Beltran...then go out and buy the Oakland A's and intall their pitching staff and send down the rest of the team to AAA. It could happen.

Except he gave up more HR on the road last year.. :D

We don't want to be like the 2004 Red Sox.

I really hope Pedro signs somewhere else than Boston, preferably the Mets. Great pitcher in his time, but has a tear in his shoulder, never works out, and is a prima donna.

Last year- was probably top 5 in the Al. far better than anyone else out there.

And that was last year. To me he's a huge risk. One year older, 200 innings more on the arm and a damaged shoulder. Nevermind that he's a huge clubhouse disruption. If it wasn't for Ortiz, something nuts would have happened this season. I'd rather see them try and get Pavano and someone from the A's staff.

Ummmn...sore looser? That quote really...makes no sense Bomber? What were our major acquisitions before 2004?? Schilling? Yeah okay you got us there. Other than that, everyone we signed was a role-player, or marginal-interest free-agent. It's not like we signed Vlad and Schilling and (blanking on the other top free-agents before last year). Not even a legit comparison.

You had Trot Nixon, Jeff Suppan (who played for the Cards), and Schilling (who you acquired) come through your farm system. Plus the first $100 million team to win the WS. If that's not "buying" a ring, what is?

knowing the yankee bats, it'll more like 11-8 6.47 era.

Yes Nixon, Suppan and Schilling came through our farm system (Suppan and Schilling only so far though). But you're criticizing us for that? Isn't that the Red Sox developing talent (along with Lowe, Varitek, Garciaparra and Arroyo btw) ? Isn't that what we should be encouraging? I guess we'll have to learn with the stigma of "buying" a ring. Oh well, hasn't seemed to adversely affect Yankee fans for all these years so I assume we'll be fine. Regardless, I don't see how you can criticize the Red Sox for having a major part of their team (even more of it if you consider Cabrera and Minky as what we got for Nomar) being "homegrown." Nobody's ever going to win a WS with just players from their farm system, but I think we had a pretty good balance. Still trying to understand what you meant by "we don't want to be the 2004 Red Sox" though? Does that mean you don't want to win? Or that you don't want to win with a large core of homegrown talent (as you're seeming to suggest in the quote above)? Because lord knows you've already bought plenty of rings, so don't let us getting one stop you now.

I never thought I'd see the day when a Yankees fan accused the Red Sox of buying a ring.

Wait, wait, wait? Are the Yankees and Red Sox fans arguing about who can buy World Series better?

SI

all i know is that there are 4 year old kids walking around New York who have never seen the Yankees win a World Series

funny, but, there are like 80 year olds (and neuqua) walking about Chicago who have never seen the cubbies win a world series

*points shorty towards the sarcasam detetctor repair shop*

SI

Yankees fan complaining about the Red Sox buying a ring? What is this world coming to?

:) :D :D :D :D :) :)

There was more key homegrown talent on the Yankees WS champs of the 90s than on the 2004 Red Sox. Its a fact. Only Nixon and Nomar were drafted or signed as amateurs by the Sox. Compared to Jeter, Bernie, Pettitte, Posada, and Rivera (which is still the core of the Yankees).

So? What difference does it make how it's accomplished?

It doesn't at all. Its just Sox fans were always so quick to say the Yankees bought their WS rings, when in reality they are far more guilty.

I'd rather see the money they make spent on players rather than into pockets.

It's an asinine arguement either way though.

This is the single dumbest argument of all time.

Its not an argument its a fact. Red Sox fans whined for years about how the Yankees only one because of money. Where is the whining when the Sox go and do the same thing?

How can you be more guilty? Either you are or you aren't. Typical logic coming from a Yankees fan. Just because Georgy Pordgy's 180 million went to waste this year is no reason to get upset.

Well, unless your last name happens to be Steinbrenner :D

The Yankees horrid off-season rolls on has they sign a 35 year old lefty specialist from Japan, Dae-Sung Koo. I'd post his stats, but I'm too embarrassed.

Ok, lemme rephrase that. You are arguing over the dumbest thing ever.

The Yankees have been doing it for a few years. Always out-doing themselves. The Red Sox have spent a nice coin this year and won a World Series. There's a difference between shelling out ridiculous money year after year, and shelling out money one year to win a World Series and break a curse/slump.

The former makes you one of the most hated teams in sports, and the later makes baseball fans cheer for you when you finally win.

You're right the Yankees were totally doing that when they were winning World Series. Dumbass.

only nixon and nomar were drafted+signed (and arroyo IIRC), but lowe+tek were traded for as minor leaguers. Were Jeter, Bernie, Pettitte, Posada and Rivera ALL drafted or signed as amateurs by the Yanks? Cuz if so that's certainly an accomplishment which we'll give you credit for. As for them still being the core of the Yankees...(I can't resist) is that the Yankees team that hasn't won a WS with a payroll north of 100 million (despite the fact it keeps going up), the same one that hasn't won since 2000? I think in reality you could make a strong argument that a large part of the effectiveness of the 90's Yankees teams wasn't "past a diving Jeter" and "Arthritic Bernie" but was rather Paul O'Neil, Knoblauch and Brosius and the like. The "core" that you have now hasn't won anything in 4 years and in fact was hosed by the Florida Marlins 2 years ago and completed the greatest collapse in sports history this past year. Enough of this "argument" though. Yeah we didn't win by using a team with 40 guys that we drafted and had control of for their whole careers. Guess what...NO TEAM IN THE MODERN ERA HAS DONE THAT BECAUSE IT'S NOT THE WAY BASEBALL IS PLAYED ANYMORE!

Period. End of...argument/discussion/whatever.

That's fine with me, but just so you know Bronson Arroyo was drafted by the Pirates, and played a few games in the bigs for them from 2000-2002, and yes all of those guys were drafted/signed as amateurs by the Yankees.