Long Live Frank Fixaris!

I brought up Manny and Bonds not necessarily as examples of being "reborn" after 35 so much as examples of guys being "fearsome" hitters into their late 30s. IMO, there's a difference between saying "productive" and "fear-inducing".

Sure, Vlad could be productive as the Yankees' DH next year. My main argument here isn't that he's washed up, just that he is not what I would classify as "fearsome", especially in the context of your post in which you paired him with ARod and Teixeira as a 3-4-5 combination. That's a fearsome 3-4...the 5 is fairly ho-hum by comparison.

David Ortiz is coming off the exact same season as Guerrero. Both put up .794 OPS and slugged roughly .460 (Ortiz = .462, Vlad = .460). I'm optimistic that Ortiz will be productive for the Sox in 2010, but I wouldn't go so far as to expect him to be a part of a "fearsome" 3-4-5 of any kind.

I think Vlad would be an fair addition to the Yankee lineup in 2010, just not in the context you put him in. As a part-time DH (splitting time with guys like Posada, ARod, Teixeira getting "days off" without taking their bat out of the lineup), he'd probably be fine. In the Yankee lineup, I'd expect him to hit 6th or 7th for the most part, and be solid in that spot.

well, first of all, the sox do not have a 3-4 that matches the yankees' 3-4 so ortiz is at a disadvantage there. second of all, part of my premise was that the 2010 vlad in a different role with a different team might perform much better than the 2009 vlad. again, he was the primary clean-up hitter in 2009 in a 2010 yankees line-up he would not have the same role. on the other hand, if he was producing i wouldn't really see him batting behind posada, cano or swisher in the order. matsui as a dh, while not a performer on the level with tex or arod certainly did offer them excellent protection and did quite a bit of producing himself. i certainly wouldn't consider his numbers in 2009 to be "ho-hum" by any stretch of one's imagination and i certainly don't think it is unrealistic to think that a healthy vladimir guerrero at the same age in the same role couldn't produce as well or better. i also don't think its unrealistic to think that both tex and aord could improve on their 2009 numbers as well as neither of them had any kind of a career year in 2009 either.

this whole discussion could be pointless anyway, as i have read nothing that indicates the yankees are interested in vlad. if they wanted a full-time dh they probably would have just re-signed matsui anyway. i just think if they did wind up signing him, the potential upside could be pretty good.

He was their primary clean-up hitter in that he hit there more than anyone else, but he only hit there 83 times (out of his 100 total games played). I'd argue he was mis-cast in that spot on that team. Of the 10 Angels hitters that had 400+ PAs last year, Vlad was 6th on the team in OPS (with Maicer Izturis) and 5th in SLG. He'd have been #9 on the Yankees in OPS and SLG (ahead of only Melky in terms of 400+ PA). Even being "as good" in 2010 doesn't indicate a guy who should be hitting 5th with regularity in their lineup.

Sorry, I'm not sold that at his age and with his injury history, he can recapture his past glory. He is not aging well. Can he still be a productive hitter, though? Yes, but not to the level he once was. I think he's more likely to be on par, at best, with Cano, Swisher, Posada than noticeably better than them in 2010.

again. i never said anything asbout "re-capturing his old glory". i also didn't say that with his 2009 numbers in 2010 he would bat 5th for the yankees. what i did say is that if healthy in a new situation he can improve on his 2009 numbers and perform well enough to be a solid dh and and number 5 hitter for the yankees. i certainly think that he is capable of being a better #5 option for the yabnkees than cano, swisher, or posada none of whom i think are solid enough to bat in that spot. of course, whether its vlad, damon or someone else, there will be someone else in that line-up. if it turns out to be damon, maybe granderson winds up as the number 5.

while the lackey signing defiinitely improves the sox rotation i get the impression a lot of sox fans somehow think it made the yankees rotation worse. it doesn't. the yankees haven't lost a starter and most likely will sign or trade for one more. they won 103 regular season games and a world championship with the rotation they have. they still have joba and hughes and at 24 and 23 respectively still have the skills to develop into dependable starters despite what all the naysayers say. joba has completed his innings growth plan so he will be able to throw 200+ innings this year if he remains in the rotation. kudos to the sox for improving their rotation but let's be clear: they didn't do it at the expense of the yankee rotation.

the yankees are in negotiations with nick johnson to be their dh. i'c still rather see damon return, but if they tab johnson he will do. i doubt he would be as injury prone as a dh and he continues to be an incredible obp guy.

I don't agree with this line of thinking, but I think the impression Sox fans have any time the team signs a high profile free agent is that they kept him away from the Yankees, thus hurting the Yankees while improving the Sox. It's convoluted to say the least, because it's making the assumption that the Yankees wanted him in the first place. The smart and rational fan should recognize that when the Red Sox sign a free agent to anything resembling a fair market deal, they didn't outspend or outfox the Yankees...the Yankees simply weren't interested or involved. Unless the player is going directly from the Yankee roster to the Red Sox roster (and how often does that happen?), the Sox aren't doing a damn thing directly to the Yankees.

That said, I think there's merit to saying that with Lackey, the Red Sox have the deeper and stronger rotation in 2010. On paper, the Yankees are barely five deep in the rotation. The Sox are six deep.

Lackey/Beckett/Lester is no less than the equal of Sabathia/Burnett/Pettitte, maybe slightly better collectively. As much as Joba and Hughes have youth and potential, they're not quite the equal of Matsuzaka and Buchholz. And before you jump on Buchholz being in the same boat as they are in terms of youth/potential, I think the tipping point is Matsuzaka. He spent most of the year out injured, but he came back looking good and I expect him to be back this year to some semblance of his 2007-2008 form (180-200 IP, ERA around 4, etc). Where Joba, Hughes, and Buchholz have done it in stretches and spurts, Matsuzaka has full seasons of it. And that's not to mention that the Red Sox still have a 2009 All Star (albeit a 43 year old All Star coming off back surgery) waiting in the wings should any of their starters falter for any reason.

because of the "rivalry", its as if anyone defends the yankees rotation, they are interpreted as attacking the sox rotation. or, it seems as if sox fans can't speak of the merits of their rotation, without feeling the need to down the yankees rotation. i do still think the yankees will sign or trade for another starter and let hughes and joba fight it out for the #5, but i also think with the inherent injury risks involved at any time, that they could both wind up in the rotation and i personally look at that as an exciting possiblity, not something to dread. i still strongly believe that both guys will mature into solid starters in the major leagues.

http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/yankees/yankees_move_closer_to_dh_deal_with_3QW1A8xEGeq8Kp8BfrcCNJ

it appears nick johnson is the direction they are headed. they seem to be offering him almost what they would have had to pay matsui and i would assume his signing would mean sayonara to damon. while they both will be missed i think cashman's decisions are probably two-fold: he clearly wants to get younger and perhaps there was just such a gulf between what the yankees were willing to pay and what damon wanted that there was no sense in dragging it out any longer. johnson is 31 and granderson is 28 so both are considerably younger than the guys they are "replacing" and if they stick with melky in left and swisher in right their entire outfield will be under 30 for the first time in memory. basically, arod, jeter and posada will be the only older positional players in the line-up. you are really getting to the point where arod, jeter, posada, pettitte and mo are the only older players left, which really is quite a transition from only a couple of years ago. they maybe lose a little power in the transition but then again maybe not as while johnson really doesn't hit for power granderson might hit for more with 81 games in the stadium. any line-up with tex and arod as the 3-4 has plenty of power anyway, and when you add cano, swisher, posada, and granderson that's still plenty of pop.

supposedly damon and boras did have discussions with the yankees yesterday but while he was maybe willing to accept two years he was not willing to take a paycut. i am assuming he will wind up taking a paycut regardless. a nice quote from damon on his way out the door:



i really think it is a combination of the money and his age. i think cashman is focused on getting younger. he was also quoted yesterday as budgeting for jeter and mo next year (hard to believe mo is up for another contract already). in the wake of losing matsui over a dollar differential of only a million between what he signed for and what johnson is expected to sign for, i have read reports that with matsui it was not the money it was simply his knees. with johnson, he can at least be a back-up for tex at first.

The arms race is ON.

Yankees trade Melky Cabrera to the Braves for Javier Vazquez.

Seems to be a counter to the Sox signing Lackey. I'd say the rotations are pretty much dead even again. Gotta love the hot stove league.

I don’t remember it going all that well the last time Vazquez was in pinstripes. He did win 14 games but had an ERA near 5.00. This move doesn’t concern me as a Sox fan in terms of strengthening the Yankee’s pitching; it concerns me that they now have an open OF spot to sign someone like Holliday. Of course they could go back to Damon, but only time will tell.

I just realized that the Yankees will be paying Vazquez's $11.5M salary so that most likely still takes them out of the Damon or Holliday talks.

My guess is that it takes them out of the Holliday and Bay talks for sure, but of course they've said from the start they weren't in the running for them, so it's not a stretch to guess that. I'm not so sure about Damon though. I can see them sitting around until late January, early February and then bringing back a somewhat desperate Damon on their terms.

This winter is shaping up a lot like last winter in that the non-headline guys are going to be sitting around until late in the process. I'm thinking along the lines of Dunn and Abreu and Garrett Anderson, etc (just limiting it to OFs) who wound up with short term deals for less money than expected. There's more than a handful of those guys out there right now including Damon, Ankiel, Byrd, Nady, Kearns, Dye, Winn. If the Yankees were supposed to be fine with Melky playing LF for them, I think they would play any of those guys out there without too much hesitation if the price was right.

Whoever is going to sign Damon, they had better do it before he becomes a mainstay on WWE.

The team that the Vazquez deal really hurts is the Angels. They need an arm and a lot of talk was on them landing Javier (yeah, we're on a first name basis). Seattle could very well take that division this year should they land a bat like Bay and with the Angels losing guys and missing out on options to replace them. In other words the AL West is really going to suck in 2010 if things stand mostly as they are.

Seems like every transaction this off-season has come with a "this hurts the Angels" tag, no? Gotta wonder what they're doing...waiting out the market or turning to their farm to reload. At this point, fair to say there won't be a fourth straight Angels-Sox LDS matchup in October? Still a ways to go, I guess.

well, first of all, everyone here knows i am a big melky fan and i will miss him. i loved the fact that he was always kinfd of "the little yankee that could" in that despite not being an all-star caliber player, and constantly dissed by his detractors he brought a ton of energy to the team, got a lot of big hits, and held on to centerfield against all odds. i kind of knew the writing was on the wall for him when they traded for granderson, though. fair or not, expectations for corner outfielders in terms of production are higher. i wish him well in atlanta and will really miss him.

as for vazquez, i think comparing the 2004 vazquez with the return of vazquez in 2010 isn't really a fair measure of this trade because he is so much more experienced now and his role will be very different. in 2004 he was brought in with the expectation that he was a young ace in the making and he just kind of wilted. now, he is a middle/back of the rotation guy who is pretty much a known quantity: not spectacular but solid and durable. hell, he did come in 4th in the cy young voting last year. i don't really see it as "a reaction to the lackey signing" but more along the line of cashman's pronounced focus as he headed to the winter meetings of pitching and more pitching and then a left fielder.

which is ironic, because now they need a left fielder. i pretty much believe that considering the financial "concessions" damon made around the time of the johnson signing means that a deal will be worked out. damon couldn't really have been more clear that he wants to return to the yankees. joel sherman is claiming cashman has like $2 milliom left to spend, but really i take that with a grain of salt. i still don't think they'll be signing bay or holliday (although at this point i will admit that it would be kind of fun if the yankees did pick bay up for about what the sox originally offered him... they could burn the mets and the sox at the same time!), but damon, who is also a fan favorite, on a two year deal seems very possible to me.

lastly, back to my continued annoyance at all the people who continue to write off joba and hughes as starters at 24 and 23 years old respectively, now most likely only one of them will be in the rotation barring injury and the other will be the primary set-up man. i see that as pretty much "playing it safe" on cashman's part, but i still fully expect one or both of them to break out and be a top of the rotation pitcher within the next couple of years. this way, the one that does will get to pitch, and if one doesn't they won't be stuck getting knocked around every fifth day. they've both shown they can pitch from the pen.

still incredibly quite on the damon front. no rumors of offers at all pretty much.

damon still remains unsigned after all this time. jerry hairston jr. was quoted as saying the yankees are still waiting for damon's price to come down and cashman actually made the effort to deny it. i tend to think it must be true. varitek, another boras client. wound up re-signing after a somewhat similar situation of ridiculous expectations and humble pie eating. i just think the yankees are waiting for his price to fall even lower than that...

Damon's going to get an Abreu-type deal with the Yankees. One year, $5 million, something like that. It would be worth it to not have Brett Gardner as the starting LF.

Outside of Bay and Holliday, waiting hasn't really paid off for many FAs.

The economic climate and the fact that a lot of teams are turning to inexpensive players from their farm systems has probably contributed to the reason why some older previously high priced free agents are still dangling out there. Look at last year. Players like Edmonds, Frank Thomas, Luis Gonzalez, etc. didn't even play. Granted they are well past their primes, but players like that seemed to always find jobs. I agree that Damon will probably be a Yankee for 2010. That seems to be the most logical fit.

i hope that's what happens. cashman keeps sticking to his "$2 million to spend" mantra and an expressed preference for a righty. granted, he has already replaced switch-hitter melky with a lefty who struggles against lefties in granderson, to go along with cano and johnson, but gardner is a lefty too, who can't hit anywhere near as well as damon anyway. i just wonder whether cashman will finally go up to $5 million because i doubt damon will come down to $2 million.

Brian Cashman indicated Tuesday that free-agent outfielder Johnny Damon's price tag exceeds the money the Yanks have to spend and that the door is all but closed on his return.

Jim Edmonds is rumored to be talking to teams and close to a deal with someone. The Yankees are among the teams that were supposedly talking to him. Maybe he'll take the short money deal Damon won't. After all, it's not like he's out to get a long-term deal at age 40, especially having been out of the game last year.

The Sox aren't on any of those rumor lists, but he seems like the kind of guy they might take a flyer on as a 5th OF. The way they're flying under the radar this winter with some of their deals, wouldn't surprise me if they jumped in on him. If only he hit right handed, he might already be booking a condo in Ft Myers.

randy winn it is. while "cheaper", certainly not much younger than damon. while a switch-hitter not a lefty, he's coming off a terrible year hitting lefties. from what i read he is a significant fielding improvement over damon. clearly, he starts over gardner, but not by much. i would assume he's the #9 hitter.

i'll miss damon and will be curious to see what he winds up getting. i think both johnson and winn might face some fan backlash if they don't perform well as they were the signings that closed the door on damon, and damon could well wind up signing for less than johnson. hopefully, they perform well, as do granderson and vazquez.

cashman actually did stick to "the budget". of course next year he's got jeter and mo to worry about and a better free agent class, and no real big contracts coming off the books (other than jeter and mo and they aren't going anywhere).

the yankees have now added marcus thames to the lf/4th of mix as well, signing him to a minor league contract. winn, at $2 million, is certainly the favorite to be the starter, but gardner is likely to stick because of his speed and then there are both hoffman (the righty rule 5 guy they got for bruney) and thames both of whom might well hit lefties better than winn, making them more logical compliments for gardner.

How much has Boras cost Johnny Damon this offseason? $10 million* probably? The Yankees offered 2/$14 million and he's probably not going to end up with $4 million for the year?

* Of course he could still get close to that money by going the Bobby Abreu route and having a big year on a cheap contract this year. Still, outside of fooling the Cardinals into thinking there was a bidding war for Matt Holliday and somehow getting a two-year deal for Pudge, not a good offseason for Boras, I don't think.

boras and damon definitely left a lot of money on the table, as well as walking away from a team damon clearly didn't want to walk away from. damon could land on his feet somehow, but he really seems to have played his cards miserably wrong.

Apparently Damon is still holding out hope for a two-year deal.

and apparently he might get it:

http://twitter.com/SI_JonHeyman/status/8981449535

if the tigers pay that much for him you really have to wonder why they traded granderson, which was supposedly a payroll related trade. all the more power to damon if he gets it, he won't look like such a fool for tunring down the yankees' offer. you know he'd have quite a hair across his ass to out-produce granderson. i don't think he can outside of yankee stadium.