The dismemberment of the 2012 Yankees

[SoxFanForsyth]

You're reaching. He has had a documented problem with drugs AND alcohol. It's not about rights, it's about performing at your best. If the Red Sox can add language into Lackey's contract to add a year at minimum wage if his elbow exploded, then the Yankees can do the same with Hamilton and his addiction issues. And it's not like the Yankees would unilaterally force that on him. The language would have to be agreed upon between the signing team an Hamilton

 

Which he would never, ever, ever agree too. It's a pipe dream.

[jung]

Which he would never, ever, ever agree too. It's a pipe dream.

 

I guess I could see Hamilton accepting language that paralleled the Lackey language. I just do not think that the Lackey language allows a great deal of latitude outside of the precise limitations in the Lackey contract.

 

In other words, the key trigger to the language in the Lackey contract was "playing time missed". No playing time missed, the language does not apply. I DO NOT think the Lackey language suggests the means to utilize more broadly written language in a ML contract.

 

In addition I do not believe the existence of the Lackey contract allows for remedies outside of the remedies applied in the Lackey contract. So, the language can only be triggered if playing time is missed and the only remedy is an extension of player obligation to play for the team. In the case of Lackey the salary was also considerably reduced during the period of that extension. I would believe there is latitude with regard to the salary to be paid during that extended period. However I do not believe that you could get a contract past either ML or the PA, using language that strayed at all past that.

 

So you would be talking about a very specific trigger and a very limited set of remedies. I could see Hamilton possibly going for that but that is wayyyyyyy short of the remedies that I think Jacko has been suggesting.

[jacksonianmarch]

I think the relapse issue would obviously be attached to games missed. Listen, I dont think Cashman gives two shits if Hamilton shows up shitfaced but put up a .900+OPS and 40+HR. I dont. I dont care if he's banging hookers in the runway to the dugout and contracts every STD known to man. I care about his production. And if his production suffers and he misses playing time, his contract should become non-guaranteed.

 

That being said, this ARod business is stoking the flames of the hot stove and making me intrigued. Third baseman are hard to come by in this yrs FA class, but we might actually have a replacement in the minors. Corban Joseph played for the SWB this yr. He was 23 for the entire yr and has always been a guy who flew under the radar. Well this yr, he continued to do so on a team that played zero home games. That's right, every one of their games was played on the road due to construction at the SWB field. And his overall numbers were pretty good for a 23 yr old in his first taste of AAA.

 

.266/.366/.474 with 13HR in 327AB. Now he is a left handed hitter (bonus) who is showing improved power and has always had a great eye without huge K numbers (70 in 107 games). But the eye popping number is in his splits. The kid had a slash line of .299/.401/.560 vs righties this yr. That's really good for a 23 yr old in their first season at AAA playing all road games. Now the kid cannot hit lefties to save his life (.174/.260/.233), but we do have Eduardo Nunez who has hit .311 vs lefties in his big league career and has raped them in his minor league career. Now, replacing ARod is something that ARod cannot even do, so these guys won't have to try and be a .300 40HR 120RBI guy since the guy they are replacing cannot stay on the field and wont hit .270 next yr. But a platoon of those two guys might be able to show enough offensively to stay relevant while also developing 2 young players for bigger roles down the line