26 to 6

Abreu defines Beane's philosophies, for the most part.

It has 2 manually operated scoreboards. Seeing as how the Stadium is new, uhh..yeah, the scoreboards are new too. If you meant is the use of a manual scoreboard new, then yes there hasn't been a manual scoreboard used at Yankee Stadium since back in the day lol. It also has 2 huge out of town scoreboards, one for the NL and one for the AL.

There's no way he was gonna get what K-Rod got. He gets $17.5 Mil, $8.5 in '09, $9 mil in '10, and the vesting option for '11 is also $9 mil. Are you guys seriously asking if he will close? I can't believe there's any doubt. What the f***, do you expect him to set up for Arredondo or something?

Aaron Miles to the Cubs

Here's a press release from the Angels. http://mlb.mlb.com/news/press_releases/press_release.jsp?ymd=20081231&content_id=3730672&vkey=pr_ana&fext=.jsp&c_id=ana&partnerId=rss_ana 2 year deal with a club option for a third year.

That's a pretty old picture. There's a lot of great ones here, they've updated it throughout the course of construction to show the progression in how it has come along. http://slidingintohome.blogspot.com/2007/12/new-yankee-stadium-construction-update.html

You don't think he had the right to be upset with Boston? If his rights belonged to Boston, say after being drafted then that would have been one thing, but the draft had yet to even occur and it was not their place to make a public statement like that regarding an amateur player who was not their property. Completely unprofessional. They knew what they were doing, and that's evident by their selection of him in the 9th round (had they let him slip further another team probably would have taken a chance on him).

While I like Nady a lot after his performance after coming over last year, and looked forward to seeing what he could do in a full season in pinstripes, if it meant getting a guy like Harang (no thanks on Bronson) we would be stupid not to jump on it. Yes, it means having to bear the sight of Andy Pettitte in another uniform, but I think the bigger issue is that it could, and in my eyes very likely would lead to the signing of Manny, who at this point seems like he could come cheap....ehh, well not cheap but cheaper. Certainly not the $25 Mil a year that the Dominican report had him getting from the Yankees. We all know how I feel about adding Manny, and how scary a 3-4-5 of Tex, A-Rod, and Manny would be, even if it means losing Nady, who I think is a perfect fit for this team. We'll see what happens

The return they get for him in July would hopefully, for their sake make it worth it.

lol I feel like Kilo is just looking to start fights It's their money, they're allowed to do with it what they please. Why should they let someone else determine the right amount for their payroll. This one doesn't make much sense to me man. Would you like someone determining how YOU handle your finances? If they have the money, and they want to spend it then they are free to do so. This seems to be the popular debate among you Red Sox fans lately, and it's become somewhat annoying. Anyway, I don't think it's fair to bunch these two debates into the same category, the new Stadium and the player personnel have nothing to do with each other. It's a big organization with tons of employees, and they all don't do the same stuff. Brian Cashman, GM and head of baseball operations who handles the player personnel and negotiates free agent signings has NOTHING to do with the Stadium. That's guys like Levine, Trost, Hal, etc. While you're not wrong in your points, don't fault Cashman for doing his job. Why should he let what's going on in another area of the organization over which he has no control affect how he does his job in improving this team. I know it sounds like a weak argument, which will probably be criticized and picked apart by you guys, but that's the truth. If the people above him tell him to go out and spend on player acquisitions then that's what he's going to do. Is it wrong what's going on with the Stadium and the public dollars being put into it, yeah of course; but it's not gonna stop them from trying to put a winner on the field. You guys can disagree, and argue it all you want, which you certainly have the right to do so, and are justified in doing so. But It just bothers me the extent that the bitching of the Red Sox fan base goes to. Was this thread really necessary considering we've discussed all of these topics in so many other threads? I just feel like if it wasn't the Yankees doing this, you guys wouldn't really give a s***. If it was, say the A's who were building a new Stadium, looking for government bonds and tax dollars to fund it, and went out and signed three or four free agents nobody would care, of course they wouldn't be as costly as the Yankee acquisitions, but that's just the nature of the beast. I just don't see why it upsets you guys so much, not a cent of any of your tax dollars are going into that Stadium.

Uh oh, get 'em Cape. I've never seen you respond this way, it's somewhat refreshing, in an unusual sort of way. I agree with you though, even if simply for the fact that the historical significance of Fenway Park is too much to overlook.

Believe it or not that idea is being floated around. Phranchise Phil stil has a world of potential and after coming back in September and looking alright and having a solid campaign in the AFL he cuold be ready to join the rotation and contribute. I would still prefer Andy to fill the last spot and let Hughes start the year in AAA with the inevitable call up when one of our billion dollar arms goes down.

It's not obvious, per se. And while Zaccy may be projecting his speculation as facts, it has been made known since even before the winter meetings that Sheets is enamored with the idea of joining the yankees, and Girardi was very impressed when they met face to face. That being said i think the possibility of signing Sheets decreased 90% after we signed Burnett. I would much rather Andy stop being a bitch and sign a deal before the FO pulls it, that way we would have a NY familiar vet and another lefty in the rotation. If not I'm fine with the idea of Sheets. As for Hughes, while anybody who has read my posts regarding him knows I think the world of his ability and have most definitely not given up on him, I would be more comfortable with him fine-tuning his adjustments in Scranton to start the season, let him be the 6th starter because with the rotation we have someone is bound to go down sooner or later and then Phil will get his chance.

Jacko made the Kool-Aid joke, not you

Either CC, Sabathia or the inclusion of Cash in that list. haha...perhaps I can list every other minor league signing for you if you guys are interested. Too bad I didn't do an offseason transaction guide this year like in years past. I seem to do it every other year, just like A-Rod wins MVPs Come to think of it, the years that I've done it A-Rod didn't win MVP. Since I've started doing it, the years that I haven't done it he has won. If he wins MVP this season I'll never do it again.

I think it's great for baseball and further internationalizing the game to the rest of the world (Latin America and Asia certainly don't apply). I think a few changes need to be made, as they will over time, for this thing to be a hit and success. First and foremost I think it needs to be moved to November, Sure, the players will be more worn out, but they'll all be in game-shape still and possibly injuries that occur in the classic won't affect the player's parent-club as the players would have the offseason to heal up. Pitchers wouldn't need the special attention that's required after not throwing a ball for months, and it would have a more meaningful feel; because right now it just feels like an exhibition tournament. Perhaps increasing the rosters to 30-35 or something with a minimum of 15 pitchers. There's a lot of things that can be done to improve the classic, and hopefully they can get it done right at some point. Luckily, next time it's played will be 4 years from now and not the 3 years that separated the inaugural '06 classic and the upcoming '09 tourney, so they have some time to address changes. I think the biggest thing should be to move it to November though, to me it makes absolutely no sense playing it during Spring Training when the clubs are trying to prepare for the professional season. while it's nice that players want to represent their countries, and understandably so, they should be with their teams getting ready for the season.

At this point, as long as Henry and co. are the owners there will never be a new ballpark in Boston, which might not necessarily be a bad thing. I certainly understand that both remaining in Fenway and building a new park have their pros and cons, but at this point with the commitment that has been made to renovating and modernizing Fenway they should just stick with it and go full throttle. Despite my feelings towards the Sox organization, there is no denying that Fenway Park is an American jewel. I'm not an architect or an engineer or anything like that, and I know it would be costly but what about maybe adding onto the park somehow to increase the size which would allow more seats to be added? As for the size of the seats and how they were meant for "1918 sized asses," what about one offseason as the renovation project replacing all of those old, small seats? maybe renovate the outdated clubhouses and team facilities, and things of that nature. It will be costly, but it's better than going back on their commitment to Fenway and in effect wasting all of the money that they've poured into renovations.

I'm not necessarily in favor of a cap, but if it means cutting the spending, which in turn should (note I said should, not would lol) reduce the costs for fans of tickets, concessions, merchandise, etc. then I'm all for it. Plus, I would love to see some replacement players out there living their dreams and playing whole-heartedly for the love of the game.

s***, as crazy as it sounds I'm with you. I might even try out lol

Here's a good article where Randy Levine defends the Yankees offseason spending thus far. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/25/sports/baseball/25yankees.html?_r=1

Yeah I saw that earlier lol, Hunter is a trip, he seems to have become the Angels mouthpiece being very vocal with the media this offseason. everywhere I turn there's a Torii quote. It's cool though, he's a good guy, great player, I like him a lot. He's certainly entertaining.