26 Reasons to Hate Us

Lot of good it did him

I feel like all the sox fans in here are doing that with Damon.

Very true, Jeter's best career numbers come in the #2 spot. Jeter's a pretty good leadoff hitter, but he's the best #2 hitter in the game. Nice name, btw.:thumbsup:

just in case anyone cares... By Bill Center UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER December 22, 2005 The Padres will have a second baseman named Mark next season. But it will be Bellhorn rather than Loretta. The Padres will announce the signing of the former Boston Red Sox second baseman today. San Diego has also signed right-handed setup reliever Brian Sikorski, who spent the past five seasons pitching in Japan. Bellhorn, 31, is expected to compete with rookie Josh Barfield and Bobby Hill for the starting job at second. And if history repeats, Bellhorn could have a strong year. His best seasons were 2002 and 2004. Bellhorn struggled in 2003 and 2005. Last season, Bellhorn hit only .210 in 94 games with the Red Sox and Yankees, with eight homers and 30 RBI. He also struck out 112 times in 300 at-bats. But in 2004, Bellhorn hit a career-high .264 for the Red Sox with 17 homers and 82 RBI. He also had key homers in the American League Championship Series against the Yankees and in the Red Sox's World Series sweep of the Cardinals. Playing for the Chicago Cubs in 2002, Bellhorn hit .258 with a career-high 27 homers and 56 RBI in 146 games. In 2003, he slumped to .221 with two homers and 26 RBI in 99 games. Bellhorn opted for free agency at the end of the season when the Yankees sought to outright him to their Triple-A affiliate. The 6-foot-1, 195-pound switch-hitter has a .236 career average with 61 homers and 218 RBI. He has struck out 628 times in 1,840 career at-bats. Bellhorn will sign a one-year contract with the Padres, who originally drafted him out of high school in the 37th round in 1992. Bellhorn opted to attend Auburn University and was a second-round pick of Oakland in 1995. Sikorski, 31, will be a candidate for Akinori Otsuka's vacant role in the Padres' bullpen. The 1995 draft choice of the Houston Astros has been one of the more active relievers in Japan. Last season, Sikorski appeared in 70 games for the Yomiuri Giants. Over 101 innings, Sikorski had 105 strikeouts against 41 walks with a 3.55 ERA. Sikorski, whose fastball is rated at around 93-94 mph, has pitched in 238 games since 2001 in Japan, where he has a career 21-20 record with a 3.51 ERA.

December 22, 2005 -- The Mets say they are currently monitoring the Manny Ramirez situation with the Red Sox. That's another way of saying there is absolutely nothing brewing — for now. But Boston's bungling of the Johnny Damon negotiations has made Ramirez, the Red Sox left fielder, even more angry, a source said yesterday, and he's now open to a trade to the Mets. However, the Mets haven't engaged in serious talks with the Red Sox since Boston's new front-office structure was announced earlier this month, and the two teams didn't talk yesterday. The Mets believe it will be more difficult to pull off a trade now that Damon is out of Boston. If the Mets were highly interested in making a deal, they could approach Ramirez's agents beforehand and ask if he would waive his no-trade clause. However, they haven't done that this winter, sources said. That's because the Mets weren't sure whether Ramirez truly wants to play for them, but he would strongly consider waiving his no-trade clause and coming to New York, a source confirmed yesterday. Earlier this year, Ramirez made it known he prefers to be traded to the Angels or Mariners. He also would be willing to go to Baltimore, according to a source. Now the hard part is making the deal. Ramirez is one of the few remaining run producers in Boston's lineup, so it would be hard to let him go. However, there are other glaring holes the Red Sox desperately need to fill; Damon's exit leaves Boston without a center fielder. The Red Sox already were missing a shortstop and first baseman. Before Damon's exit became official, co-GM Ben Cherington addressed the issue Tuesday afternoon. "Our position is the same as it's been all along," Cherington reportedly said during a conference call. "I think we have a pretty good idea of what Manny's value to our team is. "We're trying to accommodate his request by listening to teams in terms of what they would offer for Manny. We haven't gotten to a point where we feel that we're getting something that was of equal value in return. "In our perception we're not getting equal value in return, so therefore nothing's happened. We also continue to talk to Manny and his representatives and continue to work on flushing out the issues that he has. That's an ongoing process." People close to Ramirez said they feel that Boston's front office is in chaos, and that the team's efforts to repair the relationship is overblown. The Mets have told people that Carlos Beltran will not be traded, even if Ramirez is the prize. In other Mets news, the team contacted the agent for pitcher Chad Bradford, who was non-tendered by Boston on Tuesday. The Mets already have expressed interest in relievers Julian Tavarez and Jeff Nelson. The agent for outfielder Eric Byrnes, who was non-tendered by Baltimore, plans to reach out to the Mets if they don't call him first. And the Mets remain convinced Barry Zito won't be moved by Oakland. michael.morrissey@nypost.com

this thread should just be at the top of the board permanently until manny is gone

From Boston Herald: In an interview on WEEI-AM late yesterday afternoon, Damon claimed that the Yankees initially offered a five-year deal but that it was whittled down to a four-year offer with a higher annual average value. Damon also said that there was another team in the mix that had made a six-year offer. After calling an unspecified Red Sox official Tuesday morning, followed by an afternoon call to manager Terry Francona, Damon said that by 8 p.m., he felt that the Red Sox were not going to budge and it was time to accept the Yankees’ offer

From the Post: "I contacted the Yankees and Boston and told them we were getting close and we needed to move forward," agent Scott Boras said. "Cash called me back and gave me a couple of proposals. He gave me a proposal for five years and a proposal for four years and for a couple of hours we had on-and-off discussions. Boston called back, but it wasn't about Johnny, it was about something else. We moved forward with the Yankees. Johnny made a decision on the four-year proposal and that finished it off." Cashman refused to comment until after the physical is complete, but several Yankee sources said a five-year offer wasn't made. According to Boras, Damon left money on the table from another club to play for the Yankees. "Johnny didn't take the best financial deal," the agent said. Wonder who had a better deal out there...had to be the Orioles

Doug must have called a better game then:lol:

It will be interesting to see the 2006 numbers, since both the sox and yankees are cutting payroll... I'd say the mets easily jump to 3rd.

Okay let me clarify then. Chacon pitched a 3.44 last year. I don't think he will pitch that well again, but at the same time, I don't think he's gonna fall off very much. I could easily see a year of high 3's/low 4's for him if he continues to pitch well. And, while high 3's or low 4's will make him a pretty good/above average pitcher, he doesnt all of a sudden become a Mussina, Johnson, Halladay, Schilling, etc. Come on man, these guys have CAREER eras in the low to mid 3's. Use your head.

yankeessuck013, you live in syracuse? Man, you had it soooo close to gettin it right, being a Cuse and Sabres fan... dunno what happened with the baseball part though...:dunno:

You mind finding the post where I said he would be a "very good AL East pitcher?" btw please dont take our your Johnny Damon agression on me. Take a minute to pull up some pics of big papi and rub one out if youre feeling tense...

Chacon can definitely eat innings. If he can go 8 and give up 3-4, the yanks will be PERFECTLY happy with that as a 5th.

This is a good post. Brings up a lot of good points. Perhaps his BABIP went down because he had a better D behind him? I know, I know, I feel weird saying our D is good. But it HAS to be better than the Rockies... The walks per 9 going down one whole batter actuallly makes me feel pretty good. I really dont think he will follow it with a season of (significant) decline, because again, his ball breaks better in NY. It's possible that just not being at Coors is the reason for all of his good #s this year, isn't it?

What he said

We made all our pitching moves last year during the season. Unfortunately, there wasnt much of a market this year. I mean, we could have thrown money at burnett, but would that actually make us better? I'll take a half season of great pitching over a guy like burnett who's under .500 career. In case I didnt make myself clear, Chacon is a breaking ball pitcher. In Colorado, where he played his WHOLE CAREER until last year, his breaking balls wouldn't break hardly at all. That's why he's been a s***** pitcher his WHOLE CAREER. Then somehow (magically i guess), he comes to NY and throws a 2.85. Has to be luck right? Well, if you look at his CAREER ERA away from coors field, he has a pretty good 4.3 ERA. Now that he will not be at coors field anymore, there is good reason to expect him to keep pitching this well. I wonder if the yankees saw all this when they acquired him... Do people get this now? Stats are a wonderful thing. Now let's see... how does this 4.3 stack up to Sox pitching? Arroyo 4.59 Clement 4.37 Wells 4.06 Wakefield 4.28 Schilling 3.40 Gosh I'd HATE to have to rely on this young live arm. He's nowhere near the caliber pitching the sox have... give me a break so I can't say hes good because he had a great half year, but you can say he's terrible because he had a rough 2 games vs the best offense in baseball last year?:dunno:

Chacon had a 2.85 ERA with the yankees this year. Anything he did with the rockies you have to disregard cuz his breaking balls wouldn't bite in the thin air out there. you can make that 180 now

Last year, we couldn't say that we had 7-8 legitimate starters on our team. Injuries forced us to acquire more arms (Al Leiter, anyone?). We are in much better shape this year than last. And while you may be right that some of the new guys may not have good years like they did last year, the beauty is we dont need ALL of them to: RJ Moose Wang Small/Chacon Wright/Pavano see how that works?:thumbsup: Also, personally, if any of them have a dropoff, it wont be Chacon. He had the best ERA out of any of them, and he has that NASTY overhand curve that's next to impossible to hit.

I'm not even worried about pitching this year, we have RJ, Moose, Chacon, Wang, Pavano, Wright, and Small and Villone could spot start easily. That's 8 guys who could start and do well. We also have a much better bridge to Mo Rivera now, so if Moose or Wright or anyone else can only go 5 or 6, we wont be screwed like last year.

Giambi might sneak in there too if he plays like he did the second half of last year...

It will be interesting to see the 2006 payroll numbers. The Yankees should still be in 1st even though it will be about 20 mil less, but the Mets may jump into 2nd the way they are spending this year. I honestly think that in the next few years with Cashman in charge we will see the payroll come back down and hold steady at about 150 mil... still a lot but not much more than a couple of the other big market teams

Red Sox officials smugly believed there was no market for marquee center fielder Johnny Damon and the Yankees took advantage of Boston's big sleep. Sox fans can't escape the conclusion that there's chaos at the top. The Josh Beckett trade bought some goodwill and glad tidings, but losing Damon to the Yankees is a devastating blow. -- Boston Globe Almost as stunning as Johnny Damon's decision to sign with Boston's storied archrival was that the Red Sox did not learn of Damon's decision until they were contacted by reporters last night. CEO Larry Lucchino, who already has endured intense criticism in the wake of Theo Epstein's unexpected departure as general manager, was in charge of the Damon negotiations and said last night he had not been told of a deal by either Damon or his agent, Scott Boras. -- Boston Globe

I really hate the payroll argument... you DO know which team is in 2nd place right? You don't exactly have bill beane runnin your show either...

I think he realizes that if he wins more, goes deeper into the playoffs, etc., he will make back the extra money he spends. Just this one move this offseason will sell tons more tickets/merchandise this year, and (hopefully) the extra playoff games. As the saying goes: You gotta spend money to make money.