SoxSport

7 yrs at 175 was not a higher enough per yr salary than Mariners offer. They needed to offer him 7/$190. $27 mil per year--higher than Mariners offer of $24 mil per yr. Wasn't it 10/240? I think they would do it right now if they could.

Yeah, but clearly they were in a different spending mode at that time. They changed their minds at some point after Ellsbury signing. Sherman writes they moved to '08 mode, where they spent $450M on FAs after missing playoffs. Their TV ratings suffered last year missing the playoffs, and it's all about TV anyways. They are freespending again to make the playoffs. I'm sure they regret losing Cano, since their infield now sucks. http://nypost.com/2014/01/22/yankees-sign-masahiro-tanaka-for-7-years-155m/

Yeah it's on the tweets. $22 million per yr for a guy who has never thrown a major league pitch. The mark of desperation. Even the Dodgers passed at that number. 7 years/$155 million. Player opt out after 4 yrs. And I thought $21+ million for Ellsbury was ridiculous. Can't understand why they took Ells over Cano. Big mistake. They could have gotten Cano for shorter years and more $$. Looks to me like Starbrenner changed his tune after losing Cano. Moved to freespending mode. Sherman writes Yankees lost TV ratings last year, and making the playoffs is a priority. MLB is about TV.

http://www.providencejournal.com/sports/red-sox/content/20140121-with-drew-still-unsigned-cherington-happy-with-red-sox-roster-as-is.ece More on Ben and reasons why Drew does not appear to be in the cards. I wouldn't discount money as a factor here. Boras wants starter money.And the Red Sox are not the free spending, desperate Yankees.

http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/extras/extra_bases/2014/01/_by_nick_cafardo_globe.html Interesting quotes from an interview by Cherington. He said he had studied the Toronto and NY teams which repeated in the 1990s, and found the common element was bringing back a core of young players. That bodes well for JBJ and X.

The arguments for signing Drew keep getting nuttier. Not for the money Boras wants. The guy no longer fits on this team. They have too many cheaper and even better options. You don't block your best prospects--guys who have proven themselves in playoffs and world series games. They don't even have a roster spot for him, after signing Herrera. Their dumbest move last year was signing 36 yo Dempster for 2/$26M --a guy who proved he wasn't worth it in Texas. Now they are stuck with him. They don't want to get stuck with another big ticket.

The Cubs are a bit like the Yankees with Tanaka--the only way they can improve their pitching is to sign him. Both teams need a major starter. The Yankees will have a tough time making the playoffs in the East with their current pitching. They will need a Sabathia of several years ago plus a strong return of Pineda. Plus a good closer. Plus a lot of Geritol. Remember that stuff? Considering what he will cost, Tanaka is a huge gamble for any team. Nobody really knows how he will fare in MLB; and in Yankee stadium against left handed hitters.

Oh hell, they already won the championship they were supposed to be rebuilding for. So what do they do for an encore? Give their prospects a chance, and let the other losers fight it out. Repeating doesn't depend on Drew, X or Middlebrooks. It's about luck, pitching and injuries.

Right. They have a weak infield. and no power in the OF, unless you believe Beltran is 10 years younger. What the Yankees do have is mediapower.

I'd be surprised if they signed Drew. He doesn't fit moneywise or rosterwise--having just traded for a more versatile, younger and cheaper player. Getting Herrera showed me what the FO may be thinking. He's a guy who hits well enough to play for sustained periods at 3B, SS or 2B. Besides, the FO doesn't owe a damned thing to Boras, having just bartered off Ellsbury to the Yankees. Let him hang in the breeze.

http://bostonherald.com/sports/red_sox_mlb/boston_red_sox/2014/01/xander_bogaerts_owns_island_paradise X seems a fixture at SS, if you read this. What they really need is insurance for Middlebrooks at 3B. Drew isn't the answer there.

We don't know what went on behind the scenes about any deals.It isn't clear what ARod is pissed about. Is it the greater penalty vs Braun et al? Or is it that he is getting the worst penalty and he hasn't been caught in the PED testing. It is his word vs this guy Bosch, and we know what the lawyers will do to him--like they did to the others with Clemens, Bonds, etc.. They'll undermine his credibility.

spoken like a true Yankee fan.

It's now LA vs NY, and the revenue disparity between those markets and others in MLB has become more evident than ever. You have the same situation in the NBA with its "soft" salary cap. The Lakers and the NY teams spend thru the roof. The Clippers, no. They are owned by a cheapskate--or is he the most sensible one? LOL . In the NFL, with a hard cap, you don't have any NY advantage, and LA isn't a factor. It just shows that the big market advantage disappears with a hard cap. Now why doesn't MLB and the NBA have a hard cap? Probably because the Players Unions don't want one--they want the salaries to be uncontrolled. Also, TV likes the biggest markets for the most revenue. You can even see that in the NFL feature games during the season--NY gets more than its fair share.

A local writer in the know just tweeted me he thought Bill James liked Drew. That surprised me a bit. Boras says now Drew will play other positions, but he's not a utility guy at Boras' money. With Herrera signed, and his versatility and price, can't see Drew at this point. They still need another outfielder, and roster space is limited.

Pretty risky going after ARod like this--singling him out. They could have just buried him in the background with a Braun-like suspension. Now they risk opening up a can of worms--exposing the testing as a farce. What was their motivation singling out ARod? Follow the money.

I watched that 60 minutes Sunday nite, and the biggest shock to me was this guy Bosch, MLB's chief informant, told the world MLB's PED testing was useless. You time the doses right, you pass any tests after the game. Now if the media wasn't so busy vilifying ARod for being one of many cheaters--as it turns out--maybe they would have taken note of this. But maybe they aren't interested in pointing the finger at anyone else. After all, only ARod has a $100 million dollar contract the Yankees are desperate to have voided. But why would the media be so pro-Yankee? It's about money. TV money. The networks based mainly in NY. CBS, etc. Their media pundits have been the most vocal against ARod.The MLB channel is run by an ex CBS sports executive. And then there's the Yankee-owned Yes network--worth $3 billion. Big money--the cable business. ARod is filing suit because he thinks he has been singled out unfairly. He could blow MLB out of the water if he started naming other names. The Mitchell report said everybody knew, and a lot of players were involved. My guess is more players than you think are still involved--getting around the testing with clever timing. So much for PED testing. That's the message I got out of Mr Bosch on Sunday. But if he isn't telling the truth, MLB is up the creek without a paddle.

Some guys just can't handle the money. The amount is just beyond belief. It's like the guy next door winning the lottery for $5 million. One big lottery for these guys. Even for the mediocre players.

Typical for a team that wins it all. Crazy things happen. That's why it's so difficult to repeat.

Bay had some bad luck with concussions, as I recall. But he got a ridiculous NY style contract from the Mets, to lure him from the Red Sox, and he would be foolish not to retire. I was thinking about parallels of the Yankee signing of Ellsbury. As I recall, they also signed Damon a year after the Sox won on 04. Interesting coincidence. That tells you how pissed off, maybe, the Steinbrenners were about the Red Sox beating them the previous year. Of course, there is also the Babe Ruth signing in 1920 from the Red Sox championship team--which was actually a sale, along with a few other core players.

Why would Selig have a grudge against ARod? And not against Braun, who got off in the courts on a technicality? No. I think Selig is trying to get his contract voided so the Yankees have money to buy their way back into the playoffs--important for the TV networks.

Ha. The chances of the Players Union approving that are zero and none. They are for doubling my cable TV bill.

What it says is MLB tolerates PED use, as long as you don't get caught. This is consistent with Mitchell report, which said effectively everybody knew.

That guy Bosch said tonite on 60 minutes he gave PEDs to Manny in '08 and ARod in '10 timed in a way that they would pass the PED testing after the games. A number of drugs, including HGH and testosterone. Manny did fail a test later for testosterone, I believe, but ARod has never tested positive. If this guy is telling the truth--and he is MLB's chief informant--then MLB testing is useless. In a sense MLB is contradicting itself. It means the players are way ahead of the testing, as some have suspected.

I just found out the Yankees $3billion Yes network is stuck in my cable package. That's why the Yankees have so much dough. A lot of people who don't even watch baseball are supporting the Yankees and other sports channels. In fact, half of our cable TV bills go for sports. That's where the million dollar salaries come from. That bubble could burst soon--from what I've read.