Bellhorn04

This team has had very few artistic or decisive wins. Every game seems like a struggle. Though that's not necessarily a bad thing assuming our offence will improve. Interesting fact - in 19 games there hasn't been a single 'blowout' game, which Baseball-Reference defines as a margin of 5 runs or more. Last year they were in 46 blowout games, going 33-13.

What does deserving to win have to do with baseball?

They do have limits though, otherwise Cano would still be with them or they would have signed Drew and some relievers. I think it all revolves around what Cashman can talk Hal into.

Yes, already less useless than Roberts. As Confucius put it, 'Scrub who contribute infinitely preferable to scrub who do jacksquat'. Actually Holt had crazy numbers at Pawtucket this year in a small sample...sorry, couldn't help it.

What do you have in your liquor cabinet?

There was a case of the Yankees not getting a player they desperately wanted: Cliff Lee, who took less money to go to the Phillies.

Here's one story that came out after Teixeira signed. Teixeira’s Wife Made the Call: Yankees By JACK CURRY, New York Times Published: January 6, 2009 Thirteen days before Christmas, Mark Teixeira, the Yankees’ $180 million man, was having dinner with his wife, Leigh, when he pleaded with her for insight about the future. If everything was equal among Teixeira’s suitors, he said, where would she rather see him play? Leigh admitted to preferring the Yankees. Mark Teixeira, with wife, Leigh, and agent, Scott Boras, said he decided Dec. 12 on the Yankees with help from Leigh. Once Leigh chose the Yankees, Teixeira instructed Scott Boras, his agent, to try to make the deal happen. Eleven days later, after a strained meeting, in which the Boston Red Sox walked out on Teixeira, he agreed to an eight-year contract with the Yankees. As sweet as Teixeira’s reliance on his wife may seem to some, the Red Sox surely do not think it was cute. John Henry, the owner of the Red Sox; Larry Lucchino, their president; and General Manager Theo Epstein trekked to Texas to meet with Teixeira on Dec. 18, six days after Leigh revealed a preference for the Yankees. The Red Sox would not have sent three executives to Teixeira’s home unless they were confident about signing him. Leigh’s feelings regarding the Yankees had not been publicized until Tuesday, and the Red Sox may wonder if they had a serious chance to sign Teixeira. Boras dismissed the notion that the Red Sox were misled and said part of the free-agent process included teams sometimes charging that they were “strung along.” “As far as Boston goes, I think Boston knows they got good-faith proposals and they were given proposals, which means, if accepted, the player would have signed the proposal,” Boras said. “If teams reject them, they cannot in any way say they were strung along.” Teixeira noted how he would not have taken “half as much” to play in New York, his first choice. But, once the Yankees increased their offer to $22.5 million a year from $20 million, he called it an easy decision. The improved offer came less than a week after Boston’s unsuccessful meeting with Teixeira. “I wasn’t stringing teams along,” Teixeira said. Henry said the Red Sox were unaware of Leigh’s preference for the Yankees, but “felt all along that the Yankees were going to get the last call” from Boras. Since the Red Sox had proposed an eight-year deal for about $170 million, Henry said he found it curious they were told “that we were the low bidders and Boston wasn’t high” on Teixeira’s list. “At one point, I asked Scott, given their feelings, why we shouldn’t pull out,” Henry said in an e-mail message. “His answer was, ‘Maybe you should.’ And we did.” By leaving the negotiations, it seemed as if the Red Sox were calling Boras’s bluff and were trying to get him to prove that he had a better offer from the Los Angeles Angels, Baltimore or Washington. As Henry had expected, Boras still had the Yankees on speed dial, too. While Boras acknowledged that Leigh’s opinion about the Yankees “was the deciding factor” for Teixeira, he said her most definitive remarks were offered at the end of the process. Up until the day Teixeira agreed to terms with the Yankees, Brian Cashman, their general manager, said he was unsure if they would sign him.

So you're saying the Yankees are successful negotiators who don't overpay like the Sox did for guys like Dice and Crawford? What about Tanaka? Who did they have to outbid and by how much? I heard the Cubs offered $120 million. That's $35 million less. What about Ellsbury? Who was the other bidder for him? And oh yeah, that little 10 year extension for A-Rod when he opted out...

How do you know this? You don't. I think the only plausible explanation for why that meeting with Teixeira went sideways is that it was when they found out that the Yankees had indeed entered the process. It's actually pretty implausible that the Yankees had no interest in Tex until then, and suddenly decided to pull $180 million out of the sock drawer to scoop him up.

Of course I remember, Fred. And I've never denied that guys who predict doom and gloom all the time are going to be right sometimes.

2 more LOBsters. Scored a run and drove up Tillman's pitch count at least.

You're right, Fred, we shoulda signed Drew.

Hold the phone on the trade Carp idea, I guess LOL

2 innings 4 LOBsters. Right on pace.

Erik Bedard AKA 'The White Flag of Surrender' pitching for the Rays. Talk about a game being over before it starts.

It's almost like they're trying to sabotage the thing.

They nixed the original deal, but then they came up with another proposal that would have added something like 12 million to the cost. The Sox balked, thinking they'd be able to revisit, and then Aaron Boone played some hoops.

Hey look, it's certainly a possibility that the Sox brass f***ed up. As we all know they also badly wanted A-Rod and threw away the deal for something like 12 million dollars or so that they didn't want to up their bid by. But as far as not closing the deal on Teixeira goes, my feeling is that when you're dealing with Scotty Boras and he's got the Yankees on the line too, you're not in a great position. I suspect it was the same type of thing as A-Rod. Henry and Lucchino had a top figure in mind and they weren't going to increase it.

Does anybody here know all the exact details about the Teixeira negotiations? I don't think so. Remember that Boras was his agent at the time. There were stories later that the Red Sox came into the meeting thinking that they had a deal, but that the deal Boras proposed was different from the one they thought they had. Supposedly that was when Lucchino went a little nuts on Boras. Then after the meeting Henry said that the Red Sox were out of it. I have my doubts that the Yankees only swooped in after that meeting. I think Boras had probably been in contact with them. It would be very un-Boras like not to try to get the Yankees involved - as we all know, he wants every dollar that's out there. Anyway we could re-hash it till Doomsday, it doesn't really matter.

Can you imagine how motivated Lester is this year? A bad season might only get him a $75 million contract. An outstanding season might get him $150 million. (Rough figures all.) It's like he's got a $75 million bonus on the line.

There, a joke that was worthy of you.

FWIW Red Sox COO Sam Kennedy checked in with Dennis & Callahan on Thursday morning. The other big Red Sox news over the last week relates to the negotiations for a new contract with left-hander Jon Lester. A recent report indicated the Red Sox made a lowball offer of about $70 million for four years. “You have to remember, we’re starting from a place where the Red Sox, from John Henry on down to Jon Lester, want to make a deal. That’s the starting place. I think everybody feels good about that,” Kennedy said. “The problem with negotiations and details from baseball negotiations getting into the public domain when you have a leak like we did this past week related to this deal is one data point gets into the media, gets out there, gets dissected. I can tell you there are lots of other data points related to this negotiation that are not in the public spotlight, in the media. All I’ll say is that Ben Cherington, Jon Lester, Larry Lucchino, our ownership group will continue to work on this. And it’s clearly best when baseball discussions are kept private, and then baseball decisions are made public. That’s been our philosophy. “Do we want to see Jon Lester in a Red Sox uniform for a long, long time? Absolutely, yes. As a fan, I hope that he is with us for a long, long time. We’ll see where things go over the coming weeks and months. But I’m hopeful that we do end up getting something done there.”

Oh I was thinking of a few. Semien flies out. Semien is running down the first base line.

Exactly.

Any win is a good win, that's for sure. I still can't believe how bad the offence is so far. Last night they started 3 for 3 and then went 3 for their next 41, with the first 2 of those hits being infield hits.