Friday, December 26, 2008

Since It's So Slow Today, How About Some More About Mark Teixeira?

From Murray "I hate blogs but it's OK that I have my own" Chass:
With the focus of every signing or trade being on the rivalry between the Yankees and the Red Sox, this needs to be said first about the Yankees’ signing of Mark Teixeira. The Yankees didn’t snatch him away from the Red Sox because they outbid or outsmarted the Red Sox. Teixeira didn’t sign with the Red Sox, a baseball official said, because he and his wife, especially his wife, didn’t want to live in Boston. If necessary, they were going to choose the big bad city of New York, and they did.

“He just didn’t want to go to Boston,” the official said. “He didn’t want to be a Red Sox so Boras called the Yankees and said he really wants to be a Yankee.”
Anyone who hates Boston is going to fit in just fine with the Yankees. Welcome aboard Tex.

Chass goes on to say this:
It’s humorous to view the signings of the three free agents in the context of Cashman’s stated position a year ago when he talked about spending less money on expensive free agents and focusing on building from within. One missed post-season, and he changed his philosophy instantly, sucked into the Steinbrenner way of doing business.
Sorry Murray, but that wasn't Cashman's "stated position" at all. After all, the Yankees did sign Mariano Rivera, Jorge Posada and Alex Rodriguez to three very expensive contracts last year. Cashman's actual position was that he and the Yankees wanted to build a strong farm system, and they did not want to trade away young talent - like Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy - for players like Johan Santana.

Then there was this line at the end of Chass' post:
“They’re all outraged,” a member of the Yankees family said of other teams. “We know they’re outraged."
Hahahahaha, nice! I'm glad the Yankees themselves care as little about the rest of the league as us fans do.

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