Posts Tagged ‘Mark Teixeira’

Photo from WBZ.com

I don’t know that I’ve ever read Brian MacPherson from the Union Leader before, but if this article is any indication, I’m not missing much.

Okay, that’s a bit harsh.  MacPherson isn’t a terrible writer, just a stereotypical member of the New England sports media looking for trouble where there most likely isn’t any.  His article today is nothing but a whinefest about how horrible the Red Sox (specifically Theo and Tito) are to their players.   Listen, I can give  you a laundry list of players who I felt got the shaft by the team.  But it’s a personal feeling and in no way takes away from the fact that I understand the team does what it does, ultimately, for the betterment of the organization as a whole and it’s not anything personal.  MacPherson seems to be taking fanboyishness to a new level today:

WHETHER OR NOT the Red Sox sign Mark Teixeira this week — or next week or the week after — Theo Epstein and Terry Francona are going to have some serious work to do.

They’ll have some work to do with Mike Lowell, first of all. He signed a team-friendly contract just a year ago, turning down more years and bigger money elsewhere, but he became trade bait as soon as the Red Sox began courting Teixeira.

It’s not just Lowell, though. They’ll have work to do with Kevin Youkilis — and Josh Beckett, and even Dustin Pedroia.

The Teixeira negotiations have sent a message to everyone who wears a Red Sox uniform: We don’t care who you are. You are expendable.

Is he for real? He thinks these players don’t know that baseball is a business and the teams they play for will do whatever they can to sign players who will help the team win?

He thinks that, after the season he had physically, Mike Lowell didn’t know this would possibly be happening?

And Kevin Youkilis is on record as having said:

If we add a guy like Mark Teixeira to the team, that would be great,” said Youkilis. “You never know – I might be the guy traded (to make room). But I don’t mind it; I get to play baseball for a living.”

MacPherson is right. Youk sounds pissed to me. (Shout out to SG for the heads up on that story.)

MacPherson gives no reason Beckett will need to be “worked” with and he goes on to admit that Pedroia doesn’t have to “worry”.   Hell, though, he even throws Jason Bay into the mix.   He needs to be concerned that the Red Sox have no loyalty to their players.  He brings up Bronson Arroyo.  You remember Bronson.  He was traded in 2006.  Red Sox stuck a knife in his heart when they traded him (and got suck in return).  It was shitty and  many people thought so.  Funny, though, how it hasn’t stopped players from signing with the Sox.  Funny how it hasn’t affected the success of the team.

Here’s how MacPherson ends his piece:

Baseball is a business, sure. But when your product is your people, you have to treat them a certain way.

I, actually, don’t entirely disagree with this.  But here’s the thing for me, loyalty goes both ways.  The Red Sox treated Manny like a God and he gave them the finger.  They made really good offers to Pedro Martinez and Johnny Damon and were told “we’re going where the money is”.  There is practically NO loyalty in baseball (Bronson Arroyo aside) but to blame it solely on the owners (and, in this case, the entire Red Sox front office) makes no sense to me.

I often say that if I were GM, John Valentin would have been the shortstop until he shattered into a million pieces.  This is one of the many reasons I’m not a general manager of a baseball team.  I’ll tell you what, I don’t want to see Mike Lowell go anywhere.  He’s been great for this team, he seems like a genuinely good guy, and in a time when he could have taken advantage of the free agent market, he, essentially, took a discount to stay in Boston.  I think it would stink on ice if he got booted just because someone younger and shinier came to town.  But as much as I would hate it, I understand it.  And so do the players – I’m guessing more than I.

Baseball is a business.  It’s lousy, but true.  And it’s probably the first thing these guys learn about baseball once they hit the bigs.  This isn’t news to anyone.

Mmmmmike Lowell

Ian Browne is reporting that the  Boston Herald is reporting that the Red Sox extended Mark Teixeira an 8-year offer.

That sound you hear is the collective scream of the Mike Lowell Estrogen Brigade…and my dad.  My dad has a huge man-crush on Mike Lowell.  (My mother is a member of the brigade and I don’t know what the hell she’ll do when Lowell is no longer a Red Sox player.  Let’s not mess up Christmas, okay Theo?)

But before folks get their undies in a bunch (whether excited about the prospect of Teixeira on the Sox or upset at the prospect of losing Mike Lowell because Teixeira is on the Sox), let’s see where the Herald got their information from:

Er.  Um.  There doesn’t seem to be any indication of where Michael Silverman got his information.  Not even a “sources who prefer to remain anonymous” line.  Not any mention of “sources” at all.

Just this:

.

The Sox have made an offer, the biggest and longest yet for this current ownership group. The offer is believed to be for at least eight years, with ownership and baseball operations cognizant that Teixeira, 29, represents the safest bet they can make for at least this year and next to shore up the heart of an aging lineup.

So it’s done. We’re writing about it like the offer has been made and been made PUBLIC that the offer is out there.  If so, why is the Herald being credited as the source for this story?

We all know that the Sox are interested in Teixeira and we all know that they will, at some point, be making an offer.  But here I go nitpicking again.  How can Silverman get away with writing the above without crediting any source – and expect people to just believe him?  And why would MLB.com pick up the story and run with it?

How do you get SO specific as to say “The Sox have made an offer, the biggest and longest yet for this current ownership group.” and then not tell people where this information came from?

This whole thing just makes me tired.  Let’s talk about something else.  Like how I’m going to have  nightmares about Daisuke Matsuzaka messing up his pitching arm in the WBC.

Weeee.  There’s something to look forward to.

Theo working hard, as usual - Photo by Jim Davis

I started writing this piece last  night about money and how the entire country has money problems except Major League Baseball.  Then I put it aside for two reasons 1) it was depressing.  The amount of  my debt is minimal compared to most, but it’s still my debt and I’d like to get out of it.   But that isn’t happening right now so I have trouble garnering excitement about a player signing a deal that will get him $160 MILLION dollars.

Normally, I don’t get into money discussions about baseball.  I know the baseball world and our world are two vastly different places so I try not to write things like “For THAT amount of money, he should be able to throw a strike whenever he wants!” – but this year, seeing so many struggling, reading about the absolutely ridiculous contract the Yankees gave CC Sabathia just makes me groan.

So I won’t write about that.  (Oh yeah, I said 2 reasons, huh?  The other reason?  Once Manny Ramirez, Derek Lowe, AJ Burnett and Mark Teixeira are done, there’s going to be a lot more to write about in regard to money.)

Then I was going to write about Curt Schilling and our brief back and forths online lately.  But I usually don’t talk about politics here (which is, essentially, what we were discussing) and the last thing I want to do is alienate anyone.  I will say this – WEEI is missing out on a much more interesting coupling than Dennis and Callahan in Schilling and Donnelly.  I don’t believe there are two more different people in the world than Mr. Schilling and myself.  If we were on the air together it would probably only take about five minutes before we were beating the crap out of one another.  Ratings gold!

So what am I going to write about?

Eric Byrnes for Julio Lugo?  Is Byrnes going to be happy being a fourth outfielder?  Will we end up with another Jay Payton?  If Varitek is still on the team will he taunt Byrnes mercilessly about not touching home?

I find Byrnes to be…how shall I put this…I think my friend Cindy said it best when she wrote “Eric Byrnes is a douche”.   It is tough for me to erase the Eric Byrnes of 2003 out of my mind.  Who knows, though, maybe  he’d be a good addition to the team?  It seems I end up having one player, each season, who I can’t stand.  It isn’t fair to deny Byrnes that opportunity, right?

This weekend I’m in the odd position of mourning a loss in our family and then heading up north to spend my annual December weekend with my sistahs.  My emotions for the weekend will be high, to say the least.  Let’s hope baseball doesn’t add to that with some insane trade involving Buchholz, Masterson or Bowden.

Some news about Kyle’s status for 2009 would be most welcome, though.  Someone out there has to know SOMETHING, right?

I guess it wasn’t as difficult for me to come up with something to write about as I thought.

It was a busy weekend and I, obviously, didn’t spend much time writing…and, unfortunately, I’m going to be a little lazy today as well and just throw out some random bits:

*  Jason Varitek declined arbitration.   So this means other teams get to toss their offers at him.  I worry for Tek.  I worry that there isn’t anything out there better than what the Sox will offer him – and that he’s going to be made to look the fool thanks to his agent.  I hope I’m wrong.  And I still want him back in Boston – even if it’s only for another year.

*  Alex Rodriguez has decided to play for the Dominican Republic in the World Baseball Classic.   Slappy was born in New York City and played for team USA in the first WBC.  I think it’s a little slimy to switch sides this time.  He truly seems to be someone desperate for acceptance.  He creeps me out more and more each day.

*  Also possibly playing for a country he isn’t from is Lenny Dinardo.  Rumor has it that he’s been asked to play for the Italian team – again.  Lenny pitched for them last time around.  I really don’t get representing a country you aren’t from, regardless of your heritage.

*Rob Bradford had a cool piece of trivia:  Joe Thurston is CC Sabathia’s first cousin.  In this same piece, he mentions that Ken Rosenthal (a writer I will never link to from here) says his best bet is that the Sox are going to get Mark Teixeira and Derek Lowe.  I know you’d be crazy to not want Teixeira – but I fear adding him means subtracting Mike Lowell.  And Derek Lowe?  As long as he can not get drunk the nights before he pitches, I suppose the team could do worse.  Still, I’m not jumping up and down about this.  Then again, it’s Ken Rosenthal.  He’s lost a lot of credibility in my eyes – so I’m not buying into any of it just yet.

*  Today is Mike Mussina’s 40th birthday.  As you all probably know, Moose has announced his retirement.  There goes another MLB player who is older than me.

I leave you with this photo – taken in November.  There are two reasons it makes me smile.  See if you can find them.

Farewell to Luis Alicea. Maybe if he was around for the Jack McCormick thing, Manny would still be here! (Reuters photo)

Sure, it’s almost all Yankees-related, but it’s baseball news nonetheless.

I’m sure I should be more concerned about the Yankees throwing a bank at CC Sabathia,  but I’m not.  And every time I see the Yankees grabbing for the high-priced players, I think about Mike Mussina and Jason Giambi and Carl Pavano and Johnny Damon and, hell, even ARod (and so many others) and then I look at the cabinet where they keep their World Series trophies and notice that they haven’t put one in there since 2000.  And I smile a giant smile and enjoy the show.  What would be sweet, though, was if they threw their bags of money at CC and he said “Meh, no thanks.  I’d rather not go to a third-place team.”  Heh.

I will say that I’d be more than a little bummed if AJ Burnett or Derek Lowe or BOTH of them, really, ended up with the Yankees.  Not for any fear of the Red Sox having to face them (hell, they see Burnett enough as it is) but from the viewpoint of players I actually like playing for the Yankees (hello Xavier Nady).  Man, that makes my stomach hurt.  Both Sabathia and Lowe are represented by, you guessed it, Scott Boras, No they aren’t.  Just Lowe is.  Thanks to Matt for pointing out my mistake!  Greg Genske, is Sabathia’s agent.  so THOSE negotiations could be interesting.  Don’t give in to the dark side, Derek.  Don’t do it!

Hey at least Mike Lowell is getting healthy for when the Red Sox trade him after they sign Mark Teixeira!

(I am not advocating this to happen – see frowny face above!)

And we say farewell to Luis Alicea.  The hottest first base coach in the American League (rawrr!) and Manny calmer-downer will now become the hottest first base coach in the National League (rawrr!) – and Manny calmer-downer?  (I’m still convinced old Omar wants Manny and that Manny would love playing in New York, regardless of all his whinings about how horrible it is to be hounded by the press and fans.)

It’s Saturday and it sounds like the rain has stopped pummeling my house.  I’m going to go try and enjoy some of the day – hope you do the same!