2006 Major League Postseason Predictions and Bragging Thread

It entirely depends on how much the Yankees want to get rid of him. If the Blue Jays were to assume his entire salary - which is now possible given that Rogers is boosting the payroll again - Rodriguez could be had for far less. Even Cashman would jump at the opportunity to save that kind of bread.

But, really, I don’t think the Yankees are disappointed with A-Rod. Cashman is not an idiot. Rodriguez is irreplaceable; there is no realistic alternative to him that will not be dramatically inferior.

In theory we are talking about the second best player in the majors after Pujols. Opinions vary of course, but second should be an acceptable benchmark. As the Yanks only pay him $17 to $19 million per year, I would expect a Young Ace, prospects and no cash or minimal cash. If it were the full $25.5 million, I would agree with you, but thankfully that baseball Genius Hicks is footing a good portion of the bill. As far as irreplaceable, you are correct, but Yankees have no problems scoring, Yankees have problems with pitching. We have a huge amount of money going for pitchers that are not worth their salaries. Start with Pavano, Johnson is not really worth $16 million and Moose was not worth $14.75 this year plus the $1.5 buyout next year or $19 million. Even Wright was overpaid at $7 million, but tolerable by Yankees inflated standards. We need more young pitchers with real fastballs and the ability to go 7-innings consistently. A-Rod is our most valuable expendable part. If we do not get the Young Ace, it would not be worth moving him, as he is too good. If we could get the Young Ace and a few quality Prospects, it should be seriously considered. What would the Yanks do for a third baseman? Struggle by with a $5 million dollar Free Agent until we can develop one in house, is my thought.

My best source for Contract Data has A-Rod’s payout broken down this way:
Rodriguez, Alex 2007-$15.00 08-$16.00 09-$17.00 10-$18.00 + 11-$4.00 *$50k 6th-10th MVP; $100k All-Star; $100k most All-Star votes; $100k Gold Glove; $100k Silver Slugger; $100k AP/Baseball America/Sporting News All-Star; $100k Player of the Year by above; $150k DS MVP or LCS MVP; $200k WS MVP; $200k 2nd-5th MVP; $500k 1st MVP, $1m 2nd MVP; $1.5m subsequent MVP; can void contract after 2007 season. After the 2008 or 2009 season, can void unless salary is $32m $1m more than any other position player. * The Yankees will defer $1 million annually from 2004-07 without interest, to be paid in 2011. This reduced the value of the deal by $5.1 million

Jim

It would be positively insane to trade Rodriguez for Halladay unless you needed to save money. Halladay is a great pitcher, but his strikeout rate declined ominously in 2006 and in any event pitchers are less dependable than hitters.

You can never score enough runs. Take Rodriguez away from the Yankees and you’ve just lost another 5, 6 games a year. If you think Halladay makes that up that’s great, but you’d better be sure…

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again:
YAY!!

ZOOOOO-maya!!

Where did this kid come from? 103 mph? 97 Ks in 83 innings? I don’t watch much baseball before the playoffs, and I completely spaced on him this year. That was awesome, though.

Anyone but the Yanks!

In the first 2006 baseball prediction thread, someone predicted that the Tigers would win the Central AND that Zumaya was in incredible pitcher. Modesty forbids me from mentioning his name.

I know, Halladay is not a great choice, I mentioned he might be too old. I am not aware of a top 3B prospect in the Jays system either. Maybe you can tell if there is one.
I went out of my way to stress “Young Ace”. I am thinking Dontrell Willis or Santana type pitcher. I would seriously consider Scott Kazmir a 22 year lefty for Tampa. These are the under 25 guys that would have to make a GM at least looking at trading a player like A-Rod.

Jim

I know Perez hasn’t been Cy Young, but he hasn’t been that bad. He did throw a complete game shutout against the Marlins not that long ago. I’d trust Perez in a game 4 to get 4-5 respectable innings, then turn it over to the stocked NY bullpen, just like Willie did in game one.

Oh…I was at the game last night. Whatta show! The Mets are playing with heart and it’s great to see. I’m starting to have a feeling this thing isn’t going to a fourth game, which would solve the Perez problem.

Jim, A-rod’s got that pesky no-trade clause in his super-duper contract. I’m not as curious about what kind of players would get a trade done as much as how much worse will it have to get before Alex agrees to a trade.

Good point, but he waived it once, he might waive it again. I need to study the Angels and Dodgers. These are teams that might have the cash and prospects to take him and the competitive ability to get him to agree to go. Trading a superstar is always very hard, but it is not impossible. This is of course just fun conjecture, I do not expect him to be traded.

Jim

That’s what they said about Lance Rentzel.

A’s sweep the Twins.

Show of hands…did anybody see that coming?

Wanted the A’s to win, but didn’t foresee it. I thought for sure the Twins would just roll them over. Maybe this is a different A’s team. What surprised me the most was how deeply I felt about the A’s winning, once Scutaro hit the double that sealed the game. It’s something we haven’t really seen around here in 16 years, and having it happen is kind of like going back to younger (if not better) days. I just might start believing again.

Hats off to the Twins, though. They really showed some grit in coming back to take the division, and they deserved a better fate than first team eliminated. So it goes.

If the Tigers win tonight, I’ll consider this a very good day indeed.

Who were those guys, and what have they done with the real Twins?

They last thing I expected was for the Twins to be humiliated by their own fielding.

::sigh::

Best of luck to the A’s.

The Blue Jays don’t have any hitting prospects, actually. Assuming Adam Lind is now a major leaguer, they do not have a single Grade A prospect.

Well, the Twins are out, and the A’s are the first team to get a ticekt to the LCS. That’s a surprise to everyone; they were clearly, I thought, the weakest team in the AL playoffs, though that still makes them better than any NL team.

Just had to post. I dont have cable, watching the Tigers v Yankee game on MLB.TV archive. But who in the hell is this old man and why the hell has he been talking over the action for the past 4 half innings.

Jesus Christ, this man is grandpa Simpson come to life. “But the important thing WAS that they didn’t steal ma raincoat!”

Alright, game over. How am I the first person to post this. Rogers was dealin’ tonight. I’ve seen his perfect game, I’ve seen him a few years as a Yankee, and still, I think this was the best I have ever seen him pitch. Goddamn, you don’t usually see a pitcher make that many good hitters look that bad. And, for all those Yankee haters, realize there are a few Yankee fans that appreciate good baseball when they see it.

That old guy in the booth was still granpa Simpson though.

Your dissing Ernie? The Ernie? Blasphemy!

As someone who grew up listening to Ernie Harwell’s radio broadcasts, I simply cannot conceive of anyone having less than total admiration for that man.

I enjoyed Ernie, it meant Miller and Morgan were not talking for a few precious seconds. As Kenny pitched the game of his life, it is the only thing I enjoyed last night. BTW: I am fairly sure that Kenny Rodgers enjoyed last night more than even his perfect game. He held the title as the worst post season pitcher with 20+ innings ever. Last night was his masterpiece. Now my Yankees are down to Jarod Wright, I am not in a good spot for using my game 5 ticket Sunday night.

Congrats to the Oakland fans.

Jim

Yeah, Crawlspace, you’re dissing hall-of-fame broadcaster, and Detroit Tiger legend, Ernie Harwell– one of the all-time greats. You’re officially on my shady list.

Bingo. I’ve never heard Ernie before, but I really dug his old-school way of calling the game. They should fire Miller and Morgan and have him and Phil Rizzuto do the game today. Has there ever been a game where those two ESPN idiots didn’t go on and on for 20 minutes about some bit of completely uninteresting ephemeral nonsense, like whether it’s chalk or dust or paint flying up when a ball hits the foul line? I’d rather listen to Tim McCarver and Paris Hilton call a game.

Weird and enjoyable playoffs so far. A’s sweep, Cards pretty sharp, Kenny Rogers shuts out the Yankees? I’m hoping today’s incredibly unexpected result is a Traschel perfect game.

[QOTE=RickJay]the A’s are the first team to get a ticekt to the LCS. That’s a surprise to everyone; they were clearly, I thought, the weakest team in the AL playoffs, though that still makes them better than any NL team.
[/QUOTE]

I don’t think the A’s could score enough runs to beat the Mets 4 times. The '73 team this ain’t. The pitchng of the A’s and Tigers would make an watchable ALCS (sorry, George – have yourself a nice little fire sale!). I haven’t counted up the lefties on the two staffs to figure out who I will root for. The fewer the better!