El Duke is staying put with the Mets for a 2 year deal worth $12 million.
Mark DeRosa has a 3 year deal with the Cubs to be their 2B. $13 million.
Brandon Webb won the **NL Cy Young ** having gone 16-8 with a 3.10 ERA but 235 Innings. Congrats to Mr. Webb.
He received 15 of 32 first-place votes and 103 points in balloting by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.
Trevor Hoffman came in second.
Matsuzaka bid officially won by the Sox, still no final word on the posting bond.
Jim
Garciaparra isn’t going anywhere. He likes it out here, and the Dodgers appreciate him and treat him well. We declined Gagne’s option, which is a wise move, and the door is still open for Drew to return. But then again, his exercising his option did free up a ton of money that could be used to grab more young hitters. Grew anchored the offense, but if we can get 4 youngsters for the price of Drew, I say go for it. Build from within, and let the kids take you to the playoffs.
This may not mean shit to anyone else here, but a few comments on the A’s new stadium plans, announced earlier today:
For all I can see, this is a fucking disaster. The reported site is nowhere near public transportation, it’s located in an area off an already incredibly congested stretch of freeway (and which is fed by another already incredibly congested road), it will be a royal pain in the ass for folks in the northern part of the East Bay to get to, and the site is still not situated in the real densely populated area of San Jose and points south/west, so those folks will still have a pain in the ass drive to get there. Nor, despite decades of wishful thinking, does the A’s fan base consist of the people who can afford the projected more expensive ticket prices. They’re not going to sell out this place like the Giants sold out Pac Bell Park; no 3 to 4 years of every ticket sold–maybe more like one season sold out, then a rapid fall off thereafter back to their usual attendance level.
Most galling of all, the justification for this, straight from the poisonous mouth of The Idiot Selig: “…if you’re playing in a stadium that can’t produce the revenue streams you need, you’re rendering the franchise uncompetitive.” Uncompetitive? What the fuck have they been for the last 7 years, you retard? They’ve been in the playoffs for five of those seven years. What the hell does competitive mean? Fielding a competitive team? Or competing with Steinbrenner while he shoves rolls of thousand dollar bills up his ass because, you know, he just happens to have some handy?
This is a fraud. The A’s don’t need this new stadium, it will not change the competitiveness of the team, and in 10 years time there will be all sorts of bitching and moaning about how things just aren’t working out the way they were supposed to. It’s bullshit. And they’ll probably wind up moving somewhere else anyway.
And I won’t even get into the stupidity of that “Athletics of Fremont” shit.
OK. End of rant.
Oh, yeah, and the Red Sox are stupid for coughing up all that for Matsuzaka. I hope he gets shelled.
So it will be in suburban Freemont with no mass transit: Strike 1
It will only seat 30,000 to 34,000 fans: Strike 2
Transportation issues along the already clogged Interstate 880: Strike 3
Not much of a plan in my view either. They seem to be pinning their hope on limited seating generating higher demand so they can charge more and Hi-tech gadgetry to attract fans. I am not impressed with this business model.
From ESPN: “It’s official: The Red Sox won negotiating rights to Daisuke Matsuzaka on Tuesday with a bid of $51.1 million and now have 30 days to work a deal with the highly coveted Japanese pitcher.”
Wow, just woo, now Boris will try hard to get $15 million per year for five years. This could be the record for bad deals if all goes well. 
Not gonna lie, I felt a lot better about this whole Matsuzaka thing when it was a 35 mil posting fee instead of 51 million. 'Cause if the total value of the contract and the posting fee breaks 100 million (very possible if it’s something like 4 years at 13/year), that’s a symbolic barrier that is going to put him under a TON of pressure to perform. I mean, I’m still happy that the Sox are getting him instead of the Yankees, but this could definitely end up going either way.
But even if they overpay hideously for him, it still wouldn’t be as bad as whomever ends up giving J.D. Drew 13-14 million a year for the next 4-5 years. And rumors are out there that THAT could be the Sox, too :smack:
Can someone briefly explain what this posting of 51.1 million dollars means? I mean, they still haven’t gotten a contract with him, and I’ve heard that if they don’t work out after 30 days that they can get that money back. Well were does it go if he does sign a contract? Does it go to Matsuzaka in addition whatever his contract is? Does it go to the team he played for last season?
I thought when it begun that they were bidding for a fixed number of years on his contract, but now that I know this wasn’t the case and the money is so easily redeemable that the number is arbitrary. What was to stop Tampa Bay from bidding a million zillion dollars and not sign him to a contract in order to just prevent both the Sox and Yanks from getting him?
The Red Sox just paid $51.1 million to the Seibu Lions for the right to talk to Matsuzaka and his agent, Scott “So Evil Satan’s Scared of Him” Boras.
If they sign him to a contract, the $51.1 million will go straight to the Seibu Lions. If they don’t, they get the money back, Matsuzaka plays in Japan next year and then becomes a free agent.
I would imagine the only limiting factor on a team’s bid would be MLB’s financial rules for franchises. The debt-ratio rules prevent a team from carrying debt greater than 40% of the franchise’s asset value, which would prevent small-market teams from bidding a tremendous amount since it would throw that ratio out of whack.
Even with the Sox signing Matsuzaka, I’m not too worried about the state of Yankee pitching with the young guys they have. I’d very much like it if they sign some extra talent, but I don’t wnat to see them overpay for yet anotherg guy like Zito.
Thanks for the info, but just to clarify: If the Red Sox sign him to a deal somewhere around 40 million for three years, it would still be the equivilant for spending 30 million total a year for this guy to pitch on the team? I love the Sox, and I love nothing more than to watch good pitching, but this seems ridiculous.
Me too. Theo gets a lot of credit for being very smart, but this just doesnt seem smart to me.
What Exit? I thought El Duque’s deal was 6 mil total for the two years, not per year. 6M for a 40-year-old sometimes-effective pitcher is overpaying.
This is the same story, most Baseball sites are running. I am afraid the Mets overpaid. When he is healthy, he is worth it at least.
Jim
What Exit?, you’re right. I was going on an initial NY Post report that it was 6 M for both years, which I thought was overly generous. 12 M for 2 years is crazy.
It’s not QUITE the equivalent of that, because the posting fee doesn’t count towards the luxury tax “cap”. But it’s pretty close, yeah.
The contract negotiations will be a big thing to watch here. Boras’s goal is going to be three years at 14-15 million a year, and the Sox are going to be looking for 4-5 years at 7-10 million a year. Boras doesn’t have a ton of leverage because the Sox are the only team he can negotiate with and they’ve already spent 50 million, and Matsuzaka REALLY doesn’t want to go back to Japan for another year if he can avoid it. On the other hand, the Sox absolutely need something out of this too - just letting him go back and getting their posting fee back would be a disaster on several levels. So it’s going to be interesting to see how things end up.
As a Yankee Fan, I hope that it drags out the full 30 days in typical Boras fashion and ends with either no deal or 5 years at $15 million. Either result should hurt Boston more than it helps them.
Glad to see at least someone else is seeing this thing clearly, What Exit? A’s fans, to a great extent, are largely working, blue-collar types. Jacking up ticket prices for shiny new seats is not going to work with this fan base. The richies down in San Jose way are already Giants fans, and there isn’t really a lot of cross-pollination between the two teams’ fan bases. Who’s going to go to these games? And yes, while there’s a BART extension planned for the Fremont area, it won’t run any closer to two miles away from the proposed stadium. Unless they get some kind of light rail built to connect, then everyone will have to drive to the game. (This is California–no one, I repeat, NO ONE will ride a bus to a ball game.) That will help boost the parking revenues–probably from a rape-charge of $10 a pop–but will make getting in and out a nightmare.
This plan also bucks the trend of putting new ballparks in downtown areas, so has none of the revitalization/identity-building benefits. It would have made a hell of a lot more sense to move to downtown San Jose (“territorial rights” be damned) than to stick the thing in the middle of nothing. Oh, well. By the time it’s built and ready I’ll probably have moved out of the area and it won’t matter to me. But it will matter to others…
My, the Cubs are busy beavers these days. Anyone out there think it will make a difference? I’m not getting a real read on their signings. Seems like a lot of the same old, if you know what I mean.
51 million. I reiterate: stupid, stupid, stupid. But I’m fine with it if he bombs, because the Red Sox have been very full of themselves lately, and could use a good slapping around.
**Joe Girardi and Jim Leyland were named Managers of the year. **
Mike Mussina has agreed to a 2 year, $22.5 million extension with the Yanks.
This is reported by the New York Post.
I had that feeling that Mussina would resign with the Yankees. I also had the feeling that it was going to be two years, too.
That also seems to be a relatively palatable salary, as well.
How many more years does Randy Johnson have in pinstripes?
Only one more year for Johnson. (Thank God!).
About time you showed up 
What’s up with Detroit? Anything besides overpaying aging sluggers? I thought that was my teams specialty?
Jim
Why would this be a problem? When they’ve barely averaged over 26,000 fans a game over the last five years.
Overpaying aging sluggers? I think that’s the Blue Jays.
espn.com
“While it’s uncertain whether Thomas’ deal is for three years or two with an option, a source said the total value could exceed $30 million.”
I don’t know how thrilled I am about this move.