Not sure if you have heard, but the owner of the Red Sox is now the owner of The Boston Globe. This has got some writers concerned about what the future of coverage of the team concerned.
As to John Henry buying the Globe, been told we’ll cover the team the same way by people I trust. Hopefully that proves true.
— Pete Abraham (@PeteAbe) August 3,
2013
Thank you for your honest concern, and bringing us into your conversations in the back room about what everyone is wondering. I suppose that we all think that the Red Sox will be covered roughly the same. But, it is good that Pete Abraham is honest, that he
wondered, and that he is hearing the right things.
Nick Cafardo? What is he thinking about in this time of transition and potential conflict of interest (a SIN in the world of journalism)? He is wondering about birthdays:
Red Sox manager John Farrell and Red Sox great Roger Clemens were born on the same day August 4 (tomorrow) in 1962.Trying to get birth times
— Nick Cafardo (@nickcafardo) August 3, 2013
He never did let us know if Roger Clemens and John Farrell were born at exactly the same time! THESE ARE THINGS I AM DYING TO KNOW! Who cares if we have a first place team in Boston? Who cares that we are in a fight as close as 2 thousandths of a point for best record in baseball? Who cares that Jake Peavy has brought his 2007 NL Cy Young to town? Who cares about the sale of his parent company? GET ME BIRTH TIMES!
Oh, Nick…
But his tweeting is not the biggest win that we got from Nick Cafardo this week. Oh, not. even. close. That would be found in his Sunday Column – the one that was once the premier baseball piece in America when Peter Gammons was writing it. Sit tight, hold on, and wait for some nuggets of true baseball wisdom from our local guru.
This week, Cafardo takes us on a trip to Yankee-land. A magical place with a palace built with big money that is yielding very modest gains. But, hey, bad as you think they are, they are only 3.5 games out of the wild card and they now have Alfonso Soriano! But Cashman could have done more:
At the trade deadline, general manager Brian Cashman tried to get the Phillies to trade him Michael Young, who would have been plugged in at third base, and Carlos Ruiz, who would have stabilized the catching corps and provided some pop with his bat. Didn’t happen, though it could during the waiver process this month.
Oh, Chooch is your plan to fix the Yankees? He of the .257/.308/.311 this season. That is right: a .311 slugging percentage this year was have “stabilized the catching corps.” Either Cafardo is dense, or he is trolling the entire Yankee organization in a way that could not be described as anything less than epic!
And was it not enough that he spent the week before the trading deadline trying to work a trade on behalf of Ben Cherington for Michael Young just to make absolute sure that Xander Bogaerts was blocked at the Major League level, he is also trying to get Michael Young on the Yankees. Because what every team needs is a third baseman that cannot slug .400 and plays defense like a statue (but hey, he has great hands and is a winner).
Well, if Michael Young didn’t arrive on August first in Yankee land, at least:
he got Derek Jeter back from a season-long ankle injury, though Jeter doesn’t look like the same player.
Well, then there is Jeter back to the DL. Could you imagine anything better than spending August and September watching Michael Young and Derek Jeter defend the left side of the infield? Can we commandeer Brian Cashman’s office and trade something valuble to the Phillies for Michael Young?
Credit Keith Allison via Flickr
Don’t get me started on how MLB is about to bail out the Yankees from the contract we all knew was dumb of them to sign when they signed it. What is next? An exemption in Philadelphia for Ryan Howard? A reprieve in Anaheim for Albert Pujols? Shoot, at least we had to sucker Magic Johnson into Carl Crawford and Josh Beckett.
But as if reveling in the first very real problems the Yankees have had since c. 1995, Cafardo drops one of the best lines of self-loathing Yankees fans:
We can only think about how George Steinbrenner would have handled all of this if he were alive.
No. Comment. Necessary.
Ok, one comment…Not sure that the new regime at the Boston Globe is going to put up with this crappy reporting. This is stuff from the Bleacher Creatures upon seeing Lyle Overbay hitting 3rd.
Hal Steinbrenner has become somewhat of a bottom-line guy, hellbent on getting under the $189 million luxury-tax threshold. The Boss probably would have ordered Cashman to make deals at all costs. The thought of the Red Sox
acquiring Jake Peavy would have likely sent him through the roof. None of this would have been acceptable.
(1) Hal is cleaning up the reckless spending from his father’s regime. (2) The team hasn’t missed the playoffs in 100 years (roughly). (3) Making deals for Young and Chooch would not have helped anything except Philadelphia. (4) A reminder that since the Yankees incredibly and annoyingly won 4 World Series in 5 years, they have won one in the last 12 World Series.
What would he have done with A-Rod? That’s the one I’m not sure about.
Great point, Nick!
Orioles manager Buck Showalter correctly predicted that if Major League Baseball allows the Yankees to take A-Rod’s payroll hit off the books, they could be in position to eventually sign Matt Wieters away from Baltimore.
Well, gee, the Yankees wouldn’t need Wieters if they had just traded for Carlos Ruiz! Also, Matt Wieters is not as good as Posey or Mauer, but sure, let the Yankees transfer that $25m a year over to Wieters to let him catch into his 30’s. Enjoy that New York!
The Yankees are also dealing with Sabathia. One of the prevailing thoughts concerning why he hasn’t been effective is because he’s gotten too “skinny.”
Some players just perform better carrying more weight. Sabathia seems to be one of them. Some think such a theory is silly, that Sabathia is merely showing wear and tear after being a workhorse for so many years. But doesn’t it make some sense?
No. No that makes almost no sense at all. What makes sense is that is now in his mid-30’s and thrown 2700 career innings. Yup, he could be slowing down.
Or he could be getting worse because he has lost weight and gotten into some semblance of shape. How can Cafardo tell us that being in the “best shape of his life” is ruining Sabathia, when we get all of those Spring Training articles predicting bad players will have bounce back seasons because they are in “the best shape of their lives?” It’s inconsistent at best.
Kuroda, whom the Yankees lured back with a one-year, $15 million deal after his one-year, $10 million contract in 2012, has indicated he may go back to Japan. The Yankees may have to offer one year at $20 million for 2014.
Mariano Rivera is retiring, which means setup man David Robertson, or someone else, will man the closer role for the first time in 15 years.
Robinson Cano is a free agent this offseason, another negotiation possibly helped if they don’t have Rodriguez’s salary. Curtis Granderson is a free agent, as well.
Ok, we get it, the Yankees have problems moving forward. Mostly problems that have come from the George Steinbrenner’s irresponsibly run Yankees in his final years are finally close being cleared up. But, Cafardo was just suggesting picking up more aging
players to “go for it this year.”
Yet nothing says this season is over. Normally, a team couldn’t have endured injuries to Jeter, Rodriguez, Granderson, andMark Teixeira and still be a wild-card contender. But the fact is, the Yankees are. Which is why Cashman never gave up acquiring veteran players.
But, Nick, do you not understand that you are suggesting the Yankees have their cake and eat it, too? They have to stop getting overpriced, aging players. And the fact that they are not wholly resembling the 2012 Red Sox is a win.
Listen, we all hate that wall-repelling Brian Cashman, but he is not doing a half bad job at this point. Get A-Rod suspended, let expensive players contracts expire, stop attracting expensive players in their 30’s. We can all get that, right?
Nick?
Waiver deals may loom large if the Yankees can defy some pretty big odds and still make the playoffs.
Nope. He will never get it.
What else does he have for us in his weekly column?
In asking general managers which former GM they miss the most, J.P. Ricciardi got the most responses, and many believe Ricciardi will be a head man again, whether it’s taking over for Sandy Alderson when he wants to step down with the Mets, or with another team.
Most GM’s miss J.P. Ricciardi because he was a dope. Remember the contracts of Vernon Wells and Alex Rios that Alex Anthopoulos had to ditch in order to move forward? Those were Ricciardi’s deal. Remember when he suggested on the radio that Adam Dunn did not like baseball. Remember when he drafter Ricky Romero over Troy Tulowitzki, against the advice of most of his team?
Yeah, easy to see why others want him back. But, then, there is this…
Ricciardi was never able to go above and beyond to grab an amateur player, and had a very limited international budget to go along with a middle-of-the-road payroll, a huge disadvantage in the AL East, where Tampa Bay was able to play with the big boys in Boston for part of Ricciardi’s tenure.
So, what you are saying is that a low budget makes it too hard to win the AL East, except for the poorest (or second poorest) team in the American League that blew past his team, on his watch. Great logic there, Cafardo.
Anything else for us?
With GM Jack Zduriencik in Boston with the Mariners at the trade deadline, it reminded us of the deal he turned down from Theo Epstein and the Red Sox. Epstein offered Daniel Bard, Justin Masterson, Nick Hagadone, Jed Lowrie, and Josh Reddick for Felix Hernandez. Zduriencik said no. Breaking it down, Masterson has become a No. 2 starting pitcher; Hagadone is a decent lefthanded reliever; Lowrie has been a productive middle/corner infielder when healthy; and Reddick hit 32 homers last season but has come down to earth this season. Bard was a premier setup man until his throwing issues.
Well, there is a trade that would have cost us absolutely zero value from the 2013 Red Sox. None of those players are left, and their only residue is Andrew Bailey (acquired for Josh Reddick) stinking up the bullpen this season. It clearly would have been a good trade for the Red Sox (and maybe even for Seattle), but we should be honest that these are players who were not considered worth holding on to in other deals. The honest assessment is that Jack Z may have been right to turn that deal down, as the Red Sox were not sold enough on any of those players to hold onto them for their own purposes.
But, dang, how I wish that juicy almost trade went down!
I had one GM rate the farm systems: 1. Twins; 2. Red Sox; 3. Cubs.
Good news, unless that GM is Ned Colletti or Brian Sabean. They are dopes.
There’s a nice data/scouting mix going on in Houston. Scouting wins out, but the data work the Astros are doing is extraordinary, and even some old-timers are buying into it. The Astros are definitely the 21st century team, and look for GM Jeff Luhnow and his staff to be very successful.
Oh how much Cafardo loves [his perception] that scouting wins out!
Anything else?
Placido Polanco, 3B, Marlins — Polanco is 37 and has lost some in the field, but he remains a possible target for teams such as the Red Sox and Yankees, who need a veteran presence and a guy who can still hit from the right side, where he was hitting .349 vs. lefties entering the weekend.
No, no, no! Please stop it, Nick Cafardo! Your use of word veteran is synonymous with old, and not good anymore. Please stop trying to sell us past it players who are not that great anymore? PLEASE!
So to recap: The Yankees aren’t good (even though they are close enough to the playoffs to acquire bad players), the Boss would not let that happen if he were still alive, the Red Sox once tried to get King Felix, scouting is preferable to analytics (even though that math is making some in roads), and the Red Sox need Placido Polanco. Another day in the life of Nick Cafardo.