Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Fenway's New Whipping Boy

I love all the crap I've been reading this morning about how the Yankees "swooped in" and "stole" Mark Teixeira from under the Red Sox "noses." Balderdash. (I'm keeping it clean because it's Christmas Eve.)

Sources last night said that Teixeira had no intention of signing with the Red Sox, and wanted to sign with New York. It was all a ploy by his disingenuous agent, Scott Boras, to get the Red Sox to get the price up so Boras could get the Yankees to give him the highest deal possible. Sure, the Sox were hot after him, but they stuck to their guns, and wouldn't budge from their highest price of eight years, $170 million. (And even that struck me as way too much for someone like him.)

And now it appears that John Henry wasn't really calling Boras' bluff as much as his knowing the Red Sox were just being used by Boras. So be it. Count me in the group that isn't devastated by Teixeira in NY. I'm not happy about it, but I concede them nothing. They can buy all the players they want, and it doesn't guarantee them anything. They beat out the Sox on Jose Contreras, Alex Rodriguez, Carl Pavano and Johnny Damon. Please remind me again, how many titles did they collectively bring to the Bronx? A whopping zilch.

All of this is good news for Mike Lowell, who gets to go back to third without worrying about being traded in spring training. The Red Sox still have plenty of work to do this winter, like resolving the catching situation, and adding a fourth outfielder and fifth starter. (Derek Lowe?) I would bet Theo Epstein is working on it right now (or at least after Christmas). Adding Teixeira would have brought on some problems, like taking a Gold Glove off first base in Kevin Youkilis and moving him to third and all the speculation over Lowell. That will not happen, and that's a good thing. He was just an extremely expensive luxury right now. (And I can't help think of the line, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it.")

You know that Teixeira will be in for it every time he steps to plate at Fenway Park next season. Say what you want about Rodriguez, but at least Slappy wanted to play in Boston. (And signing Teixeira also puts all the onus for next season on New York. If they don't win the World Series in 2009, this winter's $420+ million spending spree will have been deemed a colossal, monumental failure. That's not too much pressure on these guys, huh?)

Yeah, the Yankees and their fans are crowing about this, but remember the words of one Theo Epstein a few years back, "We're not trying to win December."

5 comments:

Steel36 said...

I had a guy come into my job in Yankee head to toe. We got to talking about Tex. I asked him in a smart aleck tone "you're looking to get assaulted, aren't you?"

400 million had better bring the ring. Hank has done more to guarantee a salary cap in baseball these past weeks.

The next CBA is up in two years. In this deep recession time, a deal had better get done. Though salary cap are words the players despise. a strike cannot happen.

BklynSoxFan said...

Whack him next time, Steel!

JB said...

So how do you explain Cashman's "Not us." reply when asked if the Yanks were in the mix after Henry's email to the press? Bold faced lie? As a Sox fan, I'm not crying about losing Tex, but the "party lines" espoused leading up to the signing don't seem to make much sense.

BklynSoxFan said...

That was Cashman playing it coy, laying in the weeds and not tipping his hand. I have no problem with that at all. Many teams do that.

I'm not crying about losing Texeira either, as the Red Sox, who have plenty of resources to spend with players like Schilling and Ramirez coming off the payroll, can now focus on other needs, like another starter and catcher. It's really where they have to focus, and not on creating problems by bringing on Teixeira.

Steel36 said...

Consider that Lars Anderson is a season or two max from the majors. Few prospects developing into the real deal like Tex. However Anderson looks to be darn good.

Rememeber that some of the beast deals are the ones you never make.