Jaret Wright and cash for Chris Britton...

From ESPN.com:

NEW YORK -- Jaret Wright was traded by the New York Yankees to the Baltimore Orioles on Sunday for right-handed reliever Chris Britton.

Britton

Wright

As part of the deal, the Yankees will pay $4 million of Wright's $7 million salary next year. New York had until Sunday to opt out of Wright's contract, a move that also would have cost the Yankees a $4 million buyout...

Britton, who turns 24 on Dec. 16, was taken by Baltimore on the eighth round of the 2001 amateur draft. He made his major league debut last season, going 0-1 with one save and a 3.35 ERA in 52 relief appearances with the Orioles. He also was 1-0 with a 2.81 ERA and two saves in 13 games for Bowie of the Double-A Eastern League.

Alright, well, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to say that this is a great trade on a Yankee standpoint... but why would the Orioles make a deal like this?

My friend and fellow Empire Elite K responded to my question this way:

K: its all to do with Leo Mazzone

K: he had to have been asked about him

K: he probably gave the deal his blessing

K: told everyone he could make Wright a good starter again

I agree with him, but I don't know whether I would judge Jaret Wright as a "lost cause" in that realm... he's a decent pitcher who couldn't rack up innings... if Mazzone can make Wright a great pitcher again, I'll bow at his feet, but this isn't the Jaret Wright who pitched in Game 7 of the 1997 World Series here...

Now, Britton... a fire-baller with a lot of weight on him... I do believe he'll lose some weight before the start of Spring Training (or during the course of it), but let's look at his minor league numbers for a bit...

From Baseball Cube:

Pitching Statistics

Org	Level		W	L	ERA	G	GS					IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	SO							WHIP
Bal	Rk		2	3	2.76	12	3					32.2	35	20	10	3	12	20							1.44
Bal	Rk		3	0	4.54	9	8					35.2	30	21	18	5	10	27							1.12
Bal	A		9	4	3.75	27	8					84.0	76	38	35	11	31	80							1.27
Bal	A+		6	0	1.60	46	0					78.2	47	15	14	5	23	110							0.89
Bal	AA		1	0	2.81	13	0					16.0	14	5	5	0	6	24							1.25
Bal	MLB		0	2	3.35	52	0					53.2	46	22	20	4	17	41							1.17
			21	7	2.99	107	19					247.0	202	99	82	24	82	261							1.15

What jumps out at you? For me, it's his strikeouts, numbers, and ERA in class A+ and his ERA straight through his career... anytime you can get more than a K an inning, you're throwing gas and hitting your spots... reminds me of Bruney's season this year (25 Ks in 20.2 innings)...

The Yankees are building their pitching prospects incredibly... 8 out of 10 prospects that made the Yankees' Top 10 prospect list by Baseball America are pitchers, Sanchez and Whelan were both on the Tigers' Top 10 prospect list from last year, and Britton got Baseball America's designation as having the Best Control in the Orioles' prospect list of last year...

The future's bright... but what about the present? We'll see as the off-season goes on...

Happy reading!

B(rent)

Citifield and the cancer of corporate naming...

It was announced yesterday that the name of the new Mets ballpark will be called CitiField, because Citigroup (the same people who take care to my student loans for Fordham) brought out the naming rights for the stadium, reportedly spending as much as 20 million a year for the name...

From Bloomberg.com:

Nov. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Citigroup Inc., the biggest U.S. bank, will put its name on the New York Mets' new ballpark in what might be the most expensive stadium rights agreement in history, people familiar with the negotiations said.

The ballpark, adjacent to the baseball team's Shea Stadium in the Flushing neighborhood of Queens, will be called "CitiField'' and will open for the 2009 season. The team plans to unveil the name at a groundbreaking ceremony on Monday, said the people, who declined to be identified before the announcement.

The push to raise Citigroup's profile is part of Chief Executive Officer Charles Prince's plan to boost flagging revenue growth at the U.S. consumer business.

"From Citigroup's perspective it makes tremendous sense,'' said Marc Ganis, president of SportsCorp Ltd., a Chicago-based consulting firm. "Financial services companies are among the best positioned to benefit from naming rights of sports facilities.''

Call me an old fart, which would be ridiculous because I'm only 19, but if I go to a Mets game, I will honestly feel a bit of a sell-out... going to a game at CitiField will show me where the money I'm borrowing and paying back to them is going... my attachment to the Stadium itself will seem superficial and bought out... as baseball fans, ask yourself this question, "Which of these two sounds and feels better to say: "Welcome to Shea Stadium" or "Welcome to CitiField"?

Long gone are the days where stadiums were named after the name of the team or a significant person in the franchise...

• The story of the name of Shea Stadium is a beautiful one: the name was to commemorate William Shea, the man who brought New York baseball back into the National League...
  
  
• Yankee Stadium was to dedicate a franchise that would end up being the most successful franchise in all of sports (championship-wise)...
  
  
• Fenway Park was named after a seemingly insignificant comment by the owner at the time John I. Taylor, he stated: "It's in the Fenway section of Boston, isn't it? Then name it Fenway Park."

What will the history write for the origin of CitiField? "CitiField was named as such to glorify what you can do with lots of money"? Is the name of the new Stadium meant to glorify the corporate mindset of NYC (though its hub is focused in Manhattan, not in Queens)? Is the name of the new stadium supposed to satisfy Mets fans, who have been lobbying to have the new stadium named after Jackie Robinson?

What will become of one of the most well-known fight songs of baseball?

"Meet the Mets, meet the Mets,
Head for the park and greet the Mets.
Hot dogs, green grass all out at Shea,
Guaranteed to have a heck of a day."

I don't think Citifield or even Citi has the same ring as Shea in this 1984 version of "Meet the Mets", don't you?

I'm not a Met fan by any means, I will admit that I loved to see Carlos Beltran strike out looking to end the NLCS, but I always had a small connection to the Mets for a few reasons: my uncles tried to raise me to be a Met fan, I love "Meet the Mets", and the Mets is a New York team...

I have met extremely passionate Met fans who bleed orange and blue as much as I bleed pinstripes... the history of the Mets has its highs, its low, but most of all, its drama, the drama that I love to read and write about... and to be honest, even though I hate the sight, I hate the planes flying over it, and my knees hurt after seating in their Tier seats, I actually enjoy the games I have seen at the purple "was-better-made-to-be-a-parking-lot" stadium...

I assumed that the Mets, being in the biggest market for baseball, would have enough money to be able to name the new stadium anything they want... I assumed that the Mets would know how to go about the naming of the stadium to please their fans... I assumed that the Mets were better than to sell the name to a soulless bank... but I guess I assumed wrong...

As a kid, and as a baseball fan, I have a connection with some stadiums, and with that connection comes the name... if Fenway Park's name was bought out by, let's say, CVS, I could never imagine remembering a park called "CVS Park" being connected to a prestige baseball franchise like the Red Sox... same with the Dodgers... and of course, the same with the Yankees...

The Mets have done their best to cement themselves into the New York baseball atmosphere the past 40 years, and the connection many people have to the Mets fall short, but can rival the connection many people have to the Yankees... when people hear "Shea Stadium", they think "the Mets"... however, when I hear "CitiField", my mind goes to thoughts of new football stadiums, Petco Park, PNC Park, Reliant Stadium in Houston, and others like it... and those stadiums don't exactly inspire great feelings of nostalgia and love towards the team and the stadium...

As a Yankee fan in the middle of a stadium transition as well, it does pain me to see talks about the demolition plans for the old Yankee Stadium, and hearing that it's not a national landmark (which would save the Stadium)... it pains me even more to read this quote from the Wikipedia article on the new Stadium:

"While the stadium will have Yankee Stadium in its name, naming rights will be sold. Possibilities include Yankee Stadium at (sponsor) Plaza or (sponsor) Yankee Stadium."

However, the one thing that is attached to it is the name "Yankee Stadium", that name will always carry with the Yankees and in Yankee fans' hearts, and to me, the name brings chills, nostalgia, and the legacy of the old Stadium, and the bright future of the new... no matter what Stadium is made for the Yankees, it will always carry the name "Yankee Stadium"...

The Boss isn't dumb enough to lose the historical name of the stadium, the Cardinals didn't lose the name "Busch Stadium" when they started play in their new stadium this year, the Red Sox, Dodgers and Cubs would keep the name of their stadiums and carry the name wherever they play next...

Met fans, however, will need to suck it up and know that any sweet plans they had of naming the new stadium "Jackie Robinson Stadium" or the like is vanished because of CitiGroup and the cancer of corporate naming... any identity to Shea will be gone as soon as the wreaking ball collides with the concrete walls of the Purple Monster... the five teams I mentioned will always carry that identity with them, no matter where they play... but the Mets? Total corporate whores for as long as the stadium is leased...

Yes, baseball is a business, but some things are still sacred in the game, and the namesakes of historical stadiums are one of those things... sometimes, all you have to remember a moment in your life is a name, a name that carries so much history and love behind it... whether it's a name of a high school sweetheart, a band, a relative, or, yes, a stadium, that name will always carry some memories...

When it comes to Yankee Stadium, no matter where they call home, it makes sense to keep the name "Yankee Stadium" with it so more memories can be built with the name... with Shea, those memories are one and done when Shea gets torn down... if I was a Met fan, I would be pissed, not only because the new stadium's name got bought out, but because the owners did not listen to you and your suggestions... Yankee fans wanted the name "Yankee Stadium" to stay with the new Stadium, and we got what we wanted... Met fans on the other hand... eh...

This is one of those days where I'm glad to be a Yankee fan... to know that the name will always be there, and more importantly, that name will have a physical representation...

Yankee Stadium (old and new):

Thank you for the memories you have made and will make until 2009, old Yankee Stadium, and to the new Yankee Stadium, let's win some more World Series in there... yes, it's the House that the Boss Built, but damn it, if that fact will slow us down... :-)

Happy reading!

B(rent)

Wow, three big happenings in the baseball world today...

Let's talk about them, shall we?

I'll start with the Silver Slugger awards...

Cano and Jeter won this year, the other winners are as followed: C Joe Mauer, 1B Justin Morneau, 3B Joe Crede, OF Manny Ramirez, OF Vladimir Guerrero, OF Jermaine Dye and DH David Ortiz...

First thing you can see is the absurdity of Crede getting picked over A-Rod...

Let's do this comparsion as simple as possible (split: AVG/OBP/SLG):

A-Rod: .290 .392 .523 with 35 HRs and 121 RBIs...
Crede: .283 .323 .506 with 30 HRs and 94 RBIs...

However, the Silver Slugger (like every other award that's not the batting title or the like) are quite subjective... from Wikipedia:

In Major League Baseball, the Louisville Silver Slugger award is given annually to the best offensive player at each position in each league. Winners are picked by major league managers and coaches, who are not allowed to vote for their own players.

Selections are based on a combination of offensive statistics, such as batting average, on base percentage and slugging percentage, as well as general impressions of a player's offensive value.

I highlighted the bold to ask a ridiculous question: do managers and coaches really think that Joe Crede hit better than Alex Rodriguez this year? I guess the New York media did more than brain-wash much of Yankee fans...

I'm also very excited about Cano winning this year... he turned it on late in the season, and being 3rd in the AL batting title doesn't hurt either... Jeter was, more or less, a lock... congrats to Cano and Jeter for winning the Silver Sluggers... you guys definitely deserved them...

Second piece, from Buster Olney:

The Boston Red Sox may have posted the top bid for the right to negotiate with Japanese right-hander Daisuke Matsuzaka, according to Major League Baseball sources.

There has been no official announcement, and the Seibu Lions, Matsuzaka's team in Japan, have until Tuesday to accept or reject the high bid.

But, according to officials monitoring the bidding, the Red Sox bid may be between $38 million and $45 million.

Matsuzaka, who pitched for Japan's World Baseball Classic champions, is considered among the top prospects available this offseason.

If the Lions accept the top bid, the winning bidder has 30 days to reach an agreement with Matsuzaka. If a deal cannot be reached, he would return to the Lions for the 2007 Japanese baseball season.

Ok... 15 mil is decent (Ichiro got 13 mil when he was posteD), 25 is excessive, but ok... but 38 to 45?!?!?!

Of course, Olney can be wrong, but if he isn't, the Red Sox have to be prepared to pay 38 to 45 million plus a rumored 15 mil per year for 5 years... the Red Sox can also go low, offer him a small contract that he would have to reject, Matsuzaka goes back to the Lions, and the Yankees won't get a crack at him until next year...

Whatever happened will happen, but what can be said is this: the Red Sox bid more than 10 million dollars more than the rumored Yankee bid of 27 million, and they are spending this money on a guy who has won against "powerhouses" like Mexico and China, and did well against Cuba...

To me, it's a ridiculous deal... Ichiro's bid was only 13 mil, and the hype was there... however, the more hype there is, the bigger the price tag... and that's where Matsuzaka and Boras come in... if it wasn't for Ichiro, the bids wouldn't be this high, plain and simple... I think the bid's SO excessive for an unproven pitcher in the MLB level, but that's the name of the game... Matsuzaka and Boras are playing the hype incredibly well... because of that, more money will be in both their pockets as well as the Lions...

I was also thinking about the consquences of a failed signing... and what will it do to the MLB and the like...

One of the reasons why the Red Sox bid 10 million more than the Yankees' rumored bid of 27 mil was to keep him away from the Yankees... part of that reason was of Theo's failure to improve his team before the trade deadline, and believe me, if you had to hear about the Abreu trade and the Yankees' winning and about the Massacre and your failure to do anything significant before the trade deadline over and over again, it can get to you, and apparently, it got to Theo to make this ridiculous deal...

However, let's say this: if the Red Sox don't sign Matsuzaka, it can be even more disasterous than most people would think...

Think about it: look at us bloggers! Many of us have written on the guy (positively or negatively), many of us are drooling over his YouTube clips of his games, we want to see this guy pitch in the MLB to see how he will do... Matsuzaka wants to pitch in the MLB... the Japanese are going crazy about him coming over... if they threw a parade for Hideki Matsui when he became a Yankee, imagine the celebration they will throw for Matsuzaka...

It would be absolutely terrible if Matsuzaka isn't signed... most of us want to see this guy pitch... and if the Red Sox don't sign him, he will be stuck on the Lions for another year... it would be terrible for Theo's image and rep... it would be disasterous for the MLB and the relations between the MLB and Japanese ball players (if they don't sign arguably their best pitcher, what does that show?)... most of all, it would be a bitch-slap to anyone and everyone who desperately wants to see him pitch, including me...

The Red Sox's playing keep-away may backfire miserably if they don't sign Matsuzaka... that's why, most likely, he will definitely get signed, and he won't get disrespected with a low contract deal... Boras isn't stupid, he wants the money for the guy, and my belief is, he'll get it...

Only two questions remain: If the Red Sox do win the bid and make the huge deal, where was this spending with Johnny Damon? Where was this adventurous spending when Abreu was available last year?

The deal screams of a panic move against the Yankees... and I hope, for the Sox's sake, it won't backfire terribly for them...

Lastly, the Sheffield trade...

From ESPN:

Detroit has acquired Gary Sheffield from the New York Yankees for three right-handed pitching prospects, the Tigers announced Friday.

In return for Sheffield, the Tigers sent Humberto Sanchez, Kevin Whelan and Anthony Claggett to New York. Detroit agreed to a two-year contract extension with Sheffield through the 2009 season...

Sanchez, 23, was a combined 10-6 with a 2.53 ERA and 129 strikeouts in 123 innings with Triple-A Toledo and Double-A Erie this year. Whelan, 22, was 4-1 with a 2.67 ERA and 27 saves for Class A Lakeland. Claggett, 22, was 7-2 with an 0.91 ERA and 14 saves for Class A West Michigan.

I like the trade, we get three more pitching prospects, and in my mind, you can never have too many good prospects...

According to Baseball America, we got two of the Tigers' Top 10 prospects: Sanchez at #6 and Whelen at #10. This is also with Verlander and Zumaya in the majors. Claggett doesn't look like a scrub as well, with a 0.91 ERA in Class A.

The only thing I would have wanted in the trade was a left-hander, but I can't really complain much, good job Cashman!

And one last final note... Bubba Crosby is now a Red:

The Reds made their first acquisition of the offseason on Friday, signing outfielder Bubba Crosby to a one-year contract worth $400,000.

By signing him to a Major League deal, Cincinnati protected Crosby on its 40-man roster. But he's not assured a 25-man roster spot for Opening Day 2007. The 30-year-old will go to Spring Training and compete for a job as a reserve outfielder.

Crosby, a left-handed hitter, has split the past three seasons shuttling between the Yankees and Triple-A Columbus. He batted .207 with one home run and six RBIs in 2006 for New York and .238 in 22 games for Columbus.

I'm not shedding any tears for a guy who barely hit above replacement-level this year, and I supported Melky over Bubba earlier in the year, but I do wish him the best...

Thanks Bubba for giving all of us a chance to say "Bubba" and "Yankees" in the same sentence!

Happy reading!

B(rent)

A picture says it all...

From SI.com:

"Sheffield also said that dropping Rodriguez to sixth and then to eighth in the batting order messed with his head.

"Knowing him, yes it did, " Sheffield said.

If Sheffield is dealt, he thinks A-Rod will lose the only teammate in the Yankees' clubhouse that he could bounce ideas off.

"He might as well get ready, " Sheffield said. "There's nobody."

^ I think the pic says it all... :-P

All I can really say is... Sheffield is trying his best to decrease his trade value, in order to screw the Yankees back...

Whether the tactic will work or not remains to be seen... I just hope for the Yankees that it doesn't...

Happy reading!

B(rent)

Oh, to come back to the blog at this time...

So here it comes, the bids for Matsuzaka are coming and will be bid by 5 pm today...

From Bob Klapisch:

The baseball world will have its answer on Wednesday, when, by 5 p.m. ET, clubs have to submit their blind bids for the negotiating rights to Matsuzaka and the gyroball, which is said to rotate like a football and move like a slider in slow motion.

The Yankees are believed to be ready to go as high as $20 million for the mere right to speak to Matsuzaka about a contract. It's an enormous posting fee, even by the Yankees' standards, but they're being driven by an unsubstantiated belief that the Rangers will be the dark horses in the blind bidding.

Most of us saw this coming, but with that said, this can be either a lofty success or a terrible mistake... for every Ichiro and Hideki Matsui, you have your Kaz Matsuis and Hideki Irabus... it's a gamble, but I have been following the works of Matsuzaka Watch, an incredible blog about Matsuzaka...

My opinion on him can't be set until I see what he does in the spotlight... I have heard great things about him, and I have seen great Japanese players flop here as well... I'd place him 2nd or 3rd in the rotation, but at the same time, to put a player who has never pitched in the MLB in the 2nd spot at the rotation as well as give him so much money (20 mil for bid, up to 75 mil for 5 years) shows two things:

1. It shows the absurdity of this entire situation and...

2. It shows how weak the Yankees' rotation really is...

At this point without Matsuzaka, Zito, Schmidt, Pettitte, or any other person the Yankees could get through free agency and assuming the Yankees sign Mussina for a 20 mil/2 yr contract soon, this is our rotation:

1. Wang
2. Mussina
3. Johnson
4. Pavano
5. Karstens/Rasner

If you put in either Matsuzaka or Pettitte (who I advocate the signing of) or even Zito, Karstens and Rasner gets bumped off... Karstens would challenge for a long reliever role (which I think would be perfect for him), and Rasner (according to Rotoworld) will try to make it as a middle reliever next year (which I also love)...

The future will let Hughes slip into the rotation in 2008 when Johnson is finally gone, Clippard or any of the other Yankee prospects slip in 2009 when Mussina is gone (or bought out), and you have a nice mix of young and old in the rotation, without the major free agent signing, of course...

Things will get interesting in these next few weeks, and because of that, I'll be back to writing in a more consistent fashion... I won't update as much as Steve does, but I'll do my best!

Happy reading... and watching!

B(rent)