MLB chatter 2009-10: The Offseason

[Tom Servo]

Looks like Johnny Damon's off to the Tigers... Linky



I wish the Yanks had tried harder to keep him. Oh well, this is only a one-year deal, so maybe he'll be back.

God help him when he has his first at-bat at Yankee Stadium in a Tiger uniform.

Why would they boo him? It's not like the Tigers and Yankees are huge rivals or anything. And he was desperate to go back to the Yanks, they just didn't want him.

The dude did the Red Sox-Yankees switch...Im pretty sure he can handle going to the Tigers.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ Well, who were you more pissed at back in '04? Damon for leaving the Sox, or the Sox for letting him go (or not doing enough to keep him)?

Especially after he'd just helped you win a World Series - just like he did last year for the Yanks?

 

[Scout101]

Damon for going to the Yankees, after having been all over the press about how he wouldn't even consider it. And he wasn't the first to leave after the World Series, so not like that was the big factor. Left after the '05 season, didn't he?

Theo's a little heartless sometimes, but had the right idea. Can't overpay to keep the aging stars based on nostalga. Sox made a good offer, but based on his health and playing style, they didn't think they'd get their money's worth if they added the extra year he wanted. He was a shitty LEFT fielder at the end of his deal, imagine if the Sox had had to play him in FENWAY for those last 4 years. We were kinda stocked up on Left field and DH (Ortiz and Manny, then Bay, you may have heard of them?), so that deal wouldn't have worked with the 5th year he was demanding.

Either way, the big part was just going to the Yankees after he talked all kinds of shit about them and how he'd never consider it, evne if they offered him more money. Then he took the extra cash (forget about whether there was confusion about whether he was supposed to offer the Sox a chance to counter the last offer and didn't), cut his hair, and played right into it.

Yankees fans booing Johnny would be pretty shitty fans, honestly. He WANTED to come back, was told NO, and then had to get a job elsewhere. What's to boo him for, from your perspective?

 

[Tom Servo]

^ Well, who were you more pissed at back in '04? Damon for leaving the Sox, or the Sox for letting him go (or not doing enough to keep him)?

Especially after he'd just helped you win a World Series - just like he did last year for the Yanks?

Ah, well seeing as how he never gave the Sox a chance for a counter offer after the Yankees made their bid, Im pretty sure I was pissed at Damon, as a fan.

Of course thats how the economics of baseball work, so looking at it objectively, one really can't get mad. And generally, Theo has been great at letting go of aging stars, so I'm not gonna fault him for that. Damon's numbers over the last 4 years, especially the power numbers, have been inflated by the stadium, so I don't think that he would have been the same player at Fenway.

However, there is barely a rivalry between the Yankees and the Tigers, and the man practically begged to come back, so any fan that boos him is an idiot IMHO.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Of course thats how the economics of baseball work, so looking at it objectively, one really can't get mad.

So you wouldn't get mad at the Yankees (no more than usual, anyway ) for not doing enough to keep him? If the Sox didn't do that before, would you expect the Yankees to do it now?

And no, I'm not going to boo him. Or at least I wouldn't, if any of the games I'll see this year would have been Tigers games (they won't). I admit I am curious as to what usually happens when players jump ship like this, i.e. the ratio of players who do get booed vs. those who don't. For example, when Bobby Abreu went to the Angels, then played his first game with them at Yankee Stadium, the reaction was pretty well 50/50 on that point.

 

[Scout101]

And again, stupidity is a factor there. If the PLAYER leaves, especially for more money, you can justify it a little. If the TEAM tells you "no thanks, get lost" even after the player states they really want to stay, it's tough to justify booing that player.

Example: Damon got booed for taking more money to play for a rival. Pedro wasn't persued by the Sox after his contract (fears about health, which turned out correct), but wanted to stay. Just had to leave to keep playing. Not booed.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Speaking of players leaving...

Manny declares 2010 his final year in L.A.

 

[Scout101]

Not really a shock. He's an aging slugger trying to play OF on a NL team. And was never a good defender anyway. At some point, don't they ALL basically come over to the AL and DH, or hang it up?

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Chan Ho Park to the Yankees. linky

 

[Pegaritaville]

Tried to get tickets for our trip to the Royals/Twins series in April, but apparently the Royals are one of those teams that don't sell tickets until March. Kind of surprised since we got our tickets for the Twins/Brewers game quite a while ago (can't wait to see the new Target Field). I would think if any team would want to sell tickets early, it'd be the Royals.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

we got our tickets for the Twins/Brewers game quite a while ago (can't wait to see the new Target Field).

How did you do that? Twins single game tickets aren't on sale yet either.

 

[Chaos Descending]

^ Clemens v. Piazza in the 2000 Series was funny though.

Clemens vs. Schilling in the 2001 Series was even funnier, IMHO! (Granted, it REALLY wound up being Rivera vs. Johnson, but it was still great).

 

[Tom Servo]

Im surprised Kiko Calero is still out there in FA land somewhere. Put up some good numbers last year. I wonder who is gonna take a flier on him?

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Aaron Boone announces retirement. He now joins ESPN as a broadcaster.

 

[Pegaritaville]

we got our tickets for the Twins/Brewers game quite a while ago (can't wait to see the new Target Field).

How did you do that? Twins single game tickets aren't on sale yet either.

Group sales. One bar in our town has a bus going on Saturday and another bar has a bus going on Sunday. I'm going on both. One of the bartenders also works for the Twins front office, so he may have had some pull there. But I assumed the single game tickets were also already on sale.

 

[Aragorn]

Looks like Johnny Damon's off to the Tigers... Linky



I wish the Yanks had tried harder to keep him. Oh well, this is only a one-year deal, so maybe he'll be back.

God help him when he has his first at-bat at Yankee Stadium in a Tiger uniform.

A little late to the Damon talk, but if he really wanted to stay with the Yankees, then this on Scott Boras for overvaluing Damon's worth on the open market. There's no spin (or in Boras' case, I call it lying) you can put on turning down a two year, $14 million deal and then taking a 1 year, $8 million deal.

And hearing Damon talk, he and Boras certainly deserve one another: "This is where we wanted to be. It is where my family wanted to be. Contrary to what has been reported, I wanted a place where I could win right away. I have always been truthful and Detroit was always my first choice, and my wife and I are going to love it there."

 

[SmoothieX]

What exactly was he going to say?

"It sucks to be in this dump of a city that's the center of the recession and what's worse is I have to play for a team that gagged on the Twins' pubes last September."

Bay didn't want anything to do with the Mets (I wish I didn't) but he made it sound like they were the cat's ass when he signed with them.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Bay didn't want anything to do with the Mets

How do you know?

 

[Scout101]

Taking the offer he was given, and shopping it around for a couple weeks, begging for anyone to even match it, was a pretty good indication. Trying to back into the Red Sox offer, which was a couple million LESS than he took from the Mets, was also a hint...

 

[SmoothieX]

Wasn't the rumored phrase "I'd rather play in Beirut" ?