Let's see what comes out of this years baseball season. Damon on shaky ground, after nobody has signed him yet. Some of the normal faces are gone: Melky, Wang, and a few others, while there are some new faces.

number 28 is going to be the result,lets hope granderson and javy turn outto be good moves

I didn't know Jose Molina signed with the Toronto Blue Jays:

http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/35484427/ns/...ts-player_news/

http://newyork.yankees.mlb.com/news/articl...sp&c_id=nyy

I believe Damon signed with Detroit. Interestingly enough for one year. I thought it was length of contract that was the big sticking point with the Yankees. He should fit in well with the Tigers and Jimmy Leyland is a great manager so its not a bad move for Damon. I just don't know why he settled on only one year.

Do you believe he would actually come back to the Yankees? He said he wouldn't rule it out. I don't think they will sign him again. He could have had a 2 year deal, worth $14 Million each.

That's what I mean, Terry...and he signed with the Tigers for $8 million I think it was. So something more happened between the two sides.

I wonder why the Yankees didn't keep Molina.

Terry,

The Yankee offer was $7M per year for 2 years. Total $14M.

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball...due_to_sti.html

joba looked bad today

I'll regress and believe in Santa Claus, the Easter bunny and the tooth fairy (yes all three) before I'll ever believe AROD is off steroids.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/09/sports/b...ions&st=cse

Are you saying you don't believe in Santa, the EB and tooth fairy now? Have you no faith man?

I got sad about no Santa. The other two - never gave them much thought. But AROD is definitely juicing in the present.

Joba got crushed again yesterday. Maybe we should have made more of a push for Lackey.

I like Joba in the bullpen actully. He's better fit for the bullpen then to be a starter. Mid to upper 90's fastball with movement and a wicked slider. Put him in the 8th inning, as part of the bridge to Rivera.

I've always like Joba in the bullpen and Hughes in the rotation moreso than the other way around.

You've got to wonder if the guy has lost his confidence. Hopefully the yankees have not messed him up. Everyone's got to remember that Rivera got annihilated as a starter but Joba doesn't have his steeliness. So he's going to be more fragile in getting through this.

Who here thinks Cashman is a smart GM? Sometimes, I doubt him. He could have gone after top pitchers, like he did last year with Sabathia. I think Sabathia is more of lights out pitcher than Burnett.

I bet come April or May, we will see the Johnny Damon ware-wolf, that we saw in Boston, since he doesn't have to shave as much now.

I think Cashman is a very smart GM in that he seems to have a sense for what players will be the right fit both on the field and in the club house. And he also has a good sense of who will be durable. Other teams have spent a ton of money but failed miserably because they didn't get the right players for their team and their needs. Cashman is very good at that. I think the addition of Javy Vazquez was excellent and he will be solid in the #3 or #4 role. Hughes or Chamberlain have to step up. Both were more effective as relievers but one has to emerge as a starter. That's way too much young talent to have and still have to go and spend money on a high-priced free agent. As for Ice's point, I think they did screw up Chamberlain with all of those stupid Joba rules. I understand lessons of guys like Mark Prior and Rick Ankiel dictate that you have to protect young pitchers, but the Yankees went to the point of being paranoid and in turn it shook Joba's confidence and rhythm. Hopefully he can bounce back.

I think Cashman is sharp as hell and a great businessman. You want 1 year solutions Terry,and many of the ones you touted would be horrible LT decisions, especially if MLB goes salary cap at some point and the latter is probably inevitable. If that ever happens bad deciosions on players, especially older players will turn the Yankees into the Knicks.

Per Francesa - Mauer having negotiation problems with the Twins and is becoming open to the Yankees and Red Sox. Even Francesa, a huge Yankee fan, is dead against the Yankees getting Mauer, saying it's a disaster for baseball if he winds up on the Yankees (and implied that if he doesn't stay a Twin). This is the monster problem that is confronting MLB and I think we all realize if MLB doesn't do something soon than this is almost no longer a sport unless they almost adopt small market teams as a second division. How does any smaller market team keep a future all-time great without help from the player being willing to pass up bigger money from a larger market rich team. Plus how many players are going to do that? You have this going on now with Mauer and Pujols, two players that in any other era would be with their teams until they retire. It's only a matter of time before we see the Yankees with an all star at every position and owning the top pitchers as well. It's not even an issue of Yankee greed. The players all want to come here, not just because of the Yankee checkbook but because of endorsements.

I know the arguments, look at how many small market teams won recently. And the answer is they are all turning out to be one year freak teams that did it with dominant pitching that they couldn't hold beacuse of the free agency system and just look at where those pitchers ended up. You can't have a sport that lasts long when the small market teams are a minor league system to to larger market teams. If you think this is bad now just wait 5 more years. We'll start seeing more and more 50-55-60 win teams and sooner or later you'll get a Yankee team that'll win 120 and 105-115 routinely. This is quickly becoming the equivalent of a runway greenhouse now. We know what happens in business, the small sellout to the large in a major consolidation game. That can't happen in sports so what you'll get is small market teams spending less and less and just minting money from their take of allocations. That's the closest thing you'll get to a sellout of a team in MLB and that's exactly what you are starting to see more and more of. The business model dictates this behavior. The only hope for a small market team is to find great pitchers that can give them a title before they lose that pitching to the large market teams. This is what MLB has become.

Mauer signed a big extension with the Twins...and all Yankees fans collectively say "****!".

I'm a diehard yankee fan and as a fan of the game also i'm glad Mauer is staying put where he belongs.

Agreed.

Mauer signed a 8 year contract extension worth about $184 million dollars.

Problem is Mauer will be the exception to the rule, not the rule.

He probably could have gotten 200+ from the Yankees or Red Sox over 8 years. But when is enough enough? When does loyalty to an organization and its fans become more important than money...especially when you're already talking about an insane amount of money? Great example set by a true superstar player and a guy who really seems to have his head on straight.

Hughes is 5th:
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball..._5_starter.html

I cant believe we are giving somebody credit for making 184million ...world of sports have def change and so did the money market...

Great effort by CC today, especially with all those great defensive plays. As usual the no hitter gets broken up by one of the least offensive players on the team, back-up catcher Kelly Shoppach.

And TB has great speed and can have infield singles more then any other team..

Batting Average -- On base Percentage
D Jeter 303 .343
N Johnson 200 .429

Check out the numbers to-date for these two.
They have both scored 5 runs.

Yanks hitting well as a team and lead the league in OPS by a wide margin.
http://espn.go.com/mlb/stats/team/_/stat/b.../OPS/order/true

Posada, Cano, Swisher, and Granderson have been hot. Teixeira has not.
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/teams/battin...=2&type=reg

Vazquez is so wack. Why did they bring him back. He has cost the Yankees the win, since he started back.

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball...ll_to_los_.html

And here's Terry in the autumn:

Vasquez wins game 6 of the AL champonship series. What a great move to get him.

You support him?

Terry he is a good pitcher - why wouldn't you support him? He had 2 bad starts and actually the 2nd one was at least better than the first. You have to look at the big picture. Do you know his stats from last year? Did you support CC last April when he got off to a bad start?

He's a high quality pitcher and very durable, something every team craves. You make a decision off of 2 games, one of which wasn't even all that bad. His stats last year were fantastic. You've got to look at the big picture, not make decisions in a vacuum of 2 games.

I don't see the reason why Cashman brought him back in the first place. They bring someone back that cost them a huge game in 2004, but won't keep, or bring back former players that helped them get where they are today.

You don't understand. Vasquez doesn't have to be a #1. He's pitching behind CC and Burnett.The first time around, there was a lot of pressure on him. Plus, he has refined his secondary stuff. He's got a pretty good changeup, a slider, a curve, and a fastball. He's older now and more mature. He's no longer a thrower; he's a pitcher. When he's on, he's nasty and tough to beat

You're freaking out over two starts in April? Are you kidding? And one of them wasn't all that terrible.

I'm afraid you d'ont factor age into the equation. but anyone in management has no choice but to do so as it's what any responsible business person has to do. In the future you'd complain about the same players and management and say that they have a bad team because they signed overaged non producing players. You need to get realistic about the Yankees in a hurry Terry. You know who'd have been your hero - George Allen, long ago coach of the Washington Redskins. His famous expression was the future is now. He'd mortgage 10 years for a championship competing team now and retain every Damon and Matsui he could find. Of course 2 years or so later, as those players contracts went on while the players had badly faded, he had the worst team in football and one horrible mess of a team. Also d'ont you think 10 games into a season is a bit premature to draw the conclusions you are coming to?

One last thing - for Yankee fans - thank God you're not the GM.

Granderson is a nice replacement for Damon. He runs really fast and gets those hits.

Ice, you're entitled to your opinion, just as well as I am. If, I remember correctly, last year, you yourself wrote the Yankees off early in the season, and doubted they would make it past the regular season, and get far enough ahead to win the World Series. Especially before Arod returned. Thank goodness your predictions were wrong.

Come the end of the Regular season, I will apologize if he turns out to be a really impressive pitcher. But, until I see him leave the game ahead and not behind in the count, I will continue to wonder why they re-signed him.

So who would you rather have as the 4th yankee starter. Who's better than Vasquez that the Yankees could have had? Joba? He was a disaster as a starter.

My comment about the GM is simply that you take a very short viewpoint. Whatever somebody did last is what you remember and you make your basis on that. Do you really want to be staring at a bunch of players in their mid 30's to 40 next year? Because based on your choices that's what you'd have, along with a bloated payroll and no players that anyone else would want.

Terry i do understand one thing you are saying. Basically they should not have let Damon and Matsui go in favor of Vasquez. But they got Vazquez in a trade and Matsui and Damon were free agents so it's unrelated. A GM has to make some tough decisions and take into account not just next year but the future. Matsui and Damon would have weighed the team down with big contracts and are both getting older. Either could break down at any time. Though i do agree they will miss them in the clutch and should have kept one of them. But there is not a single team in baseball that wouldn't want Vasquez, i don't care what he did in 04.

They could have gotten John Lackey, or Roy Halladay. They would have been a better deal. Plus, Michael Kay mentioned something important last night during the game. He said, that every season, Andy Pettitte says he is retiring, but so far has returned. But one day, it will be his truly last day in pinstripes, and then they will have to go all out to acquire a good replacement for Andy. Andy was just dandy last season, just like he always has been. They will have to spend money no matter what, if Andy leaves.

They have CC and Burnett on lock for a few years.

The Yankees getting either player, particularly Halladay (who would have been the first starter of course) would have been an even greater disaster for MLB than MLB already is. Same with Mauer. I think even the Yankees are now mindful of the accusation that they are buying the championship or a ticket into it every year. Just look at how fans like you are expecting that and are disappointed when they d'ont pull the trigger. The competitive situation in MLB is an absolute joke right now and the sport should be deeply ashamed of it, if you can even call it a sport any more. Had dinner with some friends the other day and we actually discussed MLB's rich city, poor city fracture as the equivalent of Vince McMahon's fixes in the old World Wrestling Federation. That's a great name for baseball now, let's call it the Major League Baseball Federation, because that's what it's become. Half or more of the teams in this so called sport will never be seen on National TV again unless they have an early career superstar pitcher (ala a Doc Gooden type, who they will quickly lose to a rich city team anyway) or unless MLB puts some very quick checks and balances in. That in and of itself shows you how uncompetitive and absurd MLB has become. Just think about that.

I will see how Vazquez does on his next mound visits.

Anyone notice how all the talk about the new Yankee Stadium being too home-run friendly has disappeared, along with the home-runs? The homers are way/way down so far this season versus last year.