how will it even be fun to be a yankee "fan" this year?
you're suppose to win every game.

on a side note, i am putting together the annual chicago
metro all stars vs. the cripples, football game again this year.
i just love watching those cripples get tackled.

i'll let you know.
best,
brian

I remember reading somewhere that Jeter's "range factor" is among the worst, actually it might have been THE worst, among all MLB starting shortstops. Among other things, this means he is really terrible at getting to ground balls in the hole. This doesn't show up in traditional defensive stats (i.e. errors), so people continue to mistakenly think he's a great fielder.

I agree that he'd be better off in center. And yeah, I also don't give a shit about that team. Not a shit.

So this is what I don't get:

The Rangers are paying over $100 million of the $165 million left on A-Rod's contract.

They're paying him all the deferred money from his first three years in 2011.

And they get Soriano, whom they also have to pay.

Why the fuck would the Rangers give up so much money to get rid of their one brilliant player? I don't get it at all.

Can't they just make him play? Won't that cost a lot less in the long run?

I have one idea, but I don't have any substantiation for it: The Rangers are trying to roll up the rug and go broke. If they go broke before 2011, they don't have to pay the 100 million and they don't have to pay the deferred money.

It just might be that buying the most expensive player in the history of baseball was a cripplingly bad business decision.

how will it even be fun to be a yankee "fan" this year?
you're suppose to win every game.

brian...brian...we can pretend that this is the case, me and you

but it's going to be fucking amazing to be a yankee fan this year

the red sox, i don't feel sorry for them. they have also had a great offseason, and it has the feel of a purposeful rearming, unlike this yankee thing. but the yankees will be fun to root for, make no mistake, if you are accustomed to so doing.

I saw the full numbers breakdown two days ago, the Rangers save a surprising amount of money from this trade--about 20 million more than they would have saved dealing A-Rod to the Sox. Soriano's offense is only slightly below A-Rod's, and I think they're only paying him something like 5 mil. this year. The deferred money does suck, but what they free up with this trade gives them a chance to start rebuilding.

As a lifelong Sox fan I'm pretty numb to this whole thing. There's almost no objective reporting on Sox-Yankees issues anymore, and from what I can tell the two teams are even. I can't tell if i'm excited for the coming season, or dreading it as a long slow march back to the suicidal feeling I had at the end of last year's ALCS.

Hey, I got it all wrong. It's the Yankees who are paying $112 million and the Rangers are paying a mere $67 million.

Still, what the fuck? I'll give you $67 million dollars and my best player ever, and you give me Soriano and a go fuck myself. I don't get it.

braudimusprime wrote:There's almost no objective reporting on Sox-Yankees issues anymore, and from what I can tell the two teams are even. I can't tell if i'm excited for the coming season, or dreading it as a long slow march back to the suicidal feeling I had at the end of last year's ALCS.

I hate the Yankees and have a grudging appreciation of the Red Sox, but I'd be a fool to make any bet against the Yankees this year. The Red Sox can compete with them, but they are weaker at almost every position, and unless there's an acid spill or a half-dozen career-defining meltdowns, they'll kill the Pilgrims.

tim,
i agree with your statement. it will be fun to be a yankee fan this year.
just like it will be fun to be george bush's campaign manager this year
during the republican primary.

i'm sure yankee fans will enjoy the '04 season. i was just told that they
picked up fucking maddux as well!!??!?! is that true?

jesus. i'm going to see if i can form a commission with some of the other
owners and trade the remaining all-stars in the american league to
the detroit tigers. we'll make it a three horse race - red sox, tigers, and
yankees. gotta go make some calls....

brian

pitching wins championships, steve. and i'd take the red sox over the yankees current rotation any day of the week.

that is, unless these rumors about the yanks courting maddux are true.

http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/articles/2004/02/15/ny_powers_up_with_a_rod/

Here's a particularly optimistic article from Boston Globe Sports section doing a little position by position.

Steve, I will give you that the Yankees match up favorably at most positions (exceptions: DH, right field), but the Sox rotation is much better, and I'll take the Sox bullpen as well. However, there is something about this Yankees team that makes them seem ripe for implosion to me--as Bill Simmons put it they seem more like a Fantasy team come to life than anything else. So, while they're the favorites and rightfully so, I would never in a million years bet on this group to win it all.