The Yankees are waiting for the playoffs, while the Mets are jockeying for .500. The latest on New York's teams…
- Scott Boras client Robinson Cano told Ken Davidoff of Newsday, "I will make my own decision. I'm a grown man, and I can decide where I want to be, what I want to do." Cano has club options for 2012 and '13 that are likely to be exercised, so it's not quite time to worry about his next contract with the Yankees.
- Mike Axisa of River Ave. Blues has reservations about the Yankees spending big bucks on Yu Darvish if he's posted, but is intrigued by the righty.
- Yankees GM Brian Cashman explained to John Harper of the New York Daily News why he was "very comfortable saying no" to the Mariners' request to include Ivan Nova or Eduardo Nunez along with Jesus Montero in his offer for Cliff Lee last summer. Montero's stock is higher right now, but the debate remains open as to whether the Mariners should have chosen him over Justin Smoak.
- Johan Santana is currently showing better stuff than he did last year, Mets pitching coach Dan Warthen told Andy Martino of the New York Daily News. Santana, who had shoulder surgery a year ago, is the key to the Mets' 2012 rotation.
- The Mets shouldn't sleep on the Nationals as a potential NL East contender in the near future, writes Joel Sherman of the New York Post. Sherman adds that the Nationals are "routinely in the discussion" when he asks baseball executives to speculate on where Jose Reyes could sign this winter.
Jesus Montero is an absolute Monster.
Yes, and if anything is clear by this point in his career is that he will be the greatest player to have ever lived.
Sure, I’ll play.
I’ll interpret what you said as “you like tartar sauce on your ice cream, but only on the weekends.”
Fun!
Naturally I prefer it on weekends but it’s not a must.
His 162-Game average according to Baseball Reference, .385 AVG, 81 HRs, 122 RBIs, .467 OBP IN 608 PA. Gotta love that type of production out of the catcher’s position!
If Montero is a monster, then what does that make Lawrie/Trout?
Monsters with half a season more playing time?
win.
Fellow monsters. They’re thinking of having jackets made.
monsters that can play defense! that’s extra scary
Im still shocked over Lawrie’s ability to play third.
Monster with position….
Montero has the blood of Jason Heyward and the intensity of Andy Marte.
JayHey is kinda slumping right now
Smoak is hitting all of .227… Montero could hit that in his sleep…
would have been better if you said ‘Jesus could hit that in his sleep’
It sure seemed to be a cautious decision at the time but keeping Nunez and Nova have allowed the Yankees to be in first place. No doubt Lee would have been great but when Jeter was hurt Nunez was great.
the Yanks do not play to be in first place. They play to win the world series.
Anyone would take Lee over Nova in the post season.
Lee is a broken shoelace away from a DL stint…
That’s dumb. Lee has been pretty healthy over the duration of his career; he had neck problems in 08 and back problems in 09, but both were minor issues and his arm has been solid over the years. Besides, every pitcher in professional baseball is just one pitch away from ending their career. All it takes is that one pitch to tear the ligament in your elbow, or that one pitch to cause a complete tear of a rotator cuff.
I’ll be honest with you, as a Yankees fan… I would gladly give up Nova and Nunez for Lee, no questions asked. I’d even pay their salaries for the next 5 years to get Lee. BUT, giving up Montero for a rental would not be a smart move. If we had signed him to an extension after giving up Montero, it would be worth it. But given the way things turned out… I’m glad that trade didn’t happen.
Allowed them to be in first?
If the Yanks had Lee, they’d likely have a commanding lead on the division and they’d be considered WS favorites. Right now, they have a slim three game lead and a very questionable postseason rotation. If you’re protective of Montero, that’s one thing, but saying Nunez and Nova are bigger contributions to the Yankees right now than Lee would’ve been is delusion. Lee’s currently contending for the Cy Young in a hitters’ park, put him in lefty friendly NYS and he”d probably inexplicably be able to improve upon his current numbers. Not to mention the Yanks may have won the WS last year with him.
Yes but what makes it so obvious to you that he would stayed in NY if he wasn’t willing to sign an extension before the trade was made?
The real mistake was the Mariners picking Smoak over Montero, regardless of what other players were involved. I like Smoak, but just looking what the two guys were doing last year relative to their ages, you have to see a much greater chance for Montero to be a true cornerstone star, even at first base or DH.
The Mariners got a better package from the Rangers. One player doesn’t make a team.
They got a back of the rotation innings eater and a middle reliever/rapist/PR nightmare in addition to Smoak. That doesn’t make up the difference to me. The hardest thing to get in baseball is a superstar. I think they passed on one because they were too concerned about getting role players, too.
Ummmm….
Justin Smoak
Josh Lueke (7.92 ERA in 25 mlb IP as a relief pitcher)
Blake Beavans (11 starts, 4.33 ERA but 10 hrs and only 28 KO in 70 IP in the majors).
Matthew Lawson (.700 OPS @ AA albeit in only 100 AB)
I don’t see anything to be optimistic about above Smoak , who himself is struggling.
I’m not sure what other players were on the table other than Montero and David Adams (who missed most of the season rehabbing his knee) but I don’t think it was hard to imagine a Hector Noesi/Adam Warren/Brandon Laird type would’ve been a deal breaker to add depth to the deal.
I just don’t see how those three made it a better deal.
Their careers have barely even begun and somehow we know how they’re going to do? They both still need to prove it at the major league level. For all anyone knows all players involved could turn out to be complete flops and any of those deals receiving Lee could be a steal.
Right, but you can’t make trades in hindsight. Results will obviously be fickle with all athletes, especially young, unproven ones. But I think their process in picking one package over the other was misguided.
But that’s exactly the point because you can’t be certain until their careers are done. I can’t see how their process was misguided without ever even knowing what the process was.
But we know from reliable sources that the Mariners nixed the deal because they liked the secondary players in the Rangers package better than what the Yankees were willing to part with. That’s bad process in a situation like this.
How is it a bad process to accept the deal you think is better?
A decent farm system should be able to develop plenty of guys like the secondary prospects in either package, and secondary prospects are even riskier than top flight ones (the margin of error on Blake Beavan, for instance, is small enough that it’s easier for him to flop), so choosing the inferior main prospect on account of the ancillary guys isn’t wise. I believe Christina Kahrl referred to this case as fixating too much on the parsley.
Of course, this is all coming from the perspective of someone who thinks Montero is a clearly better prospect than Smoak. But I don’t know a lot of people who’d argue that one.
Except that your evaluation of their process for this is strictly relying on how good you think these prospects are, which there is no way to know because they still have to perform. Thus your opinion and anyone else’ opinion on who is better is merely an opinion until they actually play enough to have something tangible to compare. There are a lot of people who would argue against Montero clearly being a better prospect than Smoak. Plenty. Just because you don’t know them doesn’t automatically make Montero the better choice. Neither one of them have done a damn thing to make themselves the clear cut choice over the other. Neither of them have done a thing in the majors yet.
Present one of those people. Show me their methodology. The scouting reports I’ve seen on Montero are flat out better. The performance has been flat out better. The performance relative to age has been better. Plus Smoak has struggled in the big leagues, which doesn’t make him a bust, but makes him a worse bet for superstardom. Montero raked in Triple-A at an age when Smoak was still in college. Age relative to league is a great indicator of future stardom.
You’re right. The Mariners should have waited until their careers are over before deciding which one to trade for. lol
Seriously though, right now, Montero is looking like the better prospect. But their careers will forever be compared to each other because of this trade.
Yeah that’s what I said. It’s not like I was saying anything completely ridiculous like there’s no way to know who’s the better player yet. That’s just so far fetched to not know yet. It is clearly evident already after five whopping games who’s better.
You say that like I’m making my judgment based on five games. I’m actually standing by exactly what I thought at the time of the trade.
There’s one thing that people seem to miss about Japanese players, and that’s how much money they bring in from overseas. With Matsui gone for the past two years I am willing to believe that the Yankees have lost some revenue coming in from the Japanese market, how much exactly, I have no idea. A 100MM expense on salary and posting fee isn’t all invested in the production of the player. Everybody rags on the Matsuzaka deal like they just wasted all that money on a mediocre amount of production, but how much money did they make in return from Japanese marketing, merchandising, etc.? From what I understand, Darvish isn’t a Kei Igawa type player, he is more of a Matsuzaka type player in terms of popularity and can bring a lot of fanfare with him. Since the Yankees did previously have Matsui they also have a good precedent for how much money a player of that caliber and popularity can bring over. Don’t get me wrong, I’m completely in the dark as to whether or not the Yankees make a play for him or whether or not it is a good idea in general. I’m just trying to say that a lot of this issue has to do with short and long term investing with returns in money from relatively untapped markets, not just production.
Does the money made go to Major League Baseball or does it go to the Red Sox? Or both?
Different sport, but a former player on the Jets, Kevin Mawae was in my class at college, he mentioned to me players get 6% of merchandise in their name. Don’t knwo if the same applies to MLB though.
I would imagine that merchandise sales go to player, team, MLB, and possibly manufacturer, the amount per benefactor I have no idea. At least with merchandise the player, team, and MLB initially have their own right to the product since they all have their logo or name on it. Since that is the case they all have to agree on a deal otherwise nothing can be sold without the consent of everybody involved. These deals aren’t necessarily the same for all. A good example is the MLBPA. If you belong to the MLBPA you are essentially going to have to comply with the bargaining agreement that you signed for various things, if you don’t belong to the MLBPA you can basically try to deal for anything you want. You will very rarely see somebody refuse to do a jersey or such since all they have to do is sign their name and get paid. They can get paid in any form such as a percentage or a lump sum. All of this is an educated guess on my part. Players might have to sign various documents in order to play in the major leagues since they do not own the league, but before you sign anything you have the complete rights to your own name and likeness as does the team and MLB with their own logos. This is basically why you might sometimes see players in commercials with blank jerseys and caps, because the league and team weren’t involved in the deal. Long story short, the team gets a large amount, but everybody gets a piece, and it all depends on what piece of paper you sign your name to.
There might be a percentage standard involved that almost everybody takes. The theory is that if you are a better player and deserve more money for your name you will get paid that amount anyway since your jersey will sell accordingly with it’s popularity.
Merchandise I believe is divided among all 30 teams. What they might get is more Japanese ad space in the stadium and possibly sell some TV rights over there from the YES network. You’ll aslo probably see some tickets being entirely sold for the sole reason to see Darvish pitch. My mom is from Taiwan and would regularly only attend games Wang used to pitch.