Interesting fallout from the Marlins-Tigers deal. The Mets tried to get Dontrelle Willis from the Marlins, but Florida wouldn’t trade him to their division rival (I hate to call a team that waves the white flag like this a rival, but whatever).
Detroit was looking at spinning off Willis in a separate deal and made contact with the Mets. However, the Tigers have an agenda---they need to dump some salary. They asked the Mets to take Willis and Ivan Rodriguez, who is due $13 million next year. The other thing to consider is that Pudge has a no-trade clause, so if he’s going to waive that you’d probably have to give him an extension.
All in all…not a chance this happens. The Mets will have no interest in taking on that much salary and giving Pudge another year.
One day left at the Winter Meetings, and Johan Santana is still a Twin. Anybody see that coming? Even better, did you see the Mets getting back into this when it looked like two days ago he was heading to Boston? The Mets still will not trade Jose Reyes, but can build a package around some combination of their top prospects (OF’s Carlos Gomez and Fernando Martinez and P’s Mike Pelfrey and Kevin Mulvey). There was some split amongst scouts I spoke to briefly about who is better, Gomez or Boston’s Jacoby Ellsbury. The verdict: Ellsbury is more polished, but Gomez has more potential.
Still not sure if the Twins are finding anything to their liking. They may be better off doing what I said last week---play the first 90 games and see what takes shape in July.
The Yankees media corps got to have lunch with Joe Girardi today. Among many topics both formal and informal, I was surprised to hear that as many times as Girardi has played golf with Paul O’Neill, he has never seen O’Neill throw a club or take out a water cooler on the course. I guess he saved all that rage for the dugout. But it’s not hard to picture O’Neill standing around somewhere practicing his golf swing in mid-air just like he did as a player in the outfield.
Brian Cashman said the Yankees could lose two players in Thursday’s Rule 5 Draft. He didn’t specify, but one of them may be Eric Duncan, a first round pick in 2003. Just two years ago at the Winter Meetings he was the MVP of the Arizona Fall League and riding high. Since then, Duncan has been hurt by some injuries as well as being a bit overmatched after being rushed up to Triple-A. But he turns just 23 this week and still has some upside, perhaps enough for a team to take a chance. He still has a nice swing and is a great kid. I hope things work out for him.
Apparently Mark Feinsand of the Daily News got a nice gift from the folks here at the Opryland after writing in his blog what a disaster this place is. All I have to say is this: remember in the movie WarGames when Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy are playing Global Thermonuclear War on the computer and picking which cities to nuke first? I think they chose Las Vegas. I may have to give serious thought to the Opryland.
Speaking of Vegas (“Vegas, baby, Vegas!”), that’s the sight of next year’s Winter Meetings. I dread what kind of HBO reality show comes out of that one.
Go back to 1997, the year after the Yankees won their first World Series under Joe Torre, and two of the most talked about players were a couple of kids who were less than two years removed from their big league debuts in Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera.
Welcome to February. It may not feel like it outside, but spring is right around the corner. Pitchers and catchers are just two weeks away, and if that’s enough to warm you up right about now then try another pair of socks and some hot tea.
I can’t imagine I’ll ever have the privilege of covering a player like Hideki Matsui again. The word “unique” is thrown around too much, but this was indeed a unique experience, right from Day One.
A few thoughts heading out of Indianapolis: *Assume for a moment no Johnny Damon in the 2-hole. On days when Jorge Posada doesn’t catch and bat 5th, who’s the best option for the Yankees in the 5-hole behind Alex Rodriguez?
Andy Pettitte’s one-year renewals have worked out very well for the Yankees. After signing for the 2010 season for essentially he is now entering the final year of a 4-year, $54.25 million contract.
Yankee fans should be thankful Curtis Granderson’s OBP dipped down to .327 last season (from .361 and .365 the previous two years). The price the Yankees paid for Granderson wasn’t very high if you think about it.
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