The Prince Of New York's Sunday Lightning, 1.11.2009

• The audacity of Carl Pavano:

    One would think that Carl Pavano would be smart enough to try and put the Yankees experience behind him, move forward with the Indians and rebuild his reputation by taking responsibility for what happened (at least publicly) and going about his business in resurrecting his career. Instead, after signing with the Indians, Pavano had the unthinkable audacity to assign blame to the Yankees for his hellish four year term as a resident of their disabled list. The most unbelievable quotes are as follows (culled from an MLB.com Story):

"When you're down, you expect your organization to pick you up, not kick you when you're down," Pavano said. "I've had to pick myself up quite a few times the last four years."

"To make it eight, 10, 12 years in the big leagues, you've got to be a pretty motivated person," he said. "I've been through surgeries I wasn't sure I'd come back from. I've won a World Series, I've been to the All-Star Game. I've been at the top of the game and the bottom of the barrel. ... I don't think I could be any more motivated than I am right now."

"A lot of offers wanted me to come to camp and have to make the team," Pavano said. "Not that I thought I was above that, but I didn't want to have to be looking over my shoulder. There is some risk on me, and I understand that. I failed for four years in New York, and the perception hasn't been that great, and I understand that. To have a team like Cleveland step up to the plate, how could I ask for anything more?"

"New York's a great place to play," he said. "There's no reason for me to focus on what happened to me, because that's all behind me. I'm not holding any grudges. You just keep moving forward."

    The most egregious of the quotes is the nonsense about kicking him when he's down. The Yankees, at the time they signed Pavano, still housed a large chunk of their selfless, battle-tested players like Derek Jeter, Tino Martinez, Bernie Williams, Jorge Posada and Mariano Rivera; there wasn't this era of mercenaries and stat compilers that have taken over the Yankees clubhouse; Joe Torre was still at the helm of the club; they expected new acquisitions to comport themselves professionally, do their jobs and not behave as if they wanted to be anywhere but on the field, and that's the sense that one got from Pavano even when he was supposedly healthy for the first half of 2005----his body language (a big aspect of Torre's assessment of players) showed a guy who wasn't concentrating on what he was doing and was disinterested in winning.
    The mental strength that the aforementioned players showed was one of the major differences between themselves and their main competition during their dynasty----the Braves and the Indians. Pavano may not have been able to handle the pressures and expectations that came with coming to New York; pitching near his hometown; and making a load of money, but to assign blame to the organization when they call out someone who's behaving in such a way shows a guy who has learned very little from his experiences.
    It's not just that Pavano was constantly hurt during his Yankees career, it's that he didn't appear all that "motivated" (a term he used in the quotes) to get back; he appeared content to sit on the disabled list with injuries that were questionable in the view of players like Martinez, Jeter and Posada, who were willing to go out onto the field with a bone sticking out of their skin. The Yankees of those years may have been serious-minded and coldly corporate, but they were also as tough as nails. Pavano was the antithesis of that attitude during his often ludicrous series of injuries that kept him off the mound.
    The "holding grudges" comment is barely even worth discussing. If anyone should be holding a grudge for Pavano's time in New York, it's the Yankees because they basically took $40 million and threw it in the trash. It's one thing to sign a guy who doesn't perform as expected; but for a guy like Pavano, with the well-founded perception that he didn't care, it's absurd to assign blame to the team that paid him so lucratively and may have had a case to try and sue him to get some of the money back.
    Pavano is on his fourth player agent now and is obviously a guy who's impossible to bridle; and for a team like the Indians with the hustling, tough guys like Grady Sizemore, Travis Hafner and Ryan Garko that permeate their roster, the comments must have been met with raised eyebrows. This isn't the way Pavano wanted to start his time with the Indians. If I were representing or advising him, I'd try to get him to say something to the tune of the following:

"I signed with the Yankees with the best of intentions to pitch well enough to justify the generous contract I received; one thing led to another and things didn't work out as I'd hoped. That's in the past; I'm hoping for a fresh start with a new organization to replenish my image both on and off the field and prove that my time in New York was a learning experience that doesn't define me or my career. I don't blame anyone for what happened; I have the greatest respect for the Yankees organization and am hopeful that I'll rejuvenate my career and alter my perception in Cleveland with the Indians."

    What he really said isn't just absurd, but it's insulting to the Yankees, who probably have a load of stories about Pavano's time with the club that haven't been made public and would only make him look worse. There must be bewilderment and head shaking going on in the Bronx and an even greater desire to bat him around when and if he faces them in 2009. Both sides should move on and the Yankees haven't said anything negative about Pavano since he left; maybe he should take a page out of that book and move forward, because if this is his version of a new start, it looks more like the same old alibis and deflection of personal responsibility that were the hallmarks of his time in New York.

• Another brilliant signing for the Red Sox:

    I've always been a big fan of Takashi Saito. He throws strikes, racks up the strikeouts and is very hard to hit judging by his numbers. For the past three seasons with the Dodgers, Saito (when he was healthy) was one of the more underrated closers in all of baseball. Now he's bolstering an already loaded Red Sox bullpen on a short-term deal that is exemplifying the Red Sox more frugal (and smarter) off season in which they've watched the Yankees spend a half billion dollars to fill their holes.
    The depth of the Red Sox pitching staff will allow them to try and improve their offense by dealing a guy like Clay Buchholz or Manny Delcarmen if that's what it's going to take to pry a catcher from a team like the Rangers, who have a surplus at the position. (Although with each passing day, it looks more and more likely that Jason Varitek will return to the Red Sox.)  When players are returning from injuries or have other physical issues as the majority of the players the Red Sox have signed do, there's no way of knowing what kind of performance they're going to get; but the players who fit into that category----John Smoltz; Brad Penny; Rocco Baldelli; and now Saito----are short-term signings whose contracts are incentive-heavy. If three of them provide anywhere close to what they have in their career, the Red Sox will gladly take that for the money laid out.
    Looking at the holes that each team has, the Red Sox are actually in a better position than the Yankees because their holes aren't as glaring. The Yankees still don't know how much they're going to get from Jorge Posada; the back of their rotation is still a question mark; and they don't have a legit, big league center fielder. The Red Sox starting rotation is bursting; their bullpen is deep and their lineup as currently constructed will hit enough for them to win their annual 90+ games. Add in the questions still surrounding Yankees manager Joe Girardi and the Red Sox have a clear advantage heading into the 2009 season and they filled their holes cheaply as well.

• Japanese pitchers are the ultimate in shooting craps:

    The Braves have apparently signed Japanese pitcher Kenshin Kawakami, but if they really want people to believe that they have any idea whether his success in Japan and his stuff are going to translate to North America, they're deluding themselves. After so many Japanese pitchers have come to the majors and flamed out (Hideki Irabu, Kei Igawa), or have performed far beyond expectations (Hideki Okajima, Saito), it's clear that there's no way of knowing what these players will provide.
    Kawakami has a solid resume in Japan, but so what? Kosuke Fukudome, Irabu and Igawa were heralded when they arrived and that hasn't translated to the big leagues. Despite gaudy numbers, Daisuke Matsuzaka hasn't lived up to the hype of a top-of-the-rotation starter either. The biggest positive about Kawakami for the Braves is that he's a pure free agent and doesn't require the posting fees that guys like Irabu and Matsuzaka did, and he's not going to require a long term, expensive contract.
    Strangely, it was the pitcher who started the exodus of players coming from Japan to try their luck in the United States----Hideo Nomo----who was the most dominant and unappreciated of all the imports, and that includes the overrated Ichiro Suzuki. Nomo's numbers----specifically his strikeouts and hits/innings pitched ratios----showed a guy who was almost unhittable when he was right. Every year he was healthy, the numbers went up----Nomo Stats----and he posted them with his entire country's reputation on the line as he took the drastic step of "retiring" of Japanese baseball at age 25 to take a chance on pitching in the States knowing that he might not be allowed to continue his career in Japan if he failed. That's more pressure than any of the successors had to endure, posting money and hype notwithstanding.
    Had Nomo joined the Dodgers and been just passable, teams wouldn't have been willing to take as many chances on the players from the Far East; it's because of Nomo that there are so many such players in the big leagues and their organizations now. Each and every one of them owes a portion of their fat paychecks to Hideo Nomo and it's something that's easily forgotten because it seems so long ago.

• How about a Yankees-Mets deal that would help both sides?

    The Mets have lusted after Xavier Nady ever since they traded him to the Pirates to fill the hole created by Duaner Sanchez's taxi accident in Florida; that they were able to pry Oliver Perez away from the clueless Pirates was just an additive to their desire to get Roberto Hernandez back. The Yankees are looking to open up a spot for either Nick Swisher or Nady by dealing either of them after their acquisition of Mark Teixeira. A deal that would help both sides would have the Yankees sending Nady to the Mets for Ryan Church.
    Never mind the talk that Church doesn't like New York (if that's the case, then forget it), but Church was a well-respected defensive center fielder while with the Nationals and is a center-right hitter who'd benefit from the Yankees short right field porch. Nady is the righty bat the Mets need and was very well-liked in their clubhouse while handling New York and providing clutch hits. He also plays first base, which will make him a viable option after the 2009 season when Carlos Delgado's contract expires and will open up and outfield spot for Fernando Martinez.
    Nady's a free agent at the end of the year and is due a big raise in arbitration; Church is arbitration eligible, but will be under organizational control until 2012. If it's agreeable to all sides, it fits well on paper and on the field and the Yankees could install Swisher in right field and not worry about having to play Brett Gardner or Melky Cabrera in center field; signing Jim Edmonds or trading for Mike Cameron. It's a viable alternative on all levels.