• It’s never too early to be on the managerial hot seat:

    All the NFL coaching news has gotten me to thinking about which managers are going to start the season in the managerial death wing waiting for a governor’s reprieve. Some of the names may be surprising; some not so much:
Joe Girardi, New York Yankees: With all the money they’ve spent and the expectations as high as they’ll be going into the new stadium, GM Brian Cashman—-as much as he likes Girardi—-isn’t going to mess around; if the Yankees get off to a bad start, Girardi’s getting fired and it’ll be quick. Bottom line.
Dave Trembley, Baltimore Orioles: They have no chance of competing this year in that impossible division (although they do have a shot at overtaking the Blue Jays) and Trembley has acquitted himself surprisingly well since he took over that thankless situation, but even if he survives the season, he’s not going to be there next year if owner Peter Angelos does what I expect him to do, and what I expect him to do is put a full-court press (with money as no object) on Tony La Russa.
    La Russa is almost definitely not going to be back with the Cardinals in 2010 (and it doesn’t look like they want him back, stupidly); he’s going to be 65-years-old and would probably want to take three years to try and win it all one more time for a team that’s going to spend some money. Angelos would tell him, “Tony, you tell me what you need to win and we’ll make it happen.” It’s not Trembley’s fault, but the situation is what it is. Players aren’t going to Baltimore to play for Dave Trembley; they’ll go to play for Tony La Russa.
Jim Leyland, Detroit Tigers: You’d think a veteran manager like Leyland would be safe no matter what (he’s never been fired from any of his other three managerial jobs, which is an accomplishment in and of itself), but things have the potential of getting very ugly in Detroit; GM Dave Dombrowski worked with Leyland in Florida and they won a championship together, but the relationship isn’t exactly warm and fuzzy. Leyland used his relationship with then-Marlins owner Wayne Huizenga to usurp and undermine Dombrowski while there and their marriage in Detroit has grown strained with the drastic underachievement of 2008. Leyland wanted a contract extension that he didn’t get and his deal is up after 2009; it sounds like the Tigers are taking a “wait-and-see” attitude toward their manager, which is only going to make Leyland even more grouchy and the relationship between the two worse.
    With the moves they’ve made this off-season, their defense is going to be better, but are their results from 2008 going to improve all that much with Gerald Laird, Adam Everett and Edwin Jackson? Unless Justin Verlander returns to form; Jeremy Bonderman and Joel Zumaya come back healthy; and Armando Galarraga repeats his 2008 performance, things could snowball very early. Owner Mike Ilitch is going to have to make a choice and he’s not going to back the manager this time.
Ron Washington, Texas Rangers: Washington was days away from being fired after the Rangers atrocious start last season, but the team rebounded and saved his job. Things sound completely dysfunctional in Texas and no one seems to know who’s really running things. One thing I’ll say about Washington is that the players have never stopped playing hard for him no matter how bad the situation was. If he gets the axe in Texas, he’ll deserve another chance with a team that has a strong veteran presence to police the clubhouse and can withstand Washington’s easygoing demeanor.
Bob Melvin, Arizona Diamondbacks: It won’t be his fault, but it’s possible that if the team gets off to a sluggish start and needs a kick, the even keeled Melvin might get the blame and the boot.
Bud Black, San Diego Padres: Black hasn’t done a very good job, but Connie Mack couldn’t have done much better with the Padres as they’re currently constructed. The only reason that Black wasn’t fired at the end of their brutal 2008 was that the front office knew how bad the team was going to be in 2009 and it made no sense to fire Black and pay him and another guy to lose just as many games as Black will.
    If the sale of the club to Jeff Moorad goes slower than expected, Black might survive the season; if things are expansion team-level bad (and they will be), they won’t have a choice but to make a managerial change just to make it look like they’re doing something even though it won’t make a difference one way or the other. If Black’s fired, they’ll install Glenn Hoffman or Jim Lefebvre as manager for the rest o
f the season and let Moorad start over with his own people next year.

• The growing disconnect between front office and manager with the Cardinals:

    Talk about dysfunction. Apparently what Tony La Russa and Dave Duncan want to do has no bearing on the intentions of the front office led by John Mozeliak. In recent days, the Cardinals have shifted the discussion of what to do with injured ace Chris Carpenter from the possibility of using him as the closer into Carpenter “preparing” to be a starter. In listening to the participants, it doesn’t sound as if La Russa is very confident in Carpenter being able to start for the entire season and would prefer to use the veteran out of the bullpen if that were to guarantee his availability for the year (or close to it) rather than not knowing from one start to the next if Carpenter would be able to pitch.
    It doesn’t help matters that the Cardinals don’t have an established closer and may be forced to go with Chris Perez—-something La Russa clearly doesn’t want to do. If it were up to me and there was still this vacillation of whether Carpenter would be able to give 28-32 starts, I’d move him to the bullpen because not only would it be easier to monitor his workload, he’s got the stuff and the makeup to be a very good closer and it might keep him healthy. Carpenter’s at a similar age (34) as Dennis Eckersley was (32) when the switch was made (by La Russa and Duncan) with Eckersley. They know their pitchers and when it may be time for a role-change for the team’s and the pitcher’s own good. Unfortunately, that’s getting lost in translation with the front office, to the detriment of the club.

• Mets should make a serious move on Ben Sheets:

    It’s a fine line to walk with a pitcher who’s as talented and fragile as Ben Sheets, but a team with the hole in their starting rotation might be well-served to roll the dice (within a reasonable financial commitment) on a guy like Ben Sheets. The red flags that have popped up with Sheets concern not just his elbow, but his shoulder; and his injury history cannot be discounted; but if he were willing to come for a 2-3 year deal, he’s worth a shot to see if he can stay healthy with a different organization. This isn’t to blame the Brewers for what happened with Sheets over the past few years, but who knows what a different situation will do for Sheets’s pain threshold?
    If Sheets is able to deliver something close to what he did last season—-31 starts; 198 innings; and 13 wins—-wouldn’t that be worth more than what they’re going to have to throw at Oliver Perez to keep him? Or Randy Wolf, who’s little more than a last resort/name to mention as available (and who the Mets don’t really even want); or Jon Garland, who gives up a lot of hits and benefited more from the Angels bullpen than from anything he did on the mound in amassing 14 wins in 2008?
    It sounds like the Sheets possibility is being discussed by the Mets brass seriously and if the choice is between Wolf, Garland and Sheets, Sheets on a short-term deal would be the best option (as long as Perez is being so demanding). Would Sheets rather go to the Rangers, where he has no real chance of competing; will be pitching in a danger zone where everyone with a bat is in scoring position; and has no bullpen to back him up? Or the Mets, who have the drastically improved bullpen; a great defense; and he’ll be part of a rotation that includes Johan Santana, John Maine and Mike Pelfrey? It’s a risk, but it’s also a potentially big jackpot for both sides.

• Omar Vizquel would be a good choice for the Rangers:

    Vizquel would be able to tutor the touted rookie Elvis Andrus, and his presence would prevent the need to move Michael Young back to shortstop if Andrus needs to go back to the minors. It would be pretty embarrassing to have to shift Young back after this whole mess that came from the decision to move him to third base in the first place; and playing in Texas may bring Vizquel’s bat back from the dead.                

• 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.”

“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?”

    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.

• Rafael Furcal’s contract mess was definitely legal, but was it morally and ethically right?

    The following quote from Star Wars Episode III, Revenge of the Sith as Chancellor Palpatine cultivates his relationship and manipulates the mind of Anakin Skywalker, presents a fine example of my feelings on matters of this kind:

Supreme Chancellor:
Remember back to your early teachings. “All who gain power are afraid to lose it.” Even the Jedi.

Anakin Skywalker: The Jedi use their power for good.

Supreme Chancellor: Good
is a point of view, Anakin. The Sith and the Jedi are similar in almost
every way, including their quest for greater power.
Anakin Skywalker: The Sith rely on their passion for their strength. They think inward, only about themselves.

Supreme Chancellor: And the Jedi don’t?

    I am a firm believer in this.
    There’s no way to put oneself into the position of others unless you’ve experienced what they’ve experienced; know what they know. To automatically declare someone’s position as that of being “right” isn’t taking into account every aspect of a given situation or circumstance.
    The very idea that there are any “friends” in terms of doing business is disproved every single day as relationships are torn apart because of money and disagreements about money and semantics. The case of Bernie Madoff and how his Ponzi scheme has demolished the life savings of those who were supposedly “his” people of the same Jewish faith and his “friends” that he’d acquired throughout his long business dealings is a fine example of taking a personal relationship; recommendations of friends and associates; and word-of-mouth over the cliff to both personal and financial ruin.
    This also relates to the Rafael Furcal/Atlanta Braves back-and-forth that is still going on with accusations and opinions running the gamut for and against both sides. Did Rafael Furcal and his representation have a moral responsibility to hold true to a deal that the Braves are insisting was agreed to verbally? Do Furcal’s agents at the Wasserman Media Group have an ethical responsibility to anything other than serve the desires of their client? Do the Braves have a right to be this publicly indignant—-to the point of claiming that they’re no longer going to do business with a very powerful entity in the sports management business as Wasserman? These are not easy questions to answer.
    If I had to make a guess what really happened in this whole mess after putting the pieces together, it would go something like this (this is the speculation of me and me alone):
    Furcal’s options were dwindling by the passing day and for whatever reason, he didn’t want to go and play for the Athletics even though their deal was said to be for a longer period. The Dodgers hadn’t given him a firm offer that was of a long enough duration for him to accept by the time the Braves jumped in. The Braves, reeling from having lost out on A.J. Burnett and seeing the Jake Peavy deal fall apart for the moment, were desperate to do something and turned their attention to bolstering their lineup and defense by signing Furcal, moving him to second base if they keep Yunel Escobar next year and either moving Kelly Johnson to the outfield or trading him.
    Since they have such an affinity for bringing back players who had played and played well for them previously; and since Furcal’s price was very reasonable if his back is healthy; it was a pretty good fit for the Braves even though they need pitching more than they need another bat. You could do worse than Furcal at second base, Escobar at shortstop and Johnson in left field.
    The Braves believed they had a deal and leaked it to the media to prevent what happened from happening; but Furcal’s agent Paul Kinzer, although asking for the paperwork to complete the deal, told Furcal to sleep on it with the intention of bringing the offer back to the Dodgers to see if they would match it. Furcal actually did want to stay in Los Angeles at shortstop than run the risk of going to Atlanta and having to play second base. The Dodgers matched the offer and with the added incentive of not moving from LA to Atlanta and to second base, Furcal chose to stay with the Dodgers.
    The Braves—-aggravated enough from being rebuffed in every attempt they’ve made thus far in the off-season to improve and seeing Kinzer as being duplicitous and using them to get what he wanted from the Dodgers—-exploded as the contretemps escalated to the point that their president John Schuerholz made his ill-advised declaration that the Braves would no longer do business with Kinzer’s clients; in the days since, Schuerholz has backed away from this hard-line position due to necessity more than any change-of-heart or dissipating anger.
    So was what Furcal did “right”? It depends on what and whom and what you believe.
    If you believe that a deal isn’t done until the contracts are signed; the “i’s” are dotted and the “t’s” are crossed, then Furcal did not have a deal with the Braves. If you believe that the Braves are telling the truth about having a verbal agreement with Furcal’s agents that the player would rejoin the Braves, then Furcal did renege on the deal; but was the leaking of the deal being “done” (even if it technically wasn’t) wrong on the part of the likely culprit for that, the Braves?
    If you are of the opinion that morally, Furcal’s reps had the obligation to insist that their player hold true to the agreement with the Braves, then what they did was wrong; but if Furcal had expressed a desire to stay with the Dodgers and at shortstop, then morals have nothing to do with the legal ethics of following the instructions of the client regardless of the firestorm that’s followed and is still going on.
    This is all a matter of conjecture and we’ll never know exactly who said what and what was and wasn’t agreed to at what time; but it’s all a matter of point-of-view and in the end, it depends on where one stands on these matters of legality, integrity, morals and ethics; and each side has a viable argument for what they did whether you agree with them or not.

• Nationals sign Daniel Cabrera–
  –MLB.com Story:

    I’m biased toward Cabrera because I think he’s got such great potential, but this could be a huge upside for the Nationals to bolster a weak starting rotation. In order to fulfill that potential, Cabrera would have been better served to go somewhere with a pitching coach and manager combination who would be able to reach him and get him to tweak his mechanics and approach, while putting him in the best possible situation to succeed; that place was in St. Louis with Dave Duncan and Tony La Russa; but the Nationals aren’t in as sad a shape in that area as one would believe from their record.
    Manny Acta is very well-respected as a manager and, despite his problems reining in the likes of Elijah Dukes and Lastings Milledge, he did about as well as anyone could with such young players who are difficult to handle. And on the bright side, if it can be called that (and I’m being completely serious about this), Dukes didn’t commit any felonies with the Nats last season.
    Randy St. Claire is a respected pitching coach who’s done some good work with mediocre veterans like Odalis Perez and Tim Redding, neither of whom have anywhere close to the talent that Cabrera has. It may not work, but it’s only a one-year deal and getting away from the Orioles and to a new league might help Cabrera find his way. It’s win-win for both sides and if the Nationals somehow rejuvenate Cabrera next season, they can either trade him at mid-season for a couple of good prospects from pitching-hungry teams or keep him. This isn’t a similar situation to the Nats’ nonsensical long-term contracts to which they signed Dmitri Young and Ronnie Belliard; this is a good idea that could have major benefit to their organization in the long and short-term. 

• The Girardi Factor In Recruiting Free Agents:

    How much is Joe Girardi’s increasingly negative reputation going to affect the Yankees attempts to recruit in demand free agents? If the Yankees were blowing away their competition with money, then it’d be one thing, but when the situation is what it is with C.C. Sabathia (doesn’t want to pitch in New York); Derek Lowe (heavily in demand); A.J. Burnett (making outrageous demands and in heavy demand), one has to wonder whether the buzz about Girardi can prevent a player from deciding to join the Yankees if the money is not the main motivator in their decision.
    Girardi may be nothing like he was perceived in Florida as a micromanaging, arrogant nuisance; he may be nothing like he’s been perceived in New York as an aloof neophyte, furtive with the media and discordant to irritated veterans; but it is a potential problem for the Yankees who aren’t finding it as easy as it was before to attract free agents with money alone.
    It’s a bad sign when Girardi had every single respected Yankee veteran—-Derek Jeter; Jorge Posada; Andy Pettitte; and Mariano Rivera—-annoyed at him at one point or another. One would think that before he did anything else, Girardi would’ve relied on his captain (Jeter); made sure to get on the same page as the clubhouse enforcer (Posada); the gutty veteran (Pettitte); and the silent yet deadly sage (Rivera).
    Feeling his way along in the new job and with only one year of experience as a manager, Girardi’s faults were there for all to see as he made strategic blunders and fumbled his dealings with both the players and the media. For the Yankees of years past, throwing money at the problem would’ve easily solved it; now though, what if Sabathia’s decision comes down to which manager he wants to play for and has to choose between the Godfather, Joe Torre with the Dodgers; the stoic, stable and stern Mike Scioscia with the Angels; the veteran player’s manager who’s respected by his peers, Bruce Bochy with the Giants; and then Girardi? What if Sabathia says, “I just can’t run the risk of playing for a guy like that in a venue I don’t want to really join anyway,” and takes less money to be close to home and comfortable?
    If the Girardi situation gets out of hand next year on and off the field, and the veterans say enough’s enough (Posada would probably be the one to put Jeter’s feelings into GM Brian Cashman’s ear in earnest), it’s very possible that Girardi won’t be there past June anyway, but putting oneself into an unstable situation isn’t what a big-name free agent has in mind when he goes to a new team. The constant Willie Randolph speculation affected Johan Santana last season since Santana was accustomed to the way the Twins run things in an orderly fashion and rarely deviate from that; Santana wasn’t a free agent and had only limited choice in where he wound up; it’s different with Sabathia and the Girardi Factor isn’t something that can be dismissed out of hand given how his first two seasons as a manager have gone on, and especially, off the field.

• San Francisco Giants sign Edgar Renteria to a two-year, $18.5 million contract:

    This signing is receiving almost universal ridicule for it’s cost and length and most analysts (except Keith Law) think that it’s a big mistake because Renteria is supposedly on the downslide at age 33 and looked overweight, slow and apathetic in 2008 with the Tigers. That may be true, but there are other factors that need to be looked at before panning the Giants bringing in Renteria.
    First, Renteria has proven that he doesn’t belong in the American League; he hates it; he doesn’t play well in that style of bash-bash-bash, run-after-run play. He was uncomfortable and unhappy in his lone season in Boston and was uncomfortable and unhappy in his lone year in Detroit. To think that simply because he was subpar for one season at a relatively young age is an indicator that he’s going to continue to stumble is putting too much stock in one year; and if one year is the determinate on what Renteria has left, why not look at his 2007 season in which he hit .332 for the Braves?
    Second, Renteria’s defense has been said to have slipped; I don’t know the metrics of his range and how far away he is from his Gold Glove years with the Cardinals, but there are things that aren’t being accounted for in his defensive decline. Never mind the way the Tigers imploded last season on and off the field, and that must have bothered Renteria; but the guy played with three different “everyday” third baseman. How is it possible for a guy like Renteria to build a rapport with any of those three when each has different limits of range; different motivation to be a good defensive third baseman; and different experience at the position? Miguel Cabrera was awful; Carlos Guillen made 14 errors in 89 games at the position; and the Tigers best defensive third baseman (possibly in the American League) Brandon Inge was at first a utility player, then an outfielder and then a catcher. If a shortstop doe
sn’t know where the limits of his third baseman’s range are, how is he supposed to be comfortable with his positioning? Graig Nettles always said that he didn’t care if Bucky Dent hit .230; he always knew the amount of ground he had to cover because he knew where Dent was going to be and because of that range, he could cheat a bit toward the line to make those diving grabs he became famous for.
   Third, it’s only a two-year deal. It’s not as if they’ve signed him for six years and have to pay him no matter how bad he is. It’s a good, calculated gamble that a player as prideful as Renteria is going to show up in shape determined to redeem himself from another subpar year in the American League just as he did with the Braves. Also, the Giants needed a shortstop; they were either going to have to deal the few prospects they have for a guy like Khalil Greene; sign a guy who can’t hit like Cesar Izturis; a clutch veteran whose limited tools are almost gone like David Eckstein; or spend far more money for an expensive injury risk like Rafael Furcal or a good journeyman player like Orlando Cabrera. Of all those choices, Renteria is a better and cheaper risk and he’s a great bet to rebound in a situation more to his liking than what he had to deal with in Detroit.

• Did Rafael Furcal just pull an “Eckstein”? Or worse, a “Jody Reed”?

    Rafael Furcal turned down the Athletics free agent contract offer of 4-years, $35-40 million—-ESPN Story—-and I’m wondering where he’s going to go to get a similar offer from someone else. I’m also wondering whether he just pulled a similar gaffe to what David Eckstein did last winter when he turned down the Mets four-year offer because he felt he was worth a similar contract to what Julio Lugo got from the Red Sox, which is laughable because Lugo’s not worth the contract Lugo received from the Red Sox. Eckstein wound up signing a one-year, $4.5 million contract with the Blue Jays and isn’t, under any circumstances, going to get anything close to that this winter as he re-enters free agency; in fact, he’ll be lucky to find a job as an everyday player.
    Another situation that this could be compared to is that of Jody Reed. Reed was a scrappy little infielder who spent a chunk of his career with the Red Sox before bouncing around to the Dodgers, Brewers, Tigers and Padres. Famously, he rejected a contract offer from the Dodgers of 3-years and $8 million (this was in 1993 remember; that’s a lot of money for a guy like Reed even now) and wound up signing for the MLB minimum with the Brewers the next year.
    Furcal’s a far better player than both Eckstein and Reed, but he is coming off of a back injury that kept him out of action for four-and-a-half months; the economy is in shambles; and the mid-level players (and even some All Stars) are going to be scrounging around for whatever they can get from limited options. Where is Furcal going to get a better deal than what the A’s have supposedly pulled off the table? It could be that he’s either going to have to go back to the Dodgers for a short-term deal; maybe the Orioles, who need a shortstop desperately; or a team like the Giants is going to get themselves a bargain to play second or third base next year because Furcal could possibly have just shut himself out of any long-term contract with his rejection of the Athletics generous offer. It was a big mistake.

• ARod is learning his lessons from Madonna well, but do they translate?

    If Alex Rodriguez wants to turn himself into an international star like Madonna and garner attention as she does, his newest act of leaving the United States team in the World Baseball Classic to join the team from the Dominican Republic is a great way to do it, but is the aggravation worth it?
    Madonna is a genius as self-promotion, creating the fad rather than following it and reinventing herself to change with the times; but it also has to be remembered that Madonna is not entering an arena to a chorus of boos and hatred; the people that are paying to see her are paying to cheer for her and the other situations she puts herself in—-on talk shows; at awards shows; etc.—-aren’t going to affect her performance. If ARod is trying to take a similar road and switch sides to gain some press in the winter, he’s going to have to be prepared for the reaction he’ll receive from Yankees fans if he gets off to a slow start next year.
    As great as ARod is, it’s a little bit different singing and dancing in front of an adoring crowd and hitting a 95-mph fastball in front of a crowd that’s holding up pictures of Madonna, screaming and cussing at you; and ARod’s history has shown that he’s very cognizant of how he’s perceived and the pressure and crowds do affect him no matter how much he denies it. He’d better be prepared for the reaction if this is what he intends to do, for whatever reason he intends to do it; and logic dictates that it’s not a simple case of pride in one’s heritage. He wants attention, and he’s gonna get it for better and for worse.