Princess Dye

http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/yankees/har...hFTgum5iQZtcM/3

I guess another thing to consider is he could stay in Minn and later on have to be taken out of the catcher position. But still paid at a premium as if he was C. So while he'll still be a great hitter, he'll be paid a (Minnesota-adjusted) large portion of his team's payroll. Perhaps overly so. It would rob the Twins of their current mindset of covering 1B with one of the many capable cheap players out there. And we have no idea if his power spurt of 09 will hold. He could be a Grace-like 1b for them, who for years is a great hitter but robbing his team of a power hitter at a power position. Or I'm wrong and he's still spectacular in every way for them. Probably that.

Been thinking about this. If the end goal is a championship, then you should not want the Yanks to solidify one of the toughest positions to get offense at. Also, Mauer signing in Minnesota might hamstring the franchise's finances even more than they have been. My apologies if this has had its own thread before, was hoping to at least put it in a different light than past discussions.

You would think a guy his age would want 2 years. Also I feel like if 2 years for 14 was really on the table, the yes would have been given by now.

Damon has done wrestling promos and appearances with AJP, right? Not that this matters but just wondering how well he knows guys on this team.

Interesting http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2010/02/john...saturday-1.html

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Feb 7, 2010 -> 02:15 PM) She's like a Subaru. She has a cult-like following, but fortunately, won't ever build up major market position. Too much plastic. i would think she'll be popular enough to win the GOP nomination but couldnt possibly be respected enough to win a general - barring total disaster happening as a precursor to that election year

Hawk would go bananas for this. When Branyan was with Cleveland, he hyped him up nearly to Gomez heights.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Feb 1, 2010 -> 09:39 PM) I like this move for baseball, hate it for the Sox. Then again maybe this puts Minn even more firmly entrenched in cheapskate mode -- meanwhile the Yankees are kept away from landing an All-World bat at the most difficult position to fill in that way. No doubt they'll be strong but the thought of them with this guy at C gets em from very good to extremely good.

Despite his career year, I have to think he's getting a pretty small contract..

Jordan4life, just out of curiosity what do you feel about Lee Harvey Oswald and the chances he did it. I'm gettin that conspiracy theorist vibe from the last few posts...

I dont really get the impulse for everyone to say "It all depends on Rios!!" He could hit .200 but if CQ gets back to his career highs, and Beckham improves, we're fine. CQ could get hurt ...and then Teahen could return to his career high year and we'd be fine. And so on. There's no question that Rios is a question mark but it doesnt all depend on him. That's a recipe for pressure-filled disaster if he's the type that's tempermental with media buzz etc

4:45pm: Jeff Fletcher at AOL FanHouse says that Damon is unlikely to end up in Oakland. GM Billy Beane says a utility infielder is the priority now. mlbtraderumors

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jan 26, 2010 -> 10:23 PM) The Twins are a better team with Jim Thome and we are worse without him (and no suitable replacement), pure and simple. So there's no chance he drops off at age 39? Heck, last year was a decline in OPS from anything he's ever had in a full year.

QUOTE (justBLAZE @ Jan 25, 2010 -> 10:58 PM) http://blogs.suntimes.com/whitesox/2010/01...ck_for_now.html This is kind of like when girls tell a guy he's hot. They dont really do that if they actually dig him. Conversely, you dont say as a manager "man my job's lacking security now!!" In short, Ozzie has this job as long as he wants it. All this jabber makes it all the more clear. The idea of 'job security' is pretty much being parodied by employee and employer.

What would be interesting is hearing that Branyan is being signed as a result of this very public dialogue. Posturing for leverage w/ another player?

As has been mentioned on B&B lately, it's looking like this will finally be the first year we really see so-called "ozzieball"

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jan 25, 2010 -> 06:28 PM) The White Sox were 11th in the AL in slugging pct. last year. Only Oakland, Seattle and KC were worse. I don't see where rotating mediocre at best hitters as the DH is going to help. I suppose the argument would be that those stats fail to include a bunch of playing time for guys who were not there on Opening Day. And then you have Teahan to factor in as well.

http://nomaas.org/?p=660 For what its worth, this link has a chart showing how NYY rotated their DH. There was a main guy in the role, but they did have a fair amount of people switching in and out. I dont have a problem with a rotating DH in and of itself. Most of us would have no problem with it if we felt the guys rotating in and out were good hitters. The issue is we feel the players themselves are a question mark.

Even with his bad years as a Red Sox, Kotsay has stayed good at hitting righties. I like him used selectively. Thome is no guarantee to repeat his OBP from last year. There's some decline there and he's not getting any younger. True, there's no guarantee Kotsay keeps up what he's doing either. But you get bat control and situational hitting from him, which we have a serious dearth of. I refuse to believe you NEED to have great production from your DH. We basically need all our guys to have their regular numbers, and Quentin to have a better year than last. If that happens, then the DH spot can be a wait and see..(and even an eventual chance for midseason Flowers at-bats) Carl Everett was OK as a DH in '05. I will grant that he provided power. But we got by w/o good OBP from him. If we have added a bunch of HRs to the lineup with Teahan/Rios/Beckham, we can afford to use more of a slappy guy at DH.

Expecting to see a thread tomorrow telling us about Ozzie's next delayed flight

What do we know about their practices...and what can we infer from the guys they acquire? There's been a lot written regarding how Pierre is a saber nightmare. I suppose Swisher and Rios were kind of the opposite, at least at the time of their being acquired.

QUOTE (The Beast @ Jan 24, 2010 -> 03:03 PM) I'm going to be sure that if he joins the Twins that I'm in attendance for a game that he's playing in. I'm going to cheer as loudly as I can and cheer against the Sox while he's playing, much like when Frank hit that home run in his first game back as an A's player. It would be ridiculous to believe that we can use a DH spot with a platoon the whole year. No thanks. Bring Thome back, Guillen and Williams, you jackasses. We cant take it to this level for a guy who's going to be 40 soon. We already had some signs of decline last year. If he's back we're better, but I'm not going to injure myself over it.

Safe to say we tried to get Jenks on the ultra cheap for the next few years? Based on his declining performance I can't think we were trying to do anything but that..

I love Ozzie but if you read his reasoning here..unless he's BSing as usual..he is 8 idiots rolled into one. 'i wish i hated him so we wouldnt have to re-sign him'? paraphrased but still.