C'ya in Pinstripes

I hope Sabathia does sign with the Yankees. I hope they sign Manny and I hope they sign AJ Burnett and I even hope they get Mark Teixeira. Why? Why do I want the Yankees to have their own All-Star team? Because, 1) they are not in the Phillies’ division, so what do I care. And B) that trick never works.

Teams have tried to buy championships before. The Yankees have tried it for the past ten years. How many rings does A-Rod have? As many as I do. How about Bobby Abreu who the Phils traded to the Yankees for absolutely nothing? Nada. The Braves won one World Series with one of the great pitching staffs in history with Glavine and Maddux and Smoltz. They had hitters too. They won once. When they Yankees won in the late 1990’s, it was not because they had a bunch of high-priced free agents that they bought, like the Marlins did in their championship years. The big stars on the Yankees were Mariano Rivera and Derek Jeter. They had Bernie Williams and Paul O’Neill. Nobody was complaining that Paul O’Neill should not have been traded to the Yankees, and the rest of those guys came up through the farm system. Yeah, they got Roger Clemens. The one year he won twenty they lost the series to the Snakes. They can sign whoever they want. Maybe it will work. Maybe it won’t. But one thing they cannot do is bat more than one at a time.

I told my friend Chris Maka a couple years ago when the Phillies wanted to low ball Ryan Howard in arbitration, “Apparently they really want to see how he looks in pin stripes.” Chris said that was a depressing thought, but the fact is the Phillies have other players. If Howard has no loyalty to the team, I do not even want him. Or at least I don’t want him after the 2010 season when he is 31 years old and will be in the position to demand 150 million dollars for 7 years, and is still fielding with a machete instead of a glove. Now, if he’s coming off another 50 homer, 150 RBI season, I might want to pay that much, but if the Phillies won’t, I darn well do not want him playing for the Mets. I’d rather take the draft pick, in principle.

In the specific case of Sabathia, however, I take a look at his record. He's a great pitcher and a good guy, but when he was traded to the Brewers, he was not setting the world on fire. He was phenomenal with the Brew crew, but his wins were mostly against crappy teams. When he faced good teams, like the Cubs, he lost. Then in the playoffs, the Phillies got rid of him in the second game before the game was even in the books. His final total record was 17-10. That includes the American League teams that the Yankees will be playing.

Also, much was made of what a horse Sabathia was, starting the last several starts on three days rest and pitching complete games like he was Wilbur Wood and shut outs like Bob Gibson. Well, while it is true that Sabathia came over in mid-season and led the senior circuit in complete games and shut outs, it is also true that the Brewers did that because they had nothing to lose. They knew they couldn't re-sign him so they had no reason not to work him like a rented mule or pitcher in this case. They tried to do the same thing to their ace, Ben Sheets, because he was in a contract year and in the era of Barry Zito and Johan Santana, they figured they couldn't retain him either. Sheets got injured. Sabathia is a horse and can and did take it, and the Brewers have tendered him an offer, but the Yankees will not use him the same way. They'll use him on normal rest with relief help.

The same thing with Manny. He's a nice enough player, but he's not always as hot as he was down the stretch and at that, the Phillies still beat the Dodgers in five. Teixeira is also great as is Burnett, but they aren't gods. The Braves had Teixeira and Chipper Jones and Brian McCann and Tom Glavine and Mike Hampton and, well, you know. What happened? They did not compete like they hoped and they traded Teixeira to the Angels, who fell to the Sawx. I do not know where Teixeira will land, but the Yankees do not frighten me as a landing spot. If they want to tie up five hundred million dollars in A-Rod, Sabathia, Teixeira, and Manny, let ‘em.