Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira was one of the two big free agents available last winter along with CC Sabathia, and it wasn't exactly a huge surprise when he landed a $180 million deal with the Yankees. What has been somewhat surprising is Teixeira's inability to live up to his contract through the first month and a half of the season.
While Teixeira has hit seven home runs and driven in 19, his batting average sits at a lowly .202 through his first 114 at bats. Now Tex has always been a slow starter in his career, generally heating up along with the weather, but the man who signed him to that big contract thinks there's another factor to Mark's slow start. The pressure of living up to his deal and being a Yankee.
It's not just that they were swept by the hated Red Sox in Fenway Park. It's that their all-world closer, Mariano Rivera, coughed up a two-run lead with two outs in the ninth inning en route a 5-4 11-inning loss Friday night. It's that $82.5 million free-agent addition A.J. Burnett was gifted a six-run lead Saturday afternoon and he blew it, only to be matched by the bullpen in a 16-11 loss. It's that to add insult to a number of injuries, Jacoby Ellsbury stole home -- on a straight steal no less -- against Andy Pettitte Sunday night to cap off the sweep.
In a town like New York where the pressure is always on, it's bad enough to get swept. It's much worse to have it happen because of blown saves, flat-out lousy pitching and a mental error by a veteran starting pitcher.
FanHouse completes its 2009 MLB Preview with a look at the New York Yankees.
When they signed A.J. Burnett, CC Sabathia and Mark Teixeira for a combined $423.5 million in December, the Yankees opened the door to criticism that they were just trying to use their revenue advantage to bludgeon the opposition. The team did use a heavy hand, but they aren't deserving of criticism.
The biggest competition in White Sox camp this spring was the same one it's been the last few seasons: the battle for center field and the leadoff spot. The three candidates were Brian Anderson, Jerry Owens, and Dewayne Wise, with Owens starting camp as the favorite. Well, now Owens will be leaving camp without being able to say he's even a member of the White Sox organization.
On Monday the White Sox placed Owens on waivers, which means that Dewayne Wise will be the team's starting center fielder and leadoff hitter.
Jeff Pearlman is best known as the reporter who was on the receiving end of John Rocker's now infamous rant abouttaking the No. 7 train to Shea Stadium in New York City, but he hasn't stopped digging up dirt on America's most famous -- and controversial -- professional athletes since that interview.
Jeff has authored four books over the last five years. The latest -- a biography of Roger Clemens titled The Rocket That Fell to Earth: Roger Clemens and the Rage for Baseball Immortality -- hits bookshelves nationwide Tuesday March 24.
FanHouse was lucky enough to speak with Jeff Tuesday afternoon about Clemens, the man, and many of the juicy details in the book. The full interview is after the jump.
If Joe Mauer's back problems won't go away, the Twins are left without a No. 3 hitter.
If Jorge Posada, can't come back from shoulder surgery to catch regularly, then he and Hideki Matsui have to split time at DH while Jose Molina catches, making the Yankees' A-Rod-less lineup even weaker.
If Jason Varitek isn't better than a .220 hitter, all his leadership and game-calling skills can't keep him in the Red Sox lineup much longer.
Once, they were allowed to be the most pompous of sports franchises, worthy of a godlike voice in a cathedral stadium amid the mystique of championships and pinstripes. But these days, the New York Yankees are baseball's version of Wile E. Coyote, always plotting and scheming and spending but never able to catch the Road Runner. Seems something's always blowing up in their face.
Such as Alex Rodriguez's hip cyst, which almost sounds post-apocalyptic, like the sick Manhattan imagery encountered by Will Smith in "I Am Legend.''
The Daily Jolt is a dose of baseball reality every weekday morning.
For a second there in the winter of 2007, it looked like the Yankees were truly reformed. They told Alex Rodriguez to get lost after he shamefully opted out of his mega-contract during the final moments of that year's World Series.
And though Hank Steinbrenner couldn't resist reversing course and welcoming Rodriguez back into the fold a month later for a jaw-dropping $275 million, they went to the Winter Meetings in Nashville and resolutely refused to deal any of their prized arms for very much available two-time Cy Young-winner Johan Santana.
Alex Rodriguezwill not have surgery on his injured right hip as reported earlier Thursday morning, at least not right away, according to Yankees general manager Brian Cashman. The embattled New York third baseman had a cyst in his right hip, but he also has a torn labrum in the area, a much more serious injury that will eventually require him to go under the knife.
According to Peter Abraham of the LoHud Yankees Blog, Rodriguez has already had the cyst drained in hopes that it will help him regain some of his mobility. From there, the Yankees will pursue a course of rest and rehabilitation and be left to pray that the injury is not so physically limiting that he won't be able to stay on the field and be effective.
Isn't it laughable how everyone has an opinion now? For years, baseball people were hush about steroids, protecting their dirty little secret as if the masses were morons when, in fact, a lot of these men are the uneducated rockheads. One such creature is Ozzie Guillen, manager of Barack Obama's Chicago White Sox, who went mob boss on us in 2006 when pitcher Jason Grimsley served as a steroids informant in a federal investigation.
"Shoot the (bleep),'' said Guillen, who viewed Grimsley as a snitch. "The only thing I can say is that a former player should shut up and go. Shut up and move on. We don't need these guys. Baseball is better without him.''
Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira was one of the two big free agents available last winter along with CC Sabathia, and it wasn't exactly a huge surprise when he landed a $180 million deal with the Yankees. What has been somewhat surprising is Teixeira's inability to live up to his contract through the first month and a half of the season.
It might be a tough Monday morning in Yankeeland.
The biggest competition in White Sox camp this spring was the same one it's been the last few seasons: the battle for center field and the leadoff spot. The three candidates were 
Jeff Pearlman is best known as the reporter who was on the receiving end of John Rocker's 
Once, they were allowed to be the most pompous of sports franchises, worthy of a godlike voice in a cathedral stadium amid the mystique of championships and pinstripes. But these days, the New York Yankees are baseball's version of Wile E. Coyote, always plotting and scheming and spending but never able to catch the Road Runner. Seems something's always blowing up in their face.
The 
Isn't it laughable how everyone has an opinion now? For years, baseball people were hush about steroids, protecting their dirty little secret as if the masses were morons when, in fact, a lot of these men are the uneducated rockheads. One such creature is 
