Posts tagged CCSabathia at FanHouse

It's time to dust off the old value machine and get cracking for the impending fantasy baseball season. Here at Fantasy FanHouse, we plan on providing a quality -- and free, of course -- draft kit for fantasy baseball, and you can expect a drastic uptick in coverage before pitchers and catchers report next month. By the time the season rolls around, we'll be covering fantasy baseball with the same fervor, tenacity, and accuracy as we did in football season.

What we'll do today to get the ball rolling is run through the major players who have changed teams and examine if their value -- compared to last season -- has dropped or risen. We'll be using those cool red and green arrows.

CC Sabathia Just hear me out, please. The reason his value has taken an ever-so-slight hit is because it can't get any higher. He'll be facing tougher lineups in the American League East than he did down the stretch in the NL Central as well. He's probably going to be the top pitcher off the board in any draft, and I won't argue with the pick. I'm just saying that his move to the Bronx has not increased his value.

From the Windup is FanHouse's extended look at a particular portion of America's pastime.

Salary Cap. There's not a more controversial phrase in baseball economics. The prospect of one hung over the strike of 1994 and 1995 before the owners and players managed to settle without implementing a true cap. Since then, baseball has instituted a luxury tax that acts as a sort of soft cap, but it's set high enough that it only really affects the Yankees annually, and they regard it in the same manner that a rhinoceros regards a mosquito.

For the most part, a salary cap hasn't been part of the conversation in baseball for several years. The Yankees ridiculous spending spree this winter, however, has changed things. In the days and weeks since their signings of CC Sabathia and Mark Teixeira, Brewers owner Mark Attanasio and Astros owner Drayton McLane have once again begun to call for a salary cap. They're the only two owners to have spoken directly on this issue, but it's hard to think they're alone.

A salary cap in baseball is not a simple thing. In most sports, there's only one line in labor negotiations: the line between the players and the owners. In baseball, there's actually a three-way divide between the players, the "big-market" owners (for lack of a better term), and the "small-market" owners. The MLBPA isn't the only thing that stands in the way of a cap. Some of the owners (think John Henry, the Steinbrenners, naturally, the Wilpons, Frank McCourt, Arte Moreno) would likely be opposed to one as well. After the jump, we'll look at all the obstacles and problems with implementing a cap.

It is only a surprise that the Yankees wound up with Mark Teixeira in the end when viewed through the prism of the last few weeks. Unlike with CC Sabathia, New York general manager Brian Cashman lurked quietly in the weeds as the Angels, Nationals, Orioles and Red Sox bid for the first baseman.

Had you taken a straw poll of baseball insiders at the outset of the offseason, the Yankees very well may have been the favorites to land him.

So while the baseball operations people in Anaheim, Baltimore, Boston and Washington might be feeling stunned today, they can't be all that surprised that Teixeira is being fitted for pinstripes.

Things change quickly in baseball and now the hard-working folks who lost out on Teixeira will have to shift their focus to Plan B, whatever that may be. Before running down what each team will do now, let's state the obvious. Now is not the time to panic for any of these clubs.

Teixeira was a singular force in this free-agent class. There are certainly plenty of bats available that can roughly replicate his offensive production, but there is no complete package like him on the market -- splurging for one of the pretenders out there (Adam Dunn, Pat Burrell, even Manny Ramirez) won't solve the problem that losing out on Tex created.

When asked whether the Yankees needed to sign a free agent slugger, Derek Jeter dismissed the idea, telling the Star-Ledger, "We have a pretty good lineup. I think we've scored plenty of runs."

In reality, New York's lineup in 2008 was surprisingly ordinary. They were the very definition of "middle of the pack" in terms of runs scored last year, ranking seventh out of 14 in the American League. And with Jason Giambi and Bobby Abreu almost certain to sign elsewhere, they needed to figure out a way to replace 52 home runs and 196 RBI just to match last year's run production.

Enter Mark Teixeira. No one even knew the Yankees were serious suitors until today's news that Teixeira agreed to an eight-year, $180 million contract with the team -- instead, they were said to to be contemplating a shorter deal with Manny Ramirez.

But now that we've had a full 20 minutes to digest the news, I think it's a brilliant move. Teixeira can't replace all of Giambi and Abreu's production himself, but he's a switch-hitter whose definition of a bad season is still a .300-30-100 line.

Mark Teixeira and Scott Boras have been controlling the free agent market for some time now, as they decide on where the superstar will end up playing in 2009. It was basically narrowed down to the Nationals, the Angels, the Red Sox and maybe the Yankees, even though they had already spent $40 billion on pitching.

Or so we thought; Jon Heyman is reporting that the Yankees (the f__king Yankees, man!) are close to signing Tex to an eight-year, $180 million deal.

Teixeira, who hit .308 with 33 home runs and 121 RBIs in 2008, will receive an eight-year, $180 million deal from the Yankees with a full no-trade provision.

If this happens -- and there are a lot of major news sites reporting it -- then it is a HUGE coup for the Yankees. Not only have they picked up CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett to shore up their rotation, but suddenly they've added one of the premiere power hitters in baseball to their lineup.

Now, of course, this would all but kill off the Manny Ramirez to the Yankees rumors. At least we can hope -- Armageddon doesn't sound that fun. On the bright side, at least "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" is suddenly relevant again.

I'm getting sick of this. The sports media world has their own Elite Liberal contingent and they're dead-set on running the name of the New York Yankees through the mud. Everywhere you click it's "the Yankees spend too much money" on this, and "the Yankees spent too much money" for that, and "Sabathia has enough money to float in the river and declare himself a sovereign nation."

Somebody on this site needs to make a stand. The Yankees are a baseball team like everybody else. Just because YOUR team can't do what they do doesn't mean they shouldn't be allowed to do it. Hey Royals fans, if you woke up tomorrow morning and the Royals had given 200 million to Mark Teixeira and 200 million to Manny Ramirez and signed five pitchers and got ready to destroy the AL Central next year, wouldn't you be the happiest people on Earth? Of course you would.

This morning's Dugout sets things straight and explains it all, after the jump.

It was good times in Yankee-land on Thursday afternoon. The Lil' Boss Other Lil' Boss gathered his cronies together as the media swarmed for the event, all to introduce CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett as Yankees. Together the two will make roughly $240 million and boy-oh-boy were they excited to get paid for getting hurt join such a happy and winning-tradition-rich family.

"There were some attractions on the West Coast," said Sabathia at the news conference, which was televised live in New York. "But when it came down to it and really thinking about what I wanted, as far as having a chance to win every year, there really was no other place to go."

[...]"This is a dream come true," Burnett said at the news conference. "I'm looking forward to it; it's going to be a fun ride. I want to pitch in the postseason, and I'm here to win."

Well, of course it's a dream come true. You just got paid $80 million, A.J. I mean, not to be so cynical as to believe that both guys really didn't want to win every year, but come on. If you really want to win every year, you take less money to play somewhere you want to be in order to help make your team better.

If you want to get [over] paid more money than you will ever need while hoping you didn't totally mortgage your soul, you go play for the Yankees.

From the Windup is FanHouse's extended look at a particular portion of America's pastime.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I get pretty aggravated when America doesn't win things we should. For example, I don't even watch the NBA, yet I was one of the biggest Team USA fans for the Olympic men's basketball team in August. America should win the gold in basketball. We invented the game and house the best players. I also believe America should win the World Baseball Classic for the same reasons. (Plus, I'm an ugly American and think we should win everything anyway.)

With this in mind, I'm putting together the perfect team for manager Davey Johnson, in hopes that he takes note.

In my view, there are some things that doomed USA's last WBC team, specifically in the Dontrelle Willis disasters. If you are playing what essentially amount to a bunch of one-game series, you cannot possibly survive with shoddy defense, pitching that gives out free passes, or constantly falling behind in the count. Also, too much reliance on power can hurt you in these games. You need guys who can get on base and "keep the line moving."

What's the advice of a friend worth? Apparently less than $161 million. Before CC Sabathia signed with the Yankees, Kenny Lofton apparently tried to steer him clear of the Big Apple, at least if you believe the New York Post's unnamed sources: "'He painted a bad picture of New York and the Yankees,' a person in the know said. 'A lot of negative things.' "

Whoa, did "a person in the know" really play the "a lot of negative things" card? Burn! Fortunately for the Yankees, though, a handful of reassuring phone calls from Johnny Damon apparently sealed the deal for A.J. Burnett. From the New York Daily News:

"Johnny talked to A.J. about New York, the differences between New York and Boston, how he views it. Johnny couldn't be happier here and he communicated those thoughts to A.J. I know at one point he told A.J. about dealing with New York and told him, 'Be accountable. If you're accountable, you'll be fine. Don't fear the media unless you give them a reason.'

"I know on a couple of occasions, Johnny said to him, 'You don't have anything to worry about.'"

So as things turn out, apparently there are teams in Major League Baseball not named the New York Yankees who are willing to spend money this winter. After letting Francisco Rodriguez leave to join the New York Mets and failing to sign CC Sabathia, the Angels find themselves with some money laying around, and they've decided to spend it on Mark Teixeira.

According to a report in the Los Angeles Times, the Angels have made an offer to the free agent first baseman that would be the biggest contract in the history of the franchise, surpassing the $90 million deal they gave to Torii Hunter last season. While the numbers aren't confirmed, the deal is believed to be an offer of eight years and around $160 million.