All the Commissioner's Men

There has been no standing offer from the Yankees for the Minnesota Twins to grab 4 or 5 young Yankee players in return for the right to spend $140 million on 1 pitcher plus untold additional millions for payroll tax. Various representatives of the George Mitchell conglomerate ESPN/MLB including all baseball writers loyally serving their master tried their best to coerce the Yankees into the deal, and they're stunned--I repeat stunned--they haven't succeeded.

• From the NY Times, 1/4/08:

"...nothing has changed since the Yankees pulled their offer at the winter meetings in Nashville a month ago.

• There is no standing offer, but from earlier trade talks, the Yankees know they would have to deal starter Phil Hughes, center fielder Melky Cabrera, the minor league pitcher Jeff Marquez and another prospect for Santana.

If the teams agreed on players, the Yankees would have to negotiate a contract extension with Santana, who would probably ask for seven years and $140 million.

• For the Yankees, the $140 million figure would be compounded by an additional $56 million they would owe in luxury taxes, because they are still charged an extra 40 cents for every dollar they spend. Investing almost $200 million in Santana for seven years — and the prospects — is clearly too steep a price for General Manager Brian Cashman."...

***[Why doesn't Phineas T. Bluster Olney do an expose on the sham of baseball writers?] sm

• The NY Times comes up with the MLB/ESPN mantra about so-called Yankee money, (which MLB fervently believes is MLB's money) based on past ticket sales and not mentioning problems with the YES Network.
• Using this logic you would've invested in the stock market at its peak and now be living in a box on the street:

From the NY Times: "But the tempting factor for the Yankees is their seemingly bottomless resources. They have a thriving cable network, a new stadium on the way, and the highest attendance in baseball. They can afford to pay Santana what he wants, and if he were a free agent, they almost surely would make the highest bid."****************

• When is someone from the NY Times going to cite numeric source information for the grandiose claim the Yankees can "afford to pay Santana what he wants?" This whole topic is ridiculous anyway.

Baseball has been re-designed for the purpose of preventing the Yankees from overspending-- and it's working. This is what they wanted to happen, now they're crying that the Yankees still have the money and could easily spend it. Please Please.

• There's recent evidence they would not make the highest bid, (eg Carlos Beltran) but ambitious MLB/ESPN agents ignore this like it was the old days. They harp on the same crap day after day. On top of it, the YES Network is stupid enough to put many of these people on their programs.

To quote Mr. Kepner himself from a recent YES Network program:

• "SAD." (While earnestly looking into the camera for dollar signs).

Reference NY Times article by Tyler Kepner, "Payroll is at Heart of Santana Debate," 1/4/08

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