Dan Gould

Everyone seemed to believe that once the Yankees showed Mariano Rivera the money, he'd sign. But now Rosenthal is reporting that he wants a fourth year added to the deal, is pissed off at Hank Steinbrenner for referring to his age when he told reporters about the 3 year/45 million dollar offer, and is pointing out that A-Rod will be 42 when his presumed deal is over, and that Posada got four years, and the current highest paid reliever, Wagner, got four years from the Mets (two years ago when he was 34). http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/7450914 I thought the Yanks were being stupid offering him that much money til he's 41 years old, but this Yankee hater will get an even bigger laugh if the Yanks give in to Mo. Let's see - in four years, the Yankee will have a catcher who is 40, a third baseman who is 36, a presumed closer who is 42, Jeter will be 37, and presuming that they keep Matsui when his current deal is up, he'll be 37 too. I guess its good since no one is impressed with the regular position talent that is down on the farm, but how can a team compete if four out of eight position players are stumbling around like Willie Mays in a Mets uniform, or at the very least, a shadow of themselves? And how many DHs can play in the lineup at one time? I could very easily see the Steinbrenner boys presiding over a team with a 200+ million dollar payroll, and an under .500 record, just as they are settling into their new stadium. I hope George is completely gone, in spirit if not body, before that happens.

Here's something to consider: if the cat was killing an endangered species of bird, why didn't he get the Feds involved? Why take the law into his own hands? I'm sure the feds would have taken action to protect these birds, instead of him shooting the bird at long range and as Chris points out, taken the risk of hitting an unintended target. Anyway, I find birders to engage in a really weird activity so I have even less sympathy for a vigilante birder. You can bet that he'd have shot the cat had he seen it killing a bird that isn't on the endangered species list, too.

Maybe a legitimate change of heart? Maybe a realization that Boras had screwed the pooch by convincing him that the way to more riches with the Yankees was to opt out? I'm also not sure that Boras isn't involved. There are multiple reports that he was at A-Rod's Miami home while A-Rod was in Tampa, hat in hand, having his heart-to-heart with the Steinbrenners. Its also being widely reported that the Yankees insist they never "excluded" Boras from negotiating - probably because they know that is a gross violation of the Player's Agreement.

Then you are the only one who doesn't see it. Reports out of New York are that they are now discussing contract language and incentive clauses, which means they've reached agreement on the dollars and cents. If the reports are accurate - ten years, 275 million, then the upside is very obvious: by going and groveling, A-Rod still gets the richest contract he could have received, and as we all know, that is what matters to him (and his agent). The upside for the Yankees is that the enormous hole in their lineup is filled - but signing him through age 42 is the height of insanity. His numbers will start to decline within three years (and probably won't match this season ever again anyway) and that will leave seven years of a 27 million dollar salary as he tries to pass Barry Lamar. I was willing to see Lowell go if he decides that he has to get four years since this is the last big money/long term contract he'll sign. But if he does that and goes to New York to play first base, then he deserves all of the abuse that Boston should rain down on his head. OK, go for the money - but sign with the MFY to change positions? Its obvious at this point that Lowell was not serious about staying in Boston, and that it is all about the money. That's fine, he's entitled to do what he can to support his family. But I don't need to hear that he "wanted" to stay if the Red Sox, as reported, have made an offer of three years/ 13-15 million per year. That's plenty of money if you really want to be there. What is ironic is that a team is signing him based on this season, when it is clear as day that Fenway (and maybe Philly) are the only stadiums where he has a chance to produce similar numbers. His road splits were very mediocre: .276 with 7 homers and 47 RBIs. He's going to improve on those numbers elsewhere as he hits his mid-30s? Lowell would be well-advised to take what the Red Sox are offering, or go back with an offer in hand and let them sweeten it a bit. He'll never perform as well as he has in a Red Sox uniform.

have you heard the latest out of New York? Multiple New York media outlets are reporting that A-Rod - all by his lonesome - has approached the Yankees about coming back, that he realizes he made a mistake in opting out, and what can he do to make it right ... if the reports are to be believed, if A-Rod is willing to negotiate (without Boras' assistance or even his presence in the room) a below market deal, the Yankees would take him back. Which only makes sense given how much his offense means to their rapidly aging lineup. The question now is, will A-Rod really agree to take less money - far less money than Boras promised him - to go back to New York? Will he really swallow his pride, and go back and grovel in front of the Steinbrenners to get back in their good graces? I guess there are two things to look for to know whether that may happen: Does he announce that he and Scott Boras have had a parting of the ways, and do the Yankees make a strong move for Mike Lowell or do they sit back to see whether A-Rod follows through?

Then what does this refer to, fuck face? I know someone like that.

Nah...I was thinking of someone around here. cough, cough...Dan....cough, clears throat...Dan... What the hell are you talking about? I don't get VO gigs because of my 'radio voice' - I get them because of my ability to deliver different reads for different copy. Hardly anyone in voiceovers gets jobs because of their "announcer voice" anymore. The John Facenda "Voice of God" thing is no longer what most producers want.

Jim, I think its natural for you to go after the "jam band" crowd because I've always wondered where you guys might be if you had gone the MMW root earlier. I think your best business approach is going after the "jam band" crowd to populate gigs and future recordings should actually be limited to home studio sessions, somewhat like the "pay the band" idea that Rooster suggested. What I am thinking of is the band picking some new tunes and some old tunes, getting comfortable with them, and putting them up on the site as a download. I'm not saying you commit yourself to a specific song but if the band is happy with the take, put it up there. You lose control of presenting the music in album format, but I bet there are people who would open their wallets for a handful of Big John or Jimmy Smith covers, as well as lots of other tunes including originals and the band is only out the time spent recording and your own engineering skills. You've done it with other recordings before, I think its time to think of it as a revenue generating opportunity instead of a free promotional EP. When you take out the cost of physical production of the object and as you mentioned before, the cost of using super expensive equipment and a talented engineer, the economics of recording and distributing really change.

Reinier, You seem to be one of the guys with an "in" with Michael - has he confirmed this to you recently? Because others like Brad who have emailed don't get nearly as definitive an answer, so if you have new info, that's great.

Well I'm excited since now we'll find out what gumbo sounds like.

Well, I recall Gammons ( I Think) pointing out that Sabathia beat Santana, and Verlander 7 out of 8 times......And I think with everything else being more or less equal, this may have been a reason. I couldn't find the info on yahoo mlb, but didn't Sabathia have very little run support in the games he lost? Also, he no doubt had several games blown by Borowski... I've never understood the "beat" other pitchers. You beat other teams - its easier to beat Minnesota when they have a bad season, when their best hitters have down years, and especially when their ace has a down year. As far as Sabathia's losses go, Borowski didn't blow a save in a game where C.C. was in line for the win. He did, however, have a 1-0 loss and a 2-1 loss, plus a ND in which he went 9 shut out innings.

Oh I don't know. They were so close - I mean even their WHIPs were the same. ERA close, Ws close. So as you say, the difference was Sabathia took the ball more. He averaged 1/3 of an inning more a start, along with the superior K/W. So there ya go. A little bit better gets you the award. Regarding 119-86, that's because of the 5-3-1 scoring. It would have been 73-56 if you used a 3-2-1 system. What I want to know is who left Sabathia off of the ballot? Well, I was really referring to the 19 of 28 first place votes. It should have been closer - especially since, while Sabathia had the superior K/W ration, Josh had the higher Ks per 9 IP. It was much closer than the first place votes indicated. And it is ironic since anyone watching the post-season knew who the superior pitcher overall was, but the other guy got the award.

Much.

I really didn't think that I'd contribute to this thread, but just discovered a way cool thing in my abode - something I had no idea existed. You see, I've been slowly making progress transferring recent (as in, over the summer) LP purchases to CD, and next up in the queue was a Pablo release I'd never seen on CD - Patcha, Patcha, All Night Long - Joe Turner Meets Jimmy Witherspoon. There wasn't even an inner sleeve included, but it looked in good shape, and Lee Allen and Red Holloway play sax, and even if Joe and Spoon didn't have much left at that point, the price couldn't be beat at $4. So I slip this one on the turntable, only this time, something fell out of the jacket: Now I own two different artists autographs - a Gene Harris and now a Jimmy Witherspoon.

i've never taken these awards at all seriously, and the vote should come after the preseason. i suspect this award is a nightmare for the indians. sabathia's very high market value has increased significantly, which is not good news to the sleep cheap underfunded indians. i would not be surprised to see sabathia in a bosox uniform. They'll go hard to re-sign him, and considering how many filled the roster is with relatively cheap young players, I can't see why they wouldn't be able to come up with the cash to keep their best starter. And I presume you meant that the vote should come after the post-season, not spring training.

Dan have you noticed any of the "spotting" issues that I have raised above? Nope. Some Office Depot CDRs have turned a gold-ish color but they continue to play.

That has nothing to do with it. If Sabathia's superiority was obvious, I'd say so. Its not, so I am protesting.

I switched to three ring binders a long time ago and have never encountered any CD that failed to play, and two years ago I was still in my "A to Z" listening trip and was going through them one by one. I'd like to hear from someone an explanation as to why these sleeves could damage a CD.

Well, I am sure that it is little consolation to Sabathia or tribe fans that he got the Cy Young over Beckett. I'm sure Beckett is happier with the ring, anyway. But what I can't understand is how comfortable his lead was over Beckett. He had 1 fewer wins and the same number of losses, a rather small difference in ERA - .06, and a substantial lead in innings pitched, 40, at least partially explained by Beckett's "avulsion" in June. When you consider the difference in innings, Beckett actually outperformed Sabathia in Ks (8.72 per nine innings to 7.8). Only in strikeout to walk ratio does Sabathia have a substantial lead, 5.65 to 4.85. So how does he get 19 of 28 first place votes and win 119-86?? Surely he is lucky that the post-season doesn't enter into the voting, because when you compare his performance to Beckett's and add in the regular season, its not even close. Honestly, in my opinion, this vote ought to have been as close as the NL RoY and its ridiculous if Sabathia won based on 40 more innings. Josh was robbed!

So Chris, how was 1959-60 for ya? And I've always wondered about this sort of thing - does the priest actually mention every single name, or do they say something like "everyone listed in this here book"? Could really make that mass take forever if they get enough people signed up.

I think that Ron has it right, and that some people see rare OOP titles listed by Caiman and then get ticked off when they don't show up when the reality is that the listing should be taken with a grain of salt. Take the plunge, hope you get a shipping confirmation in a week or so or else cancel. Its not that difficult. Not saying that is the sole cause of the anger expressed at Caiman, but it seems to be a big part of it.

Well, it really looked like Posada was going to hear other team's offers but that threat scared the Yanks into acquiescing to a huge four year, 52+ million dollar contract. He certainly picked the right year to have a career year, but four years at that price to a catcher who will turn 40 before the contract expires is pretty risky. And now the Yanks are looking at probably the same four year deal for Mariano, who will be 42 when that runs out! I don't think they've truly learned yet what it means to have an old roster, and now with Mike Lowell able to listen to offers from other teams, it will be interesting to see how the Yankees approach him. Will they give him four or even five years to snatch him away? Will they regret it as quickly as they regretted Damon's contract? That roster could still be filled with aging, declining stars three years from now, especially if they keep Matsui. I have to say I am less than thrilled that Lowell is reportedly holding out for top dollar/years. Apparently the Red Sox have offered three years but his advisors are sure they can get four on the market. Seems to me that if he really wants to stay, a three year deal ought to be enough, especially since he's never struck me as having the Pedro Martinez Diva gene. And any buyer should beware: Lowell hit .373 at Fenway, which means he hit around .270 on the road. Can anyone expect him to duplicate his .320/120 RBI season if he's not hitting in the cozy confines? Even though it leaves open the possibility of an A-Rod signing, I have confidence that Theo will do the right thing if he has to replace his third baseman, even if that third baseman goes to the Yankees.

That's how I feel about Joe Morgan! I don't understand why some here dislike him so. Check out the link someone posted for aloc - http://www.firejoemorgan.com and read the postings about Joe, particularly how he dissects Joe's 'chat sessions' on espn.com and the various stupid things he says on TV. It all boils down to one thing: Joe is the lead baseball analyst for ESPN but he's incapable of saying anything worthy of the title "analyst".

Well, MLB's week of award announcements has started off with Dustin Pedroia running away with the AL Rookie of the Year while Ryan Braun got the nod in the NL by a scant two votes over Tulowitsky. I think they got it right in the NL, as Braun didn't even get called up til May 25th yet finished with 34 homers and 97 RBI while hitting .324. The fact that he's a butcher in the hot corner (26 errors) doesn't eliminate the fact he had tremendous numbers in only four months of the season. Meanwhile, I am even more impressed with Pedroia's performance in the post-season, as it was revealed last week that he broke his hamate bone in his hand early in September but with a few adjustments to his grip, continued to play. That's the same injury that took Wily Mo Pena out of the lineup in 2006, yet the kid not only continued to play but hit some critical home runs in the post-season with the injury. He's almost as tough as his mouth is. And there was an article in the Globe about the 2008 projections book that Bill James and cohorts produces. He's got Pedroia hitting .300 with 40 doubles next year, and Ellsbury at .320 with 42 stolen bases. To his credit, his projections were almost right on the money for Youkilis and Varitek last year, so take it as you wish. But the 2007 stat that surprised me the most was his Batting Average Plus Slugging on Pitches Out of the Zone: Pedroia actually beat out notorious hacker Vlad Guerrero, .664 to .662!

Worst announcers have to be Joe Morgan Tim McCarver Dwayne Staats for worst voice (total "pukey" announcer) though I have no idea where he works these days Bob Griese is pretty bad for NCAA, and not only because he never gives any proper credit to Florida State. I can't identify any favorites because like others, I tend to play music or even watch in silence instead of listening to the commentary. Sometimes that leads to confusion because you miss something important when a play is being reviewed but that's well worth the much more pleasant sounds of good music or blissful silence.