pitching sucks. time to buy a new one.

[Edited on May 6, 2007 at 3:13 PM. Reason : V old? it happened like :30 ago.. even andy pettitte didn't know.]

5/6/2007 3:11:23 PM

[old]

5/6/2007 3:12:56 PM

definitely not old, but definitely saw the potential for it to happen

did they throw the bank at him?

5/6/2007 3:15:49 PM

born August 4, 1962

5/6/2007 3:18:11 PM

OLD

no seriously though, do you immediatly think "shit I have to be the first one to report this!.... on the wolf web"

5/6/2007 3:20:13 PM

not old

Am I a bad person for liking Clemens less than Bonds?

5/6/2007 3:20:30 PM

Watching the game on MLB.tv today. You know how they cut off commercials? Well they came back, and all I hear is, "Looks like they found a fourth starter."

Sweet.

Gotta be better than Igawa. I mean, how could he NOT be?

5/6/2007 3:25:37 PM

^^^ not really.. i was watching the Rangers on TV and the game on my laptop drinking a beer ... just happened to announce it then. Nice troll though.

V huh? did I? i dont even remember that...

[Edited on May 6, 2007 at 3:30 PM. Reason : c]

5/6/2007 3:29:20 PM

yeah, the same way you blew your wad on the andruw jones trade that never was

5/6/2007 3:30:23 PM

disgusting

5/6/2007 4:11:29 PM

says he'll pitch by end of the month and coincidentally, Yanks are in Boston June 1
10 bucks says he opens against the sawx on sunday night baseball amid more endless hype from ESPN.

5/6/2007 4:27:16 PM

[old]

Not the story, the pitcher.

5/6/2007 4:32:36 PM

It "only" cost the Yankees 28 million.

5/6/2007 5:04:14 PM

this is surprising news

and by surprising i mean it's not at all surprising

5/6/2007 5:26:30 PM

Isn't it kind of early for Clemens to start his season?

5/6/2007 6:11:21 PM

monster salary

5/6/2007 6:30:34 PM

Yay!!!!

5/6/2007 7:44:09 PM

can clemens really save the yankee rotation?

5/6/2007 7:48:32 PM

yes

especially with Mussina back, Wang

its perfect timing on his part, if they start winning now which they should...he will look like the saviour when in fact it was the others coming back that helped as well.

he's still one of the best pitchers in the league though.


but perfect timing.

[Edited on May 6, 2007 at 7:49 PM. Reason : g]

5/6/2007 7:49:04 PM

with all the injuries to our staff god knows we need him.....anyone that can give us some innings will be welcome with open arms :-)

5/6/2007 8:06:08 PM

torrie is gone if they dont win

5/6/2007 8:14:00 PM

HELL FUCKING YEAH!

5/6/2007 8:26:08 PM

Quote :

"It "only" cost the Yankees 28 million."

I was wrong. That was his full season salary. Apparently he gets about two-thirds of that(18.5 million).

But.......The Yankees have to pay 40% luxury tax on that, so it will cost them "only" 26 million, which is more than the Devil Rays entire team(24 million).

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/07/sports/baseball/07chass.html?ref=sports

5/6/2007 11:08:40 PM

5/6/2007 11:18:00 PM

Pavano is out for the season with elbow surgery.

So this is great period.

5/7/2007 9:50:05 AM

I like the move, but I am still not entirely sold that Clemens can pitch well in the AL east. He wasnt that great when he left the AL in 2003, and has only gotten older.

5/7/2007 9:59:50 AM

Quote :

"torrie is gone if they dont win"

back to chit chat, please

5/7/2007 10:05:39 AM

This is why baseball needs a salary cap. Way to go Yankees for once again helping to fuck up the sport/game aspects of baseball and turn it more and more into a popularity contest to see who can raise the most $$ for the most stacked team. I hope Osama blows Yankee stadium to kingdom come and that only Stienbrenner & Cashman are inside when it happens.

They should fire Bud Selig and appoint a commisioner who will actually work to level the playing field again instead of taking kickbacks for allowing this kinda stuff over and over again....

You want an MLB team in NC someday? Forget about it because we would NEVER be able to compete with the big cities like this without some kind of salary cap.

5/7/2007 12:27:36 PM

I think this is part of what makes baseball so great. The Yankees can spend half a trillion bucks but at the end of the day they aren't winning championships and they are performing just the same as the small budget Oakland A's or Minnesota Twins. The playoffs are the great equalizer and to me, it makes them more entertaining when the big market teams are in there and they contrast the small market teams like the two I mentioned about wonderfully. Frankly, I find the parity and the NFL playoffs incredibly boring compared to baseball.

The Yankees are not built the way they were in the 90's when they had their dynasty. They are a bunch of overpaid superstars now. Those 90's teams were homegrown and supplemented with veterans like Scott Brosius, Tino Martinez, and Chuck Knoblauch ...... ok, I can stop laughing now ......

5/7/2007 12:39:12 PM

Quote :

"Frankly, I find the parity and the NFL playoffs incredibly boring compared to baseball."

see, i knew you secretly agreed with me in the 'more than one sports team' thread (at least to some small extent.

[Edited on May 7, 2007 at 12:41 PM. Reason : this one /message_topic.aspx?topic=476393]

5/7/2007 12:40:28 PM

Quote :

"The Yankees are not built the way they were in the 90's when they had their dynasty. They are a bunch of overpaid superstars now."

The Yankees still have a lot of homegrown players.

Chien Ming Wang
Robinson Cano
Derek Jeter
Jorge Posada
Sean Henn
Scott Proctor
Mariano Rivera
and to a degree, Andy Pettitte.

Plus, they have had a lot of young pitchers this season:

Chase Wright
Phil Hughes
Darrel Rasner
Jeff Karstens



I'd like to challenge you to fine 5 teams in the majors that have had as many home-grown players take the field this season. You're a fan of two teams, Boston and the Mets, so it doesnt strike me that you want to laugh at the Yankees, but at least dont skew things away from what they really are.

5/7/2007 12:48:02 PM

don't forget melky fucking cabrera. mad props to that dude for actually staying on the team.

5/7/2007 12:50:36 PM

Quote :

"I'd like to challenge you to fine 5 teams in the majors that have had as many home-grown players take the field this season."

i can think of at least two: the braves and twins

other than diaz and renteria, the braves entire starting lineup is made up of home-grown talent. as is most of the bench, 3/5 of the rotation, and about half of the bullpen

minnesota, i believe, is similar but i don't really feel like looking it up

the yankees, however, have three starters that were brought up through their system: jeter, cano, and posada. and wang and henn are the only home-grown pitchers that have contributed anything

meanwhile the yankees' payroll is $100m more than that of the braves and they're still under .500

sounds like a bunch of overpaid superstars to me

5/7/2007 12:58:42 PM

^ wang and henn the only pitchers who have contributed anything? How about Mariano Rivera? That name ring a bell?

5/7/2007 1:09:05 PM

yeah, i think i've heard of him

he's the guy with the ERA above 8.00 and 2 blown saves in 11 appearances, right?

5/7/2007 1:11:59 PM

and more saves in the postseason than anyone else in history. And 4 rings.

5/7/2007 1:12:37 PM

too bad he can't trade those in for saves in 2007

you know, since that's what we're talking about here

[Edited on May 7, 2007 at 1:13 PM. Reason : ]

5/7/2007 1:13:18 PM

past performance does not predict future results
and neither does spending more money than anyone else

5/7/2007 1:14:38 PM

he had a rough start, but he picked up 2 saves in one day on thursday, and has been money in the past week or so. Just like every year, he starts slow, but then puts it together.

5/7/2007 1:16:01 PM

It's not about homegrown players. It's about the complimenting players around them. Do you really think the Yankees teams post-2001 have been like the dynasty years teams? Player like Scott Brosius or Tino Martinez fit in perfectly with the homegrown kids -- players like Giambi, Sheffield, or Damon (can't fault them for A-Rod; ANY team would have jumped on that deal)... well not so much. Robinson Cano is really the only homegrown position player that has been brought up in the last decade that has stuck (soriano was a japan league guy.. i guess you can call him a system guy as much as igawa is) and that was a reach at the time considering he was a minor league hitter at .750 (ops).

I didn't even include the pen b/c lots of teams have system guys they throw in their pen or for spot starts.

[Edited on May 7, 2007 at 1:23 PM. Reason : x]

5/7/2007 1:21:30 PM

Scott Brosius, Tino, Darrly Strawberry, Tim Raines, Paul O'Neill, Mariano Duncan, David Wells, the list goes on and on...none of those guys were homegrown players.

Name me a major league team in the past decade that has won with all homegrown players.



And if you guys want to talk chemesty, yes the 90's yankee team had better chemestry than these guys now, but chemestry is overrated in Sports. Shaq and Kobe destroyed the lakers locker room but they won championships.

5/7/2007 1:27:33 PM

THIS SHIT HAS BEEN ALL THEY HAVE BEEN TALKING ABOUT ON THE RADIO....MAN I HATE BASEBALL SEASON

5/7/2007 1:35:05 PM

Chemistry. Sweet lord.

5/7/2007 1:38:45 PM

if u go back a decade and a half u got the twins that were prodominately homegrown... even their superstars started with them

[Edited on May 7, 2007 at 2:27 PM. Reason : ]

5/7/2007 2:27:20 PM

Quote :

"if u go back a decade and a half u got the twins that were prodominately homegrown... even their superstars started with them"

Agulera - free agent from mets
Edens - also from the Mets
Tapani - came up with mets
Gozzo- came from Indians
Kipper - came from the pirates
Krueger - came from the A's
Smiley - Pirates
West - Mets
Willis - White Sox
Reed - Expos
Harper - journeyman, came from the A's
Pagliarugo - Yankees
Shane Mack - Padres
Chili Davis - Giants
Quinones - reds


that's 15 players out of 25, making it predominantly NOT homegrown.

[Edited on May 7, 2007 at 2:38 PM. Reason : 15]

5/7/2007 2:38:22 PM

Quote :

"The Yankees can spend half a trillion bucks but at the end of the day they aren't winning championships and they are performing just the same as the small budget Oakland A's or Minnesota Twins."

Coming from a longtime A's fan, im very glad with the success my team has had without spending much $$. If Billy Beane had the kind of flow that Cashman has to work with, then it would be a done deal every year. However, it really sucks to watch top talent leave EVERY YEAR to go for bigger contracts with the big city teams. Aside from the A's, Twins, and Marlins (who have brilliant GMs / front offices): its all about the $$. You could argue that each of the beforementioned teams cannot sustain this success without FA buying ability for much longer. The contracts for the best players are getting increasingly expensive such that only the big city teams can afford them while they are in their primes. You really think the A's or the Marlins could pick up AROD when he leaves the Bronx? Hell no. Youre talking LA, ATL, etc. Big cities. Once a player makes a name for himself and goes to the big city teams, he is pretty much impossible to sign for smaller city teams unless he's in the twilight of his career and considered risky (the big hurt) (mike piazza) (etc)
You cannot argue against the ability to spend more $$ in baseball being a huge advantage: it is. Im not saying it guarantees success, but it definitely tilts the odds in favor of the big spenders. Look at what it did for the formerly shitty Mets. How many times have the Braves made the playoffs as opposed to the Pirates recently? Who recently has won the AL East?

5/7/2007 2:47:52 PM

The Mets cut payroll starting in '05. They were a 65-70 win team with a payroll of $115-120M. Last year it was down to $101M and they won 97 games. Throwing money around doesn't guarantee success, though it does hope to increase the odds.

The Twins have a payroll half of the White Sox and the A's half of the Angels. They have been more succesful for longer (well at least in the Twins case). It really has to do with having a GM who knows HOW to spend the money that you do have access to more than anything else.

[Edited on May 7, 2007 at 2:58 PM. Reason : x]

5/7/2007 2:57:47 PM

The big spending White Sox, Angels, Red Sox, and Yankees have all won the World Series more recently than the Mets, the Twins, and the A's. What was your point again? What's the most dominant recent strategy? Being "successful for longer" must not mean winning World Series. If you throw out the ultimate acheivement of a MLB team, then yeah I guess you might have a point.

5/7/2007 3:14:11 PM

Quote :

"THIS SHIT HAS BEEN ALL THEY HAVE BEEN TALKING ABOUT ON THE RADIO....MAN I HATE FUCKING LOVE BASEBALL SEASON"

so much better than listening to nfl preseason analysis/postseason analysis/predraft analysis/draft analysis/postdraft analysis/minicamp analysis/training camp analysis.

5/7/2007 3:14:19 PM

The playoffs are a crapshoot in my opinion. Whoever gets hottest at the right time can win it. The Cardinals had no business winning it, the Marlins have won it twice in the last decade, and the White Sox almost had one of the all-time collapses in baseball history but turned it around.

Sustained successful seasons are more impressive to me and the A's and the Twins have had far more of it than the White Sox or Mets, despite their payrolls.

... but my point in that post was that $$$$ isn't always the biggest factor in what turns around teams but prudent use of that $$$$ is. The Royals payroll isn't all that far away from Oak/Min by comparison and the pre-Omar Mets was actually higher than the most recent teams. The success levels are completely different though.

[Edited on May 7, 2007 at 3:23 PM. Reason : x]

5/7/2007 3:21:14 PM