Monday, December 8, 2008

Who would you rather have in pinstripes - CC or Manny?

Viva Las Vegas! As MLB descends on Sin City for the Winter Meetings, Brian Cashman has been attempting to woo free agent pitcher CC Sabathia. They reportedly met this weekend, three weeks after the Yanks first attempted to blow him away with that staggering six-year, $140 million contract offer.

Should we be concerned that it's taken so long to meet with CC? I say yes. As another GM put it in a New York Times article the other day:

"If they went to Sabathia with $140 million, he could go back to them and say, 'Give me $170 million and I'm there,'" said one major league general manager, who was granted anonymity so he could freely discuss another team's plans. "He hasn't done that. The Yankees aren't his first choice. Why isn't he jumping on their offer?"

I'm glad Cashman is meeting with Sabathia, and I won't fault the GM if the Bombers fail to sign CC. The Yanks' offer, which would make him the highest-paid pitcher of all time, is more than fair.

That being said, if CC is reluctant to be a Yankee for non-monetary reasons, I don't know if it's such a great idea to try to talk him into it. The last pitcher the Yanks had to do that sort of convincing with was Randy Johnson, and that didn't exactly work out too well.

So what's Plan B if CC doesn't want to wear NY on his cap? It's possible the Yanks will spend money upgrading the bats - Mark Teixeira is considered an option. Today's Ken Davidoff column in Newsday suggests another option - Manny Ramirez!

Here's what I want to know from our readers - who would you most rather see the Yanks spend their free agent money on? Is it CC, Manny, or Mark? Or maybe Derek Lowe, A.J. Burnett, or some other option?

As for my own opinion, my first choice would be for the Yanks to go back in a time machine to a year ago and swoop up Johan Santana. But since time travel isn't an option, I'd most rather see the Bombers spend the money on Sabathia, but only if he really wants to be a Yankee. If he doesn't, the Yanks should say C-ya to CC.

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In other news, I have signed up for Facebook, and will be setting up a Subway Squawkers page in the near future. In the meantime, shoot me an email at subwaysquawkers@gmail.com if you'd like to be my Facebook friend.

Coming soon - an announcement of the winners in the A&E Essential Games giveway. But in thee meantime, tell us who you think the Yanks should sign. Leave us a comment!

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

sign manny, please. then he and a-rod will be the face of the yankees for the next 5 years. will be fun to watch.

the sox will take lowe and texiera.

cheers from boston

acapelad

Uncle Mike said...

The Yankees signing Manny would be like President-elect Obama making Karl Rove a senior advisor: Just because he's been successful elsewhere doesn't mean he is not antithetical to what we believe in, and he must be kept out at all costs.

Yanksgal07 said...

I'll take a shot of vitamin CC ...otherwise Tex would be my next choice. Manny should stay in LaLaland which fits him perfectly.

Go Yankees 2009!!!

Roger 9 said...

Not crazy about any of the free agents that are available. Texeira comes the closest.
CC doesn't really want the Yankees. Derek is too old. A.J. has a injury ridddled career. And Manny?......forget him. One would have to be insane to sign him.
Looks like Swisher is the Yankees' hope for '09. Pretty sad!

Anonymous said...

Tenne-CC Tuxedo will not fail! (to pass up a buffet in Vegas!) But he may fail to win twenty with that gut, and which will go first, his knees or Santana's elbow due to the Mets' shoddy bullpen? Cashman needs to up his offer to 140 mil plus free gastric bypass surgery. Manny is a headcase but it's hard to say no to all those RBIs, and all those that A-Rod would get hitting ahead of him.

Anonymous said...

IMO the yankees number # priority should be Mark Texiera. Last year their patchwork rotation kept them in 90% of the games while the lack of consistant offense especially with RISP let them down. With Abreu & Giambi gone along with their 52 hrs and 196 RBI's they desperately need offense. Even if Posada and Matsui return to their old numbers they still need offense. Wang, Joba, Hughes, maybe Pettitte and and 2nd or 3rd tier pitcher should be able to handle the pitching. In 08 the yankees lost over 30 games because they scored 3 runs or less!

Unknown said...

CC makes me nervous with his attitude toward the Yanks. Like you mentioned Lisa, I'm not sure anyone who didn't want to be a Yankee actually succeeded when he came over here. I think the top brass is secretly hoping that CC turns down the offer. Because of the fanbase and who the Yankees are, they're always expected to make the top offer to the top free agent out there even if it goes against wisdom, especially now with all those luxury boxes to sell. I mean, if this was any other occupation, which employer in their right mind would go out of their way to hire someone who didn't want to work for them?

Having said that, I'd still rather see CC with the Yanks than with a rival. After that, Lowe and Texeira.

Anonymous said...

I'd rather see CC than Manny. Age, lackadaisical attitude about playing, not sure of his fitness--Manny makes me nervous. And there is enough drama. I'm usually not all about the "good nice guy" stuff people spend way too much concern over but you can't bring drama AND questions as to whether you're giving all you got.

Lisa, I sent you my address again. Hope you got it.

Anonymous said...

The only player that would make me feel completely comfortable getting is Mark Texeira.

I was all for getting CC, but his reluctance is also making me nervous. If, in his heart, he does not want to play for us, I agree that we should move on to someone else. I think it's important to ask the honest question about how will CC REALLY perform if we have him locked up for six year and he doesn't really want to be here?

I just feel that he'll appreciate the money, but that will wear off and his performance will not be able to justify it because of the media scrutiny, fan scrutiny, and just because he rather pitch close to home. If he didn't jump at the opportunity by now, or at least hint that he's excited about the prospect of being a Yankee, I say forget it and move along and go for Tex.

As for pitching, I say persue Burnett and offer him three years and an option for a fourth if he can stay reasonably healthy.

Anonymous said...

And forget Manny. We don't need him doggin' it if he doesn't like something Girardi tells him and so forth...

Dude's a mental case.

Uncle Mike said...

Actually, Jonmouk, it's very easy to say no to Manny's RBIs. Let me show you: "Manny! You're nuts! You're a clubhouse cancer! We don't want you! Go mess up some other team!" There. Very easy.

Emp: It's funny that you describe Manny with the words "mental case," because Jackie Gleason as Ralph Kramden occasionally used that phrase to describe the man in your avatar, Art Carney as Ed Norton. What we need is someone to tell Manny that he's going to the Moon. Then again, he may already be there. And if any baseball's he's hit are there, it's still not enough to make me change my mind.

Anonymous said...

Mike, yes you're absolutely right: Ralph always called Norton a mental case! I didn't even realize the irony between what I wrote and my favorite TV character of all time!

But, if I had to choose between Manny and Ed Norton to have a token bona fide mental case on the Yankees, of couse you know I'd have to go with Ralph Kramden's life-long pal.

I mean, could you picture Ed Norton about to swing at a pitch and addressing the ball before he swings: "Helloooo, Ball"...And the umpire smacking him on the shoulder yelling "COME ON, YA' NUT!!!"

Classic.

Uncle Mike said...

Emp: There was a comic-book version of The Honeymooners a few years back, showing them playing stickball, and apparently Norton had a trick pitch. Turned out he could do it with a real ball, not just a Spaldeen, and he got a tryout with the Dodgers. But Roy Campanella couldn't handle the trick pitch. In fact, the only catcher who could was Ralph. But Ralph couldn't handle any of the other Dodger pitchers, especially that wild lefty kid from Borough Park, Sandy something. So no Ralph and Ed in Dodger Blue. Just as well: It was shortly before the move. Can you really see them in L.A.? It didn't work for the Ricardos and Mertzes!

Anonymous said...

No way can I picture the Kremdens or the Nortons in la-la land. Never. That would be like Barbara Walters trying to move the jungles of The Republic of Congo and blend in with the people there and mimic their cultural customs unnoticed.

The Honeymooners represented the quintessential working class person of 1950'a NYC. Because of the way the actors protrayed their characters to demonstrate how the average working class person made their way in this city so naturally, it's no wonder why the show is still a cultural icon after being in syndication for over half a century. It's something how that show is still in many ways relevant and vital in terms of how we can see a little of ourselves in those characters, even though the world has changed so completely since those days.

And the show only existed for one full season. Something, huh?

If they were in California -- or anywhere else for that matter, to me that would be a mockery and an insult of what the show was all about. I'm happy it never went the way of I Love Lucy, as you mentioned, Mike.

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