I'm not happy that the Johnny Damon Era appears to be over for the Yankees. And I'm even less happy that Nick Johnson is the new DH. But, unlike Red Sox fans did, I plan on cheering Damon whenever he does come back to Yankee Stadium. And I would cheer even louder if he and the Yankees could somehow come to terms, and bring him back next year.
Look, I didn't expect both Damon and Hideki Matsui to come back. But I also didn't expect Matsui to get such a cheap deal with the Angels - $6.5 million for a one-year deal. Or for him to be "replaced" with somebody more injury-prone than he is. So what if Johnson is younger - he can't stay healthy.
While I was happy with the Curtis Granderson deal, I'm not happy with these other moves. But I will try to be optimistic that Brian Cashman has something good up his sleeve. A year ago this week, he gave us the best Christmas gift possible, with Mark Teixeira. Is it too much to ask for some other move this week to make Red Sox wail and gnash their teeth? Dare to dream!
What do you think? Leave us a comment!
5 comments:
I absolutely will cheer Damon when he comes to the Stadium - if they lose game 4 of the WS they LOSE the Series IMO and Damon won them that game in the end.
There are baseball players and then there are clutch baseball players.
Although Boras is delusional Damon is absolutely worth the 19 million the Angels paid Abreau and is worth MORE than the 15.5 the Sux paid Cameron so I think for the Yanks to offer him $14 million was a slap in the face I think - kind of like the last offer they made Torre - "an offer they knew he could and would refuse".
My only annoyance in regards to Damon is I wish they would've figured out how far apart they were earlier before Matsui blinked and sign with the Angels because I think if they knew Damon was definitely gone they would've bought Hideki back. I figured they would lose one of them but not both and I'm none too happy. Especially since I agree with you on Johnson: he is perhaps the most oft injured position player in the game.
IMO the Yanks are way too in love with OBP. OBP is all well and good when you're dealing with someone like Jeter or Youk and they're 400+ OBP is icing on their .300+ averages but a .400 doesn't overly impress me when the guy is a .240-.260 hitter and they already have that in Swisher. There comes a time when you need a base hit to drive in the people who walked.
I can only hope Nick can stay healthy for once and will be so psyched to be back with the Yanks instead of a lowly team like the Nationals that he'll have a career like season.
But as of now I am none too pleased. Out outfield: Melky, Granderson and Swisher again? Swish is NOT an everyday player and our rotation is CC, AJ and Andy . . . ???
If they had gotten Halliday I could live with losing Hideki and Damon and everyone kept talking about how it was going to take a $100 mil extension to sign Halliday and when the Phillies only had to shell out $60 million for an additional 3 years I almost broke down and cried.
Halliday has a nasty changeup - he can easily be great for 6+ more years.
I am not even remotely happy about the Yanks move in this off-season thusfar.
Nick Johnson is a better hitter than Johnny. Johnsons OBP was 3rd best in baseball behind Pujols and Mauer making him THE PERFECT complement to the Yankees lineup that consistently elevates opponents pitch counts. Damon is just a slap hitter playing anywhere other than Yankee Stadium. Sure he's a nice guy but he's an aging nice guy with deteriorating defensive skills and limited power. I like Johnny but he made a fool of himself asking for 13 mil a year over 3 and subsequently got what he deserved.
Just why exactly would you even ask this question? What would Yankee fans boo Damon for? Yankee fans= can be so dumb sometimes. Who cares? He's gone. Move on, like Boston did.
Dear Mr. Cashman,
I don't know which playoffs you watched this season, but every Yankee fan that I talked to, all agree that if it wasn't for Damon and Matsui, the Yankees would not be the world champions!! Who in their right mind, would trade the World Series MVP, and the player that was one of the most productive during the entire playoffs!! Players like Johnny Damon, Nick Swisher, and AJ Burnett, were responsible for keeping the team moral up and the comraderie going for the team!!!
Johnny Damon will be will only get cheers from this yankee family,even if he goes to Boston!
Post a Comment