Bummer -- Hal Steinbrenner sez his family is not selling the Yankees

Hal (Rip Van Winkle) Steinbrenner has finally woken up from his winter snooze to talk to the press. Specifically, ESPN New York's Wally Matthews. And specifically, to say that he and his siblings are not selling the team, and will keep the team for the next generation of Steinbrenners. Oh goody -- another generation of people who were born on third base and think that they hit a triple running the team! I can't wait! (That's sarcasm, kidddies!)

Matthews talked to Prince Hal for an hour, and said at the end of his piece that he "can't help but like" Hal "and feel for" him. Feel for what, exactly? Because Steinbrenner had a tough father? Many people out there had tough fathers, but didn't inherit multi-billion dollar baseball teams, either. Boo bleeding hoo. This sounds like how the media gave Brian Cashman a pass for so many years because George yelled at him. Good grief.

There is no talk about the Yankees' ticket debacle (shocker!), but Matthews asked Steinbrenner about other things. Here are some of the most interesting tidbits from the story, and the questions I would like to ask Hal if I could:

"I'm not trying to be George," he says. "I never walked into this with the concept of trying to act like George, trying to be everything that George was, 'cause I can't."

No $#%^. Sherlock. Hey, Hal, we don't need you to be George. But we don't need you to be the exact opposite of George, either, where you won't do anything like hold people accountable for fear that somebody will think that you look like your father. Get over your childhood already. We'd all be a lot better off.

"George accomplished all this through his hard work. But for me, this is a privilege. It's a privilege in that I don't feel that I deserve to be the managing general partner of the New York Yankees."

That makes two of us, Hal!

And if my last name wasn't Steinbrenner, I wouldn't be managing general partner of the New York Yankees."

 Well, you do have at least *some* self-awareness!

He is strident, if not exactly passionate, about his role as managing general partner of the Yankees -- that is the description he uses, never "owner," and certainly never Boss -- but nowhere near as wound up as he gets when he talks about flying his airplanes, a GTO single-engine aircraft and a Cessna high-wing that he says he can land anywhere. It is a hobby he only took up in 2000. "That's what I do to get away from this," he said, pointing at his iPhone. "Go up to 2,000 feet and practice takeoffs and landings."...."It scared the hell out of my dad. He was always worried about it. But you know, there's nothing safe about driving on the interstate, either. You minimize the risk, you make sure your plane is in good shape, and you don't make poor choices, and it's a fairly safe thing to do." 

1. Can you go be general partner of a plane company, instead of a baseball team, the job you so desperately wants to "get away from"? We'd all be better off!

2. Paging Dr. Freud, but considering your father lost Thurman Munson when the Yankee captain died doing takeoffs and landing on his private plane, and considering your father then had clauses in Yankee players' contracts banning them from flying planes, you have to wonder how much your hobby has to do with sticking it to your dad.

He said he's never going to react to a loss, or a losing season, by firing someone. He understands his natural reserve tends to make fans believe he doesn't really care about the Yankees, at least not as much as his father did. "Even if I wanted to, I couldn't do that," he said. "I'm not going to try to be something that I'm not. I don't pretend to be as good as him in this role, and I wouldn't even try."

Hey Hal: You know, firing people when they fail at their jobs, year after year, is not only a George thing. It's kind of how the rest of baseball -- and the rest of the world -- works. But you're too busy playing Peter Pan to actually hold people accountable.

On who is ultimately to blame for the Yankees' recent failures: "Nothing is going to happen or not happen without me. So you can say it's [GM Brian] Cashman but I can tell you that Cash and I talk, and Hank and I talk, but again, the decision still falls on me. So if anyone wants to blame anybody they should throw me in there with Cashman, for goodness sakes."

Well, that's great, Hal. You won't fire Cashman. And we can't fire you. But we should keep on sucking it up and buying tickets, just because.

 On whether the Yankees will pay A-Rod the $6 million bonus for tying Babe Ruth's 714 home runs: "We'll see. We'll see. I think we have a much better relationship at this point in time to try to work something out. We'll figure something out. I wouldn't worry too much about that. I think it's going to be a different story this time around." 

Hal, given that 90% of your team's current marketing campaign that features today's players is about A-Rod, it would be kind of hard to avoid giving him this money. But I doubt you even know that, since you show about as much interest in the Yankees as I do in watching "Doctor Who." Oy.

I'm calling it now: A-Rod will hit HR No. 660 against Matt Harvey and the Mets this weekend!

Squawker Jon and I were getting a bite to eat on Friday night when we heard that Alex Rodriguez had hit home run No. 657. It was almost as if the homer were a statement against Joe Girardi batting him sixth (!) that night, even though Alex was the hottest hitter on the team. I quickly did the math in my head and declared: "A-Rod's gonna hit 660 off Matt Harvey!" in the Subway Series next weekend. I also posted my declaration on social media for posterity.

Later on that evening, A-Rod hit No. 658, and it seemed, given him hitting four home runs in 10 days, as if he could get two more homers this weekend. No matter. Given how much A-Rod has a flair for the dramatic, I just couldn't see him matching Willie Mays when the Yankees were on the road. No, I think he is going to do it at home, most likely in the Subway Series, and most likely against Matt Harvey, the biggest name on the New York Mets. And now that the Mets are the hottest team in baseball, with 10 wins in a row, this will make him setting the record even sweeter! Of course, I could be wrong, and A-Rod could go hitless for the weekend (and Squawker Jon could mock me mercilessly!), but I am still sticking to my prediction!

In this morning's New York Post, Ken Davidoff had some conflicting "inside details" about what will happen when Alex hits 660.

According to two sources familiar with the situation, when Rodriguez goes deep with number 660, the Yankees will have a precise period of time — two weeks, as per one of the sources — to declare this as a marketable milestone. If they were to do this, then Rodriguez would sign over the rights to his image and associated branding for the price of $6 million. 

I don't buy this, and here's why: If you were to be selling branded stuff revolving around this, you would need it ready to go at the time that people would buy the items. That would mean having it made up at the time A-Rod hits #660. Remember how Derek Jeter wore a hat and t-shirt with a logo of himself honoring his hitting #3000 in the post-game press conference after he got his 3000th hit? Remember how Steiner Sports was selling autographed merchandise before that milestone, which Jeter signed when he skipped the All-Star Game? Two weeks after #660 is ancient history.

Brian Cashman (l.) and Randy Levine spotted
visiting their attorney to discuss the
A-Rod milestone controversy.

Davidoff also writes that "another person involved in the dispute claims Rodriguez is entitled to his $6 million bonus money immediately upon hitting home run 660." This seems much more likely. The rest of this stuff is Yankee spin, like the way that they think that not mentioning the home run milestone in their press materials will keep it from being a milestone. Who is advising the Yankees -- Lionel Hutz?

Another leak to Davidoff concerns the idea that the Yankees could bring up in the arbitration hearing "past transgressions, including some that have yet to be affirmed," like A-Rod's relationship with Anthony Galea. But couldn't A-Rod's people bring up stuff on the Yankees, like the likelihood that they knew that he (and other players) were juicing? Or bring up the fact that the Yankees are marketing Andy Pettitte, an admitted PED user, even giving him a retired number, a plaque in Monument Park, and his own day?

Aside from A-Rod's flair for the dramatic, I think Alex will hit 660 at home, whether against Matt Harvey or some other pitcher, because of the fact that he will get a huge ovation and a curtain call when he does so. And it is going to be hard for the Yankees to claim that they cannot market his home run milestone if a big crowd, many of them wearing A-Rod shirts, roar in approval of his achievement! Not to mention if A-Rod's teammates celebrate it on the field.

But then again, the leadership of this team is known to talk out of both sides of their mouth. Like this gem in today's paper from Girardi to George King of the Post about A-Rod's steroid suspension: "He paid the consequences and we had to struggle through it because we didn’t have him."

Let me get this straight: Girardi and Cashman and Levine and Hal Steinbrenner have been trying to marginalize A-Rod and get him off the team for years now, but they are somehow the victims here, struggling through the 2014 season without Rodriguez? The same A-Rod that Girardi has had bat sixth and seventh this season, while he had the washed-up Carlos Beltran bat third? Really? Good grief.

In other news, did you see ESPN's Andrew Marchand's entertaining recap of A-Rod sparring with an out-of-town writer? The reporter kept on asking Alex over and over about A-Rod being a "villain" and being booed on the road, to which he finally responded:

A-Rod: I've been booed for 15 years, buddy. I don't know if you haven't been around. It's been one long boo for 15 years.

Love it -- especially his use of "buddy." I do the same thing! If I have called you "buddy" or dude" when I'm talking to you, it is not a compliment!

The questions Bill Madden neglected to ask Hal Steinbrenner in his exclusive interview

It's payback time! New York Daily News MLB columnist Bill Madden has snagged what is billed as an "exclusive" interview with Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner. But despite that access, the interview is a real snoozer. And there are many unanswered questions here -- both in lack of follow-ups to Hal's points, as well as in questions that are never raised in the first place.

So I decided to help rectify that. Here are the things Madden should have asked in his interview, but didn't:

1. Hal, you don't like being called a cheapskate for not signing Yoan Moncada, and you said the following regarding that issue:

“I found that very interesting,” he said, smiling, “given that we offered $25 million (for Moncada) and spent substantially in the international market (a reported $26.82 million in bonuses and penalties for greatly exceeding their bonus allotment). I’m not saying we’ll never give another seven-year contract, but going in you know you’re probably only going to get three-four good years out of it. It remains my goal to get under that $189 million (luxury-tax threshold), but it’s not going to happen for at least two more years when these big contracts we have expire. But I’ve continued to say you shouldn’t need $200 million to win a championship.”

Do you understand that spending $7M more on Moncada would have been a better risk than the money spent on international bonuses, which were given to 16-year-old players without Moncada's track record? And given your opinions here, then why did you give out two seven-year contracts just last year: a $153M deal to Jacoby Ellsbury, and a $155M deal to Masahiro Tanaka? Also, are you aware that giving a three-year, $45M contract to an aging, injury-prone Carlos Beltran is essentially paying for the worst three years of a seven-year deal, without getting the good years?

2. You tell Madden you are excited about the NYCFC playing at Yankee Stadium. But what about the concerns from Yankee players about what this was going to do to the field? Mark Teixeira told the Daily News that "it's going to suck" and "tear up the infield," and Brett Gardner and Jacoby Ellsbury have also expressed concerns with soccer being played on the field. So what is in place to make sure the field will be pristine for baseball?

3. You said this winter that you gave Brian Cashman a contract extension because of the moves he made midseason to help the team. But are you aware that the Yankees had an identical winning percentage -- .514 -- both at the end of July, and at the end of the season, despite Cashman's dealing? Also, did you know that the Yanks and Kansas City Royals both had the same 55-52 winning record at the end of July, yet even with Cashman's pickups, the Royals, not the Yanks, made the postseason?

4. If you are so sold on the current players in the farm system, then why are neither Rob Refsnyder nor Jose Pirela given the chance this spring to compete for the second base job? What does it say to the folks on the farm when Stephen Drew gets $5M plus incentives for the spot, despite hitting below the Mendoza line last season, and the team refused to consider putting a rookie in the role, even though Drew has been hitting under .100 for most of spring training?

5. Why did you give Brian Cashman a contract extension and a raise when you acknowledge how poor player development has been, and how badly the minor league system was managed? In Yankeeland, does the GM hold any responsibility for the people under him? Under Cashman's watch of the farm system, there has been exactly one superstar -- Robinson Cano -- and zero No. 1 starting pitchers. Does that concern you?

6. Are you aware that when all is said and done, your team will have paid Martin Prado $10M for two months of his services in a year when your team didn't even make the playoffs?

7. Your team's front office has anonymously made negative snipes to the media over and over about Alex Rodriguez, including criticizing him for showing up *early* to spring training.  On the other hand, your team's Twitter feeds -- both the @Yankees and @YankeesPR -- have not mentioned him once this spring, completely ignoring his good performance in spring training. Do you think this a professional way to run a ballclub?

8. You told Madden that the team needed to get off to a good start in order for the team's attendance to be good. What if they don't? Aside from all the number retirement ceremonies this year, how are you going to put fannies in the seats, as your father would say, if this team is a snoozer this year?

9. You told Bill Madden, "we have to win," and claimed that there actually would be accountability if the Yankees don't make the playoffs again this season, saying, "We’re all accountable here, starting with me. I’m the one who approved all these contracts." Does that mean you will fire yourself if the Yankees miss the playoffs this year?

10. And finally, since you approved all these contracts, including the performance contract giving A-Rod $6M each time he reaches a certain home run milestone, why are you now trying to wriggle out of paying him? If it is because of him doing steroids, than why are you honoring admitted PED user Andy Pettitte with a retired number and a plaque in Monument Park?

Why did the Yankees pass on Andrew Friedman? And why is Hal Steinbrenner like Hermey the Elf?

Yesterday, after hearing about how the Los Angeles Dodgers swooped up and signed Andrew Friedman, after firing GM Ned Colletti, I was naturally peeved. As my friend Sully put it, the Dodgers have back-to-back seasons making the playoffs, and they fire their GM, while the Yankees have back-to-back seasons of not making the playoffs, and give their GM a new contract. Good grief.

I have had my eye on Andrew Friedman for a long time. Here is what I wrote in 2012, in a column slamming Brian Cashman for signing Kevin Youkilis, and correctly predicting that the $12 million signing would be a disaster. I said that:

"With a payroll less than a third of the Yanks, and their best players leaving for free agency, Friedman is able to field a competitive team each year. (And no, it isn't just having had the good draft picks -- look at Kansas City!) In the old days, George Steinbrenner would have poached Friedman from the Rays a long time ago, instead of having a schlub like Cashman as GM for life."

Two years later, KC finally has a good team, but the Yankees are content to settle for three more years with a schlub like Brian Cashman. And yes, I still contend that George would have swooped in and gotten Friedman. (An aside -- if I had a dollar for every Yankee fan who insisted to me over the years that Friedman would never leave Tampa, I would be rich!)

Most of us have seen "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" a time or two -- or ten -- each Christmas season. Hermey the Elf is one of the more memorable characters. He is Rudolph's fellow misfit friend who doesn't want to be an elf -- which sounds like a pretty cool gig to most of us, even if you have to sing that annoying song about how "We are Santa's elves."  Instead, Hermey wants to be a dentist.

Anyhow, I was thinking about Lazy Hal yesterday, and I was struck by the similarities of  the Elf to him -- and it is not just the swoop of bangs! Hal literally has zero interest in running the team, which like being an elf, sounds like a sweet gig to most of us. Instead, he would rather do his amateur weather forecasting.

Mike Lupica, perhaps the only major media guy in New York unafraid to criticize Cashman and Steinbrenner, had an excellent column in the Daily News about the state of the Yankees. He said that:

"Hal Steinbrenner goes through the half-hearted motion of talking like a tough Steinbrenner owner, like he’s learning a new language on Rosetta Stone. But one of the reasons that Brian is coming back is that even if Steinbrenner had wanted to hire a new general manager, he wouldn’t have had a clue about who it should be. All we know for sure is that he’s decided that the general manager he has is indispensable."

That is about the size of it. Hermey -- I mean Hal -- does treat actually attending Yankees like going to the dentist. And the Yankee GM fancies himself an elf. After all, he dresses as one when he does his dopey rappelling each holiday season.

Imagine what Friedman could do with the resources in Yankeeland. Yet, by all accounts, nobody ever even tried to poach him, even though Hal lives in Tampa. Good grief indeed.

Hal Steinbrenner finally speaks, and shows that he couldn't manage a one-car funeral

So Hal (Rip Van Winkle) Steinbrenner has finally woken from his summer slumber and spoken to the media for the first time in two months. He talked to Michael Kay on the Yankee broadcaster's ESPN New York radio show yesterday, a day after I wondered where the heck Hal was. But I think Hal would have made a much better impression by doing the interview in person, given that Kay's show is simulcast on Hal's TV network. Heck, even A-Rod figured that out his fireside chats with Mike Francsesa came across much better when he was in the studio!

Here are some of the noteworthy subjects that Hal the Dilettante touched on during his phone call:

His apology to Yankee fans

He said "I apologize" when asked to explain this year's disastrous season, saying "We did not do the job this year. We know what you expect of us and we expect the same thing of ourselves." No, Hal, you don't expect anything of anybody, except not to be bothered with making any actual decisions. That's the problem! You said in August that Yankee hitters needed to "step it up," yet when the hitters didn't, nothing happened. Heck, even teams like the Mets fire hitting coaches now and then. Yet you have kept Kevin Long on since 2007!

On him bringing Brian Cashman back and his firing philosophy

He said Cashman "does a good job" (yeah, Hal, that Kevin Youkilis deal was awesome! So was trading for Stephen Drew!) and that they would be negotiating a new contract with Cashman. Hal told Kay the following:

"I don't think it is a news flash that I am different than George in a lot of ways," Steinbrenner said. "He was better in many things than me, but I do tend to be a little less rash when it comes to firing people. I want to make sure that what went wrong was for a reason. It was wrong because of that one individual or two individuals or whatever, I will get through that process before anything like that as opposed to any kind of knee jerk reactions."

Let's review. Hal has been in charge of the team for seven years now. George Steinbrenner has been dead for four years already. Brian Cashman got a three-year contract after the 2008 season, and then after the 2011 season. You might have been able to justify the 2011 deal, given the 2009 World Series win. But how in the world is it "rash" to think that another GM could have done a better job with the team, or to think about going in a new direction in the future? Cashman's day has come and gone, and everybody knows it except for Hal.

During this last Cashman contract, the Yankees were absolutely humiliated by the Detroit Tigers in the ALCS, and then didn't make the playoffs the next two seasons, even with the extra wild card spot. Cashman also did some embarrassing shenanigans in his personal life. In those three years, Cash also outspent everybody in the league bat least $50 million each year, made a slew of personnel mistakes, and got outwitted over and over. The farm system is a mess, and the team has a dismal future. But Hal still thinks it is "knee jerk" to consider finding a new GM? Good grief.

I think Hal is one of the laziest people ever. If he weren't born on third base and thought he hit a triple, he would be hanging out in his mom's basement, or living off some girlfriend's money, instead of doing something for himself. He would literally rather accept failure, year after year, than get off his duff and fire Cashman. After all, hiring and firing is sooooo hard!

George Steinbrenner spent his entire life trying to impress his father, Henry, which is part of the reason why he bought the Yankees and turned a down-at-its-heels franchise into a new dynasty, ultimately resulting in the team becoming in a multi-billion-dollar team. Hal Steinbrenner has spent his entire life not trying to be his father, avoiding responsibility and putting up with not just mediocrity but flat-out incompetence, year after year, and avoiding firing anybody for fear that somebody might compare him to The Boss. And the so-called tough New York media gives him a pass.

He said Beltran and McCann and Teixeira would be better next year

Hal sounded like Brian Cashman's ventriloquist's dummy in insisting that Carlos Beltran, Brian McCann and Mark Teixeira would all be better next year. As I wrote yesterday, maybe McCann might, but expecting injury-prone, old players to improve without PEDs is absolutely delusional. 

Why he didn't attend Derek Jeter's final home game

Hal rationalized why he wasn't at Derek Jeter's home farewell, saying that "The 'Thank You Day' was the 7th [of September], and that day"was my family, that was the organization saying thank you to Jeter, which is exactly what I told him for everything that he has done for the organization." He said that "The last day really, in my opinion, was for the players." Too bad Kay did not ask Hal this followup question: So why was your sister Jenny front and center at that game, and you weren't?

Hal also told Michael that he was in Tampa that day, and said "I'm not going to get into why I couldn't be there, but I couldn't. I watched every bit of it." Note: I still think Hal was watching #TGIT instead of attending Derek Jeter's final home game!

He also said "It is perfectly understandable for people to be upset" about him not attending Jeter's home farewell, although he claimed to have been in Boston for the final weekend. How does the person running a billion-dollar business not realize that his job description entails being in Yankee Stadium when his team's No. 1 marketing choice of the year reaches his apex?

Here's what I would like to know. What could Hal have possibly had going on that day that was more important than being at Yankee Stadium that day? As my readers know, I think this Jeter farewell tour was a monstrosity, but even I get that Jeter's last home game was kind of a big deal.

He said the same blather about having a championship-caliber team

It shows the pathetic state of the New York media in that Nomaas.org, a fan/fun Yankee site, had a better analysis of how Hal keeps on with the same nonsense about having a "championship-caliber team" than the press did. (Check it out here.)

Here is what Hal told Kay:

“I don’t think you can teach us old dogs new tricks – we expect to win every year. Our fans do, too. I am disappointed by all of this. We will be back next year with a championship-caliber team.”

Um, Hal, your old dog Brian Cashman just pooped on your interlocking NY rug, and it's time for you to clean it up. And if you won't do it, then, please, sell the team already and go back to spending all of your time being a dilettante, flying planes and doing weather reports. If you can't seem to care enough about the Yankees to clean up this mess, then why should the fans care about the team?

Why weren't Steinbrenner sons at Derek Jeter's final farewell? Were they watching #TGIT? And where is Hal's statement about this disaster of a team?

Look -- I have criticized the Derek Jeter farewell tour repeatedly in this column. I found the hype and the kitsch over the top, and I thought it had become a flat-out money grab. But even I found Thursday's farewell game extremely touching, and, yes, I am not ashamed to admit cried at the end. Who wouldn't, after seeing Jeter's walkoff single in that game?

What moved me the most was seeing Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte, Bernie Williams, Jorge Posada, Joe Torre, and the rest on the field, waiting for Jeter. When Michael Kay said that Jeter hadn't yet noticed that they were there, I just lost it, crying and crying. It was a really wonderful night that everyone enjoyed. Except, apparently, for two people. Unlike their sister Jenny, who was seen on camera, Hal and Hank Steinbrenner reportedly couldn't be bothered to attend the game. Nor were they at Jeter's final game at Fenway Park.

Give me a break. What in the world could possibly be more important to them than being at Thursday's game -- catching Shonda Rimes' #TGIT on ABC? Why didn't they show up? Are Hal and Hank ticked off that recently Jeter pointed out the obvious to New York magazine -- that they are not their fathers' sons when it comes to being around the team?

Hal has mostly maintained a monk's silence for most of the season, briefly emerging in August to say that the Yankees needed to "step it up." Spoiler alert: they didn't. So here we are, with the Bombers having their second season in a row without a playoff appearance. Over $210 million was spent for nothing. Yet Hal hasn't said a word. And why isn't the media wondering where Hal is, and why he literally has nothing to say after this disaster of a year?

Then there is the Brian Cashman issue. How can this clown get a contract extension, when two of the three teams since his previous contract didn't make the playoffs, and the one that did had an epic collapse in the postseason? And the thing is, Cashman still doesn't understand what he did wrong. He recently told John Harper that "I honestly believe if you repeated this season 100 times, you would not get this result," a statement Harper does not challenge. Hmmm, I think if this season were repeated 100 times, you could even get worse results. For example, Jeter, to my surprise, stayed healthy all year. Jacoby Ellsbury stayed mostly healthy -- he very well could have been injured and missed significant time. And the injuries that did happen most likely still would have happened.

Image courtesy of Nomaas.org

Cashman also said that "you’ll see the real Carlos Beltran next year" and that "Tex should be much better. His doctor says the first year after wrist surgery is difficult, and the next year is better." He also thought McCann would be better next year. I think that is possible with McCann, but the idea that Beltran and Teixeira, two injury-ridden, aging players, will be better one year older is delusional. To paraphrase Nomaas, what is Cashman smoking?

Could Brian (Supergenius) Cashman be on his way out? Please, Hal (Rip Van Winkle) Steinbrenner, make it happen!

Believe it or not, I actually have a smidgen of hope this week for the Yankees. Not for this season, of course. I have never had any expectations that the Yankees would actually go anywhere in 2014, other than to the bottom of the AL East. But that Hal (Rip Van Winkle) Steinbrenner may actually have stirred from the slumber he has been in over the past five seasons and is finally realizing that the Yanks need new leadership in the GM spot. 

When Hal was in Baltimore the other day to select a new MLB Commissioner, he was asked about the state of the Yankees. Steinbrenner said that the hitters need to "step it up" and that A-Rod would be back in 2015. These tidbits were the focus of the initial stories on what he said. Buried in these articles was the most important thing of all -- that Hal did not say that Brian Cashman would definitely be re-signed to a new contract. Instead, he said:

"We’re so busy right now, trying to figure out who’s going to be playing in any given game, much less that,” Steinbrenner said. “We’ll be talking about that soon enough. But you know me. We’ve got enough things to worry about during the season. That’s where our focus needs to be.

“Let me get to October — hopefully the end of October, beginning of November — and we’ll go from there.” 

Funny thing was that the New York media initially did their best to pooh-pooh that assertion: for example, New York Post columnst Ken Davidoff insisted that Steinbrenner's "comments Wednesday felt less like a non-endorsement and more like a sense he had too many other current items on his plate."

And John Harper of the New York Daily News said on "Daily News Live" that "I don't think Cashman is in any danger" because "I don't think the Steinbrenners really have the stomach for a big GM search."

Keep in mind, though, that the NYC media is in the tank for Cashman. Any other GM, for any other team (or sport) would be on the hot seat now. But Teflon Cashman, who puts Teflon Torre to shame, gets a pass from the press. The fact that none of them have the guts to even question whether he should return is pretty telling. To my knowledge, until Hal's comments, there hasn't even been a single story written in the New York papers about whether it is time to consider a new Yankee GM, at the same time New York Mets' GM Sandy Alderson's status has been questioned multiple times.

Is Rip Van Winkle finally stirring?

But at a certain point, doesn't Steinbrenner have to be looking at getting a new GM to deal with MLB right now, and in the future? Not keeping on a has-been like Cashman who is still acting like it's 2003, when the financial realities of baseball gave the Yankees such an overwhelming advantage? Most teams have their own regional networks now, with all the extra money that entails. And they are signing their good players to long-term contracts early. So that means that free agency, which used to be like shopping at Neiman-Marcus, is now often more like rummaging through Goodwill for old things.

Unlike the NYC media, I would have to be like Dory from "Finding Nemo," with the inability to remember anything that happened longer than five minutes ago, to think Cashman is doing a good job. And so would Hal. Two weeks ago, the press was falling all over themselves to praise Cash's smooth trade moves. Now, it is nothing but crickets when reality has set in. The Yankees have lost five in a row and are such an inept opponent that the Tampa Bay Rays aren't even doing standard pre-game practice for this weekend's series.

Cashman's smooth moves are pathetic

Oh, and here are the current Yankee slash lines for those great hitters Cashman traded for:

Stephen Drew: .170/.204/.259 (even worse than his numbers as a Red Sox!)
Chase Headley: .250/.345/.368 (slightly better than at San Diego, but pathetic for a power position)
Martin Prado: .163.217/.256 (and the Yanks now owe him $10M a year for the next two seasons)

Robinson Cano: Miss him yet?

Still think Cashman is doing a good job, folks? Let's look at what Robinson Cano is doing with the Seattle Mariners. His slash line is .330/.398/.476. His Mariners just overtook the Detroit Tigers for the second AL Wild Card spot. His team is going somewhere this year. But hey, the Yankees won't have to pay him eight years from now. Of course, they seemed to have forgotten that before Year 8, they might have actually had a great player.

And where are all the New York media's articles about Seattle's great play this year, thanks in no small part to Cano? The media narrative in December was that Cano was going to a nowhere team. Yet a funny thing happened on the way to obscurity -- he is leading his team on a playoff run! Imagine that! (An aside: I expect over the next few weeks, when Seattle's drive for October finally gets noticed by the NYC media, for Cashman to plant some stories in the press about how he really wanted Cano back, but was overruled by Hal. Remember, you heard it here first!)

Maybe John Harper is right, that Hal doesn't have the stomach for a GM search. If that is true, then the kids need to just sell the team already. Would they rather just see their money wasted, year after year, than to show some intestinal fortitude?

Is Brian Cashman finally going to be given the old heave-ho?

Or maybe Hal is finally fed up. The dirty little secret about the Yankees' decent attendance this year is how many of those tickets are sold at discount sites like Groupon and Living Social, with people paying much less than full price. And that is with this being Derek Jeter's last season, and with having Masahiro Tanaka in the first half. What are things going to be like after Jeter retires and if Tanaka gets Tommy John surgery?

Hal is supposedly a numbers guy. He has to know that the ticket sales and the ratings are going to plummet even more next year. The Yankees' farm system is so bad that Cashman keeps on trading and signing for has-beens as position players, instead of promoting from within. And even signing the likes of Jon Lester will not keep this team afloat, not if the idiot GM stays in charge.

As Dr. Phil always says, if you keep on doing what you've been doing, you're gonna keep on getting what you've been getting. Is Hal Steinbrenner going to finally change things up, stop being afraid that he will be compared to his father if he actually has the nerve to fire someone, and clean house, starting with his idiot GM? I don't know for sure, but I am more hopeful today that it actually could happen than I have been in years.

$500M for a .500 record: The 2014 New York Yankees are not a good team

I haven't written much in this blog as of late, between having a lot going on in both my work life and in my personal life, and also recently having the summer cold that won't go away! But I feel compelled to say something about the state of the Yankees, after last night's debacle. Now, after roughly half the season is over, the $500 million Yankees have a .500 record. And they have lost four in a row, and eight of their last ten games. Good grief.

Granted, the AL East is filled with underachieving teams this year, so the Yankees are only 3.5 games out of first place. But shockingly, having an old team, with no Robinson Cano in the batting lineup, does not translate into success for the Yanks. Incidentally, Cano's Seattle Mariners are now 46-38, a record that would put them on top of the AL East. Oh, and Robbie is hitting .323, tied for third in the league. His .819 OPS is better than any Yankee player this year, and he has 48 RBI, more than any Yankee does. Still think the "Bombers" don't need him, Yankee fans?

And why is that there is talk that Sandy Alderson and Terry Collins will lose their jobs with the Mets, even though they not been given any real financial resources to work with, but nobody in Yankeeland ever loses their jobs -- or even faces columns in the media saying why it's time to pack their bags? No, Hal Steinbrenner is so afraid that somebody might compare him to his father that everybody gets to keep their jobs forever. And the so-called "tough" NYC media members are too dependent on access to Brian Cashman to ever suggest that maybe it's time for new blood in the GM office. (This is another reason I haven't written much lately -- how many times can I write that Cashman, Randy Levine et al need to go, and that Hal needs to either be a real leader or sell the team, before I become a Swanny one-note?)

Anyhow, the future looks bleak for the Yankees. I would like to see the team call up rookie second baseman Rob Refsnyder, but we'll probably be stuck with Brian Roberts in the role for the rest of the year. After all, Refsnyder is just 23 -- about a decade and a half too young to contend for this team!

Was Brian Cashman for the Alfonso Soriano trade before he was against it?

What is Brian Cashman up to these days? Monitoring the New York media and reading columnists "the riot act" for not casting him in the most positive light is apparently a huge priority for him these days. (If only he monitored players for the MLB draft with such precision!)

Here's what I am talking about: I was pleasantly surprised this morning when I saw a Wallace Matthews Yankees' blog entry on ESPN New York. In a blog entry today entitled "First Pitch: Sori, Hal," Matthews wrote the following in the original version of the piece, noting how Cashman opposed trading for Alfonso Soriano:

This is what a lot of New York Yankees fans should be saying today: Sorry, Hal Steinbrenner, for criticizing the decision to bring Alfonso Soriano to the Yankees at the trade deadline. 

While we're at it, GM Brian Cashman might want to offer his apologies as well, after saying publicly that he was against the deal. 

Because now, a little more than a month into his second go-round with the Yankees, Soriano doesn't just look like a bargain, he looks like a steal. 

This evening, here's what the article looks like:

This is what a lot of New York Yankees fans should be saying today: Sorry, Hal Steinbrenner, for criticizing the decision to bring Alfonso Soriano to the Yankees at the trade deadline. 

Because now, a little more than a month into his second go-round with the Yankees, Soriano doesn't just look like a bargain, he looks like a steal. 

Notice that the middle paragraph is missing, and the fact that Cashman opposed the trade is gone from the column!

Instead of just putting the missing paragraph down the ol' memory hole, Matthews does explain the situation on Twitter:

For the record, Brian Cashman never said he was against the Soriano deal, only that he was against trading Corey Black. I apologize
— wallace matthews (@ESPNNYYankees) August 28, 2013

GM read me the riot act, and fair is fair. My bad in today's blog
— wallace matthews (@ESPNNYYankees) August 28, 2013

So I wrote the following on Twitter to Matthews: I linked to "Cashman anti-trade & overruled — again," Joel Sherman's July 27 New York Post column on Cashman, which I wrote about at the time, and said this:

@ESPNNYYankees Sounds like revisionist history on Cashman's part, especially given this article: http://t.co/qv6xhMnWeE
— Subway Squawkers (@subwaysquawkers) August 29, 2013

In Sherman's original article, he wrote the following (emphasis added):

Alfonso became the second straight Soriano that Brian Cashman advised Yankees ownership not to acquire — and was overruled on nevertheless.

Just as with the signing of free agent Rafael Soriano, the general manager believed Yankees assets could be spent better than on Alfonso Soriano, two executives not affiliated with the Yankees told The Post.

Cashman would not directly confirm what he advised Hal Steinbrenner, but told The Post: “I would say we are in a desperate time. Ownership wants to go for it. I didn’t want to give up a young arm [Corey Black]. But I understand the desperate need we have for offense. And Soriano will help us. The bottom line is this guy makes us better. Did ownership want him? Absolutely, yes. Does he make us better? Absolutely, yes. This is what Hal wants, and this is why we are doing it.”

That reads like Cashman is publicly taking a stand that he was against the trade. But I never understood why Cashman would be against the trade in the first place -- Soriano was old, made a lot of money, and looked washed-up -- three things that Cashman usually loves to get in his players! I wrote at the time that I thought that Cash made a big stink about being against acquiring Soriano to get the media on his side again, having them write sympathetic articles about how a big bad Steinbrenner is meddling again. The irony is, of course, that if Cashman hadn't made such a stink, he wouldn't have to do all this revisionist history, because we never would have known this was an issue.

Matthews disagreed with me on the meaning of what Cashman said, and we went back and forth on it on Twitter -- you can see the conversation here. While I didn't agree with Matthews, I was impressed that he took the time to talk with me, and that he was cordial, too!

Incidentally, I don't know how many Yankee fans opposed trading for Soriano -- I was against it, because I thought they ought to rebuild, not commit any more payroll to 2014,  but I was in the minority. And I am happy to admit that I was wrong!

At any rate, I have to agree with what my friend Steve of WasWatching.com says when it comes to Cashman: "The Thin-Skinned GM Strikes Again"!

Is Brian Cashman being insubordinate? Why is he making a stink about the Alfonso Soriano trade?

Sorry, folks, but I am not buying Brian Cashman's claim that he was against trading for Alfonso Soriano, and I think he has an agenda behind his claims to be against the trade. 

Here's the story: Joel Sherman wrote in Saturday's New York Post that Cashman opposed the trade: 

Alfonso became the second straight Soriano that Brian Cashman advised Yankees ownership not to acquire — and was overruled on nevertheless.

Just as with the signing of free agent Rafael Soriano, the general manager believed Yankees assets could be spent better than on Alfonso Soriano, two executives not affiliated with the Yankees told The Post. 

And Sherman was treated to an on-the-record interview from Cashman himself, with these quotes:

Cashman would not directly confirm what he advised Hal Steinbrenner, but told The Post: “I would say we are in a desperate time. Ownership wants to go for it. I didn’t want to give up a young arm [Corey Black]. But I understand the desperate need we have for offense. And Soriano will help us. The bottom line is this guy makes us better. Did ownership want him? Absolutely, yes. Does he make us better? Absolutely, yes. This is what Hal wants, and this is why we are doing it.”

In addition, Sherman writes some revisionist history about how Cashman really wanted to sign Russell Martin, even though he said at the time he was too busy taking care of signing starting pitchers to worry about the catching situation.

Sherman also claims this:

According to multiple executives, [Nate] Schierholtz’s agents were seriously weighing signing with the Yankees, but wanted playing-time assurances and guarantees the Yankees would not sign fellow lefty swingers Josh Hamilton or Suzuki. 

Except for the fact that 1) Hamilton signed with the Angels a week before Schierholtz went elsewhere, 2) the Yankees never negotiated with Hamilton, and 3) I guess I missed when Schierholtz was so A-list that his agents could dictate such demands to the Yankees.
 In addition, I have a few other thoughts: First of all, why do executives "not affiliated with the Yankees" know the Yankees' business on the latest Soriano trade? Cashman is a bit of a blabbermouth, isn't he? How is this not insubordinate?

Second, Corey Black was a 2012 fourth-round draft pick. I have never heard of the pitcher before this week. Maybe he will be a good pitcher, but given Cashman's shoddy track record on drafting pitchers, I wouldn't polish the Cy Young trophy just yet.

Third, no GM in baseball has 100% autonomy. All of them have to deal with ownership, and get overruled on things. But Brian Cashman is the only one who spreads the Yankees' business, and talks about internal issues, to other executives and newspaper reporters. I think it's insubordination, and he gets away with it again and again.

Fourth, the bottom line is this: Brian Cashman is a bad general manager who should lose his job for assembling this bad team. And he is still playing the Steinbrenner card, three years after George's death, and a decade after The Boss was a force to be reckoned with.

Why would Cashman be against this trade? It is a quintessential Cashman deal -- trading for an aging player past his prime who makes a lot of money! That's pretty much all he does these days!

I think Cashman's opposition to this trade is his way of trying to save his job through the media. He has ginned up the whole "the Steinbrenners are taking away Brian's autonomy again" nonsense, and is trying to get the fans to feel sympathy for poor Brian. The implication, of course, is that if only that meanie Hal Steinbrenner let Brian do his thing, this team would be good.

Never mind that Steinbrenner was right, and Cashman was wrong, on the first Soriano deal -- without that pitcher, the Yankees would not have made the playoffs last season after Mariano Rivera got hurt. Having Rafael Soriano was a great contingency plan, something Cashman has shown zero interest in. It's why there is no successor for Jeter and A-Rod.

And never mind that no GM in baseball has 100% autonomy -- they all have bosses who overrule them. But we never hear about when they are overruled. That is because they aren't insubordinate to their bosses, the way Cashman is here.

Incidentally, you know how we know that the Steinbrenner kids are not acting like their father? Because Brian Cashman still has a job, after second-guessing his bosses in the media. In fact, they are the opposite of their father. They don't have the appetite to fire anybody!

Agiain, Cashman is a terrible general manager. He needs to go. And Hal Steinbrenner is not a good owner -- the fact that he has kept Cashman on after his employee publicly second-guessed him in the media shows that.

This team needs to clean house -- now -- starting with their idiot GM.

Lonn Trost, Hal Steinbrenner show the Yankees' real priority: Smashing StubHub

I can't remember a spring training when I was this cynical about the Yankees' prospects for the season. World Series or bust? Really? More like $189M or bust.

That's what happens when you have a disastrous offseason like this one. I mean, really -- what Brian Cashman moves, exactly, excited you this winter? Signing the injury-ridden ex-Boston Red Sox Kevin Youkilis for $12 million, way above what anybody else would pay him? Going with Francisco Cervelli and Chris Stewart as your catchers? Starting spring without a right-handed hitting outfielder?

Then you have Hal Steinbrenner, who is so clueless that he told the Wall Street Journal he was "surprised" to hear of the fans' "anger." Really, Hal? Where have you been, exactly? Oh, I know. You've been worried about the evil StubHub, the real enemy.

I know it's become a cliche to wonder "What would George Steinbrenner do?" when it comes to any new development in Yankeeland, but when the only time you hear the team's co-owner show any passion, it's about smashing StubHub, it's pretty sad. Here's what Hal recently said in a statement about the Yankees moving to Ticketmaster for their new official secondary market venue:

"The Yankees Ticket Exchange will be a safe, convenient, reliable and expedient way to purchase and sell guaranteed authentic Yankees tickets," Yankees managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner said in a statement. "It is unfortunate that unscrupulous resellers utilize deceptive practices and tactics and employ unofficial websites, all of which give rise to counterfeit tickets."

I'm sorry if I missed this epidemic of counterfeit tickets, especially given that StubHub guarantees all of the tickets they sell. The real issue, of course, is that the Yankees are greedy, and even though they have already gotten paid the first time around for ticket sales, they don't actually want to see a free market when it comes to reselling those tickets. They also don't like it when the secondary market shows the real value of those tickets, which is a lot lower than the Yanks would like to think they are.

Oh, and I have to laugh at the idea of anything connected with Ticketmaster as being fan-friendly. They are the ones who came up with "convenience fees" to print own your tickets. And while the new program's fees for sellers are 5% for season ticket holders, it is 15% for those who are not season ticket holders.

Lonn Trost blames Hurricane Sandy and snowstorm for slow ticket sales

Then there's the Yanks' Lonn Trost, who has made his contempt for those terrible Yankee fans who actually look for deals on tickets abundantly clear. He was recently on Mike Francesa talking his nonsense about ticket speculators, and comparing it the the Securities and Exchange Commission needing to crack down on short sellers.

Trost also claimed that slow ticket sales were due to Hurricane Sandy and the recent snowstorm. Huh? The hurricane was October 29, and Nemo was a typical winter snowstorm when it came to New York City (New England and Long Island was another story.) And there is zero evidence that either of them have had any effect on ticket sales.

If the Steinbrenner kids actually knew anything about business, they would realize that the lower prices on StubHub are not due to the bogeyman of ticket speculators. And counterfeit tickets are not really an issue. The real issue is that this isn't a very interesting, inspiring team right now, the tickets are way overpriced, and the novelty of the new stadium has worn off.

Trost also complained about StubHub being greedy, making 25% on each ticket sold. Strong words from a guy who sells $1300 seats for a baseball game. He also threatened to sue the organization for daring to have an office across the street from the stadium. (Right now, StubHub can still sell Yankees tickets, but fans can no longer print the tickets out on their home computer. The office would allow them to get hard copies of the tickets at their location.)

At any rate, after seeing what the Yankees choose to focus on, why should I be excited about this season? What is the team motto for 2013? Another year older and even more injury-ridden? You'll pay more for tickets and you'll like it? Good grief.

Shocker: Mike Lupica makes more sense on the Yankees than the Steinbrenner sons do

Sports columnist Mike Lupica may be the newspaper equivalent of a slugger whose best days were in the 1970s, but every once in a while, he can still hit a mistake pitch out of the ballpark. The New York Daily News writer had a great column this Sunday about what I've been saying and thinking recently about the Yankees front office -- that the Yankees' rhetoric about how the season is a failure without a World Series title no longer matches reality.

Lupica writes:

Yankee fans really need to take a deep breath here, be a little more realistic about who their team is, has been for a long time. We hear constantly about the Yankee “brand.” Well, here is what the Yankee brand has become: Winning a lot of regular games, drawing a lot of people, making a lot of money. They are big winners, unprecedented winners, April through September. Just rarely in October. October was the old brand.

And they’re still working off an old script at the new Yankee Stadium. The comments from members of the Yankees’ high command after the team doesn’t make it to the World Series have become as predictable as their baseball team not making it to the World Series.

Lupica is right to point out that the Steinbrenners are now more concerned about "profit and loss" than playoff losses. Quite frankly, fans are more upset over the ALCS than Hal Steinbrenner or Brian Cashman is. While Hal acknowledged in a statement that the Yanks "fell short of our singular and constant goal, which is a World Series Championship," and called it a "bitter end" and a "disappointment," nobody is going to lose their jobs over this. George Steinbrenner may have gone too far when it came to firing people, but the Steinbrenner kids are way too passive on the opposite end of the spectrum, guaranteeing Cashman and Joe Girardi's jobs after the postseason even began. 

By the way, a "disappointment" is when Starbucks ran of Pumpkin Spice Latte mix. The Yankees are a disaster. They didn't play hard and just come up short in the ALCS -- they were annihilated, embarrassed, and humiliated.  But Hal doesn't seem really upset over it. If he were upset, he would get rid of at least one of the architects of this disaster.

Anyhow, Lupica didn't stop there. The columnist calls the Yankees the "New York Braves" (ouch!) but notes that the Braves got further into the postseason than the current Yankees did when Atlanta was dominant (ouch again!) Lupica also notes that the Yankees "consistently fall short of what they say their mission statement is, but nothing really changes in the organization." Yep. So we will have another year of Joe Girardi panicking, and Brian Cashman getting ripped off in trades, and Kevin Long no longer being up to the job. Oh, joy.

As Lupica says:

They consistently fall short of what they say their mission statement is, but nothing really changes in the organization. You know the only person who effectively got fired from the World-Series-or-bust Yankees lately? A.J. Burnett. They paid the Pirates to take Burnett off their hands. They might pay somebody else to take A.E. Rodriguez off their hands. That is the modern Yankee idea of holding somebody accountable.

By the way, I loved Hank's complaining to the Associated Press about too much blame being put on A-Rod, saying that it wasn't fair "to accuse him of everything but the Kennedy assassination." Um, Hank, your crew did that all by themselves! Hank also had this to say about his feelings about the ALCS debacle: 

"It was something to not be very pleased about," Steinbrenner said. "Everybody is kind of a bewildered and a little angry, too. But that's natural."

Even hothead Hank is way too passive in his comments.

How weird are things in Yankeeland these days? Even Lupica, who has been a longtime A-Rod hater since he was on the Mariners, thinks that Alex should have played in the postseason. He has this to say about Hal's comments:

But whatever Steinbrenner the Younger does say, you have to say he seems pretty happy with the way his team is being run, and managed. For now he doesn’t say a word about his manager benching A-Rod in favor of a guy, Eric Chavez, who couldn’t hit or field by the end. Doesn’t seem bothered by the fact that after a decade of record spending, the Yankees have won one World Series to show for all that spending.

Lupica ends his piece by noting that while "the people in charge say what they think George M. Steinbrenner would have wanted them to say," but with "the old man, it was more than just talk." Ain't that the truth!

What do you think? Tell us about it!

Tabloid sez, without any evidence, that Steinbrenners could sell Yankees

Journalists whine that bloggers make something out of nothing, but that was my reaction after reading today's Michael O'Keeffe and Bill Madden piece for the New York Daily News saying that the Yankees could be up for sale soon. Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but I think that sportswriters ought to have something more than hearsay and rumors and anonymous quotes before writing such an explosive story.

O'Keeffe and Madden write that:

Multiple baseball and finance sources told the Daily News they are hearing that the team the Steinbrenner family has led to seven World Series titles could be put on the block in the wake of the record sale price of $2.175 billion the Los Angeles Dodgers went for in April.

“There has been chatter all around the banking and financial industries in the city for a couple of weeks now,” one high-level baseball source told The News.

This is worthy of front-page and back-page covers in the New York Daily News? Because some anonymous Wall Street workers and baseball names are speculating about how much the Yankees could be worth, because the Dodgers were sold for so much? Spare me.

Look, it is always possible that the Steinbrenners could sell the team one day, or even sell it in the near future. But where is any evidence that this is going to happen? O'Keeffe and Madden do not have a single hard fact or on-the-record source showing that this could happen, yet they have written a news story, not an opinion column, saying that the Yanks could be for sale soon. There is only one named source in the article, Yankees president Randy Levine, who gave a flat denial to the News saying: "The Steinbrenners are not selling the team. Heck, there's not even an anonymous source saying that they will sell the team; just that they could sell the team. 

Full disclosure -- as long-time readers know, I used to work at the News, but my opinion would be exactly the same on this article whether I had worked there or not.

O'Keeffe and Madden not only make a whole lot out of supposition and rumors, they insinuate that Hal Steinbrenner may want to sell the team because he said this spring that he was a "finance geek" and that a good team didn't need a $220 million payroll in order to win. Then the article misrepresents Hal's position on the A-Rod re-signing in 2007, blaming Hank Steinbrenner for it.

They continue, "Hal Steinbrenner rarely attends games, and according to those who know him, abhors doling out the huge money long-term contracts such as the Rodriguez deal." Really? Then why did Hal sign off on that deal, as well as the CC Sabathia (seven years, and then an additional two years) and Mark Teixeira (eight years) contracts? Not to mention paying A.J. Burnett $82 million, and then paying nearly 2/3 of Burnett's last two years on the contract for him to pitch for the Pittsburgh Pirates?

Buster Olney wrote the definitive version of what happened in the A-Rod contract -- I talked about it in Subway Squawkers last year. The gist of it is that Randy Levine, not bogeyman Hank Steinbrenner, did most of the negotiations with A-Rod and his people. And A-Rod had to go to Hal's house and apologize in person for the opting-out shenanigans before he would sign off on the contract, which he did. Contrary to this story, there is no evidence that Hal opposed the A-Rod deal, just that he was ticked off over the opting-out stuff.

But who needs actual facts when the News can have sources who say stuff like this:

“Hal’s a smart businessman,” the source said. “And I’m just not sure that he considers baseball to be a smart business. I think he looks at some of these other owners, throwing $200 million at players and thinks they’re idiots — idiots that unfortunately can affect the way he does business. You have to understand, it was in Hal’s formative years in the ’80s when he saw George at his worst in terms of throwing more and more good money at bad players like Pascual Perez, Dave LaPoint, Steve Kemp, Ed Whitson and Andy Hawkins.”

Let's review. By buying the Yankees in 1973, George Steinbrenner was able to take an under $10 million investment and build a team worth several billion. Tell me in what other legal business you can get that sort of rate of return.  Sounds pretty "smart" to me.

Again, Hal signed off on all of the modern big-spending Yankee deals. He also agreed to bring back Brian Cashman, the GM who has one tool in the toolbox -- the ability to spend money. Sure, Hal has made it clear he wants the payroll to go down, but that doesn't mean 1) that he doesn't bear his own share of responsibility for the Yankee payroll and 2) that he is going to sell the team anytime soon. Besides, there are four Steinbrenner children who would have to sign off on the sale.

O'Keeffe and Madden end their piece by quoting yet another anonymous source who says: “Hal hates the players and he hates the media.”

So there you have it. Michael O'Keeffe and Bill Madden have declared that the Yankees could be for sale soon, with the "evidence" for this based solely on rumors, speculation, and twisting around of the facts. I am eagerly waiting for the News' next report, about how Ferris Bueller passed out at 31 Flavors.

What do you think? Tell us about it!

Famous Last Words: Hal Steinbrenner has "no problem" with Brian Cashman

The New York Post's Joel Sherman has an exclusive interview with Hal Steinbrenner today, with Hal saying that he has "no problem" with what Brian Cashman is doing:

 "[Cashman] and I have a great working relationship," Steinbrenner said by phone, "There is no problem, right now. I think we have had a bunch of drummed-up drama."

....When asked if he imagined wanting to keep Cashman beyond 2011, Steinbrenner said: "Yes, absolutely. I think Brian does a great job. We need to sit and talk, but now is not the time for that."

Sherman writes that Steinbrenner "blessed Cashman's behavior at the [Rafael Soriano] press conference":

"I keep reading about dissension and discord. We are a well-functioning company. The bosses have a decision to make. Sometimes people don't agree with those decisions. So I told him, 'You are always honest with the media, be honest now. Tell them what you have to tell them.' I was already onto the next decision. I told him, 'You and I are fine. Answer in any way you want.' We are not always going to be on the same page. It is my job to think what is best for the family, partners and company."

But here's the thing Sherman didn't ask Hal Steinbrenner: If the Yankees were so fine with Cashman speaking out at the Soriano presser, then why didn't they air the press conference live on the YES Network? What, the network the Yankees own couldn't interrupt the gazillionth showing of the Luis Castillo Yankees Classic game in favor of showing their only big free agent signing of the offseason? Come on now.

I have watched a lot of Yankee free agent press conferences on TV over the years, and ever since the YES Network launched, every single one of them have been aired on the network. Except for the Soriano one. Why is that?

Brian Cashman may be the Yankees GM in 2012, or he may not be. But there is no way, even in Yankeeland, that the Steinbrenners are going to publicly express anything but confidence in their GM right now. Do you really think Hal or even Hank is about to say, "What the bleep is going on with Cash? He's having a midlife crisis right before our eyes!" Of course not.

Tennessee Titans owner Bud Adams seemed to be all BFF with head coach Jeff Fisher, too, even saying just a few weeks ago that he would be back next year, until the two parted ways yesterday. So you never know what can happen.

If the Yankees win the World Series this year, I would guess Cashman would be back. But even then, he could always walk away after winning. You never know what could happen.

What do you think? Tell us about it!

In defense of the Steinbrenner brothers

There are all sorts of stories coming out over the weekend saying that Brian Cashman didn't want to sign Rafael Soriano, but the team's ownership overruled him. And you know what? If this is the case, Hal and Hank Steinbrenner had every right to "meddle."


What the heck was Cash thinking in making such a big deal about keeping the 31st pick in the draft, instead of bolstering the bullpen? Trading for another bullpen arm, like Joakim Soria, would have cost the Yankees a lot more. Also, as reader Johnmouk noted to me, this prevents Jonathan Papelbon from donning pinstripes next year.

And as much as I love Mariano, the apparent thinking of the Steinbrenner family in being concerned about what would happen if Mo couldn't pitch anymore makes sense to me. The New York Post reports:

According to the source, ownership was worried about the bullpen's depth should Mariano Rivera suffer an injury. Cashman felt Joba Chamberlain or David Robertson could fill the closer's role if needed. But the Steinbrenners, along with team president Randy Levine, wanted Soriano. 

"He stated his case," the source said of Cashman. "But he understood. It's not like he threw a body block to stop it."

Why does Cash have so much faith in Joba or Roberston, especially given that he's the guy who traded for Kerry Wood last summer? Is this something worth going to the mattresses for?

And I don't get why Cashman is being so stingy about the draft picks all of a sudden. Since he became GM in 1998, there has been exactly one first-round draft choice, Phil Hughes, who has been a big-league contributor for the Yankees. And Gerrit Cole turned down signing with the Yankees. It's a crap shoot, and I will never understand who Cashman would put this pick ahead of improving the team now.

The New York Times' Tyler Kepner wonders when Cashman is going to publicly speak about the Soriano deal., writing:

Maybe Cashman simply changed his mind; he did not return phone calls Friday. But Cashman takes seriously his reputation for honesty, and at some point he must explain his reversal. The organization has run smoothly since Cashman demanded a restructuring of baseball operations in October 2005, and he must blunt the appearance that this might have changed.

I wonder, too. He was like a Chatty Cathy doll this offseason, and now he has nothing to say? Very strange.

What do you think? Tell us about it!