Alex Rodriguez finally ended the charade of dragging this biogensis saga out any further by dropping his duel lawsuits against MLB and the Players Association. He seems poised to accept the 162-game ban which was knocked down from 211 games by the same arbitrator.
Technically, A-Rod still could make waves by showing up to Spring Training, on the Minor League grounds, and cause a Tebow-esk media mess, but even he sees the disruption that could be for the 2014 squad, so all of his rhetoric is geared towards staying away until 2015 (when they'll be flying cars).
Newly signed Masahiro Tanaka is scheduled to arrive from Japan to camp on Tuesday which will no doubt be another type of media frenzy, a positive one at that. Early quotes out of Japan from Tanaka is that he feels he's in the best shape of his life. Perhaps a preventative image he wants to place in Hank Steinbrenner's mind to shield himself against any upcoming toad comments.
After a couple of years of being locked in a cage, Hal has finally let his brother out to make public statements concerning the Yankees again; this time a much more mellowed Hank than the eye-rolling headline grabber from 2008. Just as distasteful, Boston Red Sox President Larry Lucchino started tossing the barbs concerning the Yankees loud offseason moves with quotes such as, "We've seen this before", and "We look forward to competing against them...again". Both statements ring kind of ridiculous as the Red Sox never have any qualms about bringing in a bunch of big names, most recently 2011 in what turned out to be a complete disaster for Boston with Carl Crawford, Adrian Gonzalez, Bobby Jenks, and the Fried Chicken in the locker room fiasco. Then follow that up with hiring Bobby Valentine as Manager in what turned out to be an atrocious injury-plagued 2012 for Boston that included 69 wins and a last place finish. For all the Yankees injuries and problems in 2013, they wound up with a respectable 85 wins and a third place finish with a rag-tag roster that didn't quit on Girardi the way Francona and Valentine were. Then taking the 'nice to compete against them again' part; Wow - Boston finish 1st in the AL East for the first time since 2007 and were able to take advantage of a hampered 2013 Yankee squad, which accounts for the reason they finished with 97 wins when they were really a 90-win club that got hot at the right time in October. The previous three seasons for Boston saw no playoff appearances at all, so where is Lucchino seeing Boston long-term dominance?
Being a the World Champion affords you the ability to open your mouth a little, so future Hall-of-Famer Jonny Gomes got into the act with the typical 'championships aren't won on paper' quotes when neither the Yankees themselves nor the media has made any sort of comments that the Yankees are now a championship caliber club. Quite the contrary; despite all the Yankees' signings, many are pointing out the fact that the team still has a long list of uncertainties such as closer (and bullpen in general outside of Roberston), the back of the rotation after CC/Tanaka/Kuroda, Jeter's ankle, Teixeira's wrist, the second base situation (with the loss of Cano), the third base situation (with no A-Rod), the bench, and will Jacoby Ellsbury stay healthy for the $155 million he's getting? Nobody is rolling out the red carpet for the Yankees at all. But back in 2012 when the Toronto Blue Jays were making all the offseason noise; everyone was jumping onto the Toronto vs. Washington Nats World Series bandwagon. Then a year before that the 2011 Red Sox were receiving predictions of 103 or even 110 wins for the season and they turned out to not even make the playoffs. Perhaps Gomes needs that underdog role to get himself motivated, or perhaps his beard is growing into his ears and he can't hear what anyone is saying like the rest of the soup kitchen roster.
The rivalry will sure get more interesting as Boston added the edgy AJ Pierzynski as catcher who is sure to irk the Yanks when they come to plate and provide some juicy quotes to the press. Tampa Bay probably did the Yankees a favor by letting Fernando Rodney walk away to Seattle and instead going for Grant Balfour as their new closer. Balfour was also on the Yankees target list for closer, but after signing Tanaka, he was deemed as too much a luxury. Balfour is certainly tough, but far more hittable than Rodney with a 98 mph fastball mixed in with a 82 mph change-up. Though Rodney struggled at the beginning of 2013, he finished strong and the Yanks will benefit from having him out of the division in 2014.
In the offseason that the Mets were geared to spend some serious Bernie Madoff cash; they added another blockbuster diamond attraction to draw the fans to CitiField by offering a minor league deal to Yankee legend Kyle Farnsworth. In fairness, Farnsworth did straighten himself out a little in Tampa a couple of seasons ago, but he fell back into the trap in being Farnsworth again and wore out his welcome at Tropicana Field. With many uncertainties to the Mets bullpen, there lies the strong possibility Farnsworth will make the team and have many opportunities to drive Mets fans crazy by blowing leads. Also signed to a minor league deal, after the Mets initially denied it, is Dice-K Matsuzaka who is getting another shot at their starting rotation after posting a 4.89 ERA in the National League in seven starts last season for the Mets. Nelson Cruz and Stephen Drew are still floating around the Free Agent market and would be decent pick-ups for the Mets, but picking Farnsworth and Dice-K from someone's recycling can means the Mets aren't spending anymore this offseason beyond Colon ($20mil - 2yrs) and Granderson ($60mil - 4yrs).
The real fun begins with Tanaka on Tuesday.....
Technically, A-Rod still could make waves by showing up to Spring Training, on the Minor League grounds, and cause a Tebow-esk media mess, but even he sees the disruption that could be for the 2014 squad, so all of his rhetoric is geared towards staying away until 2015 (when they'll be flying cars).
Newly signed Masahiro Tanaka is scheduled to arrive from Japan to camp on Tuesday which will no doubt be another type of media frenzy, a positive one at that. Early quotes out of Japan from Tanaka is that he feels he's in the best shape of his life. Perhaps a preventative image he wants to place in Hank Steinbrenner's mind to shield himself against any upcoming toad comments.
After a couple of years of being locked in a cage, Hal has finally let his brother out to make public statements concerning the Yankees again; this time a much more mellowed Hank than the eye-rolling headline grabber from 2008. Just as distasteful, Boston Red Sox President Larry Lucchino started tossing the barbs concerning the Yankees loud offseason moves with quotes such as, "We've seen this before", and "We look forward to competing against them...again". Both statements ring kind of ridiculous as the Red Sox never have any qualms about bringing in a bunch of big names, most recently 2011 in what turned out to be a complete disaster for Boston with Carl Crawford, Adrian Gonzalez, Bobby Jenks, and the Fried Chicken in the locker room fiasco. Then follow that up with hiring Bobby Valentine as Manager in what turned out to be an atrocious injury-plagued 2012 for Boston that included 69 wins and a last place finish. For all the Yankees injuries and problems in 2013, they wound up with a respectable 85 wins and a third place finish with a rag-tag roster that didn't quit on Girardi the way Francona and Valentine were. Then taking the 'nice to compete against them again' part; Wow - Boston finish 1st in the AL East for the first time since 2007 and were able to take advantage of a hampered 2013 Yankee squad, which accounts for the reason they finished with 97 wins when they were really a 90-win club that got hot at the right time in October. The previous three seasons for Boston saw no playoff appearances at all, so where is Lucchino seeing Boston long-term dominance?
Being a the World Champion affords you the ability to open your mouth a little, so future Hall-of-Famer Jonny Gomes got into the act with the typical 'championships aren't won on paper' quotes when neither the Yankees themselves nor the media has made any sort of comments that the Yankees are now a championship caliber club. Quite the contrary; despite all the Yankees' signings, many are pointing out the fact that the team still has a long list of uncertainties such as closer (and bullpen in general outside of Roberston), the back of the rotation after CC/Tanaka/Kuroda, Jeter's ankle, Teixeira's wrist, the second base situation (with the loss of Cano), the third base situation (with no A-Rod), the bench, and will Jacoby Ellsbury stay healthy for the $155 million he's getting? Nobody is rolling out the red carpet for the Yankees at all. But back in 2012 when the Toronto Blue Jays were making all the offseason noise; everyone was jumping onto the Toronto vs. Washington Nats World Series bandwagon. Then a year before that the 2011 Red Sox were receiving predictions of 103 or even 110 wins for the season and they turned out to not even make the playoffs. Perhaps Gomes needs that underdog role to get himself motivated, or perhaps his beard is growing into his ears and he can't hear what anyone is saying like the rest of the soup kitchen roster.
The rivalry will sure get more interesting as Boston added the edgy AJ Pierzynski as catcher who is sure to irk the Yanks when they come to plate and provide some juicy quotes to the press. Tampa Bay probably did the Yankees a favor by letting Fernando Rodney walk away to Seattle and instead going for Grant Balfour as their new closer. Balfour was also on the Yankees target list for closer, but after signing Tanaka, he was deemed as too much a luxury. Balfour is certainly tough, but far more hittable than Rodney with a 98 mph fastball mixed in with a 82 mph change-up. Though Rodney struggled at the beginning of 2013, he finished strong and the Yanks will benefit from having him out of the division in 2014.
In the offseason that the Mets were geared to spend some serious Bernie Madoff cash; they added another blockbuster diamond attraction to draw the fans to CitiField by offering a minor league deal to Yankee legend Kyle Farnsworth. In fairness, Farnsworth did straighten himself out a little in Tampa a couple of seasons ago, but he fell back into the trap in being Farnsworth again and wore out his welcome at Tropicana Field. With many uncertainties to the Mets bullpen, there lies the strong possibility Farnsworth will make the team and have many opportunities to drive Mets fans crazy by blowing leads. Also signed to a minor league deal, after the Mets initially denied it, is Dice-K Matsuzaka who is getting another shot at their starting rotation after posting a 4.89 ERA in the National League in seven starts last season for the Mets. Nelson Cruz and Stephen Drew are still floating around the Free Agent market and would be decent pick-ups for the Mets, but picking Farnsworth and Dice-K from someone's recycling can means the Mets aren't spending anymore this offseason beyond Colon ($20mil - 2yrs) and Granderson ($60mil - 4yrs).
The real fun begins with Tanaka on Tuesday.....
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