Friday, December 6, 2013

Quote of the Day

Posted by el duque at 2:18 PM

Found by John M:

"You think the guy doesn't run out ground balls now, wait until he has a guaranteed 10-year contract.""

19 comments:

KD said...

I wonder if Ichiro ever expressed to Robbie what it was like to waste a brilliant career on a team like the Mariners.

Maybe he did and not having to play ball in October sounded like a good deal to Robbie.

December 6, 2013 at 3:11 PM
JM said...

Good point, KD. When you consider Cano will never again play in the postseason, his salary per game is even higher than it would be otherwise.

That Jay Z...what a guy.

December 6, 2013 at 3:32 PM
Anonymous said...

Oh, please--like either KD or John M would leave $60 million on the table. Grow up, guys. It's a business.

December 6, 2013 at 6:14 PM
Anonymous said...

One more thought--what makes you think that the Yankees in their current decrepitude are any more likely to play in October than the Mariners? You guys have been rightly moaning about Cano's lack of hustle for years now--fine . . . now you won't have Cano to kick around anymore. But don't worry--you'll have plenty of other ripe targets for venting your Yankee frustrations in the dark decade to come--a masochist's dream/nightmare come true.

December 6, 2013 at 6:18 PM
JM said...

Who is this Anonymous person and why does he hate America?

I don't blame Robbie for grabbing the big money, but he had a much better chance of playing in the postseason here than in Seattle. Also, it's a media backwater and that can effect a player's Hall chances almost as much as not being a postseason participant.

So, yeah, if I was Cano I might have skipped the extra 60 million. But then, I don't understand why anyone needs 240 mil if he can get 175. When you're that rich, does it really make a difference? What, you buy a few less Teslas or live in a 200 room house instead of a 300 room house? It's a crazy amount of money either way.

The Yankee brass saw what happened to ratings and ticket sales. Thinking they aren't going to buy the best team possible and will tolerate a decade of mediocrity or worse is hysterical. There are billions involved here, they aren't going to let their brand suffer.

And I've never liked Jay Z, though I can't blame him for making the deal. He works for Robbie, and did what was asked of him.

December 6, 2013 at 6:43 PM
Caroline Kennedy said...

Wait until the Mariners find out he isn't Japanese

December 6, 2013 at 6:56 PM
Anonymous said...

John M thinks you can buy a good baseball team--the problem is that is almost never works out that way. When Steinbrenner tried that in the eighties, the team went off a cliff. It wasn't until Buck and Stick returned to solid player development that the team took off in the nineties. The late-seventies/early eighties champions were composed mainly of Gabe Paul's shrewd trade pieces and draft choices--Jackson and Gossage were just the finishing touches.

If you think that the Yankees can buy their way out of this chasm, you're in serious denial.

In fact, loading up on long-term contracts for overpriced thirty-plus has-beens will guarantee a decade of oblivion.

Unfortunately, there's no Fay Vincent around this time to save the Steinbrenner clan from their own stupidity.

December 6, 2013 at 7:24 PM
KD said...

So long, Robbie. I'm not looking back. May the beauty of the Pacific Northwest and that coveted pile of play money compensate you for your diminished potential. You were once a Yankee. You could have been a great Yankee. We'll never really know, Robbie Cano.

December 6, 2013 at 8:56 PM
Parson Tom said...

All of you make good points, but I will miss Robbie Cano, don't ya know. If you think about it, he was the best -- defined by aggregate rather than one or two seasons -- hitter we've had in the last 20 years of the dynasty. If he wasn't the best, he was close. A second baseman who hit like a great first baseman, sort of like Mattingly. Special player. Even if he did jog to first from time to time. Essentially, we seem to have traded Cano for Ellsbury. Not sure we got the better end of the deal, even if you include McCann.
Good luck, Robbie! If you need a best buddy in Seattle, I'm available for a modest retainer.

December 6, 2013 at 10:29 PM
Anonymous said...

Bernie Williams at his peak was a far more productive hitter than Cano--compare their OPS in their peak years. In fact, in his peak years Bernie surpassed Jeter in OPS in every season except one: 1999.

Poor Bernie--radically underestimated to the last. Even the term "core four" leaves him entirely out of account--yet without him those great teams of the late nineties and early aughts wouldn't have been so dominant.

December 6, 2013 at 11:53 PM
Mike said...

I absolutely could not stand watching this guy jog out grounders but my anger wasn't because I hated him; it was because I thought he was an amazing baseball player who could do better. It's my fault for thinking this, really; I always assumed that hustle would be in the makeup of a great player or could at least be taught. Maybe it isn't sometimes, and maybe it can't be.

I wish the man success in Seattle if the deal goes through. Beyond that I'm left with a question I don't think I've ever encountered before: How could such a talented guy's removal from the lineup leave me with any feeling even approaching indifference?

December 7, 2013 at 12:05 AM
Stang said...

Stop worrying, everyone. Robbie will be a Yankee again in eight years.

December 7, 2013 at 12:08 AM
JM said...

I don't get how anyone can say you can't buy a championship team. Boston did. Arizona did. Florida did. LA almost did.

Yes, it does help to have some young homegrown guys to build around, but in fact not actually necessary. You could conceivably field a team of free agent pickups--which is really what the Yankees are now--and do pretty darn well.

The trick, of course, is making good choices. And that's really difficult. Who knew Tex would decline so suddenly and badly? That CC would have such a lousy year? That A-Rod would turn into such a mess on the heels of an excellent 2009?

Are real weakness isn't the need to buy a team. It's that the guys in charge of doing it are very suspect in their ability to do so. But on the other hand, while everyone points to George S and how badly he did it in the 80s and early 90s, I don't quite think Cash and Hal are quite as bad at it as Daddy was.

So we can yap all we want about what is and isn't feasible. In a weak year for free agents, we lost our best player and have six outfielders. (Why do we still have Vernon? At least Ichiro is good against lefties and is still a defensive plus.) We also have a glut of young catchers who will have to go somewhere, probably in trades.

Bullpen aside, we're going to field a team that's almost totally assembled and bought. This will again test the 'conventional wisdom', already disproved by other franchises in the past.

December 7, 2013 at 10:01 AM
Alphonso said...

At least Beltran will run out the ground balls.

Unfortunately, his full speed is far slower than Cano"s jog.

By August, Beltran won't be running at all. Except to the bank.

December 7, 2013 at 10:12 AM
Leinstery said...

Anonymous is a pussy. how about you man up and put a real fake name in front of those words.

December 7, 2013 at 12:43 PM
Anonymous said...

John M--you're delusional. There has never been a championship team that wasn't built around a core of young talent. The free-agent additions are always peripheral, not central, to the winning ways, and that includes Boston of last year, if you look closely at the roster. Free agents can help--but they cannot substitute for player development. Free agents are typically thirty and over, past their best years, and simply cobbling together a bunch of high-priced egos fosters zero team energy.

December 7, 2013 at 3:54 PM
KD said...

Our free agents sure had a lot to do with 2009...

December 7, 2013 at 10:00 PM
Anonymous said...

Of course free agents can help put you over the top, but they cannot by themselves fill the black hole of an organization with no core of native talent. In 2009, there was still a foundation onto which the free agents were added. Not now, though--not even close.

Moreover, the spending spree of 2009 purchased one title that has come at a very dear price--a heavy load of over-the-hill expensive players who will be weighing down this franchise for years to come. The result is that the Yankee organization is now staring down a black hole of too much money for too many guys who are too far past their prime, with no way out--so they keep piling on more of the same. It's going to get very ugly, for a long time, before it gets any better. Somebody needs to take Cashman and his free-agent, dumpster-diving crack pipe, shove him firmly out the door, and start building a real team--as opposed to a pell mell collection of tattered baseball cards.

This will not happen, rest assured, as long as the Steinbrenner dolts and their assorted stooges retain control of the team.

December 7, 2013 at 11:18 PM
Eddie Rabbitt, regarding anonymity, said...

I get these suspicions...

December 8, 2013 at 2:31 AM

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