The baseball world has gone completely insane in the past couple of weeks. The Yankees announced they want to cut payroll to $189 million by 2014 to avoid hefty luxury taxes and the Miami Marlins and Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim have gone insane and have shelled out over $400 million on four players. The Angels signed Albert Pujols and C.J. Wilson within hours of each other and the Marlins, who offered Pujols more money than the Angels did, signed Jose Reyes and Mark Buerhle. The Angels alone spent almost $400 million in new contracts for two players. Owner Arte Moreno only paid $186 million for the whole franchise when he bought the team years ago. I bet they will regret those contracts, each team and each contract beofre they are all half-done.
The Mets were right to let Jose Reyes leave. He last played a near full season in 2008 when he appeared in 159 games. He has appeared in 36, 133, and 126 games over the past three seasons. He is a big injury risk with his hamstrings seemingly giving out every other month. That money is best used elsewhere for the Mets who are obviously rebuilding. I don't know if they should trade David Wright right now but they would be foolish not to listen to offers and see what falls in their laps. I think Sandy Alderson stole from the Giants in the Angel Pagan trade. Great job by him getting back Ramon Ramirez and Andres Torres. Torres is essentially the same player as Pagan and Ramirez will be a useful arm out of the bullpen. Alderson also did well in signing Jon Rauch and Frank Francisco. At worst Alderson might be able to flip those two at the deadline for prospects.
The Yankees are staying true to their word so far this offseason and have not gotten involved with C.J. Wilson, Albert Pujols, Mark Buehrle, or anyone else because they deem the price tags too high. Both Pujols and Wilson's agents contacted the Yankees but were rebuffed. Yankees GM Brian Cashman feels that the pricetag is too high on Edwin Jackson as well and has not shown any interest. In a thin free agent market, Cashman is being wise not to overspend for questionable talent. He could jump in if the price tag comes down but right now it makes no sense. He is also offering $8 million to anyone who takes A.J. Burnett off of his hands. So, who will the Yankees feature in their rotation next season? After C.C. Sabathia there are nothing but question marks. Hughes has to show he can stay healthy and can get back to being the pitcher of the first half of 2010. Ivan Nova has to show that last season was not a fluke. Freddy Garcia has to prove last season was not an enigma as he wore down late last season. A.J. Burnett has to prove he can be an above replacement level pitcher, something he has not done in the past two years. Hector Noesi is doing well in Winter Ball but has a lot to prove. Can one of the young, highly touted prospects out of Manny Banuelos and Dellin Betances step up? Will Adam Warren, David Phelps, or D.J. Mitchell be this year's Ivan Nova? so many questions, few answers. It remains to be seen if the Yankees put a bid on Yu Darvish but if they win the bid adding him should at least give another choice to the multiple choice question.
The New York Rangers are one of the best teams I have seen wear the blue sweater in years. They play team hockey, have an outstanding goaltender in Henrik Lundqvist, and have improved their special teams play. They still make stupid penalties here and there and will need to improve in that area going forward but at least they are overcoming their deficiencies. Also, they are playing without their number one defenseman in Marc Staal and are watching Brandon Dubinsky go through a recession in production. All in all, though, the Rangers should be in contention until the end.
Victor Cruz! That's all you need to say about that subject.
And finally, Jake Ballard and the giants were robbed of a TD in the Packers game. Instead of having a touchdown, the Giants had to settle for a field goal. Who knows how the game might have played out if the refs made the right call? Here is photo evidence of Ballard's knee being inbounds when it touched the ground:
I promise to update the blog more often.
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