Who Is Promoting Brian Cashman as Red Sox GM -- Brian Cashman?

I should be used to Yankee GM Brian Cashman's constant need for whining, puffery and self-promotion by now -- after all, just last month, he complained to ESPN New York's about how his current job required "a price of time, effort, expectations, pressure, stress levels, all that different stuff." You know, kind of like how every other job in the universe does, but at a close to $3 million a year salary. Boo bleeding hoo.

Anyhow, I was still taken aback by the "rumor" that Cashman could be in the running for taking over Theo Epstein's GM position in Boston. Who fed the media the rumor -- Cashman himself? (Incidentally, remember this summer, how Cashman's name was included as a possibility to be the new Cubs' GM? Yet it looks like Chicago only talked to Theo Epstein for the job? Funny how that works.)

It wouldn't be the first time Cashman threw his hat in the ring to be Boston's GM. Remember that New York Magazine profile of him from the summer of 2004, where his wife Mary said, “Brian would like to go to Boston and win the World Series as general manager of the Red Sox. That would be any man’s dream, to go up there and become the god of Boston." That was the same profile which had Brian talking about how smart he was in getting Javier Vazquez over Curt Schilling, and had some anonymous agent praising his trade of Jeff Weaver for the immortal Kevin Brown. At any rate, the fact that Cashman never even got called on the carpet in Yankeeland for that interview showed that the days of the Big Bad Boss were long over. But I digress.

Anyhow, aside from the fact that it's very likely, given how much he has been included in postseason postmortems, that Red Sox assistant GM Ben Cherington is going to be the next GM of the Boston Red Sox, what, exactly, would convince Boston ownership that Brian Cashman would be the right man for the job? What would make their fan base accept somebody who has spent his entire career in the Yankees organization?That at least the Yanks' overpriced free agent pitcher A.J. Burnett stays in the dugout and watches his team during games, unlike fried-chicken eating, beer-drinking, video-game playing John Lackey? (Incidentally, if you haven't read the Boston Globe's investigation of what went wrong, please do so. It is absolutely delicious reading for Red Sox haters!)

I also had to laugh of the ridiculousness of Yankee president Randy Levine's own puffery in declaring that the 2011 Yankees season was a failure, then talking in the same interview about bringing back Cashman. Remember, Levine said: "We are the Yankees. That is the way The Boss set it up. When you don't win the World Series, it is a bitter disappointment and not a successful year." So, when is Levine handing in his own resignation? Or looking for a new GM? Gee, you'd think that all this talk of "World Series or bust" is just a sop to the rubes, since nobody ever actually loses his job or anything! Not even a general manager who once looked longingly at being Boston's GM!

What do you think? Tell us about it!

Why the Yankees' offseason is in the Schlitter

Well, the Yankees didn't get Cliff Lee, or even get Andy Pettitte back, so far this offseason. But hey, they did re-sign Sergio Mitre, give Mark Prior a contract, and now they've claimed Brian Schlitter off waivers from the Cubs. Whoo-hoo!

I know I sound like a twelve-year-old boy here, but the fact that the Yanks have picked up a pitcher named Schlitter makes me laugh and laugh. Sorry for mocking your name, Mr. Schlitter, but it pretty much sums up the Yankees offseason.

Speaking of which, Bryan Hoch of MLB.com interviewed Brian Cashman earlier this week, and he had this to say:

"We've got a lot of time left on the clock. Who knows?" Cashman said. "The bottom line is, there's a reason we haven't done anything up to this point."

Um, no. There are six weeks to pitchers and catchers, and Sergio Flipping Mitre is in the starting rotation for the New York Yankees. That's a big problem. And don't tell me I'm impatient or "saber-rattling" -- an insult Cashman throws out later in the interview -- for saying so. There's a guy named Andy Pettitte out there. Why the Yankees don't make him an offer he can't refuse (no, not that he's sleeping with the fishes, but that he gets a big payday for 2011) is beyond me.

Besides, even if the Yanks can't get Pettitte back, don't tell me there isn't a single pitcher in baseball available out there who would be better than Mitre. That's just silly.

Cash also had this to say about Pettitte:

"I could just tell you that he has been very good about it," Cashman said. "He informed us about, 'Don't wait on me, I'm leaning toward retirement. As of right now I'm not playing, and if I change my mind I'll let you know.'"

You know, I've gotten a lot of grief from readers over harping on this, but why is it that Cashman can't say anything remotely passionate about wanting Pettitte back? Why can't he make him a big offer? Every time he speaks on this, he shows all the spirit of a wet noodle.
Compare and contrast with what Yankees President Randy Levine (yes!) had to say about Pettitte last week:

"Andy's a great Yankee and a great person and I know he'll give it thought and follow his heart and we'll respect his decision. But we're out there, all of us, hoping every day that he comes back," Levine added. "I think he knows we need him. I think he knows how much we respect him and what a great leader he is."

I'm not a big Levine fan -- all too often, he has said the wrong thing -- but he hit a home run with this statement. Is it too much to expect the same from the Yankees' GM?

What do you think? Tell us about it!

Where's Derek Jeter going to end up -- Cincinnati?

In a recent piece on Derek Jeter's contract negotiations with the Yankees, ESPN New York's Wally Matthews claims that the two parties are at odds, with Jeter supposedly turning down a generous three-year offer at $21 million a year.

Anyhow, Matthews quotes an anonymous source "inside the Yankees' hierarchy" who is "urging the front office to play hard ball with Jeter":

"Tell him the deal is three years at $15 million a year, take it or leave it," the person taking the hard-line approach said. "Wait him out and he'll wind up taking it. Where's he gonna go, Cincinnati?"

My guess is that the source is Hank Steinbrenner -- remember his line wondering whether A-Rod wanted to be a Yankee or a Toledo Mud Hen? And Big League Stew's David Brown thought the same thing as me about Hammerin' Hank being the source.

Yankee team president Randy Levine seemed to be speaking a tough stance, saying yesterday:

"Derek Jeter is a great Yankee and he's a great player," said Levine. "With that said and done, now is a different negotiation than 10 years ago."

Anyhow, shows you the Bizarro World we're in, that giving a 36-year-old shortstop $21 million a year is somehow deemed an insult, even though his actual value last year, according to Fangraphs, was just $9.8 million. (Incidentally, for those who make the inevitable comparison with the Yankees breaking the bank for A-Rod after 2007, Rodriguez had the best hitting season by a Yankee in 50 years; his value that season, according to Fangraphs, was $37.7 million. As ridiculous it was to give Rodriguez a ten-year contract, he was coming off two MVP seasons in the previous three years.)

It's going to be interesting to watch what happens. I've heard a lot of fans say "just give Jeter whatever he wants." But where does it end? If the captain is Mr. Team, Mr. Yankee, how much do the the Yankees have to overpay him in order to show that they value him?

I've also heard his 3,000 hit record, which he should achieve sometime in the first half of next year's season, as another reason to keep him on. That makes sense, but it is funny to hear the same people who said for years that Jeter was about intangibles and team, not about so-called "stat-padding" individual numbers, all of a sudden get excited about individual milestones with Jeter.

The conventional wisdom has been that the longer this contract negotiation drags out, the worse the Yankees will look. I think it will be the opposite. For one thing, what are Jeter's negotiating options -- is there some other team out there willing to pay him more than $21 million a year? Doubtful.

As for Cincinnati, given that the Reds declined a $4 million option on Orlando Cabrera, the 35-year-old shortstop, don't think that they're actually a realistic option for Jeter, either.

What do you think? Tell us about it!

Who's the biggest "embarrassment"? Yankee fans, Chuck Greenberg, or Randy Levine?

There was a whole to-do in the media today over Texas Rangers owner Chuck Greenberg criticizing New York Yankee fans. According to an ESPN New York report, he called them "awful," an "embarrassment," and "either violent or apathetic." But I have a different reaction than many Yankee fans did reading these quotes from the article:

"I think our fans have been great," Greenberg said on The Ben and Skin Show on 103.3 KESN. "I think particularly in Game 3 of the World Series they just blew away anything I've seen in any venue during the postseason. I thought Yankee fans, frankly, were awful. They were either violent or apathetic, neither of which is good. So I thought Yankee fans were by far the worst of any I've seen in the postseason. I thought they were an embarrassment."

Are all Yankee fans "either violent or apathetic"? Of course not; he's painting with way too broad a brush here, partly, I'm sure, to get Cliff Lee to stay in Texas.

But does Greenberg have a point? I believe he does. As I complained during the ALCS, way too many fans for my tastes left these games early when the Yankees were losing, like fleeing during the sixth and seventh inning after Game 4. And then there was that brouhaha about Cliff Lee's wife during Game 3, with some Yankee fans acting like knuckleheads, and some real security concerns.

Is it surprising that an another team's owner would bring up these points, especially when he's trying to keep from answering a question about fans in his own ballpark yelling at others for standing during two strikes? Not really.

So I'm not gonna be a hypocrite and be all "how dare he say this," when I've complained over the same things myself. For all the monetary support (ticket sales, memorabilia purchases, etc.) Yankees give their team, there are some fans who are fairweather fans, and some who are jerks.

However, no fan base is perfect; there are knuckleheads everywhere. Greenberg didn't bring it up, but I know Yankee fans have yelled drug-related insults at Josh Hamilton and Ron Washington, which is tacky. Much like it was tacky when I personally heard Ranger fans yell drug-related insults at Darryl Strawberry in the 90s, when he was on the Yankees. One of the times, he shut the Rangers fans up by hitting a massive homer!

As for Greenberg's comments, Yankee president Randy Levine was asked to respond, but he declined to do so. Instead, he had a spokesman issue this statement: "At this time, we are honoring the commissioner's policy regarding respecting and not distracting from the World Series." Huh? You mean like announcing Joe Girardi's new deal during World Series Week?

And this is the second time in a week that Levine's done the no-comment thingy with the Rangers. See this from an article from last week about fans acting up against Cliff Lee's wife:

Yankees president Randy Levine, called to pinpoint precisely where the visiting players' wives were sitting -- inside the moat, in the expensive seats with the supposedly "better-behaved'' crowd, or outside the moat, with the riffraff like you and me -- refused to come to the phone and referred all inquiries to a Yankees publicist.

At any rate, Levine ought to have some reaction as to what Greenberg said, as his comments are an opening salvo in the battle for Cliff Lee, as well as an indictment of the team's security. Last time I checked, I thought the Yankees wanted to sign Lee.  Why is Levine so blase on this?

Back in the day, George Steinbrenner would either have said something withering about Greenberg, or had his press agent, Howard Rubenstein, write a sarcastic statement. Now, we get "no comment." Boring!

What do you think? Tell us about it!