Let’s catch up on various happenings around the Yankees:
A.J. Burnett is gone. It’s not his liberation, it’s ours. Having contemplated this event in these pages for more than a year, I’ve no more to say. We’ll never see the “prospects” involved in the deal again—well, maybe the pitcher—but it doesn’t matter. I keep thinking of “MacArthur Park”: “Someone left the cake out in the rain… And I’ll never have that recipe again.” Whereas Richard Harris seemed kind of broken up about that, I just don’t care. Strikeouts are important, especially when your inner defense isn’t the rangiest, but effectiveness trumps all.
According to just about everyone who was there, Joe Girardi slipped today and referred to Eric Chavez as being on the team. It should surprise no one that the manager assumes (or knows) he’s going to have the third baseman once a few details are ironed out. There can’t be too many other teams chasing the dregs of Chavez’s career. I don’t mean to perseverate on Chavez the way I did on A.J. Further, I realize that the qualities I have suggested the Yankees need in a reserve third baseman basically require them to acquire another starting third baseman, the kind of player who is always in short supply. Still, the alternative, to give Chavez and Eduardo Nunez a ton of at-bats, is really self-punishing. I sometimes think about the Yankees making a low-risk deal with the Reds for the last year of Scott Rolen’s contract. The Reds have a cheaper/younger option in Juan Francisco…
Mariano Rivera said he has made up his mind about retiring/not retiring. Minds can change, events can force changes. Nolan Ryan was pitching in his age-46 season when his elbow went “twang” (inspiring the famous Judy Garland parody, “Twang Twang Twang Went the Trolley”) and that was that. Rivera’s intentions here in February don’t strike me as terribly interesting or relevant. Mike Schmidt intended to play in 1989, but he had to admit he was cooked before the end of May. Tommy John might still be pitching today if Dallas Green hadn’t released him three days earlier. Babe Ruth was going to play for the Braves in 1935 and did… for 28 games. Rivera isn’t in the same decrepit state as some of those other players, but the universe has a way of deciding things for us, or as John Lennon sang just before he was shot to death outside his own apartment building, “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.”
Raul Ibanez has officially signed. He was clearly the cat the Yankees were after all along. Yankee Stadium will probably do some nice things for him, but that will only be a cosmetic gloss on a player who has had trouble hitting away from Philadelphia the last couple of years. Last week on the radio show, we debated Ibanez vs. Bobby Abreu. Abreu’s power is gone, but he still has some speed and his walks are still there. He would have been a better choice, assuming the Angels were willing to move him in some non-A.J.-flavored deal for nothing much at all.
Thank you, Steve, for putting that song in my head. The cake in the rain is without a doubt, the worst metaphor of all time. (and I mean in the song, not your use of it.) It was years before I realized Mr. Harris was talking about some woman. I’d rather he just said what he was trying to say. If you’re not clever enough to use irony, don’t try. I always pictured one of the many weird family reunions of my youth that always seemed to go awry–camping trips in Pennsylvania marred by rain, drunk Uncles making a scene, burned hamburgers and griping over where the nearest place to purchase kosher hotdogs might be in this one-horse town, or whether it was worth the trouble anyway, since technically cheeseburgers aren’t kosher either, but nobody seemed concerned about that. That’s what those days were: a cake left out in the rain.
As for AJ…whatever. He’s someone else’s problem now. Someone left him out in the rain, apparently. now we get the boom-or-bust remains of Raul Ibanez–mostly bust. Well, it should be an interesting season, to say the least.
“Someone get Burnett out of the game…”
I would have much preferred Travis Hafner in the lefty DH role. Did the Yankees really need another OF who should play defense?
“MacArthur Park” was, of course, written by Jimmy Webb and not Richard Harris. I heard him in an interview more or less admit writing it under the influence of LSD, so the lyrics probably don’t bear much examination.
I was talking about the Burnett trade with a friend of mine, and he wanted to know what the Yanks got in return. I didn’t know the answer, but I then conceded they could have DFAed him and I wouldn’t have cared. NO return would still have been worth it.
Whatever point you were trying to make about Mariano fell far short of clarity.
OBVIOUSLY Mariano could get injured or lost it all at once and be forced to retire before September. But how is it not an important story that he is essentially saying this is his final year? He has never come close to saying anything like this before. He is not Farvre or Clemens. So your discussion of Schmidt, John and Ryan are totally off point.
As long as Burnett is a Yank no more, I am happy.
No details needed….We have an open slot now.
I feel badly that A.J.was injured. Anybody see it?
Wow…he bunted a ball right smack up into his eye.
OUCH! There’s a fracture, DL for a while now. I was wishing him better luck over in NL at least.