Results tagged “briancashman”

Coming off a four-game sweep of the Red Sox, the first since 1985, life in Yankeeland hasn't been so sweet since Aaron Boone went deep off Tim Wakefield to send the Bombers into the World Series in 2003. So what could possibly rattle any sense of complacency among the team with the best record and biggest division lead in baseball? How about the Times questioning the long-term security of their captain, Derek Jeter, whose ten-year contract is set to expire at the end of next year? After telling a reporter that there's been no talk of an extension, he was asked if that concerned him. He said, “I haven’t even thought about it. It’s 2009. It’s not 2010. Or 2011.” While no one has seriously suggested the Yankees would ever let Jeter walk before his 3,000th hit with the team came, the paper couldn't resist taking the bait of his somewhat surprising mention of the year he could test the free agent waters. Hopefully GM Brian Cashman won't lose sleep over the quote after all the praise he's receiving for the integral roles played in the sweep by his big acquisitions Mark Teixeira, CC Sabathia and AJ Burnett.

It’s deadline time and while the Mets and Yankees are going in very different directions, it is clear that they both need to do something at the deadline. For the Yankees, currently in first place, they have one clear and pressing need, adding another starter to the rotation. C.C. Sabathia and A.J. Burnett are a formidable tandem, but behind them are serious questions. Joba Chamberlain has been great his last two times out, but his overall work this season has been inconsistent. Andy Pettitte has a 4.67 ERA, a slightly below-average number in 2009. And with Chien-Ming Wang most likely gone for the season, the Yankees are using Sergio Mitre as the fifth starter. Mitre may have won his first start, but he has a 5.35 in over 300 innings in the National League. Brian Cashman doesn’t have to get Roy Holliday, but he needs to find someone who can give the Yankees some innings while keeping them in the game.

The Yankees are almost a quarter of their way through the season and their manager is excited that the man who was supposed to be the biggest bat while A-Rod was on the shelf is now hitting two points over .200. Apparently seeing it as a sign that Mark Teixeira is about to turn things around, Girardi called the first baseman's two-for-four performance the most promising development in the team's 8-2 win over the Blue Jays last night. Only two other regular starters in the AL are hitting lower that Teixeira and the closest recent Yankee slugger with nearly as bad of a start was Tino Martinez hitting .254 at same point one season. GM Brian Cashman is spinning the bad start as the 180 Million Dollar Man dealing with the "pressure" of his big contract and new environment. But Teixeira is taking the high road for his performance, saying, "You can always try to find excuses...Yeah, more people are watching, no doubt. More people are writing about it, no doubt. But those are things I can't control...There are no excuses. If you start making excuses for yourself, you've got something wrong with you."

A day after Alex Rodriguez's uneven admissions of the "specifics" of his steroid usage during a half hour of answering questions, today he is being held to task by media outlets everywhere. None seem too satisfied with the version of events they got yesterday. Reporters don't seem particularly interested in figuring out the identity of A-Rod's unnamed cousin who allegedly provided and injected him with steroids, possibly because as one major leaguer put it, "I wonder if his cousin even existed. That was my first thought. Is his cousin made up? I don't know."

After yesterday's local headlines screaming that Joe Torre had ripped his former Yankee associates in his new memoir "The Yankee Years," today scribes continued to dig for dirt between the two sides. They weren't getting it from GM Brian Cashman, who told them that Torre called him from Hawaii to smooth things over yesterday, unsolicited. The GM emphasized, "He was a fantastic manager and you couldn't ask for any more than what he did for us." Then there's A-Rod, Derek Jeter's superstar stalker and pre-Madonna prima donna, who suffers a few digs in Torre's book. Torre reveals he told Rodriguez to at least get his own coffee, only to have the slugger then show off his self-purchased cup of joe to his manager. Torre says, The point was to just be one of the guys. He didn't get it." A friend of ARod's tells the Post that the book is a "final act of desperation" and that "Alex's reaction is he hasn't received a signed copy yet."

The local tabloids are foaming at the mouth with the first revelations from former Yankee skipper Joe Torre's soon to be released tell-all book about his time with the team. Torre was famous for his stoicism in his decade as manager and for keeping drama to a minimum, a notable feat among the New York sports media. But initial word is that Torre's memoir lets off some steam after his unceremonious exit last year by taking swipes at ARod, GM Brian Cashman and not surprisingly, the Steinbrenners.

The whispers said CC Sabathia wanted to play in California. They said he wanted to play in the National League, where he would get to hit. But the deal he has agreed to with the Yankees says he wants $160 million over seven years. A late-night visit by Brian Cashman to San Francisco on Tuesday apparently persuaded the left-handed free agent that New York is a fun place to play, too. The Yankees now have a bona fide ace at the top of their rotation. In his last three seasons, Sabathia has thrown 190, 243, and 251 innings. He has posted ERAs among the best in the league. Will he be great for the lifetime of the contract? Therein lies the rub. But for the first few seasons, the Yankees will be pleased. And they may not be done. Derek Lowe could be next.

What the Yankees need to avoid doing is overpaying for any of the other starters out there. A.J. Burnett has been injury-prone throughout his career and will still probably get a huge deal. Derek Lowe has enjoyed pitching in the NL the past few years and may have a rough transition back to the AL and Ben Sheets makes Burnett look like a picture of health.

The Carl Pavano era is over in the Bronx, or is it? Yesterday, the Yankees declined their option on Pavano’s contract making him a free agent. Over his four years with the Yankees, Pavano spent more time on the DL than in the Bronx and he leaves New York $40 million richer in exchange for nine wins and 146 innings. If Cashman tries to bring him back, they both should be run out of town.

Brian Cashman is staying with the Yankees. Yesterday, Cashman agreed to a three-year contract extension that keeps him in the Bronx until 2011. And, Cashman will have his work cut out for him, as he needs to rejuvenate an aging lineup and rebuild his starting rotation. On the plus side, he has all the Yankees’ money at his disposal, $75 million in expired contracts, and with the move to the new Stadium the money should pour in. Will Cashman invest it in CC Sabathia and Mark Teixiera? Expect the Yankees to be mentioned as a possible destination for every big free agent, but based on recent history it would be prudent for Cashman to be a selective shopper.

The Yankees just won’t go quietly into the offseason. Last night controversy erupted between Joe Girardi and the press corps over the status of Mariano Rivera, who had left the team yesterday to return to New York for a checkup. Girardi insisted it was just a end of year physical while Brian Cashman told the press Mariano had felt something in his shoulder and was having a MRI. The press conference included Girardi banging his fist on his desk and telling the media they could stare at him if they wanted to.

A payroll of $209 million should at the very least guarantee that a team is in the thick of the playoff race until the very end, but barring a miracle run, the Yankees won’t be. While George Steinbrenner is no longer in charge, the failure of the 2008 Yankees demands someone to be held accountable and fans are well within their rights to expect changes.

When Yankees’ season ends, their most important free agent re-signing will have never hit a home run, won a game or driven in a run for them. He will never have even worn the uniform because their most important piece of offseason work will be bringing Brian Cashman back to the Bronx.

At 7:10 p.m. on Tuesday night, Yankees pitcher Joba Chamberlain will take a big league mound for the first time as a starter. Whether he succeeds or fails at his new job may very well determine the fate of the Yankees’ season and Brian Cashman’s future with the club. Taking a dominant setup guy out of the back of the bullpen and putting him into the rotation is not a popular decision in some circles, but it is the right one for three reasons.

For all the noise of this Yankees offseason, as far as the team on the field goes, all it amounted to was the status quo. Alex Rodriguez, Jorge Posada and Mariano Rivera are all back -- and richer. Young pitchers Phil Hughes, Ian Kennedy and center fielder Melky Cabrera didn't go to the Twins for Johan Santana. The 2008 Yankees will be a slightly older albeit considerably more expensive version of the 2007 team. And most fans are fine with that.

The big sports news of the day isn't the Super Bowl. It's the probable Johan Santana trade that the Mets and Twins agreed to yesterday. And from the reaction of the local papers and sportswriters, it seems like the Mets pulled a fast one on the rubes from Minnesota. If the Mets can sign Santana to a contract extension, it's likely that he will become the highest paid pitcher in baseball, surpassing Barry Zito of the San Francisco Giants. It's believed that Santana and his agent Peter Greenberg are looking for a 6 or 7-year deal in the range of $20-25 million per year.

A day after the NY Post served up a Thanksgiving day front page cover of Knicks president and coach Isiah Thomas as a turkey, the embattled Thomas proclaimed he would stay in his job, saying, "I don't foresee there being any changes this year." Which the Post calls "LOAD OF BULL?" But really, if there's one thing that the Post and Daily News must have been thankful for, it's having such a spectacularly poorly managed...

Joe Girardi made his first appearance in Yankee pinstripes as the new manager today. He chose the number 27 for his jersey, referring to more World Series wins in the Yankees' - and his, he hopes - future as the Yankees have 26 World Series championships. The former Yankees catcher said, "The team's expectation is always going to be to win the World Series. It's not going to change." He also mentioned that he...

All the rumors of an extension of Alex Rodriguez's contract with the Yankees are pointless. Why? Because A-Rod has decided to opt-out of his remaining three years with the Yankees. The announcement was made by Scott Boras during tonight's World Series game. He totally jumped that 10-day opt-out period. By opting-out, A-Rod passes on the remaining three-year $72 million portion of his contract and has likely played his last game as a New York Yankee....

Fighting to keep his emotions in check, Joe Torre took the podium in Rye today and thanked George Steinbrenner for letting him run his ball club for 12 years. Torre went on to explain the events of the last 48 hours. Wednesday night Brian Cashman called Joe and conveyed the Yankees’ offer of one-year and $5-million with bonuses. Joe asked to meet with the group in Tampa and met for 20 minutes and when the...

The reports of George Steinbrenner’s demise may have been exaggerated. In an interview with Ian O'Connor, Steinbrenner showed the fire that longtime fans of the Yankees are used to. While it wasn’t punching out someone in an elevator, this was a classic motivational ploy from the Steinbrenner textbook - win or the manager is gone. Of course all of this ignores the fact that the Yankees are lucky to have even made the playoffs. Teams...

Does Joe Torre, manager of the Yankees, treat black and white players differently? According to former Yankees outfielder Gary Sheffield, he does. In an interview that is scheduled to air Tuesday on HBO's Real Sports with Bryant Gumble. Sheffield makes some shocking allegations in the interview with Andrea Kremer, saying that he wasn't the only black player that had issues with Torre.

Yesterday was not a great day in the Rodriguez household: Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez left the game with a strained hamstring and his wife Cynthia was raked over the fiery NYC media coals after wearing a tank top with a swear-word on the back. Yankees manager Brian Cashman told reporters he had discussed the situation with Cynthia, "She's part of the family and obviously, we'll just keep that in-house."

With his recent health woes, all George Steinbrenner does is issue statements through his spokesperson. Today, however, the AP has an interview the Yankee principal owner. In the interview, the 76 year-old Steinbrenner talks about manager Joe Torre, Brian Cashman, Roger Clemens, and Jason Giambi. It wasn't so long ago that Steinbrenner issued a statement saying that he believed in Torre and Cashman.

We certainly know how some Yankee fans feel about the baseball season so far, but what about The Boss? George Steinbrenner, the Yankees principal owner released a statement yesterday, supporting manager Joe Torre and general manager Brian Cashman. Steinbrenner's statement said:

"The season is still very young, but up to now the results are clearly not acceptable to me or to Yankee fans. However, Brian Cashman, our general manager, Joe Torre, our manager, and our players all believe that they will turn this around quickly. I believe in them. I am here to support them in any way to help them accomplish this turnaround. It is time to put excuses and talk away. It is time to see if people are ready to step up and accept their responsibilities. It is time for all of them to show me and the fans what they are made of.

With the Yankees' win over the Red Sox yesterday that ended a 7-game losing streak, it seems that Yankees manager Joe Torre can breathe easily - for the moment. Torre answered questions about his job security before the game with aplomb, saying, "For me to say 'this,' 'this' or 'this,' I don't want to pawn it off and say it's not my fault. I'm in charge here. If you're going to enjoy the good times, you have to understand that to get there, you have to deal with some potholes." His players chimed in:

Jason Giambi: "I know in New York there's a lot of shock value. It's pretty ridiculous. This is a good ballclub. Joe can't control injuries; all he can do is put guys out there that want to play and want to win."

Continue reading "Stankee Yankees: Panic in the Bronx"

What's going on in Yankee land? Alex Rodriguez is getting curtain calls and Derek Jeter has set a career high for errors at this point in the season. Through 12 games, Jeter has a whopping 6 errors. The Daily News did some digging into his career and, thanks to the Elias Sports Bureau, found that in his career Jeter, through 11 games, had never more than 2 errors. Even more insane is that he didn't reach the 6-error mark until his 50th game last season. Half of Jeter's errors came on ground balls, while the other half were throwing errors.

Eddy Curry had a very nice offensive game, going 9-17 from the field and adding 11 boards. He still doesn’t play any defense and you have to suspect that a healthy Shaq would have done more damage than 20 points, but a win is a win and this one was a big one.