Yankees Make A Big Splash In The Draft

Well, the Rule 5 Draft that was this morning, but still.  I mean, look at the 2 names they got.  Daniel Turpen and Robert Fish.  Robert Fucking Fish!!!  This is big news!

Listen to some of these details.  Fish had an 8.93 ERA and a .365 BAA last season in Double-A.  And one profile on Turpen described him as not being "typically overpowering."  One righty who isn't overpowering and a lefty who can't seem to get anybody out?  When do I get to start popping the champagne.

Fuck Carl Crawford.  I think these 2 moves today might have put the Yankees over the top for 2011 and beyond.

Barstool NY Actually Making Some Valid Yankee-Related Points For Once

I've gone on record before criticizing Barstool NY for their half-assed Yankee coverage and arguments, but today they're actually on fire when it comes to discussing the Carl Crawford situation.  First, resident Barstool NY Yankee blogger Scott puts the Red Sox offseason moves in perspective: 

"Yea, the Red Sox are having themselves a nice offseason. Tip your hat to those fucking goobers because Gonzo and Crawford are legit. And no denying the Sox have a nice little lineup and a pretty nice little rotation right now. But I’m a fucking Yankee fan bro. And the day I start worrying about what the Red Sox are doing is going to be a cold, dark day in hell indeed.

Especially because the Yankees are about to sign this guy Cliff Lee. Maybe some of you have heard of him? He’s supposed to be pretty good. And all I know is that its going to be a great time watching CC and Cliff Lee mow down lefty after lefty in this fancy new Red Sox lineup. Just mow them all down like the Yankees have done to the Red Sox throughout the course of human history.

And these moves were 2 years in the making for Boston. Since Tex and CC, the Yankees just flat out had more big time talent on their team. You saw it when the Yankees won the World Series in 2009. And you saw it when Boston had too many injuries last year....

So I say its about time those fucking losers made some power moves. You didn’t need a brain surgeon to tell you John Lackey isn’t a difference maker."

... And then 90 minutes later, KFC drops some straight knowledge about how lame and hypocritical Red Sox fans are:

"And then my favorite is come April when they [Bostonians] want to flip a switch and become the blue collar Red Sox fans again. Come down from their holier than thou Ivory Tower as Pats fans and start to play the role of the “Idiots” and pretend they are a small market, underdog franchise. And like clockwork they start complaining about payroll and the Yankees buying players. When the Yankees signed CC, Tex and Burnett, I legit thought the Red Sox fans were never going to stop complaining. Best part is, that year the Yankees overall payroll went down when they did that. They reinvested a bunch of money, cut payroll by $8 million, and won a World Series, while all of New England just sat around crying. And then you look at the Sox payroll, which jumped $50 million between 2009 and 2010, and as of this morning they just spent another $300 million on two players."

Bravo, boys.  Bravo indeed.  I don't think I could have said it better myself.  On a day like today I'm actually quite thankful that I'm not back home on the East Coast where I would have to listen to all the phony Red Sox fans walking around with their chests puffed out, talking like 2011 World Series was already in the bag or the sadsack subgroup of dumb Yankee fans who would be ready to jump off their roofs and kill themselves because the Sox added 2 big bats.  And to be honest, I never even considered the fact that Boston is loading up their lineup with lefties for CC, Cliff, and Boone Logan to school next season.

The bottom line is, there's really nothing for the Red Sox or their fans to be proud of yet.  They got all excited after the V-Mart trade in 2009 that was supposed to be the final piece they needed to get back to the World Series and instead they got their dicks knocked in the dirt by the Angels in the first round while the Yankees took home title 27.  They got even more excited before 2010 when they brought in John Lackey, he of the 4.40 ERA, 1.42 WHIP, .277 BAA, 6.53 K/9, 99 ERA+, and 1.9 WAR in 2010, to "solidify" the rotation and watched their commitment to pitching and defense blow up in their face behind a rash of injuries.

Yeah, Boston's lineup looks better on paper for 2011.  Congratu-fuckin'-lations.  A lot of people thought the same thing going into '09 and 2010 and they ended up behind the Yankees both of those years.  Let's let the rest of the offseason play out and wait until teams start playing again before we all just bow down and suck Theo Epstein's dick for the brilliant moves he made.

(I don't know how I've never seen this before, but I laughed my ass off when I saw it on Barstool NY today)

Red Sox Add Carl Crawford. This Is Me Not Caring

(Photo of Crawford getting thrown out at 3rd by Greg Golson courtesy of The AP)

According to multiple reports, the Red Sox signed Carl Crawford last night to a monster 7-year/$142 million deal, upgrading both their offense and defense in the process and vaulting themselves right back into contention as an AL East favorite, at least in the eyes of everybody at ESPN.  But my reaction when I read the stories this morning?  To borrow a line from the great Derrick Coleman, "Whoop-de-damn do."

Does Crawford really make the Red Sox THAT much better?  Yes he's an upgrade over Mike Cameron in the field and at the plate, and yes he completes Boston's replacement of Victor Martinez and Adrian Beltre's offensive production, but that's still just a replacement.  And for the money he's getting, money that makes him the highest paid outfielder ever in terms of total pure dollars, shouldn't the Red Sox be getting more than just a replacement?  Consider that Crawford has never hit more than 19 HR in a season, has never driven in more than 90, has never slugged above .495, has a career OPS of .781, and has only been above 4.4 WAR 3 times in his career.  Check his stats if you don't believe me.  Oh, and if you're wondering, almost all of Crawford's career highs were set last year in, that's right folks, A CONTRACT YEAR!!!!  Hmmmm...

Don't get me wrong, Crawford is a very good baseball player.  But he's not a $20+ million per year baseball player.  For that kind of money you should be getting Ken Griffey Jr. in his prime, Willie Mays in his prime, Barry Bonds in his prime (steroids or not), somebody who can play Gold Glove-caliber defense AND carry a team offensively by himself if need be.  Now in this Boston lineup, Crawford won't have to do that, but that doesn't change the fact that it's still the kind of production you should expect for that kind of investment.  And Crawford, quite frankly, is not that type of player.

And while we're on the subject of the Red Sox lineup, I take a look at it and still see a lineup that's not as deep or dangerous as that of the Yankees.  I'll take Swish, Grandy, and Gardner (the much cheaper, homeless man's Carl Crawford) over Crawford, Ellsbury, and a rapidly-declining J.D. Drew any day of the week.  The right side infield combo of Teix and Cano should outproduce the combination of Gonzalez and Pedroia no matter how much better Gonzo's numbers get thanks to playing in Fenway, ditto for the left side combo of Jeter and A-Rod compared to Scutaro and Youkilis.  The catching trio of Jesus, Frankie, and Jorge (assuming he gets a little time behind the plate) will be better than the garbage combo of Saltalamacchia and Varitek even on their worst day.  And let's not forget that David Ortiz was getting ready to be thrown on the scrap heap after April this season.  In 2011 he's going to be another year older and that that bat will be another year slower.  Any way you try to cut it, the Yankee lineup is still at least a little bit better top to bottom than Boston's with the potential to be a lot better if Grandy plays like he did in the 2010 postseason and Jesus has a quick learning curve.  So if Crawford didn't help put the lineup over the top, how can you justify making him the highest paid OF ever?

Basically, what happened here was the Red Sox got spooked by the reports of the Yankees having "serious" talks with Crawford and scrambled to make him an offer much bigger than what they probably should have, knowing it had to be more than the ridiculous contract the Nationals gave to Jayson Werth.  I'm sure they've been doing their damnedest to do the same thing to the Yanks with Cliff Lee, but in reality they were never major players for Lee, knew they weren't, and instead overspent on their other big target that they did have a shot at. 

The Yankees were going to make Lee a monster offer regardless of what the Red Sox or anybody else did.  The Sox probably weren't going to do the same for Crawford, especially after the Gonzalez trade/re-sign, but started feeling the heat of all the Yankee-Crawford rumors and did what they thought they had to do to keep up.  Now they've spent their money and they still have a lineup not as good as that of New York and they're about to watch the Yankees improve their rotation to the point where it can also be considered better than Boston's.  So at the end of the day, this Crawford signing doesn't mean anything to me and it shouldn't mean anything to you.

(P.S.- $142 mil for Crawford and $150-160 mil coming for Gonzalez?  I think we can end all this "the Yankees spend too much, we're still just a scrappy underdog" bullshit coming from Boston once and for all)