While I’m disappointed to see the Yankees land Mark Teixeira, this doesn’t change my outlook for the 2009 Boston Red Sox. However, the 2010-2017 teams I’m a bit more concerned about. Of COURSE the Yankees swoop in at the last minute and sign Teixeira, it’s a great move by Brian Cashman, let everyone else get bogged down in daily rumors and innuendo, and then, when the heavy lifting has been done, bring me the best offer and I’ll beat it. That’s just smart business. Out of all the teams that were pursuing him, no one needed Tex more than the Yankees or the Angels. Now the Angels are SOL and announced that they aren’t going to go after Manny Ramirez, meaning that their offense looks to struggle once more without protection for Vladdy.
With the signing of Teixeira the Yankees now have the 4 highest paid players in MLB on their team. A-Rod, CC, Tex and Cap’n Jetes. Wow. Based on the reports, the deal is for 8 years for $180 million, which brings the Yankees offseason spending on a grand total of three players to $423 million. That’s a lot! Oh, and the Yankees infield now makes approximately $75 million just on their own. Yikes!
The good news for Sox fans is that presumably Mike Lowell stays now! So that’s neat, for the next year or two. Sigh. Lars Anderson our power-hitting first base prospect better pay off… It looks like the free agent contract for Joe Mauer (free agent agent at the end of the 2010 season) is going to be RIDICULOUS! Otherwise, it looks like the Sox are left with the one that brung them to the dance.
At least now I can think 0ut loud all the negative things about Teixeira that I was trying to talk myself out of when this whole business began. For example, since he left the hitter’s park in Texas he hasn’t been the same power-wise. He’s not a centerpiece player, he’s a strong complementary one, and not really worth $22.5 million for the production he provides, maybe 18-19. Teixeira has been an All-Star all of ONCE and he’s been nowhere near an MVP award. My other big concern is that Teixeira is brutal in the early months of the year, and while he powers up later in the season, I wonder how he’ll handle it in the very different weather of the Northeast as compared to Atlanta and Texas. While he had a very nice OPB during the playoffs this year, besides making a great play with the glove, he did little besides hit singles and get walks and so he did pretty much nothing to help his team score runs.
Fortunately, now Tex and A-Rod can together destroy the Yankees in the postseason.
The one thing this signing deprives us of is the hilarious Teixeira press conference after signing with the Nationals where he would have said it was about coming home and nothing to do with them offering him more money. Now he can say he came to NY for the mystique and to win and no one will begrudge him, so his public image can remain blemish-free. Unfortunately, now I have 8 years of looking at Tex in pinstripes and wondering what could have been.
Teixeira and A-Rod only played one season together in Texas, but they combined for 73 HRs and 202 RBIs, and that was Tex’s rookie season. I expect the two of them to roughly hit 400-500 HRs combined over the length of their deals.
So long Tex. Now I hate you and your horse face.
The Slanch Report 
wish i could take credit for this, but i have to quote it. courtesy of my friend ben: “maybe the yankees should bail out the auto industry.”
no way. the yankees are poor
that’s why the needed NYC to give them more money for their stadium recently
after all, how could you spend $423 million this offseason without getting 370million from the city first
meanwhile, someone hire me
Pretty good analysis, skanch, just a couple little bones to pick…
-On money, yep, independent of circumstances, he’s not really quite worth $22 mil – unless you’re the Yanks or Sox, where you can easily justify forking over the extra $3-4 mil per year just to keep him away from your rival. Lowell is getting up there, they’re squandering Youkilis’ defense at 1B, and they absolutely couldn’t sign Manny, the only other legitimate bopper on the market. This definitely puts the Sox a bit behind the 8 ball, which is worth $30 mil over 8 years by itself.
-MVP voting is nearly as meaningless as All Star appearances, but you knew that.
-Lastly, not to get too SABR on you, but the ’08 ALDS was his first and only postseason series. Sure, some doubles and HRs would be nice, but it’s hard to fault the guy for a 4 game power drought when he OPSed 1.017. Walks and singles score runs, too.
slanch, you should write a letter to Tex and petition to be his assistant here in NY.
I’m going to write him a letter and ask him to send me $1000. because, why not?
matt, of course, generally walks and singles are important, and yes his OPS was 1000 but have you ever seen a more meaningless 1000? It was like classic A-Rod, the team is down 8 runs and he hits a solo shot. Sure he hit a hr but it wasn’t close to enough to actually impact the outcome of the game. That’s my point. And mainly it just goes back to that he is NOT a centerpiece player, now he’s being paid like one. Teixeira is NOT a great player, he’s a very good one, but very good shouldn’t be among the top three highest paid players. A-Rod is the best, i don’t think anyone is worth 27 mill, but if someone were to be, it’d be him, but Tex simply isnt that player.
While I agree that MVP and all-star appearances don’t REALLY mean anything, it is interesting to me that he never gets on the team. Of course, part of that is his brutal first halves, if they had a second half all-star team he’d have made more certainly. But, isn’t that important, if you’re paying 22 million to someone don;t you want him to be productive for 6 months and not 3? Sure his defense is still good throughout but that bat sucks the first half…
I dunno, would i have wanted him on the sox? You bet. Am i distraught that we didnt get him. No. And that to me is the most interesting thing.
My point stands that 4 games is an insanely small sample size to base a negative opinion on, particularly in light of the fact that he actually hit pretty damn well.
For what it’s worth, here’s Ortiz’ first PS series in Boston:
5 G, 2/21, 1 2B, 0 HR, 2 RBI, 2 BB, 7 K
Which just goes to show how meaningless one 4 or 5 game stretch is in the big picture.
As for his half-season splits, sure, I’d love it if the guy hit .360 all year. But in the grand scheme of things, a win in August is as valuable as a win in April, so it doesn’t really bother me that much.
Fuck the Yankees!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
FUCK THE YANKEES AND THEIR”supposed”FANS.I hope that FUCKING TOILET(the stadium)COLLAPSES!!!.
The yankees and their fans can(GFT)GO FUCK THEMSELVES!!!!!!!.