Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Yankees Sign Garcia: Nothing More to Worry About

The Yankees have signed formerly relevant starter Freddy Garcia to compete with Bartolo Colon to see which starter will be dropped first. Its a tough competition because Colon was the better pitcher in his prime, but has apparently taken to eating contests since then. Garcia was not the pitcher Colon was, but pitched last season with some success, and its worth seeing what his surgically repaired shoulder can do. After missing out on Duchscherer, probably the most promising of the rehab cases, the Yankees had few options left. One things for sure, if the Yankees think they can get Pettitte for $12 million they may be in for a surprise. It was just two seasons back Pettitte took an incentive-laden contract from the Yankees, which he considered insulting, and it doesn't take Scott Boras to see the leverage in this situation. If I were Pettitte I would propose another incentive-laden contract. He can take the $12 million as a base salary and then include incentives like for each win, the Yankees take him out for ice cream, and for 100 strikeouts, he gets an ipod, and maybe for his birthday, they have to give him a nice pair of slacks. Or he can just ask for the $16 million he was making before. Either way, the Yankees are going to pay up.

4 comments:

Rich Mahogany said...

This post is unnecessarily pessimistic because it does not mention Mark Prior. With Prior, Garcia and Colon gunning for a rotation spot, surely a Cy Young candidate will emerge.

I agree that if the Yankees think they can get Pettitte for about the same amount they are giving to Soriano for one year, they are delusional.

Fernando Alejandro said...

Yeah, that's a good point about the Soriano signing. If Pettitte decides to return he has that as a benchmark.

Prior's only competing for a Cy Young as a reliever so I left him out, but rest assured between Colon, Garcia, and Mitre, a Cy Young is definitely in the works.

Anonymous said...

I was wondering, since nothing is happening in the off season and we'll have basically the same team, is anyone thinking about buying over-priced tickets for the season? I guess my question is: is it going to be worth to spend that much money to go to the Stadium or should I spend my money somewhere else?

Fernando Alejandro said...

Even with a miserable off season, the Yankees are still worth watching, and the new stadium is worth seeing as well. Ultimately, if the Yankees are losing, people aren't going to go to the games, and ticket prices may go down. Still I would say its worth the trip and the ticket cost. You have a few hall of fame caliber players on the team and that's always worth paying for.