Boras was on XM and said the Sox rumor is totally false. I'm not sure if he really knows or not, but who the hell knows what's going on anymore with Matsuzaka. I can't wait until it's finally announced. Right now a random person off the street has as much a clue about this as any "insider".
I'm not gonna believe anything on this story until this Japanese team releases the news. However, I will be very dissapointed if the Yankees don't get the highest bid. If they don't get him they better make a move towards Zito.
If the Yankees lose out on Matsuzaka, unfortunately, they might make a run at Zito. But I think highly enough of Cashman that I won't criticize him for even "negotiating" with him, I'll wait until he is officially a Yankee.
And I can't imagine Boras going on the radio and flatly denying the rumor of the Sox bidding $38-45M unless he's telling the truth. I mean, why would he want to burn that bridge? Does he think that Boston has no intent to sign him, only to block the Yankees from getting him?
Boras is a whore who'll do anything for more money, I wouldnt believe a thing until the bidding is over.
the bidding has been over for more than a day. It is sealed closed bidding, you send one offer, so does everyone else, then whichever is highest is the winner. The team then has until the 18th to decide whether to accept or not. I'm sure Boras has no clue who won. He went on the radio, probably so teams would know that he wasn't the leak. There is a decent chance noone knows, and Olney has been lied to. Right now the only people who know the highest bid are the board of the Seibu Lions and whoever physically sent the faxes from the MLB office.
The fluke, they haven't won a playoff game since. That could be an amazing rotation but there are alot of question marks. leaving the japanase guy aside for a minute beckett has never been a consistent top P(I do think he will come back w/ a great year this year though), papelbon was great in th pen but let's see if he can do it every 5 days and Lester has more serious problems to worry about right now than baseball but it definitely has the potential to be an incredible staff.
I have mixed feelings about the guy, but considering he's getting a 5 year deal, in a pressure cooker like NY or Boston, either he's going to be an all time great or a complete bust. there will be no in between, which is why personally for him i think its best for him not to be in either of those places. Selfishly I'd rather him in the NL just cause if he is good i don't want to face him...
I wanted to say the same thing, I just couldn't think of a way to say it diplomatically, and I didn't want to sound like I was just being a Yankee fan jackass. This post sums up exactly how I feel about it. They have the potential to be a top 5 rotation, but there are so many large question marks. Then again, the same can, and should, be said about the Yankees.
Hehehe. . . . admitting you have a problem is the first step to recovery. Junc has yet to take that important first step. Fluke? You can say that, if you like. But you, junc, and I ALL know that's just what you all mumble quietly to yourselves as you drift off to sleep each night, with the knowledge that the most recent history made by YOUR team is the most cataclysmic fall in the history of sports. Since the days when Thag and Cronk were hurling sticks and rocks in competition for hunks of mammoth meat, NO team has suffered as great a collapse. Sleep well, sweet prince. . . .
I don't know if you can call it a fluke. The year before they went to game 7 in the ALCS, and the year after the title they essentially blew up the team. If they had kept the team intact and still hadn't won a playoff game since, then, yes, it would clearly be a fluke. I know there are risks with the staff, but I love the potential. My favorite thing in baseball is talented young pitching with potential, so that rotation is pretty much my dream come true.
Ken Rosenthal was on WFAN this morning with Russo, and said he couldn't confirm the rumor, and said he had doubts about it. And in the Daily News today, a Yankee and Red Sox source both said they thought the rumor was very "premature". As a Yankees fan, my last hope is the fact that Rosenthal has one of the best track records when it comes to off-season rumors, and Olney has a bad track record with rumors. Seibu's announcement can't come soon enough.
Yes, we get it already. Nobody in the Bronx, Tampa, New York press, or all of Yankeeland believes that anyone can or should be able to outbid the Yankees in what may be the purest example of baseball free agent BUYING ever - an unadulterated, closed-bidding procedure. Perhaps all that money bleeding out of the Bronx these last couple years is starting to sting? Oh, and no one considered that Buster Olney - a Yankee guy at heart - might have worked these front offices before his story came out?
