{"id":10142,"date":"2010-12-14T16:17:17","date_gmt":"2010-12-14T23:17:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.seamheads.com\/?p=10142"},"modified":"2010-12-14T16:27:20","modified_gmt":"2010-12-14T23:27:20","slug":"the-sun-will-rise-again-in-ny","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/2010\/12\/14\/the-sun-will-rise-again-in-ny\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sun Will Rise Again in NY"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Everyday on the way to school, I pick up a copy of AM New York, a local newspaper in New York City. While sifting through the pages, I see an article entitled \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Yankees wait on Cliff Lee\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Just then, my phone vibrated. It was an e-mail from my fellow writer Steve\u00c2\u00a0Lenox. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I was right,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said, and went on discussing the Cliff Lee deal.<\/p>\n

Startled and confused, I started looking around for an answer. The subway conductor then walked through the doors of the train and saw I was reading about Lee and the Yankees. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t read that junk,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153He signed with Philly.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Relieved, I leaned back in my seat, and went on with my ride.<\/p>\n

Bad reporting on behalf of AM New York is part of it, but things happened extremely fast. Within a few hours of us even finding out that the Phillies were involved, Lee was gone. And the newspaperscouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even keep up.<\/p>\n

I got to school only to be approached by five or six people all screaming. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s over,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d they all said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Yanks are done.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Disgusted, I calmly explained to them how ridiculous they sounded.<\/p>\n

Account for all free agent signings so far this\u00c2\u00a0offseason, and the Yankees still have a payroll of $190 million. That is the highest in the Majors, and the Yankees expectations have not changed whatsoever.<\/p>\n

Now, it is true that the Yankees could use some pitching help. But here is how I see it: If Andy Pettitte returns, the Yankees will have the same rotation they had two years ago when they won the World Series, with the addition of Phil Hughes, who won 18 games last season. Cliff Lee happened to be on the team they beat.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153A.J. Burnett? Really?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I heard that a lot today. It is borderline criminal to talk positively about Burnett in New York.<\/p>\n

But why can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t he have a comeback season? Why can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t a veteran pitcher who led the league in strikeouts three seasons ago, and led the Yankees to a championship two seasons ago have a comeback season?<\/p>\n

Another bright spot is the signing of Russell Martin to a one-year deal today,\u00c2\u00a0according to\u00c2\u00a0MLB.com<\/a>. He may not be Lee, but having 28-year old, two-time All-Star, and Gold Glove winner behind the plate can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t hurt. Especially considering the back-up\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s are Francisco\u00c2\u00a0Cervelli\u00c2\u00a0and Jesus\u00c2\u00a0Montero.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, the Phillies are not done dealing. Phillies beat reporter Todd\u00c2\u00a0Zolecki\u00c2\u00a0points out<\/a> that the Phillies are going to need to clear some payroll space to compensate for Lee\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s massive deal. Joe Blanton is someone the Phillies are looking to move, and it\u00c2\u00a0wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t hurt for the Yankees to add a 30-year old with plenty of experience in a big city. He would only cost $17 million over the next two seasons.<\/p>\n

And, make no mistake, bringing Lee aboard for seven years was not something the Yankees were particularly thrilled about. If they were, they would have thrown a lot more money at him \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and, trust me, they could have. In the end, the Yankees realized it\u00c2\u00a0wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be too smart to sign a pitcher through age 39 and up to age 40, especially considering he has only had three good seasons in a nine season career.<\/p>\n

Having a payroll below $200 million is not such a terrible notion either. The Yankees will have a lot more flexibility in the future to make big deals, and still have a great chance to win in the short-run.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, the sun will rise tomorrow. The Yankees are still a great team, and still have very high expectations. They won with this team in 2009, and they can win with it in 2011. If you told me the Yankees would go into the 2011 season with CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett, Phil Hughes, Mark Teixeira, Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Mariano Rivera,\u00c2\u00a0Joba\u00c2\u00a0Chamberlain, Curtis Granderson, Russell Martin, and possibly Andy Pettitte, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think I would be very worried.<\/p>\n

What a day. And I never even got to remind people that there are two months left in the\u00c2\u00a0offseason.<\/p>\n

Listen to Jess on\u00c2\u00a0What’s on Second: The\u00c2\u00a0Seamheads.com Radio Hour<\/a> Monday nights at 9 p.m. ET. Follow him on Twitter\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0@jesskcoleman<\/a> or send him an e-mail at\u00c2\u00a0jess@jesskcoleman.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Everyday on the way to school, I pick up a copy of AM New York, a local newspaper in New York City. While sifting through the pages, I see an article entitled \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Yankees wait on Cliff Lee\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Just then, my phone vibrated. It was an e-mail from my fellow writer Steve\u00c2\u00a0Lenox. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I was right,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":754,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/754"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10142\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}