Yanks to land Teixeira?

[chelsea0011]

So you like baseball and you live in Baltimore. Is it over before it began? Being a Red Sox fan, I guess I am lucky, but how do baseball other baseball fans survive the season? The Yanks have signed three guys to contracts worth over 500 mil???!!!

[sabbat hunter]

1. if they didnt

the Sox probably would have paid the money to him.

Did you see that for the exhibition games against the cubbies to open the stadium, the yankees are going to charge 25 cents for bleacher seats and $1.10 for grandstand seats?

[jimnasium]

2. In a few years...

The Yankees will be one of the world's top 100 economies...

Evidently, they're recession-proof.

[Auggie]

3. Confirmed. Eight years, $180 million.

NEW YORK -- Mark Teixeira fulfilled his Christmas wish of a new home for the holidays, and the Yankees kept swinging for the fences to land their new first baseman.

The Yankees and Teixeira agreed to terms Tuesday on an eight-year contract worth approximately $180 million, multiple reports indicated.

A baseball source, speaking on the condition of anonymity to MLB.com, confirmed Teixeira's decision to sign with the Yankees. A club spokesman said the Yankees did not expect to have any sort of official statement or announcement Tuesday.

Teixeira's agreement will include a full-no trade provision, as first noted by SI.com, but not the opt-out clause that was provided in negotiations to fellow winter Yankees addition CC Sabathia.

Link: http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20081223&content_id=3726572&vkey=hotstove2008&fext=.jsp

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Still doesn't guarantee a pennant. The Tigers looked really good on paper last year too.

[MaineDem]

4. Yup, they sure did

On a day when it looked like the Red Sox would finally land Mark Teixeira, the rival Yankees swooped in and reportedly landed the free-agent slugger. The Yankees and Teixeira agreed on an 8-year contract worth a reported $180 million. (Globe, 5:12 p.m.)

[joeybee12]

5. Yup, and I hope it backfires...I'm sorry, when people are striving to make

ends meet, this sort of salary just sickens me, especially since it was clear Boras kept pushing and pushing for more. Enough is enough! And as I noted before, I'm glad because the Sox keep Lowell, a class act IMHO.

[rockymountaindem]

6. Yeah, I'm happy we're sticking with Lowell.

[joeybee12]

7. Eventually they need a big hitter, but they can do just fine this

coming season with what they have...it really was injuries that did them in this past season, if being done in means making it to Game 7 of the ALCS.

[Upton]

8. Teixeira is a nice player

but 22.5 million a year...no way. This is just overspending, driving the market up. Sometimes MLB cries out for a spending cap.

[chelsea0011]

9. Lifetime .280 hitter who had a decent year. He's capable of putting

together nice numbers but he's no Pujols, Manny, or Arod. Sox could have used him for the future but he's simply not good enough for that type of salary.

[DaveinMD]

15. his ops+

the last two years was 150 and 151. That's a lot better than a nice hitter. He's an elite player the last two years. This a great player in his prime years. Look at more than batting average when evaluating a player please. And by the way, you are even wrong when using that stat. He's a career 290 hitter with a career obp of 378. His obp the last two years was 400 and 410. He's a great player.

[burythehatchet]

18. What he did in Atlamta the second half of 06 was nothing less than amazing

I was in awe.

[Bill219]

10. yep...

and they have the nerve to bitch that they need more money from the taxpayers of New York to complete there new stadium

[El Supremo]

11. Steinbrenner: "Recession? There ain't no stinkin' recession!"

Wow. Look how far down Pujols is.

[nickgutierrez]

12. Good point on Pujols.

But I think that, even at the time, the Pujols contract was regarded as a bit of a hometown discount.

[ProfessorGAC]

13. He Even Said That, Didn't He?

I though i remember him saying he could have made more had he really explored the market but that he and his family really like St. Louis. I'm pretty sure that's right, but not positive.
GAC

[El Supremo]

14. BTW, I think Manny's was 2001-2010 for $160 M. n/m

[DaveinMD]

16. by the way

the Yankees payroll is still going down this year even with these signings.

[El Supremo]

17. You mean... uh... they have to pay something for the new stadium?

No way!

[hughee99]

19. Are you sure about that?

http://www.nowpublic.com/sports/yankees-2009-payroll-due-expand-teixera-signing

Just looking at their "big tickets" (Rough numbers, some are 2008 Salaries)
A-rod - $28 million
Sabathia - $23 million
Texiera - $23 million
Burnett - $16 million
Jeter - $21 million
Damon - $13 million
Posada - $13 million
Rivera - $15 million
Matsui - $13 million

That's about $165 million for 9 players, not figuring in the other 31 players on the 40 man roster, and the luxury tax which for 2009 is supposed to be $162 million. In addition to paying the other players will also have to pay an additional 40% on every dollar over that, so even if their other players were "only" making $1 million dollars each, they'd have to pay an additional 12.4 million for the tax. With guys like Wang (about 5 million), Cano (3 million), Nady (3 million), and Swisher (3.5 million), I'd be surprised if they could keep their payroll under last year's.

[DaveinMD]

20. They had

88.5 million coming off the books. 23 for Tex, 23 for CC and 16 for Burnett is 62. Cano is already signed long term, so his Arb number already stays the same. The money coming off is massive. Pudge Rodriguez, Pettitte, Mussina, Pavano, Giambi, Abreu.

And by the way, they have another 33.5 coming off next year. There wasn't a player like Tex available next year, so they spent the money now.

[Mudoria]

21. You know..

if the yankees have this much money to spend couldn't they have asked for fewer taxpayer dollars to build their private stadium?

[DaveinMD]

22. why would they

this country has a history of wasting money on sports stadiums. I had to pay for the building of two football stadiums in Maryland in one year. The blame should go to the politicians who actually gave the teams the money. Not the teams for asking for the money.