Word, SG.  All sympathy for the Veitch family.  As for Leyritz, as much fun as he was to have on the Yankees as a player, he always seemed like kind of a tool as a person.  This confirms that impression. 

As an aside, I disagree with Newsday’s premise that this has been a tough offseason for Yankees fans.  Why?  Torre? Clemens? Pettitte? Leyritz?  Santana?    I am a huge Yankee fan and none of these developments (or, in the case of Santana, non-developments) have ruined my offseason.  We still have Hughes, Joba, A-Rod, and Posada, and Girardi, and 2008 is going to be a lot of fun. 

Happy New Year everyone.  Be safe.  Thanks to SG, Larry and the crew for this board and its great community. 

Go Yankees in 2008!

agreed.

there was a lot of DRAMA this off-season, but when talking about the on-field product in 2008, this has been a very GOOD off-season.

A-Rod made things unnecessarily dramatic, but the bottom line is that he will be wearing pinstripes next year.  same goes for Pettitte, Posada, and Mo.

the way the Johan negotiations went down actually gave me a POSITIVE feeling about the direction of the team:  they thought long and hard about their prospects and decided that Johan was a special talent worth offering Hughes for.  but when the Twins wanted more, they pulled out.

even though i wasn’t for trading Hughes, isn’t that a pretty healthy philosophy the Yankees demonstrated?  grow the farm system, retain some talent and use certain pieces to trade for elite talent, but refuse to bid against yourself and overpay if you think that is what is happening.

as for Torre, i would have been ok if he came back for 1 more year, but i am also thrilled to have Girardi taking over.  i don’t consider this a negative development at all.

anyone who believes the Yankees had a bad off-season is going to be really surprised this year when the Yankees come out punching and don’t take off the months of April/May as has been their tradition for the last few seasons.

Thanks for the Happy New Year wishes Frog.  Happy New Year to everyone.

anyone who believes the Yankees had a bad off-season is going to be really surprised this year when the Yankees come out punching and don’t take off the months of April/May as has been their tradition for the last few seasons.

I’m really excited to see if Joe Girardi fixes this problem.

“don’t take off the months of April/May”

What are the stats on this?  I seem to recall lots of trips out to the west coast against the strong teams here early in the season or tough series against the RS, so maybe this is just ‘98 memories stuck in our collective unconsciousness.

Well, 11-19 start in ‘05 & the, what, 21-29 start in ‘07 or thereabouts are starting points for that early-season malaise conversation…..but in the meantime, happy new year to everyone and a second thanks to everyone at RLYB for all the readability….

SG: The Leyritz crap is a nightmare for that poor family.
I’d be a hypocrite and liar to even consider condemning him after all the shit I pulled in my twenties.There but for the yada yada go I. And it scares me to this day. At 44 the man surely knew better.
I’m sure he feels nearly as bad as he should. I hope so anyway. Some guys are able to face it better than others.
I wouldn’t wish that on someone I detested. Even Clemens.
Sorry that was cheap.

Oh Happy New Year guys. Frog pretty much said it all in # 1.

I am a huge Yankee fan and none of these developments (or, in the case of Santana, non-developments) have ruined my offseason.  We still have Hughes, Joba, A-Rod, and Posada, and Girardi, and 2008 is going to be a lot of fun.

Happy New Year.

I still see this as a semi-transition year. That said, the Yankees will be the second best team in baseball on opening day. If they stay healthy and the Red Sox have some setbacks they could be the best team in baseball by October. That’s good enough to keep me watching.

With the opening of the new stadium, 2009 will be the year when the next dynasty emerges. Giambi will be off the payroll in 2009, with Damon and Matsui following in 2010. There is a pretty good chance that Santana stays in Minnesota in 2008 and the Yankees get him for nothing but cash in 2009. If that happens the Yankees will have an awesome rotation with some good surplus pitching prospects that they can trade for position players.  They have several relievers (Ohlendorf, Sanchez, Ramirez, Veras) who have break out potential. What’s not to like?

Happy New Year all!  Especially SG, Larry and Fabian.  Thanks for all the great posts and I’m looking forward to many more in 2008.

I hope everyone was safer than Leyritz was last night.  I never liked the guy when he was with the Yanks, and his recent work has done nothing to alter my opinion.  Anyone remember all the Page 6 blind items when he was a Yankee—“Which married ‘royal’ Yankee was spotted with a beer in one hand and his arm around a young woman at 3 AM at Gaslight?”

Hey SG—are you gonna do a guest spot on LoHud?

Hey SG—are you gonna do a guest spot on LoHud?

I took advantage of my time away from work to avoid the computer so I didn’t see Pete Abe’s invitation until his slots were filled up.  I’m not sure if I’d do one over there or not, his readership frightens me.