Monday, December 14, 2009
NY Times Bats Blog: Matsui Bound for Angels, Halladay to Philadelphia?
Matsui is a good fit for the Angels, whose incumbent designated hitter, Vladimir Guerrero, is also a free agent. From the Yankees’ perspective, losing him would be difficult in the sense that he has served them very well for seven years and never played for another major league team.
But the Yankees have not aggressively pursued Matsui, prioritizing left field and starting pitching over re-signing a player they consider a full-time D.H. because of his ravaged knees.
I understand why the Yankees didn’t pursue Matsui, but I’m still sad to see him go. If it was me, I’d rather have Matsui at one year and $6.5M than Damon at whatever he ends up getting, even if Matsui can’t play the field. You picked a hell of a way to go out Hideki. Thanks.
While I don’t begrudge Damon for looking for a big payday, I’d pretty much cut off negotiations with him at this point and at least kick the tires on Holliday. Anything in the 6 year, $100M range area seems fair. If Damon doesn’t want to take a pay cut, then he’s going to be overpaid in 2010.
As far as Halladay to the Phils, seems like good news for the Yankees to me. I hated the idea of the Yankees overpaying for Halladay in talent, or seeing him go to Boston, so any scenario that prevents either of those things from happening gets my approval. I’ll do the requested Halladay/Lee comparison in the morning.
Oh, and Boston is supposedly signing John Lackey and Mike Cameron. Good for them. I hope all the scribes are writing their “How Boston Bought The World Series” articles now for when the Red Sox bring home the title in 2010.
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