The State of Sports Dec. 21st

-Baseball

-Damon bolts to the Yankees
As I write this headline, I wake up in complete and utter confusion about what the next move would be for the Red Sox. Damon, in the wake of a career year, deserves all the money that is coming to him. The Yankees have tendered him a 4 year- 52 Million dollar contract. Theres no denying that Damon is the best leadoff hitter in the game, who batted .316 (lead the league for a month and a half at one point), had 10 HR's, 70 RBI's, and scored 117 runs. Even more amazing is the statistic of runner in scoring position. He batted .331, scored 100 runs, and batted in 64 in 145 of his 624 AB's.

I always agree with things the Red Sox management are doing. Its my nature, symply because they are the professionals, and they are in fact the people who know whats going on. Writers are good, but only speculate. Reporters give the facts, that usually come from the management. But in this case, they screwed up. Larry Luccino treated Johnny Damon as if he was going no where else. Damon was treated as if he was on the back burner. I predicted in October, that the Sox would sign Damon because I knew it would happen. I just knew that the Sox would offer him what he deserved (a mediocre-high range offer) and they screwed up. You can almost say that this instance was the same kind of thing with Pedro.

We have yet to hear about Damon's comments, but he wont be bitter. By no stretch of the imagination, the Yankees made a blunder after not going after Beltran last year. But, wait a second. I think they got the next best thing. My Yankees fan freind, Palladino, pointed out to me about how the Yankees can make a lot of moves since they have shed off a lot of salary this year. I am taking him up on it and now going to bring it out into the open.

Adding up the entire payroll from Baseball-reference.com, we see that the number stands at 213 million dollars. This year the Yankees will be shedding the contracts of lots of players. The list includes: Kevin Brown (15.7 M), Bernie Williams (12.4 M), Steve Karsay (6 M), Mike Stanton (6 M), Tom Gordon (3.75 M), Paul Quantrill (3 M), Tony Womack (2 M), Tino Martinez (2.75 M), and John Flaherty (800 K). If we add the near-end of the season additions of Alan Embree (3 M) and Mark Belhorn (2.75 M) the total shedded payroll is 56.15 million Dollars. To put this in perspective, if the season started today the payroll would stand at 157 million.

So the Yankees go out and signed some people too. They signed outfielder Matsui to a 4 year 52 million contract. They signed Damon yesterday to a four year 52 million dollar contract. They signed Kyle Farsworth to replace Tom Gordon in the bullpen to a 3 year 17 million dollar contract. They traded for Ron Villone. And signed Mike Myers to a 2 year 2.4 million dolllar deal. And then yesteday they signed a one year deal with Octavial Dotel for 2 million. If we add these new contracts together, we get 35.85 Million. If we add raises from players currently on the payroll (from the contracts listed on mlb4u.com) we would add a 1M raise to Pavano, and 2.5M raise to Posada. Adding these in, the additions total would be 39.5 million. This would be the entire amount of the Brewers payroll last year.

If we add this up to the 157 million number, we would get 196.5 million dollars. The Yankees clearly dont care about payroll once again, and are buliding a championship team at the expense of money. I have no proof, but last year they supposedly went out of the red in debt last year. The Yankees assume they will attract 4 million people this year. Maybe even more. Maybe they will. Maybe they wont. Fact of the matter is, the payroll is just under 200 million dollars, and they still have to pay luxury tax.

Damon will have another good year this year. But, he also will gradually decline. He just turned 32, and when you get older things happen. Because of the way Damon plays centerfield, he is also very prone to injury. Also last year, he was taking cortisone shots just to play. Who knows what implications this might have if he gets injured again. Damon might end up being another Bernie Williams. A signing that people now are liking, might be one they dont like.

The Red Sox management is now in a muddle over what they will do next. They have vaccancies to fill at shortstop, centerfield, and first base. Plus they need bullpen depth. David Lefort speculated yesterday that Graffanino or Loretta just might fill the shortstop gap. And maybe Youlkis will be the everyday first basman next year. But, what to do about Centerfield. Do the Red Sox dare sign Juan Encarcion, Terrece Long, or Preston Wilson? Or do they trade for Crisp, Reed, or some other centerfeild?

These questions and more will be adressed in the coming months. We will see what the "experts" in the front office decide to do. Damons signing with the Yankees was just a firework in the sky in a fourth of july celebration. The next move of the Sox wont be great, but they will figure it out, and respond when it matters the most. I just hope the Sox wont be rash and sign somebody they dont want on their team for this year, or the future.