NYCurve Yankees Blog

MLB News

Late February 2009 MLB update:

• The Dodgers made yet another offer to Manny Ramirez and he yet again, declined. The Dodgers have bid against themselves a couple of times already and I don’t see them doing it again. Manny will have to learn the hard way…
• A. Rod. homered in our first spring training game of the year in which he was greeted with a mix of cheers and boos.
• A. Rod. has been told to keep his cousin, who is the one that gave him the PEDs, away from the clubhouse and the team to avoid unnecessary distractions.
• Ken Griffey Jr. is a Mariner again! It is great to see him back where he started and I want to wish him the best of luck because he is one of the best genuine and pure players of the modern era.
• Johan Santana was scratched today due to a sore elbow.
• Tim Lincecum agreed to a one year, $650k deal with the Giants- what a steal for San Francisco!

Stay tuned for more updates later, especially after the season gets under way. I am truely sorry for the lack of updates, but I am currently searching for other writers to help keep this blog alive- if you are interested use the contact form or leave a comment here and I will reply back.

Major League Baseball Update

Here is the latest news from around Major League Baseball:

• First, I will start with the most relevant story for the Yankees and perhaps the biggest in the world of baseball at the moment: Alex Rodriguez admitted to taking performance enhancing drugs while he was with the Rangers. The star third-baseman made the announcement after four sources leaked the information to Sports Illustrated. Now the debate about steroids and the MLB is in full swing once more and the purity of the game is really at stake this time because of all of those people (including me) who were looking forward to A. Rod. breaking the home run record and returning the league back to pureness. Now that isn’t going to happen. I really hope players stop this trend because it really is unfair, but I also think the media and government need to take a step back out of this one. Players in other pro sports, namely the NFL, test positive for PEDs too, yet they are overlooked because “that is what the people want to see.” It does not make sense to have this double standard. The media needs to stop this attack on baseball. The government, on the other hand, needs to stop getting involved as well with this witchhunt for steroid users. We have bigger problems at hand and it really shouldn’t be meddling like this in the MLB, a part of the private sector. Also, shame that those independent sources leaked the information to SI because by doing so they violated the confidentiality rights of Rodriguez, which is a serious crime. I will almost certainly be posting more about this topic later.
• The Angels sign Ervin Santana to a 4 year, $30 million deal.
• The Braves are interested in Ken Griffey Jr.- one of the last great modern players who are still steroid-free. Too bad his injuries held him back otherwise he would be the “savior”…
• C.C. Sabathia and A.J. Burnett had their initial workouts with the Yanks and things are looking good so far.
• The Mets agree with Livan Hernandez on a minor league deal.
• Hank Aaron believes Bonds should keep the record because he feels it isn’t right to just wipe out history. It is a nice though and Aaron is one heck of a guy, but in my mind Bonds will never be home run king.

Sorry for the Downtime

You may have noticed that this site was down for quite a bit of time yesterday. This was due to a problem with the host, which prompted me to move to a new host, which is not only more reliable, but also faster. Load times and stability should improve, so hopefully we won’t have another big outage like yesterday. Thanks for sticking with this blog and stay tuned for more Yankee and MLB news and analysis soon.

Jeff Kent Retires, Astros’ Owner Discusses Clemens/Pettitte, Sheets Meets With Rangers

Just another Major League Baseball news update:

• The biggest story of the past few days was Jeff Kent announcing his retirement. The second baseman spoke with tears in front of reporters at his press conference, remembering the various people who he was hired by and worked with over the course of his 17-year-long career. Kent is one of those guys that was never afraid to speak his mind and he has built a unique identity for himself that is respected all around the league. He took a strong stance against performance enhancing drugs and through hard work he managed to have a very successful pro career, one that will likely end with him being inducted into the Hall of Fame. Kent will be missed.
• Ben Sheets met with the Texas Rangers about a possible deal. Sheets lives in Dallas, so a deal with the Rangers is definitely of interest to him and as we all know the Rangers can certainly use the pitcher. Sheets was offered salary arbitration by the Brewers, so if he signs with the Rangers, Milwaukee will receive draft picks.
• The Brewers agreed to a new 2-year-deal with first baseman Prince Fielder worth $18 million.
• The owner of the Astros says that there is a possibility that Andy Pettitte will go back to Houston this season. The Astros are also looking to see whether or not Roger Clemens will come to spring training.

Stay tuned for more updates and news (both about the Yankees and other major news) in coming days.

League Update

Here is some news from around the league for today:

• The Cubs have agreed to a deal worth $4.2 million with closer Kevin Gregg as they try to again build the long-awaited team that will end their World Series drought
• The Orioles have agreed to a big deal with Nick Markakis, worth approximately $66 million over 6 years
• Derek Jeter is on the provisional roster for the World Baseball Classic
• Felix Hernandez of the Mariners avoided arbitration by agreeing to a $3.8 million deal with Seattle
• Albert Pujois’ elbow seems fine after his recent surgery on it
• The White Sox and RHP Bobby Jenks have agreed to a one year, $5.6 million contract
• Ryan Madson agreed to a $12 million, three year deal with the Phillies
• New rules have been implemented concerning maple bats and many manufacturers aren’t happy
• There are also conversations about how the new bats will have different “sweet spots”

Recent Yankee News

Just some recent news from the Yankee universe and the MLB:

• Team president, Randy Levine, was subpoenaed today by a state assembly committee investigating the public funding that is being used for the new Yankee Stadium. Levine is supposed to report at the hearing on Wednesday.
• Rickey Henderson got elected into the Hall of Fame in his first appearance on the ballot. Congratulations to him, he really deserves it considering how great a player he was. He ended with over 90% of the vote, but many analysts expected him to get more than he did.
• Former Boston slugger Jim Rice also made the Hall, in his last year of eligibility.
• Mark McGwire, in his third year on the ballot, actually saw a decrease in number of votes. It isn’t looking good for the performance-enhancing drug users- thankfully.
• The final decision on the Cubs sale should be coming later this week.
• The Braves sign Derek Lowe to a $60 million deal
• The Red Sox sign John Smoltz to a $5.5 million deal
• The Yankees will win the World Series in 2009- at least I’m hoping.