YFSF

The Answer

In the ongoing Battle for Supremacy between the Yankees, Rays and Red Sox, Boston has answered the Yankees' Mark Teixeira swoop-in and Kevin Cash steal with a theft of their own.

Nick Green, welcome to Boston.

Brian Cashman, you've just been served.

Friendly Advice from a Yanks Fan

It appears the Red Sox have just begun their off-season. Yes, they were one of the first teams to make a move when Epstein traded Coco for Ramon. But a lot of time passed between this move and their next. During this hiatus, the Sox swung and missed at Teixeira (aka "Plan A") and watched as the Yanks spent gazillions, thereby rebranding the Bombers as the team to hate (and this is different from before how?) and the team to beat (but not really). The Sox signed Brad Penny to what appears to be a low-risk high-upside deal. This in itself is not enough. It's simply not enough. Just think for a second. The Yanks added freaking CC Sabathia, Mark Teixeira, AJ Burnett and Nick Swisher (Nick Friggin' Swisher!) and the Sox counter by adding Brad Penny?! Red Sox Nation, sit down for a minute and internalize that. Stop what you're doing. Breathe. Now is a time for you to act. Theo and John Henry have spent but a penny of all the money you have given them in ticket purchases and costs of Nation membership. They have so much more money to spend. Shouldn't they actually spend it?!

Here's what I want you to do. Take out a pen and a blank piece of paper. At the top of it, put the words "Red Sox Nation's Wishlist for the 2008-2009 off-season. Make it Happen!"

Now take down these names and the arguments in their favor. You will mail this list to Red Sox headquarters to Theo Epstein's attention.

Our Trusted Translators

5: 17 pm: This article has been updated! Check below...

Here's the deal. None of us at YFSF read or speak Spanish. When an exciting Spanish-language news report breaks like the Manny story from last night, we have no idea what's happening. Yes, there are people claiming that this most recent report claims that Ramirez is on the verge of signing a three-year deal with the Yanks, but we do not take the translations of anonymous posters seriously. These translations are, after all, coming from people who post on blogs--the most debased form of news distribution since "A Current Affair". Instead we turn to our trusted team of foreign translators--the Dusseldorf-native Rolfe, Athens-based Maria, and Lyon-living Pierre:

Subtext

"We met with Mr. Teixeira and were very much impressed with him," Henry said. "After hearing about his other offers, however, it seems clear that we are not going to be a factor."

By now we have probably all seen John Henry's statement issued last night at 10:45 on the status of his visit to see a certain free agent.  But this hasn't, as far as we've seen, been truly parsed.  Let's take a stab at it.

"We"

We.  Not much to see here.  Maybe. Perhaps Henry is referring to those who travelled with him, but perhaps he is referring to the greater "we", as in "all white men" (the Sox have been accused of getting too white, after all), or "Americans", or "rich guys who own hedge funds, baseball teams, and private planes".  Or, all three.  We (as in "woefully distracted Red Sox bloggers") don't know.  Let's move on.

"met"

Hmmm.  I think this means they sat down with Boras and Teixeira, but part of me thinks it's just another provocation of the Yankees, a sly attempt to focus attention on the Bombers' crosstown rivals.  It might even be a jab at the Wilpon's investments with a fraudulent hedge funder.  Remains unclear.

"with Mr. Teixeira and were very much impressed with him". 

Ass-kissing, pretty clearly.  And come on, I know that the New York Times owns part of the Sox but what's with the "Mister" stuff?  He's twenty-eight, not a village elder.  And if you are going with "Mister", how can you have passed up a chance to truncate and reference "Mr. T"? 

"After hearing about his other offers"

No attribution to where he heard about the other offers.  We're supposed to assume it was directly from Boras, but there's no reference to the agent being the one who conveyed the information.  And really, I wouldn't trust Boras to give me the truth about what kind of pizza he had last night, much less expect him to disclose a competing contract offer.  My guess is that Henry "heard" about these offers from Nick Cafardo, who got them from an anonymous assistant to the Assistant GM, who gave him the information in an email typed in pig latin and then encoded in zapf dingbats.

"however, it seems clear that we are not going to be a factor"

Already having touched on the ambiguity of "we", let's go right for the big two-syllable guy at the end: "factor".  Oh, and "not".  "not a factor".  Hmm.  One would think of the first dictionary definition, which reads "one of the elements contributing to a particular result or situation".  Seems clear enough.  But I believe Henry is after something else.  Reading further, one sees that "factor" can also be defined as "in biochemistry, any of certain substances necessary to a biochemical or physiological process, esp. those whose exact nature and function are unknown".  So, Henry is more likely to be saying that the Sox "are not going to be a certain substance necessary to a biochemical or physiological process".  Much, much more ambiguous than what one takes away at first reading and certainly a statement which leaves the Sox' chances for Teixeira hanging out there, not yet quashed.   Keep hope alive!

So there you have it.  An nod to caucasians, a reference to the Wilpon's financial entanglements with Bernie Madoff, some biochemistry, and a missed opportunity to weave in Clubber Lang.  How did everyone miss this?

The Dilemma

As a Sox fan, we're almost interested in having Manny sign with our rivals, just to see the pretzel logic of justification and rationalization from Yankee fans.  All of a sudden "playing the game right" won't matter so much, we don't think.

We hope it doesn't happen: we have too much respect for our YF peers at this point to want to see them go through this!

Looking into CC's Eyes

This part of Joel Sherman's latest piece:

I spoke to several baseball folks - executives and agents - about why they thought Brian Cashman flew to Las Vegas to meet personally with CC Sabathia. The consensus was that this is done because Cashman needs to look in Sabathia's eyes and know for sure that if he takes all the Yankee money that the big lefty definitely wants to be a Yankee after all the talk that Sabathia wants the NL or West Coast.

made me think that Cashman will be doing the Larry David stare test with Sabathia.

So You Wanna Be a GM?

I’m excited to be a part of a game that gives people a real world experience at what it’s like to be in my shoes and take on the responsibility of building a Major League Baseball team.

- Billy Beane

Even though we just tipped 40 years, we're rooted in the Atari generation.  We grew up with bizarre semi-anthropomorphic representations of pugilists and with a pitcher's mound about 85 feet from home.  And as we gear up in full-on arrested development for this holiday season with a wishlist that includes a modernized video game machine (come on, Mom and Dad, come through with that PS3!), we saw an ad for a new game in which there is little action other than transaction.  A game called "MLB Front Office Manager".  Some screenshots and thoughts are after the jump.

Biology is Destiny

From today's Times:

In health-conscious, sports-oriented Boulder, Atlas Sports Genetics is playing into the obsessions of parents by offering a $149 test that aims to predict a child’s natural athletic strengths. The process is simple. Swab inside the child’s cheek and along the gums to collect DNA and return it to a lab for analysis of ACTN3, one gene among more than 20,000 in the human genome.

The test’s goal is to determine whether a person would be best at speed and power sports like sprinting or football, or endurance sports like distance running, or a combination of the two. A 2003 study discovered the link between ACTN3 and those athletic abilities.

In this era of genetic testing, DNA is being analyzed to determine predispositions to disease, but experts raise serious questions about marketing it as a first step in finding a child’s sports niche, which some parents consider the road to a college scholarship or a career as a professional athlete.

That Time of Year...

Poetic words from and about the early winter season:

 That Time of Year Thou Mayst in Me Behold (Sonnet 73)
That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold
-William Shakespeare-excerpt

The Unknowable and Jason Varitek
If you think about  physical conditioning,
he's got many more years to play in this game
When he's out there, this club is decisively different.
You're really talking about a guy that is inherently valuable.
In this day and time, what is a player like that worth?

Want (with a simile comparing Garret Anderson to Tony Gwynn)
He’s in the class of player
 where he gets a chance to get
 3,000 hits like Tony Gwynn,
 This guy’s four years away...
He wants to play every day

Affirmation
We've received
a number of
offers

How Many Days Until Pitchers and Catchers?

Just when you think you can deal with the cold winter days and no baseball, along comes a video like this to make Spring seem like it is years away.  Enjoy.

(h/t Gizmodo)