Spring Training Musings

Arrogant Yankees to play 59 year old actor against Pirates:

Having the highest payroll in professional sports and having won 26 World Championships apparently just isn’t enough for the vaulted New York Yankees. Now they’ve got to rub it in our perennially losing faces. So Billy Crystal signed a one day contract with New York and the Yankees figure playing him against Pittsburgh is their best bet to make their comedic golden boy look good. Oh, we’ll see. Paul Maholm’s gonna show them a thing or two. But seriously, I’m not sure what I would do if I were Maholm. Spring Training is important. I’m sure Maholm does not want to waste any opportunity to get in shape for the season and worrying about facing Crystal could affect his mental approach to the game. Do you pitch to Crystal like you would any other hitter? Do you lay one in there for him? Or do you throw one up and in as payback for My Giant? We shall see.

Duke receives pay cut; Savings to help offset money wasted on Jim Tracy’s staff:

Though it was only a decrease of $10,000, Zach Duke’s pay cut this season seems unusual to me. Usually when this happens in the pre-arbitration period of a player’s career it’s because said player missed a significant amount of playing time the previous year(s). Duke did miss a small chunk last year and his performance was uninspiring, but giving a cut to a young player the team still has hopes for strikes me as odd. Perhaps they’re hoping it will work as motivation, but knowing the Pirates, it was probably just penny pinching.

Now, to contradict my last statement…

Already this offseason, the Pirates have signed Freddy Sanchez to a multi-year contract extension and engaged in talks with closer Matt Capps, first baseman Adam LaRoche and pitcher Ian Snell. These are actually three young players that I feel are vital to the team’s success over the next few years. All three could be had for below market value if they are signed. I don’t expect all will be, at least not before the next offseason, but the fact that these extensions are even being considered reeks of smart player management. Maybe the new management is actually not like the old management. One can only hope.