February 6, 2011

Crasnick: Off-Season Grades For the AL East

ESPN's Jerry Crasnick grades the off-season moves of the five AL East teams:

Red Sox: A
[Adrian Gonzalez] should be a lock to hit 40-plus homers provided his surgically repaired shoulder is healthy. As a bonus, he'll make a mere $5.5 million this year -- or $500,000 more than shortstop Marco Scutaro.
Blue Jays: A-

Orioles: B

Rays: B-

Yankees: D+

When the offseason highlight is general manager Brian Cashman rappelling down the side of a 22-story building during a Christmas celebration while dressed in an elf costume, you know it hasn't been a great winter.
Example
Belgian runner Stefaan Engels, 49, set a Guinness World Record on Saturday by finishing his 365th marathon in 365 days (running a distance of 9,569 miles).

That guy ran 26+ miles every friggin day. All I'm asking you to do is click here and vote for JoS.

8 comments:

tim said...

Plane Day!

With Truck Day tomorrow!

allan said...

Poz: "The Mitre thing just blows my mind. The New York Yankees, for the fourth straight year, will have a team payroll of more than $200 million. Only one other team in baseball history has ever had even a $150 million payroll, and that was last year's Red Sox (at $162 million). And that's all fine, we understand, the Yankees have more money, they spend more money. But how do you spend $200-plus million for four straight years -- about $50 million more [per] year than any team in baseball history -- and find yourself penciling in Sergio Mitre as your No. 5 starter?"

Joe notes that Mitre is "a 30-year-old pitcher with 13-29 record and a 5.27 career ERA who had not started 20 games in a season since 2007".

And Ivan Nova is their #4. (Or Freddy Garcia? Mark Prior? Bartolo Colon? ... Maybe they can coax Jimmy Key out of retirement.)

Benjamin said...

Maybe they can coax Tony Suck out of his pine box and convert him to pitcher.

allan said...

Tony Suck

He certainly did.

laura k said...

Tony Suck, on the all... ??? team. This one should probably wait for a big blow-out game when we're all drinking. It could be fun.

allan said...

At least his first name wasn't Richard.

(Why did he change his last name from Zuck? ... And why did he choose Suck? ... Maybe the word did not have the modern connotation.)

Jere said...

Dick Pole and Rusty Kuntz are co-captains of the All-??? Team.

Kathryn said...

But how do you spend $200-plus million for four straight years -- about $50 million more [per] year than any team in baseball history -- and find yourself penciling in Sergio Mitre as your No. 5 starter?

I was going to post how much I loved what Allan wrote...and then I read this:
Tony Suck, on the all... ??? team.

and this:
Dick Pole and Rusty Kuntz are co-captains of the All-??? Team.

We're back and it's time for the season to begin!!!