October 26th, 2006 → 5:55 pm @ Seth Mnookin // No Comments
Remember back in spring training when Gary Sheffield said the Yankees better pick up his 2007 option, or else? And remember how happy he said he was when Brian Cashman told him, yup, the team intended ot do just that? (“There was only one place [I want to play], and that still remains the same,” Sheff said at the time. “I don’t want to play for nobody else but the Yankees.”) Since then, Sheff has: 1. bitched and moaned when he was told that an intention to pick up a player’s option is different from actually picking it up; 2. said, after the Yankees traded for Bobby Abreu, that he didn’t feel threatened because he was a “team player” who wanted to help the team win a World Series.
Well guess what? The Yankees picked up Sheffield’s option…and he’s back to pouting the corner. “This will not work,” he said. “This will not work at all.” He then went on to say the team best not play him at first base or trade him to another team. (If only Gary had managed to stay someplace for five years he’d have that no-trade clause. Oh well.)
I know: this shouldn’t come as a surprise; players lie all the time, like, say, when they tell everyone who’ll listen they wouldn’t play for a team and that money doesn’t matter and then sign with that very same team in the offseason for marginally more money. And in a weird way, I can’t help but admire a guy who can take so many directly contradictory positions on one issue.
Post Categories: Gary Sheffield & Yankees
Nordberg
18 years ago
What do you expect?
Sheff admitted that he tanked it in Milwaukee to get Tom Trebelhorn fired.
The guy is an ass. I hope the Yankees keep him.
111875
18 years ago
Glorious news when I heard it today. Sheff and A-Rod remaining on the Yanks is just what we want: those nasty attitudes will keep getting them nowhere fast. Fantastic. We all know it. They didn’t win those titles in the 90s with 9 all-stars, but with Chad Curtis hitting homeruns and Shane Spencer contributing and Brosius believing in his team. Let them stew in the miserable juices they have gone into debt for.
dbvader
18 years ago
Sheff and A-Rod remaining on the Yanks is just what we want: those nasty attitudes will keep getting them nowhere fast. Fantastic. We all know it. They didn’t win those titles in the 90s with 9 all-stars, but with Chad Curtis hitting homeruns and Shane Spencer contributing and Brosius believing in his team.
Please. Where has it ever been reported that A-Rod has a nasty attitude? He probably is too introspective to ever be a positive influence, but there is nothing to suggest that he is nasty.
Pit the 2006 Yankee team vs. any of the WS teams and have both teams play with the same pitching staff, and the 2006 team would win the majority of the time. The Yankees got shut down in a short series. It doesn’t mean the team lacked gritty white players to show them how to win.
HFXBOB
18 years ago
It really will be interesting to see how the Yankees play it this offseason. Is it really possible for them to ‘down-star’ their team, cut loose a few of the big names and replace them with ‘character guys’ to improve the chemistry? I too would love them to keep A-Rod and Sheffield but it’s hard to believe both these guys will return. Only the Yankees can have problems like this.
deversm
18 years ago
As a Red Sox fan I firmly believe Big Stein should trade Wang and Cabrera for Kenny Rogers. Then sign him to a three year extension.
Jack
18 years ago
Cashman is already shopping Sheff. A big chunk of that $13 million is deferred and the free agent market is weak on power hitting corner outfielders. Smart move picking up the option and then trading him. I bet Cashman picks of a nice prospect when he unloads that asshole. Their are going to be plenty of teams interested in him.
Too bad for the Sox.
111875
18 years ago
“Too introspective” doesn’t describe Rodriguez. And I didn’t say that the Yankees don’t have gritty players. Sure they do. I’m thinking in terms of attitude. A-Rod might not be as mean and nasty as say, Sheffield or Johnson, but it doesn’t seem that he’s any easier to share a locker room with. Jeter, who exhibits himself to be a team leader doesn’t defend AiRod’s actions or inane defenses (oh there’s lists…the “courageous” slap, the recent “maybe it’s because I’m so good looking, or because I’m biracial…”). Posada, another team gritty team guy never doesn’t defend A-Rod. My posting had nothing to do with “Yankees Suck”, but I believe that with signings such as Sheffield, A-Rod, Kevin Brown, Randy Johnson even Mussina (reputation of condescending no-it-all-ness), that creates a crappy, nasty negative attitude. I’m not suggesting this is the attitude of the entire team, but that with enough of that pervading clubhouses, planes and fields , well, it sure doesn’t help anybody win. You can think that chemistry doesn’t matter…that’s fine. Not only do I think it matters for winning games, it certainly makes them more enjoyable to watch and follow.
And, the Tigers DID play the Yankees and beat them. Are you suggesting the Yankees lineup is better than the Cardinals or the Tigers and if they had the same pitcher pitching against them the Yankees would win? Ok, well…sure, the Yankees line up looks great, but they lost and they lost because they weren’t hitting…and, the shared pitching staff?…well, that’s not baseball, so it seems a moot point.
dbvader
18 years ago
Where is this evidence of a ‘nasty, negative, crappy’ attitude? You begin with the premise that chemistry matters. Therefore, if the Yankees lose, it is because of the bad chemistry. They had a old and crappy pitching staff. And who knows, if the Yanks and Tigers played again, maybe the Yanks would win. It is the nature of short series.
“the shared pitching staff” is a hypothetical, to adjust for differences in the pitching. You can have your team with Scott Brosius, Shane Spencer, and Chad Curtis. It will lose the vast majority of its games against the team with A-Rod, Abreu, and Matsui. Winning breeds chemistry. Ask the 70’s A’s or the
Nordberg
18 years ago
Vader, what are you smoking?
First, the Yankees lost. There are no do-overs. Because if I could have a do-over, I’d want to play the ’03 ALCS again sans that cheater Giambi.
Second, the Yankees lost to the Tigers because their pitching stinks. They wouldn’t have won a 7-game series, either. Since beating the Red Sox, 19-8, in Game 3 of the 2004 ALCS, the Yankees are 3-10 in the postseason. Why? Because they haven’t had the pitching to win in the postseason. The Red Sox lost the 2003 ALCS because they didn’t have good post-season pitching. And because Giambi is a cheater.
Third, the Yankees did lack the gritty guys. So did the Red Sox and White Sox and Athletics and Angels and Blue Jays and … .
Apropos of nothing: WS MVP David Eckstein and NLCS MVP Jeff Suppan both are former Red Sox.
Eckstein was drafted by the Duke in 1997 and claimed off waivers by the Angels in 2000. The Red Sox could have had him back in 2005 as a free agent, but Theo signed Renteria instead.
Suppan was drafted by the Sox in 93, then claimed by Arizona in the expansion draft in 98. He returned to the Sox in 2003 in a stretch-run dead that sent Freddie Sanchez to Pittsburgh in exchange. Sanchez was the NL batting champion this year. Suppan was not re-signed by the Red Sox, and was picked up by the Cardinals. He did have the brutal baserunning blunder in the 2004 World Series when he got picked off third by Papi.
The hits keep coming, eh, Theo?
dbvader
18 years ago
Vader, what are you smoking?
First, the Yankees lost.
Yes, I comprehend what has happened. What I am arguing against is the idea that the result of a short series (or even the results of a few short series) necessarily leads to a grand assumption about the need to replace consistent All-Stars with players who had OPS’s less than .800 just because the latter group had a set of timely at-bats. It is ‘True Yankee’ BS.
This whole gritty guy argument is post facto BS. What gets the Yankees to the playoffs? Why do they get to the WS? Because the team is good. Brosius won the WS MVP in a sweep against the PADRES. Thank God the Yankees had him or they would have beaten the third worst team in the NL in only five games. The only reason Brosius, Curtis, and Spencer were in the WS is because they were surrounded by a bunch of future HOF and AS.
And the coup de grace: Whatever Curtis did on the field, he was considered an a##hole in most every clubhouse he was in, including the Yankees. So much for an untalented white ‘gamer’ bringing ‘chemistry.’
Hey, guys: you’ve both made your points, and they’re all good ones…but I don’t see either of you changing the other one’s mind, so let’s agree to disagree and move on from here…
Thanks,
Seth