Let's Make The Evil Empire Evil Again: NYY's Pursuit Of Manny Machado

jayhoz

Ronald Bartel
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Jul 19, 2005
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Machado reminds me of the kind of kid I always had a soft spot for when I worked with at risk youths. The fact that he has some awareness of his shortcomings and can talk about them but still keeps messing up is fascinating to me. Not unlike Manny Ramirez, who, despite his multiple fuck ups is still one of my favorite Red Sox.

Machado is a phenomenal talent and would make the Yankees better. I hope he signs with the Phillies.
The manifestation of Machado's fuck ups is multiple attempts to injur and negatively impact the livelihoods of fellow athletes. Machado is nothing like Manny.
 

EvilEmpire

paying for his sins
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I hope Machado is nothing like wife-beating, traveling secretary abusing Manny.

It's bad enough the Yankees have Chapman.
 

SemperFidelisSox

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Jayson Stark: The Yankees have been doing "particularly extensive" background work on Machado, even beyond the typical amount of background information teams routinely seek about potential free-agent or trade targets.
 

jayhoz

Ronald Bartel
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Some recent comments from Hal.

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/25277315/new-york-yankees-say-manny-machado-comments-hustling-aint-going-sell

"If we're interested in any player, we sit down with them face-to-face with their agent and ask them, 'Where did this come from? What context was around the entire interview? What point were you trying to make? How do you justify it?'" Steinbrenner said. "Because that ain't going to sell where we play baseball." "We have a great clubhouse," the owner said. "They just don't put up with a lot of nonsense from players, whether it's a rookie just coming up or new players -- even if they're veterans -- coming in. That's a problem I'm less worried about. But makeup is a big part of what we look at. It's not just analytics."
 

jon abbey

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To me that is just trying to get his price down a bit, I think the only real competition for him might be the Phillies and even they will likely be out if they sign Harper as expected, no matter what they've said publicly about being able to afford both. 8/240 with a player optout or two starts to sound more reasonable...
 

Van Everyman

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Trying to decide if Manny not going to the MFYs makes me happy or sad as a Sox fan. On one hand, he won’t be killing us (perhaps literally) for the next decade. On the other, I was really looking forward to the Empire being Evil again ... and them ruining all their payroll flexibility and positive youth mojo by sinking all that money into a single guy with a reputation for playing dirty.
 

jon abbey

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If I were a BOS fan, I'd be hoping really hard that Arenado signs an extension before Opening Day.
 

VORP Speed

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I really thought Cashman had everyone fooled and was going to swoop in at the 11th hour. I despise this level of discipline and analytical thinking coming from the Bronx.
 

Yelling At Clouds

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FWIW, Colorado has seemed to prioritize keeping their own guys in a way other teams haven’t always appeared to be - they gave huge extensions to Tulo, Cargo, and Charlie Blackmon, all for probably more than they would’ve gotten as free agents.

That said, if Arenado does re-up with Colorado, then I’m not sure I want to say out loud who I would expect the next name on the Yankees’ infield shopping list to be...
 

jon abbey

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FWIW, Colorado has seemed to prioritize keeping their own guys in a way other teams haven’t always appeared to be - they gave huge extensions to Tulo, Cargo, and Charlie Blackmon, all for probably more than they would’ve gotten as free agents.

That said, if Arenado does re-up with Colorado, then I’m not sure I want to say out loud who I would expect the next name on the Yankees’ infield shopping list to be...
Presumably you mean Bogaerts, I'd say that's unlikely unless Didi doesn't recover well from his surgery (and he seems to be ahead of pace so far). The next name would be Rendon, also a FA next winter, but I think Arenado has a good bit to do with why they let Machado go elsewhere.

And COL has been trying to extend Arenado long-term since they settled on his arb number a few weeks ago, Machado's finally signing today probably helps that negotiation in that it puts a concrete number there for them to negotiate around.
 

EvilEmpire

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Now that things are settling down, I have to ask: between showing some restraint in the FA market and doling out at least one sensible extension so far, is Cashman making the (apparently) analytically driven Yankees less evil or more? :)
 

E5 Yaz

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Now that things are settling down, I have to ask: between showing some restraint in the FA market and doling out at least one sensible extension so far, is Cashman making the (apparently) analytically driven Yankees less evil or more? :)
The Yankees less evil???