Burnett to Yankees, 5 years, $82.5mm

[MillerParkSouth]

http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/36067319.html

 

and yet they want the Brewers to pay some of Cam's salary still? Tom H brings up a point, which I find to be just a little bit ludicrous.

 

THAT MEANS THE YANKEES HAVE SPENT MORE THAN $240 MILLION TO SIGN PITCHERS CC SABATHIA AND BURNETT. AS A POINT OF REFERENCE, OWNER MARK ATTANASIO PAID $223 MILLION FOR THE ENTIRE BREWERS FRANCHISE.

[ttsather]

All I'm hoping is that this reduces the chances of Sheets signing with the Yankees.

[sbrylski]

Jeez, you'd think Tom would learn in Journalism 101 not to use all caps in a professional piece.

[fondybrewfan]

So are the Yanks still going to go after Derek Lowe and Tex?

 

Regardless of what you think of the team, they have made themselves better so far this offseason, altough I think a 5 year contract to AJ Burnett is a huge mistake. He has only pitches in 30 games twice in the last 6 years and it wasn't like he was dominant last year either. But then again the Yanks won't be hurt all that much if he pulls a Pavano anways so they might as well spend the money.

[chuckiehacks]

All I'm hoping is that this reduces the chances of Sheets signing with the Yankees.

 

Hopefully, since we'd only get a sandwich and a 3rd for Sheets.

[MillerParkSouth]

I really kind of think the Yankees are going to try to sign every FA available. I think they'll still be in the mix on Lowe and Sheets (unless Pettite comes back). Wouldn't surprise me in the least to see them go after Tex too.

[foster1887]

Remember guys: the Yankees can only sign 3 Type A free agents according to MLB rules. Since they lost three Type A free agents, they can sign three. That means they have to choose between Sheets, Lowe, and Pettite if they are looking to add another pitcher.

 

Edit: And if they resign Pettite, that is it for Type A free agents. They can't sign any more type A free agents.

[MillerParkSouth]

interesting. for the sake of our draft pick compensation, I really hope they resign Pettite or go with Lowe.

[fondybrewfan]

I didn't realize there was a limit on how many good players you can sign at any given time, it seems like an odd rule to me. So I suppose it was designed with the Yankees specifically in mind?

 

I am assuming the rule is somewhat complex, what if a team loses no Class A FA's yet wants to sign one?

[kramnoj]

and yet they want the Brewers to pay some of Cam's salary still?

 

I think that was only a negotiating ploy by Cashman. He doesn't seriously expect the Brewers to pay for some of Cameron's salary, but by asking that, it has to be negotiated away. It also lets the Brewers know they are being unrealistic when they are asking for Kennedy. But this thread is about Burnett.

 

Remember guys: the Yankees can only sign 3 Type A free agents according to MLB rules.

 

I read elsewhere that this number varies based on the number of FA. This year the number is 4 for most teams.

 

It is somewhat surprising to me, the difference in interest between Sheets and Burnett. I don't think Sheets has received any kind of multi-year offer, and here is Burnett signing for a deal until he's 36 at over $16M/year. Burnett has always been good when healthy, but never great. Sheets has as many full, healthy seasons as Burnett and has had a higher peak.

[foster1887]

I am assuming the rule is somewhat complex, what if a team loses no Class A FA's yet wants to sign one?

It all depends how many type A and B free agents there are. If there are less than 14, no team can sign more than one. If there are 15-38, no team can sign more than two and between 39-62 no team can sign more than three. I may be mistake but I believe they have lost three Type A free agents so they can only sign three Type A players. Any team can sign a type A free agent even if they don't lose one as long as they don't go over the limit set. I had to look up the rules for this.

 

And as for the signing, it was a good deal for Burnett personally. As for the Yankees? Must be nice not to have to worry about losing a player to an injury if it comes to that.

 

Edit: I will have to count how many type A and B free agents there is but I believe its under the 62.

[TooLiveBrew]

I'd like to say I'm surprised, but... *sigh*

 

So much for Cashman re-focusing the Yankees on building their team from within. That said, Sabathia--Wang--Chamberlain--Burnett--Hughes/Anyone has got to be the best rotation in baseball.

 

This contract has a good shot to be Carlos Lee-esque bad by year 3 or 4

[kramnoj]

So much for Cashman re-focusing the Yankees on building their team from within.

 

I'm not sure why this is true. The team is better off with Burnett than Kennedy, for example. Kennedy will provide nice depth at AAA when a pitcher goes down. I took the building from within comment to mean that Cashman won't trade away their top prospects for players when they can sign FA and keep their best prospects. It will be interesting to see if they do go for a 3rd FA pitcher. If they try to retain Pettitte for one year, that makes sense, Hughes wouldn't be hurt by a year of development in AAA. But if they sign a player like Lowe or Sheets for multiple years and block Hughes, well, that would certainly support your observation.

[TooLiveBrew]

I took the building from within comment to mean that Cashman won't trade away their top prospects for players when they can sign FA and keep their best prospects.

 

While they do receive some picks for departing players, forfeiting draft picks by signing other guys makes the likelihood of having more than a small amount of top prospects that much smaller. I agree with you on Kennedy, but Hughes will probably warrant a spot in their rotation at some point in '09 if they don't want to risk stalling him.

 

I think the Yanks' focus will shift to Teixeira now. Nothing more than my own uninformed speculation. He's a special type of FA, just like Sabathia. Not many guys hit FA that are so talented & still relatively young (28/29).

[phxMILWfan]

If they just spent more than Mark A did for the team, why don't they just buy an organization and take whatever players they want from it and move them to NY? I know I know, I don't need anyone to explain to me that they can't do that. Just sickening though. When will baseball do something about this? What has to happen in order for MLB to have a salary cap and attempt to level the playing field like football?

[paul253]

This offseason is turning into an absolute joke. For all the good Bud Selig has done for the game, to even suggest that MLB doesnt need a salary cap is absurd and cowardly. He should have taken this fight straight at the MLBPA and used the public as his leverage. No way would the majority of the public, except for NY and LA be against a cap, and no way the Union could survive a strike based solely on its millionaire players being forced to accept a cap.

[kramnoj]

This offseason is turning into an absolute joke. For all the good Bud Selig has done for the game, to even suggest that MLB doesnt need a salary cap is absurd and cowardly.

 

All the Yankees are doing is replacing other big contracts that have expired for players like Giambi, Pavano, Mussina, etc. The Yankees certainly overpaid for Burnett, but the Braves had offered 4/$60, so the Yankees added a 5th year and bumped up the salary by a $1M+ each year.

[FidoMcCokefiend]

The Yankees are a fantasy team. In a Yahoo public league. The casual league. Playing with 9 other clueless owners (probably redundant on a Yahoo public league).

 

Screw it, give them Tex and Sheets and Manny.

[TooLiveBrew]

The problem with a payroll cap is that the owners would then rake in an obscene amount of the revenue generated by MLB, with the players taking far less. Kinda like crediting Joe Torre for winning those Yankees WS titles. Clearly the players are the employees that do the most to generate revenue. The owners wouldn't pass any savings on salaries to the fans, as long as they can still charge whatever they dictate for ticket prices. It's easy to pass off a payroll cap as competitive balance (which it may or may not provide), but in reality it just would make the people most responsible for producing the entertainment earn a disproportionately small amount, while the owners of teams would bathe in money. I'm not sure why people think that players earn too much money but would be just fine with owners making ungodly sums.

[endaround]

There is a salary cap-the Yankees just don't care. The luxury tax is a salary cap. It has reigned in the Red Sox a bit but the Yankees don't care.

[sbrylski]

The problem with a payroll cap is that the owners would then rake in an obscene amount of the revenue generated by MLB, with the players taking far less. Kinda like crediting Joe Torre for winning those Yankees WS titles. Clearly the players are the employees that do the most to generate revenue. The owners wouldn't pass any savings on salaries to the fans, as long as they can still charge whatever they dictate for ticket prices. It's easy to pass off a payroll cap as competitive balance (which it may or may not provide), but in reality it just would make the people most responsible for producing the entertainment earn a disproportionately small amount, while the owners of teams would bathe in money. I'm not sure why people think that players earn too much money but would be just fine with owners making ungodly sums.

 

They just need a stronger luxury tax. Every dollar spent on payroll over the average must be matched into a revenue sharing pool, to be divided up amongst the have-nots for the sole use of player salaries.

[logan82]

The Yankees are going to get a break on the revenue sharing because of their new stadium starting this year.

[twobrewers]

At one point, the Yankees were the premier franchise in MLB.

 

Now, they have to overpay to get free agents.

 

I really enjoy that.

[Gobias Industries]

Jesus, what a terrible contract. It's a buyers' market and we're still seeing teams outbidding themselves.

 

They could have probably came close to signing Sheets and Lowe for about the same price combined, and then sold off some of their young SP to teams to rebuild the farm.

[brettac1]

This is destined to not end well at all.