Johnny Damon a Yankee

[Saulbadguy]

Yankees add Damon to potent lineup
Associated Press

NEW YORK -- The New York Yankees grabbed center fielder Johnny Damon away from the rival Boston Red Sox, reaching a preliminary agreement Tuesday night on a $52 million, four-year contract.

Details of the deal were still being negotiated and Damon must pass a physical, a baseball official said on condition of anonymity because negotiations were not yet final.

Damon fills a double void for the Yankees, giving them a speedy center fielder who can cover ground and a leadoff hitter to top a star-studded lineup that also includes Derek Jeter, Gary Sheffield, AL MVP Alex Rodriguez, Hideki Matsui and Jason Giambi.

Bernie Williams' defense declined significantly over the past four seasons. And while Damon's arm is not much better, he does cover a lot of ground, which is important in Yankee Stadium.

Agent Scott Boras had been seeking a seven-year contract for Damon. The offer Damon accepted was essentially the same as the deal Matsui agreed to with the Yankees last month.

[Coach]

4 years for 52 million? *shocked*

That's deftinaly overpaying.

[ChiefsFire]

the rich get richer...

[NJ Chief Fan]

nevermind its not bs...they didnt have it on espn.com but i just checked mlb.com and they had it...i apologize

[NLU Tailgater]

wow. I guess it happened about five seasons later than I thought, but still. Every decent Royal ends up playing for the big $$ somewhere, especially in NY. At least Beltran doesn't wear pinstripes.

Lotta Bastan ladies burning their Johnny Damon shrines tonight!

[kcfanintitanhell]

Unless he can pitch, the Yankees are still f"cked.

[Deberg_1990]

Oh brother....i should have known. I think MLB should just contract down to only 2 teams. The Red Sox and the Yankees. Players could just freely rotate between the two of them each year.

[VonneMarie]

Oh, bloody hell.

[NLU Tailgater]

I still enjoy watching Damon "attempt" to make an outfield assist. Can't say I've ever seen it happen.

[007]

I hate the Yankees

[Halfcan]

I will always hate the Yankees-but damm they fill a void in a huge way. Their whole team is an AllStar squad. If they get sopme pitching they might beat Chicago this year.

A-Rod should have another monster year!!

[Miles]

Never would have guessed Damon would have signed a contract that got him 13mil per but I guess its really not all that bad considering the market this offseason. He definilty benefited from hitting the FA market on such a weak year.

Wonder if Boston would have let him walk if they had still had Epstein in place at GM.

[Miles]

Looks like the Yankees also just signed Octavio Dotel to a one year contract for $2 million.

[Halfcan]

Scott Boras is a PR#CK. Damon is not worth the money.

[siberian khatru]

He throws like a girl.

[pak1983]

Sweet!!!

[chefsos]

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/al/yankees/2005-12-20-damon-preliminary_x.htm?csp=25

When reliever Mike Myers left the Red Sox to sign with the Yankees last week, he gushed about the prospect of having Damon in New York's lineup.

"I would put the over/under on Damon scoring 125, and I'd take the over any day of the week," Myers said. "I think the fans would absolutely love him there, just his hustle and his passion for the game, the way he goes about his business. I think he'd fit in great in the clubhouse, even though I don't know what the clubhouse is."

:spock:

[grandllama]

ol' Johnny sure knows how to burn bridges...he'll be boo'd severely in two markets now whenever he returns (not that I quite understand why he's still boo'd here)

[Demonpenz]

wow that is overpaying. He doesn't scare anyone that is for sure.

[Spicy McHaggis]

Lotta Bastan ladies burning their Johnny Damon shrines tonight!

I've heard ladies say the words Johnny Damon and burns but they were always preceded by "I got it from" and followed by "when I pee."

[CHIEF4EVER]

I am more impressed with the moves the Royals have made in the infield and the signing of Elarton. Our tightazz owner finally realizes he has to invest at least A LITTLE in the team to get a positive result. I think Buddy Bell will have this team shipshape in a year or 2 so long as Glass continues to spend in the 50 mill range. Kudos to the entire organization for their offseason changes thus far.

[the Talking Can]

http://dunamai.com/Humor/BagdadBob/images/bagdad_bob_large.gif


I am more impressed with the moves the Royals have made in the infield and the signing of Elarton. Our tightazz owner finally realizes he has to invest at least A LITTLE in the team to get a positive result. I think Buddy Bell will have this team shipshape in a year or 2 so long as Glass continues to spend in the 50 mill range. Kudos to the entire organization for their offseason changes thus far.

[Amnorix]

Baseball, of course, continues to be a joke.

I'm pleased I saw a Red Sox team win the WS at least as much so I could stop hearing stupid comments regarding a moronic curse.

Now that I've seen it, I can safely ignore the most fugged up professional sport there is. And that's coming from a "fan" of a team that is one of the biggest beneficiaries of baseball's insane system.

Frankly, every World Series winner over the last 10+ years who "happens" to be in the top 5 or so of team payroll is at least slightly tainted to say the least, and that includes the BoSox.

Seriously, it's like having two guys go out and have a drag race every year. One is rich and can afford a high end Ferrarri or Porsche or whatever, and the other guy has a frigging Buick. That's baseball today. It's frankly amazing that the fans of about 20 teams can be bothered to go or watch at all, they're at such a huge competitive disadvantage it's ridiculous.

[Amnorix]

wow that is overpaying. He doesn't scare anyone that is for sure.


It is overpaying, but he's a terrific leadoff hitter. He nearly always has 6+ pitches per at-bat, and the guys behind him in the order definitely get to see what the pitcher has to work with that day.

Solid on-base percentage, and covers alot of ground in CF. He has possibly the weakest arm in MLB history, but that doesn't change the fact that he's one of the top 3 leadoff hitters in baseball.

But yeah, 4 years at 13 per for a guy his age seems to be a bit much.

[KCTitus]

It was only a matter of time.

[kcxiv]

Yankee's are all whats wrong with baseball. So wish thier was a damn cap. I hate it knowning teams like the Royals, Brewers and Pirates have virtually no chance to win it all. That has to suck to be a fan of them 3 teams. They need to put a damn Salary cap on that shit. It wont happen, but it should.

[KCTitus]

Yankee's are all whats wrong with baseball. So wish thier was a damn cap. I hate it knowning teams like the Royals, Brewers and Pirates have virtually no chance to win it all. That has to suck to be a fan of them 3 teams. They need to put a damn Salary cap on that shit. It wont happen, but it should.

Virtually? There's no virtually about it. Teams like the Royals, Brewers and Pirates and about 6-8 other clubs should be contracted out of MLB. Trying to pretend that sport is nothing more than an east coast, regional sport is a joke.

[MahiMike]

And therefore the NFL is still king.

Long live the NFL! Long live the salary cap!

Hip, Hip, Hooray!

[cadmonkey]

Once again the Redsox wait a little to long, evaluating the talent level of a player, and the Yankees come sooping in and overpay for their services. If it doesn't work out for them they'll just over pay someone else to fix the Damon mistake.

I have no hard feelings to Johnny, beleive me. As much as I hate the f*cking Yankees, if they showed me the money I would cut my hair and shave my beard and dance like a monkey too.

[DaWolf]

Hopefully baseball will eventualy move towards the NFL model. Once the rest of the owners become sick of 2-3 teams dominating payroll and the players become afraid of losing jobs due to contraction, something will probably happen. Baby steps.

As far as whether the Yanks overpaid, well no Damon probably isn't worth that much when you place him next to all the top players in the game, but put him in this market and considering he was about the only real proven leadoff guy available plus it is a chance to stick it to the Red Sox, you gotta make the move if you're the Yanks...

[Chief Chief]

Based on a report I read earlier this year (I think it was posted by Fortune 500), the Yanks were one of the baseball clubs reported to have an overall net loss in revenue, and the loss was in the mega-bucks range.

So how is it that they can continue to offer these mega-bucks contracts??

[JBucc]

Based on a report I read earlier this year (I think it was posted by Fortune 500), the Yanks were one of the baseball clubs reported to have an overall net loss in revenue, and the loss was in the mega-bucks range.

So how is it that they can continue to offer these mega-bucks contracts??Because they've made so much over the past decade they can afford a few years of losses.

[Kclee]

I can't remember his pre-captain cave man appearance. Wonder when he has to shave and get a haircut? When he signs the deal, or 1st day of spring training?

[chefsos]

I can't remember his pre-captain cave man appearance. Wonder when he has to shave and get a haircut? When he signs the deal, or 1st day of spring training?
Whenever it is, it's certain to be a media event. They'll probably sell tickets.

[DaWolf]

I can't remember his pre-captain cave man appearance. Wonder when he has to shave and get a haircut? When he signs the deal, or 1st day of spring training?
http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/4910/jdamon.jpg

[beavis]

He throws like a girl.
You give him too much credit. I've seen those softball chicks throw much harder than him. (hoping someone will now post a pic of Jenny Finch)

[beavis]

Baseball, of course, continues to be a joke.

I'm pleased I saw a Red Sox team win the WS at least as much so I could stop hearing stupid comments regarding a moronic curse.

Now that I've seen it, I can safely ignore the most fugged up professional sport there is. And that's coming from a "fan" of a team that is one of the biggest beneficiaries of baseball's insane system.

Frankly, every World Series winner over the last 10+ years who "happens" to be in the top 5 or so of team payroll is at least slightly tainted to say the least, and that includes the BoSox.

Seriously, it's like having two guys go out and have a drag race every year. One is rich and can afford a high end Ferrarri or Porsche or whatever, and the other guy has a frigging Buick. That's baseball today. It's frankly amazing that the fans of about 20 teams can be bothered to go or watch at all, they're at such a huge competitive disadvantage it's ridiculous.
You have no idea how encouraging it is to hear a big market fan say something like this. Thank you.

Just out of curiousity, if they fixed the system and brought balance to the game, would you come back and be a regular fan again?

[ck_IN]

Damm, now I'll have to hate Damon.

[penchief]

It is overpaying, but he's a terrific leadoff hitter. He nearly always has 6+ pitches per at-bat, and the guys behind him in the order definitely get to see what the pitcher has to work with that day.

Solid on-base percentage, and covers alot of ground in CF. He has possibly the weakest arm in MLB history, but that doesn't change the fact that he's one of the top 3 leadoff hitters in baseball.

But yeah, 4 years at 13 per for a guy his age seems to be a bit much.

Even if they overpaid by a couple mil per year they accomplished three very big things. They filled their biggest need for a bona fide leadoff hitter, filled their second biggest need for a centerfielder that can cover a lot of ground in Yankee stadium, and they turned the tables on Boston. Now it is the Red Sox who need a leadoff hitter and a centerfielder when they had probably one of the two or three best in the game.

Now the Red Sox will have to choose from the same slim pickings that the Yankees were stuck with when trying to fill those needs. Personally, I wasn't thrilled about the signing but it makes a lot of sense.

[dj56dt58]

The Yankees will NEVEr win a world series with this team. When a player leaves decides to go to the Yankees it's because he cares more about money than baseball. Damn liked Boston, but wanted more money just like Sheffield and A-Rod. Players go to the Yankees for money, not to win. Until Stein realizes this, the Yankees won't win a World Series.

[Boardin Bronco]

Frankly, every World Series winner over the last 10+ years who "happens" to be in the top 5 or so of team payroll is at least slightly tainted to say the least, and that includes the BoSox.

The 2001 Diamondbacks, the 2002 Angels, the 2003 Marlins and the 2005 White Sox weren't in the top 10 of payroll.

Baseball has had 6 different champions in the last 6 years. Since the Super Bowl era started, the NFL has never had 6 different champions in 6 years.