(with thanks to Jonathan Mayo)

There’s a proud man.

He was once (and presumably still is) a millionaire.

He had a fantastic job, one which many young children dream that they might one day be able to do.

Alas, this November he lost his job.  He wasn’t fired, he didn’t do anything wrong, but his skills were not what his company needed at the moment, and, well, with the economy the way it is, his salary was a little too extravagant for what his performance warranted.

His company decided that they would prefer younger, fresher talent–talent that was not too far removed from training, and thus cheaply obtainable.  In an economy such as this, any dollar saved was supremely beneficial.

As autumn turned to winter, he looked everywhere in his industry, with all the competitors of his former company, his career counsellor advised him that there was no reason for him to ever consent to a salary or employment contract inferior to his previous one.  His career counsellor had long given the same advice to others in the same industry, but niether seemed to grasp the difficulties and the climate of the current economy.

And so, as our hero continued to look, the opportunties disappeared:  in LA, in St. Louis, in Atlanta, in New York and in others, the position was filled by others with either better skills or less pride, and sometimes both.

Soon the new year came around, and not so long after that the proud man found himself only a few weeks before the High Season still seeking employment.

Could he, one must think, return to his previous employer?  Though they have filled the void, they have not done so to the degree that their shareholders had come to expect.

The company, however, is not in the same state that it was when our hero was first employed by them–they can no longer pay him the salary he so desires; out of choice or necessity is known only to those executives, so we must only speculate.

One thing, however, remains clear:  the witching hour grows nigh and our hero is still without a job.

What’s the moral of the story?

Swallow your pride, Damon.  I am about to lose all the credit in the world of Yankee blogging for saying this, but swallow your pride and come back to the Yanks.  Not for your defence, but because Nick Johnson being Nick Johnson is probably going to get hurt at some point and we will need a decent DH and besides do we really want Brett Gardner playing left field every day of the season when a better option is available?

I realize it’s a lot to ask, but you’ve got at least one good year with the bat left; NYS is perfect for your swing and don’t tell me you’re mulling retirement, either….

Share on Facebook

When you’re the defending World Champions, life is usually pretty good in the offseason; the decisions you need to make to improve your team fairly minimal.

Right now, it looks like the Yankees may want to sign another starter–not a one or a two, but an insurance policy if Hughes or even Kennedy struggle, but nothing requiring CC or AJ money.

They may want to improve their bench, maybe. Hairston and Peña do a nice job of filling the “utility” part of a utility man, and Francisco Cervelli will more than likely be an adequate back-up. You could keep Hinske for karma alone. So maybe you look for a better bat, but I’d be okay if the Yankees, for the moment, left it as is.

The only really hard decision the Yankees have to make, then, the only one that’s going to make you tear your hair out, is whether or not the Yankees should bring back Johnny Damon, Hideki Matsui, both, or neither.

Here’s the arguments both for and against bringing them back:

Johnny Damon

BRING HIM BACK: Unlike Matsui, Damon can play the field and still has speed on the bases. This is by far the biggest argument in his favor, but don’t discount his offense–his 24 homer runs in 2009, perhaps a product of the New Yankee Stadium, tie a career high, he OPS’d .854, and his 36 doubles were his most in 10 years. Oh, and that part where he stole two bases in Game Four of the World Series? He still plays smart baseball.

LET HIM GO: There are arguments as to just how beneficial it is for the Yankees to have Damon playing in left field. His 12 stolen bases are actually the lowest number since his rookie year, again giving lie to how much value his speed is really worth.

View all of Damon’s stats here. Click on “splits” to see his marks for 2009.

Hideki Matsui

BRING HIM BACK: The reigning World Series MVP, Matsui has long been under-appreciated for his consistent offensive stats. We all know he can go deep, but we forget how often he does it. Even with his bum knees and the week he took off while the Yankees were in NL parks, he still cranked 28 home runs and OPS’d .876. He’s a fan favorite that has been nothing but class since his tenure here, and perhaps most importantly, check out what ‘Sui’s done in the postseason.

LET HIM GO: The biggest issue with Matsui is that he cannot play in the field. Bringing him back as a full time DH means that those are DH ABs that get taken away from an aging Jorge Posada–although Posada should be able to play most games at catcher, barring injury, he’ll still need more days off in 2010 than he had in 2009. Matsui’s also a slave to his knees, which he has to get drained at regular intervals, and isn’t really any sort of stolen base threat. His 28 home runs are only actually four more than Damon, and his batting average was actually lower than Damon’s. If you compare the two’s slash stats, you find that Damon had the higher average, and Matsui the higher OPS, but the differences are much narrower than you’d imagine. For instance, one OBP is .367, the other is .365.

So what to do?

Many argue that the Yankees should simply let both of them go and dip into the free agent market to sign either Jason Bay or Matt Holliday.

Me?

I’m of the opinion that just because the free agent market exists, it doesn’t mean you have to go dive right in if there are not free agents to your liking.

Bay and Holliday are good, not great, players whose–especially Bay’s–defense is questionable, and both of whom are likely going to attempt to command money they might not actually deserve based on their stats, simply because they’re the best in their class.

What I would do, then, is bring back both Damon and Matsui on one year deals–overpay if I have to, it’s just one year–though if the cost is low enough, I’ll give Damon a team option for a second year. I don’t with Matsui because by 2011 it’s likely Posada will need more ABs as a DH than a C, and since he’s already under contract, finding him a place to play is momentarily more important.

In the 2010-2011 offseason, the outfield free agent pool includes Yankee fan favorite Carl Crawford as well as Jayson Werth, who can flat-out mash. I wouldn’t count out this guy either; there’s always room for a guy that can OPS .903.

If needed, you can supplant Damon’s late-inning defense by playing Hairston or perhaps even Peña; and days off for Matsui, as we’ve seen in 2009, seem to work all sorts of wonders, so giving him a couple days off for Posada to DH might actually be a good thing.

There are, of course, other factors that go into the decision–how do the players feel, how much do the Yankees want to spend, and so on–things that we as fans can’t possibly know just yet.

Share on Facebook

I know this has been said before, but one play in last night’s game was so important that it bears repeating: Johnny Damon’s steal of second and third base with two outs in the ninth inning.

First, let’s go over, really simply, how he did it.

Damon stealing second itself is not that earth shattering, though to do so with two outs in the ninth inning of a tied game on the road involves some risk that should not be overlooked.

The key part of the play, however, is that the Phillies–just like the Twins and the Angels–picked a bad time to forget their fundamentals.

If you want to shift for Teixeira, that’s all well in good–but when you do so, either the pitcher or the catcher is supposed to cover third base. Simple, right?

Well, no one on the Phillies was able to remember this one, simple thing, so third base remained unconvered. Damon saw it, and Damon went. As Damon would later say (via the fine folks at LoHud):

“I think what I had to see before I could start running to third base was how Pedro (Feliz) caught the ball,” Damon said. “So I knew it drug him off some. I’m just glad that when I started running, I still had some of my young legs behind me… You know, it worked out, because I felt like being on third base, it possibly takes away a slider, a tough slider in the dirt that I may be able to score on. Alex got two fastballs. Hopefully it, well, it did work out for us.”

Since the play occurred so fast–not more than nine seconds–one has to imagine that it was something that was based more on gut than something overly-thought-out, perhaps a nice contrast to Girardi’s conservative risk-safe managerial style.

Here’s how important the play is:

Imagine Damon steals second, but not third base.

The entire way Lidge pitches to Teixeira changes. There are still breaking balls in the dirt, pitches that Teixeira might very well swing-and-miss on–and could send the game to extra innings.

Imagine the game goes into extra innings. Girardi plays it conservative, pitching Coke when he should probably be pitching Mo as the top of Philadelphia’s lineup is due to come up. Coke’s a decent enough bullpen guy during the season, but he has been known to give up the occasional home run.

Now imagine him pitching to Victorino and Utley and Howard. Not a pleasant thought–though,here I must admit that the one Philadelphia bat that scares me more than any is Werth. Anyway.

The thing with extra innings on the road, as we saw in Anaheim, is that it’s incredibly hard to win because if the other team scores even just one run the game is over.

At home, the Yankees are in their element in extra innings, but that is because they are home.

Extra innings on the road does not definitely mean the Phillies win, but it certainly increases their chances.

If they win, the series is tied at two games apiece and all of a sudden we have a best-of-three set, and the Yankees have to face Cliff Lee in game one.

The possibility of going back to New York down 3-2 is not one that would make any Yankee fan happy, even with Pettitte and Sabathia on the bump for games six and seven.

As it is, though, third base was stolen.

Third base was stolen, taking away any pitch in the dirt. Teixeira was hit and A-Rod’s double scored Damon. With Rivera looming–in games 3 and 4 he’s thrown 13 pitches combined–one run would very possibly have been enough, but just for good measure Posada got the Yankees two more, and the Yankees pushed the Phillies to the brink.

All because Johnny Damon had the foresight to take a base no one was covering and, once again, the Yankees took advantage of poor fundamentals from the other team.

After all, Johnny Damon, the former Red Sox, should know how important a stolen base can be.

Share on Facebook