Here go the New York Yankees again, making their huge splashes in free agency. Who is it this time? Clemens? Kevin Brown? A-Rod?

Nope, they’ve signed heavyweights Russell Branyan and Bill Hall to minor league contracts. Both will get invites to spring training.

Hall will make $600,000 if he makes the club and there are $600,000 more worth of incentives there. He’ll most likely be used as a utility man.

And who cares what Branyan will make? He’s 36-years old and has back problems. He could pop a couple off the bench, but so what?

The New York Yankees have been a bit quiet this offseason. That is, until now. It seems to have started yesterday, and now the news just keeps on coming.

It was reported on Friday that the Yankees had agreed to a trade with the Seattle Mariners. They would be sending catcher Jesus Montero and right hander Hector Noesi to Seattle in exchange for rookie phenom Michael Pineda and prospect Jose Campos. Pineda had a 3.74 ERA last year and will most likely be the Yankees No. 2 behind C.C. Sabathia.

Then, we hear that they are after Hiroki Kuroda, the 37-year old right-hander whose price had supposedly come down. And yes, they got him. They agreed to a one-year deal worth between $10-$11 million. His 3.45 ERA over the past four seasons should help the Yanks rotation tremendously.

So after all this, the Yanks still need another bat. Montero was penciled in as their DH this season, so they’ll need to replace that. And according to Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com, the Yankees are turning their attention to free agent Carlos Pena. Pena was damn good a few years ago with the Tampa Bay Rays, but hit just .225 last season. However, he did still hit 28 bombs so his power could still be there. It’s not like they’d need a ton from him anyway with that lineup.

To the surprise of absolutely no one, the New York Yankees would reportedly be okay parting ways with an old, overpaid pitcher who has a nasty contract they can’t seem to get rid of. Yes, according to the New York Post, the Yankees are shopping A.J. Burnett at the Winter Meetings.

Teams have told the Post that the Yankees have said that they will eat $8 million of the remaining $33 million that he has on his contract.

“We will listen on anybody,” GM Brian Cashman said.

Burnett was 11-11 this season with a brilliant 5.15 ERA, so teams should be knocking down the door.

But, what will they get in return? Some team may not want to part ways with an entire bag of crew socks. And $50 Target gift cards don’t grow on trees, so don’t expect some team to hand one of those over. Maybe they give up a few Brita pitchers, but do not expect extra filters thrown in.

In all seriousness, they’ll have to eat more than $8 million for someone to take this guy.

We aren’t exactly sure we get what goes through people’s heads some times. Especially when athletes pop off when playing other teams. Remember when Gary Sheffield ran his mouth after the New York Yankees took a 3-0 ALCS lead on the Boston Red Sox? How did that turn out?

This time, it’s Detroit Tigers closer Jose Valverde running his mouth. Supposedly, he said it in a joking manner, but do you think those in the Yankees camp will take that into consideration? We don’t either.

“Oh yeah,” Valverde said after the Tigers tied the series at 1-1. “It’s over already. Verlander has it [Monday]. Next day, have the celebration in Detroit — 100 percent. The Yankees have a good team, but I think that’s it for them.”

Uh huh. Is this going to motivate the Yankees to destroy Detroit? Probably not. Was it remotely necessary? Nope.

There is just no upside to saying stupid stuff like this. Talk after the bus leaves town.

During this past offseason, it was thought that the Boston Red Sox destroyed the New York Yankees in terms of adding huge pieces. The Red Sox landed Adrian Gonzalez and also signed Carl Crawford to a seven-year, $142 million contract. The Yankees missed out, because they wanted Crawford too.

Or did they?

According to GM Brian Cashman, they feigned interest in the speedy outfielder just to drive the price up on their rival Red Sox.

“I actually had dinner with the agent to pretend that we were actually involved and drive the price up,” Cashman said. “The outfield wasn’t an area of need, but everybody kept writing Crawford, Crawford, Crawford, Crawford. And I was like, ‘I feel like we’ve got Carl Crawford in Brett Gardner, except he costs more than $100 million less, with less experience.’”

And no one can argue that Gardner wasn’t better than Crawford this year (how many negatives are in that sentence? Sounds like something Peter King would write. There is a 40% chance King would write something in that manner. But that’s a legit 40%). Crawford hit .259 with 18 steals, while Gardner is at .261 with 46 steals. And Cashman is correct…for a fraction of the price.

Cashman said this past offseason that Theo Epstein kicked his ass over the winter. And maybe he did, but the results just aren’t there.

“What I said was accurate: The Red Sox had a great winter, and I had a bad winter,” Cashman said. “But as it turned out, I had a better winter than anybody would’ve expected, including myself.”

No one thought too much about it when the New York Yankees included Ian Kennedy in a deal to get Curtis Granderson a couple years ago. But, Kennedy has been phenomenal this year for the Arizona Diamondbacks and it’s tough for the Yanks to bitch because Granderson has been amazing too. He’s actually leading all of MLB in HR’s and RBI’s. Can’t complain there.

But, Kennedy has been wonderful and he’s now the first NL pitcher to hit 17 wins after tonight. Yes, he’s ahead of Clayton Kershaw and the filthy pitchers in Philadelphia in terms of wins (a stat we don’t like, but at times like this tells you this guy can’t be a bum).

He beat the San Diego Padres tonight by striking out seven, scattering six hits and allowing only one run through seven innings. His ERA is down to 3.03.

Is he a candidate for the NL Cy Young? He should be. Yes, Roy Halladay, Cole Hamels and Cliff Lee have been brilliant, but don’t count out Kennedy. He’s in the mix with those guys and Kershaw for the award.

It’s all how you finish. And this tight race will most likely be decided in the month of September.

A.J. Burnett is enjoying life in the third year of a five-year deal with the New York Yankees worth $82.5 million at the time. We know Yankees fans that hated the move at the time, and they are looking quite smart right now.

Burnett gave up nine runs in five innings of work last night in a 12-5 loss to the Baltimore Orioles. But it’s one bad outing, right? Nope.

He has an ERA of 11.91 in August. And his ERA since the All Star break is 8.64. And his ERA for the year is now 5.31. Ouch.

So what do you do with him? Can’t trade him. Anyone would be stupid to take him. Maaaaybe you could deal him in the offseason if you agreed to pay part of his contract. Otherwise, baseball makes you pay with bad contracts. You signed him, you keep him.

One would have to think that A.J. will get skipped in the rotation and then it’s anyone’s guess what they’ll do for the playoffs. Remember he pitched extremely well in Game 2 of the World Series back in 2009 so anything is possible.

You can say whatever you want about New York Yankees 3B Alex Rodriguez, but you can’t say he’s boring. Whether he’s seen with random broads in hotels, making fake “I got it calls” while running the bases, using steroids or trying to slap the ball out of an opponent’s hand on the base paths, there is never a dull moment.

Now, it seems that MLB is taking very seriously allegations that A-Rod could be involved in underground, illegal poker games.

“We’re talking to people involved in the investigation and we’re taking this very seriously,” said an MLB executive told ESPNNewYork.com. “Because he had been warned about this before, I would say a possible suspension would be very much in play.

According to RadarOnline.com, at least one of these games was at the Beverly Hills mansion of a record executive where “cocaine was openly used and a fight nearly broke out when one of the players refused to pay after losing ‘more than a half-million dollars.’”

Please note that it does not say A-Rod was using cocaine. Would we be shocked if he was? Yeah, kinda. You’d think after all the substance stuff he went through with steroids that he’d be smart enough to steer clear. Just because others were doing it, doesn’t mean A-Rod should have stood up and said, “I can’t be around this stuff! Knock it off! It’s immoral!” It would certainly be the last time he’d be invited to their illegal poker games and we can’t have that, can we?

According to the person who snitched, A-Rod tried to distance himself from the game once the violence started.

“He just shook his head, not knowing what the hell happened,” the snitch revealed. “He didn’t want to deal with it at all. He was like, ‘OK, whatever. It’s your game.’ I would estimate A-Rod lost, like, a few thousand dollars that night. After everything that happened, he paid up and left.”

We have no problem with him playing in these games, but the problem arises when he was told already to avoid them, and now he might be suspended by MLB.

In 2008, J.C. Romero was an integral part of a deadly Philadelphia Phillies bullpen that helped them win a World Series. Then a funny thing happened when he got busted for PED’s….he stunk.

So the Phillies finally cut him this season and he was picked up by the Washington Nationals. Once they saw him play baseball enough times and realized that he wasn’t good at it, they released him.

The New York Yankees have apparently never seen him play baseball, because they signed him today, according to ESPN’s Buster Olney.

“The Yankees have signed J.C. Romero to a minor league deal, and could pitch tonight for Class AAA Scranton,” he tweets.

Think of all those lucky people in Scranton who had tickets to tonight’s game but had no clue that they could possibly see utter craptitude on the mound. There really is a Santa and he shows up in Scranton in July.

New York Mets shortstop Jose Reyes is having quite a year, so when he left Saturday’s game against the Yankees, it cause quite a scare. Reyes felt tightness in his hamstring and now the team is awaiting an MRI. And they aren’t taking any chances.

“Until I know he’s clean, he’s not playing,” manager Terry Collins said.

Reyes is hitting a monster .354 to go with 15 triples and 30 stolen bases. Yikes. That’s production.

Still, if the team has to be without him for a bit, Collins is confident they’ll be okay.

“It’ll be a challenge but I think we’re going to be up for it,” Collins said. “We’ve dealt with some adversity so far this season. We’re resilient. We’ll bounce back. And then when we find out what the situation is going to be with him today, we’ll make sure that our guys are ready to play.”

Let’s be honest, what are they going to do if they miss him for an extended period of time, be way out of first place? And what if he plays? Yeah…they’ll still be far out of first place.

New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter hit a bit of a bump in the road to 3,000 hits when he injured his calf. Manager Joe Girardi knows it’s probably going to take a week of missed time, but he doesn’t want to miss a second week for no reason.

“Jeter will see Dr Ahmad at 6 PM. No decisions about Jeter b4 then. Interesting 2 c if Jeter’s lobbying buys him time,” YES’s Jack Curry tweets.

We’re sure that Jeter will tell anyone that will listen that he doesn’t need to go on the DL.

But, we don’t see the huge deal. He’s at 2,994 right now and it’s not like a DL stint will prevent him from hitting the milestone.

UPDATE: Yep, he’s on the DL.

This won’t come as any surprise to anyone who has followed the New York Yankees this season. Phil Hughes, a guy who has shown flashes of brilliance at times, has been put on the disabled list due to a dead arm.

Hughes has been awful this season, with his fastball topping out in the mid 80′s. That’s not good enough to get it done at the Major League level unless you are some kind of junkballer.

The Yankees have decided to shut him down for now to see if rest will help his arm.

In three starts, Hughes has an overwhelming (not in a good way) 13.94 ERA. That’s astronomical. Add that to the fact that he doesn’t have one win this year and has only pitched a total of 10.1 innings in those three starts, and well…it’s time to take a break.

According to the Newark Star-Ledger on Twitter, the New York Yankees have finally solved the puzzle of who will be their fifth starter this year (for now anyway). And Yankees fans will be thrilled to know that his name is Freddie Garcia.

“Garcia 5 starter, Colon bullpen, Feliciano dl possibility,” @Ledger_Yankees tweets.

Yes, Colon is going to the bullpen. Bartolo Colon. The Yankees – in real life – had a battle for their fifth starter spot between Bartolo Colon and Freddie Garcia. Yes, in 2011.

As good as the Yankees tend to be from year to year, this rotation should scare the daylights out of the Bronx. CC Sabathia is an unmitigated stud and one of the best pitchers in all of baseball. After that, things get hairy. A.J. Burnett is on a five-year, $82.5 million contract, but isn’t afraid to pitch like a minimum wage lettuce washer at Sonic. After that, you have the young and unproven Phil Hughes at the No. 3 spot, and then Ivan Nova and Freddie Garcia round out the rotation.

They are going to need to rely on that batting lineup if they want to come out on top in the AL East.

Despite what many of their fans say, the New York Yankees could really use more starting pitching. For a team with World Series aspirations, having four out of the five starting spots filled with question marks is a tenuous situation at best.

And the Yankees seem to be aware of this. They have been linked to a variety of starting pitchers around MLB, most recently Francisco Liriano from the Minnesota Twins.

But, a piece in the New York Post brings up a good potential name for the Yanks. Yesterday, they got a good look at Houston Astros starter Brett Myers, who is only 30-years old and had a really good year last year with a 14-8 record to go with a 3.14 ERA.

According to the Post, some within the Yanks organization say that Myers “knows how to pitch.” And the Astros really need players and would probably be willing to part with Myers. His two-year, $23 milliion contract runs out after this year and has a club option for the following year. So it’s not like he’d be a burden that would block the younger guys like Manuel Banuelos and Dellin Betances if they are ready to go in a couple years.

“You haven’t heard his name mentioned yet, but they need players and if they fall out of it I would assume they would listen on everybody,” a National League talent evaluator said yesterday of the Astros.

Myers has had a solid, if not spectacular, career. A product of the Philadelphia Phillies organization, Myers is 87-71 with a 4.20 career ERA in his nine years in the big leagues. Another bonus for the Yankees? He has experience in the bullpen as a closer. So, even if he flamed out as a starter, they could still find a use for him.

There has been talk for a while that the Minnesota Twins would move Francisco Liriano. Specifically, we kept hearing the New York Yankees name come up. But, it died for a while so we didn’t think much of it.

Then, I’m sitting here playing video poker online, when I click over and see that the speculation has ramped up again. This time, it’s coming from trusted MLB source Bob Nightengale.

“Bob Nightengale of USA Today just told us that he thinks its possible that Liriano is traded to the Yanks in nxt 2 weeks for Nova or Joba +,” Jim Bowden of MLB Radio tweets.

In addition to other pieces, it looks like the Twins would get Ian Nova or Joba Chamberlain back. We have no clue why they would want to get Joba, but to each his own.

Liriano would immediately be the Yankees No. 2 starter behind C.C. Sabathia. He rebounded well after some injury issues a couple of years ago, going 14-10 with a 3.62 ERA and 191.2 innings pitched in 2010.

CC Sabathia is the only sure thing in the entire New York Yankees rotation. With question marks like Phil Hughes and A.J. Burnett likely rounding out the top three spots, the Yankees can ill afford to lose Sabathia.

But, that might be exactly what happens.

A source tells the NY Daily News that after this season, Sabathia plans on using the opt-out clause in his contract that would effectively void the final four years and $92 million on his current deal. Of course this is barring any unforeseen setbacks like a major injury.

Sabathia said in December that he wasn’t planning on utilizing his opt-out clause. On Monday, he wouldn’t go that far.

“Yeah, I said that, but . . . Like I said, I’m here to try to help the team win,” he said. “I don’t want to talk about that all year. This will probably be the last time I address it. I’m here.”

Sabathia was hit with a follow-up question, but quickly cut it off.

“I’m here,” he said.

We think someone got a look at the $120 million over five years that the 32-year old Cliff Lee got from the Phillies.

As we all know by now, New York Yankees legend Andy Pettitte has officially retired from baseball after 16 seasons. He is quite possibly the most underrated pitcher in all of baseball in that time.

During his retirement press conference, however, he wouldn’t completely rule out pitching again.

“I will not pitch this season, I can assure you of that,” Pettitte said. But, he also said, “never say never.”

It’s not like Pettitte is retiring because he can’t pitch anymore. Quite the opposite. Along with Mariano Rivera, we keep waiting for him to fall off every year, and the 38-year old just refuses to.

Last season, he had an 11-3 record, 3.28 ERA and 1.27 WHIP. Not only are those the stats of someone who shouldn’t have to retire, I’d argue that the Yankees can’t really afford to have him hang up the cleats.

After C.C. Sabathia, who can the Yankees really count on in their starting rotation? A.J. Burnett could be a really good pitcher if he wasn’t so wildly inconsistent. Phil Hughes is still young. And I don’t think anyone wants me to bring up the 2003 studs that they’ve just hoarded.

We’ll see if he ever comes back, but he made it pretty clear that he’s done for this year at the very least. Maybe he can rejoin the Yankees midseason by dropping by “Gawge’s Bawx!”

It never gets old:

The New York Yankees apparently have taken exception to the notion that the Philadelphia Phillies have built the best rotation in the history of baseball. As such, the Bronx Bombers are determined to field the most dominant starting pitching rotation in the history of 2003 baseball.

With CC Sabathia already in place as the team’s staff ace, the Yankees have set out to build around him in terms of 2003 MLB. First, it was the addition of Mark Prior, who was absolutely brilliant in 2003 (other than a little hiccup in the NLCS), posting a 2.43 ERA. The Yankees have just added their first building block!

But, who else is out there? Finding studs from seven years ago isn’t easy. However, they turned over a rock, and next to a few salamanders and earthworms, they found gold. Gold named Bartolo Colon! His 3.87 ERA from years ago will be invaluable!

However, the Yankees aren’t done. According to Jerry Crasnick, the team added another top-tier 2003 starting pitcher.

“Freddy Garcia has reached agreement on a minor league deal with the #Yankees, source said,” Crasnick tweets.

Holy hell and hand grenades! They really are the Evil Empire! The Yankees are clearly poised to make a deep, deep 2003 run into the playoffs.

And what if Andy Pettitte decides to stay for another year? Well shit my pants and call me Suzie! They will absolutely own the entire 2003 league if Pettitte decides to make another go of it. Maybe, once he sees the early-century-esque rotation that the Yankees have constructed, he’ll be motivated to gut it out for one final 2003 run.

New York Yankees GM Brian Cashman took some heat recently when he made comments about Derek Jeter possibly moving to centerfield towards the end of his four-year contract. This was clearly an intimation about Jeter’s age and range at the shortstop position.

A lot of people didn’t care for it, and Cashman had to call Jeter’s agent to clarify his remarks.

“I did talk to Casey Close,” Cashman said Wednesday. “He asked, ‘Hey, what’s going on?’ Because they were receiving a lot of calls. And I explained everything to him. Hopefully I sufficed.

“I haven’t talked to Derek. As far as I’m concerned, there’s nothing to explain. This thing has taken on a life of its own, but it is what it is. We’re all good.”

Cashman had said at a breakfast on Tuesday morning that he could see Jeter moving to the outfield at some point down the line.

“I like corner outfielders and corner infielders who have power, so for me, if he’s ever gonna move, it’s probably gonna be a Robin Yount situation. But we don’t have to deal with it at this point,” Cashman said Tuesday. “We’ll deal with it when we have to.”

Cashman had said repeatedly that he had no plans to move Jeter at this point, just that maybe down the line his athleticism would be suited to centerfield. Because when you get old and slow down, it’s important that they put you in a position where you have to cover an ass-ton of ground.

This really isn’t a huge deal and Cashman was probably just musing about the same stuff we’ve all thought about. Jeter’s range is getting worse and worse, but he’s still an extremely valuable player that they’ll need to keep on the field.

No word yet on what John Fogerty thinks.

There were reports of the New York Yankees interest in free agent reliever Rafael Soriano a couple of weeks ago, but then it got quiet. It’s not quiet anymore as the Yankees have signed Soriano to a three-year, $35 million contract.

It’s a lot of money to pay, but the Yankees can afford it. Soriano will serve as Mariano Rivera’s setup man and the two will form one hell of a back end of a bullpen.

Soriano saved 45 games out of 48 chances last year for the Tampa Bay Rays. He had a 1.73 ERA with a WHIP of 0.80.

Yeah, he’s pretty good at baseball.

The New York Yankees have a stacked lineup, but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t constantly looking to make it better. And conventional wisdom says the Yankees are looking to add another right-handed bat to the lineup.

And according to Jack Curry of YES Network, they are having internal discussions about Manny Ramirez.

“Yanks need a RH OFer so they’ve had internal chats about Manny Ramirez. Chance of deal is less than chance w Damon, which is also unlikely,” Curry tweets.

We aren’t exactly sure how Manny would fit in with the Yanks. Left field has been given to Brett Gardner and Manny is a shit outfielder anyway. As far as the DH, Jorge Posada has already been slated for that role after the team signed Russell Martin.

As rumors go, this is just that – a rumor.

Much of the ballyhoo over the last 12 or so hours has been about the Philadelphia Phillies inexplicably landing stud left-hander Cliff Lee. The New York Yankees had offered him more years and more money, but apparently Cliff was still upset about his wife getting spat upon in the Bronx.

Well, the Yankees have struck back, and they have struck back hard. They signed free-agent catcher Russell Martin to a blockbuster one-year contract worth an undisclosed king’s ransom.

The Yankees fired a huge warning shot across the nose of MLB with this signing, and baseball executives everywhere are shaken to their very core. So, how did they pull it off?

They offered him a chance to start. Jorge Posada should be DH’ing at this point, so Martin will get the chance to start for the Yankees while Jesus Montero gets some more seasoning in Triple-A ball.

Martin his .248 last year and will immediately become the Yanks’ leadoff man.

According to T.R. Sullivan of MLB.com, the Philadelphia Phillies have re-acquired the services of Cliff Lee. This is absolutely unreal.

“Cliff Lee is going to the Philadelphia Phillies, industry sources said Monday night. The Rangers were told Monday night that Lee is going to the Phillies, It is a done deal,” Sullivan tweets.

The Texas Rangers and New York Yankees were believed to be battling it out, but the Phils jumped in late and emerged as a legitimate suitor. Some reports have him signing a five-year deal at around $20 million per year, which is the bargain of the century for the Phillies. The Yankees were offering a seven-year deal at around $150 million (depending on which report you believe).

Cliff Lee left money on the table to sign with the Phillies. Wow. That’s amazing.

Right now, the Phillies starting rotation is (in any order): Roy Halladay, Roy Oswalt, Cliff Lee and Cole Hamels.

Hamels is probably the No. 4. I’ll repeat: Cole Hamels is probably the No. 4! He is a World Series champion who won the playoff MVP and World Series MVP back in 2008.

Have fun with that NL East. Phillies fans….this is a dream come true.

Honestly, sometimes I wonder why I even pass these reports along. Yesterday, ESPN’s Buster Olney said that the Boston Red Sox were the favorites to land free agent catcher Russell Martin.

Today? He’s saying that the New York Yankees are making a strong push.

“Heard this: The Yankees are now taking an aggressive approach in the Russell Martin conversations. It’s Boston vs. NYY, plus others,” Olney tweets.

It’s not that what he’s saying is wrong, it’s just kind of pointless to chase this crap around. Then again, this is why we read and discuss sports I guess.

So anyway, it seems like the Yanks are hell bent on getting Martin so that they can move Jorge Posada to the DH role. Jesus Montero will likely start in Triple-A to get some more experience.

The Blue Jays and another unidentified team have also reached out to Martin, so we’ll see what happens. Tomorrow, we’ll probably hear that the Blue Jays are the most likely landing spot for him.

If there is a free agent on the market right now in MLB, you can probably link him/her to the Boston Red Sox. They acquired Adrian Gonzalez and then paid the hell out of Carl Crawford.

Now, according to ESPN’s Buster Olney, the Sox are considered the favorite team to land former Dodgers catcher Russell Martin.

“Heard this: Boston is viewed as the front-runner for Russell Martin at this point, according to folks with knowledge of the talks,” Olney tweeted.

The Red Sox do need to do something at catcher, unless you are sold on Jarrod Saltalmacchia, which we aren’t. They lost Victor Martinez to the Detroit Tigers in free agency. And should we even mention the name Jason Varitek? Okay, we won’t.

The Yankees have already extended Martin an offer, telling him that they view him as a starter. So, if the Red Sox don’t do something quickly, they might not even have a chance with Martin.

We knew that former Tampa Bay Ray Carl Crawford would get his dough. But did anyone think that someone would break the bank like this?

Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe reports that the Boston Red Sox have agreed on a deal with Crawford for an MLB record-setting, seven-year, $142 million contract. It’s record setting because the 29-year old Crawford has never made this much money in baseball before.

We are pretty shocked at this deal. Crawford is a very good player, no one is denying that. But he’ll have a deal that will average just more than $20 million a year. Really?

Crawford hit .307 last year with 19 bombs and 47 stolen bases. He’s also a tremendous outfielder. But….really? We think that’s just too much money.

And while it definitely improves the Red Sox for the short term, we wonder what the last three or so years of that deal will be like when he’s slower and not as productive. That will be a tough check to cut.

The Sox have also added Adrian Gonzalez, so this team will be ready to compete for the AL East again in 2011…..until the Yankees sign Cliff Lee.

According to WFAN‘s Sweeny Murti, the New York Yankees and Derek Jeter have finally come to an agreement on a new contract. Per Murti, the deal will be three years for $51 million.

“Jeter’s 3 yr deal will be worth around $51 million. 4th year option is less but contains many elements that will affect final number,” Murti tweets.

This is hardly the five-year deal at $23-$24 million per year that Jeter was reportedly seeking. Not that anyone thought that he would get that. Especially since the Yankees were already paying him for past performance and offering way more than anyone else in their right mind would have. They were essentially bidding against themselves.

The option fourth year is supposedly around $17 million, but like Murti says, there are a ton of things that can affect that number.

New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter has always come off as extremely intelligent to us. He’s level-headed, says the right things, doesn’t get himself into any trouble. So, pardon us if the notion that he wants to make some $23-$24 million per year on his next contract, comes off as though he’s Looney Tunes.

He’ll be 37-years old in June and is looking for some five years on a contract. We would love that same contract too, doesn’t mean we’ll get it.

The Yankees originally offered him three years and $45 million. That is a very generous offer that no other team in MLB would ever offer him. He should understand that. And maybe he does. Maybe he’s just posturing in the hopes of squeezing the Yankees for a couple more pennies.

Well, good luck with that. A source with knowledge of the negotiations tells ESPNNewYork.com that the Yankees don’t plan on budging from their original offer. The source says that Jeter and his agent Casey Close need to “drink the reality potion.”

That’s putting it lightly.

GM Brian Cashman recently said that if he doesn’t like their offer, he’s welcome to shop his services.

“We understand his contributions to the franchise and our offer has taken them into account,” Cashman said. “We’ve encouraged him to test the market and see if there’s something he would prefer other than this. If he can, fine. That’s the way it works.”

A source told ESPNNewYork.com that his comments weren’t intended as an ultimatum.

Again, Jeter isn’t stupid. He’ll most likely take the Yanks original offer when he sees that they are willing to go much higher than anyone else.

If this report from the New York Times is to be believed, this is absolutely, utterly ridiculous. A baseball person who has been briefed on the situation, tells the Times that Derek Jeter and his agent Casey Close are seeking a contract in the neighborhood of four or five years at around $23-$24 million per year from the New York Yankees.

Look at Jeter’s stats from 2010 (.270 BA with 10 HR’s, although he’s never been a HR guy). Now read the first paragraph again. Now, look at his stats again. Now, chuckle.

Are you out of your mind?

The Yankees reportedly are offering a three-year, $45 million deal. That is way more than they should be offering. We understand that Jeter is a Yankees icon on par with some of the best ever, but $23 million per year?!

Photo Caption: You can’t put a value on Jeter’s ability to tell the best racist jokes.

I have roughly the same odds of having a four-girl orgy at the grotto at Hef’s mansion as he does of seeing that kind of money. So, maybe if he does get the contract he wants, I should hold out hope for the little rendez vous with the playmates.

But, I digress. Jeter will be 37-years old in June and is no longer the player he used to be. Smart franchises don’t pay for past performance. It seems like the Yankees are even willing to do that within reason.

$23 million per is not within reason. That’s likely Cliff Lee numbers.

Former New York Yankee Jim Leyritz is most likely a very, very happy man. Facing up to 15 years in prison for charges of DUI Manslaughter in Florida, Leyritz seems to have dodged a Randy Johnson fastball to the head.

A jury found that, despite being intoxicated while driving a vehicle that struck and killed a woman, he was not responsible for her death.

“There’s no winners in this case. It was a tragic situation,” Leyritz said after the verdict. “All I’m glad about is that I’m going home to my kids.”

The prosecution had to prove that Leyritz was not only intoxicating, but that he was actually at fault in the accident (Donte Stallworth could have used this defense in his case, but he chose to accept his punishment and not fight the case out of respect to the family). They couldn’t prove that Leyritz ran the red light when he hit the woman’s Ford Expedition back in 2007 and now Leyritz is only facing up to six months on a simple DUI conviction. He’s a first-time offender.

“Manslaughter was never an option,” jury foreman Brian Haul said. “There was no way the prosecution could prove he ran the red light. I feel comfortable this jury reached the decision it should have.”