Yanks intro Towers
March 16, 2010, 5:01 pm by iYankees · 48 Comments
Kevin Towers was “unveiled” today, with Brian Cashman noting that the former Padres GM has joined the team in order to “make us better.” Cashman also referred to he and Towers as “the best of friends,” but made it clear that he was brought on for his baseball expertise. Towers will serve as a special assignment account while with the organization, and explained his role a bit earlier in the day, at Steinbrenner Field. Via Chad Jennings, “It will be a different pool of players that I’ll be focusing on,” Towers said. “In San Diego, the months of November and December for me were trade months. We just weren’t able to be real competitive in the free agent market. Our free agent season was usually late February, who was left over. If anything, I might be able to bring to Cash and his staff here, there is probably a pool of players I focused on that maybe they didn’t focus on. Might be able to find a diamond in the rough.”
In other “news,” I’m still without power at my home. I should be posting regularly again within a day or two, however (once the large tree is removed from my lawn and the power lines are reinstalled).
Sorry to hear the bad news at your home. I thought you were joking the other day!
So far you have done well, under the circumstances…”power to the people”, or something such as that! Good luck.
By the way, Towers will be a big help to Cashman. Even a few years ago, I had heard that he was very good at evaluating players.
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Good to be back from Beantown. Power just went on 1 hour ago. Wow!…97 comments on that Cano batting 5th. posting. In my sort time here, that’s the most I’ve seen.
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Welcome home Patrick. Good to have you back. You missed the rematch between Ernie and BigPapi. As you know both contestants were dq’d because of low blows in the first match. In the second match Papi pounded Ernie on his use of his counting statistics to measure Nomar vs Jeter instead of non-longevity type sabermetrics. Papi by TKO in the 8th round.
Papi also pounded iYankees Chis in a quick KO win over who is better this season Yankees or Red Sox – Chris said Yankess were more balanced team, but Papi landed a hard left hook to the jaw, saying the Bosox have the advantage in pitching/defense that win playoff series.
After some time off Ernie has agreed to a rubber match to avenge his and Chris’s losses. And he has come out swinging, landing combinations to the body and head, citing Nomar’s steroid usage and home ballpark advantage. Papi is staggering around the ring, on cloud nine, trying to regain what little senses he had to begin with.
This is an EPIC – and we need your play-by-play desperatley.
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As the old Wrestling promoters would say,…” All roads will lead you to our next show”,… MD WANG?..no, The Natural?..no, Justin Poindexter?..no,…therefore it must be big Papi vs. Old Ernie. [Ernie, remember in the first match, you said to Papi, "Old Ernie!!..so now I have a new name."] It was your rite to change your ring name………Papi has a way of getting into Old Ernie’s head, that is his weapon. Old Ernie tries to dazzle with speed & numbers, but eventually spins out of control from Papi’s “Headlock”. I saw it Papi 2-0, on TKO’s.
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Hey Patrick…you got me all wrong. I don’t come on this site to spar with Sox fans or anyone else. I come on here to chat with Yankee fans about our team. I’m not really interested in you promoting sparring matches – its not worth anyone’s time or effort. There are plenty of Yankee sites out there if that’s what you’re looking for – so keep me out of it…thanks.
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Hey Ernie,…Short memory?…It was YOU who started it the first time with the Sox fan, last week. Big Papi wasn’t even there at the time. I thought you had a sense of humor, guess not. Why don’t you send a “happy” message to those others who instigate you? There are plenty of Yankee sites out there, dare I say try one yourself? Or, if I do, will you start pouting again?
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I don’t know why you are jumping all over me, Patrick. The post where it started had to do with Nomar, and how Chris mentioned how even Yankee fans needed to appreciate Nomar’s skills. My comment was that Nomar cheated and used steriods, which is true, and he went after Jeter first (off topic), then after our hearts being broken in 2004-2007 (off topic), then numerous personal comments about my age. Debate is fine – stay on topic and keep the comments about baseball.
I have a great sense of humor, by the way. And I’ve never been anything but cordial to you, so I don’t understand your condescending comments to me now. It really had nothing to do with you.
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Patrick – Unfortunately Ernie has decided to retire. Who can we send up against Papi? Someone fierce, someone who is quick like a cat, someone who roars like a lion and fights like a tiger.
Calling….the Natural….where are you?
Ballpark- if we cant find the Natural will you represent iYankees in the next bout (if Papi recovers from the vicious beating he took from Ernie the last round).
Or FISHjam, TO Chris, TeddyB where have you all gone?
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YOU GUYS ARE NUTS.LOL
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Twasp….Did you ever get a “happy message” from Old Ernie? I like the way he reinvented his stage name.
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Twasp you guys need a young fighter I retired 7 years before old Ernie.T.O. CHRIS would be a good choice as he could wear him out with his long posts PAPI would drop trying to read the chapter upon chapter and one thing is for sure T.O.would never ever give in.
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Ballpark….My choice is deadTedsHead. He was feisty & combative with Papi, and the give and take, was at Papi’s level. The little I know of the thunderous Papi, deadTedsHead name, will give Papi reason for concern.
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Another good choice by BP.
Ted – please defrost your head and step up to Papis last post.
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Ha ha excellent choice and reasoning. Where is TO?
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Chris,…..I must of read too fast, truly sorry for your bad news at home.
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Did you see this article about the ‘Anti-Semetic tenor’?
http://blog.masslive.com/redsoxmonster/2010/03/in_defense_of_ronan_tynan_appa.html
Red sUx can have him.
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No,..but you are now a candidate for a “happy message”!!!!
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Patrick – missed this – what is a “happy message”?
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Twasp….Go back up, to my 11:36 post, 3/17/10.
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Patrick- when you say “those that instigate you” , do you mean me or Papi?
and “happy message” – do you mean the tone of Ernie’s reply to you?
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Twasp….I mean this in a nice way. When you go after Old Ernie, and give him a hard time………silence. “Happy Message=tone, yeah. It’s like there are two sets of rules for standards. He should not dish it out, if he can’t take the heat. Poor old big Papi, whom I do not know, did not start that scrum.
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Patrick and Ernie – you are both great guys – great senses of humor, knowledgeable about baseball, fun to talk to on iYankees. this is all about misinterpertation of tone/humor that can happen on blog sites. None of us meant any harm – probably not even Big Papi who tends to hit below the belt with insults and tends to play head games to psyche out his fellow debator. Its all good, if papi comes back I’ll kick his ass.
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There was no “tone” intended towards Patrick in any of my posts…all I said was to keep me out of any “scrums” with Big Papi….not interested. And I intended it nicely, with no mean tone.
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is that anything like a “happy ending”?…if so,sign me up.
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Me too, pinstripe!
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I like having Towers on board. Like he said, he has experience looking at players the Yanks never really concentrated on. In SD, he had to look for bargains, reclamation projects and diamonds in the rough. I’ve always thought the Yanks needed to have a couple of guys like this in their lineup rather than 9 stars all making $10m+. During our dynasty in the 90s we had players like this.
This is part of the reason I like Gardner so much – and to a lesser degree Cervelli. Their numbers in the box score may not often impress you but when you watch the games they always seem to do something to help you win. Sometimes its a great defensive play or a clutch single and other times its more subtle like a perfect bunt, key sac fly or moving a runner to 3rd with a groundout to 2nd.
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Well said FISH. We need your insight on the 110 comment post Cano and the 5 spot.
What do you think?
Cano, Posada,Johnson,Swisher,Grandy??????
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All good points, Fish….nice post.
Something to consider though as far as the payroll goes: The Yanks take in more $$$ than any other club. Quite often when people complain about how much money the Yanks spend on players, and how our payroll is double or triple most of the other team’s payrolls, quite often Yankee fans (in many cases, correctly so) counter by saying other teams are not putting the money they make back into their players – at least the Yankees do. This is especially true of the smaller market teams who pocket luxury tax money and put inferior players on the field because they count on the subsidy. Now as strange as it sounds, I guarantee you that the minute the Yanks cut the payroll to $125 million you will have an outpouring of protest from Yankee fans crying that they have the money to spend but are not spending it on the available free agent talent, putting it in their pockets instead. Its a no-win situation: spend the money, and you are a bully….don’t spend it, and you are greedy and not interested in putting the best talent on the field.
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Great points, Fish, I agree with you completely. Ernie does bring up an interesting point – it is impossible to please everyone. I for one would like to see the Yankees show some measure of fiscal responsibility. While I throughly enjoyed last season, I had more fun cheering for the Yankees in the late 90s with fewer superstars and more role players who came together and supported each other for a common goal. I’m not saying that that didn’t happen last season, clearly these Yankees all get along and support one another, but it is different when a group of lessor talented players comes together to win. I think everyone would agree that there is more star power on this addition of the Yankees then there was in the late 90s.
More to Ernie’s point. If the Yankees reduce their payroll to below the luxury tax level, but still field a championship caliber team (more talent coming up through the farm system and fewer big name free agents), then no one should be complaining. If there is a drop off in the Yankees ability to compete, then I think you would see fans complaining that they are not putting enough of their profits back into the team.
What is the current luxury tax level? I think I read somewhere that it is around $160 million. The Yankees should be able to put together a championship team for $145 to $155 million.
Hopefully, Towers can help the Yankees draft/sign better prospects. It is going to be interesting to see how they deal with the large long-term contracts currently on the payroll as these players get older and their abilities decline. They will need some young, inexpensive talent to fill in around them.
Fish, someone mentioned in a post that you are/were a big league pitcher. Care to let us know who you are? Perfectly understandable if you don’t. Just curious.
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This is a great point, HD…I don’t think anyone has really picked up on this before. This might be one of the key reasons Towers was brought in to begin with. I think the Yanks have been sensitive to the negative P.R. about the payroll situation….better drafting and farm system development can help them get below the luxury tax threshold.
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Thanks, Ernie. It really only makes sense to stay below the luxury tax threshold from both a business and a competitiveness perspective. Why spend/lose millions of dollars in revenue to support your competition? From a business standpoint, you are throwing away your profit to help your competition. From a baseball point-of-view, you are theoretically (if teams actually use the money to make them better) helping your competition to be more competitive and in some cases such as the Phillies, Red Sox, Rays, and others possibly beat you. I’m not a Red Sox fan, but they seem to have a better business model then the Yankees. One that I think the Yankees are trying to adopt.
With all the large contracts currently on the books, and the need to resign Jeter and Rivera next year, it is going to take a while for the Yankees to drop below the luxury tax threshold. That’s one reason why I wonder if they will pursue both a big name pitcher (Lee, Beckett, etc.) and Crawford next winter. Financially, the development of Hughes and/or Chamberlin into a starting pitcher becomes that much more important.
In many respects watching the business/development side of the Yankees is as much fun as watching the team play (for me anyway).
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New York’s payroll was $226.2 million for the purpose of the luxury tax and the Yankees pay at a 40 percent rate for the amount over $162 million. They owe $26m for the tax. To compute the payroll, Major League Baseball uses the average annual values of contracts for players on 40-man rosters and adds benefits.
The Yankees’ regular payroll — using 2009 salaries and prorated shares of signing bonuses — finished at $220 million. That was a drop of $2.5 million from 2008 but more than $77.8 million higher than any other team — a gap larger than the payrolls of the bottom 11 clubs.
The New York Mets were second at $142.2 million, followed by the equally disappointing Chicago Cubs ($141.6 million).
Boston ($140.5 million) was next, followed by Detroit ($139.4 million) and NL champion Philadelphia ($138.3 million), a big increase from the $112.7 million the Phillies spent when they won the World Series in 2008.
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In 2008 the world champion Phillies had a payroll of $113m the Yankees (who didnt make the playoffs) had a payroll of $223m. Essentially double.
In 2010 Yankees have dropped contracts of Matsui, Damon etc.. and have dropped payroll to around $200m. But their farm system besides a couple of good catchers is barren. And their payroll is laden with huge $ on aging players.
CashMan is too dim to find the young talent needed to pull them out of the looming financial burden, but he needs to be proactive – thus the hiring of Towers.
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Makes you wonder a little of the Steinbrenners/Levine don’t agree with you somewhat on Cashman’s expertise to chase down Towers as they have…
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I’m sure they agree with the WASP. They saw that published report of their farm system being ranked 26 of 30 teams and immediatly signed on to the Monster board, CareerFinder and GMs R US.
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Definitely, HD. As being a Boston-area resident, you hear quite a bit about how the Sox management basically set up shop in the early 2000’s and within a few years completely changed the way they do business…and got rid of an 86-year curse. Certainly if the Yanks had the business end of things in as good shape as the Sox we’d be in much better shape, especially in the farm system, given our resources.
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HD – I wish, but its nothing like that. I had a nice 4-yr run as a Div. 1 college pitcher for Seton Hall Univ in the 90s. Played with/against a lot of guys who made the bigs but can’t say I ever had the privilege myself.
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Thanks Fish. You might not have played in the big leagues, but you have a lot more experience than most (I’d say rest of us, but you never know who’s out there posting) us.
You’ve got great insight and bring a lot of good information to the conversation.
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I saw the kid pitch,he was legit.I think he signed with an independent team but I was surprised he never got a shot in the bigs.He was a closer for the Hall,he was rh who threw 3/4 and would drop down with a nasty 2 seam fastball.Scouts I talked to said he was a nasty sob and never got rattled.
Its amazing how many talented players never get a chance,but Fishjam in a long list of players I have coached,worked with, played against, or just followed,deserved a chance.He’s being humble not a bad thing to be.
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Nice comments, Ballpark. It is quite clear from your post that you have an excellent knowledge of the game. If I had to guess, I’d have said either you or Fish had played the game at a high level.
What is your background? Where did you coach and play?
I am just a life long fan of the game, but never played after high school. I find the conversation more interesting when people with a direct connection to the game are involved.
Thanks for your great insight.
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Thanks HD,I always enjoy the positive comments and interactions on this forum.This blogging is new to me,and I find myself making it part of my daily routine.Chris does a great job and I really appreciate the oppourtunity he gives us to share thoughts and become friends and better Yankee fans.
HD ALL YOU NEED IS A PASSION FOR THE GAME PLAYING AT A HIGH LEVEL HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH IT.The different points of view is what makes this forum tick.
Fishjam was the big time player.Me, well I have been a coach at varying levels for the past 15 years.I have owned and operated an Indoor baseball training facility in NJ for the last 12 years.Through my buisness I have made many friends that are coaches,scouts,front office guys and players.I have also been very fortunite to work with many high quality young men over the years for which I’m grateful.
There’s a term we use “THE GUY BIG LEAGUED ME “it means if somebody played the game he lets you know it so that he can never be questioned whether he’s right or wrong.Personally I can’t stand those guys.
I tell the coaches that work for and with me “when your done learning and you know it all its time to retire’
At the end of the day I’m a Yankee fanatic just like you.
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Thanks Ballpark, it doesn’t surprise me much to know about you an Fish (I think you mentioned it once before, in a banter with someone else). Myself, I always appreciate Fish, Twasp and your comments.
Love your last quote, lived by it.
I think I’ll join Twasp with my resume:
Was a 2nd baseman, Closer, RP at collage (in the mid-west).
Got beat-up in Football, that was the end.
After the service, I did some coaching…football and baseball.
Big League me, Ha, Ha…I am the worlds worst loser.
The bad thing is…I don’t drink so, I am the designated driver after our softball games…yes, I still play softball, in the over 40 league.
Same disclaimer as Twasp…….
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OK – Since everyone is breaking out their resumes:
1. I have played softball in bar leagues my whole life.
2. I have never made it back to my house after a game.
3. I have made the all-star team almost every year I’ve played.
4. I have been to AA every year I’ve played
5. I have never driven drunk
6. I have never been asked to be a designated driver (I don’t know why?)
7. I hate people who try to “big league” me
8. I love to “little league” others
9. I sting often
10. I sting with no malice intended
TWASP resume doen not reflect the views or opinions of iYankees, nor can it be substantiated by independent sources.
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Fast pitch or slow pitch? Do you think you could hit one off of Jenny Finch?
Impressive resume, TWASP.
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Thank you, HD.
The league is modified fast pitch – meaning you cant windmill like Jenny Finch. I wouldnt be able to hit her , no, but I could and would ,hit on her at the bar after the game. ;-0 Though rejection would be the likely conclusion.
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I think we’d all take a crack at Jenny! And, yes, we’d all probably strikeout in the bar.
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Where did the name Twasp come from?Or maybe I shouldn’t ask.
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When I pitch softball the sound it makes …..bzzzzzzzzzz………
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