11/8/10 MLB News and Notes: New Sunday Night Crew
1. ESPN is done with Jon and Joe: ESPN has decided that Jon Miller and Joe Morgan will no longer be doing Sunday Night Baseball on ESPN. Jon Miller’s contract is up and has a chance to be renewed. If it is renewed, he will not be doing the Sunday Night games on television though as they will place him on the radio – where he would also do playoff games for ESPN radio. Jon Miller won the Hall of Fame’s 2010 Ford C. Frick Award and comes as a surprise, to me, that he will not be back in the booth for ESPN. Joe Morgan’s contract will not be renewed as he will have to find a different station to work for if he would like to continue doing baseball games — maybe the Reds will take him. That move does not come as a surprise to me because he should have been out of the booth a while ago. I am not a Joe Morgan fan, but that is for a different article.
2. Jayson Werth on Red Sox radar: The Boston Red Sox are very interested in Jayson Werth to help fill the outfield role that they need since JD Drew and Mike Cameron are getting older and aren’t going to be able to play as often or give you much production anymore. Cameron missed most of 2010 with injuries, so did Ellsbury and JD Drew is just getting wear and tear on him and won’t be able to perform as well anymore. The Red Sox are also going to take a hard run at Carl Crawford which is going to make Cameron the fourth outfielder which could make him a solid trading piece to help the Red Sox with their bullpen which was a downturn to their 2010 season, along with the injures they suffered across the board. I think that Werth or Crawford will help the Red Sox outfield tremendously.
3. Jeter getting overpaid?: The New York Yankees are going to be overpaying Derek Jeter, again, after a dismal 2010 season. The New York Yankees are targeting paying Derek Jeter in the range of $45-$60 million for the next three seasons, which would come at a price of $15-$20 million per year, which is ridiculous considering that the season he had in 2010 was one of the worst in his career. He is going to hit 37 years of age before the All-Star Break next year as well as hitting .270 last year. He is making huge numbers which MOST teams cannot afford to give to a shrotstop that doesn’t perform to be worth that type of money. This is further proving why the MLB needs a salary cap. The Yankees, after giving a ridiculous contract to Jeter, still have plenty of money left over for Cliff Lee and Mariano Rivera — and they have the ability to give those two players HUGE money as well, which is ridiculous. Last year, he had a 90 OPS+, which means that he was slightly below average play last year, yet he is going to be one of the HIGHEST paid shortstops next season, which is flat out ridiculous.
4. Hall of Fame ballot announced: George Steinbrenner will be on the Hall of Fame veterans’ committee ballot next month. Other members of the ballot will be Vida Blue, Billy Martin, Dave Concepcion, Steve Garvey, Ron Guidry, Tommy John, Al Oliver, Ted Simmons, Rusty Staub, Marvin Miller and Pat Gillick. Steinbrenner, former owner of the Yankees, will likely be nominated in as he changed around the game of baseball, especially the free agency period. Other players that I can see gettign the nod would be Vida Blue and Tommy John. Vida Blue because he was a solid pitcher and Tommy John because of the surgery that has proved to be an important part of the MLB. Look for results from me next week.
4 Comments
WOO HOO – maybe I can watch Sunday/Wednesday night baseball again without having to mute it now that Morgan will be gone (Miller used to be great, but working side by side with Morgan destroyed that). However, knowing ESPN, they'll still mess up who they pick to man the booth.
As for Jeter – yes, he will be "overpayed", however, his value to the Yankees is much more than what he does on the field. No Yankee has ever hit for 3000 hits…yes, in the long and storied history of the New York Yankees, NO ONE has gotten 3000 hits. He would still probably pull in between 10 and 14 million elsewhere, he is Derek Jeter after all, but I'm fine with the Yankees "overpaying" him because I would hate to see him leave over a couple of bucks. He was making 18 million a year during his last contract, so 15-20 is fine with me.
As for your HOF ballot – no way in hell does Vida Blue get put in the HOF (do you really think being a solid pitcher as you called him is good enough?), as for Tommy John, he won't either – his career wasn't HOF material and if you want to put him in for the surgery, put the surgeon in, not him.
As for Steinbrenner, yes he changed baseball greatly for the good and the bad, however, in order for an owner to get into the HOF, they need to exhibit the highest moral and ethical standards and by serving 2 suspensions for things he did which included spying on his own player (Winfield), I don't think he belongs.
Jeter made $21 million last year, and it was one of, if not the worst season of his career in terms of offensive production.