A-Rod and Yanks Agree on Outline

And there it is ladies and gentlemen, A-Rod and the Yankees have agreed on a contract. Now there is one thing left for this deal to happen. Here is the story from ESPN.com:

Alex Rodriguez and the New York Yankees have agreed to the outline of a $275 million, 10-year contract, a deal that potentially would allow him to earn millions more if he sets the career home run record.

The amount of the guaranteed money was revealed by a person familiar with the negotiations who spoke Thursday on condition of anonymity because the deal hasn't been finalized. A-Rod met Wednesday in Tampa, Fla., with the Steinbrenner brothers but the parameters of the deal were set in place last weekend.

"Yeah, I could say that," Yankees senior vice president Hank Steinbrenner said. "The meeting was a final get-together. He wanted to make sure myself and my brother knew that he was sincere and serious."

A-Rod Talking With Yankees

Well, I guess there aren't as many teams out there who are willing to give one man 350 million dollars. A-Rod should really thank his agent for this blunder. A-Rod reached out to the New York Yankees and wants to see if an agreement can be made. Here is Buster Olney with the report:

In a statement released by Rodriguez he said he and his wife Cynthia have spoken directly with Hank and Hal Steinbrenner.

It is absolutely clear, however, that the negotiations -- which never really got started last month -- are now ongoing, and agent Scott Boras is not part of the dialogue.

"The past is the past. I don't know what brought about him approaching us," Yankees senior vice president Hank Steinbrenner said in a telephone interview. "I guess you could say things didn't go the way before that he intended on and weren't handled properly or whatever.

Joe Girardi In // A-Rod Out

Joe Girardi has been named the new manager of the New York Yankees, thus ending the successful Joe Torre era. Before I give my thoughts on Girardi, let me first explain wy Torre failed. It wasn't that he was a bad manager or did anything wrong. On the contrary, he is one of the best, if not the best, managers around. The problem lies in the New York media market who is money-hungry and very gdemanding. To play in NY is completely different than playing in any other state because NY expects positive results and if you don't bring home a championship within a given amount of time NY gets frustrated and you lose your job. Joe Torre could manage the Royals or Pirates for 30 years and still keep his job because nobody expects them to win. However, because NY is such a demanding state, it overlooked all the good Torre has brought to the Yankees and blamed him for the long drought of World Series appearances the Yankees failed to attend to. Therefore, I believe Joe Torre did much more good than harm and being one of the greatest managers of all time, did not deserve to be fired.

With that said, what fool would want to take over the job as the Yankees manager given the current state the Yankees are in and the NY media market? Don Mattingly knew this and thats why he decided not to take this job. In fact, he left the Yankees all together. The new victim to manage the Yankees is Girardi and I see him more as a puppet manager than anything else. Girardi is simply someone to fill in the gap. He only has 1 year of managing under his belt and if he doesn't produce positive results, the media will be on his case too.

A-Rod is much better off without the Yankees than the Yankees are without him. He is arguably the best player in the league. Who can the Yankees acquire or bring up to replace the best player in the league? He attracted tons of fans to Yankee games and that in turn brought in huge amounts of revenue. However, A-Rod playing in another state will take the constant tension off him, enabling him to produce without nervousness. If he goes to the Mets, however, he will be no less scrutinized than he was on the Yankees. With A-Rod's departure, and the possible departure of Posada, Rivera, and others, now is not the time to be the manager of the Yankees.