Most of my fellow Back Seat Drivers are in the midst of a Thanksgiving-induced food coma. As such, it is my duty to lead the charge today. So along with the turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie, I’ll be talking baseball, a little football, and whatever else comes to mind.
1. For baseball, it’s a mad, mad, mad, mad, world. Ever since Bud Selig and Donald Fehr announced the signing of a new collective bargaining agreement in baseball, citing that baseball was in a “second golden age”, many teams have gone on a ridiculous spending spree.
What I find curious about this behavior is how just twelve months ago, David Ortiz, Paul Konerko, Hideki Matsui, and Johnny Damon all signed contracts based on a similar benchmark of three to four years for between $11-13M. A year later, Alfonso Soriano and Aramis Ramirez are making, respectively, $17M and $15M annually. How short-sighted can some of these GM’s and owners be? Certainly they’ve known the state of baseball’s financial health better than anyone on the outside. The negotiations for the recently-executed labor agreement didn’t happen overnight. So why are owners spending like drunken sailors this time around when they were pinching pennies last winter?
I can offer no logical explanation. I simply chalk it up to stupidity and short-sightedness and leave it at that. Baseball owners and executives are notoriously fickle individuals who cry poverty whenever possible, but don’t hesitate to make the big splash whenever they need a boost in positive PR and media coverage. Three and four years from now, teams like the Cubs may be wondering if their annual $32M investment in Soriano and Ramirez was worth it. And teams like the Yanks, long (and unfairly) blamed for the out-of-whack economics in baseball, will be there to pick up those then-unwanted players from teams that overspent in the winter of 2006. Personally? I can’t wait for the Yanks to rescue the overspenders; there’s nothing more fun than shopping in the discount aisle and getting the next version of David Cone (1995), Cecil Fielder (1996), David Justice (2000), or Bobby Abreu (2006).
2. Keeping with the outrageous Hot Stove season for a moment, there is another ex-Texas Ranger cashing in this morning. Gary Matthews Jr. signed with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim for a staggering five years and $50M to play CF full time. This will likely spell Chone Figgins’ return back to utility infield duty, despite the fact that statistical evidence suggests Figgins is an absolute butcher as a defensive infielder.
What makes no sense about the Matthews signing is that it addresses neither of the Angels’ critical needs: power hitting and protection for Vlad Guerrero, and an improvement in overall team defense. Yes, Matthews had the catch of the year in CF and is a solid defensive outfielder. But he can’t single-handedly change a team that led the AL in errors. Why a five year contract for a 32 year old playing for his seventh team in nine seasons? And why $10M per year when two better centerfielders – Torii Hunter and Johnny Damon – make only $2-3M more than him? Is Gary Matthews in their league? I don’t think so, and I don’t think I’m in the minority on this one.
The more amusing facet of the Matthews contract is how Cubs fans have lost their perspective and are up in arms about Mark DeRosa’s three year, $12M contract to play for Chicago. The common refrain I hear is that it makes no sense to pay a 31 year old coming off a career year that kind of money. Matthews, being a year older and also coming off a career year, is being paid more than double the salary for nearly twice as many years. DeRosa played six positions for the Rangers in 2006, Matthews played only two. At $4M per year, a utility player is a fine bargain, especially in today’s market and with such a relatively short contract. I honestly can’t see why the Angels felt Matthews would be worth a five year investment when he hasn’t been able to stick with any other team for more than three years. Paying $10M a year to a career .263 hitter just seems irrational.
3. Rounding out the baseball discussion for the day, I should point out that Angels GM Bill Stoneman is at a crossroads. He and his staff have been able to scout and draft one of the most impressive crops of young players in recent memory. He currently holds the rights to seven of the top 100 prospects as ranked by Baseball America: Brandon Wood, Howie Kendrick, Erick Aybar, Jered Weaver, Jeff Mathis, Kendry Morales, and Nick Adenhart. Additionally, the team has all-star caliber players in Vlad Guerrero, Bartolo Colon, John Lackey, Ervin Santana, Frankie Rodriguez, and Chone Figgins, and young hopefuls Casey Kotchman and Dallas McPherson.
Despite such an impressive array of talent, the Angels have come up short the past few seasons, failing to qualify for the playoffs in 2004 and 2006. With this kind of talent and with an ownership willing to spend money, how Stoneman can sell the Gary Matthews signing is beyond me. If the Angels don’t make the playoffs in 2007 or fail to land a big hitter via free agency or trade – and Matthews better not represent the lone addition to this team over the off-season – I’d have to say that Stoneman deserves to lose his job.
4. Onto football. Tiki Barber has a favorable reputation around the league as a thoughtful and eloquent player and a very good running back. My perception of him has changed over the past few days, however. He’s certainly eloquent, and he is still a very good running back. But he’s also something of a prima donna and a selfish player.
In the aftermath of the Giants’ loss to the Jaguars on Monday Night Football, Tiki Barber roasted Tom Coughlin and the coaching staff, using the “outcoached” excuse for the second time in the past nine months. Specifically, Barber said his lack of use (10 carries, 27 yards) left him feeling “insignificant,” and that Coach Coughlin’s excuses for abandoning the running game were “a cop-out” and “a slap in the face.”
Now, there’s nothing wrong with a player feeling frustrated after a bad loss. But did Coughlin’s choice of going with a pass-first gameplan serve as a metaphoric slap in Tiki’s face? Can someone really be that selfish, causing controversy in the week leading up to what amounts to the Giants trying to stay in the NFC playoff picture? As far as I’m concerned, Tiki ought to be ashamed of himself. He must be taking lessons in how to be a teammate from guys like T.O., Jeremy Shockey, and Keyshawn Johnson.
Fortunately, Coach Coughlin publicly blasted Barber for his remarks, calling his outburst “inappropriate and unacceptable.”
The use of the phrase “outcoached” has become too commonplace among athletes these days. It’s a perfect way for them to deflect attention, responsibility, and blame away from themselves and onto the guys whose lives are most immediately affected by wins and losses. When players don’t perform up to their capabilities, the coaching staff ultimately pays the price. While there are certainly instances when a coach and his staff fail to put their team in the best possible position to win – Bill Belichick, not Tom Brady, cost the Patriots a chance to beat the Colts three weeks ago – none of the Giants’ four losses this season belong exclusively to the coaching staff. Missed tackles, blown coverages, costly turnovers, and most of all, back-breaking injuries, are leading the Giants down the path of mediocrity. And if Tiki doesn’t like playing for a mediocre team, well, he and his teammates can either work harder or he can quit.
In many ways, the team will be worse without Tiki next year after he retires. But I think that in some ways they’ll be better off too. Tiki can go into retirement next year knowing that, strangely enough, Michael Irvin was right about him – Tiki is a quitter. Calling out your coach and crying like a baby about getting 10 carries in a game that may cost your team a shot at the playoffs, that’s quitting in my book.
1. For baseball, it’s a mad, mad, mad, mad, world. Ever since Bud Selig and Donald Fehr announced the signing of a new collective bargaining agreement in baseball, citing that baseball was in a “second golden age”, many teams have gone on a ridiculous spending spree.
What I find curious about this behavior is how just twelve months ago, David Ortiz, Paul Konerko, Hideki Matsui, and Johnny Damon all signed contracts based on a similar benchmark of three to four years for between $11-13M. A year later, Alfonso Soriano and Aramis Ramirez are making, respectively, $17M and $15M annually. How short-sighted can some of these GM’s and owners be? Certainly they’ve known the state of baseball’s financial health better than anyone on the outside. The negotiations for the recently-executed labor agreement didn’t happen overnight. So why are owners spending like drunken sailors this time around when they were pinching pennies last winter?
I can offer no logical explanation. I simply chalk it up to stupidity and short-sightedness and leave it at that. Baseball owners and executives are notoriously fickle individuals who cry poverty whenever possible, but don’t hesitate to make the big splash whenever they need a boost in positive PR and media coverage. Three and four years from now, teams like the Cubs may be wondering if their annual $32M investment in Soriano and Ramirez was worth it. And teams like the Yanks, long (and unfairly) blamed for the out-of-whack economics in baseball, will be there to pick up those then-unwanted players from teams that overspent in the winter of 2006. Personally? I can’t wait for the Yanks to rescue the overspenders; there’s nothing more fun than shopping in the discount aisle and getting the next version of David Cone (1995), Cecil Fielder (1996), David Justice (2000), or Bobby Abreu (2006).
2. Keeping with the outrageous Hot Stove season for a moment, there is another ex-Texas Ranger cashing in this morning. Gary Matthews Jr. signed with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim for a staggering five years and $50M to play CF full time. This will likely spell Chone Figgins’ return back to utility infield duty, despite the fact that statistical evidence suggests Figgins is an absolute butcher as a defensive infielder.
What makes no sense about the Matthews signing is that it addresses neither of the Angels’ critical needs: power hitting and protection for Vlad Guerrero, and an improvement in overall team defense. Yes, Matthews had the catch of the year in CF and is a solid defensive outfielder. But he can’t single-handedly change a team that led the AL in errors. Why a five year contract for a 32 year old playing for his seventh team in nine seasons? And why $10M per year when two better centerfielders – Torii Hunter and Johnny Damon – make only $2-3M more than him? Is Gary Matthews in their league? I don’t think so, and I don’t think I’m in the minority on this one.
The more amusing facet of the Matthews contract is how Cubs fans have lost their perspective and are up in arms about Mark DeRosa’s three year, $12M contract to play for Chicago. The common refrain I hear is that it makes no sense to pay a 31 year old coming off a career year that kind of money. Matthews, being a year older and also coming off a career year, is being paid more than double the salary for nearly twice as many years. DeRosa played six positions for the Rangers in 2006, Matthews played only two. At $4M per year, a utility player is a fine bargain, especially in today’s market and with such a relatively short contract. I honestly can’t see why the Angels felt Matthews would be worth a five year investment when he hasn’t been able to stick with any other team for more than three years. Paying $10M a year to a career .263 hitter just seems irrational.
3. Rounding out the baseball discussion for the day, I should point out that Angels GM Bill Stoneman is at a crossroads. He and his staff have been able to scout and draft one of the most impressive crops of young players in recent memory. He currently holds the rights to seven of the top 100 prospects as ranked by Baseball America: Brandon Wood, Howie Kendrick, Erick Aybar, Jered Weaver, Jeff Mathis, Kendry Morales, and Nick Adenhart. Additionally, the team has all-star caliber players in Vlad Guerrero, Bartolo Colon, John Lackey, Ervin Santana, Frankie Rodriguez, and Chone Figgins, and young hopefuls Casey Kotchman and Dallas McPherson.
Despite such an impressive array of talent, the Angels have come up short the past few seasons, failing to qualify for the playoffs in 2004 and 2006. With this kind of talent and with an ownership willing to spend money, how Stoneman can sell the Gary Matthews signing is beyond me. If the Angels don’t make the playoffs in 2007 or fail to land a big hitter via free agency or trade – and Matthews better not represent the lone addition to this team over the off-season – I’d have to say that Stoneman deserves to lose his job.
4. Onto football. Tiki Barber has a favorable reputation around the league as a thoughtful and eloquent player and a very good running back. My perception of him has changed over the past few days, however. He’s certainly eloquent, and he is still a very good running back. But he’s also something of a prima donna and a selfish player.
In the aftermath of the Giants’ loss to the Jaguars on Monday Night Football, Tiki Barber roasted Tom Coughlin and the coaching staff, using the “outcoached” excuse for the second time in the past nine months. Specifically, Barber said his lack of use (10 carries, 27 yards) left him feeling “insignificant,” and that Coach Coughlin’s excuses for abandoning the running game were “a cop-out” and “a slap in the face.”
Now, there’s nothing wrong with a player feeling frustrated after a bad loss. But did Coughlin’s choice of going with a pass-first gameplan serve as a metaphoric slap in Tiki’s face? Can someone really be that selfish, causing controversy in the week leading up to what amounts to the Giants trying to stay in the NFC playoff picture? As far as I’m concerned, Tiki ought to be ashamed of himself. He must be taking lessons in how to be a teammate from guys like T.O., Jeremy Shockey, and Keyshawn Johnson.
Fortunately, Coach Coughlin publicly blasted Barber for his remarks, calling his outburst “inappropriate and unacceptable.”
The use of the phrase “outcoached” has become too commonplace among athletes these days. It’s a perfect way for them to deflect attention, responsibility, and blame away from themselves and onto the guys whose lives are most immediately affected by wins and losses. When players don’t perform up to their capabilities, the coaching staff ultimately pays the price. While there are certainly instances when a coach and his staff fail to put their team in the best possible position to win – Bill Belichick, not Tom Brady, cost the Patriots a chance to beat the Colts three weeks ago – none of the Giants’ four losses this season belong exclusively to the coaching staff. Missed tackles, blown coverages, costly turnovers, and most of all, back-breaking injuries, are leading the Giants down the path of mediocrity. And if Tiki doesn’t like playing for a mediocre team, well, he and his teammates can either work harder or he can quit.
In many ways, the team will be worse without Tiki next year after he retires. But I think that in some ways they’ll be better off too. Tiki can go into retirement next year knowing that, strangely enough, Michael Irvin was right about him – Tiki is a quitter. Calling out your coach and crying like a baby about getting 10 carries in a game that may cost your team a shot at the playoffs, that’s quitting in my book.
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