Damon Jilts SOX!!!!

Doesn't even give the SOX a chance to counter the offer, and he said he never looked good in pinstripes!!!

That's an interesting take on it. I read that the Red Sox offered him 40 million for four years and gave him to the end of December to think about it. It appears that the 52 million was a satisfactory number and no negotiations were necessary after that point. Maybe he felt slighted by the 40 million offer. It's hard to ignore a 30% bigger number right off the bat. Might not want to pass it up for fear of it going bye bye.

Hippee needed a haircut anyway.

He followed the money. The Yankees initially offered him a 5-year deal for the same money, but he got them to give him four years so he could be a free agent again before he retired.

No one quite knows what's going on with the Sox management right now, but it appears that either they quite rightly weren't willing to pay him 52 mil, or they didn't believe him.

In my opinion, Damon's best days are behind him. The Yankees will regret signing him in a couple of years. I foresee a downward spiral to his numbers and I think it will be faster than many people think. I would predict that he will be lucky to hit .290 next year.

I don't know, YS has a pretty short left field compared to Fenway. He could show better hitting numbers for a while.

Damon may or may not be a bit too long in the tooth but right now there is no other free agent outfielder available of his caliber and the Yankees knew that. No teams including the Red Sox are going to beat the Yankees in a one on one bidding war.

The thing is, I wish these athletes were either shut their mouth or flat out admit they went where the money was. You see it time and time again. A classic example was when Reggie White was a free agent after playing for Philadelphia. He said he wanted to play for a team where he could help the inner city kids. So he chooses Green Bay.

I heard the news this morning regarding Damon. Oh well, and just as GeePondy alluded to—They always say "it's not about the money. . ." or something along those lines. Seems like most professional athletes don't ever state right off the bat—"Yes it IS ALL about the money!" Come on now, why don't they just admit it straight up. He he he. . .

ABTOMAT said:

I don't know, YS has a pretty short left field compared to Fenway. He could show better hitting numbers for a while.

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Damon only hit 10 HR's last year. That was 10 less than he hit in 2004, which was his career best of 20.
And the 10 less HR's did not turn into more doubles or triples. His doubles for 2004 and 2005 were the same (35). His triples for the same two years were also the same (6). He had 3 more at bats in 2005 than in 2004 just to show how close his at bats were. Also his RBI were down from 94 in 2004 to 75 in 2005. His runs were down from 123 to 117.
Now his average was up from .304 in 2004 to .316 in 2005. Also his hits were up from 189 in 2004 to 197 in 2005.
It appears to me in looking at the numbers from the last 2 years that he is turning into more of a singles, get on base hitter. Now that is not bad at all for a leadoff hitter, but I believe his days of putting up good RBI and decent HR numbers for a leadoff hitter as he did in 2004 are probably gone.
Damon has always been a up and down hitter in his career.
He has hit from .327 to .256 in his career. I would not bet on him keeping up a .300 average for a third year in a row.
One thing he has had in his favor and has helped his numbers over the years is his health. He has had over 600 at bats in 7 of the last 8 years.
Of course all the above is just my opinion and I am not Ms. Cleo so I can always be wrong. I have been wrong before, I mean it has happened.

Now I typed all that with a broke finger so go easy on me please.

Edit to add: His OBP fell from .380 to .366 and his slugging fell from .477 to .439 from 2004 to 2005.

You go Jeff!!! Glad the finger is feeling better!! :rock:

Radio said:

You go Jeff!!! Glad the finger is feeling better!! :rock:

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Thank you!

I certainly can't add anything to that without looking at Baseball Prospectus for a few hours, but I should mention one thing in Damon's defense. He had a very bad shoulder for a good part of the year. It was after running into that awful orange and green (the kind that usually say "LIVE NUDE ASIAN GIRLS" or something) video board on an (MN? Toronto?) outfield wall.

Well I hope the sox can somehow at least appease Manny. Has Johnny cut his hair yet? Any pictures?

Many still wants to be traded, and the Sox still are trying to trade him. I think it's stupid. Now that you've lost Damon, tell Many to get over his problems and shut up. If he comes to camp crying, who cares? He'll probably have forgotten about it a few weeks into the season.