My intuition tells me Filip Bondy doesn't know what he's talking about.

"But then every once in a while - not too often, really, but at least twice in recent memory - something intuitively feels amiss and the chase becomes garish, excessive and short-sighted. It felt that way with Jason Giambi, about to turn 30, back in 2001, when the Yanks signed him to a seven-year, $120 million deal to replace Tino Martinez, for no great reason."

The only reason was because Giambi was a great offensive player.

In his first year with the Yankees, Giambi drove in 120 and scored 120.

.314, 41 HRs, 109 walks.

Made Mark Teixeira look like Andy Phillips.

It was the third season in a row Giambi finished top five in the MVP voting.

So unless Bondy intuitively knew Giambi was on steroids -- which might not have been too difficult to conclude, come to think of it -- then Bondy had no reason at the time to claim the Giambi deal was short-sighted.


"It felt that way again when the Yanks offered Alex Rodriguez, at 32, a 10-year deal worth $275 million. The idea of being stuck with designated hitter A-Rod, untradeable at 41, is not a happy glimpse into the future."

ARod is a great baseball player.

Don't trade him.


It's unclear to me when and how the conventional wisdom regarding ARod's contract tilted to the negative without any thoughtful debate.


"If he succeeds, however, he would be getting a top pitcher in his prime. Greinke is 27, and has two years left on a reasonable contract at $13.5 million per season. The Yanks would be able to renegotiate and extend it easily enough."

Right ... and that contract extension would be garish and excessive.


"That isn't the issue here, though. Desperation is. Forget the Rays for a moment. Cashman right now understands the Red Sox lineup is every bit as impressive as his own. Bullpens are unpredictable. There is really no way to plan them. The one thing the GM can do, must do, is shore up his starting rotation."

The Red Sox lineup is not every bit as impressive as the Yankee lineup.

The Red Sox lost Beltre and Martinez, right? Bondy is aware of this?


Assuming Ellsbury plays CF instead of Cameron, the Red Sox probably have an advantage in LF and CF and that's it.


Evoking the debates about Willie, Mickey, and the Duke, I'll call it a tie between Jarrod Saltalamachhia and Francisco Cervelli.