Teixeira Sets His Price

Tough loss for the Yankees and Chien-Ming Wang. But, what can you do? They ran into an extremely hot pitcher and their offense just couldn’t produce. Wang didn’t have his best stuff on the mound either, walking 3 batters (which came back to hurt him).

Anyways, let’s talk about the future of first base.

From Jon Heyman (SI):

Teixeira won’t name his price publicly. But someone who follows the markets and Boras predicts that the asking price could begin with “2’s” as in $20 million per year and $200 million total.

Scott Boras and Mark Teixeria could not have picked a better time to head into the open market. With the Yankees and the Mets likely to fight for Teixeira’s services, you can be sure that Big Tex will get his long awaited payday, although a 10-year, 20-million dollar deal seems like a stretch for the 29-year old. It’ll be the years that matter in this deal. The Yankees wont blink at spending $20-million per for Teixeira, as the money won’t be a problem with Giambi, Pavano, Mussina, all coming off the books.

Even Teixeira knows that the Yanks are going to be interested:

“These are things to talk about at the end of the season,” Teixeira says. “I’m not going to make any predictions. I’m enjoying playing in Atlanta … and there’s no doubt this organization is a winning organization. When I become a free agent, Atlanta’s definitely in the mix.”

How about his hometown Orioles?

“The Orioles are close to my heart,” Teixeira admitted.

“I have family in Baltimore,” he continued. “But I have family in Georgia. And I have family in New York.” (Teixeira’s sister Elizabeth Durastanti and her husband Nick live in Hoboken, N.J. and work in New York City.)

Yeah, he could be talking about either team, the Mets or the Yankees, but for our sake, let’s assume he’s talking about the Yanks. In terms of other suitors for Teixeira’s services, the Mariners seem like a team that could definitely get into the race, and they could resign Sexson (he’ll be a FA) and then slot him in the DH role (or they can just lose his sorry ass), opening up first base for Tex. Of course, they’d have to come up with the money to keep him as well. Heyman lists the Red Sox as a possible fit, but how that works, I have no idea. With Youkilis and Lowell, the Sox are pretty much set with their lineup.

After seeing Giambi at first this year, I’m looking forward to the day Tex becomes a FA. Brian Cashman and Hank Steinbrenner are probably waiting too, but the happiest guy will definitely be Scott Boras Mark Teixeira.

Game 2: Yanks VS. Indians

Today we get to witness a pitcher’s duel (hopefully) between two undefeated starters. Here’s the lineup:

Johnny Damon
Derek Jeter
Bobby Abreu
Shelley Duncan
Hideki Matsui (DH)
Melky Cabrera
Robinson Cano
Morgan Ensberg
Jose Molina

Chien-Ming Wang on the mound. Let’s see him match Brandon Webb (7-0).

A-Rehab

PA from the LoHud blog has got the details on A-Rod’s rehab plan:

The tentative plan for A-Rod is to fly to Tampa on Thursday and pick up the pace of the workouts at the team complex over the weekend.

If all goes well, he would play for Single-A Tampa on Monday and Tuesday then rejoin the Yankees on Wednesday.

The Single-A team team is home on Monday and Tuesday and the Yankees are in Florida to play the Rays for four games starting on Monday. Given that the Yankees are playing in Florida, it would make little sense for A-Rod to go to New Jersey or Pennsylvania for rehab games.

The Yankees have their best trainers and rehab guys in Tampa as well.

No word yet on what Jorge Posada will do. He’s still a few weeks away from getting to that point.

It’ll be cool to see A-Rod murder some minor league pitchers as he rehabs that ailing quad.

Couple of Notes: A-Rod, Betemit, Farnsworth, Joba

Here are a couple of noteworthy items from yesterday:

• Joba blew the lead against the Indians last night. He just didn’t look right and he seems to be handling it well. He hadn’t pitched since this past Friday so maybe he was a bit rusty.
• Wilson Betemit returned from the 15-day DL and did a decent job with the stick (1-for-4). Alberto Gonzalez was sent down in order to make room for Betemit (tough demotion).
• Kyle Farnsworth had his appeal hearing on Tuesday and is currently awaiting a decision. He probably won’t have the suspension revoked, but he’s pitching well lately, so a lesser sentence would be great.
• Finally, A-Rod will resume baseball activities today (likely), and will hopefully be back with the team towards the end of next week. He’s been resting and hasn’t done much since the injury occurred.

Back with more later.