[Chris Daddy Cool]

i just read through this whole thread

i'd just like to start out by saying i never really liked johnny damon to begin with because he didn't do anything for the A's in his year there and then used his hot 5 game playoff series to somehow get a big deal from the red sox.

then he wins a world series with the red sox and a huge rivalry developed between the sox and the yanks and then suddenly he signs with the yankees? totally classless imo.

anyways back to the point of this thread:

sublime is way overreacting to how bad this deal is. and his comments towards anybody who would disagree with him is bad form imo. but whatev.

the most important thing you have to realize about this deal is that the yankees really don't give a damn about money. they don't really give a damn that damon may just be average his third year and completely useless his fourth (which by the way i think comparing/projecting his decline to bernie williams is probably not fair since bernie's decline is rather on the extreme end compared to many other thirty-something players).

all the yankees care about is winning a world series right now and given the available options, having a solid Johnny Damon at CF for the next 2 years will do that. Suppose that the yanks do happen to win a WS in the next two years, how much more value would you give the deal? could you give him a little leeway on the back end of the deal as a bonus for winning? i think that has to count for something when computing values for deals.

also its not as if signing damon will prohibit the yanks from signing other people they need. and even if damon becomes really bad the last year of his deal, who's to say the yanks couldn't just get another CF then? i mean, they offered arbitration to frigging bernie williams so they clearly dont mind paying 10+ million for 4th outfielder/DH platoon types.

obviously if it was the A's who made this deal, it would be truly horrific because they couldn't afford the first year let alone the 4th year, and such a deal would handicap them in signing other players, but we're talking about the must-win-at-all-costs-money-is-like-toilet-paper-to-us yankees here. if they can get 2 solid years out of damon and it gives them a better chance to win a world series, why wouldn't they make this deal? and if by some miracle, he is actually still a decent to good player by the time this deal is over, isn't that just an added bonus?