I still can’t decide which is more obnoxious: someone paying the wealthiest team in baseball to take the best player in the game off their hands, or moving a Gold Glove shortstop to third base to accommodate one of the worst defenders at his position.

Much as it pains me to do this, I need to present a few blog entries looking at the deal from the Yankees’ perspective. If you can get past the giddiness, Alex Belth and Jay Jaffe provide their usual solid analysis.

• Yeah, You Get Props Over Here (Bronx Banter). Depressing quote: “You know, I’ve been so punch-drunk by the thought of A Rod coming to town that I haven’t thought much about Soriano at all.” Must be nice to have a team that can fart away a player of that caliber.
• Yes Way-Rod (Futility Infielder). Depressing quote: “The Yanks end up paying less money — 40 percent of the total contract, an average of $16 million a year — for seven years of A-Rod than the Rangers will for three. The Rangers’ cost: $46.7 million per year in uniform, a Texas-sized sum in the annals of the sport’s financial history.” Remind me again how Tom Hicks owns an MLB franchise?

On the bright side, think of how humiliating it will be if the Yankees still aren’t able to win the World Series. Hey, just trying to bring a little ray of light to the upcoming season.

I can imagine a reporter asking George Steinbrenner in October if there was anything more he could’ve done to help his team win and Steinbrenner just laughing at him. What’s he gonna say? “Well, maybe if I’d signed Vlad Guerrero to back up Bernie Williams at DH, things would be different.” Please…

Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch

First off, what’s up with calling Los Angeles "La-La Land"? Maybe it’s because I grew up there, but that’s never struck me as a particularly clever name for the place.

At any rate, the Dodgers have brought on former A’s assistant GM Paul DePodesta to run the ship. DePodesta is another young, up-and-comer well-versed in sabermetrics. There is definitely a paradigm shift taking place in the front offices of MLB clubs. Wonder how long it will take for statheads to dominate the scene and for old-fashioned tools-based analysis to go underground, from which it one day can re-emerge as cutting edge.

DePodesta is highly regarded as a GM prospect. With the Dodger ownership situation finally being resolved, DePodesta will be given a better chance to succeed than was his predecessor, Dan Evans. We’ll see what he does with that chance.

Other Stuff

Regular contributor Howard Lynch sends these our way:

• Pacific Coast League Looks For Solution In Portland (BA). The Pads’ Triple-A affiliate is in danger of becoming the PCL’s version of the Expos. Here’s an update on the situation in the Oregonian (by way of PDX Beavers).
• Familiar names among invitees (Padres.com). A look at non-roster invitees in Padre camp. Can’t see more than one or two of these guys making the club (my money’s on Rey Ordonez and Sir Gene Kingsale), but you never know.

Mailbag

Thanks, as always, for all the letters. The feedback on Best Of Ducksnorts has been overwhelmingly positive, to the point where I’m already planning next year’s edition.

Before I pull a muscle patting myself on the back, let’s get to today’s letter. This one comes from N.B., who asks about the pictures of Petco Park I’ve posted here at Ducksnorts:

The most recent picture on your web-site is almost a year old – feb 23rd, 2003. Is that any indication of how rapidly the stadium construction is progressing?

Er, well um, you see… No, that’s about the date I left my downtown job and unfortunately stopped being able to take pictures of the stadium on a regular basis. I’ve been meaning to fix that for a while, but just haven’t gotten around to it.

Bad webmaster, no donut.

As for the stadium, it’s actually in real good shape. It opens for business the second week in March for a college baseball tournament, then makes its big-league debut April 8 against the Giants. Meantime, if you need your fix of stadium pix, here’s where you want to be:

• Vincent’s Ballpark Photos This is the single best source of Petco Park photos I’ve found. Awesome, awesome site.
• Petco Park Baseball Stadium Construction (PBase)
• Petco Park (Ballparks of Baseball)

That’s all for now. Keep those e-mails coming. Next time we’ll do a little prospecting.