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Cash, Boras talk Tex, Lowe

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As we noted, Scott Boras and Brian Cashman met yesterday to discuss some of the über-agent’s free agents. According to Tyler Kepner, Cashman met with Mark Teixeira as well, and this finally seems to confirm the Yankee interest in the man who would be, to channel Buster Olney, a great fit. No word there on an offer.

But on the Derek Lowe front, Mark Feinsand has somet developments. According to the Daily News scribe, the Yanks may be gearing up to make Lowe an offer. While Boston has also expressed interest in Lowe, I’d rather see the Yanks pursue Teixeira. Lowe doesn’t do much for me, but some of that might just be my personal reaction to him.

With Tex, Scott Boras is at it again

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Over the years, Scott Boras has done a stellar job getting more money for his clients by alleging that some other, unnamed team has already offered a lofty deal to the said client. In 2000, by most accounts, this tactic earned A-Rod an additional $25-$50 million from the Rangers. Well, he’s at it again with Mark Teixeira. As Bill Shaikin reported in the L.A. Times, Scott Boras is going around saying that “we’ve received a number of offers” for Teixeira. He doesn’t name the teams, and while teams have expressed interest, no rumored offers have emerged. Maybe Boras has these offers, but it’s more likely just a negotiating tactic. He has to get the Sabathia-less (for now) Yankees to the table somehow.

In the weeks leading up to the Winter Meetings

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We know there’s plenty of big news to come in the baseball world. Nearly every free agent is still in play, so we’re not only going to get news of their signings, but we’re also going to get news from teams of interest. Who’s in on whom; who just made a mega-offer; where does Player X really want to play? It’s what makes the Hot Stove so damn exciting.

However, we shouldn’t expect anything huge to happen over the next few weeks. There’s going to be a lull this week because of the holiday, and then next week because it’s the week before the biggest event of the off-season, the Winter Meetings in Las Vegas. You might hear some rumblings, but it’s doubtful that anything gets done before December 8.

Writers, of course, still need to file material. You’ll probably see some regurgitated news here at RAB over the next two weeks. It’s just the nature of the beast. That doesn’t mean, however, that we can’t make fun of the kind of news that’s popping up. Perhaps that’s the best way to deal with the dearth of activity to come.

Today we first turn to Buster Olney, who riffs on the idea of CC Sabathia and LeBron James playing in New York. This on the heels of the Knicks recent trades, which gives them significant cap relief in the 2010 off-season, when James will be a free agent. Olney notes the friendship between the two:

Sabathia developed a friendship, through his years in Cleveland, with LeBron James, as the two became the biggest stars in a small town. They have bopped around New York together in the past, and on Friday, the Knicks made trades that are being viewed as precursors to their pursuit, in another 20 months, of James.

Presumably, at some point, Sabathia and James have shared a conversation about living and playing in New York at the same time — Sabathia for the Yankees, James for the Knicks. James, as the world famously learned in the playoffs of 2007, is a Yankees fan.

Olney makes the conclusion that this could potentially be one of the intangibles which attracts CC to the Yanks. You come into California and conquer, yeah, big whoop. You come to New York and conquer, man, that’s something else. It’s not like it’s easy to do, even for the most elite athlete. Just ask A-Rod.

Then we have Randy Youngman, columnist for the Orange County Register. His Saturday article features the headline “Angels likely not on Teixeira’s wish list,” and the subhead is “The free-agent first baseman seems to be leaning towards and East Coast team.” The key word in that header is “seems.” Because what follows is nothing more than an ill-informed opinion.

Knowing agent Scott Boras’ affinity for the big stage, I’m guessing Teixeira’s headline-grabbing signing will be announced during baseball’s winter meetings Dec. 8-11 in Las Vegas. What better place for the rich to get richer?

But I don’t think it will be with the Angels. If he were going to re-sign in Anaheim, I think it already would have happened. Just a gut feeling. Even the people I talk to in the organization don’t seem optimistic.

Has Youngman never experienced a hot stove season before? Thing like this take time to develop. If Scott Boras is your agent, you probably aren’t going to give a hometown discount (there was apparently a lot of strife between the agent and Andruw Jones after he took a discount to stay in Atlanta a few years ago). The Angels will surely make an offer, and it could very well be competitive enough to keep him. If the rumblings have any merit — eight years, $160 million — you can probably pencil Tex into the Angels’ starting line up for 2009 and beyond.

These are just some examples of what you can expect to see in the coming weeks. We’ll try to be on our best behavior, but sometimes you just gotta point these things out.

Yanks out to sign every free agent available

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A few months after the Yankees’ unceremonious loss to the Angels in the 2002 playoffs, The Onion, the nation’s finest satirical news source, ran one of their better sports articles. “Yankees Ensure 2003 Pennant By Signing Every Player in Baseball” screamed the headline. Kat O’Brien’s latest for Newsday could almost be that article, except Kat is dead serious.

She writes:

The Yankees have expressed strong interest in righthanded pitchers Derek Lowe and A.J. Burnett in the past couple of days, according to sources familiar with the talks, after offering ace lefty CC Sabathia a contract in the ballpark of six years and $140 million…

Although pitching is the Yankees’ priority, and they traded for first baseman/outfielder Nick Swisher last week, a source said the Yankees have expressed an interest in first baseman Mark Teixeira. The Gold Glover is, with Manny Ramirez, the top free-agent offensive player available. The Yankees might simply be trying to drive the price up for the Red Sox and Angels by indicating interest in Teixeira, or they could be hedging their bets in case something falls through on the pitching front and they have money to spend.

So based on O’Brien’s sources, the Yanks have contacted every top free agent except for Manny Ramirez in the last few days. I wonder when Manny gets his phone call.

Meanwhile, these unnamed sources also answered Joe’s overnight query. CC is reportedly “mulling things over” while in Houston this weekend. As the Yankees turn, so baseball turns. The dominoes, I predict, won’t fall until someone signs with the Yankees first. So we wait.

Angels not willing to wait for Teixeira

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One of the biggest obstacles to the Yankees acquiring Mark Teixeira this winter is the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. It appears they want to retain him, and will make a sizable offer to the 28-year-old first baseman. Not only that, but the Red Sox appear interested, meaning the price might get a bit steep. Probably not 10 years, $200 million steep, but it’ll get up there.

The good news is that the Angels don’t necessarily play Scott Boras’s game of gauging the market and waiting it out in hopes of extracting the largest possible offer. They like to make big offers and act quickly, as evidenced by the Torii Hunter acquisition last winter. Word from Angels GM Tony Reagins is that the team won’t let the Teixeira situation drag out.

“In any situation, you get to a point where you have to make a decision and move the business forward,” Angels GM Tony Reagins said. “In any negotiation, there always comes that point where you have to say, you’re in or you’re out.”

When will that point be? Rosenthal speculates that it could come as soon as next Thursday, though that’s doubtful. There’s little chance that Teixeira accepts an offer before at least gauging the market. You don’t hire Scott Boras as your agent so you can take a hometown discount before hearing other offers. You don’t turn down $140 million without the intent of hearing higher bids.

I have a feeling this might be some hot air coming from the Angels. They’ll surely make an aggressive offer to keep Teixeira, who hit .358/.449/.632 in his 234 Angels plate appearances. I don’t expect them to just bow out, though, if he doesn’t immediately accept the offer. There will be plenty of them, and it’s in his best interest to take the time to examine each of them. (Especially if the highest one is from the Yankees.)

Davidoff: Manny over Tex?

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Continuing the non-stop Saturday coverage of Manny Ramirez comes a piece from Ken Davidoff. Unnamed Yankee insiders claim the team is more likely to wind up with Manny Ramirez than with Mark Teixeira, and Davidoff believes the determining factor is the number of years each player wants. While I’d like to see Manny in pinstripes, I have no qualms about committing to seven years of Mark Teixeira. I believe that Teixeira fills a need now and in the future and would have a greater impact on the team in the long run than Manny would in the short run. If I’m picking one, I take Teixeira.

RLYW: Teixeira a great fit for the Bronx

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Mark Teixeira is a premier defensive first baseman who hits for power and does a stellar job getting on base. In the words of Buster Olney, he is the perfect fit for the Yanks. While numerous Yankee bloggers have made the case for Teixeira, yesterday, SG at Replacement Level Yankee Weblog ran the numbers and showed that a seven-year deal for Teixeira would be ideal. His 2015 projections have Teixeira at .268/.365/.483 in 2015 at the end of a tenure in the Bronx that projects to 201 HR with a .280/.378/.508 line. I’d take that in a heartbeat for $22 million a year.