Yankees Finally Bolster Rotation

Andy Pettitte struggles to bring himself to sign such a low-priced contract.

The Yankees brought back Andy Pettitte yesterday, signing him to a one-year deal for $5.5 million, with another $6+ million in incentives. From the linked story:

Pettitte might have been able to get a multiyear deal from another club.

"I could have made an awful lot more money than what I signed for," he said.

Indeed. Who out there isn't looking to sign aging, .500 pitchers with a history of elbow and shoulder pain to lucrative, multi-year deals?

I kid, of course, because Andy Pettitte is a fine addition to the Yankees staff and finally brings some stability. I mean, who has heard of these shmoes? The rotation heading into 2009 looks something like this:

CC Sabathia
Chien-Ming Wang
AJ Burnett
Joba Chamberlain
Andy Pettitte

They've also got Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy, who were supposed to be the future of the rotation, waiting for when one of these guys invariably gets hurt.

Just to be safe, though, the Yankees also have contract offers on the table for Greg Maddux, Jake Peavy, Nolan Ryan, Satchel Paige and Sandy Koufax.

You know, just to be careful.

Butt-Buddies In A Whole New Way

Unfortunately, I think we're all going to be talking about steroids and other illegal performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) for a while now. And then it'll die down and then when Spring Training begins in Feb/Mar it'll dial back up again. And all the sanctimonious pricks like Mike Lupica who slurped at the altar of McGwire and Sosa back in '98 and then acted all shocked when it turned out they were doped up enough to kill a horse will write condemning articles about baseball players and the sanctity of the game, while guys like Shawne Merriman continue getting featured in commercials and doing his gay-ass dance after sacks.

However, all that said, I direct you to the outstanding site Fire Joe Morgan to take a look at some of their posts about baseball steroid/PED abusers, specifically Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte. They dug up just a couple of old stories about the glory days and clean living of these two and then they follow with their own thoughts. It's quite funny and also sad at the same time to anyone who loves baseball like I do.