I would probably say Pujols.
i would agree.
the thing with texiera is his numbers are pretty much in line with, say, david wright's. wright is younger and a third baseman... i would say it's easier to find first basemen who can put up texiera type numbers... and wright has two gold gloves too (even though he probably didn't deserve them).
if somebody told me that wright was wroth 22 million i'd tell 'em they were bat shit bonkers.
that said... the yanks have the cash, and if texiera can give them what tino martinez gave them in the mid 90's then it'll end up being a great signing for them.
i do also agree with ya that the texiera signing will likely be the best of the three signings... and the red sox, angels and yes, even the nationals are equally to blame for his getting a ridiculous contract because those are the teams that set the price, and the yankees just came in just over them. if they had set a more reasonable price for a player of his caliber... say 14-15 million, then the yankees woulda come in at 16-17, not 22+.
the bitching and moaning from GMs and owners of other teams is nauseating... they're looking at the total number for the entire length of the contracts to exadurate the money that the yanks are spending. simple fact is that, as of now, the yankees have actually significantly CUT salary from last season.
yes, that's right. the yankees have cut salary. so now we need a salary cap? no one was calling for a salary cap when the yankees were spending over 200 million and missing the playoffs... now they actually CUT salary, but spend the money they are spending a little wiser (at least some think so), so now all of a sudden we need a salary cap again.
boo fucking hoo... the brewers could have manned up and resigned C.C. they're not even resigning ben sheets.
spend the money to make your team competitive year after year and people will come to see you play, your jerseys and hats will sell more nationaly, and you'll make the money to cover the increase in salary.
what the padres are doing is simply disgraceful, and the angels are crying poor when they play in friggin LA. they're a major market team, but they're talking as if they're in kansas city. gimmie a break. you just let k-rod go for cheap, let texiera go, and have announced that you won't sign manny. so what are you doing?