He's meeting with Steinbrenner? FANTASTIC NEWS! The Boss did a great job at scaring off that other free agent a couple of weeks back.
My pessimistic emotion is overcoming me on this one. I feel like the Yanks string him and us out (payback for getting Roger), the Cubs have time to unload Corky and Beltran signs with the Cubs leaving us with the crumbs of the FAs - though some of them may not be too bad.
Don't put anything past King George...wouldn't shock me if Carlos accepts a deal in principle from the Yankees by tonight.
Given the kind of person I hear Carlos is...I'm not sure Steinbrenner is the best representative for the Yankees to have talking to him. We'll see.
http://www.nypost.com/sports/yankees/36819.htm Carl Pavano will be introduced tomorrow at Yankee Stadium. Randy Johnson is likely coming soon. But the biggest point of emphasis in the Yankees' universe today is Carlos Beltran. Beltran, the jewel of this year's free agent class, and his agent, Scott Boras, are slated to meet today in Tampa with George Steinbrenner. They hope to build upon the dialogue GM Brian Cashman started with Boras at the Winter Meetings last week. The Yankees have been the favorite to get Beltran since the 27-year-old switch-hitting center fielder filed for free agency, but they aren't alone. The Astros, who thanks to Beltran's smoking October bat came within one game of going to the World Series, are expected to make a serious pitch to retain him. The Cubs and Mets are also interested. Boras says there is a fifth team in the mix for a player some predict will land a seven-year deal worth $105 million. Beltran would be replacing the very popular Bernie Williams in center field, but he is such a talent that nobody will gripe about Williams being pushed into a DH role. "He can do everything," Derek Jeter said of Beltran. "He can beat you so many different ways. He has to be up there with the best players in the game." Beltran batted .258 with 23 homers and 53 RBIs in 90 games for the Astros after being acquired from the Royals on June 24. He hit .278 with 15 homers and 51 RBIs for Kansas City. Naturally, Joe Torre would welcome Beltran to the heart of his order and the middle of his outfield, where Beltran's defense is very good. "The one thing when The Boss gets talking it gets serious you get excited because he doesn't talk to a person unless it's a significant individual," said Torre, who hasn't been asked to call Beltran and deliver a recruiting pitch. "He's pretty special. He's young, on top of being special. I know when George Steinbrenner goes out there to get somebody he's pretty determined to do it. Any club that gets Beltran is going to be markedly improved."
My feelings on signing Beltran have gone from utterly optimistic to downright pessimistic. I don't see any way he's coming back.
The last I heard on the subject was that Minaya wanted the Cubs to pay 80 percent of Sammy's contract in order for the Mets to take him.
I think that's just because we haven't heard anything new since the winter meetings... and apparently, there's a reason for that. Pupura said this morning that the reason we're not hearing all about the Astros is at the request of Carlos to try to keep things quiet. You obviously can't tell that to the NY media.... but if you look at their articles, they're all mostly headlines, and there's not much substance to them... and those are the articles that the national media picks up on. He assured us that they're putting forth as aggressive of an effort as possible.
did he mention us exploring any other avenues if this didnt pan out with carlos? or is there anyting else we are working on in addition to carlos?
I came in and left when he was talking about Carlos wanting the Astros to keep things quiet. Sorry, I'm sure Nick will be able to do small recap, please. I think I heard something about them trying to trade Miller, not sure though.
They asked him about that as well as JD Drew and he said they haven't really talked about JD Drew too much becuase of his history of injury and the fact that he is also represented by Boras. They said that Beltran is their top priority and they have'nt really gone into detail about other players. They basically have just run down the list of outfielders available but haven't given them much though because of how aggresively they have been going after Beltran.
I think that Beltran's meeting this week with Steinbrenner is a good sign that he's ready to decide. It seems like Boras has been doing most of the talking and taking the meetings for him until now. He should meet with the Yankees in person first then meet with Drayton and hopefully we can get the deal done.
I heard on a Los Angeles Radio Station today that the Yankees are planning on offering Beltran 7 years/106 Million, while the Astros offer is at 6 years/95 Million. I don't know if that is old news or not, but I'm not sure how great it is that Beltran is meeting Steinbrener, while he doesn't even seem to want to talk with the Astros.
790 was saying that Purpura (who was apparently interviewed earlier in the day) mentioned that the Astros DO have a few Plan B's just in case and that one of them included adding an offensive threat at 2B...could that be the Soriano deal?
