Tough Decisions

Am I the only one who feels this way, or do others have a hard time drawing up sympathetic feelings for what Mark Teixeira is going through?  Torii Hunter has stated that Teixeira is having a hard time sleeping at night, "Trust me, he's going through it right now,'' Hunter said of Teixeira. "He can't sleep at night. He's up at 5 in the morning. It's pretty rough for him right now.''  Don't get me wrong, I think Teixeira is a great ballplayer and deserves every cent he's going to receive in his next contract, but that doesn't mean I feel sorry for him.  He's got some tough decisions to make.  Such as which gated community should he buy his next multi-million dollar home?  Should he buy a Mercedes, Bentley or Escalade?  Will $20,000,000 be enough to make ends meet or will it take $23,000,000?  Tough decisions.

I once worked for a small medical device company who was having problems with one of their products.  I was given the task to find out what the problem was, what was causing the problem, and fixing the problem.  After spending a few weeks looking into every aspect of the product, it was determined that the ultra-sonic welding process was putting too much stress on an injection molded part.  This caused the part to breakdown in use making the product useless.  We readjusted the process and the product worked as advertised.  About a month later that product line was sold to a huge medical device company for a few million dollars and shortly after that, the owner of the company came into my office to chit-chat.  It seemed he was having a hard time deciding on which school in Switzerland to send his kid and it was keeping him up at night.  Should I have felt sympathy for my boss for his tough decision?   Hardly.  It was his company and he had worked hard to become successful, but just don't think I'm going to feel bad about your tough decisions when my own tough decisions are keeping me up at night.  Decisions like; should I pay the electric bill or the gas bill?  Can I take my kids to McDonald's or splurge and go to Denny's?

We all have tough decisions to make.

Daily Notes:

• I've heard rumors that Boston has offered Teixeira 8 years/$200M.  The rumor was started by Dan Patrick on ESPN radio when he was wondering if that would be what it'd take to sign him.  Apparently there has been no $200M offer made, but is it out of the question Teixeira could garner that big of a contract?  And should the Angels pay that much?  I posted the following over at Halo's Heaven:
  
  I agree, it'd be nice to have Teixeira back in Halo Red, but would spending $20M+ on one player be the best way to spend the dough?  If Teix leaves, the Angels lose a player capable of hitting 30+ HR, driving in 100 runs and getting on base 40% of the time, but could that production be replaced in a more cost effective way?  Yes.

  1)  Kendry Morales at 1B could be counted on for about 15 HR and 60 RBI, already on the payroll for $600K.
  2)  A player such as Dunn should be good for at least 35 HR, 90+RBI and the same 40% OBP, at a cost of approx. $13M.
  3)  A better #5 starter (such as Randy Johnson) for 12-14 wins...about 5-7 more wins than Moseley would get, for around $7M.

  So for the same $20M the Angels are getting 50HR, 150 RBI and a slight drop in OBP, plus a few more wins from the #5 starter.  Of course this doesn't take into account the LF who's batting order spot Dunn would take, but as of right now that spot is filled with Willits and then Matthews (when healthy).  I don't think either of those players makes much of an impact.

  I like Teixeira, but I think that money could be used more efficiently resulting in more wins.  This Angels team is good, and with a few breaks going their way in 2008, would have been in the World Series.  Something they can do in 2009 without Teixeira.

  
  
  The comments were pretty much split down the middle as some agreed with my thoughts and others felt he was worth the cost.  One mistake I made in my assumption was Willits being in LF, but if Teixeira is re-signed I think we'll probably see Morales in left which equals the output of Dunn/Morales.  I guess what I'm trying to say is, I think Adam Dunn would be an adequate replacement for Teixeira and at almost half the salary.  Salary which could be used to improve other areas of the club.  I'm reminding myself of former Angels' Gm Buzzie Bavasi who said he could replace Nolan Ryan with two 8-7 pitchers.  I'm not suggesting replacing Teixeira with two 15HR 75 RBI guys, but...okay, maybe I am.
• In our roundtable question answering thing I did with Blogs By Fans, I forgot to mention where my questions came from.  Mike from the Yankee blog "In Mo We Trust" sent the questions to me.  I meant to include a link to his site, but forgot.  And as links are the currency of bloggers, I feel I shorted him a bit.  So here's the link:  In Mo We Trust.  Go take a look at his Yankee thoughts.