Breaking News: Mike Francesa Sh_t Himself

If you were listening Mike'd Up, you may have noticed that Mike Francesa took an unexpected break. They went to a commercial, and were about to come back from break when there was a pretty long silence. It was probably over a minute long, and only ended when they started replaying an interview with Jerry Reese that had taken place earlier in the show. When it ended, Rich Ackerman came on and said something to the effect of "Mike is feeling under the weather and has gone home. Maybe a touch of the flu".

I think we all know what that means.

/nods at the title

//looks back at you

///smirks

(h/t Cliff, as I do not listen to WFAN, but will gleefully accuse any of their hosts of shitting their pants)

Only 3?

Tim from MLBTR put together a list of the 45 worst contracts in baseball. There are three Yankees listed:

• Jorge Posada, Four years, $52MM ($13MM per year). Signed November of 2007.
• Hideki Matsui, Four years, $52MM ($13MM per year). Signed November of 2005.
• Kei Igawa, Five years, $46MM ($9.2MM per year). Signed in December of '06, this was a clear and poorly thought-out response to Boston's Daisuke Matsuzaka signing.

Should A-Rod be on there? If you are talking about deals the teams wish they could tear up, light on fire, and shoot the ashes into outer space, don't you think that would be right up there? Would any team want to take it off the Yankees hands for free? Name one.

In light of what has happened, he'd be looking at some paltry offers on the open market nowhere near what the Yankees paid him and those milestone incentives look pret-tay, pret-tay, pret-tay bad. The PED use makes you doubt the validity of his past performance to some extent too. Wait until the Selena Roberts' book comes out and see what else she has to say. She has already indicated that there will be information on his "non-steroid" drug use. It could get worse.

Posada's deal is already bad because in what was likely to be his most productive year of the four, the Yanks didn't get much out of him. Parts of 51 games and a 103 OPS+. His production (while on the field) was not terrible considering he's a catcher, but that doesn't account for the slacking defense caused by his shoulder injury. The Yankees can't afford to have too many games with Kevin Cash and Jose Molina behind the dish this year if they expect to return to glory.

It didn't seem like it to me, but Hideki Matsui has only played an average of 96 games over the past three years. When he has appeared, he's been above league average, but for a corner outfielder that's not all that remarkable. Still, I think a team would take Matsui's contract over A-Rod's in a heartbeat.

If Kei Igawa's contract was a method of birth control, it would be a coat hanger abortion. No objections there.

After shedding Jason Giambi and Carl Pavano contracts, the Yanks are heading in the right direction. The 00's will be remembered for the Yanks' exorbitant spending and in some cases, minimal returns, unless they go out with a bang this year. No pressure guys.

So Much For All Of That, Huh?

Former Cincinnatti Bengals wide reciever and object of Fack Youk's affection, T.J. Houshmandzadeh, has not signed with the Giants as we had hoped.

In what turned out to be a tougher decision than expected, wide receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh chose the Seattle Seahawks over the Minnesota Vikings and the Cincinnati Bengals on Monday afternoon.

Sources told ESPN's Michael Smith the deal was worth more than $40 million for five years, with more than $15 million guaranteed.

"I just felt it was the best destination, it was the best team, it was the best choice for me," Houshmandzadeh told ESPN.

Housh indicated that he'd like to play for the Giants, but after signing Chris Canty, Brandon Jacobs, Corey Webster and Rocky Bernard to relatively large deals, they just didn't have the cap space to add a contract like the one he got from the Seahawks.

With this, it seems like the search for a reciever, which is probably the one weak spot remaining for the G-Men, turns to the draft. They have the 29th pick overall and it looks like there will be some solid talent available in that slot (Percy Harvin?). If not, they have the Saints' 2nd and 5th round picks from the Shockey deal that could be used to trade up and snag someone like Jeremy Maclin whose stock has probably fallen slightly after his injury at the combine.

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Could be a little slow today. I'm going to be really busy with work and I'm a little behind elsewhere too...

Blown Away

First via the National Football Post and with more details from Ralph Vacchiano, Derrick Ward (Wind of the Giants trio "Earth, Wind and Fire") has a new home.

It comes as no surprise, of course, since the Giants were prepared to let Ward (nickname: Wind) leave as a free agent, unless he was willing to come back and play for a deeply discounted price. Instead, he found a windfall on the market, agreeing to a four-year, $17 million contract, according to several reports.

That deal reportedly includes $6 million guaranteed, and he’ll supposedly make $9.25 million over the first two years and $13 million over the first three. The entire package is worth an average of $4.25 million annually, which is more than many people thought he was going to make.

They still have Cadillac Williams and just last year the Bucs signed Earnest Graham to a four year $11.05M contract, so it looks like Ward won't have to do all the heavy lifting in Tampa either.

Graham is actually pretty similar to Ward. They are both 29 and bloomed late in their careers. Ward broke his leg and was placed on IR before game 9 of the 2007 season, while Graham was shelved in week 11 last year because of an ankle issue. The Giants plucked Ward off the Jets' practice squad while the Bucs got Graham off the Rams'. There was a really good article on Graham from a while back in ESPN The Magazine, if you have the time.

Ward's bread and butter on the Giants was catching screen passes and dump offs effortlessly and stretching them into more yards that you thought he should. He's not incredibly fast, but agile enough to work his way through congested areas. He had over 1,409 yards from scrimmage last year as part of Earth, Wind and Fire. That's pretty impressive and was a lot of fun to watch.

We knew Ward was leaving when he switched agents, and it does appear that (according to RV) that Drouche got Ward more money than most had anticipated. Still up for kneeing him in the balls for me anyway?

Good luck, Derrick. You seem like an all around good dude and that overtime game against Carolina in Week 16 where you ended up with 266 yards from scrimmage and owned the extra quarter, will live on in Giants lore.