Larry Lucchino Gets the Better of Randy Levine

Well, I guess Spring Training was a little too quiet. So Larry Lucchino decided to stir things up a little bit by taking a couple of verbal shots at the Yankees

"We’re very different animals,'' the Red Sox CEO said of the Sox and Yanks. "I’m proud of that difference. I always cringe when people lump us together."

....

The Yankees, said Lucchino, "are still, this year at least, relying heavily on their inimitable old-fashioned Yankees style of high-priced, long-term free agents. And I can’t say that I wish them well, but I think that we’ve taken a different approach."

Heh heh heh.

It should be noted here that Lucchino, for once, is 100% right. The Red Sox and the Yankees have become two very different animals. With the changes to the CBA, how the draft now works with regards to bonuses, the enhanced value of draft picks and even the rules extending to international free agents, the Red Sox have adapted and the Yankees have not.

The Red Sox have been judicious in the free agent signings, making sure not to lock in for too many years. They have drafted smartly and used draft picks to restock the system. The Yankees have done the opposite. They have signed expensive free-agents to long-term deals and given up draft picks for the privilege of doing so. The smartest thing the Yankees have done in months is sign Gardner to that four-year, $52M deal. And that's about it. Even the signing of Masahiro Tanaka is a gamble thanks to the fat contract he was handed.

The result is that the Red Sox have won three World Series in the past 10 years to one for the Yankees. And it looks a lot more likely that the Sox will win a fourth before the Yankees win their second. That's just the truth of it.

So after Lucchino's broadside, Levine responded in kind:

“I feel bad for Larry; he constantly sees ghosts and is spooked by the Yankees," Levine said. "But I can understand why, because under his and Bobby Valentine’s plan two years ago, the Red Sox were in last place."

....

"[Boston general manager] Ben Cherington and the Red Sox did a great job last year winning the World Series," continued Levine, "but I’m confident [Yankee GM Brian Cashman and manager Joe Girardi] and our players will compete with a great Red Sox team to win a world championship this year."

Now, I will give Levine credit for the Valentine dig at Lucchino. Lucchino was the one who insisted on and got Bobby V here, and then ludicrously defended him the whole season. He went so far as to say that Valentine had done "a good job" in August of 2012. At that point the Sox were 55-57. So Levine isn't off-base on that statement.

Emails Don't Clear A-Rod, But Put Levine In Hot Seat

None of it exonerates Alex Rodriguez. None of it takes the Yankees' embattled slugger off the hook. None of it makes A-Rod look any better.

The only thing it does is raise serious questions about Yankees president Randy Levine.

Over the weekend, New York magazine published a series of email exchanges between Rodriguez and Levine. It is fascinating reading, but lacking in anything close to clearing A-Rod.

During the climax of the arbitration hearing in front of arbitrator Fredric Horowitz in November, Rodriguez stormed out the hearing and his legal and public relations team then threatened show everything it had to the public. Among the things they said they were going to show was a series of email exchanges with Levine.

While we don't know for sure that these emails were leaked by Team A-Rod, if these are the messages Rodriguez wanted to make public, then he needs better representation.

Simply put, there is nothing there to show that A-Rod was not using performance enhancing drugs. There is nothing there to show A-Rod is the victim of a witch hunt. There is nothing there to show that A-Rod is a victim of anyone besides himself.

If anything, these emails would have been better served as leverage to gain some sort of plea bargain with MLB for a reduced suspension.