Cashman: Grabbing Godzilla Was “One Of The Best Deals I Ever Made”
Via Reuters -
General Manager Brian Cashman said bringing [Hideki] Matsui to New York from the 2003 season was one of his best signings for the Bronx Bombers.
“I’ve had some successful signings in Japan, I’ve had some unsuccessful signings in Japan. Hideki Matsui will be one of the best deals I ever made,” he said.
“We will have future players from Japan on our roster. They will do everything in their power to try to help us win, but I doubt we’ll find another Hideki Matsui.”
Cashman said the former Yomiuri Giants star was prized by the Yankees not for his nationality, but for his skills as a player.
“We did not sign Hideki Matsui because he was Japanese, we signed him because he was a true champion and one of the world’s more gifted baseball players,” he said.
Team president Randy Levine also praised Matsui, adding he hoped the Yankees did not lose Japanese fans with his departure.
“We know the great allegiance to Hideki Matsui — he deserves it. He was a great Yankee,” said Levine.
“Hopefully, people will still root for the New York Yankees.”
O.K., now, let’s look back at a feature that appeared on mlb.com seven years ago – via some snips:
In her second year as the New York Yankees’ assistant general manager, Jean Afterman has cemented herself as an integral part of the organization’s baseball operations department. When she was hired in December 2001, GM Brian Cashman cited her expertise in the Far East as one of her strongest attributes. That expertise paid off for the Yankees, as Afterman led the charge to bring Hideki Matsui to New York this winter. MLB.com recently caught up with Afterman to discuss Matsui, Japanese baseball and women in baseball.
MLB.com: George Steinbrenner has repeatedly credited you with paving the way for Hideki Matsui’s signing with the Yankees. What was the most challenging part of the Matsui negotiations?
Afterman: That’s a tough question for me, because the negotiations are always the most fun part, because it’s like a chess game. There were certain issues that had to be worked through because the business of baseball in Japan is so different than it is in the U.S. There is always an issue in business translation, so a Japanese player has to not only learn and understand the bare bones of what kind of deal is being presented, but also be educated on a whole different business world. How the Players Association comes into play, what their new-found rights are in the U.S., how they can use those rights or not use them. It wasn’t ‘tough,’ there’s just a lot more meat to the process for a Japanese player coming to the U.S. than there would be with a player from the University of Texas.
MLB.com: Why do you believe that Matsui will succeed in the Majors?
Afterman: I think he will succeed because of his pure, raw talent. Over 10 years in Japan, including successful stints in the U.S.-Japan All-Star Series prior to this last one, he compiled a record that put him at the very top level of Japanese pro baseball players. And he’s not only at the top of current players, but all-time players. With players, the common perception used to be that the game is 50 percent mental and 50 percent physical. Now, having worked in the game like I do, I think the mental game is 70 percent. Hideki has the pure raw ability as well as the make-up to be here. He’s been in the largest baseball market outside of the U.S., he’s been in the spotlight and he’s dealt with the pressure for 10 years. This should be no different.
So, who made the deal to get Godzilla for the Yankees? Seems like we have some conflicting reports here.
Aren’t you the one that always says that Cashman has to be held to account for the work of his lieutenants? So if one of his lieutenants was instrumental in signing Matsui, Cashman gets none of the credit there? But, presumably, Cashman is an “idiot” because HE signed Igawa, right? All of his lieutenants begged and pleaded for him to avoid Igawa but Cashman plowed right ahead, right?
Seriously, this is exactly the kind of post that demonstrates your Cashman bias. Some days it’s more overt and then some days — like with this post — it’s subtle but still there.
Just write what you really want to write: CASHMAN’S A LIAR! HE HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH MATSUI!
Hideki Matsui will be one of the best deals I ever made,” he said.
——-
Not as good as the Mussina deal, IMHO.
@ YankCrank:
Judging from the context of the quote, I think he was referring to Japanese signings.
@ MJ:
I just find it funny that Cashman is ready to take ownership on a good signing that wasn’t all him, if him at all, on Matsui. But, on the bad pitching signings, like Contreras and Weaver, he’s pinning those on the scouts:
http://waswatching.com/2009/02/16/cashman-our-scouts-and-therefore-i-are-not-to-blame/
2 things worth noting:
1. At least according to LoHud the quote was:
“I’ve had some successful signings in Japan, I’ve had some unsuccessful signings in Japan. Hideki Matsui will be one of the best deals I ever made.”
Does that not sound like taking responsibility for the Igawa signing without actually saying Igawa sucks at baseball? Kinda like Giambi simply being “sorry” without specifying what he is sorry about.
2. Who in Japan knows who Jean Afterman is? As Jeffrey Lebowski says, Cashman was using the royal “I”…. the editorial. You can’t really expect Cashman to drive the car, answer the phone, and handle the bag at the same time.
@ Steve Lombardi:
You’re so bogged down in the semantics of how terrible Cashman is at his job that you’ve become wildly inconsistent with your criteria. You’re so obsessed with the minutiae of Cashman’s every word — what he should’ve said or what he didn’t say — that I marvel at how you can keep it all straight in your head. It’s just far too difficult keeping up with you with respect to what represents “fair game” as opposed to “out of bounds” in critiquing an individual.
@ MJ:
What if I said that you’re so bogged down in your genuflection of Cashman that you’ve become wildly incapable of accepting the notion that he is thin-skinned, FOS, and aims to be telfon when it comes to his bad moves?
Would that be unfair? Not nice? If so, is it any different from what you just said to me?
@ Steve Lombardi:
Say whatever you want. I’ll be happy to go toe-to-toe with you any day about your logically inconsistent arguments regarding Brian Cashman. I’m sorry if you take it personally because it’s not meant as a personal attack. But I also can’t help but call you out when you change the rules of some of your arguments.
Remember, you spent 2-3 years painting me with the “Kool-Aid” brush so calling me any other name wouldn’t be new territory here.
Steve Lombardi wrote:
All of the failures had impressive pedigrees. Igawa was a strikeout king in Japan. Contreras won a gold medal for the Cuban national team. Johnson, Pavano and Brown were former All-Stars who had anchored rotations for World Series winners.
So tell me why Cashman (or his scouts, if you prefer) wouldn’t take interest in these guys?
In the Yankees’ recent glory years, their rotation seemed to offer something close to an ace every game. Many came from elsewhere, like Jimmy Key (acquired in 1993), David Cone (1995), David Wells (1997), Orlando Hernández (1998), Roger Clemens (1999) and Mike Mussina (2001).
Meanwhile, the author makes no mention of guys like Terry Muholland, David Weathers, Irabu, etc… Or even Taylor-Kamie-Johnson, the forerunners of Kennedy-Chamberlain-Hughes…
Hell, even Wally Whitehurst was able to pitch a couple of games during the run.
@ Steve Lombardi:
Let me make it very clear, once more: I am not leveling personal attacks on you. I am simply pointing out that, with respect to Brian Cashman’s performance as GM, you change the rules of the game too often for me to be able to know what you’re criticizing.
@ MJ:
excellent point! it’s the old ww.com outlook, heads brian cashman loses, tails somebody else wins. as you noted, mj, we’ve heard repeatedly here that cashman has to be held responsible for what happens under his watch with regards to negative moves. now that it’s a positive move, he doesn’t get the credit without any questions asked, just like he’s supposed to get the blame without any questions asked. that seems fair.
Well, it’s really two halves of the same coin, isn’t it?
Steve thinks Cashman is a terrible G.M. Therefore, any move that fails gets pinned on him; any move that works gets attributed, at least partially, and oftentimes mostly, to someone else’s leg work or scouting abilities.
On the other hand, Cashman is claiming the Matsui move as his own, and has, to a certain extent, shunted off some blame for signings like Igawa onto others.
To my way of thinking, Cashman deserves substantial credit for Matsui AND substantial blame for Igawa. Both decisions are, in the end, largely his responsibility.
==========================================
As a side note: the signing of Contreras was NOT a failure, as he proved when he led the White Sox to a title in 2005. That Contreras couldn’t make it “in the spotlight glare of the Yankees” is something that could not have been foreseen at the time of his signing. He had pitched well against teams of all-stars in the spotlight glare of the WBC, and, after the Yanks traded him for 10 cents on the dollar, pitched very well again in the spotlight glare of Chicago (a pretty doggone big market) and in the spotlight glare of the post-season (yes, even against the Red Sox), and in the spotlight glare of the post-season in Chicago.
The failed signing of Jeff Weaver was not, in fact, a signing. It was a trade that should’ve worked but didn’t. Weaver, by the way, pitched lousy just about all the time since he was traded to the Yanks…except for the post-season of 2006 for the Cards.
Evan3457 wrote:
It’s not that cut and dried; “We did not sign Hideki Matsui because he was Japanese, we signed him because he was a true champion and one of the world’s more gifted baseball players,” he said.
Evan3457 wrote:
Especially since he had a solid season in 2003
seems like to me that jean afterman was more a middle man (or woman) in the whole negotiation. as she says there a lot of little things that goes on. the American culture is completely different then the Japanese culture. shes the one that took care of that. being almost a translator. but cashman is the one that took care of the whole money side of the whole thing. so technically it is “his signing.” and no signing happens without some help from somewhere. cashman doesn’t sign all these guys by himself. its one big business and a signing doesn’t get done without the steinbrenners approving it number 1 and i’m also guessing there has to be some kind of consensus through out the organization that it would be a good signing.
im shocked that cashman only takes credit for the good moves and pushes blame into others for the bad ones! shocked!
Overall, y’all are reading way too much into his words…
Raf wrote:
I concur, but this is what happens when there’s no baseball to talk about. I hate the offseason.
Corey wrote:
P’s & C’s report on 2/17, I believe. Fortunately we’re less than three full weeks away from some real, tangible stuff to talk about.
Winter leagues are going on right now, Serie del Caribe starts today
I don’t care who takes claim for Gojira. The question is who takes blame for for The Japanese Idle, Igawa San AKA The Sunglass Kid ? I wonder if Jean or Brian will rush to take credit for that full blown fiasco………
Serie del Caribe = Caribbean Series
They’re playing in VZ this year,
Indios de Mayagüez (PR)
Leones del Escogido (DR)
Naranjeros de Hermosillo (MX)
Leones del Caracas (VZ)
are the teams. It’s a round robin tourney.
Corey wrote:
Corey, unfortunately there is. Across town the NY Mess are doing an entertaining job of doing nothing! I love the train wreck in Flushing right now. It is a sexier story than the Yankees quite frankly. I don’t agree with all of Cash Man’s moves this off season(an understatement if ther ever was one) BUT at least there is a perception that he has attempted to improve the team. Los Metropolitanos ? It’s fun to watch them sink like this…I’m enjoying it actually! Their inaction is great fodder for sports talk radio……
@ Raf:
Good stuff, Raf. Where can I find rosters for these teams?
@ butchie22:
Agree completely. The Mets have had a horrible off-season. I think only the Angels have done a worse job of managing their 25-man roster this winter.
MJ wrote:
You can get there through the MLB site. I believe they’re broadcasting the games.
Here is the link to the MLB site