Monday, December 06, 2004

Defending Jason Giambi

His huge 7 year $120 million contract notwithstanding, Jason Giambi, so far, is getting a raw deal. His leaked testimony to a grand jury has the Yankees desperately looking to void the remainder of his contract (4 yrs, 82 mio). As Mike Lupica notes in the article linked to the title, would the Yankees be reacting the way they are at the moment if Giambi had had a Sheffield-like MVP year? Almost certainly not.

Best line in the article: "There are no virgins in this whorehouse." The Yankees surely had an inkling that steroids may have been involved when they signed Giambi after monstrous years in Oakland. The Yanks are trying to get rid of him because they don't think Giambi can perform anywhere near 2002-03 levels ever again and its their best chance to void the contract.

As a Yankee fan I would love to see the 20 mio per applied towards Pavano, Pedro and/or Beltran but it wouldn't be right. The player's union should fight any significant diminution of Giambi's contract as it would set a bad precedent. This doesn't mean that they don't need to agree to a real testing program asap or, latest, in the new collective bargaining agreement.

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