ESPN is reporting that the Yankees have signed recently released Richie Sexson. He could be in the lineup Saturday against Oakland.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3493648

It'll be interesting to see if Sexson keeps up his insane pace against LHP so far this season. It's completely out of line with his performance against lefties in 2006 and 2007, but looks quite similar to his 2005 performance against them. Is this a small sample size, or a return to form, I wonder?

Sexson is awful. This makes me happy.

It's worth a shot, if it doesn't work out they'll just release him again.

Exactly. The yankees can only win in this situation. he sucks, he's cut. He surprises and does well, they get a huge boost.

He's very tall and a good target at first base for A-Rod and Jeter.

I read somewhere else that he has a .260AVG and an .875OPS in away games. This could be good, I like this signing for NYY to some degree.

Hey Jacks, that sounds like your mom telling you if you can't say something nice about somebody, don't say anything.

But, I agree with this signing for you guys. He's murdering LHPs this year, I noticed, and you'll get a good amount of those at Yankee Stadium. He can help keep them honest.

Wilson Betemit is a switch-hitter with a lot of holes from the right side. That makes Sexson an upgrade. When Richie plays first base against lefties, Giambi will DH because Matsui is done for the season. From what I am reading, Damon may not be able to play LF when he comes back this weekend, and that makes him a DH.

This team has too many DHs.

Murders LHPs this year, eh? Or as others (on nyyfans.com, for instance) have put it, "mashes" them?

Do you realize that only ONE QUARTER of his entire # of ABs have been against LHPs? That's 61 out of 252 ABs. Well, he HAS taken a lot more BBs this season than he usually does -- which is a significant part of both his OBP and his OPS. However, once he gets on base he's as much a base-clogger as Jorge Posada, i.e. an automatic front end of a GIDP.

Also, of his total 55 hits, 8 are doubles and 11 are HRs. But remember that's playing nearly every day this first half against both LHPs and RHPs. He's going to get a lot less ABs. Are the XBhits supposed to get "better" if he's platooned? A guy whose mindset has been "play every day" for 6 of the last 8 years?

he is better than Wilson Betemit...... I guess.

WC, you have to appreciate the mind-set of the overpaid modern pro baseball player. Sexson got what he wanted. He's out of Seattle. For two-plus months, he'll pay attention, actually look like he cares. He may fool one of 30 MLB teams into thinking that he can help them next year. Personally, I think he has been washed up for at least two years, maybe longer.

The Mariners are pretty busy now that they have a warm body working in the GM slot.

Yeah, you’re right. This signing really cripples the Yankees. The fact that their right-handed first baseman is now Sexon instead of Wilson Betemit is a real blow to their lineup. That and the money they have to give him…what is it, like 100,000.00?

jackson...

Actually, Sexson was pretty good about being available to the media the past couple of years (i.e., the awful/most part of his Mariners career), both when he contributed to the results of a game (W or L) or when he was involved in something else (brawls). He didn't start to pout and sulk over being a part-timer until just before his release, going down to the bullpen to sit with the relievers instead of sitting on the M's bench.

I can't wait to hear the obligatory "I always wanted to wear the pinstripes, I've been a Yankee fan all my life, I love Yankee Stadium and Monument Park" out of Sexson's mouth...

(yeah, sure, Vancouver WA, they have a lot of Yankee fans growing up there)

Tall guys look good in pinstripes.

But it makes it harder for the umpires to see where Richie's strike zone is...

It's the same number as if they called up a minor leaguer. It's a no-lose signing. Either they catch lightning in a bottle for a couple of months or they don't. Either way it costs them next to nothing. I doubt that he will help them substantially, but I've been wrong before.

It'll just cost the Yankees time, and that minor league level portion of his salary.

Sexson's bat is slower these days. And it's been 10 days since he picked up a bat in earnest. And 7 days before THAT when he hit his last HR as a Mariner (July 1st).


Tonight, for instance: Smith is more a flyball pitcher than a groundball pitcher, so Sexson will have his chances if Smith leaves the ball fat in the strike zone. But if Smith is painting the outside corners and mixing his pitches well, Sexson is more likely to take a walk than get a hit. I wonder who Girardi will put in the lineup behind Sexson? It should be someone who can move a very large slow runner along the basepaths, not a GIDP machine...

How does that mean the yankees can only win? Maybe from a financial standpoint, but if he sucks on the field, i'd say that's a losing situation.

Sexson singles to tie game at 1-1 in bottom of first during an 8-pitch at-bat. I didn't know he was so patient at the plate. Still looks very tall in pinstripes. He's Walking Tall right now.

Oops. Sexson strikes out in his next AB but he doesn't clog up the bases so Cano homers for a 4-1 lead after 3 innings.

"..so patient at the plate"... Yeah, that's why he has more BBs this season than in recent memory. He was REALLY trying for that, and his bat just happened to hit the ball in the right place! Don't forget, too, it WAS a single, like most of his hits this season. And like you observed above, he K'd in the 3rd. That's the Richie Sexson we M's fans have been agonizing over for the past 3 months. Now you Yankee fans get to -- although I imagine he's on a very short pinstriped leash...What'd I tell ya, jackson? Richie walked. (I can hear Yankee fans -- not you, of course, just the run of the mill ones -- all over the Northeast getting all excited over Richie's OBP!!!)What'd I tell ya, jackson? Richie walked. (I can hear Yankee fans -- not you, of course, just the run of the mill ones -- all over the Northeast getting all excited over Richie's OBP!!!)

(slaps forehead) I was wondering where my addendum went, so I re-posted it. Now I have both of them attached to my original comment. And I didn't notice until the edit timed out. Way to go, Karen....

The Yanks are not asking as much of Sexson as Seattle was. He's in a pressure-free situation here instead of underachieving for a franchise that was paying him $14M per season. And the fans in New York are not flying high on caffeine. They just drink beer so they should be less hostile than those frustrated Mariners followers.

That elicited a giggle out of me, jackson. Do you really believe what you wrote?

(I'm thinking, "jackson has to be doing what I was pretending to do the other day, channelling nyyfans.com fans -- he HAS to be!")

Never visited that site. My brother and his son are big Mariners fans and this season has been very deflating for them. They had such high hopes heading in. I've always thought they, meaning my relatives, overrated their team from year to year. But I never thought the Ms would be this bad. And the truth is, they're not this bad. All of the stuff you said earlier this year about bad management was very much on the mark. Bad teams usually result from a combination of poor front office decisions, injuries and underproduction from key players. Seattle has had all that in spades.

And yes, I do believe they drink too much caffeine in Seattle. My nephew's a city bus driver who inhales coffee and he's already run over six people this year. Each of them was white and skinny and 6 feet, 8 inches tall.

I cant help but notice you described a player leaving a last place Mariners club for the New York Yankees as entering a "pressure-free situation."

It's debatable, for sure. But Sexson had become the whipping boy for Mariners fans over the past year, which is tough because he's a Washington native. He goes to New York and just has to fit in instead of carry the offense. If he fails to deliver in New York, of course, he will hear it from the fans. And more to the point, he is playing for his next contract and there's pressure in that process, too.

Richie also said it's more fun playing for a contender than it is playing for a team 20 games out of first place. Interesting thought.

That frickin' idiot. If it weren't for him sucking the past year and a half, in addition to a handful of the stupidest trades a GM could possibly engineer, the Mariners might be a lot closer to >.500 ("contending") than they are right now. If he'd produced as well as Ibanez, Beltre, Lopez and Ichiro, for instance. Or if his defense was a lot better than statuesque.

I see he K'd again last night (knocking his BA down .001). And walked, too (which pumped his OBP up another .001). No net gain...

Sounds like you are addicted to Sexson, WC. Call Wade Boggs. He has the cure.

Richie played defense in the ninth inning today. He watched a lot of the game from the top step of the dugout. I think he's actually enjoying the game again. And the Mariners are paying him about $5M to enjoy himself with the Yankees for the rest of the season.

People said I was addicted to ARod, too. Just another ex-Mariner playing for the Yankees....

C'mon, jackson, Sexson watched the game from the top step of the dugout whenever he was not in the lineup for the Mariners, too -- not often enough -- except for that last day when he sulked out in the bullpen with the relievers.

Don't make it out that M's management or his teammates gave him the Carl Pavano cold shoulder and he's so happy now he has his own Barcalounger with the Yankees. He was treated with kid gloves by the organization right up to that last day he was a Mariner (that business about not sitting at his locker and contemplating his suckiness with the rest of the team as demanded by Bavasi...that's all on Bavasi, it was a stupid rant by BB).

The organization was a bit Pollyanna-ish, but the fans weren't. Last season we kept hoping and kept hoping Richie'd "break out" after a really abysmal first half, that he'd rebound in the second half. Not so much. We hoped he'd start out the year this season a little closer to his career averages. Not so much. You get tired of hoping after a while.

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As for coming in for "defense" in the 9th...for who, Wilson Betemit? Sorry, Richie should never be considered a defensive replacement for anyone who can handle a glove. If I were a Yankee fan, I'd hope it'd be the other way around if the game was on the line (as it seemed to be today, from what I've read). Maybe the humiliation of being considered a one-inning defensive replacement is offset by looking so good in those pinstripes (I've read some truly hilarious drooling posts on other message boards about how he looks in his Yankee uniform)...