How about getting one who is left-handed, at the very least? Even better if he is a good defensive player. If neither of those, a 40HR guy. Otherwise, we may as well stick with Giambi.
I'm almost sure this guy would come in be a better defensive player than Giambi. It's not too hard. I was never a cashman fan, and this eally isn't changing my opinion.
Mussina likely to return, Wright not likely to return. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/03/s...gin&adxnnlx=1162530133-N9FVb7IBKC7uXhqPPi85Kw Good news about Wright (and expected,) but it looks like we'll overpay for Mussina.
Unreal that we're even considering Suppan. He's probably the worst out of the rest of the NL trash we had recently brought in (Brown, Vazquez, Unit, Pavano, Wright). I don't want anything to do with that plug.
Well my point with Giambi is the same one I made the whole end of the season this year. Unless you are getting someone who is a very good defensive 1B, there is no reason not to let Giambi play first. The reason being, he is a much better offensive player when he gets to play defense. He's just one of those players that doesn't take well to the long periods of inactivity on the bench. The only way I say to get someone who isn't a Gold Glove 1B is if it is someone who hits like Pujols. (To be honest, I don't know how Pujols is defensively, so he may even be okay. The point is, unless they are a vastly better hitter than Giambi at his best, or a huge defensive upgrade, not just marginal, there's no reason to worry about the position right now.) I do want Moose back. He pitched much better this year than in the past. He only started failing when the weight of the rotation fell on him late in the year. If we can manage to get him in the 4 or 5 slot, he can be a 15 game winner, and probably be a good pitcher in the playoffs for once. If we are going to force him into one of the first two slots again, he is going to fall flat on his face, as is his career specialty. Suppan is a mistake. No question. The only NL pitchers I can think of off the top of my head I would want to see in pinstripes are Pettite and Clemens. Maybe I would chance Willis, if he came cheaply enough for us. We need a real #1 though, to go along with Wang. I'd rather just concentrate on getting a very good starter than try grabbing as much fluff as possible and letting it settle in the spring.
Me too, but most people aren't. He is not a popular choice, though I think he would make a great #3 starter for us. My rotation, if I had it my way: 1) Wang 2) Matsuzaka 3) Zito 4) Randy (I think the surgery is going to help him a lot. He's been off, but his fastball is still high-speed, and when his slider is on, it breaks hard.) 5) Moose I'd be willing to dump RJ if we found someone of quality, like a Willis to put in his spot. I don't want to offer a king's ransom to Florida for him though, especially when there is a good enough chance he could fall flat on his face.
Well i guess because most want a young arm. And if i didn't think we could win a WS next year i wouldn't want zito either. But i think we can and we will if we get him.
Getting the Japanese pitcher AND Zito would be too much. I don't even want Zito. He's gonna blow here. I hope the Red Sox get him.
So you think they'll pay $70M+ for Matsuzaka, $70-90M for Zito, and re-sign Moose for near $25M? Come on now. And how are we just going to dump RJ? Who in their right mind would be interested in a 43 year old coming off a bad year and back surgery, who has no knee cartilage and a $16M salary? If so many people are interested in Zito, why not give Ted Lilly a similar deal? Lilly's numbers aren't as good, but they're not that far off from Zito's. The only difference is Lilly has done it in the AL East (and has been very good against Boston) while Zito has done it in the AL West, and has struggled against the East (Boston especially).
I want no part of Zito and we definitely shouldnt be breaking the bank for Moose. hes a 4th starter in the league now, nothing more.
Actually I had forgotten about Lily. I definitely wouldn't mind seeing him return to pinstripes on a two year deal. I'm not advocating dumping RJ. I'm just saying I would be willing to do it, if it meant an overall improvement in the rotation. Besides, I said I think he will come back from the surgery improved. Unless his legs are worse than we thought, the lessened back pain should be a positive for him next year. Yes, the total amounts for the starting rotation would be astronomical, but in case you haven't noticed, the Yankees, even while losing money, are more than happy to throw money at the roster. We may as well spend it on pitching, which wins ballgames, rather than more bats that refuse to ignite when the air chills a bit. As for Zito, so what he has struggled against the AL East. In all reality, he hasn't sucked so much against the East as he has us and Boston. There's no reason to believe he wouldn't be just fine here. With our lineup, we should be able to provide him ample run support to be just fine. Now even if we assume he is dismal against the AL East, all of it, how many games will he pitch in the division? Let's take Wang for an example, since he pitched the most innings of all our starters. He pitched in 34 games total. Of those 34, he faced an AL East team 14 times. That left 20 games for him to pitch against other teams. Don't you have to figure Zito could win 15 of 20 outside the divison, and at least 5 within it? That's 20 wins. Are you willing to say you wouldn't take 20 wins from a pitcher, regardless of who he gets them from? Sure divisional losses hurt a little more since you lose more ground, but 20 wins is still a lot of wins. The bigger question is, would you be comfortable handing over those 20 wins to Boston, simply for the chance to beat up on him 2 or 3 times a year?
I wouldn't either, 2 years at $7M per would be good for a guy like Lilly. Just like 3-4 years at $8-10M per would be good for a guy like Zito. But in the end, Lilly will get a little more than that (which is fine), and Zito will get 5-6 years at $13-15M per, which is WAY more than he is worth. Even the Yankees have a limit, as we saw (unfortunately) with Beltran. And with all of the talented pitching prospects in the system, they aren't going to overpay for a guy like Zito. He's been awful against Boston, and average at best against Baltimore and Tampa. When you give a pitcher a $15M a year commitment over 5 or 6 years, you expect him to be able to shut down any lineup, and you don't even worry about run support. If we signed him to a Pavano-type contract, then it would be different. But he's going to get an extra year or two, and almost double the money of the Pavano contract. After you factor in a few no decisions, no, I could never in a million years see Zito winning 15 of 20 starts outside of the division. Given the run support he'll get, probably 10-12, and then 4-5 within the division. If the Yankees have to pay Zito $90M over 6 years, I'm expecting him to be the 2002 Barry Zito every year. That's not what they will be getting. They'll be getting around 15 wins, and an ERA in the 3.80-4.00 range. Good, but not worth the money. Ted Lilly can give me 12-14 wins and an ERA around 4.00-4.20 for 1/3 of the price. Even if by some miracle from the Gods he does go to Boston and becomes a 20 game winner, then sure, what do I care? It's not like that will keep the Yankees out of the AL East mix (Matsuzaka-Wang-Mussina-Lilly-RJ with Hughes waiting in the wings will keep them head to head with the Sox at the very least). And if they're in the mix, I can be confident that one of their big time starters will be rocked when we face them. But this is a moot point, because Zito's not all of a sudden going to go from a 15 game winner in the AL West to a 20 game winner in the AL East. Whether it's with the Sox or the Yankees, he'll be paid #1 money and deliver #3 results. Not worth it.
Free agent compensation ratings were released today. Here are the Yankees: Sheffield A Mussina A Villone B Bernie C Wilson C FYI, Lidle would've been a B-level FA. Under the new agreement, teams do not receive compensation for C-level FA's (would've been Bernie and Craig Wilson). Teams get a sandwich pick for B-level FAs from now on (formerly received direct compensation). A-level FAs remain the same this year. An interesting thing about the ratings is Garciaparra and Lilly are both B-level. As we know, we could be in the market for a strong righty hitting 1B (and we had a lot of interest in Nomar last off-season) and we could also be in the market for a starter like Lilly. In the past, we would've given up our 2nd round pick by signing one of these guys, but now, we don't lose a draft pick, the compensated team gets a sandwich pick from MLB.
MLB.com speculates Sheffield possibly to Cleveland: http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/...t_id=1731703&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb I'm sure Cashman will pay a little bit of the salary if he can get a pitcher like Sowers. That would be tremendous, Sowers is almost like getting a slightly better, left-handed version of Wang.
I don't know much about Sowers, but you can't be serious!! That would be tremendous returns just by picking up an option on a retarded personality. Wow
I would absolutely love Sowers. I wouldn't say he is better then Wang quite yet though. But he is only 23-24 (i think) and will only get better. Imagine rotation being: Wang (R) - Matsuzaka (R) - Johnson (L) - Mussina (R) - Sowers (L) and the injury replacements being any one of these: Rasner/Kartsens/Hughes/Clippard/Pavano (if ever healthy) Here is a little something i just whipped up in photoshop: - SOWERS -
