Hot Stove Happenings

With all the hot stove action gearing up, and considering the Yankees heavy involvement this year, I'll try to do a daily roundup of links pertaining to Bronx Bombers rumors.

The hot stove is roaring today, as much speculation about the Yankees involvement with numerous big ticket names such as CC Sabathia, Jake Peavy (scroll down for the Peavy info), AJ Burnett and Mark Teixeira are bandied about.

A trade went down today , as the Red Socks gained a bullpen arm (already scouted and touted by Master Gammonite Peter as 'the next Mariano Rivera') and the Kansas City Royals gained a brawling center fielder. The move has already spawned speculation in Yankees Universe about trying to now acquire a K.C. center fielder, seeing as they now have mulitple players at said position. As of today, they have David DeJesus and Coco Crisp.

Dave and Aziz over at Pride of the Yankees have a nice roundup on the Nick Swisher phone presser yesterday. The full audio of the call is available over at Lohud on the Blogfather's blog.

I really like the Swisher deal for a number of reasons. If they fail to grab Mark Teixeira, they have a nice backup for 1B. And even if they do get Tex, they can still use Swisher in any of the OF spots, most likely CF or RF.

And besides, this is Swisher's wife, Danielle, over on the left.

Speaking of 1B, guess who has a hardon for Jason Giambi? Noooooooo !

As far as I'm concerned, (forgive me, I'm playing a little armchair GM here), this is what I'd do:

1. Sign CC at all costs. If it takes $150M over 6 or $175 over 7, DO IT!

2. If San Diego says they don't need Phil Hughes in a Peavy deal, then you package SP Ian Kennedy, RP Jose Veras, SP Kei Igawa, OF Melky Cabrera and offer a lot of $$$ for Igawa and snag Jake the Snake. If need be, slip in C Francisco Cervelli, perhaps even SP/RP Phil Coke. Whatever it takes without giving up any of the top prospects from the farm (Montero, Jackson, Hughes, Betances and Brackmen). I'd rather trade for Peavy than overpay for Burnett and/or Lowe. Here's the man of the hour on the right, drinking straight from a bottle of Jagr.

3. Sign Tex to 6 years, $150. Tell him that he can go out at 34 and get another 6 year, $100M+ deal.

4. Trade Matsui, Brett Gardner, Chase Wright and Humberto Sanchez, along Alan Horne for Ichiro.

5. Resign Pettitte for 1 year, $12M deal.

Imagine a roster of:

CF Ichiro

DH Damon

SS Jeter

3B A-Rod

1B Teixeira

C Posada

LF Nady

2B Cano

RF Swisher

And a pitching staff of: 1. CC 2. Peavy 3. Wang 4. Pettitte 5. Joba/Phil/Al Aceves.

Just give us the 2009 WS trophy now.... bitches!

Let the armchair GM'ing begin!