This we know: The Yankees have the money, the dough, the clams, the potatoes, the scarfa, the buefluentes, the big green mingaroos. They can afford any free agent. Likewise, they can build the best farm system. So one question: Why compete in the one arena where they have no inherent advantage: Trades.
What if the Yankees stood pat? What if they signed free agents and developed young players... and never made trades.
1B: Mark Teixeira 0
2B: Robbie Cano 03B: Alex Rodriguez 0
SS: Derek Jeter 0
RF: Austin Jackson/Jose Tabata 0 (vs Swisher)
LF: Brett Gardner/Juan Rivera/Raul Ibanez 0
CF: Melky Cabrera 0 (vs Grandy)
C: Russell Martin 0
DH: Jesus Montero/Andruw Jones/Nick Johnson 0
UT: Eduardo Nunez, Jayson Nix, Frankie Cervelli 0
Starting Pitchers
CC Sabathia 0
Ian Kennedy + (vs Nova)
Andy Pettitte 0
Hiroki Kuroda 0
Phil Hughes 0
SWING: Hector Noesi/AJ Burnett/Freddy Garcia/Ivan Nova + (vs Freddy)
Bullpen
Rafael Soriano 0
Tyler Clippard +
Phil Coke 0
Cory Wade 0
Cody Eppler 0
David Robertson 0
David Phelps 0
For my money, we’re slightly better off if the
Yankee brass never answered
the phone when another team called. (Of course, we did win the World Series in 2009; there is no guarantee that a player's output would have remained the same in NY; and the swing really hinges on the emergence of Melky Cabrera, looming MVP in the National League, which offsets Curtis Granderson.)
Nevertheless, we now are told the Yankee brass covets Matt Garza.
Are we supposed to feel hopeful?
Are we supposed to feel hopeful?
What's all this +, 0, - stuff?
ReplyDeleteAre you writing in computer programming code?
If you are saying our trades usually work out poorly in the long run, I agree.
You're assuming that the Yankees have an advantage in the farm system because of our financial advantage. But finances really don't mean much in a draft that awards bad teams. Moreover, signing free agents forces a team to lose draft picks, so it's virtually impossible to dominate both fields simultaneously. Finally, developing players in a farm system requires superior coaching, something money can't necessarily buy. The Yankees lack this coaching. Either that or we just have awful scouts.
ReplyDeleteWow, talk about a bad idea. Are you forgetting both Swisher and Rodriguez came through one-sided trades? The Swisher trade was absolute larceny. Cashman has actually been pretty decent at trades, the real black hole of baseball knowledge is ownership and all the arse lickers around them. The A-Fraud signing after the 2007 opt out, the Soriano signing, these are the deals that suck. And Cashman has made his share of bad signings: Teixeira, Burnett, Garcia (2012), Nick Johnson, etc. A better prohibition would be to prevent ownership from getting involved at all, and the next time Cashman signs an over 35 free agent or any player to more than 5 years he should be fired.
ReplyDelete