David Adams is free to have a major league career

Yeesh. This one I honestly don't understand. In November, the Yankees gave up on David Adams, the 26-year-old 2B-3B who played in 44 scattered games last season, and for my money represented a possible stopgap at both currently vacant positions.  Today, he signed a major league contract with Cleveland.

We run around trading for middling minor league infielders like Dean Anna, while letting a gritty player like Adams walk. WTF?  Of course, the Yankees "baseball people" surely know more than we fans do, and they must have seen something to which the rest of us are deaf and blind. Adams hit only .197 in his four tours of duty last season. He didn't show them enough. This, the radar guns and video gods hath decreed.

And I would accept it, swallow the whole lumpy eggnog, if the Yankees gave these guys a chance to show what they can do. But it never happens. A kid comes up for a week, goes 2-10, and he's gone. Our organization is so bloated with aging vets that, I believe, the bloat seeps down into the farm system in psychological ways that Hal Steinbrenner's memos, or the firing of a strength coach, cannot touch. You either give youngsters a chance, or you let them die on the vine. We spent months last year letting Travis Hafner, Vernon Wells and Ichiro flounder, basically because they were done, and our "baseball people" didn't see it. 


If I thought David Adams had his chance and blew it, I wouldn't flinch at the news of him running to Cleveland. But you know what? I think the Indians signed a good player, and don't be surprised if Adams doesn't outhit whomever we have at 3B and/or 2B this season. This is a bad sign. A really bad sign.