Cashman's Strategy Still In Play

Brian's latest brain warp has him acquiring former top picks, pretty much from any team, who have flamed out and find themselves on the trash heap of baseball.  And, they come cheap.

His latest venture:  He has signed former Mets prospect Cesar Puello.  The Mets released him to their trash heap in August.

He was signed by the Mets in 2007 out of La Romana, DR.  After 3 years playing in leagues no one has ever heard of, the now 14 year old ( okay, older ) hit his first roadblock in High A ball St. Lucie, Florida.  Prior to that, he had ascended to" baseball's 77th best prospect. " He was strong, fast, had a great arm and could hit.

This "road block" ( called real pitching ) left him batting an uninspiring .259 ( actually, not many current Yankees hit this well ).  Then the injuries struck and he missed two years.  Passport control  challenged his birth date and found him to be, " some number of years older than he purports. " ( try saying that in spanish ).

Moving right along;  Puello recovered, printed out a new birth certificate,  and took the Eastern League by storm, hitting .326 with 16 HRs and 24 stolen bases. Unfortunately for Puello, that season ended after 91 games when he was suspended for, "Biogenesis problems."  When he returned to baseball, after a 50 game suspension, he suffered  a concussion ( bar fight?) that caused him chronic problems.

The Mets found he could not get through the league's concussion protocol ( sorry, wrong sport ), so they dropped him from their 40 man roster and shipped him to Vegas ( you just know that had to be the perfect spot for an ego driven young athlete with money).  He immediately went on the disabled list nursing a back injury ( another bar fight?), and when he left traction and returned to the GCL, the Mets,  dumped him.

He is either 24 or 34 years old. And he hasn't hit a baseball in about two years.  He walks with a pronounced limp, and the angle of his head gives the appearance of  a hobo trying to find money lying on the sidewalk or in the gutter.

Despite what others might identify as numerous "red flags," Brian Cashman, bright as a squirrel and GM of the Yankees, jumped on this opening and signed him.  This adds another player to the inventory of once highly rated prospects now in the Yankee organization.  And the beauty of it is:  these players cost nothing.  Other than upkeep, of course.

 Mr. Cashman sees this signing as a tactical way to make up for the disastrous results of the Yankee's actual draft selections, and free agent signings.  If you just look at one column of data, the Yankees have quite a number of ( former ) " top prospects" in the organization.  And the expense line hardly moved a tick.  Nice job for any GM, right?

The problem is; the garbage accumulates ( see above ).   The Yankees now have more " might have beens" than any contending team in baseball.  But we have no,  "are about to break out," top prospects.

How stupid is Hal ( " I'm Not Cheap," Steinbrenner?) to allow Cashman to run this team?