My views

In the spirit of Xmas, I say this about the Giancarlo trade:  " Bah.  Humbug."

I think those of you praising this deal are all nuts.

Here are some of my weakest reasons:

1.  This contract is like re-signing A-Rod and then making a deal with the Red Sox for an aging-out Jacoby, because the Sox beat us to Moncado.  It spells the end of any thinking that the Yankees were going to "go young" and build from within.

2.  It confirms the end of Clint Frazier as a Yankee.  And mark my words, he will be the next Jay Buhner.  We will trade him for some skank, veteran pitcher and then Clint will eat us alive for 10 years.  Clint will hurt us far more than Giancarlo ever helps us, just as Jay Buhner did.

3.  The outfield is now a mess.  Two guys 6'6" and 6'7" won't work.  Aaron Judge is a spectacular athlete who can patrol right field, as long as we have a great defensive centerfielder with speed to cover the gaps, and a speedy left fielder to cover the rest.

4.  We can't have another guy like that in left field at the same time.   Left field is too vast at the stadium, and requires great speed and athleticism. There is no centerfielder on the Yankees who can cover the expanded liability of the left and right field empty spaces at the same time.

5.  The strikeout totals will make the team unbearable to watch.  And strikeouts kill everything.  Only occasionally, are they better than double plays.

6.  We all know...we all know...an offense built on solo homers is worthless.  And does not create winning baseball.  Even three consecutive home runs can seem lame, next to a true, three run rally.

7.  What we needed to do was stay with the damn plan.  We had a great, young, exciting team without this guy.  All we needed was some pitching depth.  Now, we cannot afford that.  We must put together
a " patchwork " pitching staff, and that will hurt us when it matters most.

 There is already talk of letting Chad Green become a starter again.  "Remember the Alamo and remember Joba," say I.  This is a bad idea, necessitated, because we don't have the money to compete for pitching.

8.  Yes, the Yankees will increase their gate appeal and more fans will come to watch us lose in other ball parks.  Money, money, money for Hal.

But money is not the same as winning.  Trading for Giancarlo is like throwing a hammer into a well functioning machine.   Now we will patch holes with big name veterans, again.  I can feel it coming.

We can only hope this guy is injured all the time, per his history.  That gives some chance to re-introduce the youth movement ( out of necessity, rather than intention ) we just pissed upon.

  I believe this trade has hurt us deeply, and not helped a whit.  Our outfield defense is weakened; our offense is weakened ( home runs or nothing ), second base will become the new first base " black hole," we have a pitching staff with gaping holes, and Cashman will skate.

We just made a deal we didn't need to make.  A deal that will sting for a decade.

Merry Xmas.