yankees228

The only news I see is that they're aggressively pursuing him. As for Lee, today has been encouraging. I like the fact that Lee's agent and the Yankees are having dialogue, and that the Rangers are going after Beltre.

I don't think CC would care, but I also hope that wouldn't have any influence on the Yankees' decision making in this matter.

Thanks for voting Divinity (and I don't just say that because you chose my team). It would be nice to get more votes though, because if the sampling is larger, the outcome is further legitimized.

Figured I'd bump this. YH and I are tied at 2-2, and with the voting set to expire tomorrow morning, we need more votes (hopefully more than just one) to settle this match-up.

Nope, and I'm refreshing MLBTR very frequently lol. But, according to reports, it doesn't seem like the decision will come today.

Right, but I would imagine he has people who could figure out the affect of the income tax rather quickly. But on the last point, I completely agree.

I don't see why this would take a substantial amount of time though. My guess is it's just a whole bunch of factors, such as the team, the city, the travel, etc.

Is the general consensus that Meh is Gom?

Haha well done. And the thing is, with competitive offers from a couple teams, it's probably going to come down to more than just money for Lee. As you said, Werth and Crawford signed so quick because the highest offers deviated so much from the other offers on the table, so there wasn't much to think about, which isn't the case for Lee.

I see TK moving the ball at will on yrtb's defense. Cole should be a non-factor, and that will hurt whichever OLB (Matthews or Orakpo) is on his side. I don't trust DRC and Porter against TK's WRs, and I see Brady having a huge day. I also think that TK has a very good strategy with his running attack, as draws and traps will do a good job of countering what is sure to be an aggressive defense. On the other side of the ball, I think yrtb will have some success in the running game, as he has an excellent offensive line, and great RBs. But if he falls behind, yrtb will have to go to the air, where I think he'll have little success. TK's team by 2-3 scores.

Fair enough, but in these close games, don't you think we should be responsible for coming up with our own schemes (and if so, what role does the coach really play)?

I was also puzzled a bit by the Faneca and O'Hara selections, but other than that, I absolutely love Ital's offense. Both backs are dangerous, his WRs are explosive, and with them demanding so much attention, Clark should have be effective down the seam. And on top of that, he picked the right QB to take advantage of all these weapons. With Freeney out of place on defense, I'm worried about Coco's ability to generate a pass rush, and even with a good secondary, Manning should have a field day if given time. On the other side of the ball I think Coco will also be able to put up some points, as Fitzgerald and Harvin compliment each other well, and Jackson will be dangerous out of the backfield. But while Flacco has his strengths, he still struggles with his pre-snap reads at times, and his touch short/intermediate throws needs to be improved. Three years down the road I think he'll improve in these areas, but not enough to match scores with Ital's offense. So I'll take Ital in a game decided by 1-2 scores.

I love both team's passing offense, and I agree with everyone who has said this will be a shootout. I don't have anything to go besides the personnel, so based of that I'll assume that both teams are going to throw the ball a lot. I think the passing offenses are pretty much a wash, as I'd give JBay the edge at QB, but WB the edge at WR. So with that being said, I think this comes down to the ability to defend the pass, which I see WB doing a better job of. I like his pass rush and secondary better, which I think gives him the win in a close, high scoring affair.

I was against drafting coaches, and I really don't think they should play a role in this. It's too easy to say, 'well, Belichick (or another good coach) will figure out a way to win that game'. Each of us should be in charge of coming up with ways to utilize their personnel in each match-up, and with that already happening, what's the role of the coach? I think we should be judged on the players we drafted, and the schemes we came up with. Not some hypothetical scheme that a coach would apply to our teams. But I should have tried to articulate this point earlier, and that's my fault. C'est la vie. Oh, and thanks for putting in the time to really look at this match-up and give such lengthy and reasonable breakdowns (and thanks to TK for putting me number one in the power rankings lol).

I'd be thrilled if the Yankees got Lee. While I agree that it's too long, in today's game (especially with the Yankees' resources), what's more important is what they have now, not what they'll have in five years. I'll enjoy the first four or five years when he's very good, and worry about the back end of the contract when the time comes. I'd imagine this is the way the Yankees are viewing the situation as well. With that said, I really have no idea what Cliff Lee is thinking, and wouldn't be surprised at all if he went back to Texas. It sounds like the Rangers made some very competitive offers yesterday, to the point where the difference in money is probably marginal.

That's fair. I'm very curious to see how other people view this match-up. Obviously I like my team a lot, but I think YH got a raw deal in the power rankings.

I echo the bolded part. Not much to add that hasn't already been stated. I see this as a great move for the first four or five years, and then an unknown after that. Really nice signing by Theo. From the Yankees' perspective, if they don't sign Cliff Lee, I'll be worried about their ability to compete with the Red Sox over 162 games.

The three year in the future stipulation puts a hitch into that, though.