jacksonianmarch

Also, dont forget the 2007 Draft and INTL signing period. Brackman, Romine, Pope, Suttle, Sublett, Angelini, Barreda, Laird have all seen spots in the yankees top 50, while Romine, Brackman and Suttle are likely to see a top 10 spot. The INTL forum saw De Leon, Sosa, and Vizcaino enter the fray. Sosa and De Leon are shaping up to be two of the best bats from that period and Vizcaino looks like the best arm. And then, finally the 2008 draft and INTL signing period. The loss of Cole and Bittle hurt, but the compensatory picks in 2009 make their loss a lot more palatable. The haul from the draft class still looks very, very solid. Bleich, Joseph, Adams, Marshall, Higashioka, Brewer, O'Brien, Richardson, Phelps, Turley, and Lassiter look to be top 50 players with Marshall being a potential top 10 guy. The INTL forum, though missing on Inoa, saw the yankees nab 3 of the top 11 ranked players in Gian Arias, Yeicok Calderon, and Ramon Flores. We also beat the league to the punch in February by signing Banuelos (who will be a top 10 prospect) and Alfredo Aceves who is in the big leagues, starting for us right now. The fact of the matter is, Cashman's MLB moves kept us in it. They werent blockbuster, jaw dropping, Larry Anderson for Jeff Bagwell moves. But they were solid major league moves that allowed out team to average a 56-57% winning percentage over the three seasons. He didnt have too many clunkers. And while he was doing this, he restocked the farm system with high ceiling minor league talent. And if you look at the players he has drafted, very few of them have missed right off the bat since 2006. Almost all of the guys he went over slot for have produced in their first few seasons. Now as I have stated before, the draft moves and the INTL signees were the work of Damon Oppenheimer who came aboard in 2006, prior to the draft. So, while my synopsis has the draft and signees under Cashman's guise, it was his right hand man who made the moves.

It is difficult to get through to the intellectually challenged y228. Lets try again. The quote about Cashman not excelling without an advantage is just plain idiotic. When you are drafting 27th-30th every single yr, you are going to miss the elite talent unless you have some sort of monetary edge. That is the whole point of a reverse draft. Also, if you notice, Cashman has given out one deal over 4 yrs long since 2006, and that was to ARod, whose deal likely will be worth it for the long term. So he is doing EXACTLY what he was re-hired to do. Bridge the gap with shorter term investments while he waits for the drafted players to arrive. Also, a GM does not win a world series. A GM puts a team together to try and make the playoffs. If the team makes the playoffs, the GM did his duty. Since 2006, this is the only yr he has failed, and that has a lot to do with the fact that we have seen ridiculously high amounts of injuries. They happen. His contingency plans have seen us in the playoff picture into August where the backups just didnt have the stuff to hang in for 3 months. That is okay, IMO. Lets take a look at the personell moves since he took over in the 2006 offseason. 1. Signed Johnny Damon to a 4 yr deal. As of right now, this is actually looking like a good deal. 2 out of the 3 yrs, he was a very solid leadoff hitter. 2007, he just got off to an abysmal start. Unfortunately, he couldnt hold up in CF, but as it is, he will likely finish 2009 a type A FA. Good Move 2. Claimed Rasner off waivers from the Nats and acquired Jose Veras from the Rangers. Not a big move, but a move that got us a guy whose career MLB ERA is under 5 and could eat innings out of the pen or the rotation. And Veras, prior to his late season bump in the road, was looking like a future close. For what we gave up Good Moves 3. Resigned Matsui to a 4 yr deal. How did he know he'd break his wrist. Only one season of full time baseball, but has continued to produce when on the field. I have to call this a wash, though, since he hasnt played enough to justify the contract, but wasnt a total bust when he was on the field. Wash 4. Signed Farnsworth, Myers, Villone, and Williams. The Farnsworth deal was the only one where there was an actual commitment and it blew up in our face. The rest were mediocre to useless. Bad Moves 5. Traded for Bobby Abreu and Cory Lidle, giving up Matt Smith and CJ Henry. Well, Henry was back in our minor leagues this yr and Smith is on the mend with TJ and may never play again. All the while, Abreu has given up 2 and a half solid seasons for us and Lidle was serviceable before his untimely death. VERY good move 6. 2006 draft and INTL signing period. Probably the best yankee draft and signing period you will see in a LONG while. (The sox 2005 certainly rivals it). Kennedy, Chamberlain, McAllister, Curtis, Kontos, Hilligoss, Betances, Melancon, McCutchen, Patterson, Robertson were all from the draft and have spent time on the Yankee top 50 (most in the top 20). Montero, Urena, Heredia, Pirela to name a few in the INTL forum. All are in the top 50 for the yankees right now (and 2 are gonna be in the top 5 this yr, and both likely to break the BA top 100) Great moves 7. Resigned Moose to a 2 yr deal. His second season is making this look like a good deal. Good Move 8. Traded away Wright, Johnson, and Sheffield for a pile of prospects. To be honest with you, I consider this a lateral move. The Johnson deal allowed us to get guys we later dealt in the Marte/Nady deal as well as Gonzalez who we dealt to the Nats to get Jhonny Nunez. Vizcaino gave us a solid season as a reliever and then allowed us to draft Jeremy Bleich when he left to go to COL. The Wright deal gave us a SWB shuttle reliever for absolutely nothing. The Sheffield deal dealt away a guy with zero place on this team (which was confirmed with the resurgence of Giambi) and got 3 high end arms. Sanchez should be making an impact next yr, while the other 2 are further away. When you deal off 36 million dollars of chaffe and get high end arms as well as the ammo to make a deal for better, more useful players, then you are doing something right. Lateral Move 9. Signed Andy Pettitte to a 2 yr deal. He was awesome last yr and was solid through the first half of this yr. But has struggled down the stretch. I gotta say he was worth it, though. Good Move 10. Signed Juan Miranda from Cuba, who will be in the MLB mix next season. Not a bad INTL sign. Good Move 11. Signed Kei Igawa. Abysmal move for the money. Abysmal Move 12. Signed Raja. Bad Move 13. Traded Proctor for Betemit. Something that is turning out to be a lateral move. Lateral Move 14. Claimed Brian Bruney. Very good move Good move 15. Signed Posada to a 4 yr deal. 1 yr in, it looks like a bad move. Bad Move 16. Signed Mo to a 3 yr deal. 1 yr in, it looks like a great move. Great Move 17. Signed Latroy Hawkins. Bad Move 18. Acquired Jose Molina for Jeff Kennard (who was just DFAd yesterday). Great Move 19. Traded Clippard for Albaladejo. 1 yr in, this looks like a lateral move since Alby looked very solid before he got a stress fracture in his elbow and Clip has been meh in AAA for the Nats. Lateral Move 20. Signed ARod to a 10 yr deal. 1 yr in, and ARod is playing very well. Time will tell 21. Did not deal for Johan Santana. I think this is the biggest point of contention between Gom and I. 1 yr in, this looks like a bad move. But if CC falls to us in FA AND the kids stay on schedule, then this is a great move. Time will tell 22. Trade for Marte and Nady. This gives us our RFer for 2009, allowing Abreu to walk while netting us 2 picks and gives us a lefty setup man that we have been looking for, through 2009. Great Move 23. Traded Farns for Pudge. Both have sucked since. Lateral move There arent too many clunkers on this list Gomer. I think the only point of contention that you and I have is the Santana deal, and I dont think it was a bad move to pass on the talent needed and the money needed to secure this guy. I also think his acquisition wouldnt have kept us from free falling out of the playoffs this yr. Now if we sign CC in the offseason, we essentially get a guy who can perform up to Santana's level without having to give up key MiLB talent while holding out for one season where the ace level performance wouldnt have made a difference anyway. If we dont get CC, then Cash better hope Hughes is ready for 2009.

Now dont get me wrong, I am not a Cashman homer as much as you think I am. But I can see what he is doing. He is copying Theo's blueprint. Theo came to power in November of 2002. In the prior season, the sox had 3 starting position players and 1 reliever who were truly home grown (I am not considering Vtek and Lowe homegrown since they were essentially MLB ready by the time the sox got them). In 2008, the sox have seen 18 of their home grown players appear in a major league game. Youkilis and Pedroia will get MVP votes. Papelbon and Lester will get CY votes. In that span, the sox won the old fashioned big money way (2004) and also paved the way with kids (2007). The fact that they started drafting so well in 03 finally started paying off. As for Cashman, he finally nabbed a few big budget draft picks in 04 (Hughes) and 05 (Jackson) but was eventually given a large draft budget in 06 and has run with it. Even with this yrs loss of Cole, the draft has a ton of upside, something our drafts from 99-05 really didnt have. If you look at the sox model, they started getting some return on investment in 06, saw a huge return on investment in 07 and it has just jumped significantly this yr as well. Well, our 2008 is very similar to the sox 2006. Injury after injury mixed in with rookie inconsistency and typically reliable guys just not coming through. Well, next yr will be different. And by 2010, we should see something similar to what the sox have. A plethora of young, impactful players as well as a yearly renewable source of talent. Unfortunately, it takes some patience. For someone who claims to know baseball as much as you do, you have to have seen this yr coming. The run had to end at some point. But there is a difference. With the way we were running things, I was expecting the run to end while we had a ton of huge contracts for guys who arent producing and an absolutely barren farm. Well, that is half right. We now have some contracts for guys who arent producing. But we also have a lot of contracts coming off the books over the next 1+ seasons and our farm is in the best shape it has been in a decade.

You cannot have it both ways. You say that his farm direction and drafting have been terrible since he started, but then say that the 3 world series he won were essentially built for him and he had nothing to do with it. Mostly you call the moves that won us the championships from 98-00 George moves or you just conveniently forget that Cashman was the GM. Then, when you ask what Cashman has done as the yankee GM, you once again conveniently forget those same championships and focus on this one yr. You just arent getting it. Here's the deal. I will agree with you that the yankee championships were not the brainchild of Brian Cashman because he was a figurehead as yankee GM. He was essentially powerless. He was given a draft budget that nowadays wouldnt allow you to sign your second rounders. All big deals and trades were run through, around and by George Steinbrenner. The only thing Cashman was given, was an INTL FA budget. Something his misses got a lot of pub (Jackson Melian being one of them). But his hits didnt (Cano, Wang, Melky to a degree). Regardless, my point is that the slate was wiped clean on Cashman prior to the 2006 season. That would be yr 2 of the RJ era. This would be the season that Cashman was a free agent per se and demanded the disbanding of the George faction in Tampa. This was the yr that Cashman decided to put his face square on the franchise. And that is where you need to start judging him, IMO. But you dont. You continually harken back to the terrible farm system days of the early 00s yet say that he hasnt done anything on the big league level by discounting those same yrs when we were winning. Doesnt that sound kinda stupid? So if you want to start sounding like you are even a tiny bit educated, maybe you should have some sort of analytical thinking when approaching the Brian Cashman topic. It might serve you well.

agreed. If the rumor is true, and Marte did have a sore elbow, then I would have to think that Marte would be very useful for 09.

you are dumb

his ERA was mid 3's in the NL central. But continue to think he sucks. We'll find out for sure next yr.

This is exactly what Gom does not get. He never has and he never will. It's like trying to train a down's kid to not stick a fork in their eye.

There were reports that Marte had some inflammation in his throwing arm. He was only used once during a 10 day span in August (12-22) with the last week being on the shelf. Since then, he's been dominant. 1 ER in 7IP with 10K, 3H and only 1BB. This spans 10 appearances. As much gruff as he has gotten since he came here, I agree. He'll be a huge part of our pen next yr.

Mike Timlin is my favorite sox player

again, another post that lacks thought. CASHMAN DOESNT DRAFT!. The scouting director does. Since the new scouting director took over, the yankee drafts have been solid.

dumbass

Pats are done

Gom is dumb

Trying to fool yourself into thinking the Pats are still SB contenders? Think about it. The Pats D is good enough to keep them in games, but it isnt spectacular, especially with the secondary losing its best player. The Pats running game is below average since Moroney really hasnt blossomed and the other RBs are more receiving backs. The one area where the Pats absolutely dominated is the passing game. And that passing game is a very intricate, difficult game to learn. Bringing in a guy in week 2 wont really help since he'll take the season to learn it and wont be half what Brady was. And as we saw in the preseason, Cassel just isnt ready to step up. I never really understood why the Pats took him anyway. He didnt start in college and now he doesnt start in the pros. He isnt game tested and it will show. Looking at half a game's worth of mediocrity doesnt change that. This is the Pats worst case scenario. The one player they couldnt lose was Brady and now that he's done, the Pats are done. EEI is gonna have a field day, since they had been harping on Pioli's inability to provide a suitable backup.

http://www.nfl.com/videos?videoId=09000d5d80a98cd5 that is the perfect setup for unhappy triad. Planted, partially flexed knee hit from the posterolateral side.

There are tests to determine if the ACL is intact. One of them is the anterior drawer test. If he has a positive test, it is very specific for a tear. If it is absent, then that doesnt rule it out. My guess is that his exam is consistent with a tear and they'll see how many more ligaments are involved with the MRI. His hit was a bad one. Possibly an unhappy triad.

Good news? Hughes threw 8 shutout innings with 11 K's and reportedly was throwing 92-94 all game long. He's starting throwing a cutter too.

Kontos is still a prospect. Coke isnt IMO since he's 26. But he truly is trying to carve out a spot in the yankee pen next yr

gonna be another long yr in South Bend

An interesting note on this deal. George Kontos and Phil Coke were supposed to be the other two instead of Karstens and McCutchen. Well, both of those guys have been filthy since the deal. Kontos 38.1IP 32H 11ER 42K 10BB Phil Coke was changed to the pen. Now he's throwing a bit harder, 92-94 and has made it to the bigs. Over his last 13G, 13IP 8H 2BB 11K. He has gone from organizational filler to potential lefty reliever next yr

Turnovers are killing the Irish. A fumble at the 2. An INT in the endzone and then a fumble after a long gain.

yep. Coming from NJ/CT, there really wasnt a team to root for. So my dad has been rooting for ND for a long time and raised me as one