Gom

Are you kidding me? Brazil. Brazil wins it all.

I would take CC, AJ and Andy over Beckett, Lester, and Clay any day of the week...assuming Andy comes back. I would take the Yankees pen over the Sox pen any day of the week, now that you lost Wagner. The lineups are a tossup, depending on what the Yankees do at DH and both teams do in LF.

Great article.

Mauer BABY!!!!

I just activated Insider. Eh.

It's not that. It's who is actually young and good on the Yankees? Maybe throw Cano in there as well...but that's about it. Everyone good on the Yankees would be over 30, except for Cano, Hughes, and Joba. So if I was the Mariners, I'd start there, I'd guess.

My sub ran out. Oh well.

Weak.

I don't know how good these kids are. Does anyone have a ranking of the farm systems that I could read? I'd be slightly interested. Everyone says that Texas and Tampa are at the top of the list, and that Toronto and the Nationals are near the bottom, but that's about the extent of what I know.

Weak. If that's your best comeback, I'm disappointed. I expected more from you. Boo.

Bad deal for Emmz. What can she get for 10 bucks a month?

Emmz...how much did he offer you for the Green Card?

Read it again...slowly.

So you don't think that a package of Hughes or Joba, plus Montero or Austin is as good as Buchholz and Kelly?

Abou Treka isn't all that bad.

I don't know Dipre...I think pretty much every fielding metric sucks. I mean come on...UZR rated Tex as a terrible fielder...and gave Gutierrez such a tremendous UZR, it's not all accurate either. Gutierrez is a great fielder, yes...but no OF can save THAT many runs. I don't know, dude. Seriously. Fielding metrics, in my opinion, are not as good as the naked eye in my opinion. The stats just haven't developed as well, or as much, like offensive and pitching statistics. Again...my opinion.

Considering what they offered for Felix, I believe it would have taken a lot less. I'm not debating the difference in value needed for both to be given up, that's obvious. However, he could have been got by the Red Sox. I realize this is pure speculation on both our parts, but there are certain players I wouldn't bother asking for. Pujols is one. Felix. Lincecum. Those guys are staples on their team. You'd have to overwhelm a team to even get them to listen. That's what I think he did. Waste time shooting for something that was not going to happen. Speculation of course. I just can't remember this guy making a drop dead, great deal. I did like the Wagner deal..if only because you finagled the Mets out of a first round pick. Teams should stop picking on Minaya. He should be allowed to have "do-overs".

Please explain, o wise one...if Lee was traded to the Phillies, why was there no chance for the Red Sox to get him BEFORE he was traded? [This, I gotta hear...]

Umm...Lee was traded...so how was there no chance?

Thank you. Dipre agrees with me. Hell has frozen over. Film at 11.

I believe the Yankees need to get rid of the long-term deals. Supposedly, the Yankees will give Austin Jackson a shot in 2011. Signing Damon for one year will basically allow you to wipe away his entire contract the following season. Matsui can be replaced with a comparable player for the same/less money. Jeter, Posada, and Mo are the only real free agents of consequence next year, and it is a near certainty that Jeter and Mo will retire with a Yankee uniform. Posada likely will as well, but Posada's contract comes off as well. Pettitte will probably retire. The Yankees want to scale down their payroll, but they should do it with expiring contracts, and let current economic climate decrease their payroll by replacing expensive expiring contracts with comparable players at lower contracts. Case in point...say the Yankees sign Damon and Matsui to 1 year, 10 million and 1 year, 6 million, respectively. The following year, arbitration can be given to both players [assuming they continue on the same level offensively] and year to year continues until a) they decline to the point that letting them go and replacing they with another player is the better option or b ) they decline arbitration and sign elsewhere, and they acquire picks. A faster scale-down will leave holes that will need to be fixed with trades, which then will cost you prospects AS WELL as money. Look at Tex and the Red Sox. An extra $20 million over 10 years, and he's yours, in my opinion. Let's just go with this assumption for a minute. If that was the case, the prospects could have been used to acquire Lee. I don't see the reasoning for trading at this point for the Yankees, for the most part. Yes, I'd like Halladay. I'd f***ing love to have Halladay on my team. However, he will cost players AND money. Why not just get Lackey and keep your players? By the way, the limit is ********. Anyone who believes it is a fool in my opinion. The Yankees had the most profitable year EVER. So they are going to scale down? Get real. It's a PR move. They will say they scaled down. The market...predictably...goes down. Then the Yankees swoop in and sign a bona fide free agent or two, and Cashman gives us the whole song and dance of how he went to ownership, and they "okayed" the deal because of their burning desire to win. The Yankees win another World Series, and it's ownership giving in to bring a winner to NY. The ownership WANTS to win, of that I have no doubt. They're just playing all of you for fools. At least those that believe everything they read.

I can't see this happening...not this year at least.