Gom

With Abreu as DH/RF, you would be in better shape. Abreu is better than Swisher or Nady in every offensive way...and none of them are steller defensive OFs. Give me Damon, Abreu, Matsui and Swisher, with Cabrera/Gardner as a defensive replacement. That's a better team than if Nady replaced Abreu.

I was one of them. I didn't forsee Pettitte signing for 6.5 mil, Varitek signing for 5 mil...I doubt many people thought so either. I still think the Yankees should bring back Abreu on a one year deal, say 7-10 million. You could then trade Nady for prospects. I think the Yankees are losing a LOT by going with Nady instead of Abreu, and now, their salaries are pretty much a wash.

Taken from River Avenue Blues. A good education on arbitration. Enjoy.

Thanks SFOC! You da man!

I've been Jacko's daddy for longer than ORS could dream of. Glad to see someone picking up the slack while I was gone.

If I was Cashman, I would PULL the offer. I sincerely and honestly believe that Cashman took a HUGE sigh of relief when Pettitte refected the offer. Now, he has placated the bosses, and the moronic fans and media who were pining away for him to bring back Pettitte. The ugly truth about Pettitte is this: 1) His velocity was down about 3 MPH from the year before 2) He pitched much worse in the 2nd half of the season 3) He is an injury risk I contribute all of this to his involvement with PEDs. What you saw with Pettitte the last half of the season is what you're going to get. Go give me Sheets for the same money [he won't go for much more], and you have the best rotation in baseball in the last 30 years. Go trade Nady [Thank God, I thought I was the only one who believed he was tremendously overrated] and bring back Abreu. If you can find a team that would take Igawa off our hands, that would even out the salaries. The Brewers seem to be interested in Igawa, I'm sure they'd take a chance on him if it was a straight salary dump. They do that, it's over.

I think everyone will wait and see how these players do first. Both Bay and Holliday are coming over from the other league...Bay had some time here in the AL...but I don't think there's a rush for either player until we can see what they do.

Is your bad attitude towards me due to my new job at INS?

Henderson. Maybe Rice Possibly Blyleven.

I stand corrected. According to Diaper, Jacko's rate of good, meaningful insightful posts is calculated to be: 0.00038%, or 1 meaningful post ever 2608 posts.

Brad Penny?

Will you make me pancakes?

It's ok Teddy. Jacko has been shown to be nothing but the most clueless poster in the history of Talksox. Over 13,000 posts, and we're still looking for the first good one.

For that kind of money, I'd rather roll the dice on Sheets.

Go away.

That's the Jacko that doesn't know s*** about baseball! Welcome back! I thought you'd actually grown a brain!

A 3rd place finish, a terrible evaluation of his players, and not signing two of their top three picks in the draft. Oh..that's right. He signed one of them. Not in the same rotation. We lost a season for no reason. It is a GM's job to make sure injuries don't hurt the team. Johan pitched 234.1 IP last year, and was the Cy Young winner last year in my opinion, if not for the putrid Mets bullpen. That's 230+ IP of Johan instead of Ponson, Rasner, Kennedy, Hughes, et al. That alone was worth 7 or 8 games in the standings. He built the team. I am not convinced Holliday is an elite hitter. His splits away from Coors are pedestrian, and let's see how he does in the AL with the A's. I would be surprised if Holliday isn't traded at the deadline, knowing Beane's penchant for selling at the deadline. The team that gets him will probably not make the deal unless he signs for an extension. I'd say there's a 50/50 shot he never sees free agency. WTF? Isn't this what I've been saying all along? The minors should supplement the major league staff...be it by call ups or trades? What Cashman tried to do was depend on THREE rookies in the rotation. This was so blatantly obvious that it would fail, I'm surprised he kept his job. Now...I'll give him credit, but what he did took minimal skill this off-season. The only move that took some skill was Swisher. Why? I didn't see it. If I can see it, as a layman baseball fan, then it takes zero skill. Go back and look at my post about what the Yankees should do. I am nearly dead on with my predictions and salaries. Either I'm a genius, or it's an obvious call. I'll go with the obvious call, even though I am a genius. He miscalculated nearly everything last year and it blew up in his face, and sadly, didn't cost him his job. If anyone was the new GM, they would have done the exact same thing, throw millions of dollars at big time free agents, get the Yankees back to the post-season, and take all the credit, while Cashman fades into obscurity. He knew this [about the only call he got right last year] and decided to stay on board after Hank pussied out and didn't fire him. I don't believe in the hype that you readily buy into. Let me give you an example. Here's a scouts report on the AFL for the Yankees, from Rotoworld. On Phil Hughes: So he had average stats pitching against the worst teams in the AFL, and is not the fireballer or ace he was touted. A #3 pitcher for most teams would be lucky to crack the top five in New York. I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't even achieve that status. If he doesn't come with that 95 MPH fastball that he was advertised with and is more like 90-92, he's going to be best remembered as the guy who wasn't traded for Santana...forever. Austin Jackson: He had a .679 OPS in the AFL. Now, I wouldn't call him a bust, but he's nowhere near as close as you think. From what we've seen so far, to pencil him in as our CF in 2010 is pure folly. Juan Miranda: If this guy is 25, then Jessica Biel is sitting on my lap while I'm typing this. It looks like we may have a Shelly Duncan clone, but just from the other side of the plate. Humberto Sanchez: Doesn't sound like much here. Now...this is one scout's assessment. I understand this. However, Cashman has to do a better job in drafting/trading/evaluating his players. Throwing money at players is one way to do things, but if that's all he's good at...why not get someone who can also sign and develop them? The way I see it, this off-season bought him some time and erased a lot of his mistakes. If we're back in the same boat in 3 years, he's got to go. I think the Red Sox botched things with Tex, but it would be a nice off-season if we could do nothing like the Sox have and still be ok. The Red Sox WANTED to do something, but we NEEDED to. Now...you act like the giddy child at Christmas. Settle down. Expecting 1 or 2 impact players per season from the minors is unreasonable. 1 impact player every 2 or 3 years is more likely. I have this discussion with Yankee fans a lot. The guy has dynamite stuff. No question. However, his temperment and maturity [nearly killing Youkilis and his DWI incident] when coupled with his injury history, make him a very big question mark for this team. Be careful of counting on too much from this guy. He's much more likely to throw 90 innings than 200. He should have been gone already. No more excuses. He runs the show. You don't blame the secretary of state, you blame the president. Same thing here. All things go through him before they go to ownership. So the buck stops with him. Fair or not, that's the way it goes. Look...I'd love to see the Yankees sign some serious talent, develop another wave like we had in the 90s or like the Sox are enjoying now. We're in agreement that if he doesn't develop a few players in the next two to three years, it's time for the Yankees to move in a different direction.

Value Over Replacement Player: 2008 Dunn: 26.3 VORP Ibanez: 38.6 VORP 2007: Dunn: 45.6 VORP Ibanez: 30.5 VORP 2006: Dunn: 23.8 VORP Ibanez: 37.3 VORP From this information, not only is Ibanez the better player, he is much more consistent. Factor in the fact that Ibanez played in Seattle and in the American League, and that Dunn played in the launching pad in Cincy and in the inferior National League, and Raul Ibanez is "clearly" the better offensive player. WHAT NOW BITCHES?

Interesting point. Do the picks have an expiration date?

Fails on two accounts: 1) Lowe is not an elite player 2) The Red Sox are not involved to give their fans hope for signing a marquee free agent before bungling negotiations and letting another team swoop in and sign him.

My early vote for quote of the year circa 2009.

Ah...another one for me. I LOVE IT!