Yaz Sideburn

pettitte and vazquez will free up $24.6 million but the yankees also have $9 million more in salary to pay next year due to escelating contracts and if joba and hughes make those figures in arbitration that's an additional $5 million in salary. the reamaining $10.6 million left of the money the yankees free up from vazquez and pettitte is not enough to sign lee

this is starting to get frustrating. we haven't lost in a game in four days and we haven't gained any ground in the wild card

the yankees have kind of screwed themselves by giving out these bloated contracts. they paid mo $15 million a year and he's pitched great so they don't really have an excuse to cut his bloated salary. they can't pay jeter $21 million and then cut his salary in half to reflect his current level of production and expect things to be honky dory. and lee is a better pitcher than sabathia so they'd be hard pressed to justify paying him much less in talks with his free agent

i don't see where the money will come from to sign lee. after their arbitration cases and all the players who will get salary increases next year, the yankees will have $55 million freed up to get a closer, a shortstop, a dh two starting pitchers and various bench/middle relievers rivera hasn't done anything to deserve a pay cut, you have to figure he's going to get another 3 year/45 million contract jeter's going to want about $17 million a year, he's not going to take much more of a pay cut than that if you sign lee for a sabathia-like contract, that's $23 million a year and you have only $5 million left to fill all the team's other needs

Team salary - $213.35 million Salaries coming off the books Jeter - 22.6 million Rivera - 15 million Pettitte - 13.1 million Vazquez - 11.5 million Winn - 1.1 million Thames - .9 million Total - 64.20 million Salary pay decreases Rodriguez - 1 million Total - 1 million Salary pay increases grander son - 2.75 million Swisher - 2.75 million Teixeira - 2.5 million Cano - 1 million Total - 9 million Arbitration estimates Chamberlain - 1 million (.5 million increase) Hughes - 3 million (2.5 million increase) Logan - .8 million (.2 million increase) Total - 3.2 million Non-tenders Gaudin - .7 million Mitre - .75 million Moseley - .5 million Total - 1.97 million buy outs berkman - 2 million johnson - .25 million total 2.25 million Total freed up salary - 52.75 million Position Players C - posada 1b - teixeira 2b - cano ss - 3b - rodriguez Lf - gardner Cf - grander son Rf - swisher Dh - Bench c - cervelli If - pena If - nunez Of - Rotation sp - Sabathia sp - Hughes sp - Burnett sp - sp - Bullpen cl - su - robertson su - chamberlain mr - mr - logan mr - mr - the yankees will have $52.75 million in salary freed up this offseason, but they have a lot of holes to fill. they will have to pay for a shortstop, a dh, two starting pitchers, a closer a backup outfielder and middle relievers. it's unlikely that they will be able to fill all these holes via free agency, they will likely have to turn to a trade

carlos delgado is back with pawtucket and will begin playing again in about a week. i hope he gets healthy because lowell couldn't possibly be hitting any worse

they could pontentially bring back ortiz and v-mart, sign a big name position player, trade for a corner infielder, replenish the bullpen and still lower their salary in the process

i expect them to stay right around the luxury tax threshold, that's what they usually do.

what happens if the yankees don't sign lee?

it sounds like you misremembered. pitchfx shows that while he was averaging about 89 on his fastball prior to being skipped, he hit at least 91 mph in every start prior to being skipped. and in the appearances after he was skipped his velocity went down, not up with the exception of his appearance as a reliever

if the red sox trade papelbon, they'll have more money than they know what to do with. they could pick up the option on ortiz, sign v-mart to a 4 year/60 million deal with the intention of using him as the dh after 2011 and they'd have over $30 million to spend on a third baseman, relief pitchers and a backup infielder i wouldn't be surprised if they get involved in the cliff lee sweepstakes. matsuzaka is signed to a very reasonable contract and i imagine they could find someone willing to take him off their hands. and if they did it would free up an additional $10 million of salary

i used bj upton as a precedent. he made $3 million in the same year of arbitration after a down year so i think it's reasonable for ellsbury to make $2.5 million

that has potential to be a lot like the current red sox rotation

that's funny, according to pitchfx his velocity has been worse since they skipped his start. it dropped below 88 mph for the first time in his first start back

he's probably thinking those would have been catchable balls if the outfield wall was 100 feet further back

hoping to catch lightning in a bottle. is that code for they're skipping him becuase he sucks and he has a mid-80's fastball now?

who cares if there's no chance it hell that it's happening

let's try to be logical here. if the tigers have plans to release damon, why would they promise him playing time and tell him to block a trade so they can't get anything in return for him?

it doesn't sound like they're going to release him if they just promised him playing time. if he came to detroit and asked them what's best for the team why would they say that what's best for the team would be to block a trade and then release him and get nothing for him in return?