he will be offered arb. But he may resign, and I hope he does.

I really like Abreu. No he’s not a great fielder, and if not for his arm, he’d no doubt suck in the outfield. But he’s a quality, professional hitter. Bringing him back into a crowded outfield situation is a tough call. Yes I’d love his bat, his presence but we need to get younger. Frankly I’m over the 3 year deals for guys in their mid-30s. I’d make a pass, but would ultimately let him go.

As for Ramirez or Dunn, I’ve commented that Manny would be interesting but I don’t think Manny’s the right guy to wear pinstripes. As for Dunn, I don’t think we need a slow-footed, free swinging banger who makes minimal contact and ks 140+ times a year. No thanks.

I agree that Arod shouldn’t be out cleanup hitter. my dream lineup would be: Jeter/Damon, Arod, Tex, Manny, etc.

no, it wouldn’t take THAT much to get Howard. i’m sure he could be had for Hughes, IPK and Melky, but if we wouldn’t do that for the great Santana, why do it for Howard? substitute ZMac for Hughes and it might get done.

We need a banger … let’s make a pass at Fielder. Apparently he is available. I’d also make a push for Peavy who is rumored to be available. I recall my junior-senior banquet in high school. Weeks before, my buddies and I lamented what appeared to be the inevitable … we weren’t going to get dates. Then one day during baseball practice, I spied a group of girls—THE girls. One in particular I had the screamin’ thigh sweats for. My buddies all said, “she’s outta’ your league,” “she’ll shoot you down.”

Sure it was improbable. As I made my way to her I realized I was grasping for the moon. But if you don’t ask, you don’t get to play. I nervously asked, and she accepted. It was one of the best night’s of my young life.

This is what Cashman MUST do. Draw up a dream list and have the balls to ask.

Again, I love Abreu, but we need guys like Crawford, Fielder, Peavy … take a shot.

We do need to get younger, and we can’t discount the importance of having valuable role players along the lines of Brosious, Martinez, O’Neill, Williams and Girardi. I think with the signing of Giambi, we sort of got away from that philosophy, and adopted one more reminiscent of the mid-80s when George assembled all-star teams that never really gelled.

We’ve got some a number of first ballot Hall of Famers on this team, and I think we need not rush towards more. Sure I like Tex, and I like CC even more, but at what cost. Wouldn’t it make more sense to fill in the gaps with younger, cheaper multi-dimensional role guys who play hard.

Someone earlier mentioned Kotchman. What a great idea. I’d love his glove at first base. Is he headed to the Hall? Not a chance. But he’s solid and he’s cheap. He’d know his role and he’d fit in. Nady is another one, and so is Gardner (if he can hit .260). These are the guys to target. I’d put Fielder in that class as well as Crawford. I’m tired of us breaking the bank on guys who underperform, and fear that might be the case with CC and Tex.

There is how many runs he can produce, and how many runs he can help prevent.

So if you have a team defense that allows a ton of extra runs, it offsets a lot of what that offense can do. And actually a run prevented is a bit more valuable then a run scored.

I am not saying you should sign light hitting players who have stellar defense, but I am saying that even at those positions where defense is 2ndary, it is still a factor that contributes to a winning ball club.

E.G. If abreu contributes say 106 runs offensivley but costs his team 20 runs defensivley, that is a net gain of 86 runs. Iwamura created 89 runs offensivley so even if hes a net zero defender in runs prevented… he still has more value in winning games then abreu.

The best example of this is probably win shares.

Abreu had 24 win shares last year 21.7 batting and 2.4 fielding.
Randy Winn had 22 win shares last yera 17.4 batting and 4.5 fielding.

That is an example of two players who had about an equal amount of contributions to team wins 8 for abreu and 7.33 for Winn yet one did it with stronger batting the other did it with slightly lesser batting but superior fielding.

and the reason the bad defenders are put at 1B and LF/RF is because they receive fewer opportunities to cost their teams runs. it’s like putting a poor reliever as the mop-up guy instead of as the set-up guy. they are still bad pitchers/fielders, but they don’t hurt as much.

and the key words are “as much”. if a 1B or LF/RF is a really poor fielder, it kills their offensive value. one of the biggest reasons the Yankees have underachieved in the eyes of mainstream fans/analysts is that their fielding has stunk for a while now. fix that. now.

Then try to sign him. If you fail it’s not a total loss