As a Yankee fan...

by J-Gao on Jan 8, 2009 8:28 PM EST

As a Yankee fan, what would your reaction be if the following trade happened?

Yankees trade Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Austin Jackson, and Joba Chamberlain to the Phillies for Shane Victorino, Cole Hamels, Jimmy Rollins, and Brad Lidge.

Not going to happen, but want to know.

Yankees lose their two icons, and two of their best young players.

In return, they get a young MLB-ready CF light-years ahead of our current mix of Gardner/Melky, a lefty, young, ace with the same issues as Joba (injury concerns), but better track record, a closer who doesn't come close to providing the same comfort as Mo, and a SS who is younger, more athletic, and will probably be better than Jeter (NOOOO!!!).

From a baseball standpoint, the Phillies players are better, but what about emotionally?

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Comments

What if they made the same trade, but got Barack Obama and the Pope in return?

by 3460kuri on Jan 8, 2009 8:43 PM EST reply actions

Umm

Huh?

"I'm a man who discovered the wheel and built the Eiffel Tower out of metal and brawn. That's what kind of man I am. You're just a woman with a small brain. With a brain a third the size of us. It's science." - Ron Burgundy

by J-Gao on Jan 8, 2009 10:00 PM EST up reply actions

Pope and Obama is selling low...

…I would need to get back Tony Danza and Jesus as well- although the Yanks might need throw Freddie Sez in the deal to it done.

The Jayfiss Report ...one fan's rants

by NumberSeven on Jan 8, 2009 10:19 PM EST up reply actions

Hell

While we’re at it, lets trade the owner, the front office, and the name for the same in return.

To the tune of the classic children's song "This Old Man" (the part with nick nack patty whack)

Big Snack, Silverback, take the Dawg Pound's Bone, the Black and Gold sent the Brownies crying home.

by Tim Mullhaupt (HSS) on Jan 8, 2009 10:31 PM EST up reply actions

Can't be done

the pope has a no-trade clause in his contract. And Obama has it good in the white house right now, i dont think he’d be willing to go anywhere.

Now seriously, wtf? Damn right its not gonna happen!

by steelersfan86 on Jan 25, 2009 3:44 PM EST up reply actions

That trade is absolutely ridiculous.

Only a Yankee fan would even have the arrogance to propose it. Let’s look at the players involved:
Jeter (age 35 next season)
Rivera (39)
Austin Jackson (22)
Joba Chamberlain (23)
for
Shane Victorino (28)
Cole Hamels (25)
Jimmy Rollins (30)
Brad Lidge (32)

Hamels alone is worth more than the entire Yankee offer, because he is young, proven and cost-controlled. Jeter and Rivera are both aging, declining, and substantially overpaid. Jackson hasn’t reached the majors, and has limited value until he proves he can succeed there (as all the Phillies listed have). Chamberlain has an injury history and is on an innings limit; he hasn’t proven that he can succeed as a starter over an entire year.

"It's just a tiny little nick, but it hurts when I get champagne in there."
- Jason Bay, on getting spiked scoring the winning run in ALDS Game Four.

by 0157H7 on Jan 8, 2009 11:08 PM EST reply actions

Only a Sox fan

Would come on a Yankee site because when we sign Tex, CC, and AJ, you guys sign Smoltz(who is a bigger injury risk than my 74 year old grandma) and Rocco(who God bless him isnt what he once was and now has the endurance of Big Papi running out a triple)

by Michael Uhlhorn on Jan 8, 2009 11:41 PM EST up reply actions

Jeez...

It was a question for Yankee fans. Not Red Sox fans who don’t have anything better to do than raid the sites of other teams and criticize a clearly more talented team for 2009.

As Yankee fans, I believe that we have ties to the players, unlike the Red Sox who unload the faces of their franchise – V-Tek, Pedro, Ramirez – unceremoniously. I even said it myself, the talent on the Philly side is clearly better. Only Yankee fans would have a true opinion about losing two of the greatest and respected players the games ever seen.

by J-Gao on Jan 8, 2009 11:53 PM EST up reply actions

Mo declining?

Are you kidding?

Pound for pound, stat for stat, he was in the top 3 among all major-league relievers last year at age 38, and he’s been there, if not the very best, the rest of his career. You could argue that maybe Joe Nathan was better in 2008, and that KRod, Joakim Soria, Jonathan Papelbon, and Lidge came close, but no cigar. But none of them has had the year-in, year-out success Mo has had, certainly not at Mo’s age, which they haven’t yet reached (and, at that point, they’ll all probably be above-average middle relievers).

Mo’s stats, 2003 to 2008
IP: 70.7, 78.7, 78.3, 75.0, 71.3, 70.7
ERA: 1.66, 1.94, 1.38, 1.80, 3.15, 1.40
WHIP: 1.00, 1.08, 0.87, 0.96, 1.12, 0.67
SV: 40, 53, 43, 34, 30, 39
BS: 6, 4, 4, 3, 4, 1
SO: 63, 66, 80, 55, 74, 77
K/BB: 6.30, 3.30, 4.44, 5.00, 6.17, 12.83

So his worst year was 2007, a fluke. The rest of those guys above have fluke years when they’re as good as they were in 2008; that’s particularly true for Lidge. But Mo is the definition of reliability, still today. And if he’s declining, he shouldn’t have posted his best ERA in three years and the second best of his career, and he shouldn’t have allowed the fewest base runners per IP in his career, and he shouldn’t have had a 12.83 K/BB ratio (by far the highest of his career), and he shouldn’t have blown only one save. In fact, if you look at the trend, his blown saves have only declined over time, his strikeouts have increased three straight seasons, and he’s been striking out more guys for every guy he walks every season since 2004.

So Mo would be worth the whole Phillies package, to use a hyperbole less extreme than yours.

"If you lived in my grandfather's house...and you wanted to eat, you had to be a Yankees fan." --Joe Biden

by SenorSwanky on Jan 9, 2009 3:12 AM EST up reply actions