In Praise of Brian Cashman, Briefly

by jscape2000 on Oct 5, 2009 1:54 PM EDT in Analysis Comment 30 comments

More photos » by Paul J. Bereswill - AP

"That's right. I AM the man."

Brian Cashman has been saying "The Yankees need to get younger and more athletic" for several years now.

Since 2005 he has been slowly re-molding the machine, re-invigorating the farm system and retooling the roster to fit his championship vision.

For 2 seasons we've watched the Eli Whitney approach to roster construction. Cash and Joe Girardi swapped out relievers like Edwar Ramirez, David Robertson, Jose Veras, Jon Albaledejo, and Billy Traber as they were overworked or ineffective. Shelley Duncan, Alberto Gonzalez, Cody Ransom, Francisco Cervelli, Ramiro Pena and Juan Miranda have all made their cases for spots on the bench as they were needed.

From down on the farm, Brett Gardner has pushed his way into the everyday lineup, at least equal to Melky Cabrera, and while Phil Hughes and Joba Chamberlain have struggled as major league starters, their development is something the Yankees haven't seen in a decade.

Meanwhile, the Royals are paying more to Kyle Farnsworth than all those players will earn combined.

All of these are the periphreal moves that (I believe) make championships possible- built around a core that finally includes several quality starters.

But I think the important moment of the season came in June when Cashman made a visit to the team before a game against the Braves.

Joe G. was going through the season mechanically pencilling in Arod at third, and Cash had to step in and lay down the law (as he did with Torre and the Joba Rules).

Arod came alive after that because he started getting the regular rest the doctors had ordered. He hit .322/.421/.572 the rest of the season. And the team came alive with Arod, riding a hot streak that carried them from 5 games back in Atlanta to tied for first within 2 weeks and uncatchable by the end of July.

Cash has a huge budget to work with and the largest (and most demanding) fan base in baseball, but resources are only valuable if they are deployed wisely. He's been doing that better and better since he restructured the organization, and now he's clearly added solid leadership to his bag of tricks.

The Yankees are in good hands.

0 recs | Comment 30 comments | Share

Story-email Email Printer Print

Comments

Betemit, Marquez, Nunez for Swisher + Texeira

Wilson Betemit: .200/.280/.311 in 20 games, DFA’d June 5

Jeff Marquez: 2-8 9.85 era 2.05 whip 45IP for AAA Charlotte

Jhonny Nunez: 5-0 2.55 era 1.17 whip 70 ip for AA Birmingham/AAA Charlotte* (Needed 40 man roster spot)
-——————————————————————————————————-

Nick Swisher: 249/.371/.498 150 games, 29 hr, 126 ops+ .9 OF UZR

Kanekoa Texiera 9-6, 2.84 era 1.31 whip 101 ip (did not need 40 man roster spot)

Advantage: Cashman

Strikeouts are boring- Besides that, they're fascist. Throw some ground balls - it's more democratic.

by CasanovaWong on Oct 5, 2009 3:07 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Kanekoa was in AA Trenton.

Strikeouts are boring- Besides that, they're fascist. Throw some ground balls - it's more democratic.

by CasanovaWong on Oct 5, 2009 3:09 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Swisher deal

Best deal the Yankees have made in a longtime. Lets not forget Jesus Montero and Austin Romine in the farm system talk. Those guys should get to the majors by the time Posada decides to retire to his beautiful wife

People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring. ~Rogers Hornsby

by sdhman11 on Oct 5, 2009 7:51 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Unabashed love for Cash on PA??

Never thought I’d live to see the day. I quite agree though, John- everybody makes it seem that Cashman has the easiest job in baseball. But it’s not so easy to put a winner out there year in and year out when you’re expected too.

Of course, there have been head scratchers over the past few years- but overall I would say kudos to Cash.

by NumberSeven on Oct 5, 2009 3:18 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Cashman

Couldn’t agree more with you. Additionally I would add that Cash has resisted pressure from the fan base to trade our future for Santana, and more recently any old starting pitcher beginning with Washburn.

We could have had them both but neither would be available this post season. We would have given up Joba or Hughes, Melky, Marquez and Cano for Santana. I have heard it mentioned that Austin jackson plus would have been the price for Washburn.

It should be noted that along with the unavailability of Santana and Washburn for the 2009 post season would be Swisher, Melky Joba Hughes and Cano. Though it is unlikely that the Yankees would have finished ahead of Toronto with all those missing pieces.

Good work Cash!!

by Jtmc on Oct 5, 2009 3:27 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Tito, get me another tissue ...

This is hard for me, because following the Kei Igawa fiasco, Cashman was dead man walking to me. But even in my desire to see him go, I understood he was in a very difficult—if not impossible situation—trying to rebuild the Yankees while winning pennants. No one else has to endure that kind of pressure; and while he didn’t succeed, he kept the Yankees competitive in 2008, and provided fans with a glimmer of hope.

Oh, sure, Hughes and IPK bombed, but there were many positives—most notably Teixeira and CC were free agents.

All the added talent notwithstanding, Cashman has made some smart moves. I agree the Arod move was critical, as was acquiring Swisher. Even lesser moves like Hinske and Hairston made sense. Through it all, we didn’t jettison homegrown talent for a rental player. In fact, I believe our farm teams all did quite well—another bi-product of Cashman’s influence.

I still hate Kei Igawa, but I might have been alittle too quick to pull the plug on Cash.

"Baseball is the background music of my life." -George Will

by Ronster22 on Oct 5, 2009 4:11 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Igawa was a bad move

No one wears a bigger Scarlet Kei around his neck than I do.

I thought that guy could have been something. Plus the scouts we sent to Japan liked him, and he has good swing and miss percentages. He wouldn’t have to be brilliant- as Andy Pettitte is proving once again, slightly above average and durable can be worth double digit wins with the Yankees’ offense.

The Igawa signing (like Jared Wright and Kevin Brown) was a direct result of too little focus on drafting and development and letting Andy go to Houston after ’03. A terrible move for the organization made worse because it appeared reactionary to losing the Dice-K bid.

"Have faith in the Yankees, my son. Think of the great DiMaggio."

by jscape2000 on Oct 5, 2009 4:31 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Letting Andy go was at the Boss' urging I believe

The team medical staff thought his left elbow was going to implode. I remember MSG (or YES) kept on showing in slo-mo video a bone protruding from Pettitte’s elbow right before his pitch release point. It’s ugly and had a lot of fans, including myself, convinced that it was going to inevitably happen.

by Scooby Snacks on Oct 5, 2009 5:03 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

And it did, his second year in Houston.

"Have faith in the Yankees, my son. Think of the great DiMaggio."

by jscape2000 on Oct 5, 2009 5:48 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Sorry, The Jury Is Still Out On Cashman

Sorry but you just cant erase some of the bad moves, and there were lots of them. He has made some decent ones over the years too, but no titles since 2000 with that checkbook? Cashman and the team he “built” in 2004 is the reason we cant chant 1918 anymore.

by YankeesJets on Oct 5, 2009 8:06 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Right, it's cashman's fault

Mo blew a save and the players that went up 3-0 on the soc suffered a historic collapse. Cashman can build a team to get to the playoffs, he can’t play the games for them.

Strikeouts are boring- Besides that, they're fascist. Throw some ground balls - it's more democratic.

by CasanovaWong on Oct 5, 2009 9:24 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

No Cash fan

I have been very critical of Cashman especially concerning the Minor League temas and development or lack thereof, but I have to admit that I can see a method to his plan and i believe he deserves the credit for not only this years team but the fact that we have a YOUNG nucleus for good teams for years to come

by ae2cdk on Oct 5, 2009 9:58 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

yea..

always the checkbook. Worst thing to blame in the history of sports.

Cuz the Presidents on the bills had cutter’s that would bend circle’s around MO’s and could hit knuckleballs out of Yellowstone Park.

What the f$%k is the internet?

by FreeBradshaw on Oct 5, 2009 10:16 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Building A Pitching Staff Where A Game 7 Comes Down To Kevin Brown

Doesnt give your team a chance to win. Trading away Ted Lilly to get Jeff Weaver, trading Javier Vazquez for an old Randy Johnson, signing Jaret Wright and Kei Igawa knowing they werent any good, and up until this year making terrible bullpen signings. I wont add Pavano to the list because it looked like a smart signing at the time. You cant give credit for the big signings, any one of us couldve signed those guys. Like I said earlier he has made great signings of guys like Aaron Small, Al Leiter, Jon Lieber, the Swisher trade, and theres plenty more, but he isnt a great GM just an average one to me. Some of you guys kill me when you forget a lot of the bad Cashman moves, now he’s like a god.

by YankeesJets on Oct 5, 2009 10:49 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

To be fair

He has traded a lot of players that just didn’t do well in NY and wound up more relaxed and playing better for other teams. No one could have forseen those changes.

I agree that it’s been good and bad, but a lot of credit probably goes to the ownership who backed off and let Cashman decide how to develop the farm system and decide not to mortgage the farm for over the hill players. I think that there’s a reason that they went crazy from 1999 to 2004 on big signings and trades and another reason they are now focusing on the same formula that got them back to the post-season in 1996 after over a decade of missing it.

Just my 2 cents.

by phonty on Oct 5, 2009 11:03 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Finally some wise words

I like your take a lot better than most of the posters on here.

by YankeesJets on Oct 5, 2009 11:13 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Much of that is hindsight...

Do you remember how good Jeff Weaver was when they traded for him? He was as good as his brother is right now…except he threw that fastball 95mph and with a lot of movement. I have no regrets about that Weaver trade, the man just lost his marbles when he came to NY.

really, the only ones I never liked at the start were Jaret Wright and trading for Randy Johnson.

Wright sucked, but Johnson was actually not all that bad. Vazquez is good, but from what I see of what he is wherever he goes, I have a feeling we all would have hated him

I know what bad moves he’s made. There’s also 100% of GM’s in the history of sports that make bad moves.

The fact he hasn’t been able to bring a WS champ is one thing, but Id think most sane fanbases would be just fine with what he’s done so far.

Also gotta remember that its only recently that he’s had most of the control anyway, cuz Steinbrenner always had players that he wanted no matter what, like Sheffield.

Is he a great GM? As long as he’s with the Yankees, we’ll never find out cuz he’ll never have to be.

He’s made a few bad moves, but those are probably BECAUSE of the big wallet. Guys like Brown, Wright, Giambi…all too tempting with the unlimited pockets wouldn’t you think? They were good before that too…weren’t they?

Lot of the moves that didn’t pan out are in hindsight. Many of the good ones are too.

What the f$%k is the internet?

by FreeBradshaw on Oct 5, 2009 11:42 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I can agree with some of what you wrote but..

Lilly was a guy that proved he could handle NY, why get rid of him for a guy like Weaver who pitched on a losing team with no pressure? I dont care how much money you have, a past his prime head case like Kevin Brown is a bad move. And Cashman never seems to learn that NL pitchers dont translate well in the Bronx. Not to get off point, but isnt Jared Allen a beast?

by YankeesJets on Oct 5, 2009 11:48 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Handle NY?

I thought it sounded off, so I looked it up.

Lily had a WHIP of 1.47 in 120 innings in 2001, the Yankees had a veteran rotation of Mussina, Clemens, El Duque and Pettitte.
In 2002, the Yanks had added David Wells, but Duque and Pettitte both missed time in the first half with injuries.
Lily somehow managed to put together a 1.06 WHIP (setting up his career year by a long shot until he moved to the NL). Sell high.

So Cashman managed to steal a pitcher from the Tigers, a year younger than Lily who had posted consecutive seasons of 200 IP, posting WHIPs of 1.28 and 1.30, who would be under team control for a season and a half to ‘audition.’

I will eat the crow on Kei Igawa, and injury prone Brown coming from the NL always looked bad to me (though he pitched very very well when he was on the mound until he punched the wall).

But ask me a hundred times and I will always trade Ted Lily for Jeff Weaver.

"Have faith in the Yankees, my son. Think of the great DiMaggio."

by jscape2000 on Oct 6, 2009 1:20 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

So you would still make that deal?

I always thought a lefty had more value, and if I remember correctly Weaver basically cost us the 2003 WS. And if Lilly doesn’t get traded for Weaver, Kevin Brown never becomes a Yankee. So if the Yankees could get either Lilly or Weaver next year, according to you they should welcome Weaver back into the fold?

by YankeesJets on Oct 6, 2009 1:27 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

You're missing the point.

No, never in a million years would I ever bring back Weaver while I’d consider and probably pull the trigger on Lilly….in 2009.

But we’re talking about the trade, back when they actually got Weaver.

Lilly was OK, he was having a very good year. Weaver was the #1 starter on a bad team. Like jscape said, Weaver was even a year younger and MUCH more accomplished. He had much better stuff too.

The Yankees with the rotation they had were merely trying to get younger and to get a player with the potential that Weaver had…no one would have known what happened. Weaver had much more potential than Lilly.

He came to NY and for whatever reason I never saw the guy throw a FB over 91mph, where he sat at 95 with the Tigers.

At the time, yea, 10/10 times I make that trade. Its really impossible to tell who’s gonna implode in NY until they actually come and play.

What the f$%k is the internet?

by FreeBradshaw on Oct 6, 2009 7:24 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

and yes...

Jared Allen is a beast. All the talk of Farve, even all the talk of Adrian Peterson…

The Vikings are good cuz of that D. The talk was always how the Giants D-Line was so deep and good, and they are of course. But the Wall of Williams and Jared Allen? That is probably as good or as close to it as you can get.

Kinda pissed that the Giants-Vikings game is the last one of the season. I would have loved to play them in a couple weeks (when the Giants decide to get healthy.)

What the f$%k is the internet?

by FreeBradshaw on Oct 6, 2009 7:28 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Let it go ...

Would you rather have Boston right now, today, or NY?
Epstein gets all the headlines and is the sexy GM pick right now, but look at some of the desperation moves he made this year?

No thanks. I’ll take the Yankees right now, and for the next 5-7 years. I think Cashman is doing it right, building from within and adding little pieces here and there.

"Baseball is the background music of my life." -George Will

by Ronster22 on Oct 6, 2009 12:15 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

The Yanks sold high on Lilly

He was supposed to be an injury risk much like Andy. They couldn’t trade Pettitte but they wanted to get something for Lilly before his career imploded. Weaver was looking like a young ace for Detroit. He was leading the league in CG’s and shutouts. He was the answer for Tim Hudson. Turned out Weaver was no ace and Lilly stayed healthy but hey, everydamnone makes decisions with the info available at the time that don’t work out. Everydamnone makes predictions that are wrong more often than not. Everydamnone. If one is not wrong more than one is right, one better be rich and running the world. Those that choose to point fingers are being self-righteous. Also, C-$$ did not have final say until recently. He gets blame/credit for moves that he didn’t make and we won’t know which ones until he writes his book that I won’t read. I like the recent direction of the organization and for that Cashman deserves the credit.

by Peter Lacock on Oct 6, 2009 5:49 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Because I don't care about that stuff

I pay attention to what goes on between the lines. Also, it’s the past that cannot change and no longer matters.

by Peter Lacock on Oct 6, 2009 9:55 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Lilly

Was a guy I’d seen pitch several times in the minors, and frankly, I would have whiffed on him as well. He didn’t throw terribly hard, had some early control issues, and if I’m not mistaken, only had two plus pitches. Really the only things in his favor was that he’s a lefty, and he won.

Letting Lilly go wasn’t a mistake in my opinion. Some guys just need extra time (especially lefties).

"Baseball is the background music of my life." -George Will

by Ronster22 on Oct 6, 2009 12:17 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I don't care

for Cashman but the Weaver trade was the absolute right move at the time.His age ,the contract and not to mention the guys upside at the time was through the roof.He is not the only one who imploded in that time frame.Lily got bashed in a crucial playoff game against the Sox,remember Damon and the idiots spelled Lily on there coats.Someone look up there stats in the next couple yrs following the trade and im willing to bet there pretty similar.Lily was not great in oakland.So with close to the same stats im guessing the Yanks never resign him either.Im still pissed about the Kevin Brown game 7 thing but it was Arizona who backed out on the Johnson deal that deadline.Don’t say it wouldn’t have mattered Randy beat the Sox if it was all he did.

by cashman bashman on Oct 6, 2009 4:52 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs