Concerning One and a Half Year Trades

Has anyone thought that maybe the GM of the Yankees was aware of how great the minors were and that the buying frenzy of the past several years was just a way to get the rest of the Major leagues to take attention away from the Minor league system? Cash MAN is not stupid, unlike Billy Beane. He tends to buy players for current growth and income for the team. Having A-Rod was merely a publicity stunt to get A-Rod into a Yankees Jersey when he broke the HR record. However with the way he is swinging a bat lately, one might consider that the Yankees better start looking to gain another Alfonso Soriano to thier line up and maybe put A-Rod out on the trade market. Lets face it fans in NYC will never like A-Rod for two reasons, First he disrespected Jeter in GQ years ago saying Jeter was not a great athlete. Second, he dissed Jeter again when he came to the Yankees and the Yankees were going to (although never publicly stating this) move Jeter to 2B so as to have the greatest middle infield in the history of the game. Then A-Rod disrespected the Pinstripes and Fans all at once by way of lying about steroid use. I know, I know a lot of players were using but, he as a quarter billion dollar man 2 times now, should have been smart enough to realize that if you are doing these things with someone else, eventually that someone else would turn on you in bad times.
Needless to say Yankees fans think of A-Rod as a Rent a Jackson much like Yankees fans thought of Reggie. Reggie was great for several seasons then we moved him on. A-Rod doesn’t belong.

Cashman doesn’t have to worry so much about the $ now but, once the new season is over and that revenue stream isn’t met, the Yankees will be looking to reduce payroll as well. Don’t be surprised if you see Sabathia walk away after two seasons.
Cashman has many arms in the Minors that will in time be great. I have seen a few bits and pieces of the Minor Leaguers. All I can say is that if you have a guy like Shelly Duncan in the minors this long and in his first five big league at bats he was hitting HRs consisitently, one might want to look at the fact that the Yankees are stock piling like they did in the early to mid nineties.

Anybody remember this blast from the past? (1987)

“Lou, I just won you the pennant. I just got you Steve Trout.” (for Bob Tewksbury and two other bit part minor league pitchers, Dean Wilkens and Rich Scheid.)

Flash forward to the end of the season, as Wikipedia puts it:

“Trout’s acquisition by the New York Yankees in a mid-season trade proved to be a disastrous trade for the Yankees. Though his last two starts with the Cubs were complete game shutouts, and his ERA was one of the best in the National League, with the Yankees he proved unable to locate the strike zone. He walked 37 batters and threw 9 wild pitches in 46 innings and lasted an average of only four innings a start in his nine starts Yankee starts. The Yankees traded Trout to Seattle after the 1987 season, paying the Mariners over one million dollars to offset some of Trout’s substantial salary.

The reason for the Trout’s sudden collapse as an effective pitcher are unknown, though it has been reported that some of Trout’s teammates felt he did not pitch well under pressure."

Let’s not go nuts getting somebody just for the sake of getting somebody.

I wasn’t particularly keen on letting go of Carl Pavano. Though he was nothing but disappointing through his first four years, the guy did show marked improvment toward the end. Wang’s going to be out of the mix for who knows how long – - how worse off would we be having CP in the “five” slot?