How do you feel about Brian Cashman?

Well, uh I guess I, deep down, am feeling a little confused. I mean, suddenly, you get married, and you’re supposed to be this entirely different guy. I don’t feel different. I mean, take yesterday for example. We were out at the Olive Garden for dinner, which was lovely. And uh, I happen to look over at a certain point during the meal and see a waitress taking an order, and I found myself wondering what color her underpants might be. Her panties. Uh, odds are they are probably basic white, cotton, underpants. But I sort of think well maybe they’re silk panties, maybe it’s a thong. Maybe it’s something really cool that I don’t even know about. You know, and uh, and I started feeling… what? what I thought we were in the trust tree in the nest, were we not?

He has made some mistakes, but so have all GMs. He seems to have a more of a high risk, high reward style. Plus the higher budget means that his mistakes stand out more as he targets (usually) better, more expensive players. Igawa and Pavano have been huge failures, but proportionally not much worse than other teams.

He seems to balance the need to win now while trying to hold onto prospects. He’s learned not to pay big money for bullpen arms but use prospects and trades (Robinson, Hughes, Coke, Ace). He’s also learned to be patient in signing free agents. The way he played Boras in the previous Damon signing shows he knows how to use the Yankees 800 pound gorilla status.

A lot of people out there think they could build a championship team with the “blank check” that Cash has to work with. But he is probably one of the most scrutinized GM’s in all of professional sports. He gets as much press for the moves he doesn’t make, as he does for the ones he does. That’s certainly not an easy position to be in, but I think Cash has always handled it with class and skill.

I think he has done a terrific job building a winner, while re-stocking and overseeing the development of the farm. There are the occasional head-scratching moves from time to time- but for the most part the deals and moves he makes make good baseball and business sense. I think it’s a lot easier to flounder as the GM of Yanks than it is to consistently win- and Cash has done the latter more often than any other current GM.

is coming from the fact that we’ve just won a World Series and are primed to do it many more times this next decade. There’s no doubt that he’s an above average GM (that’s more than a lot of teams can say), but he has made a lot of unforeseeable and foreseeable bad signings in the past (don’t think I have to mention those). We were kept competitive through our money reserves and our ability to nullify a bad signing with another one.

But he seems to be coming into his own now and is becoming an excellent GM, with 2 awesome offseasons in a row. We’ll see how this one works out, but I think that Cashman has enough control and outlook in the club that we’ll be seeing a lot more of the good than the bad.

but McGwire just admitted to using steroids…

He tries his ass off to get the best team possible. What else can we ask?

but not terrific. Yes, he’s made some great moves. But he’s also made some awful moves. I don’t blame him for Pavano. But I blame him for Wright, Sheffield, Johnson (who he was willing to trade Cano and Wang for), Brown, Giambi. The non-resigning of Bernie in 2007. Overall, I think that he’s made too many bad moves.

He’s made some great ones too, thats for sure. But too many bad ones in 2002-2008, and because of the guys he got, the clubhouse was tense. There wasn’t a lot of heart. It was old and getting older. And what did it lead to? Only one WS appearance, 0 championships, one missed playoffs (which can’t happen), 4 first round exits, and the greatest collapse in sports history. He didn’t make smart decisions in those years, and didn’t seem to learn until this season.

Again, he’s made terrific moves and he’s a very good general manager. But I don’t think he’s great.

I think clear free of the Steinbrenner wake has helped him. He made some nice moves in 2008 and last season — although what did he really have to do in adding Tex and CC other than outbid everyone else. But more than signings and mid-season deals, I like that he’s been the architect of our minor league revitalization. We have a strong minor-league system these last several seasons — in large part due to his input and initiative. This had to be extremely difficult to pull off given the fact that he had to keep the Yankees in contention while rebuilding our system. Nice work.

There are two distinct eras in Cash’s tenure. Before gaining effective control of baseball decisions and after. Think you need to evaluate the latter part of his career as almost a separate entity.

On that front, I think he’s probably one of the top 5 GMs in baseball right now, and he’s been second to none this off-season.

He has managed front office chaos and made only a few mistakes.

He and Theo are two of the best.

Is pretty good, but the results could be skewed, since he is working with the most GM friendly owners in baseball who are always willing to shell out money.

Last year Cashman brought in top guns like CC Sabathia, AJ Burnett and Mark Teixeira. Those signings gave the Yankees their 27th World Series title.

This year the Yankees cut their budget to $ 200 million. Cashman again did wonders by trading for Granderson and signing a cheap DH.

Cashman is flexible and knows how to win.

27 championships. in the postseason basically every year. we are the best franchise in the history of sports. you don’t think we realize that?

i think his job is harder than people think for a couple reasons.
obviously he probably hears more from those above him then any other GM in baseball(more pressure).
but 2nd i think its very difficult for him in negotiations with players. he has very little leverage with a lot of these players.. if the player knows the yankees are after him, they know the yankees are willing to pay huge amounts of money, so cashman has to counter that and beable to play hardball and get the player at his price, which he doesnt always succeed at but i like most of the deals he puts together.
overall, hes perfect for a team of these expectations and with this much money to spend. he’s always looking to improve his team in any possibly way.
bring back johnny

wouild hate me because if i was gm haif the moves wouild be to prevent bos from getting top talnet in trades and i wouild ever top offer free agent 15-20 percent more that anyone else

In my lifetime as a fan it’s been: Gene Michael, Bill Bergesch, Murray Cook, Clyde King, Woody Woodward, Lou Piniella, Bob Quinn, Harding “Pete” Peterson, Gene Michael(again) and Bob Watson. Cashman has been the only one besides Stick with any tenure. I like him. It’s like restaurants in downtown New Haven…you don’t stick around if you suck.