The Winter Of Our Discontent

I completely agree. If the Yankees are serious about getting their payroll under control it would be even worse to act rashly with free agent signings. As Treebeard said in the Lord of the Rings " Don’t be hasty".

I’m not sure it’s “highly likely” we don’t have a real move left yet. I would not be surprised if either John Danks, Gio Gonzalez, or another two type pitcher we might not even be aware is available ends up being traded for or some other bold unexpected move happens. We’re only in the middle of this. The second biggest free agent prize hasn’t been signed, Yu’s bid hasn’t been revealed, the Cuban isn’t even available. I don not think we’re getting any of those three, but moves lead to other moves.

Over Darvish presumably going elsewhere, especially if it’s in the division, especially when the supposed winning bid of $48 mil was high, but not astronomical. Darvish was the one prize that was worth pursuing this winter, which makes the Yankees apparent lack of interest pretty confusing.

People talk about waiting the 2013 pitching class – Cole Hamels, Matt Cain, Zack Greinke, Jon Danks and Anibal Sanchez – but these players are all on teams that have the financial means to re-sign them, so I doubt the market will look as strong by the time spring training begins.

So what we’re left with for 2012 are trade candidates with ridiculous asking prices and two mid-rotation options who are well into their 30’s and have never pitched in the AL in Kuroda and Oswalt. The unfortunate presence of Freddy Garcia means that signing either of these two or anyone else would banish Phil Hughes from the rotation, and I don’t think either of them are good enough to do that over. I find it hard to believe that the Yankees will do nothing, but the thought of doing something is becoming scarier than that since none of the options are all that promising.

1. Sabathia
2. Garcia
3. Hughes (A healthy Hughes is going to give you 16-18)
4. Nova (Nova adds 15-17 as a number 4)
5. Colon/Noesi (Yeah I actually could see a situation where Colon comes back he didn’t pitch bad last year and there were times he was almost dominant. I feel fatigue was an issue with him last year. But I got a very strong hunch Noesi makes the rotation he was strong last spring, stronger in Winter Ball these kids have Nova and Noesi have good work ethics and fire in the blood.

I do not see Burnett in pinstripes in 2012. That’s the only concern of the Yankees is moving Burnett and pick up a utility bat off the bench. As I said last Winter I do not see the Yankees as a big off season spender for some years to come. And if the Yankees keep bringing up Novas, Hughes, Jobas, Noesi’s, Nunezs, and Monteros why on earth would they?

Going after Yu sounds nice but he’s going to have a veteran superstar contract his first season and most likely spend a lot of that in the minors. We’ve got at least 3 guys down there now at least a year away under team control for sometime to come. Logical sense says wait. The rotation won 97 games last year let’s not forget that. The bullpen is still intact. A healthy Hughes is at least 9 extra wins that makes all the more sense to part with AJ. Between Noesi and Colon working in some tandem as a 5th starter duo Yankees are set with a rotation that if offensively there’s not a significant drop off from last year is a 100 plus win rotation.

And speaking of offense it was actually a down year but still a top offense. The Yankees have already gotten better at the DH with Montero, A-Rod and Jeter going to see significant at bats. If Joe G. gives Martin more rest I believe we’ll see an uptick there. Jeter has been looking good in his workouts… real good as has Texieria. So offensively I see improvement from players that had down years. The Yankees will compete. Will they win it all? Maybe but that’s why we play the games.

i agree, nobody in the free agent class this year worth throwing any money at, i might take a shot on oswalt if the price was right, not if he was too much though, i think we definetly need another consistent arm in the rotation but if theres nothing out there worth the money, wait it out, maybe hughes gets his stuff together, you never know, no reason to go out and offer a bad contract