Oh, boy! Not 48 hours after we heard that our New York Yankees would have a budget of about $185 million for the 2010 season, word is already out that the number is "not a hard ceiling." Who did not expect that? We should know by now that there is never a hard ceiling on Steinbrenner money, and I know I'm OK with that.
We know that re-signing Andy Pettitte is General Manager Brian Cashman's first priority this off-season, as it should be. As a backup plan, it seems the Yankees are likely to check in with just about every available free-agent starting pitcher on the planet.
NY Baseball Digest thinks all of this speculation is bad news for fans of Phil Hughes and Joba Chamberlain in the rotation. To me, that's a classic over-reaction to a team simply pouring over its options during the middle of the off-season.
Robinson Cano, by the way, has an idea for the rotation. He would like to see Pedro Martinez in pinstripes.
"I say he's got some more in him. He'd be good (with the Yankees), especially with the kind of team we got," said Cano. "We score, most games, four or five runs. Guy like him, we only need him like five, six innings."
Thank God Cano is a second baseman and not a general manager. Pedro would be a desperation move, and the Yankees are not desperate.
By the way, the Winter Meetings start today. Jayson Stark of ESPN looks at what he sees as the top five plot lines for the meetings.
I'm not a John Sterling fan, but Zell's Pinstripe Blog points out a fun link to a clip of Sterling's most memorable calls of the 2009 post-season.
Finally, the New York Daily News tells us Alex Rodriguez is enjoying being a champion.