New York Yankees News: 01/31/2011

Nomaas takes a look at the other side of the prospect coin and asks the question - is it time to sell high?

(Zach McAllister) was the Yankees top pitching prospect in April (2010); fast forward to August and he's being announced as the PTBNL in the Austin Kearns trade.  McAllister went from being a decent bargaining chip to only worth a half-season of a fourth outfielder in a matter of weeks.

The Yankees have a strong farm system, among the best in the league, but its greatest strength is having a number of projectable back-of-the-rotation arms, all coming off great years (Noesi, Warren, Phelps, Nova). If that doesn’t sound like McAllister to you, you haven’t been listening.

I for one see some sense in this.  There should be a distinction between elite-level talent (Jesus Montero and Manny Banuelos) and placeholders (just about everybody else).  The real value of a Hector Noesi or Ivan Nova is their potential to fill the back end of a rotation right now at a low cost.  But they're mostly interchangeable, and none of them should be untouchable, especially in salary-dump trades similar to the ones Brian Cashman swung for Nick Swisher and Curtis Granderson.  If they Yankees can flip any of these potential bank-end starters for an actual proven one, they should be open to the idea.

• It's About The Money notes that the recent drama surrounding the Yankees chain of command in the front office has clouded the fact that it's one of the best and most functional in all of baseball.  Who would have thought that?
• On a programming note, the writers of Pinstripe Alley will begin rolling out a daily series that profiles the major players (no pun intended) on the Yankees 2011 roster later today.