Good morning, Pinstripe Alley readers. Here's your morning news for Thursday, December 29th.
- Over at ESPN, former GM Jim Bowden listed his top 10 best contracts in baseball, and number one might surprise you. Though it is widely accepted that Evan Longoria signed the most team friendly deal in modern baseball history, Bowden gave the top spot to Robinson Cano despite that Cano averages more than $5MM more per season than Longoria.
- Also at ESPN, Wallace Matthews reports that the Yankees will likely not be aggressive in their pursuit of Yoenis Cespedes. The main reason is probably a combination of two things. First, he wouldn't have a position to play, and second, it will likely cost about $50MM over a minimum of four years.
- Over at River Ave. Blues, Mike Axisa has a recap of a recent Brian Cashman press conference. Among the highlights were discussions of Alex Rodriguez, Andruw Jones, and Hiroyuki Nakajima.
- Joe Pawlikowski of River Ave. Blues is wondering, just as I did last week, why the Yankees are ignoring one year stop gaps in the rotation such as Hiroki Kuroda and Roy Oswalt.
- Eric Schultz of The Yankee Analysts wonders if passing on Carlos Beltran, again, is a mistake. Would it have been terrible to move Nick Swisher and sign Beltran for two years in order to provide payroll flexibility for 2014? Maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to extend Swisher for a year now.