Yanksfan03

Nov 6 2009, 08:28 PM

I'm going to give this another week before I really start thinking about next year. I'm going to do what I should've done years ago and really enjoy this one.

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Tim Kurkjian runs through some of the top storylines to watch this offseason for his latest article on ESPN.com. Here's a breakdown of some of the topics discussed...

* Kurkjian believes the Yankees will let Johnny Damon and Hideki Matsui walk this winter and will "consider" free agents Jason Bay and Matt Holliday.
* Kurkjian also thinks Holliday is "perfect for Fenway Park," and someone who will be pursued if the Red Sox aren't able to reach an agreement with Bay.
* The McCourts' divorce could have a serious impact on the way Los Angeles does business this offseason. As Kurkjian writes, "The Dodgers need to acquire at least one topflight starting pitcher, but there is already speculation that they will not have enough money to re-sign left-hander Randy Wolf."
* The Cubs won't be able to trade Milton Bradley without picking up most of the two years, $20MM left on his contact.
* The Yanks are likely to re-sign Andy Pettitte for at least one year.
* Kurkjian spoke to one MLB general manager who thinks Cuban left-hander Aroldis Chapman has "a ways to go before he's ready to pitch in the major leagues, phyiscally and emotionally."
* The Angels are expected to be aggressive in trying to re-sign Chone Figgins, but he'll have plenty of other suitors. Kurkjian lists the White Sox and Orioles as possibilities. We've heard the Cubs might also have interest.

Sori4Mvp

Nov 7 2009, 06:40 PM

Bullshit, no way we let BOTH Damon and Matsui walk.

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Tim Kurkjian runs through some of the top storylines to watch this offseason for his latest article on ESPN.com. Here's a breakdown of some of the topics discussed...

* Kurkjian believes the Yankees will let Johnny Damon and Hideki Matsui walk this winter and will "consider" free agents Jason Bay and Matt Holliday.
* Kurkjian also thinks Holliday is "perfect for Fenway Park," and someone who will be pursued if the Red Sox aren't able to reach an agreement with Bay.
* The McCourts' divorce could have a serious impact on the way Los Angeles does business this offseason. As Kurkjian writes, "The Dodgers need to acquire at least one topflight starting pitcher, but there is already speculation that they will not have enough money to re-sign left-hander Randy Wolf."
* The Cubs won't be able to trade Milton Bradley without picking up most of the two years, $20MM left on his contact.
* The Yanks are likely to re-sign Andy Pettitte for at least one year.
* Kurkjian spoke to one MLB general manager who thinks Cuban left-hander Aroldis Chapman has "a ways to go before he's ready to pitch in the major leagues, phyiscally and emotionally."
* The Angels are expected to be aggressive in trying to re-sign Chone Figgins, but he'll have plenty of other suitors. Kurkjian lists the White Sox and Orioles as possibilities. We've heard the Cubs might also have interest.

YankeeBaseball

Nov 7 2009, 10:15 PM

Madden thinks the team could look to the trade market for a starter instead, perhaps making catching prospect Jesus Montero available.

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* After Ken Rosenthal expressed skepticism about Boston's ability to acquire Adrian Gonzalez from the Padres, Cafardo declares that it's the one move the Red Sox have to make to keep up with the Yankees. Although he presents a lengthy argument for why it could work, he never specifically addresses what players the Sox could send to San Diego, which was the sticking point for Rosenthal.
* Xavier Nady would like to return to the Yankees, but doesn't know if they'll want him back. "I know I can go out there and be a productive starting player for someone," Nady says. As Cafardo points out though, after Nady's injury-plagued 2009, many teams would probably prefer to sign him as a fourth outfielder.
* Cafardo thinks the Los Angeles Dodgers should consider signing Pedro Martinez to a half-year deal in 2010, and that Philadelphia could be a good fit for Billy Wagner.
* The Jeremy Hermida acquisition raises questions about Rocco Baldelli's future in Boston. Baldelli says he enjoyed Boston and would love to return, but that the team hasn't informed him of their plans yet.
* "It would be an upset" if Mark Mulder signed anywhere but Milwaukee.
* One baseball official tells Cafardo that the New York Yankees might be a bit reluctant to re-sign Johnny Damon and Hideki Matsui because "they’re afraid of sticking with a guy too long. They’d rather get rid of a guy a year sooner, ahead of his decline, than a year later."

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Vin, hope you're enjyoing this offseason. Congrats on the title. You must be proud. Word is Torre is in deep talks with LA about a contract extension, my sources tell me he's pushing hard for a move to bring Cano to La La Land...stay tuned for more.

Sori4Mvp

Nov 8 2009, 03:52 PM

Just get a text from a good sauce:

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Vin, hope you're enjyoing this offseason. Congrats on the title. You must be proud. Word is Torre is in deep talks with LA about a contract extension, my sources tell me he's pushing hard for a move to bring Cano to La La Land...stay tuned for more.

moomoo24

Nov 8 2009, 10:26 PM

Sori4Mvp

Nov 8 2009, 03:52 PM

Just get a text from a good sauce:

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Vin, hope you're enjyoing this offseason. Congrats on the title. You must be proud. Word is Torre is in deep talks with LA about a contract extension, my sources tell me he's pushing hard for a move to bring Cano to La La Land...stay tuned for more.

Vin, your source probably couldn't be more wrong. Everyone has said Torre has really hated working in LA and the fact that their ownership is such a mess right now there is no way he's signing an extension.

Sori4Mvp

Nov 8 2009, 03:52 PM

Just get a text from a good sauce:

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Vin, hope you're enjyoing this offseason. Congrats on the title. You must be proud. Word is Torre is in deep talks with LA about a contract extension, my sources tell me he's pushing hard for a move to bring Cano to La La Land...stay tuned for more.

YankeeBaseball

Nov 8 2009, 11:33 PM

Celebration's over, now it's time for New York Yankees GM Brian Cashman to work on next year

Bill Madden


Yankees GM Brian Cashman is now tasked with deciding which players to bring back and who to let walk away.

Turns out the only thing longer than the baseball season this year was the Yankees' World Series victory parade and ceremony. Now that they've finally concluded (they have, haven't they?), it's right back to business for the Yankee high command as the baseball winter waits for no man.

No sooner than they've wiped all the remaining confetti from their hair, Andy Pettitte, Johnny Damon, Hideki Matsui, Eric Hinske, Jerry Hairston Jr., and Jose Molina will all file for free agency, leaving Yankee GM Brian Cashman with the task of deciding which of them if any to bring back. In any case, it's highly doubtful if Cashman will offer any more than a one-year contract to any of them. Like we said, it's business.

Unlike previous years where there was always a specific need to address, this winter's top priority for Cashman is to substantially reduce the Yankee payroll. Those six aforementioned free agents, plus the impending non-tendering of Chien-Ming Wang represent about $44 million coming off the books. Long before the necessity of returning the Yankees to the postseason compelled him to invest $423 million of Steinbrenner money on CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Mark Teixeira last winter, Cashman's goal as GM was to make the Yankees younger and cheaper, as in weeding out all the prohibitive longterm contracts and replacing them whereever possible with players from within.

Believe it, Cashman is embarrassed as anyone over the Yankees' bloated payroll and equally sensitive to the recurring charges that he merely bought a world championship. Just read between the lines of what he said amid the on-field euphoria after Wednesday night's Game 6 clincher: "I'm glad we were able to finish what we started. It's not like you can make something instantly. It takes a process. You had major free-agent additions that cost a lot of money. You had some trades sprinkled in that helped in a big way. Then you had a lot of homegrown guys, old and new, that led us here. That involves a lot of people, player development people that finish off what the scouts bring."

You can see where he's heading.

Of all the Yankee free agents, the only one Cashman will certainly woo hard to bring back - albeit with a one-year contract - is the 37-year old Pettitte. But after going 14-8 in the regular season and then 4-0 in the postseason, expanding his record as the winningest postseason pitcher ever, Pettitte's ever aggressive agents, the Houston-based Hendricks brothers, are going to want a whole lot more than the $5.5 million base he signed for last winter.

Assuming Pettitte does return, that still leaves two unsettled spots in the back of the rotation which, ideally, Cashman would like to fill with Phil Hughes and Joba Chamberlain. But after the way the Joba Rules diminished him the second half of this season, does anyone believe Chamberlain can be a consistent, effective starter? And despite his first taste of failure and loss of confidence as the eighth-inning set-up man in the postseason, Yankee front office operatives still believe Hughes, once he gets back to using all his pitches, will be able to fill the bill as a back-of-the-rotation starter. They also believe Alfredo Aceves can be a more-than decent starter if need be.

No doubt Cashman would love to fill out the rotation with inexpensive homegrown starters that's always been his goal but when have the Yankees ever gone to spring training leaving themselves so thin in the starting pitching department?

The free agent market doesn't appear to offer any viable options unless, of course, no teams are willing to pay the going rate of $15 million plus per year for John Lackey, which would send him into the Yankees' realm of $10-12 million per year. It could happen as the Angels do not appear inclined to pursue Lackey at those ($15 million-plus) numbers, and the Texas Rangers, who are said to be his team of preference, are in the process of being sold, with an ownership in flux.

Otherwise, the Yankees are in prime position to trade for a front line starter, should one become available, with their top prospect, power-hitting catcher Jesus Montero, much coveted. Most scouts feel Montero will be a bigtime hitter in the majors, but that he is already out-growing the catcher position and will eventually have to move to first base which is why the Yankees, who have a surplus of catching talent in the system, feel they can afford to move him in the right deal.

As for the outfielders, it was originally thought by the Yankee brass they could part ways with Damon and Matsui, both of whom earned $13 million this season, and replace them with a younger free agent outfielder along the lines of a Chone Figgins for $9-10 million per. That still might happen, but Damon's and Matsui's productive postseasons have caused for a re-assessment on the Yankees' part.

Do not be surprised if they offer both one-year deals in Damon's case with a vesting option and then wait and see how much they want to remain Yankees. Matsui could probably get a king's ransom to return to Japan while Damon would do well to check out last winter's market for over-35 outfielders before he buys too much into the inflated numbers his rep, Scott (Avenging Agent) Boras is claiming he has to get.

The winning was fun, but that's over now. The baseball winter came early this year, and from this day on it's just business.

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Cano pissed me off this postseason, extremely pissed me off, but unless we can pull off a deal here similar to like upgrading from Soriano to Al, other teams can f*ck off. I also think a lot of this is a knee-jerk reaction to a bad postseason. Why don't we trade Tex too? He had a f*cking terrible postseason at the plate himself.

Sori4Mvp

Nov 9 2009, 02:03 PM

If this team doesn't want to spend big money they can go out and give a Lieber type deal to Bedard on the low. He's recovering from surgery for a torn labrum, shoulder injuries are always big time risky, but it wouldn't take much cash to land him.