Thursday, December 11, 2008

NYCC

So the Yankees picked up Sabathia, and look to be going hard after Burnett now.  Lowe, Sheets seem to be in the rearview mirror - but, as always, objects look closer than they appear from that angle.  And Cash is in Texas, schmoozing with Andy to come back for one more year with a paycut.

I would be surprised if Cash didn't leave the state without something done with Andy, so I'm presuming that's done and done.  That said, I think any variation of this rotation looks all right.  And this is my order of how they would go, 1-5:

Sabathia
Wang
Pettitte
Burnett / Sheets / Lowe
Jobamania

Not bad.  L/R/L/R/R would work out well.  I'm not sure if - or how - that translates to wins, but it will mean a stronger sense of stability in the rotation since the last time the Yankees won a championship.

It's said that Teixeira is no longer in play, and that makes sense.  Lots of money is coming off the books for the club (Giambi, Abreu, Pettitte, Mussina), but they're reallocating most of that back into players (Sabathia, Pettitte/Burnett/Sheets/Lowe, players in arbitration, Swisher). 

A couple of things that I tend to (over) think about:

(1) - I wonder if a fringe benefit to having Andy sign for a lesser amount of years and money over Sheets / Lowe / Burnett is to maybe engineer an actual competitive deal towards Teixeria?

(2) - It sounds outrageous, but I think Manny would be the Yankee equivalent to Ortiz.  He would crush pitching within the division (with the exception of maybe Price from the Rays).  I should clarify my statement by saying that particularly the Dodger Manny from the last couple months of last season would serve this role well, as DH.

Nevertheless, nice work in securing CC for the next three years at least.  I will like to see him in the pinstripes at Opening Day in the new Stadium.