Yankees Looking At Helton, Fuentes

Plenty of Todd Helton to the Yankees rumors surfacing lately, the first of which came via Mark Healey of Gotham Baseball.  Healey also mentioned the Yanks' interest in Brian Fuentes last Friday. 

Today, Troy E. Renck of the Denver Post confirms those rumors on the Rockies side of things.  While the interest in confirmed, Renck says "nothing is brewing."  Guess we'll have to wait a month or so, to see if desperation sets in. 

There had been a lot of talk of the "New Yankees," who are building from within and not taking on ridiculous contracts.  But with players like Bobby Abreu, Roger Clemens, and Helton, the Yankees are simply using financial clout like the old days.  I suppose holding onto Phil Hughes is a step in the right direction though.

Comments

[finite24]

I guess the new idea is that you can make a Helton like move as long as you aren't giving up prospects or tying up your payroll unreasonably long term. They'd have to deal Giambi for that to make sense for them. Somewhere in those two deals they might also want to consider looking for a long term replacement for Rivera. If they can accomplish all that without losing any net talent from their farm system, then I'd be okay with it I suppose. Meh.

[Teetz]

Why would they have to deal Giambi? It's not like they need to leave a spot open for Doug Mientkiewicz

[bobo]

I think the difference was before, the plan was to spend a lot, while now they're only doing it because they have to.

And like finite24 said, in the cases where they've spent money the past couple years (Abreu, Clemens, possibly Helton) they gave up nothing in terms of players/prospects.

Finally, they've mostly been relatively short-term commitments, and that goes for their free-agent signings as well. Of course Helton doesn't apply here.

[no funny hats]

finite, it sounds like you're saying "well, if the yankees can acquire major parts of a championship team without giving up anything, I'd be ok with that"

who wouldn't?

[bobo]

Because Yankee fans still don't like the team spending so much money.

[Andrew]

The Yankees have never actually expressed any interest in Helton.

The Red Sox, however, have, and their refusal to deal the 'future bullpen staples' like Manny Delcarmen and Craig Hansen that Colorado was asking for in addition to the Red Sox paying less than half of Helton's contract may come back to bite 'em in the arse.

[G.H. Hecks]

Yeah, Todd Helton sounds about right. Big name, HUGE SALARY, owed around 75mill through 2011, 34 yrs old this summer - He certainly fits the mold:

2001 Mike Mussina (88.5 mill)

2002 Ja$on Giambi (120mill), David Wells (7mill)(pt. 2), Jeff Weaver(22mill)

2003 Hideki Matsui (21 mill), Jose Contreras (32 mill),

2004 Gary Sheffield (39mill), Alex Rodriguez (112mill), Kevin Brown(33mill), Javier Vasquez(30mill)

2005 Randy Johnson(38mill), Jaret Wright(17mill), Carl Pavano(40mill)

2006 Johnny Damon(52 mill), Bobby Abreau(22mill for 1.5 yrs or 37mill for 2.5 yrs [option]), Hideki Matsui Pt.2(52mill)

2007 Andy Pettite(32mill), Mike Mussina Pt.2 (23mill) , Kei Igawa(46mill), Roger Clemen$ (28 million [18 mill pro-rated])

TOTAL = minimum of approx 840 million (NOT even counting Luxury Tax)

[GoBoSox420]

Andrew:

you're trying to argue that not picking up Helton is going to haunt the sox?

That is ridiculous

[nrmax88]

I dont think anyting is going to bite the redsox in the "arse" anytime soon. The Yankees are too far back to even smell the redsox a$$ if they let out a big fart.