Yankees Not Close With Loretta

UPDATE, 12-01-07 at 1pm: Olney now says the Yanks don't have any serious interest in Loretta, and haven't spoken to him in over a month.

UPDATE, 11-30-07 at 10am: Troy E. Renck of the Denver Post has more on this situation.  The Rockies got in touch with Loretta's agent recently but weren't optimistic on getting a deal done.  While Loretta is close with the Yanks, he will let the Rockies' second base situation play out before signing because Colorado is his first choice.

FROM 11-30-07 at 8:40am:

Ryne Crabb of The Transaction Guy writes of a Buster Olney radio report wherein the Yankees were said to be close to signing Mark Loretta.

Before we punch Robinson Cano's ticket to Minnesota, remember that the Yanks have liked Loretta in the past as a first base and/or backup infield option.  It may be as simple as that.  To his credit, Loretta posted a .352 OBP last year (though he was awful after the break).

Comments

[Mr_Punch]

MANIACS! Start your ranting! ;) God I love this stuff.

I was out all day yesterday, and was pleased to find so much good reading material in the Red Sox in the Lead for Santana thread.

[henry14theking]

I don't think Cano's going anywhere. I mean Cashman was holding at Kennedy/Melky/prospects at last check right?

Which is what he should do.

If you look at win shares, Cano beat Johan last year (although win shares aren't exactly great for measuring pitchers).

If you look at PRC vs. RC, Johan is about 1.2 times more valuable than Cano.

Also, to the idiots saying Johan is declining, he isn't. Almost every metric has stayed pretty much the same (negligible deviation) over the past 4 years.

The guy's a machine, but if Cano's involved, then in terms of value, it should be Cano + low prospects for Johan.

[henry14theking]

By the by...

Would someone on the Yankees offer a package for Haren?!?

Beane will take A ball players since he's blowing up his team.

Something like... Kennedy/Horne/McAllister/Kontos?

4 pitchers for Beane to use for 5 years and trade.

[tuffgongcubs]

Loretta to the Yankees makes a lot of sense, after all Girardi went to college at Northwestern with him. I don't see this as having much of an effect on Cano, this is probably just the Steinbrenner's trying to give Girardi, who is still a young manager, more veteran leadership who he already has a rapport with.

[FineHamAbounds]

Beane isn't necessarily blowing up his team... yet anyway. And Cano plus 1 prospect wouldn't even get the Twins attention.

[DRamos]

I would trade Cano, Melky, Horne and Jackson for Santana.

We can sign Loretta to play second, sign Marcus Giles (low risk), sign Sean Casey 2yrs $8M and A Jones 4Y $52M who are both type B players. Jones is an upgrade over Damon and Melky. I like Rowand but he is a type A free agent and I think Jones will rebound

Rotation:
Santana
Wang
Hughes
Kennedy
Pettitte (a maybe) or risk signing Jason Jennings as a #5.

We can send Joba to the set up role where he was effective.

The lineup can afford to lose Cano and get back to the Yanks of old and win with pitching.

[Andrew]

"Yanks of old"

"Old" being the operative word. Do you know that by losing Cano and replacing him with Loretta, the Yankees wouldn't have a single starting positional player under the age of 32? And by trading Jackson, who's looking like the CFer of the future, they wouldn't have much help coming.

Cano is staying put. He's insanely valuable.

[Not Joe Morgan]

The logical side of me knows this is just a move to get another backup IF but I'm still about 30 seconds from vomiting in my trash can. Just in case anyone wants that mental picture.

(Henry, we need to get Cashman's cell number immediately. "Hey Brian? Hi. Listen, you don't know us but we consider ourselves pretty knowledgeable Yankee fans. Mmmhmm. Ok, so you Dan Haren out in Oakland? Ha ha, right, of course you do. Well, we think you need to turn your attention away from Santana and onto him ...")

[bjsguess]

Just to play devil's advocate:

A Jones is signing for 4/52? If Hunter got 5/90 I'm guessing your projection is about $20m short.

Bringing in Marcus Giles does nothing for you. Ask any Padres fan.

Sean Casey does nothing for your team. Who wants a corner infielder with 10HR type power?

Are you really maximizing Joba's potential when you limit the guy to 60-75 innings?

[walkoffblast]

Attention Yankee fans. The Abreu deal was once in a lifetime and significantly different circumstances than would apply to Haren. Good luck fleecing Beane in prospect evaluation, it would be shocking if that happened. You cannot simply turn to new unrealistic lowball offers for the second best starting pitcher available once it starts to look like you might actually *gasp* have to give up something good to get Santana.

[Not Joe Morgan]

My original thought was Kennedy/Tabata/Horne which seems like a pretty fair starting point for Beane. According to BP, that's 3 four star prosects. Not a bad haul for Oakland in the least.

[zs190]

This is basically another Dougie M signing, kind of meh, not great, not bad.

[henry14theking]

@Walkoffblast:

The offer wasn't stupidly low. For a starting offer its not bad.

Kennedy and Horne: two 4 star pitchers ready to go now basically.

McAllister/Kontos: two A ball pitchers who project very well.

I'm not saying that its gonna get Haren, but it'll start talks. It'll probably end up being Kennedy/Tabata/Horne which is a fair deal.

I figure if Beane is going to blow up his team (which trading Haren, Street, Blanton would do), he's looking 3-4 years down the line whereas the Twins are looking next year and need MLB ready pieces.

I hate this unreal fixation on Santana. If Hank gets involved I can see the ending: Hughes gets shipped off along with AJax and Horne, Yankees pay 20 million per year.

Theo and the Sox ship Lester, Bowden, Lowrie and Masterson for Haren and pay him 20 million over the next 3.

F$*king Hank. At least the Boss knew when to listen to Cashman.

[maximumpotential]

"

I would trade Cano, Melky, Horne and Jackson for Santana.

We can sign Loretta to play second, sign Marcus Giles (low risk), sign Sean Casey 2yrs $8M and A Jones 4Y $52M who are both type B players. Jones is an upgrade over Damon and Melky. I like Rowand but he is a type A free agent and I think Jones will rebound

Rotation:
Santana
Wang
Hughes
Kennedy
Pettitte (a maybe) or risk signing Jason Jennings as a #5.

We can send Joba to the set up role where he was effective.

The lineup can afford to lose Cano and get back to the Yanks of old and win with pitching."

can i PLEASE have some of what you're smoking? Joba is a starter. #2 right now 3 with Santana. JOBA/CANO only 2 untouchables.
Hughes/Melky/Betimit?/Tabata might do it. i wouldn't give more than that. sign Loretta to replace Betimit, and sign Rowand for CF, move him to RF next year when Jackson goes to CF.

Santana
Wang
Joba
Pettite/Mussina
Kennedy

LF/Damon
SS/Jeter
RF/Abreu
3B/A-Hole
DH/Matsui
C/Posada
CF/Rowand
2B/Cano
1B/Shelly Duncan

CUT GIAMBI!!!!!lol, any possible way they can leave him off the 40man and let someone else take him ruleV?? PLEASE??? lol

[rossdfarian]

Some of the least intelligent stuff is being posted by my fellow Yankee fans and we're supposed to know baseball inside and out!
Cano - too valuable to trade and certainly can't be replaced by an aging, light-hitting mostly-NL tenured guy
Santana - not the end-all be-all of pitchers ... sure, he would do well for us but he's so expensive when we have rookie talent to explore and, if they don't mature fast enough, there'll be another lefty available
Haren - great pitcher but we certainly don't need another righty.
Giambi - one more year to see if he can contribute ... we'd still be paying him 90% of his earnings if another team took him off our hands ... might as well get .245, 15, and 60 out of him

Pettitte!!! One more year ... please.

[Not Joe Morgan]

Ross, agree with most except the Haren comment. Obviously I'd prefer a lefty but there aren't all that many floating around. Haren is, for lack of a better term, safe. Low money deal, 3 years under control big frame, durable. Everyone else I hear about has their warts (Santana is expensive both money and prospect wise, Sabathia is likely the same and Bedard doesn't have the best injury record). Haren is the smart choice in this group as far as I'm concerned.

[rossdfarian]

Ok, NJ ... I see your point but, I don't know why we're going ga-ga over pitchers when (if Andy comes back) we seem to have a pretty admirable rotation.

[Greenrose]

During the Yanks' early (pathetic) beginning last year they used some "B" or "B+" pitching prospects. They have better young pitching available for next year. Forget Santana (PLEASE!)...keep Cano and Cabrera and the rest of the farm. Let the young guns step up. Let the rest of the teams spend wildly for JS - don't fork over the ransom demands!!

[walkoffblast]

So Olney goes from close to signing to haven't spoken to the player in a month in less than 24 hours?

[scribbletone]

"I would trade Cano, Melky, Horne and Jackson for Santana."

So you recommend that the Yankees trade essentially every good young position guy they have other than Alberto Gonzalez and Jose Tabata? That would leave them with ZERO starters under 30. Tabata is far away from being a MLB outfielder and the Yankees will leave New York before they move Derek Jeter. That would make the Yankees a worse team long term than just moving Philip Hughes

[bklyn_yanksfan]

"I would trade Cano, Melky, Horne and Jackson for Santana."

There is no way the yankees send cano to any team for any player besides a young guy like cabera and maybe not even for him. He is young and just starting to reach his potential. While i really like hughes doesn't it make sense to trade a package of hughes, melky and horne for santana. We are getting the best pitcher in the game today for maybe a great pitcher in 4-5 years. The yeankees are all about winning the world series. Wouldnt this trade help us make the world series for the next 5 years wihtout losing any really important parts besides hughes? melky is replaceable and horne is no given