Rosenthal's Latest: Vlad, Cano, Peavy, Hardy

Cano to the Mariners in a package for Ichiro or Bedard

I just don't dig why the Yankees would want to trade this guy. I know he had an off year but he's still put up 3 good years and has a lifetime .300 average. I can only see this guy getting better with more discipline. Rather than trading him I would like to see them work with him more in the offseason. I think not playing winter ball may have set him and Melky back. On a team that crys about needing to get younger and more athletic I just don't see the logic in trading him and signing a 31 year old Hudson or a 34 yr old Eckstein. Especially when you have a 35 yr old SS and 34 yr old 3b. If you look at his defesnive stats they're not bad especially when you consider how limited the range is from the player to his right (SS) and how poor our 1b have been in terms of range and glove this year. He's had to cover more area than most 2b to compensate.

Seattle has almost nothing New York wants.

Ichiro would be a salary dump, not a talent-for-talent trade.

Sorry, Seattle fans. Your team is pretty much screwed.

I would love to see Cano stay and move him up in the lineup. People criticize him bcuz he has a low obp but he strikes out very little. I would love to see him move to the #2 or #3 spot. Can you imagine How much better he would be knowing they wont pitch around him like they do when he's batting 7th and has light weights like Molina, Melky and gardner hitting behind him?

Damon
Cano
Abreu
Arod
Jeter
Matsui
Nady
Posada
Melky/Gardrdner

There would be no reason for the Mariners to replace Jose Lopez with Cano at second.

YanksFanSince78,

I agree with you completely. I would love to see Cano hit higher in the lineup. My plan is to sign Teixeira and Rocco Baldelli, then have a lineup like this:

LF: Damon
SS: Jeter
2B: Cano
3B: A-Rod
1B: Teixeira
DH: Matsui
C: Posada
RF: Nady
CF: Gardner/Baldelli/Melky

With Cano hitting third, nobody is going to pitch around him. His potential as a power threat and his low strikeout rate make him a good choice for the 3-hole. The only potential problem there is Cano's lack of plate discipline. However, I believe plate discipline can be taught; talent, however, cannot be taught.

I don't think you'll see Hardy going anywhere, anytime soon. Yes, Escobar has a major league ready glove, actually it was probably ready this year. He has made improvements at the plate, but striking out 88 times and only walking about 30 tiems in the minor leagues would not translate well to the Majors. If he can switch those numbers around, he'll get a shot. Until then, it's JJ Hary, which is nothing to sneeze at.

Get ready for all the onslaught of ridiculous posts about how Cano sucks, because he only hit .270 this year. People are dangerous when they use statistics blindly.

Cano's biggest problem this year was April. As Tim pointed out, you take that away, and a .297/.326/.448 is right on par with his career numbers and is a far cry from all the Yankee haters who say Cano has no value compared to their players.

Yeah, okay guys. A second baseman with above average defense (normally - he has a great arm and a smooth glove) that has the potential to hit .320 and belt 25 homers a year has more value than half the players that apparently are too good to trade Cano for.

I wouldn't mind the O's trading for Hardy to fill the void at SS, or even for Escobar for that matter. We need someone there.

What would the O's offer for Hardy though? The Brewers would likely want pitching, and Baltimore needs all the pitching they can get. I think the Orioles should go after a young stopgap that could emerge as a quality regular, guys like Ronny Cedeno, Brent Lillibridge, Ivan DeJesus Jr., and the Angels' shortstops (Aybar, Wood, Rodriguez)

JJ Hardy would be moved to 3B before being traded. He has proven to be a better player than Bill Hall and Rickie Weeks. Those two would be moved before Hardy.

@ jlemoine

So, we take a guy with one of the worst OBP's on the team and move him up in the order before the table setters.

Then you sign a guy that hasn't ever managed to stay healthy to patrol CF.

You don't do anything about a 36 year old catcher coming off major surgery.

I'm not seeing a lot of improvement from those adjustments.

Yanks should stay far away from Tex. It is conceivable that Damon, Matsui, and Posada will all need to spend time at 1B/DH. That doesn't include the occasional game that A-Rod will need at DH or account for any injuries that will occur next year.

Think about it, if Posada isn't healthy enough to play in the field you will be benching either his bat or Matsui's bat so you can have Tex's bat. That's $15m or so sitting on the bench.

bjsguess is completely right. If the Yankees persue any position players, they should be a quality CF and a good backup catcher.

And Damon and Jeter are fine at the top of the order with their discipline, good contact and speed. No need to take a guy who takes less walks and steals less bases and bat him second. Jeter is the perfect 2 hitter.

"I would say a package of nick blackburn/glen perkins/denard span, brian buscher, boof bonser, and jesse crain for wright or reyes would be good on both sides."

Also would a Paulino and maybe a low level guy for Melky swap work?

Disregard that thing about blackburn etc.

Could the Bucs afford JJ Hardy?

Now that the season is finally over, I have some roster moves which I think make sense-
Trades-
3B Kooz for Huston Street
3B Headley for Garret Atkins
SS Greene for (2) prospects from either the Cubs/Red Sox
Now the BIG trade SP Peavy for
2B Cano, SP Phil Hughes, (2) prospects.
If this could happen, I think these free agents move would make sense-

make offers to OF Milton Bradley and Juan Rivera. The big offer to SS Furcal.

2009 lineup-
ss furcal
2b cano
lf bradley/rivera
1b gonzalez
3b atkins
rf giles
cf gerut
c hundley/ ausmus?

bench-
edgar gonzalez
luis rodriguez
mark loretta
will venable

rotation-
young
geer
baek
banks
?
bullpen-
hoffman
street
bell
adams
meredith
hampson

Pipe dreams maybe-
I can hope

Here is what I think the Pirates should do:

1. Trade Snell and Laroche and Paulino and 1 low level for Cano and Kennedy and Melky.
2. Trade for JJ Hardy I don't know what they want or need just make it happen without trading McCutchen, Moss, Tabata, McClouth, Doumit, Maholm.
3. There was a report of the Twins interested in Andy Laroche Trade him for whichever pitcher.

Lineup:
1 McCutchen CF
2 Cano 2B
3 McClouth LF
4 Doumit C
5 Hardy SS
6 Moss RF
7 Pearce 1B
8 Walker 3B
9 Pitcher

Bench:
Mienteiwicz
Michaels
Melky
Cruz
Gomez

Rotation:
1 Maholm
2 Guy from Twins
3 Kennedy
4 Gorzo
5 Karstens/Ohlendorf/McCutchen

Pen:
Duke, Bautista, Hansen, Grabow, Yates, Burnett, Capps.

Mid year you bring up Tabata maybe move moss to 1st if Pearce doesn't work out maybe you get Morris up too depending on what he does in the minors Shelby Ford possibly too.

Forgot to take Michaels off bench and add Diaz.

bjguess:

While Cano, at age 26, may not alk 80 times a year he has shown the ability to hit over .300 and collect 180 + hits. If he can get on base 200 x in front of your #3 or 4 hitter than I think not only will he score a lot of runs but because he has protection behind him will see better pitches in and drive in some runs.

So Bjs, the Yankees decline to attempt to sign one of the best young hitters in the game in Mark Teixeira so we have first base open for Damon and Matsui, two players who won't be here for more than one more season? That makes a lot of sense

"Seattle has almost nothing New York wants.

Ichiro would be a salary dump, not a talent-for-talent trade.

Sorry, Seattle fans. Your team is pretty much screwed."

Why are you such an ass?

I think what bjsguess was trying to say is that the Yankees shouldn't spend big money on a first base problem that could be solved by guys already under contract. It would just simply be a poor use of resources by the Yankees, they would benefit more from spending that money on pitching

Cashman is looking for a first basemen. He's not going to try and make Damon and Matsui learn the position. The Yanks need defense.

If the Yankees trade Cano i would flip out. It is stupid to trade a highly rated prospect who can be a future all-star or hall of famer. So what he had 1 bad year finishing with a .271 batting average. Things could be worse. What if he batted .250 like Giambi?? Does anyone remember that he batted .297 in 2005, .347 in 2006, and .306. Last year with a career average of .303??? And what about 303 rbi's, 671 hits, 151 doubles and 62 homeruns in 3 seasons? He is also batting .410 his last 10 games. For more Info go to http://mlb.mlb.com/team/player.jsp?player_id=429664

Now time for the line-up

Johnny Damon DH
Derek Jeter SS
Bobby Abreu RF
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Mark Texiera 1B
Xaiver Nady LF
Robinson Cano 2B
Jorge Posada C
Brett Gardner CF

I wonder, what is Milwaukee looking for in return for Hardy?

Milwaukee probably is going to want a young pitcher. I wonder if the Pirates could make a deal for him that included Snell?

"He is also batting .410 his last 10 games."

Small sample size.