Yankees Notes: Damon, Matsui, Chapman

this is basicly pointless, we knew they'd only sign one of them, and it was obvious chapman was going to the yankees, or redsox.

"The source also said that Chapman's raw talent is just as good as advertised, despite his erratic control."

Great, sounds like the next Rick Ankiel (pitcher version).

naa, holliday isn't necesary. I like jon garland, let wang stay in rehab for a little bit or give him a minor league contract. when you win the world series, you dont have to change that much. this team is the best in baseball, end of story.

Matt Holliday will be a New York Yankee. All indications point toward him being their everyday left fielder with Johnny Damon serving as the DH full time.

Damon's speed and versatility is still something that serves as a catalyst toward this Yankees lineup and would be perfectly complimented by Matt Holliday who would spell Damon of his duties in the Outfield.

As far as pitching goes, Hughes and Joba as of now are still in the rotation, Whether or not Cash decides to trade one of them for Halladay is yet to be seen but fact of the matter is his plan won them a championship and in my opinion should be stuck to.

Attack the FA market heavily in 2011 and make this season one were you can repeat regardless of who you bring in (Although Chapman's name seems very intriguing)

What are you thinking YOYOYO?

Joba and Hughes are STARTERS! Cashman said this 10000000000000 times!

Get it through your head.
Holliday is not worth the money he's going to get and the Yankees will add another huge contract when that production can be replaced by Damon and Matsui cheaply.

I guarantee you Joba and Hughes are starters and I guarantee you Bay or Holliday won't be Yankees in 2010.

2/16 sounds fair if he really wants to be a yankee. weren't there talks about felix possibly getting traded? if so i hope the yanks go for him.

Not sure about Roy Halladay more I think of it. He is not old, but into his 30's now. I wonder if there would be any effect on AJ. Could be good or not. AJ has his individuality now after a few years side by side with Halladay.

I wish we knew what the heck was up with the Royals and their plans.

Jeez, if Ian Kennedy is picking up a bit, I'd package him and others for Zack Greinke. Long shot I know, but we have the pieces to open the conversation. I'd go after him before another active pitcher. That is if we are talking about ridiculous trades right now..

Montero, Kennedy, Brackman + 2 (plug in your own) would be a big haul and this starts with a top 5 prospect..

just saying...

"Jeez, if Ian Kennedy is picking up a bit, I'd package him and others for Zack Greinke."

I lol'd

Uh... Holliday posts again, i have a much better solution. Granderson is getting shopped so why not try to get a deal for him, not sign damon and keep Matsui. If Damon asks too much sign Derosa. Position players isnt a huge problem. The 4 spot is. The Yankees could sign Bedard or Sheets, if one of them get injured you got Wang. They could trade for Harang who would just be a salary dump. As for Joba as a setup man, that ridiculous, hes been good as a starter. Once he gains his confidence, especially without the innings limitaition, hell be back.

"Montero, Kennedy, Brackman + 2 (plug in your own) would be a big haul and this starts with a top 5 prospect.."

That's incredibly light for a Cy Young pitcher. Kennedy has been hammered in the majors, Brackman just got hammered in single A and has already had Tommy John surgery. For Grienke or Hernandez start with 2 of Montero, Banuelos, or Romine, add in McAllister, and then lesser prospect(s).

Plan for 2010:

Sign Matsui and Damon to 1 year deals. If they want more years, let them walk and sign Mike Cameron and another bat to DH on 1 year deals. Start with a rotation of Sabathia, Burnett, Pettite, Hughes and Chamberlain. Unless Felix Hernandez is made available by the Mariners in which case do what it takes to trade for him. Don't trade for Halladay, wait 1 year and sign him without giving up players. Also take a chance on Aroldis Chapman who in a year or 2 could be dominating.

Plan for 2011:

With LF and DH spots open again. Go out at sign Carl Crawford for LF, and attempt to sign Joe Mauer to be the Yankee Catcher for the next 10 years. If he signs an extension with the Twins than make Jesus Montero the Catcher with Posada splitting time, mentoring and DH'ing. Bring up Austin Jackson who will also be ready for CF. As for pitching go out and sign Roy Halladay to a 3 or 4 year deal. Also continue going year to year with Pettite until he hangs them up. Possible Rotation of Halladay, Sabathia, Burnett, Pettite and Hughes or Chapman with Joba in the Pen.

2012:
Sign Felix Hernandez. Ok maybe that's going overboard.. Hernandez, Sabathia, Halladay, Burnett, Pettite, Hughes or Chapman.
Obviously a dream pitching staff not likely to happen.

"The source also said that Chapman's raw talent is just as good as advertised, despite his erratic control."

Great, sounds like the next Rick Ankiel (pitcher version).

Posted by: carini26 | November 11, 2009 at 07:08 PM

How long have they said that same thing about Daniel Cabrera?

TYPING IN ALL CAPS IS HARD TO READ - it sucks.

Hernandez and Chapman will both be pitching in Boston next year. Hernandez being the opening day starter followed by Lester, Beckett, Matsuaka and either Harden or Wakefield. Chapman will start the season in AA Portland, just like Tazawa did a year ago and will hopefully progress to AAA before the end of the year.

I don't think that the Yankees will get Halladay or either Bay or Holliday, but I do think that they will sign John Lackey and set themselves up with quite a dominant rotation consisting of Sabathia, Lackey, Burnett, Pettite and Hughes or Chamberlain (whichever of the two looks more suited for the role coming out of spring training).

the yankees cant sign holliday and lackey, and i dont want them to sign either. after next season, jeter, mariano, and jorge are all going to be free agents and you know the yankees will spare no expense at bringing them back. that, coupled with the huge contracts they handed out last offseason and the potential for halladay and mauer to be free agents next year points to them not spending much money this year. Even the yankees dont have limitless money to spend as much as the want of, and you dont want a situation like we had in the past couple years where all these long term contracts handed out 6-7 years ago start catching up to us. we dont want another situation where giambi and mussina are running on fumes but were forced to run them out there every day becayse of the contracts (yes i know moose won 20 in 2008 but the previos 3 seasons he barely pitched well enough to keep his rotation spot)

Sit this one out, make minor adjustments, head in to 2010 with a similar team

Ok please stop any talk of Joba to the pen. It is not happening and I don't know how many times Cashman has to reiterate this fact.

"mark my words that wont be the rotation. if you have 40% of your rotation being question marks, you wont win. That's the 2008 yankees, the ones that didnt make the playoffs. They need one pitcher they can somewhat trust. jon garland is a good inexpensive fit."

40% of the Yankees rotation last year was a question mark and they still posted the best record in baseball. The #4 and #5 spots in the rotation throughout the year consisted of Joba, Wang, Mitre, Gaudin. Although Joba and Hughes are still young and unproven, I am a lot more comfortable with both of them in the back of the rotation over Mitre or an injured Wang.

As for Garland, back of the rotation innings eaters generally don't last in the AL, especially not the AL east. The innings eaters in the AL east are guys like Lester, Halladay, CC, James Shields, Beckett.

Trust me, Garland won't be eating many innings when he is consistently getting yanked in the 4th 5th and 6th innings because lineups are teeing off on him.

Too much money and not enough talent in return. I honestly would be happier with Mitre another year removed from TJ or Gaudin on a much much cheaper deal. Also would like to see the Yanks make a play for Brett Myers or Ben Sheets. I think Myers is intriguing considering his past success out of the bullpen and his ability to start. I also think he is the type of player to thrive in the NY pressure cooker.

2/16 sounds fair if he really wants to be a yankee. weren't there talks about felix possibly getting traded? if so i hope the yanks go for him.

Posted by: yanksrdashit | November 11, 2009 at 07:20 PM

Have you ever heard the song Dream On? If not, you should listen to it. It suits you.

I don't know what's funnier-the guy who said you can package Kennedy to get Greinke, or the guy who thinks that Hernandez will be a member of the Red Sox next year.

Chapman I can see going to Boston. Have fun with him. I think it's hilarious how fans, in general, think his extremely erradic control and lack of pitches outside of his fastball can be fixed in a year. Good thing none of you guys will ever be in charge of a baseball organization.

This is what I would like to see: Bring AJax up (he constantly hits around .300. I don't care how many times he strikes out. We have plenty of guys on the team that strike out a bunch, and look where that got us.), sign Matsui, let Damon walk, put Joba in the pen, put Hughes in the rotation, give Wang a minor-league deal, sign Pettitte to...maybe 1/12? Not sure what gets it done for him. Sign a bullpen arm, perhaps Gonzalez or Soriano, and stand pat the rest of the way.

Yeah, that deal. The one that never came close to fruition, right? There was no such talk of the deal being revisited. Rather, the Mariners want to sign him to an extension.

And I'd love to see where these professional scout opinions are coming from, since I've heard plenty praising his ability to hit and his ability to play the field appropriately.

Jealous? Why would I be jealous of not being able to trade for Felix? We have enough pitchers as it is, and I can't really find myself being jealous of a pitcher that Epstein will be a hardass about when it comes to giving him a long term deal. And, last I checked...the Yanks just won the World Series. But of course, now that I've said that, here comes the 'you bought it' comments. I don't care if we don't have enough to trade for him. I missed the part where we needed to trade for him.

So go ahead. Trade them those 'prospects' you have. Make sure you include Bowden and Tazawa, and Reddick, and Westermoreland, and Buccholz or w/e his name is. Make sure you put your ENTIRE farm system into the deal and screw yourselves if Beckett walks next year and when Wakefield's back causes him to have to waddle around when he tries to run. I don't mind seeing you have 2 pitchers and nothing else.

By the way, are you also forgetting the entire problem with the Red Sox was their offense, which was crap on the road, and Papelbon's lack of a second pitch. Mind telling me how Felix fixes those problems? Trade the prospects for A-Gon. Fix your weaknesses, not your strengths.

i haven't heard anywhere that he was struggling. How was he struggling, he batted .300, and had an obp of .354?

I don't want damon, i can't stand to see everyone run on DAMON arm.

JOBA was a dominant starter, with a fastball around 96-98 through the game. This year his fastball when starting a game is 91--94, thats a big difference.

If he could gain his velo. by spring training, he could be a dominant starter.

Austin Jackson had an OPS of .750 last year in AAA. That is hardly setting the world on fire. Baseball America is the source that reported his season as disappointing. His performance thus far has been rather lack luster. But you can pretend it isn't and then in the same breath you can talk about how horrible the Red Sox prospects are, even though every professional in the business considers their farm system to be loaded with talent. The only knock on the Red Sox system at the moment is that their top quality talent is 2 - 3 years away from seeing major league time rather than the 1 - 2 that most teams prefer to receive in a trade.

As for the Sox weaknesses, offense was not one of them. They scored the third most runs in all of baseball this past year. It doesn't matter if you add a big bat to put more runs up on the board or if you add a big time pitcher to take runs off it, the team will still be better. We'll see how it shakes out next year regardless. Good luck.

Boras has said he wants Damon to get a 4 year deal like the Yankees are planning to do with Jeter and have already done with Rivera and Posada. Now that probably won't happen since the Yankees were reluctant to give him 4 years last time he was a free agent but that hasn't stopped Boras from asking. So he trying to get Damon the best possible contract it just probably won't happen.

"And last time he was a FA I seem to recall Damon and Boras saying he wanted something like an 8 or 10 year deal. It's posturing. No one will give Damon anything beyond a 2 year deal with possibly a team option."

I know that. Obviously no one is gonna give Damon more than a 2 year deal max. I was just throwing that out there because yanks09 was saying Boras wants Damon to leave NY so he can get the most bang for Holliday. I was just saying he is also "working his hardest" to get as much as possible for Damon.

Seriously...Ajax needs to cut down on his strikeouts and learn to walk more to be a good leadoff guy but how any intelligent person can call a .300/.354 line from a 22 year old @ AAA for the 1st time is a joke. He certainly isn't polished but the foundation is strong and I'm sure the power he showed will come back. I could see Ajac being a solid .285/.350 hitter with gap power (30 dbls/15 hrs) and 20-30 SB. I liken him to Devon White if anyone remembers him. He won't be a perenial all-star but he will ge a decent offensive player who shows flashed of brilliance and will be an "elite" defensive CF'er for a good decade or so.