The latest on the Yankees…
- Before Andy Pettitte signed with the Yankees, Lance Berkman tried to recruit the left-hander for the Cardinals, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes. Berkman said he was in regular contact with Pettitte and would have approached the front office if he had obtained the go-ahead from his friend and former teammate.
- Joel Sherman of the New York Post wonders if the Yankees will look to extend Phil Hughes or Ivan Nova to a Derek Holland-like extension in order to cap costs and avoid MLB's luxury tax.
- There was a split between upper management and the field staff over whether to sign Johnny Damon or Raul Ibanez, Tom Verducci of SI.com writes. Damon told the Yankees he would play for whatever they were offering Ibanez, but it wasn't enough.
- Agent Scott Boras says Damon has received nibbles, but no offers. “We have heard from teams who say 'We have interest in the guy but we want to see what our players are going to do,'" Boras said.
– I don’t think the Yanks should extend Hughes or Nova yet, seeing how Hughes need to redeem himself (Yes he’d be cheaper right now but he needs to show something in the regular season) and Nova (only one year in the majors, wasn’t a highly-touted prospect) is unproven.
– Nice job Boras you basically said nothing useful, once again.
I think the Yanks went with Ibanez over Damon is because of all the drama they would get if they signed Damon and then had to bench him. If you bench Ibanez, nobody notices. If you bench Damon, it’s front page news. Not worth the headache.
Also, regardless of that nice little sound bite from Damon earlier that he would have signed for the the same amount the Yankees were going to pay Ibanez. Do NOT believe it for 1 minute. Damon and Boras are all about the money always have been always will be.
Wouldn’t have minded him as competition for Lohse/Westbrook at either the 4/5 spot in the rotation. Wainwright/Carpenter/Garcia and then Lohse/Pettite/Westbrook to fight for the final two spots. Oh well. Still content w/ this rotation. Westbrook (5) used to be a #1.
Why do people put Lohse and Westbrook in the same category. When healthy, Lohse has always been solid. If anyone is getting replaced it’s Westbrook.
Oh and where was Westbrook a 1? He’s a back-end pitcher, barely.
Is Pettitte being brought in to be the Yankee’s Red Sox killer? Lets hope so.
The problem with such a staement is that ELLS, GONZO and ORTIZ flat out raked against lefties last year, no joke. Check two things out for me and you shall see. The righty/lefty splits for the three formentioned players and Sabthia’s stats against the Sox last year. Maybe they are bringing him in to be a Red Sox killer but that would just be a dumb baseball move.
“There’s no way I can go play for the Yankees, but I know they are going to come after me hard…It’s definitely not the most important thing to go out there for the top dollar, which the Yankees are going to offer me. It’s not what I need.”
Yeah, remember those days, Damon? Man, you’d play for anything they offered Ibanez, and you still got turned down. Raul Ibanez. Former power hitter for the Seattle Mariners Raul Ibanez. You notched a 2.8 WAR last year, and you got shut down for someone who recorded a -0.4. It’d be funny if it weren’t so sad.
Why on earth would the Yankees extend Phil Hughes? The dude has yet to prove that he should even be a pitcher. Maybe pull an Ankiel and send him down to AA to work on being an outfielder.