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Peter,
If it really was just Kennedy, Melky, and a prospect for Johan then the Sox final offer of Lester/Crisp/Lowrie/Masterson was pretty damn good too. I realize the Klapsich said the Sox had pulled both Elsbury and Lester from their proposals in his article but nobody in Boston is saying Lester was ever pulled despite a report of that earlier in the week. Funny how the Mets got the deal done with a sub-par (imo) offer of 4 not quite ready for mlb prospects for the best pitcher in baseball. I guess Sox and Yanks fans can be happy since Johan's out of the AL.

Peter,

Hindsight always being 20/20 - Hankenstein will say whatever he wants at the end of the season: I was right to want to get Johan or I was right to keep my youngsters. He can't lose.

IMO - Johan looked hittable at the end of last year. He also wanted a 4 year contract. I would have passed on him too. Also, passing on him leaves some room in the salary for 2K9 and beyond once Giambi, Pavano (and others) are off the books.

The one guy I wanted to see was Dotel for next season. At least a looksee in training camp - but he was asking for a 2 year deal and got it.

There are a bunch of young arms in AA and AAA that we may see this season. Someone or more than one are going to be DLed at some point and Moose will need a mid-season breather.

Hopefully Farnsworth settles down into a decent bullpen guy.

Any thoughts on how Girardi rotates Damon and Matsui in the OF then Betemit, Duncan, Giambi at 1B?

Peter, no offense intended in regards to your baseball skills, but you could be the Yankees CF and they'd still score 800 runs. Scoring isn't there problem. Getting a AAA CF with a very good glove would be easy.

I think the Melky part of the deal is the no-brainer personally.

Seriously, you could hit 9th, and in 650 PAs, you'd get, what, 25 hits (you know, like when the ball hits your bat and the opposing 3b has a stroke...that kind of thing) and you'd probably walk another 25 times most likely because they throw it so hard, you won't have time to swing and you'd, just by pitcher wildness alone, draw 25 BBs and lastly you'd get hit another 10 (too slow to move out of the way). So you hitting 9th and then the rest of the boffo line-up in front of you, the Yankees still score 800 runs. I'm not kidding. All the Yankees would need to do is find a good CF glove in AAA and plug him in and the hitting would be entirely secondary.

As for the bigger point in your post, yes Cashman will hear about it if Kennedy flops, but you have to give him (or Hank) credit for stiking with the young guys. Say, what is Cashman's contract situation?

Mitchell

I think it is a lot more fixed than people think. I suspect you have Damon in left, Matsui at DH and Giambi off the bench with Betemit and Duncan platooning at first. Giambi probably gets two games a week at DH/1b, but I really think he is a spare part at this point.

Andy-

At no point in your wild, incoherent answer did you even approach a rational thought. I award you no credit and may God have mercy on your soul.

That being said, the Yankees need to score a lot more than 800 runs next year. They gave up 777 in 2007 and while I think that will go down some, but I also have questions about the Yankees' ability to score 968 runs again. Other than Cano and Cabrera, who do you expect to equal or better their 2007 numbers?

And Cashman is done after this year.

Peter's comments are interesting since all of us tend to take the Yankees' offense for granted.

I think that they will not get the production at 1B and DH that a great hitting team should and that Abreu and Damon seem to be on the decline. Posada won't be like 2007 but he'll still be good.

Jeter-ARod-Cano-Cabrera are guaranteed to be excellent.

They won't score 1,000 runs like the preseason predictions from 2007 and they won't score 968 runs. But I think they'll score over 850 and give up less than 777.

I think you'll see Posada getting the occasional nod at first this year, and Matsui and Damon swapping LF/DH duties. The Yankees cut their payroll by 80+ million after this season and up their revenue because of the new stadium. Can you say "splurge" in 2009. Expect a big bat like Mark Texiera and a staff ace like C.C. or Ben Sheets and you're still looking at 50 million to spend elsewhere.

Yankees are a shoe-in for 2009.

C - Jorge Posada
1B - Mark Texiera
2B - Robinson Cano
3B - Alex Roriguez
SS - Derek Jeter
LF - Damon/Matsui
CF - Melky Cabrera
RF - BIG BAT/LEADOFF

SP - Sabathia/Sheets
SP - Chien Ming Wang
SP - Phil Hughes
SP - Joba Chamberlain
SP - Ian Kennedy

CL - Mariano Rivera

B.Digital - I've said it here before, perhaps you missed it, Texiera will sign a long term deal in Atlanta this year. Dream all you want, he has some roots in Atlanta, they have the money with new ownership, he will be the cornerstone along with McCann and Francoeur.

Not everybody wants to be a Yankee, sorry...

Peter, liked the Billy Madison reference...

My point was that if Melky were to be traded, you'd have Johan!!! So you'd probably (or the Yankees) give up fewer runs this year. And you yourself said that with Johan, the Yankees would have a "great rotation." So generally a great rotation yields few runs thus a lack of need for production from the CF spot. In other words, had the Yanks traded for Johan, you'd be getting fitted for your 50 inch waste Yankees uniform today!

But you get my point. Having Johan allows for lesser offense.

To answer your last question of which Yankee will have an equal or better offensive year:

ARod
Jeter
Cano
Melky
Matsui (he has to be better, no?)
Abreu

I would expect that the guys above would be mostly the same, not necessarily better. Posada has to go down and Giambi...well, I don't know. He is always capable of 30 HR power...if he can stay healthy. And if Damon is healthy, why not a better year, but I'm not willing to include him due to his health concerns.

Andy

You are more optimistic than I am, which is surprising to say the least.

BL-

You can't blame someone for believing that money will trump all when it comes down to it. After all, how many agents have we seen do that before?

Peter - what I failed to mention but your response made me remember :

I heard an interview locally with Teixiera the other day. It may not be known but he was offered $1.8M out of high school but passed and went to college instead.

He has made in excess of $22M already in his career. He appears to have a plan and a good head on his shoulders.

The only way I would see him in Yankee pinstripes is if he decides he wants to play on that stage. It won't be about making $18M a year vs. $12M (made up numbers to illustrate buying power of the Yankees vs Braves).

To reiterate, Chipper is winding down, McCann and Francouer are young guns ready to lead, Teixeira is the perfect 3rd star to lead this team on the field.

BL

In my heart I hope you are right, it would be nice to see a player do something because of the fit and not the bucks. I guess I have just seen so many examples of players who didn't do that (see any Scott Boras client as an example) that I am jaded.