I'm all Mitchell Reported out for the moment, so let's take a break from that stuff and get back to good, old-fashioned Hot Stove League discussion.
The winter has proceeded a little slower than usual, particularly in the starting pitching department. Livan Hernandez, Kyle Lohse and Carlos Silva _ arguably the top three starting pitchers on the market, since Andy Pettitte essentially took himself off the market from the beginning _ remain unsigned. So does Mike Cameron.
Since most of you seem to root for the two local clubs, let's play pretend GM. If you were Omar Minaya or Brian Cashman, what would you prioritize right now?
The Mets are a no-brainer, in my humble opinion: Starting pitching. Since they're almost certainly not going to get Johan Santana, if I were them, I'd strongly consider signing one of Hernandez, Lohse or Silva. Even if it hurt to overspend, the Mets desperately need innings-eaters.
The Yankees? I'd say first base. I understand that they don't need a great deal offensively from the position, so I'd rather have a steady defensive presence there. And none of the current candidates _ Wilson Betemit, Shelley Duncan and most of all Jason Giambi _ constitute that. But with the way they've constructed their roster, they don't have room for anyone else, not with Hideki Matsui likely sticking around now and with Nick Green signed with the intention of making the team (he has a March 25 opt-out, so the Yankees can't store him in the minor leagues unless Green feels he has no other options).
Go ahead and prescribe solutions for your favorite club.
UPDATE: I just became aware of this Baltimore Sun story about Brian Roberts. We'll continue to hammer away at George Mitchell and his conflicts of interest, but so far, it looks like the information he received from Kirk Radomski and Brian McNamee is pretty solid.
Comments (6)
the Mets...pitching - and some control mechanism to stop the stupid celebrations that make other teams want to beat them into submission. Can you honestly predict a title when John Maine is your go to guy followed by a 90 year old?
the Yanks...depending on youthful pitching is great, but how many titles did Oakland or the Cubs win with all that promise?
They will be forced to club teams to death - so someone at first base that can go deep is critical.
Whether you are Cashman, Minaya or Mandrake The Magician, there is an unfortunate reallity at the moment. Aside from Santana, there is nothing out there. Lohse, Silva or Hernandez would be the equivalent of a band aid, at best. Unless Seaver or Whitey Ford decide to make a comeback, they need to go with the kids, exercise some patience, and make another evaluation towards the end of spring training. You can always get a Lohse, Silve, Hernandez, etc if all else fails.
When Wood, Prior, Hudson, Mulder and Zito were young stars with the Cubs & A's, those teams lack of postseason success wasn't their fault. They had weak support. Right off the bat Pettitte and Wang are better starting pitching support than either of those two teams had for their youngsters. Not to mention that the Yanks will club most opponents to death anyway because they have one of the, if not the best, offense in MLB, maybe in the history of MLB. They're a Big Red, er, Blue Pinstriped Machine. The Yanks are strong and deep and for once, have some continuity and Girardi is the right guy to lead them. Also, it kind of sounds like they're, once again, hungry. Especially ARod. They'll be fine.
My worry about the Yankees is who will have a better hitting year than they did in 2007?
Possibly Cabrera, Cano - and that's it. Everyone else is on the wrong end of their career, and you can't count on ARod, jeter and Posada to duplicate '07.
Mets: They are having a terrible winter in my humble opinion. Fortunately for them it has been masked by all the Yankee news and now the Mitchell Report. I think they downgraded at catcher and can't imagine how they think they can win with the pitching they now have. That the Wilpons raised ticket prices 20% for this team is ridiculous. They gave a 41 year old outfielder an $8.5 million contract and have not done much to improve the team.
Yankees: I agree that they need to upgrade at first base. I would also be in favor of continuing the effort to trade Matsui, ideally for pitching help. I would like to see middle inning/long relief made a priority the rest of the winter. I am not against some type of trade. I do not necessarily favor trading for Santana and would probably only do so if the Red Sox were on the verge of obtaining him. I pray the Twins keep him the whole year. Then the Yankees only have to surrender draft picks and money to sign him as a free agent.
Damon had a pretty bad, injured year. He can hit .300 and in the leadoff spot, that would be huge. This would make up for Posada who will likely have similar power numbers but less hits. Posada can benefit from Molina's presence for a whole season. He can play less and Molina can have a good year. I think Pena had a great influence on Posada last year, keeping him was smart and he can help Molina as well. Actually I expect ARod to kick butt but he might have lower numbers if he's pitched around. I doubt he hits 20 homers in April again. He's the monster everyone fears, he doesn't need to hit 50 homers, he just needs to hit and hit homers at the right time. He needs to be Reggie. Abreu and Cano will have more even years. Jeter could do a little better. Hopefully Matsui's knee is fixed, he'll avoid the slumps he had last year when it affected his swing and his average will rise. Although he may have less at bats, he's still clutch. Melky may hit 25 HR's someday but this year I'm thinking 15 with more doubles. He's learning. Last year he found out what it's like to play a whole MLB season and as the season wore on he wore down. He'll be more consistent. 2010 is his breakout year. NYY lead MLB in runs last year. They also left too many runners-in-scoring-position-with-less-than-two-outs on the table. Hopefully Girardi will be better at correcting this than Torre was. They don't need to improve but do the same with better pitching. Giambi is a wildcard. If he's finally healed from his steroid withdrawal injuries he can hit 30 HR's and make people pay for pitching around ARod. As it stands right now Giambi plays a lot of 1B, that is, unless Duncan can take more than just a few at-bats from him. Competition is a good thing, it makes competitors play better and I believe all the Yanks are competitors. No one is so old or washed up (including Mussina) that they're ready to pack it in.