Ken Davidoff's baseball insider

I love the deal the Yanks made. Marte is a lefty that the Yanks needed in the pen. Nady is a righty bat who can play the outfield, 1st base and can DH. I seem enough of Ohendolf and he stinks. Tabata was one of the Yanks top position prospects, Ken you metion that Austin Jackson has been in demand by other teams. My feeling is the Yanks like Jackson's potential better than Tabata. Phil Coke is someone I don't much about. The guy that the Yanks gave up that was significant was Tabata. This shows you that the Yanks want to make the playoffs this year.

Check my post the other day..."Xavier Nady would look great in pinstripes"...or did I make that post on the Frustrated Fan blog page....?

I also like the trade. Tabata may be something someday, but he's becoming more of a chance. Nady's an upgrade over Gardner and Christian, and now with Rivera, Farnsworth, Veras, Robertson and now Marte, that's a good bullpen. Maybe they won't need to carry 12 pitchers, DFA Hawkins, and get one more man for the bench.

Cashman just made a great trade!

Buster Olney said other team's GM's told him they couldn't believe the Yanks gave up so little for these two players.

Tabata is immature and has had injuries and Jackson has clearly passed him.

Ohlendorf had not future here and Coke and Kontos were blocked bu other young and more talented pitching.

Plus we didn't have to give up any of Kennedy, Jackson, Montero, Melancon, Cox, and of course Hughes.

Now I want Washburn to help out the back-end of the rotation for hopefully a salary dump.

What an amazing deal for Cashman. He didn't have to give up any of the three prospects everyone wants -- Kennedy, Hughes or Jackson. Tabata is a potential superstar in the future, and he is the gem of this deal for the Pirates, but I really like Nady and feel he's someone they can plug into left or right for quite a few years to come. And Marte isn't just a lefty -- he could easily move right into the setup role. He is a flat-out dominant reliever.

Just a beautiful deal by Cashman tonight. He truly worked his magic this time around.

Wow, what a performance by Joba tonight. I'm now convince why the Yanks wanted him to be a starter. Now Joba did throw one tight to Youkilis that almost hit his head, instead it hit the bat for a foul ball. He and Youkilis has some history going back to last year. Both teams were warn by the home plate umipire.

"Marte and Nady will be in Yankees uniforms Sunday at Fenway Park."

ESPN execs are smiling, as if this game needed the help.

The win was nice but hitting Youkilis was very sweet...a great night all around.

Damn, did I want the Mets to get Nady. Even worse, the Yankees get him. And a lefty reliever too. Wake up, Omar. And what is wrong with the Pirates? Either keep those two players because you can build around them and finally have a decent team over there, or get something good in return. Ridiculous.

So far the highlight of the 21st century has been getting Barney Dreyfuss elected to the Hall of Fame. It makes sense for the Buccos to trade to get some youngsters with upside. Marte and Nady are not going to get better and few think Nady is a .330 hitter.

I like the trade and don't see any downside. Even with arbitration, Nady will be much more affordable than Abreu and like Ken wrote, if Marte leaves as a FA, the Yankees will get high draft picks. The players shipped to Pitt might never make it. For all of Ohlendorf's talent, he struggled on the MLB level. The other players are all expendable in these circumstances. Cashman is to be congratualated on a job well done.

Ken, Joel Sherman is saying on his blog that the deal is actually for Ohlendorf, Tabata, Karstens and McCutchen (not Coke and Kontos). McCutchen would be an upgrade in the deal and Karstens a bit of a downgrade (since he simply hasn't shown the ability to pitch on the big-league level and therefore has zero upside).

Any truth to this?

baileywalk, I read the same thing only from Heyman. I think McCutchen has the potential to be a good pitcher and I think Karstens might be good, too, when he is healthy and gets his act together. To me, those two players make the deal better from a Pitt standpoint. Neither of them would make me oppose the trade. Nady and Marte are solid players. Nothing is free in this world. The Yankees had to give up something. I had to laugh when Heyman spoke glowingly of Tabata. As far as I'm concerning, Tabata's star has significantly fallen, even though he is still young.

It doesn't matter who the other 2 are. This was a tremendous trade. Nady is an upgrade over Abreu for next season. Marte is something they need now. Tabata was going nowhere fast in the Yankee organization and Ohlendorf isn't much. Trading for Nady kept him from Tampa, as well. And if you visit the Boston papers today, the Red Sox want Manny gone, right now. A great night all around last night.

I agree, Jim. This is a much better trade for the Pirates. They can have Karstens (sorry, not a big fan of his), but McCutch is legit in my eyes. But it's still a trade they should have made. This truly is Cashman's plan coming to fruition: he has so much pitching depth (both starting and relieving) that losing Ohlendorf and McCutch is not that big of a deal. I still believe in Tabata, but I don't have a problem making this trade, since he really turned himself into a project this year and has had serious injury concerns.

Ken to answer your question to me from last night, I'm not saying Reyes doesn't care, I'm saying he appears to sometimes not care. Maybe he is like Manny, who when everything goes his way (and with him it has to all go his way) everything is fine and a little bit goes wrong and he pouts and mopes. As the SS he is expected to be an on field captain and a defensive leader at the very least. Reyes needs to learn all his fundamentals, be less happy-go-lucky and more business-like on the field. And maybe a lot of people's perceptions of him will change. He is being compared to Jeter, and because of the way Jeter plays and is, Reyes can never come out looking good in that comparison.