That's what everyone wants to talk about this time of year, clearly. So let's get right to it. We're not supposed to get too high or too low, we're always told, but it's hard not to be worried while watching the Yankees' 4-2 loss tonight and not think they really, really, really need a corner outfielder who can hit consistently with some pop.
Melky Cabrera looks as if he is hitting a wall, hitless in his last 14 at-bats. And rightfield has been a silent position, aside from Bernie Williams' recent surge.
So who do you want, and why? Let's hear it. And we'll discuss.
Comments (24)
I would like to see Soriano come back if they go after an outfielder. Pitching wise I would bring up some minor leaguers to fill in for jaret wright and demote him to the bullpen to replace aaron small.No more trades for pitching.
I want the Yankees to keep their best prospects (Hughes, Tabata, Cox, Jackson), even if it means not making the playoffs.
The team is aging. A quick fix could set the franchise back for three to five years.
I don't want a pricy OFer like a Hunter, Abreu, or Soriano. One more big bat just won't make enough difference to be worth the cost.
This happened last year, too, even with all the big bats in our lineup. We won some games in huge blowouts, and lost a lot of the close, low-scoring ones. Good pitching beats good hitting.
The other teams have adjusted to Melky; we'll see if he can adjust in turn. (Cano did, last year.) Bubba's a little rusty after his month on the DL. I'm not ready to give up on them yet.
If we do trade for someone, go for someone relatively cheap and versatile, like Craig Wilson.
Sorry Randym, I'm not as up on Crosby as you are, or for that case even my dad. He's got speed in the OF, but he's a Rally-Killer. We're missing that Utility player's bat who the team has had in the past who can come up with an Offensive punch -- much like Sierra, Clark, etc. Who do we have Philips, Cairo, ugh!!! Play Bernie, he's older, but he's still Bernie. His ups and downs are better than the downs the team is getting consistently from the younger players. Bernie was supposed to be our punch off the bench, but due to current circumstances, he should be playing. Give him a couple of days off a week, if it is a necessity, but get him in as much as possible, UNTIL, which brings me to my next point, we get a real Offensive OF. My wishlist has Soriano at the top. I still haven't forgiven the front office for getting rid of him. He had a tough playoff in 2003, but he could have been World Series MVP in 2001 had the Yanks won Game 7. With Soriano, the Sox never win the in 2004, and the team has at least one more chamipionship under its belt. Don't need to bash AROD, that's done enough, but Soriano was OUR AROD!!! We had our chances to enhance the bullpen last winter -- B.J. Ryan, resign Gordon, etc, BUT, We have Farnsworth Mr. Gasoline himself. The Yankees may honestly have too many problems to fix this year. Yet, we're still only 2 games back today. The state of the East only tells me that the Chicago White Sox repeat as AL Champions this year. Let's gear up for next year.
Injuries, and more Injuries. Losing Sheffield & Matsui for the season decimated the lineup. Those were the Yankees two best hitters hands down. The pitching staff is old and overworked. If the Yanks want to stay in this thing they'l have to part with some young talent. I can see them getting a good corner OF for an Eric Duncan/Proctor package. I would hang on to Hughes though. If Chacon can get healthy maybe he can bounce back to his form of 2005. Wright is a bum and always has been, they need to trade him fast.
Get Jose Guillen who should be relatively cheap due to his attitude and contract status. Then package Cano with Duncan and maybe one other minor leaguer,(not Hughes), and get an elite AL pitcher. Doesn't matter if it's a starter or reliever. Under no circumstances should we trade for any NL pitcher. They just can't handle the powerful AL lineups. Replace Cano at 2nd base with Cairo. This will be a defensive up-grade, as Cano's defense is horrible. He also has an attitude problem, as evidenced by his strutting around the field like a 10 year veteran. I appreciate confidence, but this is cocky, not confidence. If we can't get an AL pitcher with the Cano package, use the same package to get Soriano. We must sign Soriano long-term, before the deal is final. Soriano would play 2nd base for the remainder of the year with Guillen in the outfield. I don't believe we have the "chips" to get Torii Hunter and a AL pitcher. I do believe we have the "chips" to get Guillen and a AL pitcher. The only way Hughes is involved in a deal is if we get both Guillen and Soriano from Washington.
There are too many problems to repair in one trading season. You're not going to replace the two corner guys out with injuries with one OF selection but Soriano would look nice next year in LF as a FA purchase. Hideki moving to RF. I still believe that our offensive weapons are plentiful if RISP had a better clutch percentage. 3 out of 9 last nine the game is ours. Pitching is the key another starter maybe injury prone Pavano will surprise us but relief pitching is a disgrace. Proctor and Farnsworth can't find the plate. Farnsworth had 30 pitches last night. He's toast for tonight unless Joe needs him for one batter. The guy is just bad with all the tools except location. No matter who we get it won't be enough unless the team starts geling and I don't see the relief pitching coming around. I know that I sound like a broken record but Bubba has never been given a solid month playing fairly regular. He was a deer looking into the headlights last night. Concerned about missing opportunities at the plate because Joe won't use him tonight but he's our best defensive OF.
But it is what it is and I can't see selling the farm for the value out there. If we sell the farm the value received will never bring the desired results. Enjoy the young guys we did with Bernie, Derek, Mariano and Jorge.
Honestly, I wouldn't trade any but the most mediocre farmhands. So we don't make the playoffs this year, so what? At least we'll save the good players that'll be good for many years to come (see: Jeter, Derek). Mortaging the farm for a quick fix (read: an aging and expensive superstar) will only hurt in the long term.
To those who want to trade Cano: Cairo is better defensively (maybe) but his hitting is atrocious. Better Cano with his occasional mental lapses than a guy who's an almost automatic out these days. What we need is a better bench, and some middle-level prospects could be used for that. Also, bullpen...but that'll be harder. I think if Matt Smith and T.J. Beam are given a chance they might work out very well and then the bullpen will be fixed.
we shouldnt trade for anyone but pitching. i wouldnt mind a cheap outfielder either but i dont think our hitting is the problem. we have enough hitting to win. and trading cano was by far the dumbest idea ive ever heard. the guy claims cano is bad defensively (which hes not) but he wants to get soriano to play 2nd? how does that make sense? cano and jeter are the 2 most consistent yankee hitters.
also regarding melky...cano went in a slump around this point last year but then went on a complete tear towards the end of the season, so i think hell come around
I'd like to start the same chant that echoed through the Stadium following his game winning homer over Seattle in the 2001 playoffs...SORIANO! SORIANO!
The Yankees lead MLB in runs scored. They do not need a corner outfielder. They can live with Melkey. Any acquisitions should be pitchers. This is where their weakness is. They will score enough runs.
It's obvious that when it comes to trades we get no breaks whatsoever around the major leagues. Nobody wants to help the Yankees. Boston can trade a bunch of nobodies for Pedro Martinez (yeah I'm talking to you Carl Pavano) or Curt Schilling, but unless the hurler is aging (Johnson) and the team is near bankruptcy we don't have that same opportunity. If we want Pedro it'll cost us Soriano AND Nick Johnson, but we'll take less from anybody else. Fair enough, there is no crying in baseball, but with that in mind we aren't going to land anybody of note without giving up Mr Hughes. This time we are really hamstrung. I don't want to deal this guy either, but the way things are going now we won't make the playoffs if we don't address our shortcomings. The merits of whether we should go down that road aside; I say we go after tier two players that are relatively expendable to their present clubs like Juan Rivera and David Dellucci. It helps when we target players in the other league because nobody in the AL wants to trade with us. We could use even a Justin Speier type and that is out of the question obviously. Up the food chain the best setup man in the AL has to be Scot Shields, but we'd never get him either. Heck, I'd take Francisco Cordero too even with his troubles as of late. We don't have a Mike Timlin type and it's obvious Kyle Farnsworth is no Tom Gordon. This is a huge problem we can only hope gets solved by Octavio Dotel, but that's asking a ton for a guy coming off TJ surgery. The setup core alone has cost us five to seven games already this year. The starting pitching is a problem we may not be able to solve so we need to address what we can by adding lesser names. I disagree with trading Cano as well. He's confident, not cocky and he couldn't act like a know it all even if he wanted to in that clubhouse. The guy smiles. Imagine that? A Yankee having fun besides Jeter and Damon? I'm tired of the dour Sheffields and the stoic Matsuis (no offense to their production); I'd like to see us loose and having fun for a change. Anyway, the fact that Rivera and Dellucci are both ex-Yankees is a plus in my book. They know how to play and they are used to this environment. Melky has been a nice story, but you can't have your LF come away with four homers for the year and expect to compete. Our bench is so thin it's scary and we can't even make use of Carlos Pena or Erubiel Durazo either. I don't know what the answer is but you can forget about Soriano and probably Guillen too. Other teams can and will offer more. We need to fly below the radar as laughable as that sounds. Go Yanks!
we need middle relief pitching badly, they've blown alot of close games for us.Farnsworth has great stuff but he walks too many people. We need a guy like ramiro mendoza in the 90's. We should maybe try A. Alfonseca out, Texas just released him. We could also use another bat but pitching is a priority
I have read all the comments. And there all quite good but the one issue that we all touch upon is this. Don't sell the farm and all good Yankee fans see players out there who we have traded away for some stiff not on the team anymore. Riveria and Dellucci would be nice retreads for the outfield. Brad Halsey would be a nice alternative ot Mr. Wright who can pitch 100 pitches in 3 innings or less with the best of them "Lets go Bubba."
we need to play more small ball, i'm sick of seeing the bases loaded with less than two out and can't at least get a stinkin sac. fly. we also need to bunt more, how many times have they had a man on 1st and 2nd with no outs and instead of bunting over the runners they hit into the D.P. (especially late in the game) and those same couple of runs that coulda scored ends up costing us in a one run game.They all need to learn how to bunt even A-Rod and Giambi especially when they have that stupid shift on
"Canyon of Heroes" has an interesting analysis of the "State of the Yankees." Hitting really isn't the problem. We're still hitting.
The problem is defense. We're giving up more runs. Some of that is pitching, but a lot of it is errors. A-Rod has as many errors now as he usually has for an entire season. And it's not just him.
Then there are the miscues that aren't scored as errors (see Bernie in RF).
Dunno what we can do about this. Perhaps it's just a fluke. Perhaps they're trying too hard to make up for the loss of Sheff and Godzilla.
I like Melky but let's be honest he will never be Bernie. I would rather have a stoic Godzilla than a stumbling Bubba. Yanks need starting pitching - package Duncan & prospects for Ted Lilly (a BoSox killer). Trade Farnsworth, Wright & prospects for Soriano. Another interesting prospect - trade Chacun, Duncan & prospects to Atlanta for Andruw Jones. Then trade Farnsworth & Cabrera to Minnesota for Nathan. Do not trade Cano, Hughes, or Phillips. Lets face it Sheffield will not be coming back next season nor will Cairo, and maybe not even Moose. Whatever happened to Hidalgo and Mendoza? Dotel alone is not the answer for the Yanks' pitching woes. Yankees need pitching and a new rightfielder - Soriano & Lilly or Jones & Nathan could fit the bill.
brad,
who is gonna want farnsworth or wright? and why would the blue jays trade lilly to us if we are in the same division and they are fighting for a playoff spot too? duncan isnt performing in the minors right now so I dont know why teams would give up a solid player for him.
we have to realize that we are going to have to settle for a cheap outfielder &/or melky and bernie. once again though, hitting is not the problem, we need pitching. hopefully when dotel comes back, we can look at that as a big acquisition like a trade
Hidalgo could not get in shape, so they dumped him.
Mendoza is still working his way back into shape.
They are not going to be the answers to our problems.
for those who wanted to trade cano, hah! lol at you disgraceful people.
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