On the Yankees beat

Anyone who thinks this hiring is going to pave the way for A-Rod to be traded to Cubs is fooling themselves.

A-Rod isn't going to waive his no-trade clause and approve a deal with a team that lost 96 games in 2006 simply because Lou Piniella is the manager.

That would put A-Rod right where he started before he was traded to the Yankees because he was stuck with a Texas team that had no chance to win, despite him putting up some of the best numbers over a 3-yr span than anyone in the history of MLB.

Not only that, but I would have to believe that Cashman would want a frontline starter in return and the Cubs aren't going to part with Carlos Zambrano.

Sometimes you have to squash any rumors before they really begin.

Some Yankee fans asked me to post her this length essay I wrote for my own blog about how to fix the Yankees. If you think it too long for your blog, please delete it.

HOW TO FIX THE YANKEES AND WHY

THE BLAME GAME: WHY THE YANKEES DID NOT LOSE

Pointing fingers and assessing blame following post-season losses is an ignoble and time-honored Yankee tradition, dormant during the championship years but more recently, resurgent. Alas, where frustration seeks an outlet and failure demands a scapegoat, reason evaporates and an obvious truth gets lost. The Yankees have become victims of their recent successes-- of an extraordinary string of four championships that defied the odds and often eluded explanation and was all the more remarkable for seeming so easy and effortless, so seamless and inexorable. And as fans, we, in turn, have fallen victim to expectations so high that modest success looks like failure, victim to the collective delusion that given sufficient talent and desire a baseball team should win a championship every year and that anything less is a failure of will or nerve or management.

But no player can will performance, no matter how talented, now matter how great his prior accomplishments. Still less can a team. If they could, no great hitter would suffer a slump and every great pitcher would throw a perfect game. Statistics only measure probability; or as Derek Jeter observed last Saturday, “The game isn’t played on paper.” Every pitch of every at-bat accordingly is crucible on to itself, singular, un-predictable, inimitable. No magic formula can reproduce success.

The 2006 Yankees didn’t lose because they didn’t play hard enough or because they didn’t want to win badly enough. They didn’t lose because stars don’t perform under pressure and role players do or because of some missing, magical chemistry. They didn’t lose because of a stoic clubhouse; and they didn’t lose because of a tense clubhouse. They didn’t lose because Joe Torre played this one and not that one, or because he placed this one fourth in the lineup and that one eighth. NO, the Yankees lost because they lost. They lost because over a four game stretch between October 3, 2006, and October 7th, a less talented lineup outperformed a more talented one. It is, at once, that simple and that arcane. Hold everything else constant, and re-play the games tomorrow and a different result, no doubt, would ensue, and we would be no wiser or closer to an explanation.

PITCHING, PITCHING, PITCHING: WHY THE YANKEES DID LOSE

Now, this isn’t to say, a geriatric owner who spends $200 million a year on players in his frantic effort to win one more ring before he succumbs to oblivion cannot exercise some control over his franchise’s fate. If a payroll of All-Stars doesn’t guarantee a championship, it certainly enhances your prospects for one. Nonetheless, the allocation of money, of course, is as important as the amount expended. And the irony of the Yankees’ predicament is that, far from reflecting their team’s prodigious talent, the $200 million dollar payroll instead may be a measure of its shortcomings—the Yankees desperate effort to compensate with productive, albeit expensive, hitters for a deficiency money cannot so easily rectify: aging, and increasingly mediocre, starting pitching.

The availability of productive, all-star caliber position players through trades and free-agency each year enables teams willing to spend money to increase their run production. Pace Carlos Lee, Bobby Abreu, Carlos Delgado, Rafael Furcal, Ramon Hernandez, Troy Glaus, Lyle Overbay, Alfonso Soriano in 2006 alone. Pitching, however, is another matter entirely.

The Yankees have had such difficulty resolving their pitching woes through their financial might because other teams, realizing great pitching’s importance and scarcity, have begun to sign young, premiere hurlers to long-term contracts before they qualify for free-agency. Blame Brian Cashman all you want but the trade and free agency markets, of late, has been bereft of first-rate pitching talent.

In 2002, the Yankees signed Jose Contreras, in 2004, Carl Pavano—the two best pitchers, then available. Neither paid dividends. In 2003, they traded for Javier Vasquez and Kevin Brown; in 2004, for Randy Johnson. Altogether, the lot of them has won a single post-season game: Vasquez, in Game 3 of the 2004 ALCS in which he received the win but nonetheless surrendered 4 runs in 41/3 innings, the final score 19-8.

And this futility only illustrates why acquiring another team’s starter is always a second-best option to cultivating your own and underlines the Yankees’ greatest problem. Not since Andy Pettite in ‘95 has the Yankee farm system harvested a pitcher deserving of the mantle of a One, Two, or Three starter. (Ted Lilly rates no better than a fourth starter and the Yankees’ international scouting signed Chien-Ming Wang, as they did Contreras.) And Boss George-- in the foolish arrogance that is the flip-side to the prodigal spending and zeal for winning Yankee fans cherish—let Andy Pettite walk. And perhaps in the only truly misguided decision of Brian Cashman’s otherwise impressive tenure, he traded Ted Lilly for Jeff Weaver, a nullity, who, in turn, was traded for clubhouse cancer, Kevin Brown.

The Yankees, in other words, have to return to building their pitching staff from within. Cultivating your own starting pitchers offers multiple advantages. First and foremost, they’re younger and cheaper than some other team’s undesired chaff or free-agent defection. A young, homegrown, draft-reared pitcher grants a team his first six years, often his most productive at that, at a bargain cost, freeing payroll for addressing more urgent and immediate needs. Secondly, it affords an organization the opportunity to observe a young pitcher’s maturation, gauge his temperament, evaluate his “stuff”, control his pitch count and physical development, and measure his promise—the opportunity, in short, to make a far more informed projection of his success in the majors than the much smaller sample given a scout’s desultory reconnoitering of another team’s farm system. The Yankee gravity chamber starts at the Single A level and the pitcher who can flourish on Staten Island’s first floor is the most likely to reach the Bronx’s summit.

MORE LESSONS THE TIGERS TEACH US

The ignominious defeat Verlander, Bonderman, Zumaya, et. al inflicted on the Yankees further emphasizes the priority pitching should assume. An object lesson, incidentally, the Yankee recent championship teams offered to anyone who’d have heeded it. Much has been made of the ’96 through ’01 teams’ chemistry, their profusion of role players, their resilience, tenacity, and fire compared to the phlegmatic overpaid stars of today. Nonesense: all of it.

The Yankee successes during this era began and ended with pitching. Built on a rotation of four premiere pitchers (Pettite, Cone, Wells/Clemens, and El Duque), the Yankees dynasty subdued lineups in the ’96 Orioles, the ‘98 Indians, the ‘99 Rangers, and ’00 Mariners that rivaled, if not equaled, those of the post-‘03 Yankees. Because if you beat Wells or Cone in Game 1, the Yankees threw Pettite at you in Game 2; if you defeated Pettite in Game 2, they threw El Duque in Game 3 and Clemens in Game 4.

Compare, by contrast, the vulnerability of a 2004 rotation of Vasquez, Lieber, Brown, and Mussina; a 2005, of Mussina, Wang, a 42-year-old Randy Johnson, and Shawn Chacon; or 2006, of Wang, Mussina, a 43-year-old Johnson, and Jared Wright. As Tom Verducci observes on SI.com that since Game 3 of the 2004 ALCS, Yankee starters are 2-7 with a 5.73 ERA, including 0-3 with a 10.38 ERA when facing elimination.

Still, the ’06 ALDS does more than merely exemplify the cliché that “good pitching will stop good hitting” no matter how many all-star hitters a lineup sports, it also shows why, to quote Joe Torre’s maxim, “It all begins with pitching”. For if hitting can compensate for pitching mediocrity over 162 games, it is considerably less likely to do so in a five or seven game post-season series when a lineup faces the best starting staffs the league has to offer. In fact, during the post-season, when the pressure intensifies and each at-bat can mean the difference between advancement and elimination, middling pitching actually risks neutralizing your own lineup’s greatest strength, as the Yankees’ uncharacteristic impatience against Rogers and Bonderman testified.

During the 2006 regular season, the Yankees lead the American league in runs scored largely because of a methodical, patient approach at the plate that netted them a league leading .363 on base average, 649 walks (second behind the Athletics’ 650), and forced opposing teams pitchers to throw, on average, 152 total pitches per game.

However, once Randy Johnson and Jared Wright yielded 5 and 4 runs in Games 3 and 4 respectively, they neutralized the Yankee hitters’ greatest strength. The Yankee lineup abandoned their strict regiment of taking walks, forgoing balls and swinging exclusively at strikes—either because the stress and dire urgency of overcoming a 4 to 5 run lead in critical games made them overanxious or because 4 to 5 run cushions enabled Rogers and Bonderman to challenge the Yankee batters with strikes and to stay ahead in the count or both.

To illustrate, the Yankees stellar .363 OBA during the season dropped to .204OBA in Game 4 and a .212 OBA in Game 3. Secondly, the 152 total pitches per game Yankee batters normally saw fell to 126 in Game 3, and 109 in Game 4. Finally, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, Detroit pitchers threw first-pitch strikes to 65.5 percent of Yankee batters, over 8% points above the 57.2 percent the Yankees encountered during the regular season. As much as the Tiger’s pitching quelled a vaunted Yankee batting order, then, the Yankee pitching staff made an equal contribution to the lineup’s failures.

In contrast, the miracle comebacks of the Yankees championship years derived largely from the ability of the Yankees starting rotation and bullpen to contain deficits to a run or two-- three, at the absolute maximum. (The one and only glaring exception to this pattern occurred in Game 4 of the ‘96 World Series when the Yankees overcame a 6 run deficit.)

• Game 3 of the ’96 ALDS, Rangers led 2-1 in the 9th inning; Yankees win 3-2
• Game 1 of the ’96 ALCS, Orioles led 4-2 in the 7th inning; Yankees win 5-4
• Game 3 of the ’96 ALCS, Orioles led 2-1 in the 8th inning; Yankees win 5-2

• Game 1 of the ’98 WS, Padres led 5-2 in the 7th inning; Yankees win 9-6
• Game 3 of the ’98 WS, Padres led 3-0 in the 7th inning; Yankees win 5-4

• Game 1 of the ’99 ALCS, Red Sox led 3-2 in the 7th inning; Yankees win 4-3
• Game 2 of the ’99 ALCS, Red Sox led 2-1 in the 7th inning; Yankees win 3-2

• Game 1 of the ’99 WS, Braves led 1-0 in the 8th inning; Yankees win 4-1
• Game 3 of the ’99 WS, Braves led 5-2 in the 7th inning; Yankees win 6-5

• Game 2 of the ’00 ALCS Mariners led 1-0 in the 8th inning; Yankees win 7-1
• Game 6 of the ’00 ALCS Mariners led 4-3 in the 7th inning; Yankees win 9-7

• Game 3 of the ’01 ALDS tied 0-0 in the 4th inning; Yankees win 1-0

• Game 4 of the ’01 WS, Arizona led 3-1 in the 9th inning; Yankees win 4-3
• Game 5 of the ’01 WS, Arizona led 2-0 in the 9th inning; Yankees win 3-2

• Game 7 of the ’03 ALCS, Red Sox led 5-2 in the 8th inning; Yankees win 6-5

WHAT IS TO BE DONE?

The Yankees pitching predicament, however, isn’t as bleak as the alarmists have implied. The late season performances of Jeff Karstens and Darryl Rasner should buoy Yankee fans—even if we should abide that age-old warning about not judging players by how they perform in April or September. As should the rave reviews the Yankees top pitching prospect Philip Hughes has earned. The recent emergence of J.B. Cox, Huston Street’s successor at the University of Texas, and Tyler Clippard offer cause for optimism as well.

Let’s hope, nonetheless, the Yankees have learned from the Red Sox’s recent travails that danger awaits an organization which elevates young pitchers before they’ve fully ripened in the minor leagues or developed sufficient arm strength to pitch 200 innings. Cashman’s refusal to promote Hughes, thus far, in addition to the organization’s decision to cap his innings this year at 150 bode well. The flip side, of course, is that the Yankees cannot expect Hughes (or even Karstens and Rasner) to pitch a full season in 2007, let alone, to have conserved ample arm strength to prosper in the post-season.

Accordingly, the off-season presents the Yankees with a formidable but not insuperable challenge for 2007. They have to manage to bridge the gap between a future rotation of younger pitchers not yet able to handle a full season’s workload and a current rotation of tired, aging veterans too exhausted to pitch effectively during the postseason. The bridge’s cornerstone will hinge on whether the Yankees can obtain an effective, reliable 2nd starter, if not a 3rd starter as well, to follow Chien-Ming Wang in the rotation.

As Randy Johnson’s dreadful performances in Game 3 of the 2005 and 2006 ALDS demonstrate, the Yankees cannot rely on him, at 43, to pitch any more consistently or effectively than a 4th starter would perform. Meanwhile, Mike Mussina-- if the Yankees chose to re-sign him for two years at an annual salary markedly less than the $19million he made this year-- could assume the more deserved role of a 3rd starter. (If the Yankees and Mussina cannot strike a mutually agreeable arrangement, the organization should pursue Andy Pettite with the promise of more years and more money than the Astros will offer.)

To secure a 2nd starter the Yankees have one of two options: (i) wring him from an infertile or unripe crop inside the organization—a crop comprised of Pavano, Karstens, Rasner or Scott Proctor (ii) acquire him from without, either by signing Japanese pitcher Matsuszaka or Barry Zito. (The Yankees evidently think about as highly of Jason Schmidt as he does of NY: that is, not much.)

TO TRADE HIM OR NOT TO TRADE HIM?: THIS IS THE QUESTION

Then of course, there’s the third option, the latest fashionable bromide to arise from the media echo chamber: Trade A-Rod. And like all groupthink and herd piety, it should be distrusted because it stems more from professional conformity and facile opinion than the deliberate analysis and reasoned conclusions that follow from weighing the evidence.

Can A-Rod excel in the post-season as a Yankee? Of course, he can. From Game 1 of the 2004 ALDS through Game 3 of the 2004 ALCS Alex Rodriguez went 14 for 33, a batting average of .422. To conclude he cannot depends, quite simply, on selective perception-- the much remarked statistic that from Game 4 of the 2004 ALCS through Game 4 of the 2006 ALDS, Alex Rodriguez has gone 4 for 45, a batting average of .090. But if you extract an almost identically sized unrepresentative sampling from Derek Jeter’s post-season statistics, for example, you could arrive at the same conclusion. Between Game 1 of the 2001 ALCS and Game 7 of the World Series, Jeter went 6 for 44, a .136 average.

(It is worth observing that outside New York, A-Rod’s post-season statistics are as impressive as his regular season numbers. Over his two appearances in the post-season with Seattle ’97 and’00, A-Rod went 18 for 51, a .353BA, with 3HRs and 8 RBIs. A-Rod’s career post-season numbers, then, are 36 for 129, a.280BA with 6HRs and 16RBIs. By contrast, compare Derek Jeter’s career post-season numbers-- a sampling size 3.6 times larger than A-Rod’s-- are 142 for 462, a .307BA, 16HR, 47RBI’s. If you extrapolate A-Rod’s career post-season numbers for an identical number of at-bats, Jeter only surpasses A-Rod in batting average.)

So which is the real A-Rod? The A-Rod of the 2004 ALDS or the A-Rod of the 2005-6 ALDS. The MVP of the 2005 season who batted .321 and hit 48HR’s or the merely very productive A-Rod of 2004 and 2006, who hit for a combined batting average of .288 and averaged 35.5 HR’s per season.

Answer: both and neither. Alex Rodriguez has been a Yankee for a total of three years. Accordingly, he hasn’t amassed enough post-season plate appearances to allow anyone to determine definitively which is the representative performance-- 2004 or 2005-6. The same applies for his regular season numbers.

But apart from the caprice and pre-maturity any judgment about A-Rod’s hospitability to New York entails, his currently depreciated value militates against trading him at this juncture, even assuming, for the sake of argument, he would waive his no-trade clause-- is that at this juncture. The relentless jeering and media criticism has so diminished A-Rod’s standing; no team would relinquish sufficient young pitching to deserve the Yankees’ consideration. Alongside Albert Pujols, A-Rod has the best career average regular-season statistics in baseball, but the Yankees would not receive a package commensurate to what the player with the 2nd greatest statistics in baseball has accomplished.

I trust Cashman’s protestations that he does not intend to trade A-Rod reflects this wisdom. Indeed, any GM in baseball who would trade a player of A-Rod’s caliber, as some in the media have advocated, for Irving Santana and a prospect should be dismissed on the spot. Of course, if the Angels want to trade Irving Santana, Francisco Rodriguez (a.k.a. K-Rod) AND Chone Figgins; or if the Tigers want to trade Zumaya, Verlander or Bonderman, and Brandon Inge for some package including A-Rod and Scott Proctor, the Yankees should consider it. However, neither the Tigers nor the Angels, naturally, would entertain such deals, even if the Yankees and A-Rod both could agree. All of which means an A-Rod trade will provide talk show fodder for the next four months but Alex Rodriguez, in the end, will play for the Yankee in 2007.

Actually, if the Yankees are intent in unloading some of the excess offense for another starter, they should consider exercising Sheffield’s $13 million option and then trading him to another team. Should the Yankees agree to subsidize some portion of his Sheffield’s 2007 salary, Sheffield could command a quality starter, if not necessarily the companion to Wang they need.

Alternatively, Jason Giambi turns 36-years-old in January and in recent years has become a liability because his defensive ineptitude and the tendency of his health to deteriorate over an entire season (in both 2003 and 2006, injuries hampered him during the post-season) has consigned him to DH. Giambi has two years remaining on his contract at $21million per year. If the Yankees agreed to defray $10million of the remaining $42 million owed Giambi, a team desperate for hitting might cede an able, young arm for him. Giambi also has a no-trade clause but he lives in Las Vegas and he hails from Southern California. And he might agree to a trade to the Angels or Dodgers, each of whom has an excess of quality young pitching in their farm systems.

Finally, the Yankees could consider moving Scott Proctor into the starting rotation and signing a formidable reliever like Justin Speier to assume Proctor’s bullpen role.

Well written essay Matt.

I agree with most of what you said, especailly about AROD. Nice to have his achievements and contributions described so succinctly.

Bob, it would be great for me to read your essays too.
But I don't think the standard "angry Bob" two sentence statement can qualify as an essay. You might have to string three or four of them together. I know it hurts.
But Lou Pinella to the Cubs, a great fit. One problem. The Parent company of the Cubs is in a well known restructuring. I wonder what that will do to sweet Lou, especially after his Tampa Bay ordeal. Are the Cubs preparing to go into low payroll mode? Nice.
Good thing this offseason, yanks don't have downsizing owners like the Tribune Company.It's a blessing.

With Lou Piniella now the Cubs manager, watch for him to talk to his GM Jim Hendry about a big splash in bringing A-Rod to Chicago. He'll make his case about being able to get through to A-Rod and make him feel wanted and comfy in Wrigley where he can put a big dent toward 600+ homers in the little ballpark. A-Rod is kidding nobody. He's not as hell bent on a WS ring as he is a HOF ring. He would be idolized in Chicago's north side with fans gawking at him which he lives for. All Hendry has to do is put the right deal on the table and A-Rod WILL waive his no trade demands in a heartbeat. Cashman will listen to a Carlos Zambrano / Aramis Ramirez proposal for A-Rod, Pavano, and others for what would turn out to be the blockbuster deal of the offseason. Let the talks begin !

ARod will not be traded and he should not be traded. Trading him would be a huge mistake. ARod will hit in the post season. There is no reason to think he won't.

ARod hit in the post season for Seattle and he started off the post season in '04 with a bang. None of the Yankees have done the job the last few years. It's a team game with plenty of blame to go around.

The answer to the Yankees ills is pitching; fix the pitching, the Yankees will win the WS. The last time they made the WS they had Clemens, Wells, Pettite and Mussina.

I read on ESPN.com that Jeter's defense has actually gotten better the past 3 years because ARod's range at third allows Jeter to cheat towards the middle of the field. If that is the case if you trade ARod you will not only lose his bat and glove but the overall defense of the left side of the infield will be adversely affected.

ARod will hit. Just get off his back.

Andy: Get off A-Rod's back ? Yankee fans have tried every way possible to motivate this guy who loves to look in the stands at people and put on a power show swing in the on deck circle. Then he gets in the batters box and whiffs in the clutch. Who needs 3 run HR's with a 10 run lead.
A-Rod is the best bargaining chip the Yankees have to get the biggest need - pitching. He can be replaced.
A-Rod could never survive another season in NYC. The 1st batting (or fielding) slump he had in 2007 would draw boos heard across the Hudson River in Jersey.

Jim Baumbach - please tell us what you think of this article http://x.go.com/cgi/x.pl?goto=http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?

Jim,
Sorry here is the correct link

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2628823

If A-Rod is sincere about wanting a championship he won't approve a trade to the Cubs. His best shot at one is with the Yanks. Besides, we all know that any deal with the Cubs will have to include Zambrano and the Cubs won't do that. He's the only pitcher that they have.
I like Ramirez, but how good do you guys think that he'll do at Yankee Stadium? He won't put up the numbers that he does at Wrigley and then we'll all be screaming for his head!

Q.: If A-Rod loves Piniella as a mangaer so much, why did he leave Seattle?
A: $$$$$$$$$$$$$

Q: How did Piniella make out after the devastating loss of A-Rod to free agency?
A: 116 wins

John G.--"We all know an Arod trade to the Cubs would include Cy young candidate Carlos Zambrano"

Dude, you are really not on the pulse. How does that make sense to even mention it? I will give you this, if you said Kerry Wood, that would be more logical.
Maybe Kerry Wood and Angel Guzman.
Realism is part of the picture, look at the folks that were traded for Arod in the past. Other than Soriano, see how they match up

Steve: I believe it. The Cubs obviously have given Lou assurances they are going to spend money to get the team back into serious contention, and acquiring A-Rod would fall under that. Name me a more accomplished star who is still relatively young and could be had? Jim.

Jim Baumbach: Check out the Tribune Company in the Associated Press' recent archive. It seems like those cut backs are creating industry havoc not unlike what happened with Time Warner and Ted Turner.
Also assurances are bogus in regards to baseball contracts. I am sure Tampa Bay gave many assurances to Lou Pinella. Maybe that is why he publicly spoke out against ownership there. He in fact, felt betrayed.
The great miracle in the Atlanta Braves/ Time Warner situation was that Bobby Cox and a person I admire Leo Mazzone, got so much out of retreads and new players. I only hope that sweet Lou can do that.
Before anyone can consider a "splash" in getting Alex Rodriguez. Jim Hendry needs a "warm body" in centerfield.
That is a major issue for them. That goes far beyond any need they might have other than healthy starting pitching.

I say "Thank heavens" that Piniella is going to the Cubs.

This way, he won't replace Torre come next year.

I've come to despise Torre for his idiotic love for his veteran at the detriment of the younger players, but I would rather have him than Piniella any day.

That's how I feel about him.

Hi Frank,
An A-Rod trade to the Cubs was mentioned in the media as a possible scenario because of the Pinella hiring. It's not my opinion. They said that if the Yanks were to trade him to Chicago, assuming that he would approve it, they would have to get Zambrano and Ramirez.
A "realistic" trade would be A-Rod for Kerry Wood and/or Angel Guzman? You really don't have a very high regard for A-Rod's talent, that's for sure.

Sorry Frank. I hit the enter button before I put my name in.

No no John, it is not all about equal talent sometimes. It is about contract a lot of the times. I have read some pretty outlandish trade senarios from "sources" as well. But the sources never mention
his no trade clause.

Alex Rodriguez is not on my top list of players, that I admit. My view is as an opposing general manager, there are match-ups out there--Arod would have to agree to one. I just believe that an Alex Rodriguez trade would be more reflective of his deal from Texas to the Yankees.
Soriano was the lone chip given up.
The yankees won't get significant pitching in any deal for alex rodriguez. Certainly not Carlos Zambrano who could win the Cy young award as a long shot. That is folly, in my opinion to write or print that. The Cubs will build around Zambrano. Any deal that Alex Rodriguez would be involved in certainly.....money---is the big x factor. No doubt about it.

Frank: You make some really good points. The contract is prohibitive and the Yanks would probably have to pay part of his salary. His troubles in NY will also affect the Yanks bargaining position. The no trade clause is another good point you made and others have also said this.
I don't believe that the Yanks are going to trade him anyway unless they get what they want and A-Rod will not approve any trade unless it's in his best interests.
"Frank D." must be your pen name. You're really Jim Bowden the Nationals' GM. :-)

To the post that said look at the other folks who were traded for Arod in the past other than Soriano. The Arod- Soriano trade was the only time Arod was ever traded. He went from Seattle to Texas as a free agent, then straight up to the Yankees for Soriano, and the last time I checked he was still a yankee.

John G.: if you or I were Jim Bowden there is one thing we both would be doing, and that would be pulling our hair out. That is really awful that the Soriano contract offer was leaked. Especially when you are trying to sell season tickets and you just fired Frank Robinson. Every National fan now has a realistic and working knowledge that Soriano is gone.My prediction: he will go back to the Yankees, where he will play? ....that I have no idea but I am sure
the resulting surplus of outfielders will be the area
that Cashman will work from. Stay tuned....

The Alex Rodriguez trade from Texas to the Yankees involved the Texas Rangers receiving shortstop Joaquin Arias and Alfonso Soriano. The Yankees received Alex Rodriguez and an unprecedented 67 million dollar voucher to help pay the enormity of Alex's monster contract. Believe it or not, by doing so, the Texas Rangers were actually saving money over the long term. Monopoly money boys....just monopoly money.No pitching was transacted in the deal.

Frank: Yeah, they'll be a lot of stuff going on after the series is over. The Nats have a lot of work to do that's for sure.
Good Luck to you and the Mets tonight.

I did it again. I forgot to put my name in.

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