The Tex signing is paying HUGE dividends--both in the field and at the plate. This guy is simply awesome.

2 out of 3 from the best team in baseball this month & a very tough team to beat at home... we're now in a 1st place tie w/the Red Sox in the AL East.

that question came up a couple days ago too... the obvious needs are a corner OFer & a righty setup man since Bruney's health is such a big question mark every year & Swisher is struggling... Nady & Matsui are likely gone after this season so we'll need to add another bat to the roster.

i would re-sign Johnny Damon to be the fulltime DH & sign Jason Bay to be the fulltime LFer while keeping Melky as my starting CFer w/Gardner on the bench as the backup... u can always move Melky over to RF if Austin Jackson is ready to take over in CF at some point next season.

1 - Jeter SS
2 - Damon DH
3 - Teixieria 1B
4 - ARod 3B
5 - Bay LF
6 - Posada C
7 - Cano 2B
8 - Swisher RF
9 - Melky CF

i'd also seriously pursue Rafael Soriano of ATL, he's been completely lights out for them this year & he's also had success in the AL while he was in SEA, so we know he's not just an NL success story... he's still in his prime at 29 & if he'd agree to set up for Mo he's a perfect option for us... i know we have Melancon waiting in the wings but bullpen depth is never a bad thing... Betances won't be ready for another year or 2 at the very least.

also depending on how Andy P, Joba & Hughes finish the season we may be in need of another starter as well... Erik Bedard & John Lackey are obvious names to consider, & there's also Justin Duchscherer & Rich Harden, but u have to be wary of the injury concerns w/those guys.

[Edited by - TMS on 05-28-2009 06:15 AM]

Posted by BigSm00th:

i think the SP will be fine. hughes has shown he has the talent, he and joba both just need to get their mental approach down and throw more strikes. andy P is probably done after this yr, but kennedy was lighting up the minors pre-injury and i think they have a few more promising guys down there in AAA and AA. lackey is an interesting name, guy's a gamer, i doubt he'd come to the yanks though.

bay is a nice idea, i'd imagine boston will throw lots of money his way to keep him though. who are the other options besides bay?

I don't know. I've never heard a team say, "I wish didn't have so many good starting pitchers." That said, if you exclude the FAs with options on their contracts, the 2010 starting pitcher free agent list is underwhelming. I'd want to see how things unfold this season but starting pitching should always be the #1 target. That's more important than adding another superstar offensive player. Not saying I'd complain if we added someone like Jason Bay but it's gotta be pitching first. I think Cashman figured that out finally this off-season when he went after and got three big pitchers (AJB, Pettitte, and CC).

Posted by BigSm00th:

i think the SP will be fine. hughes has shown he has the talent, he and joba both just need to get their mental approach down and throw more strikes. andy P is probably done after this yr, but kennedy was lighting up the minors pre-injury and i think they have a few more promising guys down there in AAA and AA. lackey is an interesting name, guy's a gamer, i doubt he'd come to the yanks though.

bay is a nice idea, i'd imagine boston will throw lots of money his way to keep him though. who are the other options besides bay?

some of the more significant names include:

Jason Bay (31)
Johnny Damon (36)
Matt Holliday (30)
Vladimir Guerrero (34)
Rick Ankiel (30)
Rocco Baldelli (28)
Marlon Byrd (32)
Mike Cameron (37)
Andruw Jones (33)
Bobby Abreu (36)
Jermaine Dye (36) - $12MM mutual option with a $1MM buyout
Magglio Ordonez (36) - $15MM club/vesting option with a $3MM buyout
Carl Crawford (28) - $10MM club option with a $1.25MM buyout

TB owns a team option on Crawford & they're not stupid enough to let him walk to the Yankees by buying him out, so don't waste ur time w/him as an option... if we don't get Bay the next best name on the list is Matt Holliday or Vlad, & no thanks to Vlad's injury issues... Holliday carries concerns of his own w/his noticeably lower numbers away from Coors Field... i think u can assume Dye & Magglio will both be bought out but both of them could be on the decline at their age so i'd steer clear of them too... Dye's actually putting up some pretty good #'s so far this year so if he'd agree to a 1 year deal i wouldn't mind taking a flyer on him as a secondary option in case we can't land Bay.

Bay is going nowhere.

How come we didn't get Bay instead of Nady from the Pirates?

but bay has sort of come back to earth, batting .250 for the month of may.

Posted by Rookie:

How come we didn't get Bay instead of Nady from the Pirates?

that's what i've been asking myself this whole time... we gave up Tabata, Ohlendorff, McCutchen & Karstens for what turned out to be a 2 month rental of veteran players that didn't even help us make the playoffs last year... don't tell me we couldn't have gotten Bay instead of Nady had we thrown in another prospect or 2 in the deal we offered... the players the Pirates ended up getting for Bay were crap... Craig Hansen, Andy LaRoche & Bryan Morris are just average to below average players like the trio of pitchers we gave up & Tabata had just as much value as Brandon Moss if not moreso... obviously no one thought Bay would be quite as good for BOS as he's been this year but he was a 2 time Allstar in PIT, so let's not make this out to seem like he hadn't already established himself as a damn good player over there... i'm not afraid to say that Brian Cashman made a mistake on that one, & that's not even in hindsight... at the time i thought the Dodgers were the ones making out like bandits but seems like Boston did pretty good for themselves as well (that is hindsight).

[Edited by - TMS on 05-28-2009 3:20 PM]

no structural damage found in Bruney's elbow so no surgery required... it's the same right flexor muscle strain he had last time.

Yeah that's a few weeks old