Posted by VDesai:

Jon Garland is terrible btw. .303 Batting average against? He'll give you innings, yes. But he's not particularly effective.

Rasner is not a particularly good example as he was never a prospect. He only took the starts cause the guys with the pedigree got hurt- give them a chance. The Yanks will not win another title untill they develop some stars from within. That's the reason the Sox have been able to stay on top while the Yanks have fallen back- they've filled in the rest of their roster.

ur telling me Garland is terrible & ineffective but he did win 14 games for the Angels last year & as a #5 option would be perfect... i never said Hughes is a bust but u can't rely on the kid to give u 20-25 effective starts this year when he hasn't proven the ability to stay healthy... a .303 BA against is terrible? what about Hughes' .314 BA against last year? is that something we should be relying on right now? i think Hughes needs more development personally... i think he's gonna be good, but not sure if he'll ever live up to the dominant ace expectations that people seem to have for him... i wanna bring him along slowly, he's still only 22.

as for Andy Pettitte, i completely disagree w/u that he's done at this stage in his career... he had a bad ending to the season but he should have won at least 17 games last season if not for some shardy offense & relief pitching in games he's pitched.

Posted by Bonn1997:

Posted by VDesai:

Andy Pettitte at his age and after his performance last year is not a reliable arm at this point.

You can't keep using "he hasn't done anything" as an excuse when it comes to prospects. Phil Hughes was considered the top pitching prospect in baseball by a lot more than Yankee apologists. He needs to be given a shot to succeed. I understand he hasn't stayed healthy, but you can't keep going on the assumption you won't. The Sox were patient with Lester and it paid off. Aceves is another guy who had a great year in the minors last year and had a very nice Septemeber for the Yanks.

Hughes got his chance and f'd us last year. He'll get another chance if/when a starter gets injured. They haven't spent $243 mil already this off-season just to leave open the possibility that a kid who went winless in 8 starts last year will screw our season. They have an expensive new stadium and expensive roster and cannot afford, under any circumstances, to miss the playoffs.

and even with CC and AJ, I would not say that we pulled clearly ahead of TB and Bos. It's probably at best a 3 way tie right now.



[Edited by - bonn1997 on 12-14-2008 9:00 PM]

there are always going to be injuries to get Hughes the starts he needs... like i pointed out there are plenty of question marks in that starting rotation... the reason we won those championships in the past was due to our tremendous pitching depth & our awesome bullpen... trust me, the Yankees are going to sign someone else for the rotation... it's either gonna be Andy, Sheets or Lowe, u can count on it.

Posted by islesfan:

Yankees payroll is about $170 million right now. That's $40 million less than last year. I'd like to see them trade Matsui for prospects while paying $5 or 6M of his contract. Then sign Texeira for $22-23M per for 9 years and Manny for $25M per for 3 years.

Then watch Mike Lupica, Karl Ravech, John Kruk, Peter Gammons, Chris Russo and all the other Yankee hating a-hole's heads explode.

Damon LF
Jeter SS
Texeira 1B
ARod 3B
Manny DH
Nady RF
Cano 2B
Posada C
Swisher CF

The rest of the AL can Suck it as the Yankees would have the same payroll as last year.

That is the ideal scenario- though I'm fairly certain that don't want to see Swisher in CF. They could still make the Cameron trade.

Posted by islesfan:

Yankees payroll is about $170 million right now. That's $40 million less than last year. I'd like to see them trade Matsui for prospects while paying $5 or 6M of his contract. Then sign Texeira for $22-23M per for 9 years and Manny for $25M per for 3 years.

Then watch Mike Lupica, Karl Ravech, John Kruk, Peter Gammons, Chris Russo and all the other Yankee hating a-hole's heads explode.

Damon LF
Jeter SS
Texeira 1B
ARod 3B
Manny DH
Nady RF
Cano 2B
Posada C
Swisher CF

The rest of the AL can Suck it as the Yankees would have the same payroll as last year.

If we added that much offense, then I'd have no problem with Hughes being the #5 starter. That would be a wonderful scenario. It's clear that Cash wants to add a veteran 5th starter though.