Bonn1997 wrote:The Yankees' situation looks pretty bad right now. No Lee? Wood leaves. Pettitte's currently not on the roster. CC's coming off surgery. They look to be in *worse* shape than they were last year when they lost in the 1st round.

Ummmm, the Yankees beat the Twins last year in the first round. Lost to TEX.

Look, the Red Sox lost VMart and Beltre. They made up for it with A-Gon and Crawford. They have improved the pen as well.

Wood last year was a middle of the season pickup. Pettitte presumably comes back. Its just hard making assumptions about how good this team is as opposed to last year on December 19. Let's wait until at least March, please.

In other news, the Brewers dealt for Zach Greinke. Greinke/Gallardo/Marcum as their top 3 in the NL Central. Fielder and Braun in the lineup, that's a solid team.

BigSm00th wrote:

Bonn1997 wrote:The Yankees' situation looks pretty bad right now. No Lee? Wood leaves. Pettitte's currently not on the roster. CC's coming off surgery. They look to be in *worse* shape than they were last year when they lost in the 1st round.

Ummmm, the Yankees beat the Twins last year in the first round. Lost to TEX.

Look, the Red Sox lost VMart and Beltre. They made up for it with A-Gon and Crawford. They have improved the pen as well.

Wood last year was a middle of the season pickup. Pettitte presumably comes back. Its just hard making assumptions about how good this team is as opposed to last year on December 19. Let's wait until at least March, please.

In other news, the Brewers dealt for Zach Greinke. Greinke/Gallardo/Marcum as their top 3 in the NL Central. Fielder and Braun in the lineup, that's a solid team.

I missed when Toronto traded them Marcum- well at least that makes the Jays easier to contend with.

I'm not sure what the Yankees are gonna do here. They still need a setup man and long man/middle man like Acevez. Clearly they need another starter, possibly more than 1 depending on how you feel about the internal candidates.

TMS wrote:Russ Martin, Mark Prior, Pedro Feliciano & Luis Vizcaino... not exactly the offseason any of us were hoping for.

I agree, but most Knicks fans think those type of acquisitions make a team a contender year after year

Having finished second, or maybe third, in the Cliff Lee sweepstakes, the Yankees are prepared to go into the 2011 season with a pitching rotation of CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Phil Hughes , with the remaining spots filled out by youngsters, many of whom have never pitched above the Triple-A level.

"I'm not saying I want to do it," general manager Brian Cashman said in a telephone conversation Monday morning, "but I may have to do it."

I guess we are penciling in Ivan Nova. Manny Banuelos may be a candidate for the rotation even though he seems more like a year away.

TMS wrote:

VDesai wrote:Kerry Wood goes back to the Cubs for only 1 yr/$1.5 mil? Did he not want to go back to the Yanks at all? I'd have a hard time/believing or understanding how we wouldn't be able to offer him more than that for more years.

that's strange cuz they were talking about Wood the other day on Yankees Hot Stove & said he was looking for at least $6M per over 2 or 3 years & that the Yankees weren't willing to shell out that much for a setup guy... can't believe we didn't offer him at least $4M per to bring him back... maybe he just really wanted to go back to Chicago?

just heard on Hot Stove, Cubs gave Wood a lifetime services contract as part of the deal... that explains why he took less to go there... apparently the Yankees were offering up to $5M for a 1 year deal.

TMS wrote:sheesh.. make a trade for Ted Lilly... do SOMETHING... we can't go into next year w/a rotation of CC, Hughes, AJ & 2 raw rookies & expect to contend for another championship... that's 2 reliable starters & 3 huge question marks.

Man I agree..What a terrible off-season so far, huh? Jesus..I really would've taken a chance on Greinke---kid's young & he has a lot of talent..I guess they felt the potential anxiety issue was too much of a red flag..I wonder if Cash & co. thought about the trade years ago for Jeff Weaver when considering Greinke. Similar young/high upside starter that flopped...I mean what have we done to stay even with the Sox?? They went out and improved their team tenfold, we did nothing..Russell Martin, Luis Vizcaino and Mark Prior?? OK but what else? Is that it?!? Say it ain't so Cash! You get the feeling there was never really a solid plan B in place after Cliff Lee..And now today I read in the paper that Pettitte told Cashman to proceed without him..WTF?? Very disappointing..

Bonn1997 wrote:What does "lifetime services" mean? Regardless, we should have been able to surpass anything the Cubs offered.

I would've gladly given Wood a 3 year/15 mil deal and wouldn't have thought twice about it. I figured some team might've offered him 8 or 9 mil a year to close, but to let him go to the Cubs to be a setup guy and make so little? I'm never gonna understand that one.