Sadly, it doesn't look good for Dotel this season. Every time you think he's close, he has another setback. I like Proctor a lot and Farnsworth has been lights out pretty much after the all-star break but we still need 1 more frontline setup guy to get to Mo imo. Torre has the tendency to go to the pen often (not like he has a choice most of the time) and guys tend to get warn out. Look at Proctor: started out awesome, got over-used (I think he might be leading MLB in either bullpen appearances or innings pitched, not sure, maybe both), hits a bigtime wall, comes back after the break refreshed and now the velocity's back up (95-97 mph). The last thing I wanna do is burn out our pen down the stretch. A healthy Dotel would be nice but it doesn't look good.

MacDougal would've been perfect. Even though he visits the DL often (one was due to a freak situation where he fractured his skull after getting hit by a flying bat into the dugout), he recovers quickly. He's only 29 years old. He's in his prime. The guy used to throw 100 mph coming out of Wake Forest (where he no-hit Duke back in 3/99), had some arm trouble early in his career but recovered and still has great velocity on the heater (96,97 mph) with sink, along a great slider. If he's not punching guys out, he's getting groundball outs. Like Chien-Ming Wang, he'll give up some seeing-eye hits through the infield but he usually won't give up gapers & he keeps the ball in the park. I always liked MacDougal (and Affeldt too for that matter) and I always thought that he's a talent that's just wasting away out there with KC.

With all our injuries we're only 2.5 games behind the Red Sox (I think we play these guys 9 more games or something) for the division AND ONLY 1.5 games behind the White Sox for the wild card with Cano coming back soon and now maybe even Matsui too (I think he's progressed to the point where he's hitting off a tee). With offense on the way like that, who needs Bobby Abreu?? If we get another bat fine but it's a guy like Mike MacDougal who would've made the biggest difference. We would've had that one more power, late-inning reliever that would've given Joe the luxury of resting Proctor or Farnsworth and even Mo (Farnsworth could close to give Rivera a break) on a regular basis. Keeping all 3 of these guys fresh down the stretch is the key to our chances of reaching the post-season. MacDougal's gonna be pitching some meaningful games now in Chicago - watch how he'll excel. This was an excellent move by the White Sox. And for what they gave up (2 marginal pitching prospects, one of which is coming off an injury) I think we easily could've come up with a similar package (w/o involving any of our top minor league talent) to get this guy. We owe it to the vets and young guys alike who've been busting their asses out there keeping this thing close despite all the injuries to make a move like this. Would've been a huge upgrade for the bullpen. Bigtime missed opportunity by Cashman, who I usually like btw.

Anyone see it like this or I'm I overreacting? If we don't make any significant trades by the deadline, I'd like to see some of the young power arms we have down on the farm (Philip Hughes, J.B. Cox, Jeff Kennard, T.J. Beam, etc...) come up and make some appearances down the stretch. I know they're young (mostly at the AA level) and you really don't wanna rush young guys but **** it, we're too close. If we remain close down the stretch, you gotta promote some of these guys soon to see if they can help. It would do no good leaving them down there when we could use the pitching help - like going to a gun fight and leaving your pistol at home for Christ's sake. Between them and the offense we'll get outta Cano and hopefully Matsui, maybe it'll be enough.

Anyway, thanks for letting me go off. Gimmie some thoughts on what you'd do to improve this team as the trading deadline approaches.








[Edited by - finestrg on 07-25-2006 11:00 AM]

You're overreacting. MacDougal has never demonstrated consistency, command or the ability to stay healthy on the major league level. Tyler Lumsden, who they gave up for him, is a pretty good pitching prospect, and the other guy is a a projectable 19 yr old righty. Too much for a guy they won't be able to depend on.

The Yanks do need some bullpen help, but as you mentioned, some of the best candidates are internal. JB Cox is dominating down in AA (20+ straight innings scoreless). Matt Smith deserves a shot. You could also see someone like Jorge DePaula or TJ Beam back soon.

I'd like to give Kevin Thompson a legitmate chance to start a few games before I go after any stopgap like Sanders, who IMO doesn't offer anything to the Yanks (his bat hasn't been very good this year).

Paul Byrd from Cleveland could be a good pickup for the Yanks if the cost isn't prohibitive. I wonder if Baltimore would be willing to trade Kris Benson.

Posted by VDesai:

I'd like to give Kevin Thompson a legitmate chance to start a few games before I go after any stopgap like Sanders, who IMO doesn't offer anything to the Yanks (his bat hasn't been very good this year).

Paul Byrd from Cleveland could be a good pickup for the Yanks if the cost isn't prohibitive. I wonder if Baltimore would be willing to trade Kris Benson.

Baltimore has already gone on record as saying they'd have to be floored with an offer for them to give up Benson (why i have no idea, he's not anything special)... not worth pursuing, especially w/an interdivision rival who won't be giving us any discounts anytime soon... we don't need Anna Benson's distraction around the team either at this point.

Paul Byrd would be a great choice, but he probably wouldn't come cheap either... i think the Yankees want a more experienced glove & bat as a stopgap, otherwise they would have gone to Kevin Thompson a long time ago... he doesn't have the pop that they're looking for in the middle of the order... the only role he'd have on this team is to replace Bubba Crosby as the 5th OFer.

Cashman and Steinbrenner have become convinced over the past five years that it's more important to make sure the roster has an all-star hitter at every position than it is to pay attention to the pitching staff. It sucks.