Posted by PresIke:
More geezers to the all-geezer pitching staff of baseball. Nostalgia is nice, but is it enough? I'm not saying Pettite ain't a decent stop gap, but the long term starter problems aren't going away, and I'm a Yankee fan. Thank goodness for Wang, but seriously, we need to get the staff younger at some point, and soon.
At what point will Johnson, Moose and Pettite give? I don't get why everyone is down on "overpaying" for Zito. Who cares if you overpay, there's no salary cap, and it's the Yankees. Personally, I'd have rather taken Zito.
i think the future is looking very bright to be quite honest... we have a legitimate ace prospect in Hughes who should be ready to be called up by the end of the season... we also have Umberto Sanchez, the Tigers' highly touted pitching prospect, who should be ready by next year as well, along w/Tyler Clippard, who scouts are high on as well... all we needed was a stopgap solution in the rotation, & Andy P fills that role perfectly imo... he's not over the hill at 34 years old... as a lefty he can still be effective for another 2 years at the bare minimum barring injury... he's been very durable the past 2 seasons & had a very strong finish after the Allstar break last year.
Zito would've been fine by me, but not at the cost of $16 million per over 5 years... he's worth no more than $12 million per imo, but this current market is so crazy even scrubs like Vincente Padilla are making 8 digit salaries! we don't need Zito at that inflated price, no matter how durable of a starter he's been over his career... Andy P's being paid alot but the commitment is only for 1-2 years, not 5... it's a smarter play for Cashman, & gives the Yankees more salary flexibility in the coming years... believe it or not, even the Yankees have financial limits, & the fact that they have to pay 40 cents on every dollar they spend now because of the luxury tax puts a stranglehold on some of the aggressive spending they've done in the past... being committed to Barry Zito for the next 5 years at what would have amounted to over $22 million dollars per season would not have been a smart move, fiscally or otherwise.
consider also this... the Yankees will now have some dollars free to include in a deal to unload Carl Pavano... it's obvious he will never work out here & they want to cut their losses on him if they can... having Andy P signed for a short term contract helps facilitate a possible Carl Pavano trade.
[Edited by - TMS on 12-08-2006 8:13 PM]After 7 years & 40K+ posts, banned by martin for calling Nalod a 'moron'. Awesome.
12/8/2006 10:18 PM