Haren Worth More Than Santana??

The Yankees are supposedly out of the Johan Santana derby. It has been rumored that the Yankees have now turned their attention to Oakland's Dan Haren. The A's are said to be asking for even more for Haren than the Twins have been asking for Santana. Their reasoning is that any team that trades for Santana will have to give him a $150 million contract in addition to the prospects they give up, while Haren is reasonably priced for the next 3 years. Although I do think Haren is an excellent pitcher, he is not Santana. Santana is on a level that Haren can only hope to reach one day. The Yankees were willing to give up Phil Hughes for Johan Santana but they should not give him up for Haren. Hughes has the potential to be as good or better than Haren. If the Yankees are going to give up a prized prospect like Hughes they better be getting greatness in return. Haren is very good, not great. Santana is great.

Cabrera and D-Train in Detroit

The Florida Marlins have traded Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis to the Detroit Tigers. This has got to be the biggest trade of the off-season. In Cabrera the Tigers have gotten themselves probably the best young hitter in the game. There have also been reports that Cabrera has been working out very hard with hopes to ease concerns about his expanding waistline. Cabrera is an amazing talent, if he ever actually gets into shape he is going to be even more of a monster. Dontrelle Willis is a big question mars. From 2003-2005 he was one of the best pitchers in the game, but over the last couple of years he has really fallen off. If he can somehow return to something close to what he was the Detroit rotation will be very good. The Marlins received 6 players in return for Cabrera and Willis. The 2 most important players in the trade were Andrew Miller and Cameron Maybin. Miller has ace potential and Maybin is a five tool talent.

Hank's In Charge

Over the last few years the Yankees have been overly secretive about their interest in trades or free agents. That has changed since Hank Steinbrenner has taken control of the team. When he re-signed with the Yankees a couple of years ago Brian Cashman was given full autonomy over the baseball operations of the Yankees. He was known to give as many no comments and evasive answers as any general manager in the game. Hank Steinbrenner has seemingly gone about doing business the complete opposite way than what Cashman would like. One has to wonder how Cashman feels about the current situation. One of the main reasons he returned to the Yankees was out of loyalty to George Steinbrenner, but now he finds himself working for his son. How does he feel about that??

Keep Away

The Yankees cannot let Johan Santana go to Boston under any circumstances. If they do they can get comfortable second place because they are going to be stuck there for the next few years. The combination of Josh Beckett and Johan Santana would be unbreathable. Right now the Yankees are saying that they will give up Phil Hughes, Melky Cabrera, and a third second level prospect but will not include Ian Kennedy. I do not want the Yankees to give up Kennedy either but if it comes down to either giving up Kennedy or watching Boston trade for Santana the Yankees do not have a choice. Getting Santana is a must for the Yankees. Chien Min Wang showed in the playoffs that he is not an ace. The Yankees need someone to match up with Josh Beckett and Santana is that guy. They cannot let them become teammates.

Johan in The Bronx???

The Yankees are in preliminary talks with the Twins to acquire Johan Santana. This is a move that they have to make. The Yankees do not have an ace. Chien Min Wang is not ace and Joba Chamberlain and Phil Hughes are too young to be counted on as sure things. In order to get Santana the Yankees will most likely have to put together a package that starts with either Joba Chamberlain, Phil Hughes, or Ian Kennedy. They will also likely have to include Melky Cabrera and another prospect. I would be willing to give up any of the young players except for Joba Chamberlain. Besides the fact that they need an ace the Yankees also have to prevent Santana from going to the Red Sox. If the Red Sox are able to start Josh Beckett and Johan Santana back to back they will be almost unbeatable in a short series.

Glavine Back in Atlanta

Tom Glavine is headed back to Atlanta after siging a 1 year $8 million deal with the Braves. This is something that nobody could have seen coming when Glavine left the Braves to sign with the Mets 5 years ago. It is clear that he took a hometown discount to return to the Braves. He could have stayed with the Mets if he had picked up his player option for $13 million but instead chose to accept a buyout of $2 million. Glavine never really wanted to leave the Braves but 5 years ago he was not ready to accept less money to play for the Braves the way he is today. I guess after 5 years with the Mets taking less money to play for the Braves was something Glavine was very eager to do.

Get Mo

The Yankees have had a real busy few weeks. Just when it looked like there were going to be huge holes to fill they re-signed Jorge Posada and Alex Rodriguez. These are both good moves but they will not mean anything if the Yankees do not re-sign Mariano Rivera. The Yankees have offered him 3 years and he is now looking for four years after Hank Steninbrenner made stupid comments in the newspaper about how Rivera was getting a great deal for a guy his age. Hank is right but that does not mean he should have said anything. Rivera has been the greatest relief pitcher in the history of baseball and he has been a model citizen off the field since he came up to the Majors in 1995. Three years should definitely be enough for him but if it is not the Yankees should give him a 4th year anyway. They just gave a four year deal to Jorge Posada who is a 36 year old catcher and they are talking about giving four years to Mike Lowell who has never done anything for them. Rivera may not be as great as he was but there is still no replacement for him.

The New York Football Giants

I know this is supposed to be a baseball blog but today I feel the need to rant about the Giants. The Giants lost to the Cowboys on Sunday for the second time this season. The final score was 31-20 but it wasn't really that close. I really never felt like the Giants were going to win the game. This was the game where the Giants could have made a big statement but instead they lost to a a good team in a ig game like they do pretty much every year. Ive been a a big supporter of Eli Manning since they drafted him but it's time for him to step it up. Hes still making the stupid mistakes that he was making his first couple of years in the league. I thought he would have stopped making stupid plays by now but I guess I was wrong. The Giants traded a ton to move up in the draft to get Manning and he is now being outplayed by Tony Romo, a guy who wasn't even drafted when he came out of college. It really does seem like the Giants never win a big game. I think the last big game they won was when they spanked the Vikings 41-0 in the NFC Championship game in 2000. Next week they have to play the Lions and thats not an easy game like it used to be. The Giants need to win this week.

Can it Get Any Worse?

As a Yankee fan this is about as bad as it gets. Over a two day span, the Red Sox won the World Series, Alex Rodriguez opted out of his contract, and the Yankees basically ran my all time favorite player Don Mattingly right out of the organization. Alex Rodriguez is a phony, self absorbed piece of crap who couldn't care less about winning and only cares about the money. Anybody who blames Scott Boras for Rodriguez's choices are wrong. Boras is only doing his job. A-Rod should be able to make his own decisions. I will be totally disgusted if the Yankees go against what they said and make A-Rod an offer even though he opted out.

Yankee Manager

Yesterday Joe Girardi was the first candidate to be interviewed to be the Yankees new manager. today Don Mattingly goes and tomorrow it is Tony Pena's turn. The Yankees say that they are going to interview a couple of additional candidates but they have not said who they will be. One candidate was Trey Hillman who managed in the Yankee minor league system for 13 years but he just got hired by Kansas City. If it was up to me I would hire Mattingly, and not just because he is my all time favorite player. I think that if the Yankees were not going to bring back Joe Torre then Mattingly is the best choice for the job. He knows the organization, he knows how to deal with the media, he is beloved in the clubhouse and he learned under Joe Torre for 4 years. I realize that he does not have any managerial experience but the reason the Yankees moved him from hitting coach to bench coach after last seasons is to give him more time to learn from Torre.

Another Day

Another day has gone by and the Yankees have still not made a decision regarding Joe Torre. Originally they were supposed to make a decision on Tuesday and that didn't happen. Then it was going to be yesterday but of course that didn't happen either. Hopefully today somebody will be able to make up their mind. It looks like Ron Guidry is going to be let go as pitching coach if Torre returns or not. The most likely replacement will be Dave Eiland. I think that he is a good choice because he has worked with Phil Hughes, Joba Chamberlain, and Ian Kennedy when they were in the minors and he did a good job with them. Guidry hasn't really been a bad pitching coach but there is going to be some kind of change after this season and it seems like the right time to bring in a guy who's specialty is working with the Yankees youngsters.

What Are The Yankees Doing?

I'm starting to think that the Yankees have no idea what they are doing. Its been over a week since they were eliminated from the playoffs and they still haven't decided whether to bring back Joe Torre. I really don't even know why they are thinking of getting rid of Torre. There is not a better replacement out there. If it has taken them this long to decide whether to get rid of Torre and who to replace him with it seems like they are just thinking about making a change for the sake of making a change. I realize that the Yankees have been knocked out in the first round the last three years but it has not been Torre's fault, especially this year.

Wild Card Weekend

Ive seen a lot of crazy things happen in sports but the craziest things Ive ever seen has to be when bugs swarmed the field during game 2 of the American League Division Series between the Yankees and Indians. I know its going to sound like I'm whining but I really do believe that the bugs were a huge factor in the outcome of the game. Joba Chamberlain looked like his normal dominant self in the 7th but once the bugs swarmed him in the eighth he couldn't find the plate. I know that the Indians had to play under the same conditions but they are probably better equipped to handle the bugs since they have seen them before. The Yanks won last night so hopefully they can take the next two and head to Boston.