Yankees Offseason Wish List

**Dry1313** · 11-06-2008 08:34 AM

1. Coaching Staff Priorities: Replace Rich Monteleone and Bobby Meachem with Ron Guidry and Paul O'Neill/Willie Randolph
Pretty self-explanatory. Gator was good in the role in years past and a solid pitching coach, and O'Neill would be a welcome face in the clubhouse. If not Paul, then Willie could go back to the role he excelled at in the late 90's.

2. Let Bobby Abreu go and sign Manny Ramirez
Abreu had the best year he could this year, and he wasn't close to the production we need out of the #3 spot. With Matsui declining rapidly and Posada coming off injury woes, we need someone who can rake and play serviceable OF. Signing Manny would give us the luxury of either an OF of LF: Ramirez, CF: Damon, RF: Matsui or with Melky in RF or CF and Damon in CF or LF.

3. Make plays at Sabathia, Burnett, Sheets, and Teixeira, but don't mortgage your soul

It isn't money I'm worried about, it's years. Burnett and Sheets are red flags because they could both end up being Pavano part deux. Sabathia has been a workhorse since losing to Ichiro in the ROY vote. Still, worry is that signing him long term could be risky because he might break down and still have half a contract left. Teixeira is a tricky bird. The guy has no problems to speak of, hits well and plays good defense. Only thing is, don't sign him for 15 years and 450 million dollars. I'm not interested in another regular season wonder who feels salary pressure and chokes in the playoffs.

4. Take a serious look at Brad Penny and Tom Gordon; also, pursue Kerry Wood and Chad Cordero
Penny would be a great addition to the staff. Imagine him, Wang, Pettite, Joba, and any one of Mussina, Pettite, Phil Hughes, Ian Kennedy? Good staff. As far as Gordon, he pitched well in NY and might be a nice middle man addition. Who can forget Quan-Gor-Mo?

As far as Wood and Cordero, offer incentives. I love the upside, and it gives us more arms that have shown they can pitch well if healthy.

5. Trade for Jake Peavy unless they want either Joba or Jesus Montero, or both.
I don't care how good he is, Jorge is almost done, our staff is old, and dealing 3 or 4 other prospects plus our two best would be ridiculous. Joba has shown Clemens like ability, and Montero is reminding people of Mauer almost. Let's not get crazy because not dealing for Johan didn't work. We need to stay the course.

**Hammer** · 11-06-2008 09:01 AM

damon and matsui both playing defense would almost certainly make for the worst defense in baseball, with an already mediocre jeter and arod, and an inconsistent cano. abreu, albeit downright frightened of the wall, is a pretty decent fielder... and even ramirez is an upgrade over damon and matsui. resigning abreu, and acquiring sabathia and ramirez should be the top 3 priorities... putting together a team that looks like...

(for the record, i dont look at the 3 signings i said as unrealistic... except if they dont wanna come of course... because abreu youll be paying him the same money you gave him last year... and for ramirez and sabathia, you cleared off pavano, giambi, mussina and pettitte's contracts, so that should work for those 2.)

c: posada, 1b: ?, 2b: cano, ss: jeter, 3b: arod, lf: ramirez, cf: damon, rf: abreu, dh: matsui.... sp: carsten charles, wang, joba, ?, ?... rp: mo, edwar, veras, coke, marte, robertson

id give aceves and hughes a shot in the rotation... but hughes is getting ROCKED in the afl right now... or wherever the hell he is, im half bagged and cant remember perfectly honest... so i dont know. aceves at least pitched good in the majors, so id give him another shot... never wanna see ponson or rasner ever again though. id love to bring in teixeira too obviously... but lets be a little realistic. i think manny is our most likely signing, and its distinctly possibly we throw 25-30 mil at sabathia to coax him out of the nl/west coast... but its probably more likely we sign lowe and sheets, and look at a rotation of wang, joba, lowe, sheets, hughes/aceves/kennedy/whoever. i dont particularly care for either one of them though... sheets is cool, but how often is hes healthy? god forbid he gets a hangnail and misses 4 months... carl pavano jr right there, so i have zero doubts the yankees will sign him.

"Who can forget Quan-Gor-Mo?"

i cant and it stunk on ice. well, gordon was cool by me, though he folded like cheap lawn furniture in big moments... and quantrill, if even possible, was absolutely worse in big moments. i dont think we need relievers, i like our young arms... maybe humberto sanchez will even get a shot this year.

"5. Trade for Jake Peavy unless they want either Joba or Jesus Montero, or both."

so theres exactly zero chance of that happening. in retrospect... and i was against the deal last year too, so im not gonna pretend im a genius and all that shit... but STEALING johan for hughes, kennedy, melky and marquez, was the absolute best chance of stealing an ace we had. to get peavy, joba has to be involved... they dont want hughes, they dont want kennedy, theyd probably want austin jackson as a secondary piece but a deal of jackson/montero wont make it work. at this point, if we want an ace... its 30 million dollars a year to sabathia. that is... if you dont think joba, with his 2.76 era as a starter last year, isnt an ace in the first place. just let the man pitch and stop babying him. but we do need arms, and putting together sabathia, wang and joba is a major major key, because even in the playoffs you can go 3 man and let those 3 go every series all series.

**Dry1313** · 11-06-2008 09:34 AM