Baseball’s Savior

Not to be outdone by the Red Sox, the Yankees spent upwards of $25 million for exclusive negotiating rights for Japanese pitcher Kei Igawa.  Igawa is only 27 yet he’s an eight year veteran of the Japanese league.  If the Yankees can ink Igawa, he’d probably fit into a rotation that includes Mike Mussina, Randy Johnson, Chien-Ming Wang and, gulp, Carl Pavano.  Hopefully Igawa’s the read deal and he makes an impact on the pitching staff in 2007.

I started a new website called Yankees History.  It’s pretty self explanatory, but I wrote up the plans for the site.  Hopefully you’ll stop by that one as I develop the content.

John Sickels recently threw out a preliminary list of the Yankees Top 20 prospects.  Phil Hughes tops the list and he’s listed as the best pitching prospect in baseball.  Like Sickels says, the Yankees have some arms (thankfully) but they lack position players (only one in the top ten).  Anyway, the Yankees have seven players rated a B or higher and that doesn’t even include Humberto Sanchez, who’s probably around a B+.

This isn’t official yet, but the Yankees declined their $17 million option on Mike Mussina, but they turned around and are set to sign him to a two year, $23 million deal.  Mussina had a good season last year after a pretty mediocre one but I’m hoping Mussina has a couple of seasons left in the tank.  There’s no doubt that we need arms.

More dead weight out the door.  Jaret Wright was traded to the Orioles and he’ll be reunited with the guy who squeezed one solid season out of him, Leo Mazzone.  Of course that one solid season is what prompted the Yankees sign Wright.  The Yanks will be picking up $4 million of the $7 million Wright is owed this year and in exchange, the Yankees received Chris Britton.

Chris Britton got a B- rating from John Sickels his 2006 prospect book although the soon to be 24 year old had a solid 2006 rookie campaign.  He struck out 41 and walked 17 in 53 2/3 innings.  He only gave up four homeruns and righties hit only .186 against him.

Now we know why the Yankees picked up Gary Sheffield’s $13 million option.  Less then a week after doing so, Brian Cashman turned the aging Gary Sheffield into three pitching prospects.  Not a bad deal.  I thought Gary Sheffield should net more, but I think with him coming off of the season he had in 2006, we have to take what we can get.

The jewel is Humberto Sanchez, although even he has some downside.  He’s already 24 and had been pretty disappointing (mediocre if you’re being nice) up until this year.  He started in Double A (for the second straight season) and was very dominating.  Then he moved up to Triple A and did some more dominating until his elbow gave out.  He was shut down in early August and you’d hope the doctors have taken a look at him to make sure everything is kosher.

Kevin Wheelan and Anthony Claggett are both relief pitchers.  Both had very nice seasons in their respective leagues (High A for Wheelan, Low A for Claggett) and they’re both 22.  Don’t expect to see either guy in pinstripes anytime too soon.  Maybe as September callups in 2007 but assuming we got what we paid for, we should see them both some time in 2008.

Of course Sheffield is the odd man out after the Yanks traded for Bobby Abreu.  The thought was to play him at first base, but Sheffield obviously didn’t want that.  So away he goes, and to the team that knocked the Yankees out of the playoffs this year.

Best case scenario is that Sanchez is a back of the rotation starter.  Durability is definitely and issue though so starting him in the pen might not be all bad.

I guess I don’t feel strongly one way or the other on the deal.  I know why it went down, but until some of these pitchers start playing, there’s no way for any of us to tell who got the better end of the stick.

No big surprise here as the news broke early on this.  Sheffield will make $13 million next year despite missing a good portion of the season last year after wrist surgery.  Now it’s being speculated that Sheffield will be dealt and while it looks like a ton of teams are interested, the Padres are the only team I’ve seen that have actually named themselves.  Sheffield’s breakout season was way back in 1992, his first season with the Padres. 

Sheffield’s a stud when he’s healthy.  Problem is, he’s the odd man out in the outfield and he’s said he doesn’t want to play first base.  On top of that, he’s looking for a three year deal.   I’m interested in seeing the rumors fly as the hotstove league progresses.

I may be in the minority, but I think it would be pretty stupid to trade A-Rod.  With the Rangers picking up some of his price tag, he’s actually on the cheap end as far as guys who will give you 40/120.  I see him bouncing back next year to what he did in 2005 when he won the MVP.  This time we’ll have a couple more pitchers, and the Yankees will be the 2007 World Series champs.

Mariano Rivera feels the same way.  Rivera wants to throw three more years and he wants A-Rod on the team while he does it.  Rivera is under contract through 2007 but he’s looking for a two year extension that would take him through the first season in the Yankees new ballpark.