You're very very sleepy.....

I'm more and more of a fan of this trade deadline as it all has time to sink in. What hypnotism book was Brian Cashman reading that allowed him to acquire:

Bobby Abreu
(leads MLB in walks, .427 OBP)

Cory Lidle
(solid back end of the rotation starter)

and Craig Wilson
(outstanding utility player with .306 avg/RISP)

for a combination of players including:

C.J. Henry
(athletic, but struggling with baseball related skills)

Matt Smith
(27 year-old converted AAA reliever)

Jesus Sanchez
(expendable catching prospect at rookie level)

Carlos Monasterios
(solid baby pitcher with big question marks)

Shawn Chacon
(miserable 7.00 ERA, 1.8 WHIP)

We kept Hughes and Tabata. Wang and Cano are in the fold. Melky stays in left. The Red Sox did nothing. Matsui and Sheffield can take their time getting back. Bernie goes to the bench. Guiel and Bubba are out of the mix. Proctor is still around. Ponson is out of the mix. Phillips can go to the bench. What's not to like? Essentially, we subtracted nothing and ended up with the following new toys.

Bobby Abreu's VORP over the last 7+ years (MLB rank in parenthesis) is:

1999 64.3 (13)
2000 60.9 (25)
2001 54.0 (29)
2002 60.0 (17)
2003 43.0 (39)
2004 73.5 (7)
2005 47.0 (28)
2006 25.0 (57)

Further proof of his superior play was contibuted yesterday by mars2001:

PROOF (3 year split data):

AVG/OBP/SLG
RISP (runners in scoring position):
Abreu .329/.450/.566
Jeter .288/.380/.405
ARod .273/.381/.482
Giambi .273/.443/.535

Men on w/2 outs:
Abreu .324/.470/.540
Jeter .307/.395/.449
ARod .280/.381/.553
Giambi .230/.414/.473

Close & Late:
Abreu .288/.431/.464
Jeter .249/.352/.392
ARod .276/.392/.553
Giambi .237/.414/.460

The fact that this guy has underperformed this season, and his team is in a downward spiral, contributed to the salary dump that Gillick performed for our benefit. The fact is, it was one of the greatest steals in trade deadline history. Still in his prime, Abreu is one of the best players in the entire sport. He's been tested in a very tough Philadelphia market and ranks as one of the best players in the long history of that franchise. Statistically he is top 10 in virtually every major category. If Larry Bowa says you play the game the right way, you play the game the right way. Bowa is a hot-head in the mold of Sweet Lou and will destroy a guy for not approaching the game properly. All the mess about Abreu dogging it, or shying away from the wall, is so overblown it's laughable. Bowa knows it when he sees it, and this guy is going to be an impact player.

Baseball Prospectus wrote this about Cory Lidle in 2005:

"Lidle is durable and keeps the ball down, which makes him a reasonable back-of-the-rotation fit for a team with a power-friendly ballpark and an offense good enough to win games on its own. The Phillies re-signed him for two years and $6.3 million. That's not a terrible price compared to some recent doozies, but pitchers with this sort of strikeout rate tend not to age well."

That sounds like exactly what the Yankees need right now, doesn't it? Durable, great. Keeps the ball down, perfect. Reasonable back-of-the-rotation fit for a high scoring team, that's us. Won't be around for a long time, no problem. In fact, his current 13.8 VORP would rank him as the third starter on the ballclub behind Mussina and Wang. That speaks more to RJ's struggles than anything else, but it also means he'll help.

Craig Wilson for Shawn Chacon is a very funny punchline to a joke. I'm not sure what that joke is, but Cash Money does. Jettisoning Chacon with a little thank you and a box of chocolates for last season feels really good right about now. Getting a superb utility player with a live bat for him feels like getting away with murder. No Maas sponsors his page at Baseball Reference, and upon further examination of his similarity comparisons, I found that Trot Nixon is #5 on the list of players at age 28. How you like me now Boston? We just added Trot Nixon to our team for Shawn Chacon. Don't you guys have him starting on your club and hitting 5th? I know, he's on the DL and you replaced him with David Wells. Wellsie went 4.2 innings today with 8 hits, 2 walks, and 8 earned runs. Looking good Beantown. Nice work at the deadline Theo. Keep up the good work.