Sunday, May 27, 2007

Yankees Fix #1

12.5 games back might just be enough to have the most optimistic Yankees fans off the "we can still do it" bandwagon. The AL East is toast, and the wild card is slipping. 8 games back for the WC is doable, if only because the 7(!) teams in front of us aren't all that impressive, save Detroit. The team needs a fix, and I will start my season long look at how the Yankees can get better with this little suggestion.

It appears as though the Angels have shown some interest in Jason Giambi. At least there were rumors a week or so ago that they would like to acquire him to add some power. Whether his current outage has nixed that interest is a big question, but I think we need to part company. If they'll take on his salary, we should make a deal. I propose that we ask for Mike Napoli in return. Napoli would be a very nice backup to Jorge, and is only 25/26 years old. He looks good enough to step in should Jorge get hurt or retire in the not too distant future. As insurance he's platinum, as a replacement he's at least silver.

Removing Giambino would make room for Mark Teixeira. If the Rangers are going to shop him, the Yankees should be first in line with a pitching prospect or two. I'd withhold Hughes, Chamberlain, and Betances, but anyone else is fair game. Send 2-3 pitchers of various quality for the young man and get it over with. The Yankees could plug in Tex for years to come and focus their attention on other things. Having BUC and 1B set up for the forseeable future would allow the team to concentrate on other things. It would also help us shake things up for 2007 and see what happens with the wild card. The sooner we make these moves the better. More fixes in the days, weeks, and long ugly months to come.

4 comments:

Jamie said...

Mike, you honestly think we can get Texiera for our pitching prospects besides Hughes, Chamberlin, and Betances? The only guy who I guess would HAVE to be in that deal for Texas to accept it would be Ian Kennedy who has been lights out this year. Any thoughts?

Anonymous said...

How about Giambi for Scot Shields?

Mike Plugh said...

James....No I don't, but Kennedy was my immediate thought. If you throw Kennedy and maybe a few guys closer to the Majors like Clippard, etc...

Josh....I'd do that in a heartbeat, but I don't see anything happening at this point. I prefer Napoli for the immediate need at BUC, but Shields would put the 8th inning to rest.

RollingWave said...

Or Jeff Mathis, who's being wasted at AAA and younger than Napoli and a better reputed defensive catcher though he isn't hitting well in AAA right now either. but i suppose it makes more sense and more attenable.

Still though, this is a tough one to figure out, and due to the contract sizes whoever we get we're going to take a serious chance , and i highly doubt the patience of most Yankee fans to watch kids struggle. they've been pretty lucky over the last two year that Wang was almost an immediate success and Cano and Melky didn't take too long to catch up. but MOST kids don't adjust that fast. it took the Tigers 3 years to get Bonderman to pitcher above league average, i doubt our fans will accept any below average pitcher on our team for 3 years.

As for Igawa, we'll see, Clippard's last start really turned me off, he looked like Jeff Weaver that day looking like a sissy everytime he gave up a extra base hit. the last thing we need is another head case. I'm not sold on Clippard over Igawa for now.

I'm not sure what exactly to do, i just hope they don't panic, but whatever move they take, they clearly need a little better luck than what their getting this year for things to pan out.