Youth or Free Agents??

So I have to apologize for being MIA the last few weeks. Life Liberty and the Pursuit of Insanity is to blame or in a nut shell real life got the better of me. Yea, Yea I know I post this thing once a week how hard can that be. Well considering that I can only post a blog once a week that should tell you how busy I am on a normal week, so when things get busy or crazy it’s just dam near impossible. The good news is that I have made some arrangements to avoid not being able to post a blog and over the summer when this happens to me again I should be able to introduce you my readers to some very dedicated and very talented Yankee fans who will be guest blogging for me. This week thou I’m quite ready to write so your stuck with me for now.

**UPDATED** Mind you I have been working on this Blog the last few days. As many of you know Roger "The Rocket" Clemens was signed buy the Yankees and at todays game Roger adressed the yankee fathful ala King Henery Style. Althou I'm not a big fan of the Yankees signing Clemens this is proably a good move buy the Yankees. Considering the injurys we keep facing and that Clemens in the rotation will help take some presuer off the rookies like Iggy, Rasner and others. The way i see it buy Mid June or sooner the Yankee rotation will be Wang, Pettitte, Musena, Clemens, and Hughs when he can come back Iggy till then. Honestly i think Clemens is going to struggle in the AL East and his efectivness will not be what it was in the NL the past two years. I could how ever be vary wrong. Eather way this is a bost for the Yankees rotation and good news for now. Welcome back Rocket and I REALY hope you can help.

In the last two weeks I have noticed that there is an interesting debate over the direction the Yankees have taken, this being the Youth movement or Free Agent signings of Veteran players. Now in a perfect world a team should be able to do both but unfortunately these days Free Agent pitchers are expecting long term deals and fat paychecks. Many Yankee fans have shown frustration over not signing Bary Zito a guy I my self was hoping would be a Yankee this year but frankly I’m glad the Yankees passed on him. Ted Lilly, Jef Supan, Gill Mech, and Jason Schmidt are also among others that fans are currently lamenting over because Cashmen passed them up. Others like my self applaud Cashmen’s effort in this winters Free Agent market, and see that he has given the Yankees an improved Farm system and has provided the talent for this team to win this year and many years to come. So the Debate is simple Youth or Veterans who are more valuable??

For Years the Yankees have been a Free Agent, and blockbuster trade type of team. They have traded young talent for current and established ball players, these players after these trades have been sigend to large contract extentions. In the Free Agent market they have never broken any single player records in terms of Pay but have signed many long term deals some as short as 4 years and some as long as 7 years. For the most part these deals have worked out for the Yankees Mike Musena has been a very good and serviceable pitcher for the Yankees. He has however had his ups and downs thou as he has gotten older, he has lead some to wonder if signing him to a 5 year deal was the right thing to do. Jason Giambi not one of my favorite players was signed to a 7 year deal and although his bat has been some what effective at times, his injury prone body and his inability to actually play first base has become a serious problem. Carol Pavano was the best pitcher on the Free Agent market at the time we signed him to a 5 year 20 million something contract. In his time as a Yankee he has racked up 5 wins and spent most of the time finding new and inventive ways to be injured. It’s likely he is going to be out for the rest of the season and if the Yankees are smart they will cut their losses by cutting Pavano loose at some point in the season. The Yankees acquired A-rod in exchanged for our up and coming second baseman Alfanso Soriano. Due to Soris inability to settle in at second and his inability to not swing at everything thrown to him is what helped spank the deal. A-Rod for his part has served the Yankees well even with the so called off year last year and he has started this season red hot at the plate. With A-rod came, his long term deal and in terms of money 14 to 16 million, in terms of years (so long as Alex does not Opt out this year which I don’t believe he will do) the Yankees have him for at least three more seasons. This is a deal that has worked out well for the Yankees despite A-Rods rumbles last season. He can field at third base, and his bat is invaluable in the lineup. Also at his age he is likely not to slow down production wise over the next three years. Other then the A-Rod deal most of these deals present problems for the Yankees. With Moose as much as I like him on the mound his last few seasons have been riddled with injuries and inconsistencies at times. If the Yankees wanted to move Moose to make room for a young pitcher they couldn’t do it because of Moo’s contract terms of length. The same can be said about Giambi, when you weigh the injury factor along with his inability to play the field well, then throw in the amount of money and time left on his contract moving Giambi in a trade becomes next to impossible. Randy Johnson whom the Yankees acquired from the D-backs just two seasons ago was traded back for a handful of young prospects. Part of the reason this deal got done was because Johnson’s contract only had one year left on it and the D-backs were willing to work out some sort of extension that only added a second year to that. Money wise Johnson was making less then what some of these guys on the Free Agent market were signing for. He was a short term investment for the D-backs and to them a smart move. Because of how his contract was structured in terms of length which is why Cashmen was able to move him.

Now before I move on lets take a look at where the Yankee’s farm system is in terms of talent. Over the last three seasons we have seen Robinson Canoe, Chen Ming Wang, Melky Cabrea, Scot Proctor, Sean Hen, Darel Rasner, Jeff Karastan, and finally Philip Hughs come up form the minors and have a real impact on this team. Obviously Melky, Cano, Proctor, and Wang have made major impacts to this team and Rasner, Karastan, Hen, and Hughs are just starting to make there presence known. What I don’t get is that many of the "experts" have called the Yankee farm system baron and used up. How is this so if we have managed to bring up players that have made major impacts on the team?? Truth is the Yankees farm system is weak but it’s not with out resources either. Wang, Melky and Cano were all strong prospects coming into the majors and its not surprising they have produced so well. Last season Karastan and Rasner were brought up to fill rotation spots for the Yankees and performed quite well in their short time on the team. The problem was there was no room at the time to see what they could really do for us. Why?? Well Johnson, Wright and Moose were all taking up spots on the roster. So when Cash goes into the off season he looks at all this young pitching we have just waiting for a chance to get on the mound in NY and he realizes he needs to make room for them. With the way the Free agent market is, how can you make room for those young pitchers?? If you sign Zito to seven years your Rotation is now crowded with Johnson and Wright. Plus you lock into Zito for 7 years which means he is not going anywhere any time soon. Ted Lily would have been the same only over 5 years. Cashmen traded Johnson and Wright retaining some very good prospects in return. He also moved Shef to gain another pitching prospect although in Sanchez case he may be the injury of the month sort of guy-Time will tell. So now we have Wang and Pavano in the rotation for this season and that’s about it. Considering what we know about Pavano it’s safe to say Cash knew he needed to grab another Vet or two to solidify this rotation. Some argue Zito was the guy to get. Maybe he was but remember if we sign him we are stuck with him for 7 years. I liked Zito personally but the last thing I wanted was to see the Yankees stuck with another Moose like contract where the pitcher is obviously aging and loosing his ability to be productive for a full season yet we are still paying him like he is. So the decision was made to sign Anddy Pettitte, at the age of 34 for 2 years. A much shorter term contract and talent wise on the same level as Zito. Then Cash resigned Moose, a move I’m still scratching my head over. Granted we only have Moose for a season possibly two if we pick up his option. My problem is Moose as good as he has been for us, he is still 38 and I think he is just not the guy he was when we first signed him. In the long run this may be a smart move considering Lilly, Mech, Supan and others were signing 4 year deals. With Moose we have him for this season only and have the option to keep him for a second or possibly do what we did with Shef and pick up the option, then trade him or simply let him go. What does this do for the Yankees?? Well remember we have Hughs who has recently proven he is ready for the majors, Karastan who despite his poor first start of the season is better then that, Rasner who has shown he can start for the Yankees when needed and be effective, Chris Wright who will be a very good young pitcher for the Yankees in a few years, Tyler Cliperd who is DOMINATING Triple A right now, and many other young prospects just waiting for there chance. Now granted having all this young pitching is great but they’re not all going to become great pitchers. Some we may trade for some help in the Catching department where we have nobody to take over for Posada when he eventually retires from the game, or perhaps a first basmen where the Yankees currently have NOBODY who can both hit and Field. What we have is one guy that hits home runs and barely hits his own weight over a season plus should probably be fielding first with a spatula. Then we have a guy that can field first base EXTEREMLY well but could not hit a ball if you put him on a little League T-Ball team. So having a lot of young pitching talent currently in the minors should allow the Yankees to grab somebody that can fill those two holes. But what about the guys that don’t’ get traded like Hughes, Olendorf and Kliperd?? Remember next year depending on how things fall Zambrano and Santana amoung others will be on the Free Agent market. Both are young and both would be good long term investments for the Yankees. Also the D-train will be available from the fish at some point and we all know it's going to happen. He would make an excellent pick up as well. CC Sabath will also be a Free agent. I personally would avoid him because his injury record is very much like Pavano the only diference is CC WANTS to be out there pitching. Now if the Yankees grab one of these guys to go with Wang next year, then throw Hughes in the Mix we have 3 strong pitchers. Now if Andy sticks around next season You have a starting rotation of Wang, Andy, (Free Agent Trade acquisition) Hughes, and there is still room for Rasner, Karastan, Klipered, Wright or another young rookie. The following season if Andy leaves the Yankees we have Wang Hughs and who ever we grabbed the season before again, three strong starters and YOUNG to boot. Kliperd is likely ready for the Majors so he comes up and we either sign trade or depending on some of the other young pitching simply stay where we are with what we have. The point here is letting the young crop of talent take the time to develop and more importantly give Cashmen room to make moves and changes that we never had the chance of making before. Because of the moves Cash made in the off season he should be able to make a deal to bring us a decent young catcher to take over for Posada in the next year or two. We should eventually get a decent playing first basemen that can both hit and field the ball. We could also make a trade for a starter if it comes down to that. We also should be able to bring up pitchers that can get the job done as starters with out having to sign guys that we are hoping will pitch well after basically stinking all season OR not have to trade away our budding young talent in the farm system for a guy that may pitch well now or may simply be mediocre at best. FELXIBLITY! The Yankees now have flexibility and it will play a key roll in their ability to win this season.

Do we trade away all this young talent and get our selves the big name big dollar players. Do we hold them up in the minors and con’t to sign big long term contracts?? Or are you like me and would rather see short term contracts signed and the young talent in the minors given a chance to help. The truth is with the amount of talent we have in Triple A finding a starter isn’t going to be to much of a problem. With the lineup the Yankees have scoring runs will not be a problem. Truth is we have the time and we have the offense to back up these young pitchers why not give them a chance and see what they can give us??

So I leave this question to you my readers what do we do?? Youth or Free agents? We can’t have both not in the world of baseball today with the long term big money contracts that are being signed. You can finagle it to some degree but the emphases, has to be one way or the other. What is the right direction for the Yankees Youth or Free Agents??

Till next week

The Yankee Fan