Now I know that there are not as many holes to fill as last year, But, if we learned anything with the WS, they do not have enough pitching.
Okay, let's exam the rotation . CC, AJ , Pettitte , Vasquez as your front 4. Now who is the #5, Chamberlain or Hughes.? My guess it is Chamberlain since he already has a year under his belt as a starter.
Bruney and Coke are gone . Two holes to fill. They traded Dunn, so there goes a 2th lefty from within.You need 2 lefties in the pen . So where is he coming from . Who replaces Bruney? Hughes ? Is Mariano coming back in 2011or do we now have to start to groom a new closer for 2011?
Left field and Right field are our two weakness. How Cashman and the Steinbrenner think they can go with Swisher again full time in right and Gardner in left is beyond stupid. That makes our outfields one of the weakest in basebal.
They don't want to spend money because they are looking to next year's FA class , where they will make a run at Carl Crawford , Cliff Lee or Brandon Webb and Mauer ( if he makes it to FA)
Payoll next year will not be a problem when it comes to the 2010 FA class,. You will have 12 million off the books for Pettitte and I think 2010 is his last year, so Lee would be a perfect fit to replace him in 2011. Jeter's 21 million comes off the books and Mariano's 15 million is off the books.Vasquez 's 11.5 is off the books. Nick Johnson's 5.5 million is off the books With 54 million 650 thousand off the books , it is easy to see why they want to "buy low " for left field this coming season , but this is a mistake. .
Obviously , part to that money coming off the booksafter the 2010 season , is going to go to Jeter and Rivera ( if Mariano wants to come back in 2011). My guess is that if Mariano comes back in 2011 , he will agree to a 1 year deal like Andy has been doing, But, Cashman is going to want him to take a pay cut and he should . As much as I love Mo, no closer should be making 15 million and get paid like most starters. I would think a fair deal would be 10 million for 2011. With Jeter, he is going to do the same ,he is going to ask him to take a pay cut . Probably the offer will be 17 million for 3 years with an option for 2014, 2015. That leaves rougly 28 million for the 2011 Budget ( not including what will be cut after this off season budget)
It is clear that Hal wants to payroll down from 201 million to at least 190 million this off season. . My guess Cashman only has about 7-9 million left to adress left field and any other holes.
I would think the best way to address the outfield and keep the payroll down, would be to make trades. As I have said before David De Jesus is a nice left fielder and he is still young and best thing is that he hits well over .300 with RISP on a bad team .He also is a natural center fielder , so he could spell Grandersen if he continues to struggle with lefties . And when next off season comes , he can move to right to make way for Crawford in 2011.
Mauer ? Even if he makes it to FA, I don't see the Yankees making a hard sell for him , unless it is drive the price for the Red Sox. They will need a catcher . They don't have the catching depth we, have in the minors. I am thinking that Romine is the heir to Posada with Cervelli as the back up. Montero willl be switched to another postion , maybe 3rd , with A Rod as a full time DH? Who knows, time will tell.
