Williams aged, Brosius, O’Neil, Tino burned bright, aged and quit. Clemens and Pettit left the wera on them and the cost suspect – until panic reigned to bring them back. Johnson, Cone, Wells, Brown were used up. See the Packers, Bears, Braves, Celtics, Lakers as examoles in ther sports where teams aged simultaneously and the young parts and spare parts were not numerous enough to maintain the edge.

The Yankees on offense and defense are less capable posiiton to position than they were in that awful 4 game choke to the “Bloody Sock”. Torre’s management failures notwithstanding they still lost.

Statistically comparing this 2009 on paper to any past year is less than helpful – as an inury, a sub par year, a stellar year by a Yankee and by the opposition can have season altering impact. part of the excitement of the game — but having a team that renews itself is critical to sustained excellence. Effectively enewing 6 posiitons at one time is improbably. The Yankees did this once over a span of 4 years – with Williams, Mo, Pettit, Jeter, Posada when he finaly replaced Giradi – only 3 were posiiton players. There is no such set at posiiton in the minors

I fully expect Matsui, Posada, Cano, Gardner to be better than last year. And wihtout an injury to a Wang, Sbbathia, or Burnett the team will be much better. And if they get a full productive season out of Sabbathia, Burnett, Wang, and Joba the short series rotation appears to be dominant.

None of that hope or expectaion solves the aging problem. I argued last year that getting Santana (I still believe at the price of IPK, Melky, plus 2) was critical to getting the most out of the aging Offense while it was still potent, AND TO PROTECT Hughes from being pushed/too much expectation.

We lost a year we might have lost anyway; saved the kids, kept a lid on payroll. But if that is meaningful it must be because it bolstered the long range plan for continuous solid attempts at WS championships. Sabbbathia and Burnett are pieces – the stocked Minor League pitching is a piece. Replacing the posiiton players is a necessity. It likley can’t be done at one time. The failure to take Beltran and mange the cots latter led to Johnny Damon – i actualy love him as a Ynakee – I even liked him as a Red Sox. Beltran was a solution and the superior player. Johnny was a stopgap made necessary by the Williams age-Beltran failure. Maybe Cashman has a blind spot. He had to be pushed to make the offer for ARod.

Replacing Jeter, Posada, Nady, Matsui, Damon are near term (2009-2011)requirements — Jeter may be one more FB on the hand to being seriously hurt if not rendered as ineffective as he was for long stretches last year. Posada and Matsui we know the story. The game can’t be played without knees and shoulders. 2009 could be a miracle year – if those two seem to reaquire youth, folks wil flock to the ne stadium just to drink the water.

Replacing the position players should not be left to be done at one time. Just as Beltran would have fixed CF for 8 years or more (he was a free agent), Texieria will fix 1B for 8 years or more. He won’t be available next year —
who wil be the Damon panic solution after a year fo Bubba like production at 1B.

The everyday player youth movment must begin in 2009 with one position a year filled – C, 1B, SS, CF, RF, LF – the guys in the Yankees minor leagues do not fit this pattern.

Cano is one of those guys you need to trade. He is by baseball standards too old to learn the strike zone and to “have patience” – it is in your narture, your confidence to be able to be patient – trying to BE patient makes you slow and then twitchy — try it yourself even with a golf ball
- to keep him the Yankes have to be satisfied with a sub.400 OBP and potential .300 plus BA — the only value in those numbers alone is if the hits are more prodcutive.
He has had at fairly brilliant at bats climbing out of 0-2 counts – unquestionable talent dazzles – it is not always productive. Still he is above average 2B – so a trade has to bring above average something to fill a need
- such a trade might be best for a Catcher – this is the hardest offense defense productive position to field. I don’t think you have to St Joe to work around an average 2B.

Can the Yankees wait for Posada to fail or to be hurt again?

That “trade” makes better sense if you first fill 1B with Tex.

If the Yankees sign Texiera, it would solve two problems. Not only does our defense at 1B go up, but that would allow Swisher to go to rightfield, where he’s quite good. It’s his strongest position.

That said, what the Yankees did differently in ’08 had less to do with the names of the relievers as it did with how they were used and how the pen was constructed. The Yankees brought in more arms, and then extended their MLB bullpen down to AAA providing a greater depth and variety. The ones who performed stayed, the ones who didn’t were jettisoned.

Girardi, unlike Torre, also showed no preference toward any one set-up man to get to Mariano. This eliminated arm burn out. I expect them to continue this trend in ’09, and they should have an even greater selection of quality arms to put in the pen, including a couple who came up later in the year who have great promise to help over the course of a full year — Dave Robertson and Phil Coke.

There’s also Melancon, Aceves, Dunn, Claggett, Jackson and health permitting guys like Sanchez and Cox. There’s also the return of Albaladejo, who wasn’t around long enough before he was injured. There’s others, too. It doesn’t matter if Bruney falters, or Ramirez, etc. The Yankees will go to the best arms. That’s a very different approach from the Torre days, who would had no intention of allowing a Veres or a Ramirez to pitch in important situations.

The jury is still out on Girardi overall, but the one area he gets a total A+ from me is on the bullpen.

Go yankees!!

2. The Dallas Cowboys are only bested by the Giants, Panthers and Buccaneers in the NFC. The Falcons and all the ensuing teams you mentioned are not better than the Cowboys.

3. Let’s see how the Mets’ offense fairs when Carlos Delgado doesn’t show up until Independence Day, their left-field situation is a platoon of David Murphy and Fernando Tatis, and Ryan Church in right field who hit a paltry .219/.305/.307 in the second half after suffering a serious, mishandled concussion.