The RAB Radio Show – December 10, 2008 – Episode 6
ByIt was an exciting day in Yankeeland, as the team acquired their #1 target of the off-season, one Casten Charles Sabathia. We talk about the deal, how the Yanks got to it, and of course the opt-out.
With CC on board, this leads us to talk about what’s next. We’ve heard multiple reports of the Yankees offering A.J. Burnett multiple years. We heard five years and $80 million, but now Ken Rosenthal has it at five years and $91 million. It’s tough to like this development. It appears, though, Rosenthal has retracted the report.
We also talk about Derek Lowe, Ben Sheets, and even Jon Garland. It all comes to a head with a tribute to Chien-Ming Wang.
Oh, and we have a poll:
You can check out all of our Winter Meeting 2008 posts here. You can also check out our Twitter feed, where we give some shorter, less meaningful updates.
Onto the podcast. It is available in a number of formats. You can download it here by right clicking on that link and selecting Save As. If you want to play it in your browser, just left click the link. You can also subscribe to the podcast feed, which will send it to you every Thursday. You can also subscribe in iTunes. Finally, we have the embedded audio player below.
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We appreciate any feedback. You can leave it in the comments or email either of us.
Poll is broked’d
Fixed. Oops.
WHy would anyone want Burnett??
HE is a hard throwing Pavano.. A bad guy who will get hurt and is a knucklehead.
WHy would any team give this joke 5 years??? NO way..
I can’t understand Pettitte, $10 mill. for 1 yr. is so insulting? IS that indentured servitude???
Only the first letter of a word to start a sentence gets capitalized.
MUltiple INterrobangs?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
I just want Sheets and Pettitte now. He’s the least crippling commitment if he doesn’t pan out since his years are gonna be shorter. Honestly, Lowe, Burnett, and Sheets all their downsides and risks, it’s just the fact that Sheets is gonna cost less years that makes me want him more than the other two. Also, he’s a solid pitcher when healthy, his K to BB ratio shows that he’s the best of the three.
This is what would be an ideal rotation:
CC 7 years with opt out
Sheets 2+1 years
Pettitte 1 year
Wang arbitration
Joba arbitration
This gives us an opportunity to reevaluate our young guys as we get more information on what we can expect out of them. If Sheets or Pettitte miss time, we have Hughes, Aceves, IPK ready to take some starts. If we sign Burnett and Lowe instead of Sheets and Pettitte, even if Hughes or IPK pan out and look ready in two years, we won’t have a spot for them in the rotation. With this plan, we would be able to decide based on how they progress.
Joe is the greatest blogger ever (see: Francesa-Lombardi rant).
That was AWESOME!!!
Strangely enough, I had zero alcohol in my system at that point (have plenty now).
At the tables tonight, while I was on my way to losing another $100, I turned around and saw the back of Tom Haudricourt’s head at the table next to me. I was tempted to turn around and yell: HOW COULD YOU PUT PUJOLS SEVENTH ON YOUR MVP BALLOT?!?
Omar was standing behind that table too. A guy at our table argued with me when I said Santana was the best pitcher in baseball. The names he gave me of guys he thought were better: Sheets, Peavy, Harden. I wanted to slap the tastes out his mouth.
Oh, and be on the lookout for a woman named Roselyn Washington. Sat next to her at blackjack. Funny, smart, talented (does stage plays and stand-up, but wants to be in broadcast). Even hotter than Heidi Watney.
where is this rant?
Just was at LOHUD petes sight and he has a headline with a coment that Yankees were concerned with Sheets medical records. Have you heard anything else about this topic. Could make sense to why were balls to the wall on Sheets.
Link?
My bad. I thought you meant the newspaper site, for some strange reason, not the blog.
You guys do an amazing job. Definitely the best non-beat Yankees blog out there. I don’t need to subscribe because I must go on the site 10-20 times a day. Get home safely guys, and it’s Carsten not Casten. But, who cares? We finally got our guy, and that’s all that matters.
Mike Cameron talks are back on:
http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/.....s-for.html
This is supposed to be an open thread, right? I dont wanna break any rules.
I still like Melky even though many don’t, but I’d hope that we’d shoot a tad higher than Mike Cameron for center field. But Cameron does seem like a character guy, which is a plus.
Mike, you are my hero. Dunn is a terrific player. I got yelled at by a yuppy rich kid on a discussion group on Facebook that he “strikes out too much, and is not even comparable to A-Rod at all!” OBP! OBP! OBP! OPS+! He actually called me out for being a Connecticuttian, which supposedly makes me an automatic believer in ESPN. Yeah, well I am also a Yankee fan…
If only we could enlighten the casual rich kid fan who thinks that AVG, HR and RBI are the only three stats available… it makes me so sad.
The divide is at like…Hartford. Anything west or south of that is generally Yankee territory, north and east of that is generally Sox territory.
Anyway, sign Dunn, Mr. Cashman. He’s younger than Manny, he’s cheaper than Manny, and he’s still in his prime years.
Garland had two really good years 05 and 06. Regardless of his whip and era he still had a good year last year because he could get deep enough into the game to a good bullpen. Don’t we have that? I would sign Pettitte if he would sign for the first half of a year. Why not give Garland 2 years? The outcome is typically good(process is sloppy but so what) and its the closest thing you can get to guaranteed innings. He puts the ball in play so he is going to get hit.. Only knock I can see against him is if our defense isn’t good enough to support him. Yeah he is not Wang, but he also isnt a 35 yr old we would have to get stuck with for 5 years and Burnett and Sheets well I mean cmon thats risky. Point is one of those three and Garland as insurance isnt half bad especially if they sign a bat.
Sign Manny he hates Boston and is just a scary hitter. Dunn doesnt bother me.
I want to sign Manny for two reasons.
1. He has an awesome bat
2. It would piss off Boston
3. You slot him behind A-Rod and no one can pitch around A-Rod anymore. And A-rod mashes pitches when they’re in the zone. Manny makes the batter in front of him look better (Ortiz).
4. We need offense, not just pitching. Our pitching was actually better than our offense last year at many times.
Yeah in that case ud bat a-rod 3rd
Damon
Jeter
A-rod
Manny
Posada (or matsui)
Matsui (or posada)
Cano
Nady
Swisher
The bottom 3 can be switched around if they get hot.
In-N-Out… pffft.
Five Guys.
Having eaten at both places multiple times, In N Out has the advantage in burger, Five Guys in fries.
Sadly, neither exists in NYC (unless there’s a Five Guys I’m missing).
There’s 7 Five Guys in the boroughs.
3 in Manhattan.
3 in Brooklyn.
1 in Queens.
I’ve only been to the Queens location. But every time I go, I gain 10lbs.
there is one on bleecker st. and one at 43rd ave and 55th st
Joe is fuckin cool.
Joe is clearly a badass. I nearly cut my lip off because I was listening to the cast while I was getting ready this morning.
Out there topic of the day, hopefully it doesn’t get totally swept under the rug: What would you guys think of a team (like the Royals) being run via Internet? If the fans chose who went where and which players were picked up and traded, etc.
Now obviously this is a very difficult task and would probably raise a lot of flags with Selig, but think about it…what could possibly be better for a business? A team like KC has very little following (or the Marlins), but if the fans were allowed to be involved it would probably stir the pot. We discuss what the Yanks should do and how it should happen, but what if our words had leverage? Would MLB work as “the next American Idol?” From a business point of view, it would be pretty lucrative in my opinion, but I highly doubt it could ever work.
I’d much rather ankiel than cameron. Sigh…
me too, but we aren’t getting Ankiel for Melky….Cameron is a perfect stopgap.
Precisely. Cameron only costs Melky (and money). Ankiel would cost more.
Cameron it is.
“The Yankees have found their center fielder for 2009, as they are set to send Melky Cabrera to Milwaukee for veteran outfielder Mike Cameron on Thursday, according to two major league sources.”
NY Daily news
ugh, not the most ideal solution but I guess that’s ok, but it seem to lower our chances of getting Teix even more.. boooo
If it is Cameron for Melky straight up then it is a great deal
i wouldnt say great deal, but its an upgrade to what the Yankees had.
From what i heard it’s straight up, but i still don’t know how creditable this is.
Melky and a young pitcher on the 40 man roster.
http://www.northjersey.com/spo.....a_out.html
Yanks set to acquire Cameron:
http://www.nydailynews.com/spo.....a_t-1.html
I love that, great stop gap for AJax, and Melky had run his course in NY.
This though probably takes us out of the Manny sweepstakes….unless you trade Damon/Nady…
I’d like to see the lineup you run out there with Cam. Who hits behind/in front of ARod?
I think Cano can eventually be a #3 or 5 guy, but not yet, who’s there now?
L-Damon-DH
R-Jeter-SS
L-Cano-2B
R-ARod-3B
R-Manny-LF
S-Posada-C
R-Nady-RF
S-Swisher-1B
R-Cameron-CF
Matsui is our pinch-hitting lefty bat off the bench (and occasional DH when Damon needs a day off or has an occasional day in LF)
Cameron batted .243, with 25 homers and 70 RBI, but he whiffed 142 times in 444 at-bats.
Nick Swisher, who struck out 135 times in 497 at-bats.
They better have good pitching because they might not be hitting much.
Cameron is only signed for one year.
for 2009 he is better than anything they currently have by a fairly wide margin. there will still be plenty of playing time for Gardner and it gives them time to see what they have in him for 2010 without rushing him.
in the meantime, Cameron will give you 60 XBH’s and play solid defense.
“On the condition of anonymity, the source said the Yankees would be willing to extend Cameron to a two-year contract through the 2010 season. ”
I guess until Jackson.
What do you think ?
ehh…seems unnecessary.
agree. It’s probably bull.
i wouldnt say probably bull. maybe they do want to buy themselves another year as a buffer, just in case.
certainly wouldnt just completely dismiss it…
but yeah, not an ideal depending on how much they are paying him to extend him the extra year, i guess.
Ramirez v. Dunn? How is that even a question? Manny is a first-ballot hall of famer who still produces out the wazoo. Dunn is a donkey who occasionally hits the ball 500 feet.
While I’ll agree that Manny is clearly the better option, Adam Dunn is more than just a “donkey who occasionally hits the ball 500 feet.” He’s a donkey who works the count, gets on base, cranks out XBH’s, and generally scores and drives in runs like nobody’s business.
Manny’s awesome. But Dunn is very good too.
From my calculations, with CC and Cam as yanks, they have 20 of the 25 man roster under contract, and it’s at about $181M, and that’s without Wang, Joba, and some others getting raises in arb….
With reports of adding another 17M a year with Burnett..if that happens…that puts it at 198, again without raises to a few guys.
Cashman can say he’s cutting salary all he wants, but it’s not happening.
Oh, and if that’s not enough, it’s being reported the Yanks may still go after Tex?
Not to mention the money owed to Giambi and Pavano for their buyouts…which goes against your salary.
Joba isn’t eligible for arb this year.
What’s his 09 salary? Cotts doesn’t have it. Wang will get an increase though probably, and he was at 4M last year.
Fuck Steve Lombardi