Newsday beat writer Kat O’Brien is headed out on vacay, from now through the Winter Meetings. We were honored when the crew at Newsday invited us to take over her blog for the next two weeks. You can find the first edition there today, where I talk about the Yankees playing third wheel in the Peavy negotiations. Be sure to drop by and say hi.

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Via MLBTR, the Boy Genius has reportedly traded Coco Crisp - perhaps the best available center fielder on the trade market - to the Royals for middle reliever Ramon Ramirez. Ramirez, as you may recall, was one of the two minor leaguers the Yanks shipped to Colorado for Shawn Chacon back in the day. He had a nice year in 2008, but really? It doesn’t seem like enough return.

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Kevin Russo is one of six finalists for this year’s Dernell Stenson Sportsmanship Award in the Arizona Fall League. The award was created to honor the late Dernell Stenson, an ex-Reds & Red Sox prospect who was murdered during a car jacking while playing in the AzFL back in 2003, and is given to the player who best exemplifies unselfishness, hard work and leadership. The winner of the league’s most prestigous award will be announced prior to tonight’s Peoria-Scottsdale game.

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Yup. Dustin Pedroia is your AL MVP. As much as we don’t like him, Pedroia is a pretty good choice for the award. He had a truly outstanding offensive season at a position not known for its offense. And he’s short and gritty too.

But what is shocking are the other MVP votes. Someone with an MVP vote believed Jason Bartlett (.286/.329/.361 in 494 PAs) to be the fifth most valuable player in the league; someone else ranked Raul Ibañez tenth; one person awarded his first place vote to Francisco Rodriguez who wasn’t even one of the top relievers. Somehow, Justin Morneau finished second. It’s been a bad year for awards voting that makes sense.

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In the a post summarizing this morning’s ridiculous Yankee developments, MLB Trade Rumors points us to an Andy Pettitte story. Apparently, Pettitte’s agent is still demanding $16 million a year for Pettitte’s services. I’m not too keen on bringing Pettitte back. While he is a valuable lefty, at 36 this year, he showed some major signs of slowing down and couldn’t get batters out during the second half of the year. I could see bringing Pettitte back for $10 million or maybe $12 million, but a $16 million offer just seems like a deal to which the Yanks wouldn’t — and perhaps shouldn’t — agree.

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It’s official; the Yankees and Cubs will open the new Yankee Stadium with a pair of exhibition games on April 3 and 4. While ticket information for what is sure to be the hottest ticket in town will be announced later this winter, the Friday game will go on at 7:05 and the Saturday contest will be an afternoon affair. This marks the first preseason exhibition series in the Bronx since 1993. For the fun of it, the average temp on April 3 of this year was a frigid 42 degrees.

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In a column this morning, Dan Granziano of NJ.com analyzed the Sabathia offer via an economic spectrum. While, as Brewers GM Doug Melvin said, the Yanks may very well be bidding against themselves, the offer makes perfect sense if you assume the viewpoint of the Yanks. To them, Sabathia is an investment worth at least $140 million over six years.

It’s true that the Yanks probably would have had the current top bid had they offered “only” $110 million over six years, but then the Brewers could have counter-offered. The Yankees didn’t want to take that chance, and the powers-that-be felt that an initial offer of $140 million over six years was a true expression of the value of CC Sabathia to the Yankees for the length of the contract. This is a good point to remember when other teams and their officials and fans start complaining about the Yanks’ riches. It’s all about the economy.

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Jim Leyritz sat down with two Daily News reporters to talk about his fatal DUI accident. In the first interview since December’s crash, Leyritz talked about the psychological and emotional impact the accident had on him. Surprisingly, when talking about the victim, Fredia Ann Veitch, Leyritz claimed that his car had been parked at a red light when she went through the light and hit him. If true, he’ll face a heavily reduced sentence after his trial, set to begin in January, wraps up. But the reality is that Leyritz was still behind the wheel with a BAC of nearly twice the legal limit.

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According to Anthony McCarran, CC Sabathia may be feeling the heat from the Players Association to accept the Yanks’ record-setting contract. While on the record, PA reps deny the charge, McCarran’s sources seem to suggest that the lefty’s contract should set the market for pitchers. I doubt the union would exert explicit pressure on CC, but I can see why the rest of the union would want him to sign the best deal out there.

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Forget the ESPN experts. Forget Baseball Prospectus. LeBron James, the NBA’s most famous Yankee fan, thinks that the Yanks are going to end up with CC Sabathia. I’m sold. Do we really need a better source?

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