I think RAB Radio Show sounds a lot better than River Ave. Blues Podcast, don’t you? Cool, because that’s what we’re going with. Mike and I have plenty to talk about this week, including the Swisher deal, which was announced shortly after last week’s show. Then we have CC, of course, the Rule 5 draft, some Q&A, and a farewell to Moose.

Regarding Swisher and CC, there isn’t much left that hasn’t been said. I know a few people are pissed off that this decreases the chances that the Yankees go after both CC and Teixeira, but I don’t see it that way. Swisher gives them insurance. He’s a flexible player, and the Yankees can continue as planned with free agency without getting roped into a huge bidding war for Tex.

The biggest item for the day is the Rule 5 draft. Not the event itself — that will come on the last day of the Winter Meetings. Today, however, is the last day to make adjustments to your 40-man roster to protect eligible players. The Yanks don’t have many position players worth protecting. Possibly Ramiro Pena, but even he’s no lock. Plenty of pitchers, though: Chris Garcia, Alan Horne, J.B. Cox, Zach Kroenke, Mike Dunn, Anthony Claggett, Stephen Jackson. A lesser team might snag one of those guys, figuring it can’t hurt to sock them away in the bullpen. The Yanks have four spots, plus they could DFA a few guys. Who do they keep?

We had some neat questions in our Q&A. We’d really like to beef up this portion, possibly with real call-ins. Any suggestions?

Finally, we bid farewell to Mike Mussina. It’s been great having Mike on our team for the past eight years. May his quest for the HOF move quicker than his quest for 20 wins — or worse, his quest for a World Series or Cy Young.

The podcast 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.

Popularity: 29% [?]

Okay, we’ve tried this a couple of times before, to no avail. This time, though, we’re super cereal. Mike and I team up this week to talk about the upcoming days, when free agents will be eligible to sign with everyone.

We go over the basics. Pitching, as in CC Sabathia and the rumored 6 year, $150 million offer the Yanks will make. That could have been a concoction of Joel Sherman’s imagination, but the figure makes sense. We talk about CC’s uniqueness, and about the prospect of adding a seventh guaranteed year to the deal. Then it’s about the also-rans: Derek Lowe, A.J. Burnett, Ben Sheets. We discuss the pros and cons of this, plus talk about the conditions under which we would consider Oliver Perez. As a final note on the pitching front, we talk about the popular trade ideas, including why I’m uncomfortable with giving up Phil Hughes for Jake Peavy, and an available starter I wouldn’t mind getting, but will probably get me pelted with rotten veggies.

Then it’s onto position players. We talk about the Jermaine Dye idea Jamal wrote about last night, and how it’s like the Mike Cameron deal. Hey, we’re not saying we should go out and get all these one-year, aging players. We’re just saying that the fit into the strategy. You can’t get younger overnight, so you might as well bring in vets with short commitments.

Of course, we debate the merits of Mark Teixeira, including the prospect of him getting an eight-year deal from some team. Would you go that long for a guy who will be 29 in 2009? Then it’s onto the trade guys, where we bring Nick Swisher back into the conversation. Would they swap him for Damon and a lower level pitcher? Would we throw in IPK? Would the White Sox even be interested in that?

Just so it’s not neglected, we hit on the bench to close things out. No one has yet been able to answer Mike’s challenge: name three utility infielders better than Betemit. He’s a homer threat every time he steps up, which is a positive for a bench guy. We also talk about how the rest of the bench could round out, including the Yanks attempting a little experiment with Justin Christian.

The podcast 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 (we’re really shooting for this). 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.

Popularity: 38% [?]

I’m back again after a short hiatus to bring you the second RAB Trade Deadline Podcast. This time around, we talk about the CC Sabathia situation (so much easier to type without the periods), and what it means to the starting pitching market.

Should the Yanks go after a starter? Probably. But after running down the names of possibly available pitchers, the pickings don’t look to fruitful. I do stumble across one interesting, albeit risky, name, and attempt to convince everyone that Joe Blanton would be a terrible idea. Are there any names I missed which might be interesting?

Finally, it’s onto the outfield situation, which might solve itself once Johnny Damon returns to the lineup, and will be helped if Hideki Matsui can return later this month. Barry Bonds’s name is mentioned a few times here.

If you want to download the podcast, you can right click here and hit “Save As.” Left clicking on it will open up an audio player in your browser. For those of you who want the streaming version, the audio is below:

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Popularity: 11% [?]

Update: After listening to the mixdown through the internal audio player, I changed the levels and uploaded a new version. So if you caught a broken link, it’s back up and running now.

We’re going to try something a bit different over the next few weeks, leading up to the July 31 trading deadline. It’ll be a weekly podcast going over the trade environment at the time. We’ll talk about needs, wants, rumors, and other potential maneuvers.

This week, it’s me going solo, though I’ll be joined by Mike and Ben as time permits. Also, if you’d like to “call in,” so to speak, just hit me with an email and we’ll try to work something out.

Today I talk about — what else — starting pitching, Cleveland’s situation in evaluating a return for C.C. Sabathia, bullpen help, and a defensive first baseman.

If you want to download the podcast, you can right click here and hit “Save As.” Otherwise, it will launch the podcast in a new screen. Otherwise, you can just use the audio player below.

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Popularity: 10% [?]