Halfway point

[milky_way]

The offseason is a little more than half over...

Right now our roster looks as such-

Lineup
1- Damon CF
2- Jeter SS
3- A-Rod 3B
4- Giambi 1B/DH
5- Sheffield RF/DH
6- Matsui LF
7- Cano 2B
8- Posada C
9- Bernie DH

Bench
10- Crosby OF
11- Cairo IF
12- Stinnett C

Pitchers
13- RJ -starter
14- Mussina -starter
15- Pavano -starter
16- Chacon -starter
17- Wang -starter
18- Small -longman
19- Wright -middle relief? longman?
20- Sturtze -middle relief
21- Villone -middle relief
22- Myers -LOOGY
23- Farnsworth -set up
24- Dotel -set up
25- Rivera -closer

Possibly making the cut?-

26- Phillips -1B
27- Escalona -IF

...

We look pretty damn good, but our bench and DH slot could use massive improvement.

We could sit pretty. Or we could trade either Pavano or Wright, thereby freeing up roster space and allowing us to-
- Bump Phillips onto the roster, and/or
- Get a better DH (Erubio Durazo? J.T. Snow?), and/or
- Drop Crosby for a better backup OF (Jason Michaels?).

The best possible situation would be to trade Pavano or Wright for a Michaels-like OF, allowing us to (1) have Sheff DH semi-regularly, (2) drop Crosby, (3) bump Phillips. Killing like 10 birds with one stone.

Thoughts?

[Royce]

Drop Crosby? Why?? He's not bad.

I think we should get Melky Cabrera up here to play some DH ;)


Chacon is going to be the man this year. Hopefully RJ and Pavano will get their acts together, and Moose is usually decent at worst.

Our lineup is fine, nothing to change, just a couple of backup roles, but I think Bubba is a solid backup CF who can play the corner outfield positions aswell.

[Baseball Guru]

You think Giambi #4 of Sheffield?

btw, that is a sick lineup!

Lots of question marks though on the starters... Who will set-up till Dotel is ready? Farnsy I assume?

[Royce]

Yeah, I'd have Sheffield batting cleanup.

[milky_way]

The only thing about moving Sheff to the cleanup slot is that we'd have 3 righties, and then 3 lefties in a row :notme:.

I would drop Crosby if we could get a better 4th OFer. Crosby's not bad for a backup, but if we wanted to let Sheff DH a significant number of games, we'd need someone who'd essentially be a platoon player to spell him in the field. Crosby could do it, but he wouldn't do it very well.

Yes, Farnsy will be setting up until Dotel is ready. HAHA that'll be interesting :D

My picks to click are Cano and A-Rod vs. Boston. I liked how Cano's pitches/AB was rising in the last few months of the season, and I think the presence of Johnny Damon will allow A-Rod to relax more and thereby kick ASS more when we play Boston :D. RJ will bounce back and have a great year, but Chacon will be the fan favorite amongst starters. Just a hunch :D.

I can't wait!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Eva]

milky, like they need a DH. :laff:

The rest of that line-up is stacked, but they could improve the bench and DH, if they desired since there is free agent 1B and DH still on the market, but I suspect the Yankees are just going to go with Phillips backing up Giambi at 1B. Crosby can back-up the regular outfield, with Bernie playing very limited games in CF.

Randy Johnson get his action together? I hope you mean he's back to being dominate, because he was damn good after the All-Star break last year and in the end finished with very solid numbers. Like I have said in the past, people just like to focus on all the bad Randy Johnson did last year in starts instead of focus on the good. He came it and roasted the Red Sox four times last season, which was the difference in the division.

Johnson had a good season. I never expected him to be dominate. I don't expect him to be dominate this year either. He'll have another good season with 15 plus wins, which in the end, is the only stat that matter. I never expect him to return to AL at his age and be the dominating Randy Johnson of old. The dude is 40 plus years old.

[milky_way]

Solid numbers yes, but Randy Johnson numbers? No.

He had a nice August and September, but he hasn't had an ERA+ lower than 135 since 1992 (that's ignoring his 18-game 2003). His 2005 ERA+ was 117.

That's still good, but not Ace good, and certainly not Randy Johnson good. That's like an Andy Pettitte year. He's getting up there in age, but that was a huge drop in ERA+. He was averaging 166.4 from 2000-2004.

Hopefully 2005 was just an off-year.

[Eva]

I don't why everybody expected him to be Randy Johnson of old. Look at his age and his move from NL back to AL. I was never expecting his numbers to be dominate like they were in NL due to his age and also moving to AL. I don't really expect him to be dominate, but with the offense the way it is, he doesn't have to be dominate.

He was not great at all last season, but with that type of offense behide you. If you keep the opposing team to 4 or even 5 runs, then there's probably a good chance the Yankee offense will back him up. That is why Mussina's win and lose total has not been so bad in recent years. I don't think 2005 was an off-year, it's the Randy Johnson the Yankees got, but hey, if he put 18-20 wins on the team's win total, then I really could careless what his ERA is.

He has to be dominate in post-season. For the season, he came get by with a season he had last year and still get 18-20 wins, which is good enough and I don't really expect the dominating Randy Johnson any longer. He need to put it together and take it up another level during the post-season like Schilling and many other pitchers have in post-season starts.

Of course, this is my speculation on Randy Johnson being dominate or not.

[milky_way]

True, he doesn't have to dominate to get wins anymore. But if the Yanks wanted to settle for a 4.50 ERA league-average man, they probably would have kept Vazquez.

I hope RJ has a better 2006. Our rotation barely scraped by in 2005, and it wouldn't have if not for Small and Chacon appearing out of nowhere. I hope his sudden and significant drop is more of an adjusting-to-New York thing and not a sign of real decline. If A-Rod and Clemens are the mold, then RJ will have a bounce back 2006.

[Baseball Guru]

True, he doesn't have to dominate to get wins anymore. But if the Yanks wanted to settle for a 4.50 ERA league-average man, they probably would have kept Vazquez.
.

I would definitely agree with that..

Now while I agree you are not going to get the Randy Johnson of old, you are still getting a pretty good pitcher that I would say most fans would want on their team..

Lets be real here, you are probably not going to get the Randy Johnson that has an era in the 2's and strike outs 300+ batters but what you got last year was still a pretty darn effective pitcher..
He won 17 games (more of a team stat), struck out 211 batters (2nd in the AL), 1.13 WHIP (2nd in the AL), 4 complete games (2nd in the AL), and was durable, pitching 225 innings (5th in the AL)

Are those Randy Johnson type #'s? No, but they are still pretty good #'s especially from a 41 year old pitcher.. I'm sure most teams would take #'s like that in a heartbeat!

If he can pitch like this for a couple of more years, with that offense behind him, he has a legit shot at getting to 300 wins... He needs to get 18-19 wins for the next 2 years.... Personally I hope he gets it....