Adding pitching depth is never a bad thing, but in the end I'm glad they stayed away Penny. Like John Smoltz, he couldn't handle the AL East, and the last thing the Yankees need is a guy who is afraid of his home ballpark.The Yankees talked with the Brewers about trading for center fielder Mike Cameron before the Aug. 31 deadline for setting postseason rosters, but the teams did not get close to a deal, major-league sources say.Cameron has long been a Yankees' favorite, but the club did not want to take on the rest of his $10 million salary, which would have amounted to more than $1.5 million.The Yankees also did not view Cameron, a right-handed hitter, as a dramatic upgrade over Melky Cabrera, a switch-hitter who has shown significant improvement against left-handed pitching this season.
Cameron, 36, has an .814 on-base plus slugging percentage overall, an .871 OPS against left-handers. Cabrera, 25, has a .755 mark overall and a .795 mark against lefties. The Yankees were reluctant to reduce his playing time.
Penny: No thanks, YanksThe Yankees also had serious interest in right-hander Brad Penny, and recruited him with calls from manager Joe Girardi, outfielder Johnny Damon and Penny's former teammate in Florida, right-hander A.J. Burnett.
But Penny, who is headed toward free agency, preferred the National League and San Francisco's spacious AT&T Park over the new Yankee Stadium.
He made his Giants debut in Philadelphia on Wednesday night, pitching eight scoreless innings against the top-scoring team in the NL. However, he struck out only two, indicating that he was lucky as well as good.
Regarding Cameron, since his hot start back in April, he's hitting .243/.343/.417 over his last 103 games. Over that same amount of time Melky is hitting .269/.326/.407. For the amount of money Cameron makes it's not worth it for that little of an upgrade offensively. On the defensive side Cameron has been much better than Melky this year, but still, like the Yankees I don't feel it would have been a "dramatic upgrade" either.
Would either of these deals made the Yankees that much better?
I don't think so. Plus, they've done pretty damn well with what they have right now.
1 Comments:
Mike Cameron thing is a joke. The yanks have done very well this season with Melky/Gardner in center. Why would Cashman show any interest to an aging player is beyond me.
Cameron strikes out way too much. Both Gardner and Melky are contact hitters those are the type of hitters you want hitting 8th or 9th in your lineup.
The yanks have enough homerun/power type hitters in the lineup you need guys who make contact and have speed and can sacrifice bunt and move over runners to make your lineup complete.
Maybe I am the only one but I would love to see them both play regularly next year with Damon as the DH. That would really improve your outfield defense too.
And Penny is smart he knows he cant handle the AL east. He needs to pitch in the junior league.
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