4. Yankees sign Mark Teixeira for $180 million over eight years. The Red Sox power brokers had a bad meeting with Teixeira at his Dallas-area home, opening the door for Yankees' GM Brian Cashman, who implored his bosses to take the big plunge and beat Boston's $170 million bid by telling them it was an opportunity to "make the Red Sox look bad.'' It also made the Yankees look good.I can't say I'm surprised A.J. Burnett's signing was left off the list. Not only did he have a disappointing first year as a Yankee, but five years for someone who's had a history of injuries is not always the smartest thing to do. If he can pitch well in October and help the Yanks win a ring, most Yankees fans, including myself, won't really care though.
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10. Yankees sign CC Sabathia for $161 million. Some wondered whether the Yankees had to pay this much. That'll never be known, but they felt a threat from Sabathia's home-state Angels and simply had to have Sabathia, the ace they plainly needed.
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17. Yankees sign Andy Pettitte for $5.5 million plus incentives. Pettitte held out for long enough for the price to drop, but he made it up in incentives after delivering an excellent year in the Bronx.
18. Yankees acquire Nick Swisher for Wilson Betemit, Jhonny Nunez and Jeff Marquez and a pitching prospect. It seemed like an extravagance once the Yankees acquired Teixeira, as Swisher appeared destined to become an expensive and dissatisfied bench player. But when Xavier Nady went down with elbow trouble, Swisher moved to right field where he became a power threat and fan favorite.
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30. Yankees pick up Chad Gaudin off the waiver wire. For $100,000, Cashman got a pitcher that may supplant Joba Chamberlain as the team's No. 4 starter if the Yankees need one later in the playoffs. Twenty eight teams passed before Cashman pounced.
Having fives moves on the list shows just how good Cashman has done over the last year, and it's certainly paid off so far. Now they just have to perform when it counts.
Really , let me ask you this what was the biggest concern for Burnett coming into this first year with the yanks? his HEALTH, how many times did he land on the DL this season ? , how many times did he miss a start?
ReplyDeleteThats what i thought, give the guy alittle credit please. Going into this season , everyone flat out assumed he would be on the dl atleast once during the season.
As for his performance , it was largely up and down, streaky. But ive got news for u - Thus is the life for a number 2 or 3 starter in the american league east.
Its about the signing, meaning 5 yrs at $81MM. One injury free year doesn't make it a great move. And if you're satisfied with his season that's you problem.
ReplyDeleteboth of you have a point. but it is slightly unfair to say aj is not a good move because of the years left. but the other 2 guys have more years left . so we wont really know if they are good moves until their contracts expire.
ReplyDeleteI never said it wasn't a good move. All I'm saying is I understand why Heyman left it off of his list of the 30 best moves.
ReplyDeleteI shocked that all of those guys are on that list. This is the worst team. Posada makes this team a piece of bullcrap.
ReplyDeleteYOu are impressed that the yankees have 5 of the top 20 moves on this list? They spent something like $250 million in the offseason (not even counting guys like Swisher, who came in a trade), while the rest of MLB contracte. They had better be all over that kind of list. FWIW, I think the Swisher trade was the best baseball move, in that they got a heck of a player making relatively little money. Anyone could throw cash at CC/Tex/Burnett, etc. How can anyone even want credit for those "moves?" They just outbid everyone else. It's not like others didn't think Sabathia and Tex were good players? At least Swisher had some risk to it.
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