Should Cashman Have Gotten Halloday? Is it true that Cliff Lee or Jarod Washburn are not in pinstripes?
Guess time will tell if Cashman will still have a job next year….but it was time for the Yankees to try something different and in the perfect position to take a back seat.
The Yankees were the quietest team as the trade line past today. This is a new and very un-Yankee like type behavior. Not being the team hogging all the front-page headlines or main story on Sports Center is definitely a change.
The Yankees made a nice pick-up by adding Cincinnati Reds utility Jerry Hairston Jr. who has been in the majors for a decade. An experienced player who can be put anywhere, except behind the plate.
Cashman made a minor addition in Hairston that will be useful to the team but his smartest move was not trading Joba or Hughes. Roy Holladay is the most talented pitcher in baseball and the temptations must have been tough for the Yankees to fight off by not making the biggest storm. Hughes and Chamberlin are just looking to good to trade for another all-star, big name player.
For the Yankees it is a whole different set of possibilities that have to be taken into account that other teams do not have to deal with. While a talented all-star player might be the jolt for most clubs to become better as a team, this is not the same for the Yankees. The Bronx Bombers have the all-stars and the talent that comes along with the overwhelming hype of playing in NYC; the pressure to make the World Series annually and the most loyal fans who show up no matter what.
Cashman did plenty of spending in the off-season but it paid off. The Yankees don’t need the hype of bringing a Holliday to New York. This is because how talented and famous Roy Holliday is and it is just an example of the bigger picture of the situation.
Should Cashman gone and grabbed Cliff Lee, Jake Peavy or Jacob Washburn? Should we have gotten in the way of the Red Sox a little more so our dominant rivals don’t get better again? I would answer both questions with a NO.
Here are the most noteworthy swaps (no specific order):
Cliff Lee was the best trade made overall. The Philadelphia Phillies are the World Series champs and continue to be the winners by adding Lee to their starting pitching staff. The Phillies needed a pitcher and if anyone thought that Pedro Martinez was going to be their answer must be mindless. Fact is that this does guarantee the National League is the Phillies to have but the post season is a different story. For now, Lee gives Philadelphia the best tools for an attainable chance to repeat.
The decision by the Detroit Tigers was solid and just shy with the Phillies getting Lee. Losing the bat of Matt Holliday to St. Louis will hurt but the addition of Jarrod Washburn makes the Tigers rotation one of the toughest in baseball. Washburn is a solid, reliable pitcher who the Mariners must have hated to part with. I think this trade will be more significant than the Red Sox and the Tigers are a shoe-inn in the AL Central.
Oh how much do I hate the fact the Red Sox got better? Very much. Good job done by Theo Epstein for not just the trades but in getting the Ortiz headlines pushed aside, for now at least. Boston was falling apart, while the Yankees were as hot as ever and these rivals never let that happen for very long. Boston added the switch hitting bat of Victor Martinez who plays 1B as well as catcher in the field. This allows Varitek to get more rest from behind the plate and Youkilis can go to third more often. Theo ‘the whiz’ Epstein got this exceedingly, very good player for a bargain price.
Minnesota Twins upgraded their middle infield by getting Orlando Cabera from the Oakland A’s. I think this addition could get the team more excited because the front-office finally made a move which might spark some of the players up, like Punto and Castilla who have toiled at the plate. The Tigers look like the team to beat with that ridiculous rotation but don’t count out the Twins just yet.
The White Sox have wanted Jake Peavy for a long time now and finally nailed him. Peavy is a first-rate addition if he is not on the DL that is. He claims that by end of August he should be back on the mound but until it happens not much speculation about the future of that relationship.
St. Louis got Matt Holliday from Detroit helps their struggling offense and in the NL Central it reinforces them as a huge contender.
Seattle Mariners did establish themselves with some under the radar moves that will help them in the years to come. Trading Washburn in the hopes of getting him back for next year for the two young arms of Luke French and Mauricio Robles. Mariners also nailing down a shortstop for five years in Jack Wilson will make more of an impact then realized. Ian Snell from the Pirates will join the rotation and his once promising arm could resurge again.
There were other trades of course. In my humble opinion these are the ones that we will see the biggest differences on.
First time, in a long time the Yankees are not on this list. Changes are hard even from negative patterns or just consistently not getting the outcome at hand. As a fan, to be the Yankees of today that are neither the spectacles, nor the top story is refreshingly different.
For sure, something that this team didn’t need, nor wanted.
