Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Yankees Go For Hat Trick, Shall They Go For Grandslam?

So the Yankees finished up signing Mark Teixeira to an 8 year $180 million contract, which improves the Yankees greatly, but now that the Yankees have completed the free agent hat trick of Sabathia, Burnett and Teixeira, it only makes sense to go for it. Go for what exactly? Manny Ramirez. Yes, I've said it. The Yankees should sign Manny Ramirez. Why? Because we've already spent like crazy and there is no better bat out there than Manny's. The Mark Teixeira signing betters the Yankees, and as a number 3 hitter he certainly looks to replace Abreu well. However, he will not protect A-Rod, and where we lost Jason Giambi, the Yankees could use another bat in the 5 spot. We would likely have to move a couple players to make this work, and we could probably get something decent for Matsui and Nady, which would free up right field and the DH role for the Yankees. Freeing that up allows Swisher a spot in right and Manny the DH role to switch off with Damon in left. Just think of this lineup:

Johnny Damon
Derek Jeter
Mark Teixeira
Alex Rodriguez
Manny Ramirez
Jorge Posada
Robinson Cano
Nick Swisher
Cabrera or Gardner

This lineup, combined with the rotation Cashman has built, would kill any team out there. If the Yankees complete the grandslam, I think we could easily be seeing the most amazing team of our time. However it could backfire. All those egos could conflict, and the clubhouse could explode, but then again, they could all love each other and play hard for one another while Girardi buys them pizza after every win. Maybe Girardi should make them do a ropes course in spring training so they build unity and trust in one another. They also still need to add Pettitte to the rotation. Pettitte should take that $10 million deal. The team is looking pretty crazy, and any player would be nuts to miss the opportunity to join.

In an unrelated note, I read this cool post over at Zell's Pinstripe Blog about an interaction the author had with Phil Hughes. Its worth taking a look.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Go go Godzilla!

He should be healthy this year, and when he was, he'd been called the best clutch hitter in Baseball.
Let 'em pich around ARod to get to him.
He'll burn 'em like a paper lantern knocked over in a kamikaze.

Joe

Anonymous said...

omg... some yankee fans are afraid to admit it, but i am not.. Hell to the yea they should get manny... a nice wel rounded 3 year deal wouldnt seem entierly bad. Although jeter reached a milestone this season, if i saw him hit into a doubel play one more time i was about to have an enurisum. plus you cant bank on guys like a-rod and cano to have comeback years. mannys bat is notorious, and if they had him they would be set. Manny wants to be there (so we've heard) plus it would just put the iceing on top of the "f off boston" cake.with manny we will almost certianly clinch a playoff spot...lets just say, I wont be complete unhappy if manny came to NY...although that would just be more ammo to the salary cap fire...arrgh.

Brian said...

I've got to agree with the other comment that Matsui is a good player to keep in the lineup. He's a good contact hitter who can come through in the clutch as well as most players in the game.

Also, I don't get why you want Swisher in the lineup. Swisher hit .219 last year and has never had a .300 season in his major league career.

Fernando Alejandro said...

Matsui is a great player, and I've always liked him as a Yankee, but there's a few things to consider. He just had his second knee surgery in as many seasons, and we're not talking about the same knee. He's had both knees under the knife. He's projected to be a DH for next season, and let's be honest, can we really expect him to be healthy all season? Next season is his last under contract so there will be pressure to perform, and he may have an amazing season for that reason, but I doubt the Yankees sign him past 2009. So for one more year of a DH with dual knee surgery, I think I'd rather have Manny. Especially since Manny's bat is that much more menacing than Matsui's. If the Yankees dump Matsui's $13 million it would certainly help the "sign Manny" cause.

Anonymous said...

Causes make nice pets.

Joe

Anonymous said...

Main thing is, if the team needs a pinch hitter in a tight game, Matsui is going to Kirk Gibson his way up to the plate, not sit back in the dugout with his arms and legs crossed and whine "Hey man, it's my day off!"
And that was when things were "going well" between him and the Sox, not last year.

Now, he's saying "Hell. I played my ass off for almost half a season for LA and still nobody wants to pay me. Wherever I sign I'll take the money but the hell with that hustling crap."

Joe

Raven King said...

We can have Jeet batting first and there you go, no more double plays!