Who Will Our Catcher Be in 2011?

It seems predetermined that Posada's days as our regular catcher are over. Cervelli will not be trusted to replace him in the line-up and thus there is a question of who our new starting catcher will be. It is being widely reported that many in the Yankees organization believe Montero is ready. The only thing about that is, he's not. He's played in, if I'm not mistaken, exactly zero major league games and is still learning to catch. The Yankees are really going to trust their entire pitching staff to him? Romine is considered a better catching prospect but has yet to graduate to AAA. A name I've been seeing a lot recently is Toronto catcher John Buck. Buck had a "breakout" season in 2010, which means he played better than the year before. Buck could be the guy if he's willing to accept a 1-2 year deal. But he broke out, so he may be looking for more job security. The other option is Posada himself, but that's not happening. Bronny Cash will have to find someone to play in place of Posada, and Buck may be the best option available. That said, this speculation strikes me as really sudden. What might Bronny have up his sleeve? Only time will tell.

What About My Dream?

In this time of quiet news in the baseball world it was announced that former Yankee pitcher Dan Giese has retired. This announcement would seem to suggest that he will not be available as a free agent this offseason. He says that all he wanted to do was face one batter in the big leagues, but he was able to do more than that. He pitched for the Yankees in 2008 and pitched for Oakland in 2009 before he needed the good Ole' Tom's surgery. I always liked him as a releiver, but he was with the Yankees in the wrong year. For next year, we're likely going to have to look at some releif options, and the truth is, unless its a closer, we need to stop giving releivers multi-year contracts. Consider these multi-year gems Cashman signed:

Damaso Marte - 3 years. $12 million.
Kyle Farnsworth - 3 years. $17 million.

Kerry Wood is an intriguing option, but for what he could get from other teams, I would leave him alone.

Sign an Outfielder or Let it Ride?

One of the looming questions this off season is that of free agents Jayson Werth and Carl Crawford. The Yankees managed fairly well with outfielders Nick Swisher, Curtis Granderson, and Brett Gardner, but the idea of having an elite player at every position has always appealed to the Yankees, and both Crawford and Werth could fill that role. I for one have enjoyed having Brett Gardner, who is cheap, productive, and fast. But the idea of signing an outfielder could appeal to some. So what do you think? Stick with Gardner or sign either Crawford or Werth?

Exclusivity Window and WTF Moment

I hate the exclusivity window. I know it's only five days this year, but I still hate it. I don't want to wait four more days before we can start making ridiculous contract offers to players who will be entirely too old for the last few years of their contracts. Besides, there's already a built in exclusivity window in Major League Baseball. It's called the Regular Season. You want to keep a player real bad? Sign him to an extension during the Regular Season. Not sure you want to risk him getting hurt or diminishing in skills? Fair enough, sign him to an extension in September. Late September. Otherwise, go #@$% yourself.

Now, I just came across this bit of news at MLBtraderumors.com. The White Sox have resigned Omar Vizquel, who will turn 44 next April, to a one year deal. How is this guy still playing? I have a feeling I'm going to be in a hospital one day awaiting a knee replacement or in need of hip surgery or suffering from osteoporosis and be reading about Vizquel's latest multi-year extension. The crazy thing isn't that he's still playing at age 44. The crazy thing is that he's still playing pretty well. The guy hit .276 last year. Derek Jeter couldn't manage to hit .271, but Vizquel, now in need of regular invasive prostate exams, hit .276. WTF?!

Cliff Lee Watch

The Rangers are busy scrambling to put together an offer Cliff Lee can't refuse. In five days Lee will be a free agent, so they have no time to waste. Problem is, the Rangers don't have "can't refuse" money. They have Rangers money, which is to say, they have money they owe A-Rod. At this point, the Rangers are better off using any extra money that have to signing Hamilton and Cruz to extensions (I don't know anything about what sorts of contracts those guys have, so that suggestion might not make any sense).

In New York, or Tampa, Cashman should be getting a budget of just how much he has to spend on Jeter, Rivera, Cliff Lee, and maybe, just maybe, Hideki Matsui and Johnny Damon. They have track records. Now, there is no way to know for sure what that budget is, but it is safe to say that it will raise calls for a salary cap once more. In fact, this could be the year the Yankees break Baseball.

Meanwhile, in Arkansas, Cliff Lee's wife is complaining about Yankees fans and dropping subtle hints like, "It's so nice living close to home." This enrages Cliff Lee, a proud man. A man who throws a ball for a living. A man who throws hard. Lee is calling his agent, saying he will not accept any offer from Texas, no matter how ridiculous. Gotta love the institution of marriage.

World Series Update

I was without internet the past couple days because BT (British Telecom) has awful, just awful service. If you ever move to the UK, avoid them at all costs (though sometimes you won't have a choice).

Anyway, the Giants have since taken a 3-1 lead in the World Series. That's good for those of us who plan to pitch Sabathia and Lee in the first two games of next year's World Series. Hopefully, if we sign Lee, Pettitte will decide to come back for one more year. They should probably ask him to do a part year contract, even if he doesn't ask for it. Otherwise he's asking for it. And by 'it' I mean a groin or other nagging injury. Once upon a time, he could just HGH that up and get back out there. That sort of thing is frowned upon now, so a part year contract should be on the table.

Today the Yankees decide how ostentatiously rich to be this off-season. My guess? Very.

Giants Take Game 2

Is anyone watching this series? I was considering catching a game at some point, but I'm having a hard time gaining any sort of interest in this series. I'm way more interested in seeing what AL east teams will do in the off season, and the off season won't start until this world series is over. Therefore my only real interest in the world series is its end. That might not be great news for Bud Selig and the general interest of baseball as a sport, but it is what it is. My guess is that the Giants will sweep.

Clifftopher Lee

Bet you didn't know that was his name, did you? After his implosion in game 1 yesterday, it is time to discuss Cliff Lee. Three things immediately come to mind.

1. Cliff Lee is human. He's not always going to be lights out in the playoffs. Even Halladay had a bad day against these Giants and he was coming off a no-hitter. Bottom line, there is no team out there who is better off without Cliff Lee in October than with. Further, the Rangers can't win if Lee doesn't win his games (sorry Rangers). And if Texas loses the World Series they will be less of a contender for Lee during free agency than they will if they win.

2. The Giants were aggressive and were successful against Lee. We largely sat by and watched him strike us out a lot. WTF?

3. There is still the lingering issue of whether Lee's wife's experience at Yankee Stadium will sway his decision. The short answer: no. But I wouldn't be terribly upset if it did. I love going to games, but I'm always worried who I'm going to end up having to sit nearby. I will no longer even consider the bleachers as a result. If boorish fans cost us a major free agent, perhaps there'd be more of a willingness to police ourselves. I doubt it, but one can hope.

Sabathia to have knee surgery, Yankee fans unkind to Lee's wife

A couple pieces of Yankees related news, it appears that CC Sabathia is going to have knee surgery to fix a meniscus tear in his right knee. This is when you start feeling a little uneasy about his weight, but we shouldn't jump to conclusions just yet. What people tend to forget is that CC Sabathia is a vampire. What else explains his super human tendencies, his enormous workload, his amazing strength, his thirst for blood, his pinpoint accuracy? I suspect Sabathia will be good and ready to play next season.

Also of interest, it appears Cliff Lee's wife was not all too impressed by Yankee fans who harassed her during the game. It doesn't surprise me that we would harass a player's wife, what does surprise me is that we were dumb enough to do it to Cliff Lee's wife. We can definitely write the bigger check, so the only thing that can work against us is anything that can be placed in the cons column to playing in New York. One of these cons is our amazing drunken vocabulary at postseason games, and our general disregard for feelings. I think a few extra million could go a long way in mending some fences.

Eiland First Off-Season Casualty

Dave Eiland was fired by Brian Cashman yesterday afternoon. Cashman had organized an elaborate birthday party in which a giant cake was rolled out for Eiland. When the crowd had finished singing happy birthday, Cashman jumped out of the cake and fired Eiland on the spot.

No reason has been given for the firing, but I suspect the Yankees are looking for a coach who might be able to fix AJ Burnett. Who that coach is, I don't know. That coach probably doesn't exist. But if the Yankees think they can find the pitching equivalent of Kevin Long, so be it. It can't hurt to try I suppose.

Cashman did make clear that Eiland was not being blamed for the Yanks postseason failures. That's possible, but Eiland is quite clearly the most responsible for the Yankees' lethargic play against Texas. He didn't play a single inning, he didn't have a single RBI or run scored. Nothing. He just stood in the dugout watching. What's that all about?