Thoughts On The Yankees, Around the Horn and The Trade Deadline
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by JasonComack
seen at http://3rdstringsafety.blogspot.com/
I can't watch ESPN anymore. It's awful.
I don't know when it went from being sports news to sports crap.
Maybe I have just begun to notice it more and more as my knowledge of sports grew. I use to love watching Around the Horn and PTI. Now I can barely stand listening to the show of asinine banter.
Here's the problem with Around the Horn. Your taking sports writers who focus on certain markets; like Jay Mariotti in Chicago. I'm sure he knows the Cubs and Bulls inside and out. However, he doesn't cover the Yankees. How can he formulate a correct opinion of what the Yankees should or shouldn't have done at the trade deadline if he's not aware of who our prospects are and how good they are. On Around the Horn he suggested the Yanks should have traded Joba Chamberlain for Gagne. In fact he said it in an insulting fashion to the extent of "the Yanks kept Joba Chamberlain instead of Eric Gagne? Are you serious?"
It's frustrating to hear this as aaseball fan living in NY and following the Yankees. I'm sure Jay would have been up in arms if the Cubs had traded 5 tool stud prospect Felix Pie for unequal value.
I digress
Anyway, Mr. Mariotti in the words of Silent Bob; Bitch what you don't know about Joba Chamberlain could fill the grand fucking canyon. Let me educate you!
Joba is nasty. Filthy in fact. He proved himself in AA, moved up and just housed AAA Scranton/Wilkes Barre. He's throwing pure gas, in his last appearance he hit 99-100 on the gun. He threw 13 pitches, 10 for strikes. Secondly, Jay, Chamberlain is getting called up to the big leagues soon. While he is no sure thing he has alot of potential. I can tell you this It would have been idiotic to trade Joba for Gagne. Joba could fetch more than Gagne at this point. Furthermore the Rangers weren't even demanding Gagne. We could have gotten away with trading Ian Kennedy (who while a good prospect is getting over-protected. He's not a front line starter. He's a 3 at best more realistically a 4.)
So Jay before you make a statement try to learn your facts.
...With that being said the Yankees should have traded for Eric Gagne at the trade deadline.
I'm all aboard the Luis Vizcaino bandwagon. Before his last appearance he hadn't given up an earned run since July 4th. He'd be an ideal 7th inning guy.
Vizcaino and Gagne bridging the gap to Mo would make for a very successful bullpen. Especially when you factor in the surprisingly effective Myers and Vilone and the wild cards in Joba and Edwar Rameriez.
Had we made the Gagne trade we would have been able to trade both Farnsworth and Proctor.
I loved the Wilson Betemit for Scott Proctor trade, I just wish Farnsworth was following him out of town. Proctor is a 30 year old below average reliever. Besides that Torre has absoutely abused his arm this year. In exhange for what I believe to be damaged goods the Yanks got Betemit, while not great, is an outstanding super-sup. For now he can platoon at first with Andy Phillips. Betimit is a 27 year old switch hiter but he hits much better as a lefty. Agaisnt right handing pithcing he's hitting .285/.349/.463. Not awful, he never has been given a chance to start a whole season and still may have room to grow. The fact that we got anyone for Proctor is remarkable. If nothing else it's addition by subtraction. I wish we could have done the same for Kyle. If we had to pay to get rid of him so be it. Once again adittion by subtraction.
In an ideal world we could have gone with 12 pitchers on roster
Clemens Wang Pettite Moose Hughes
Vilone Britton Myeres Chamberlain Vizcaino Gagne Rivera
That looks pretty good to me.
(By the way quick side note: For anyone who thinks moving Joba to relief is going to stunt his growth, remember Joba is on a pitch count this year, he was close to being shut down anyway. In fact moving him to relief is going to help him keep his pitch count in manageable numbers.)
Alas we didn't get Gagne, but it's not the end of the world.
What people forget is that two big deadline acquisitions are going be Giambi and Hughes.
This team, while maybe not close to catching the Red Sox, will certainly be in contention for the wild card. With our pitching and hitting healthy this team can make a whole lot of noise in the playoffs.
It feels good to write that for the first time all year.
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