If you give a crap about the Yankees....

and I haven't gotten the impression that anyone who reads this blog does, but I thought the Bronx Bummers made a great move today trading for Javier Vasquez. If you remember, Vasquez had a go-round with the Yankees a few years back, and I didn't think he was terrible, but we gave up on him after on year. He's a little long in the tooth, maybe 33, but he had a solid year with the Braves last year, and seems like the type of pitcher whose not near the end by any means. Anyhow, I'm glad we got him to shore up the rotation....

But, we gave up Melky Cabrera to get him. Cabrera was a fairly solid center fielder for us last year, but he has had kind of and up and down career. On the up side, he's fairly young and has performed fairly well under the NYC spotlight. Howevever, Cabrera clearly became expendable when we picked up the great (former Seawolf) Curtis Granderson from the Tigers. There was talk that Melky would start in left, but I'm not sure he has a big enough bat for the Yankees to be completely satisfied with him as the full-time leftfielder. So, we dumped him for some starting pitching depth.

Which leaves us with a hole in left field - not necessarily a bad thing considering that three of the current top free agents are left fielders: Johnny Damon, Jason Bay, and Matt Holliday. Damon, of course, is a proven commodity, but Bay and Holliday likely have more upside - as they both are younger. That said, if this article is true, and Damon has reduced his contract demands to a two-year term, then, we should probably jump all over it. Yes, we'd be leaving Holliday and Bay on the market for the BoSox, but Damon is probably a better fit for the Yankees' line-up. He's a lefty and did a great job in the number two hole last year. Yeah, we'd probably need to refresh the position in another couple years, while Bay or Holliday could conceivably be a long-term solution - but it's worth keeping in mind that Holliday was kind of a washout in his only A.L. stint with the A's last year, and that Bay is a right-handed pull hitter that might not be a good fit for Yankee Stadium - nor may he be able to cover enough ground to be an effective defensive left fielder in the (not quite so as in the past, but still fairly) cavernous confines of our home park. Based on their recent track record, I'm sure the Yanks are checking all this stuff out and am confident they will make the right move.

The Yankees, already the reigning World Champions, have had a great offseason and look really strong heading into 2010, which is the year I thought they could win it all based on last season's moves. I think Jeter and Posada each have at least one good year left in them, A-Rod should be back stronger than last year....I really think we could have an all-time great team next year. Just what all you Yankee haters wanted to hear I'm sure.

Cheers.

Ralph