Not a Petty Problem

Well, 2009 is here, and the Yankees still have a few questions they need to answer--even if they did the impossible and signed Sabathia, Teixiera and Burnett.

The biggest question, perhaps, is what to do with Andy Pettitte.

If the season were to start tomorrow the Yankees' starting rotation would be:

CC Sabathia
AJ Burnett
CM Wang
Joba Chamberlain
Whoever wins the Phil Hughes/Phil Coke/Alfredo Aceves/Ian Kennedy battle in Spring Training

Assuming every pitcher there remains healthy and pitches up to his potential, that is a pretty solid rotation already.

However, it doesn't take too long to poke holes in the rotation:

1) Can Burnett stay healthy in a non-contract year?
2) How has Wang recovered from his bum foot?
3) Can Joba pitch a year as a starter and not get hurt?
4) Can Phil Hughes, you know, win a game in the regular season?
5) If the Yankees make it to October, can Sabathia actually win in October without being overused?

The reaction that many people are having is that the current rotation is good, but that signing Andy Pettitte to a one year deal would make it just that much better. Perhaps the difference between 90 and 94 wins--94 wins likely being the minimum to make the AL Wild Card.

However, the simple fact is that 2008 was simply not a good year by Pettitte's standards.

His fourteen wins were nice, of course, but his fourteen losses were the most of his career. His ERA, at 4.54 was the second highest of his career (1999, 4.70) and while his strikeouts were up, his runs allowed, at 103, was the highest of his career.

Whether the statistics--poor by his standards--are the result of age or unacknowledged injury, we don't know. However, to hope that Pettitte could come back in 2009 and pull a Mike Mussina (okay, I'll admit it, this entire post is just so I could write that line) would be a tremendous leap of faith.

On the other hand, however, Pettitte has made his desire to pitch well-known and there were rumors that the LA Dodgers had offered him a three-year deal.

For fans that remember the Yankees of the late 1990s (okay, most of us), there is no understating how much Pettitte means to the team or how large of a part he played in the championships of '96, '98, '99 and 2000.

However, the problem with being a fan of the Yankees is that sometimes you get so caught up in the past, that you forget to look at the future.

If the Yankees were to re-sign Pettitte as a fifth starter, it would be hard to argue with the signing--he will make every (or nearly every) start and he will pitch innings. However, the Yankees are perhaps at a point where pencilling Andy in means blocking others--what happens, for example, if Hughes has a stellar spring training and then dominates AAA ball in April and May while Pettitte goes 3-6, 4.50 at the ML level?

It's not an impossible scenario.

The Yankees have done a lot this off-season, but one of their toughest off-season questions is still unanswered.

Everything's Bigger with Tex

ESPN's Buster Olney and Sports Illustrated's Jon Heyman are now reporting that the Yankees and Mark Teixiera have agreed to an 8-year, $170 million deal.

This, on the heels of announcing that prices to an exhibition game against the Chicago Cubs to open the New Stadium will be slashed to 1923--yes, you read that right--1923 prices, is enough to make your head spin.

Among the questions to be asked now are:

1) Is Teixiera really worth that deal?
2) Have the Yankees reverted back to a 1980s buy-everything-in-sight model? You know, the one that didn't work?
3) What do you do with recently acquired 1B/OF Nick Swisher?
4) How many countries have smaller GDPs than the Yankees' corner fielders?

Anyway, uh, I guess you can all consider it baseball's Christmas/Chanukah/Kwanzaa/Festivus present...

A Jay comes to the Yankees

ESPN is currently reporting that a 5 year, $82.5 million deal has been agreed to in principle between AJ Burnett and the Yankees.

If we ignore the fact that right now the Yankees seem to be printing their own money, this is a move that has to be approached with a lot of caution.

Burnett can be great, and you'd be hard pressed to find a Yankee or Yankee fan not excited at the prospect of not having to actually face Burnett, but the lengthy injury history is a major red flag. We're talking the Yankees are Marie Antoinette and Burnett is the storming of the Bastille--so what if I've been watching the History Channel?

It almost has a here we go again feel to it, but the good news is that because the Yankees signed Sabathia, they will (hopefully) not have to rely on Burnett as their ace.

Conventional wisdom states that you don't sign free agents coming from your division rival because there's probably a real good reason if they're letting one of their stars go to your team--at least in Burnett's case, the caveat is well known.

C. C. You in the Spring!

Holy crap it's been a little while since I've posted, hasn't it?

Well, when you're spending eight hours a day in the library researching medieval Nottingham...yeah, yeah...anyway...

According to multiple sources--Peter Abraham, ESPN.Com, SI.com and the NY Post, C.C. Sabathia is all but set to sign his Yankee papers.

No doubt, primal yelps of joy are sounding throughout all of YankeeLand, as he is by far the best pitcher on the market.

That said, a word of caution--one great free agent signing does not a team make, and there is word that he is looking for an opt out clause in the contract.

It's like getting that shiny brand new ipod for Christmas--it could be amazing, but if you don't care for it properly, bad things can happen.

Anyway. The important thing is that there's a new guy in pinstripes in the spring--and it's the one (most of us) all wanted.


****

In other Winter Meetings news, Francisco Rodriguez has signed a three year contract with the Mets. It's a good deal--K-Rod wants the money, the Mets need some semblance of a bullpen, even if one closer does not a good bullpen make.

Memorabilia Auction falls Short of Expectations

For all of you that think that the Yankees won't be affected by the economy, take a gander at this article from ESPN about a failed Stadium memorabilia auction, including the last home run ball.

Among the main points of the article

• More than 400 items had been up for option
• A collection of 15 World Series and American League championship rings belonging to a former Yankees' owner fell over a quarter of a million dollars short of expectations
• A Mickey Mantle car expected to fetch at least $50,ooo sold for only $34,000.

So while I imagine anyone reading this blog probably doesn't have a spare $350,000 to spend on a ring collection, it's not the point.

Does the auction immediately impact the Yankees? No, it doesn't...but it does illustrate that the problem with the economy isn't just in the big banks on Wall Street.

The Grand Trade Proposal Contest

It's that time of year now, where all the ridiculous trade proposals come flying out the wazoo. Melky Cabrera for Albert Pujols. Julio Lugo for Tim Lincecum. So on and so forth.

YOUR TASK, should you choose to accept, and you should because the off season can get boring otherwise, is to come up with the most ludicrous trade proposal you can imagine...but, since that in itself is fairly easy, I'll throw in a few of the following parameters:

1) Players involved must be current, active players
2) Players must have seen at least AA action in 2008
3) Any deals that include prospects MUST include at least one play who saw Major League service time in 2008
4) Teams can't trade within their own division, or with cross-town rivals (no Yankees/Mets, no Sox/Cubs, no Dodgers/Angels, no Giants/Athletics)
5) Players must not have full NTC clauses. If a player has a partial NTC clause, he may only be traded to a team that is listed as exempt from his NTC clause.
6) Propose as many trades as you like, but each player can only be traded once.

Judging:

Entries will be judged via a supersecret methodology, in the form of some sort of poll open to the general voting public, because we all need to practice our voting skills!

Prizes:

The winner shall recieve some form of inexpensive Yankee memorabilia. Should the number of entries exceed five, the second place person will recieve a prize, and should there be more than ten entries, third place will recieve a prize as well.


DEADLINE

The Deadline for Submissions shall be the Last Out of the World Series, so get your entries in now because we don't know for sure how many games the World Series is going to go!

On Andy Pettitte

Yesterday, while watching ESPN whilst I was still without internet, I caught the ticker on the bottom:

Buster Olney Reports that Andy Pettitte wants to pitch for the Yankees in 2009.


This in itself was not a surprising revelation; Pettitte has more or less been dropping hints since the beginning of the season.

The big question, of course, is whether or not the Yankees should let Andy do it, and there are arguments to be made for each side of the issue.

The most glaring issue is that 2008 was not a good season for Pettitte.

He finished 14-14, and only got the last win because Joe Girardi took him out after the fifth inning. At one point in August and September, he had gone 1-7 in his last eight--a far cry from the second-half dominance normally ascribed to him.

His 4.54 ERA was the second highest of his career (1999 4.70), though his other numbers, such as strikeouts and walks were in line with his career averages.

The question at the crux is why 2008 was a poor year.

There are many different explanations on offer; the one that I find easiest to believe is that he was pitching hurt through most of August, when the Yankees didn't really have another option to fill his starts.

If this is the case then, there is an optimistic and pessimistic view--the optimistic view being that a healthy Andy will be back to his 2007 form and a sound investment; the pessimistic view would be that at 36, 37 years old, his body probably won't heal as quickly and that he's battled elbow problems in the past.

The other, separate issue to consider is what Mike Mussina will do--and signs seem to point to him retiring (though we've certainly been wrong about things like that before).

If Mussina retires, the case for re-signing Pettitte is that much stronger: a veteran pitcher who will make most, if not every start, and at the very least give you innings and probably win at least ten starts as well.


Resigning Pettitte is a very tough call, especially when it's uncertain if the Yankees will sign CC Sabathia or another high level free agent starter. If it was up to me, I'd wait to see which, if any, FA pitcher the Yankees sign before committing, but I realize that a) Pettitte probably doesn't want to wait that long, and b) it really wouldn't be right to make him wait that long, anyway.

Either way, it's an issue the Yankees have to ponder, and sooner rather than later.

My gut tells me Andy will be back for one last go-around, but whether or not that will be a good decision remains to be seen.

Bobby Meacham Fired

Bobby Meacham has been fired.

This move was not unexpected, though what is perhaps most interesting is to see how Girardi deals with the loss of one of his hand-picked coaches, the other being bullpen coach Mike Harkey.

Much of the in-house criticism leveled against Joe Girardi had to do with his over reliance on Meacham and Harkey to the exclusion of his other coaches; perhaps part of the thinking is that removing Meacham from the fray will force Girardi to better utilize his other coaches.

That, or Meacham simply was that bad as a third base coach.


No replacement has been announced of yet.