Lombardi: Cashman Deserves No Credit For Writing Checks
From Steve Lombardi:
The only good thing Cashman has done in the last 12 months is take out the Steinbrenner Family Checkbook and spend more money than any other team in baseball was capable of spending in one off-season…to acquire the best talent on the free agent market…and plug the holes on his team that were the result of his own inability to produce or acquire quality players (outside of spending hundreds of millions to get it done).
This is typical fare from Lombardi, but it does give us an opportunity to review Cashman’s work in the context of this clearly bitter critique.
Firstly, Cashman gets plenty of blame when a major free agent signing does not work out, yet many have a difficult time giving him credit when he brings in the right players. The three major free agent acquisitions from this past offseason have largely met expectations, and have fit seamlessly into the Yankees clubhouse. All three have become leaders, and none have shown any sort of problem in dealing with the glare of playing in New York. If you want to rip Brian for bringing in players who cannot handle the big city, you need to tip your cap when he brings in players who excel in the New York environment.
Secondly, the idea that Cashman has been unable to “produce or acquire quality players” is ridiculous. He has made mistakes, but the 2009 Yankees are loaded with players that Brian brought in through the draft, trade, or waiver wire. Of the players who have a chance to make the postseason roster, these were brought in by Brian through those means: Cano, A-Rod, Cabrera, Swisher, Gardner, Molina, Pena, Cervelli, Hinske, Hairston, Guzman, Chamberlain, Hughes, Gaudin, Aceves, Coke, Bruney, and Robertson.
These Yankees have exceeded 100 wins because Cashman made the right moves on the free agent market, and then supplemented with shrewd trades and homegrown players. That is exactly what the GM of the Yankees should be doing. Money is where the Yankees have a comparative advantage, and they should be utilizing that edge as much as possible. At least for 2009, Brian Cashman has done a good job in making the most of the assets handed him.
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Bravo, Mo
Steve does go too far, but what other franchise would be able to plug its holes by spending 60 million (the actual cost this year of CC, Tex and AJ) on just three players?
Is that being a smart GM, yes, because you acquired the best talent (not sure about AJ in three years), but you’d be crazy not to acknowledge that Cashman is playing with a set of circumstances that no one else in the major leagues has.
So his “success” should be tempered in the fact that his checkbook can absorb any mistakes made by just buying more top of the line talent. The fact that he “got it right” this year still doesn’t excuse the need to make these huge purchases because of holes not able to be refilled by talent in your own farm system.
The best player on the “Brian brought in list” is ARod, who we can all agree had more to do with the Yankees being able to absorb his contract (15 million per year until the opt out, than 30 mil a year after) than the Soriano/Arias package that Texas received.
Cashman has done a fantastic job around the edges, which is really where I feel he deserves the most credit this season. The Swisher deal was fantastic, and his ability to add bench pieces (Hinkse, Hairston, Molina) throughout the years has been superb.
Brian Cashman has done a great job this year, but part of the reason he could do that job is because the absurd revenue stream he has at his disposal. You can’t deny that.
I don’t think anyone denies that, but quite frankly, I think Cashman is quite aware of that when he makes moves. He throws money around because he knows that he can afford to be wrong with these contracts and still contend. There is no reason he should be trying to build like a mid market team- those teams build the way they do because they have to, not because they want to.
Exactly if other owners actually wanted win as much as the “the boss” did then other GMs would be able to do the same thing, but they don’t, they don’t want to put profit back into the company and because of that they cut payroll because they can get fans to come with out going to the playoffs every year. IF other GMs were given the same amount of room to work with all of the MLB would work the way the Yankees do.
Complete and utter nonsense. He had to break out the checkbook because he failed to plug holes ? Of the 3 FA signings, TWO of them were to replace players no longer under contract AND they happened to be cheaper than the guys they replaced – Texiera for Giambi and Burnett for Mussina (well, cheaper as compared to Mussina’s previous contract that he ended making $19M). Giambi made $23.5M and Mussina $11M last year ($34.5M total). Texeira makes $20M this year and Burnett $16M.
End of discussion. So it really comes down to the Sabathia signing. And that was HUGE considering the pressure for Cashman to deal for Santana. Instead of giving up prime prospects for a guy that ultimately did get hurt – and there were concerns at the time – Cashman waited and got a better, more durable starter.
Yeah, that guy sucks.
Nobody trashes Cashman more than I do and no, he is NOT an elite GM, not yet at least and maybe never.
However, this past off season he did the right thing.
There were many (dopes IMO) who thought Abreu (the worst fielder RF’er in the league and softest .300 hitter) should have been resigned and maybe even Giambi resigned and some who wanted to let Giambi go.Plenty of dopes didn’t want AJ Burnett and though I think AJ underperformed, he can still bail himself out with a big post season.
Swish Nicker was a steal and IMO is a better teamate than Abreu and a better player too even with the lower batting average and lesser stats, he just is.Abreu is a good stat soft player type and when he leaves, teams always get better.
The only area I would point a finger at Cashman is probably Girardi’s fault and that was giving up on Tomko who pitched pretty well and showed good velocity but was let go for Mitre who stinks.
Cashman also is using his farm system better.
Abreu and Swisher are two different types of players at this point so it’s not really fair to compare their stats, Abreu is more batting average and driving in runs while hitting high in the line up, while Swisher is more about OBP and HRs while batting anywhere in the line up. I like Swisher a lot more than Abreu but Abreu doesn’t bring “soft stats” it’s just a different style and it has worked for the Angels this year we just didn’t need that type of player.
Tomko was terrible in New York and was never going to perform here especially as a starter, he couldn’t even hold down his one chance at a spot replacement for Sabathia when he went out in the 2nd inning against the Marlins and Tomko was given two leads he blew. He went to the A’s who have a much friendly pitcher park and face lesser opponents on a daily basis with much less pressure and no chance to make the playoffs.
Also, Cashman deserves credit for not offering arbitration to Bobby Abreu and Andy Pettite. Those two moves were HAMMERED at the time, but as both contracts showed, this was 100 percent the right decision. He took a risk, and it paid off. Well done.
I think he should get credit for choosing AJ or Derek Lowe who has struggled in the NL with the Braves to the point Javier Vasquez is their ACE pitcher right now, Lowe wouldn’t have been as dominate a Burnett has been at times this season for us.
HAHA like your post so much you had to post it twice Lefty?
As you said, it was a Yankee post written by Steve Lombardi – it was going to be negative and irrational for sure. Moreover, it was a Cashman post written by Steve Lombardi – so it was going to be ridiculously negative and irrational for sure.
Old guys like me screw up on the computer more than young guys do.Sorry.
Sigh… giving him hits….