Joel Sherman is reporting that the Yankees are on the brink of obtaining Cliff Lee from the Mariners. I hate Joel Sherman with the burning fire of 1,000 suns (that is in no way pertinent to this story, but I felt it needed to be said).
If this is true, this means one thing: The Yankees do not feel that Jesus Montero is or will be able to play catcher at the Major League level. I know his bat is “special,” but in a lineup as potent as the Yankees, coupled with their ability to pay for premium talent, finding a guy that can hit 30/100 for you is not that difficult. Christ, I think Carlos Delgado could put up those numbers sandwiched between guys like Alex Rodriguez/Mark Teixeira/Robinson Cano. Truth be told, that lineup took Nick Swish off the junk pile and made him an All-Star (which is now official).
The other question that arises is who gets bumped from a rotation in which 3 of the 5 pitchers are going to Anaheim next week? Buster Olney says that Javier Vasquez could be on the move to the Phillies for Jayson Werth if the Lee trade goes down.
OK – so then where does Jayson Werth play? This is making my head hurt…
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9 Responses to Could Cliff Lee change dugouts tonight?
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TIQ IQ
Werth is the primary DH for Yankees, I guess? spells the corner outfielders?
i do think both moves make the Yankees better, and I understand there isn't much quality middle relief available… i heard octavio dotel was available… been there, done that, right?
~jamie
You know, I always liked Dotel. Yankee fans put a negative spin on him, but the fact is he was coming off an injury when he was here.
fair enough, Joe. however, I don't find his numbers in Pitt that inspiring this year, so I'll pass on a trade for Dotel – agree or disagree?
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/d/doteloc01.shtml
~jamie
Because of the fickle nature of relievers, I am all for adding arms. He's striking out better than 10 per nine, and he's a closer on a team that sucks. If you can get him for a bs prospect, why not right? Joba is and will be the 8th inning guy. So you are looking for guys with out pitches to help form that mythical "Bridge to Mariano"
I think I'm going to start calling it the "Bridge to Valhalla."
yeah, if the Yanks can get him for nothing, I guess that's fine; but again, his HR/9 is a bit high, right? and the walks, when added to the hits per IP… sounds like a lot of base runners… and he's in the NL… surely the Pirates can catch, right? and Jonathan Albaledejo has pitched well at AAA, so I'd like to see him get a chance. also, i like singing, "Alba-le-dejo!" to the tune of the "banana song" [get your beetlejuice on!) but yeah, if the yanks can get Dotel for a minimum prospect, its worth a shot
~jamie
The fact that Albaladejo is still in AAA is baffling. Have you seen his numbers? RAB pointed out that he has changed his apprach, and it is working. Apparently he gave up on the "have a good spring training, and crap the bed when the season starts" mantra that served him so well for 2 years.
If the Yanks complete this trade it won't be because they don't see Montero being an everyday catcher, this club has been dealing with the worst defensive catcher in baseball for the last 10 yrs in Posada…they are doing it to upgrade their rotation because they traded for a chump name Javier Vasquez! Werth would at least net the Yanks draft picks when they let him walk in the off-season and CC, LEE, Burnett, Hughes and name your 5th starter will be great next year if Petite walks next year. Both deals make sense and on a side…Joel Sherman is actually pretty good and at his job and doesn't suggest ridiculous things like signing Nick Johnson who is a waste of space.
Albaladejo is in AAA cause his stints on the big league have been terrible over the last 2 yrs. He is a AAAA pitcher who hasn't made an impact on the MLB level. The Yanks should see what other arms are there to give shots to before going to retreads.
Anonymous #1
"the worst defensive catcher in baseball for the last 10 yrs in Posada"
Pretty sure it's been longer than 10 years and pretty sure he's not the worst defensive catcher in the league. I'd like to see him block the plate more and frame a pitch for once in his career, but he's a decent catcher – as we know, he makes the money with the bat
"because they traded for a chump name Javier Vasquez!"
take a look at Javier Vasquez's game log http://yankees.mlb.com/stats/individual_player_gamebygamelog.jsp?c_id=nyy&playerID;=134320&statType;=2
he's turned in quite a few good starts since April and somehow lowered his ERA under 5 after a disastrous April. and his April wasn't as bad as Burnett's June… anyway, Javy's no All Star, but I don't think I'd call him a chump.
I think you can make the argument that Nick Johnson is a waste of money with all the time he spends on the DL, but even when he wasn't hitting, his OBP was impressive, and thats what the Yankees brought him here to do, so I didn't consider the acquisition a failure when he was still in the lineup. now that he's suffered a setback, its not looking so good, but frankly, just about everybody in the Yankee Blog Universe wanted the yankees to sign Nick Johnson.
Anonymous #2
given in the instability of the bullpen, I think anybody at AAA with good numbers deserves a shot; we've seen about everybody else, right? Nova, Melancon (was he over hyped or what?)… who else has had a cup of coffee and went right back down?