Solution:  Trade 3-4 starting pitchers for a DH.  Problem solved.

[1] a superflous fat one from Detroit named Cabrera.

[0] depends what Cashman considers excess pitching (ie, Burnett) or excess pitching (eg, Burnett, Hughes, Nova, Joba, etc.).

Continuing the thought of last thread, I think I’d prefer to see Cabrera at C, Fielder at 3B and Martinez at 1st.
Would we be ok with the bunt then?

Calling Mel Hall… I sent you a PM.

The plan is to trade Pineda for future HOFer Nava.

and…. Yanks sign Oswalt tomorrow!

On the Tigers situation, they could just trade VMart after he gets healthy before 2013. Oh wait, trading a catcher with busted knees who is due $25M would be like trying to trade AJ Burnett.

Knowing Cashman, this means he’s trading Gardner and Betances for Cain.

Is that right?

You left out “3) Profit!”

Well look I dunno about you guys, but if Joe Girardi is confident, so am I!

I was grimacing through coverage of this presidential election campaign this morning, when it occurred to me that A-Rod is signed through the next election cycle.

I was saddened to learn that Kim Jones is leaving the YES network, depriving me of two reasons to watch the games.

That was a really well done conference.
(Although I could have done without all the foundation stuff as, however sincere it might be, we’d have no way to distinguished it from the scripted and packaged “giving back to the community” performance every major athlete is required to deliver.)
But the whole thing really gave you a feeling for Jorge, and for his family and his kids. I smiled when you saw him realizing, as his daughter was stealing the stage with huge smiles, that he had to give an extra eye-contact look at his son.
Good stuff and it is tough to see him go.

I don’t get the complaint.

They have an excess of swamp turkey.

[14] - I was extremely well done.  The only two things that bothered me…

1) Jorge didn’t thank Pettitte (or maybe I just missed it).
2) Posado said he couldn’t imagine playing for any other team.  Yeah, after you shopped yourself all off-season and couldn’t find another starting job.

[0] Actually, it kinda does make sense. 

You had a short-term solution at pitcher (bunch of guys who will probably be 1-ish WAR pitchers) on the back-end.  You fixed that and now have both long term (CC, Nova, Pineda all should be 2+ WAR pitchers for the next 5 years) and short-term (add Kuroda, strong rotation).  But impacted the offense in both the long and short-term (Montero).  So see if you can turn some of those 1-ish WAR excess pitchers - and maybe some minor leaguers - into a short-term at DH to cover the hole.

Long-term, either Cashman has targeted some players to fit that role (FA or trade), or feels good about his minor-leaguers; maybe Yankees really believe Laird can be a legit 3B by 2013 moving ARod to DH, or that Adams/CuJo can handle second (pushing Cano to 3rd, ARod to DH), etc.  Or are feeling good about Williams rocketing through the system.  Or something.

[17] (2) I thought he stated in there that he told his agent to not close the doors, but he didn’t expect to play next year?  Why is that bad?  Shouldn’t his agent talk to teams about their interest, so that if Posada decides to keep playing he has options?  I don’t think anything he said is contradictory, but I didn’t see the conference, I just followed it on RAB.

[18] - It makes sense because they had one of the best offensive teams in baseball last year without Montero and the middle of their rotation was a projected weak spot.  Trade your strength to fix your weakness. 

Also, with A-Rod on the roster through the start of Colbert’s second term, Teix at 1st for the next 5 years, the fact that the Yankees didn’t trust Montero as a catcher and that he didn’t have enough athletic ability to be a corner OF or 3b he had no role long term. 

Now you trade your under performing vet pitcher with a bloated contract for an under performing vet hitter with a similar bloated contract and call it a day.

[20] With Montero the Yankees were probably a top 3 offense. Without him they are probably top 5, top 10 for sure, and they made their pitching a strength.

“Trade your strength to fix your weakness.”

I think it’s more, runs saved are 1.25 times more valuable to an 0.600 team than runs scored.  Or I hope so.

[17] “I was extremely well done.”

I’m glad you think so.

I got kinda pissed when the Sado presser came up on The Morning Show this morning.  Joe Scarborough’s comment on Posada’s having been part of 5 championship teams was “Now the Sox are going to win ten in a row.”  Mike Barnicle, erstwhile Boston Globe columnist and plagiarist, said Posada “is a fine human being, but not a HOF catcher.” 

These RSN members couldn’t help but piss on Posada’s day.

[23] I thought he was a bit dry.

If Posado hadn’t suffered that concussion at the end of 2010, I wonder if he’d still be playing? Once it became clear that the Yankees were no longer gonig to play him at catcher, that was basically the end of his career. I think he could have eeked out another year or two behind the plate if he and the Yankees weren’t worried about permanent brain damage.

If I could bottle Mike K.‘s optimism on Laird and sell it, I’d be rich (assuming all the profit went to me and not Mike K.).

CAIRO got a shoutout from grantland.

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/7501477/jonah-keri-tries-find-explanation-boston-long-cold-winter-confusion

I notice they forgot the sidenote explaining the inherent pro-yankees bias in the math.

Trade A.J. for Montero. Straight up. Easy.

[29] Brilliant!

Trade A.J. for a signed Montero baseball. Straight up. Easy.

/reality

[31]  We need a bat, not a baseball.

[31] Put the ball online and trade up until you have a house. Then trade the house for Pujols. /Flawless plan.

[10] It’s

3) ??????
4) Profit

$nuggles for next Yankees GM

[35] Incremental trading is the new market inefficiency.

So is double posting.

[28] His link doesn’t go to a post, sadly.

When was CAIRO last updated? After losing Scutaro, do the Sox still project ahead of the Yankees?

After losing Scutaro, I believe, NYA has a -100% chance of overtaking the Sox.
At least, that’s how I understood the math from last years threads.

Colon’s gone to the A’s.  Good for him.  I hope he pitches well…his was my favorite story from last year, I think.  That two-seamer breaking back over the outside of the plate to righties was a pleasure to behold.

When was CAIRO last updated? After losing Scutaro, do the Sox still project ahead of the Yankees?

CAIRO is constantly being updated but I usually wait for a few weeks before uploading a revised version.  The standings that Keri’s referencing were pre-Pineda/Kuroda.  I never posted an update, but that put the Yankees at around 96 wins and well ahead of everyone else.

NYA: 95.9
TEX: 92.9
BOS: 92.4
PHI: 92.1
TAM: 91.8
LAA: 91.5
STL: 88.9
MIL: 87.3
CIN: 86.9
DET: 85.7
ATL: 85.6
ARI: 85.4
SF: 84.6
CLE: 83.9
FLA: 82.2
WAS: 81.5
COL: 80.8
OAK: 78.7
TOR: 77.0
LAN: 75.9
SD: 75.4
CHA: 75.0
NYN: 75.0
KC: 73.4
SEA: 72.9
CHN: 71.2
BAL: 69.3
PIT: 68.6
MIN: 67.0
HOU: 61.2

That was all done before Boston traded Scutaro and signed Ross and before Fielder signed with Detroit, but does include Carlos Pena going to Tampa Bay.

I’d imagine we’ll see some shuffling around there near the top.

At least we can be happy we aren’t Houston fans. Damn.

Cited for Mal:

Every day, at least fifty thousand men—a full house at Yankee Stadium—wake in solitary confinement, often in “supermax” prisons or prison wings, in which men are locked in small cells, where they see no one, cannot freely read and write, and are allowed out just once a day for an hour’s solo “exercise.” (Lock yourself in your bathroom and then imagine you have to stay there for the next ten years, and you will have some sense of the experience.)

At least we can be happy we aren’t Houston fans. Damn.

Houston’s going full SABR.  It’ll be interesting to see how they try and get out of the mess they’re in.

[45] Mess is pretty kind when they project to lose over 100 games and are 6 games worse than the closest team. But it will be a good experiment to watch.

I for one am looking forward to seeing how the Nats turn out. They seem like they could turn into a really good team in a year or two.

[44] My dreams, they aren’t as empty as my conscience seems to be.

[42] I imagine TWN will pick up a couple wins if they sign a Jackson or a Lee Harvey Oswald. 

But maybe we’ll add a win if we trade a swamp turkey for a bat.

Or even for some bat guano.

I wonder if Houston’s 2012 projection would be better or worse if they were in the AL, as they will be eventually.  Could they possibly project worse?

couldn’t resist this on el twitter:

But can he pitch teh ate
#mittmakes in one year http://slate.me/wEtTMD #mittmakes

Range checking checking, I see that it doesn’t accept -1.  But

“Enter an income:
0

In 2010, Mitt Romney made $0 in 0 seconds.

It would take you Infinity years NaN seconds to make what Mitt made in 2010.”

[52] - https://www.destroyallsoftware.com/talks/wat

/nerd humor

[27] I take a 15% fee for optimism brewing.  I guarentee you that if you start paying me, I’ll be more optimistic.

I like how successful Laird was at Trenton in 2010, at a young age.  I think he’s a slight plus on defense (MiLB TotalZone when it was available, the eye test), so if he can be around -7 with the bat, he’d be about average as a player at 3B.  That’s what, like .270/.330/.400?  I don’t *know* if he can clear that over a full season.  But I think he can get his walk rate back up around his pre-AAA, which should put him close.  I definitely don’t see future star, but I think future starter is possible, even if only while he’s cheap and in his mid-20’s.

[31] I have a signed Montero ball.  So you’re telling me I could get AJ, a house, or Pujols?  Does Pujols come with the contract?  If so, I’ll take the house.