Andy's back, and Hank's strong words (are awesome)
Posted by [URL="http://blog.nj.com/yankees/about.html"]Dave & Aziz Nekoukar[/URL] December 03, 2007 10:12AM
We all certainly awoke to good news in Yankeeland, eh?
Andy Pettitte is coming back for the 2008 season, making it just that much more likely that Mike Mussina won't have a starting job for the upcoming season. Sweet.
This almost goes without saying, but it was really quite nice of Andy to let the team know about his plan before the Winter Meetings, because it gives Cashman a much better picture of his '08 starting rotation.
And meanwhile: oh, Hank Steinbrenner, how we have
quickly come to love and loathe your banter. While Hank does talk a little too much -- and of course by "little," we mean a lot --
we love what he had to say about the ongoing Santana stuff:
"I'm not going to be played against the Red Sox. That's not something I'll do. That's not something the Yankees should ever do, and that's I think what they're trying to do now. So if they want the best offer that has been offered to them, then they need to make up their minds...this is not an act. It's not a bluff. It's just reality."
Hank went on to say
the deadline for the Twins to accept an offer from the Yankees is today, otherwise the Yanks are walking away from the negotiating table. (And seriously, what else is there that they could offer?) In other words, folks,
that's the proverbial "finger" Hank is sticking up at the Twins -- and the Red Sox (sort of). As we wrote last week, Cashman is still steering the boat, but it does appear Hank is overlooking things on the bow. But the point is, we have all slowly come to realize -- reflected in readers' comments yesterday and previous days -- that the teams likely to trade
for Santana hold the cards here. The Twins can only pick from what's in front of them, and a team that walks away from the table has lost absolutely nothing, while the Twins stand to lose potentially all the value of a star that they won't be able to afford next October.
Granted, Hank's comments reek of the same stuff he said about A-Rod, but we're giving Hank the benefit of the doubt on this one, because we like the idea of a take-it-or-leave-it deadline. A team can't dangle its young stars like this in the papers every day, without it having some effect on their psyche. Still, what it comes down to is this one simple idea,
propounded by Joel Sherman and Kevin Kernan today:
The Yankees are concerned about being trapped in an endless loop of talks that could stymie their attempts to pursue other options...
And that's really what the alleged deadline today is all about. Just like a team can't afford to hammer away at its young stars by needless headlines purporting to be valid trade rumors, neither can a team afford to miss out on better options by being consumed with one option. We are excited for the Winter Meetings, and excited for today's take-it-or-leave-it sweepstakes. Let's see what happens today, folks. It could get interesting.
And did we mention Andy Pettitte's back in the fold? What a day already -- and the Meetings are just kicking off. We'll of course let you know if any big news breaks.
In other news...
Joel Sherman notes that
this could be the start of even more spending by the Yankees, depending on if they land Santana, and given the likely increased revenues from a new Stadium.
The Winter Meetings
have become a pretty crazy event, and with beat reporters maintaining blogs now, we get news practically as it happens.
Thanks to Steve B. for sending in
Baseball Prospectus's top-11 Yankee prospects. Joba tops the list, while Austin Jackson has nudged ahead of Jose Tabata into third. Ian Kennedy ranks second, which is sort of a surprise to us. We wonder how much of that is hype; Kennedy is good, but better-than-Tabata, talent-wise? We of course defer to the experts, and we're happy to hear Kennedy's ceiling may be higher than we thought, but we are a little surprised.
Phil Rogers of the
Chicago Tribune runs down the Twins' options for Santana.
rayer
