Interesting interview with Brian Cashman
by ritz on Jan 25, 2011 4:28 PM EST
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We all know the Yankees offseason has been one step away from being a PR disaster, and Brian Cashman isn't exactly helping (article found here).
One of the most surprising things said during the interview was his plans for Derek Jeter:
"I'd be surprised if he plays SS for all 4 years. I see him moving to OF."
Obviously this isn't a surprise for most fans. Jeter's defensive decline at SS has been well documented and a Gold Glove did nothing to help his cause. Still, to hear this come from a usually tight-lipped and savvy GM is quite a shock. I would have to believe that Jeter was aware of this when he signed the dotted line on his newest mega-contract, otherwise we could be in for another highly public battle between the face of the franchise and the FO in a couple of years (or sooner).
The same radio caller then asked Cashman a very straightforward question: Who was the better team, the Red Sox or his own Yankees?
"Red Sox. But we have better bullpen."
Again, nothing monumental. The question is how long the Steinbrenner's will deal with such candid responses. This comes only weeks after Cashman acknowledged that the Steinbrenner's had gone over his head in the wake of the Rafael Soriano signing.
Would George have stood for this? Better yet, would Cashman have dared to answer so candidly with The Boss around? If the Yankees hadn't had such a disastrous winter, this wouldn't have even been news. However, after missing out on both Cliff Lee and Carl Crawford and then dealing with Derek Jeter's contract situation this stands out.
Is Cashman on his way out?
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Of course he is
His contract’s up after this year, and he is too damn smart to work for the Wonder Twins. I’m betting that if Jack Z puts up another bad year in Seattle Cashman will take over for him.
The question shouldn’t be is he leaving, but where is he going to go?
I'm a 7 WAR player in bed.
Official Baker of Red Sox Nation
He want's to work for a smaller-market team
and play around with a youth movement like he did in ‘96. I think that’s a good place for him.
I'm a 7 WAR player in bed.
Official Baker of Red Sox Nation
by TheLoneDavid on Jan 25, 2011 6:34 PM EST up reply actions
The main reason Beane didn’t become the Sox GM
was he didn’t want to uproot his family from the Bay Area…. I just don’t see Cashman going from the NYC/NJ/CT area to the Puget Sound area. I can see him looking for work at the MLB office or if Alderson is tossed to the curb with the Mets.
If the Dodgers are sold, I can possibly see Cashman going there for the right price, but the Mariners would be a tough place to transform into their 2001 year
my sources say that cashman is actively trying to make jeter an OF immediately!
cashman senses the urgency as jeter’s replacement at short is rumored to be julio lugo – who is rumored to be in FA negotiations with at least 4 other teams.
Those must be really good sources..
I would contribute in making Julio Lugo a Yankee, even though he will be pelted with batteries if he becomes the MFY shortstop…
What is up with him these days?!?! The last I heard he was playing for the Orioles, I think as a platoon player..
It is funny how the Sox go through Shortstops like how Spinal Tap went through drummers, luckily the drummers with Spinal Tap ended their time better with the band than the Shortstops with the Sox.
julio is still a FA and is still looking for crawford type money
lugo may be the last A+ FA and the signing team would have to forfeit 2 first round draft picks
as far as SS you are absolutely correct. and you could add 2nd baseman to that, if it hadn’t been for pedroia. prior to pedroia, we had a new 2nd bagger each season.
we go through a lot of players. it happens when a team values value and value having the best available folks. this strategy means free spending for the elite. and value shopping for the fill ins.
you have to save money somewhere.
I know, schadenfreude and all but seriously
Can we stop calling their offseason a disaster? What did they need? They already had a decent bullpen, they kept it strong by signing Soriano and Mo. They had a hole at SS, which they filled with the only player they possibly could, even if it was a little drawn out and tense. They signed the catcher we all wanted in Martin, they have Montero right there just in case. First base, second base and third base are all locked up, so there’s the infield. They didn’t need another outfielder, it didn’t make sense for them to, Gardner gives them everything Crawford could.
The only thing they really need get this offseason is a starting pitcher, I’d be pretty content with Nova as a 5th, as a 4th? Maybe not. They need a pitcher and just because they didn’t get Lee (who really, from what I’ve heard a lot of Yankees fans didn’t want anyway, that was even before he became sour grapes) doesn’t mean they aren’t going to get a pitcher. Their offseason isn’t finished yet and when it’s all said and done, Mitre will not be in the rotation anymore.
It’s nice to say “disaster” and pair it with the Yankees but really, they didn’t have a lot they had to do this offseason to improve their team.
Now that I’ve defended the Yankees, I’ma go play real world frogger with myself, adios amigos.
"We are not normal, We are Legends. People will tell their kids about us." - Deon Butler before Ohio State Game 2008.
They needed to get better.
Now, maybe that comes from having all those terrifying contracts like A-Rod and Teixeira ease the fear by beating 4 WAR next year, but they’re not actually getting younger.
The Red Sox had some big seasons last year from guys like Beltre. To avoid seeing a big dip, they had to replace them with guys who were actually likely to keep it up—thus Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez. The Yankees had the same big seasons, getting a combined 12 WAR from Cano and Gardner. Now, maybe they repeat, but if you give them that maybe, then you give us Jed Lowrie and Clay Buchholz.
We got a lot better, they stayed stagnant. That’s why you’ve got the major projection systems of the world giving us 8 game leads on the AL East.
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by Ben Buchanan on Jan 25, 2011 7:05 PM EST up reply actions
I just think they really had no choice but to stay stagnant
They had to re-sign Jeter and Rivera, just like we really had to pick up Papi’s option. They couldn’t do anything with the infield and Martin could be a solid improvement at catcher. In the outfield, I can’t really say that Crawford really would have been worth the upgrade, maybe a 2 WAR upgrade over the 13 the starters put up last year for $20M? The only upgrade they could really make was at starting pitcher, because of the contracts they already have in place. They missed Lee, but I contend that they’ll have another starter, a decent one, when it’s all said and done.
I can see a case that this offseason was bad for them because of how good WE got, but I can’t say it was bad for them because of anything they did or didn’t do because, there wasn’t much they could do.
"We are not normal, We are Legends. People will tell their kids about us." - Deon Butler before Ohio State Game 2008.
mfy off season grades, probably have more to do with the press.
if the mfy have even a hint of discontent with cashman, the paper will cover it as if the twin towers were hit again.
that garbage sells papers, etc.
there wasn’t much they had to do – OF was value set, entire fair ball infield was set with aroid, jeter, cannot and tex.
they made a move on catcher, moved posada to dh, dumped manasoto.
improved, a good bull pen.
pitching was a sore spot.
hell, last year late, maybe september, both the rays and mfy were on pace for a 100 win season.
they aren’t in too bad of shape for 2011.
You might say that swinging and missing on Lee was their only huge miss...
But that they’ve forced themselves into a corner is their mistake, and shouldn’t be discounted as being a bad offseason.
Jeter is not Papi, because Papi showed he can still produce last year, and he comes on a one year deal. Jeter is a year removed from being great, but given his age, I don’t see how you can expect a huge bounceback year without any mitigating circumstances. He’s a long-term money sink with limited-to-no value.
Ditto things like having both A-Rod and Tex signed up for most of the remaining decade. Add Posada’s age and Montero’s positionless status and you’ve just got too many guys filling up the limited positions where defense isn’t important. They have three decent-great fielding outfielders, and 5 1B/DH types. It limits their ability to work in a restrictive free agent market.
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by Ben Buchanan on Jan 25, 2011 10:21 PM EST up reply actions
I think Gardner and Cano are the real deal
!!!!! GONZO !!!!!
!!!!! CRAWFORD !!!!!
!!!!! LIVERPOOL !!!!!
They're both very good players, no doubt.
I just wonder if they’re this good, much as many people wonder if Lowrie is that good. Gardner’s only done it for about 200 more PA overall, if you count Lowrie’s strong start in 2008.
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by Ben Buchanan on Jan 25, 2011 10:01 PM EST up reply actions
excellent roster values, presently
it’s nice having good low paid guys to complement the “big stars” the ‘elite’ players, etc. otherwise known in new york as the over paid bums.
mfy organization may not be the same organization that georgie left
Gardner will be the real deal once he gets strong enough to hit a baseball out of the infield.
Brett Anderson is the Truth. Brett Anderson is divine presence. Brett Anderson is eternal life. Brett Anderson is within you. Brett Anderson is here. Brett Anderson is Now.
by Frederick0220 on Feb 2, 2011 5:26 PM EST up reply actions
For the Yankees? Yes, a disaster.
PR-wise its been an absolute mess. The only way it could have gone worse with Jeter is if they failed to re-sign him or paid more than the 51 million that he’s already guaranteed to earn. Cashman had all the leverage in the world with Jeter and he got played.
Its worse that NY had their hand in negotiations for Crawford and Lee. Could they have afforded it? Absolutely, thats not even a question. I don’t know if we ever got a formal offer from NY to Crawford but to think that there was nothing on the table would be naive. The bottom line is that they had a chance to address a glaring weakness (which looks even worse now that Petitte probably won’t pitch this season) with one of the best pitchers in the game and they failed. One could argue that it was out of their hands, what with Lee accepting less to go to Philly, but it still looks bad. Crawford would have been a luxury, still anyone who thinks Gardner isn’t due for at least a small decline is delusional. If Crawford had signed with an NL team then its not too bad, but it came after the Adrian Gonzalez trade and was followed by the epic lulz that came with the Lee signing. Cashman didn’t pull the trigger on a Greinke trade that would have certainly salvaged the offseason and was then overruled by ownership to overpay an aging and injury prone reliever (a definite upgrade but an overpay nonetheless).
If Theo isn’t as aggressive and has an offseason like last year then Cashman staying relatively quiet is fine. The Sox however are fielding a drastically improved team over a very good one last year that managed to win 89 games while being decimated by injuries to key players. Lets not get it twisted, this is all about Sox vs. Yankees. One team addressed every problem last season and managed to get younger while adding marquee names. The other did nothing but overpay for two ageing (very good, but aging) players, add an injury prone catcher, and sign another oft injured reliever.
It wasn’t the worst offseason possible, but it was certainly bad. Is it salvageable? Possibly; but the market for dependable starting pitching is more or less headlined by Joe Blanton, who I would salivate at seeing in Pinstripes.
I refuse to devalue a player for arguments sake, in the same respect you could say we made a trade for and then didn’t sign a first baseman who is a question mark to be healthy to start the season and a LF who is about to play in one of the smallest left fields in baseball and not hit leadoff for us. They got the best catcher available this offseason who has, in the past, shown he can be a 5 WAR player, they had no choice, they had to re-sign Jeter and Mo, and they signed one of the best relievers available this year.
The ONLY thing they could have done is to sign a pitcher, but even then, signing Lee would prevent them in the future from improving their team. They COULDN’T get younger this year, nearly impossible for them to, with Tex, Cano, Jeter and ARod signed to multi-year deals the infield is locked up with (mostly) good players and with Gardner, Granderson and Swisher, they have an excellent outfield. They signed Martin at catcher, and have Montero waiting at AAA. That’s an entire set of positional players they either couldn’t, nor in most cases would want, to replace. Their bullpen is fine, it got better with signing Soriano, sure they lost their pick, but they have the money to sign anywhere in the draft like we go. The ONLY thing they can change really is their starters when you look at it. They could have signed Lee, but down the road he would put them in the same conundrum they are now with their positional players, how can we get younger? Polled before Lee signed with Philly, a good bit of Yankee’s fans didn’t even want him for that very reason. Greinke, sorry, wouldn’t touch him with a 39 and a half foot pole. They don’t need to get a top of the rotation guy, maybe someone in the 2-4 range, to bump Mitre out and Nova down to 5, where I bet he could probably be as good as Dice-K. Carmona, Zambrano, Masterson, Blanton, really anyone they have the ammunition to get, and there are way more pitchers available than we fans are made aware of, anyone think Marcum was available? I know I didn’t until it happened.
There was really nothing they could do, look at it position by position. And even then, it’ll be a fight to the end with the teams we have now. They were a great team last year, we were a great team last year, replacing a couple of our greatest players. We argue against signing players for the sake of signing players, when the Yankees went out and got Tex and CC and Burnett we held pat, and were still very competitive. Why should we argue that the Yankees have to do something because we did something? They’re going to be as competitive as hell regardless of what we do. I’m just sick of people hating on the Yankees around here for the sake of doing it without looking at it logically, we make fun of them for all their big free agent signings and then we make fun of them when they don’t make them? It makes no sense to me. We have to cut through the crap and look at the bottom line and at times, defend our rivals because they’re all we’ve got in this league. And the bottom line is, they’re probably about as good as we are without all the players they might have acquired, and will be as good as us when they get another pitcher, which we all have to admit we know is coming.
"We are not normal, We are Legends. People will tell their kids about us." - Deon Butler before Ohio State Game 2008.
Not hating on them at all.
I’m about as objective as a die-hard Sox fan can get. Do I think they will be a bad team? Certainly not. They’ve retained the core of their lineup and improved their bullpen with Soriano.
Call me crazy but considering how hard they went after Cliff Lee, they needed to sign him to consider their offseason successful. It was their biggest hole and one of the best pitchers in the game was available. It was a shock to see the Yankees not get their man.
The biggest focus for the MFY in the offseason
had to be their starting pitching. They should had look at many options instead of thinking that Cliff Lee was going to solve all their problems. They lost Lee and it looks like they lost Pettitte, the minimum for the half season, if not forever.
Their only consolidation is the Sox starting pitching is questionable as well. As much as the Sox change their line up from good to scary, with Gonzalez in the line up, pitching was the Sox’s problem in 2010.
The MFY still has a very scary batting lineup. They can still wear down pitchers, they can hurt a team any inning of a game, they know how to comeback from big deficits. They will have two relievers who can shut down a good team…
On paper, the Sox are a better team, but one pitch can change a game, and things go up and down during a season.
by superferret on Jan 25, 2011 10:09 PM EST up reply actions
had to be their starting pitching. They should had look at many options instead of thinking that Cliff Lee was going to solve all their problems. They lost Lee and it looks like they lost Pettitte, the minimum for the half season, if not forever.
What other options? The only thing I fault the Yankees for is not making a bigger push for Greinke. The other options are all scrubs. They can’t be blamed for Pettitte not making a decision, and right now it is looking more like he is going to come back then retire, but we shall see.
Writer for Pinstripe Alley, MLB Daily Dish
Follow me on twitter @nyybrandonc
Cashman is definitely gone after this year.
Quite frankly, I dont think he wants to be there anymore. I would like to see what he could do with another team though. I think he gets a bad rap for a lot of the signings that have been made while he has been the GM. I think if he had the final say there wouldnt be that many bad contracts and I believe thats why he is speaking out so much. He wants people (future employers) to know that all of the contracts were not him, but the owners making those decisions. I think he has wanted to rebuild the farm system for over 5 years now and the Steinbrenners havent allowed him to.
If he can't get a job as a GM
which I think is possible but not likely. Do you think Theo would hire him to be the Internation Free Agent coordinator? He’s got a ton of overseas contacts.
I'm a 7 WAR player in bed.
Official Baker of Red Sox Nation
by TheLoneDavid on Jan 26, 2011 1:23 PM EST up reply actions
Revenge for taking Damon.
You got our caveman, we have the guy who brought so many World Series rings to New York.
I'm a 7 WAR player in bed.
Official Baker of Red Sox Nation
by TheLoneDavid on Jan 26, 2011 1:39 PM EST up reply actions
I'd be interested to see how responsible Cash is for that part of the organization.
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by Ben Buchanan on Jan 26, 2011 4:49 PM EST up reply actions
If he leaves New York I doubt he wants to go to another big market team. I would guess he would be a candidate to join the Rays or Twins or a team like that.
Writer for Pinstripe Alley, MLB Daily Dish
Follow me on twitter @nyybrandonc
I don't doubt he'd want to go to a smaller market team
wishful thinking on my part.
I'm a 7 WAR player in bed.
Official Baker of Red Sox Nation
by TheLoneDavid on Jan 28, 2011 1:42 PM EST up reply actions
'I think he has wanted to rebuild the farm system'
mfy have a very good farm league – top 5 in MLB
and this, despite their FA ‘A’ signings and the prospects being traded for ganderson, etc.
Yeah, they hit it big last year.
We’ll see how that pans out long-term though.
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by Ben Buchanan on Jan 26, 2011 7:32 PM EST up reply actions
I agree.
I can’t imagine coming out and making such bold statements while old George was around. He’s almost daring them!
"There's no place like it, and it's ours." - Stephen King on Fenway Park
by 808BostonSportsFan on Jan 26, 2011 9:58 PM EST up reply actions
the yankees are in trouble
if petitte retires come playoff time they will be lacking the starters to really compete verse the cream of the crop. even if petitte comes back they still really have one ace. the yanks offense and bullpen and sabathia will still win a lot of regular season games and contend for playoff spot but once the psotseason hits the starting staff will sink them.
meant could be in trouble^^^
they will win in regular season but come playoffs u really need 2 or more front line pitchers.
by brady12mvp3 on Jan 26, 2011 11:34 AM EST up reply actions
What they really need is for AJ Burnett to have a bounceback year
Thats going to be a huge key for them. If Burnett pitches like the top of the rotation guy he was in 2008 and 2009 for the Yankees, thats a huge lift.
If he does, then Sabathia Hughes and Burnett is actually a pretty solid top three to have in the postseason. Still, getting Pettitte back would be great.
I wouldn’t rule out a possible trade at the deadline either for a starter if the Yankees really feel they need one.
"I'll do whatever it takes to win games, whether it's sitting on a bench waving a towel, handing a cup of water to a teammate, or hitting the game-winning shot."- Kobe Bryant
2008 with the Blue Jays and 2009 with the Yankees*
"I'll do whatever it takes to win games, whether it's sitting on a bench waving a towel, handing a cup of water to a teammate, or hitting the game-winning shot."- Kobe Bryant
Cashman isn't going anywhere
He has recently said he wanted to stay, and Hal Steinbrenner also said that he and Cashman have a great working relationship and that he wants him beyond 2011.
People can have their differences in opinions. But overall I would be surprised if Cashman isn’t the Yankee GM in 2012.
Also, I don’t think it’s fair to call the Yankees offseason a “failure”. It’s essentially the same team that got 2 games from the World Series in 2010. This years Yankees are hopefully going to be stronger defensively at the catching position with Martin (and maybe offensively too) and also with a stronger bullpen. Yes, if Pettitte doesn’t come back thats a big loss, but with Burnett likely to be better in 2011 and any pitcher they get capable of replacing Vazquez’s negative WAR from this past season the Yankees aren’t in that bad a shape. Do they have question marks? Absolutely, but they’ll be right in the race with the Red Sox for the AL East. I wouldn’t be surprised in the least if it goes to the last week.
"I'll do whatever it takes to win games, whether it's sitting on a bench waving a towel, handing a cup of water to a teammate, or hitting the game-winning shot."- Kobe Bryant
Of course they're both going to say that.
It doesn’t make it true, though.
Brett Anderson is the Truth. Brett Anderson is divine presence. Brett Anderson is eternal life. Brett Anderson is within you. Brett Anderson is here. Brett Anderson is Now.
by Frederick0220 on Feb 2, 2011 5:27 PM EST up reply actions
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