Tuesday, July 31, 2007
What Would I Do?
It’s currently 10 in the morning… as you sip your Starbucks, you trail the division leading Red Sox by eight games and the Wild Card leading Indians by four. You have had your closer rip his bullpen mates and you’ve got what can be accurately described as a “weak” bench and some questions about the durability and effectiveness of your rotation. Fix it. Oh, and you’ve got just six hours to do it.
What would you do? Bearing in mind that A) No one is going to send you Johann Santana for Kei Igawa; B) Some of your parts have no trade clauses and C) Just because you think a guy should be traded, doesn’t mean he will be.
What are your moves and what does the Aug. 1 25-man roster look like?
Here’s my attempt at GM-for-a-day.
Yankees send: RHP Kyle Farnsworth and INF Eric Duncan to the Houston Astros for 3B Morgan Ensberg and RHP Brad Lidge
Yankees send: LHP Kei Igawa to the Seattle Mariners for CORPSE Jose Vidro
Yankees send: RHP Scott Proctor to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays for HEADCASE Elijah Dukes and RHP Wade Townsend
Why do I do these things?
Well, the difference in Farnsworth and Lidge is negligible, but to my knowledge, Lidge isn’t a complete douchebag… that coupled with Ensberg’s recent DFAmake that an attractive salary package coming back for Houston to the rights to the for Farnsworthless. Duncan is a bit of sweetener, and since most Yankee fans and it seems the organization have soured on him, it’s time to cut bait.
The Mariners expressed interest in Igawa reportedly. They have an overpaid slug too. It’s a match made in salary-based challenge trade heaven.
And Proctor to the Devil Rays… they seem to like him a lot. Tampa also seems to hate Dukes (for obvious reasons), but he’s talented and the Yankees have had luck reclaiming guys with troubled pasts, so its worth a flier. Townsend you all may remember as one of the three aces drafted out of Rice in 2004 (Philip Humber by the Mets, Jeffery Neimann by the Rays and Townsend by the Orioles). Well, Wade didn’t sign, played indy ball and then got redrafted by the Rays in ‘05 and its safe to say they’ve all been a bit disappointing. Townsend’s got an ERA north of 5.00 in the Sally League, but he’s limiting batters to a .239 average and striking out twice as many as he walks (which is a lot). So he’s been a bit of a disappointment.
So after all that, here’s the Aug. 1 25-Man Roster:
Catcher (2)
Posada, J.
Molina, J.
INF (6)
Jeter, D.
Rodriguez, A.
Cano, R.
Phillips, A.
Ensberg, M.
Cairo, M.
OF (4)
Cabrera, M.
Abreu, B.
Matsui, H.
Damon, J.
DH (1)
Vidro, J.
Duncan, S.
Pitchers (11)
Clemens, R.
Wang, C-M
Mussina, M.
Pettitte, A.
Rivera, M.
Lidge, B.
Villone, R.
Vizcaino, L.
Henn, S.
Bruney, B.
Myers, M.
Now, by Saturday, one of the pitchers or Shelley Duncan are back to Scranton for the return of the Franchise, and one of the lefties (Henn or Myers) gets offed sometime between now and next week for Joba’s debut. Giambi’s return probably spells the end for someone too, but I’m not sure who yet, but these things usually take care of themselves.
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