Curtis Granderson and Brian Bruney trades

It seems Yankees never stay still during any point of season, including off-season and playoffs. This certainly gives Yankees fans many things to talk about and have chances to love Yankees more which is a good thing.

There is no exception this off-season as well.

As for Brian Bruney trade, I really can't say I will miss him because it seems to me he always walks tons of guys that is a big no-no for me to a pitcher. I rather pitchers to give up hits than walking guys.

As for Curtis Granderson trade, my first reaction is Yankees giving up a little bit too much for him. Personally, I won't give up Austin Jackson for him. That being saying, I will rather Yankees have him than giving another big long term contract to relative older players, such as Jason Bay and Matt Holliday. Of course, I know they are much better overall players than Curtis Granderson. But, at some point, you have to ask how many long term contracts Yankees want to tie to for at least next 5 years.

I don't know prospects good enough to say which team gets the best deal out of this three-way trade. However, no one knows for sure how all the prospects will turn out to be.

If what Brian Cashman says is true which Yankees’ priority this off-season is pitching and a left fielder with no-so-firm fewer pay roll on hand, I think this deal means few things. First of all, I think this deal pretty much closes door on Jason Bay and Matt Holliday. Brian Cashman always likes to have flexibility. I don’t think he will go out to give another long term deal.

As for Johnny Damon, Yankees probably gain some leverages during negotiation. If Damon asks more than 2 year deal which I won’t give to him, I can see Yankees go to lesser players in order to add some depth. As we see this season, Melky and Gardner can handle the platoon situation. That being saying, Damon is a good fit to no.2 spot as DH and plays some games at the left field in order to give DH spot for Posada, Jeter, A-Rod and Teixeira once a while.

Brian Cashman probably focuses on starting pitchers and bench players from this point on. However, I think this deal may have an impact on Roy Halladay deal for couple of reasons. Of course, I assume Yankees will get Pettitte’s deal done at some point of this off-season.

Firstly, I don’t think Cashman is willing to give up prospects and giving another big long term contract to a pitcher after signing AJ and CC the past off-season. As history shows, there is a big risk to give any pitcher a long term contract. One will think two long term contracts to pitchers will be enough. I know Roy Halladay is an ACE, but he will be 33 year old in 2010. Do you really want to sign him through 37,38?

Secondly, I don’t think Cashman want to give up all good prospects he has at the same off-season after dealing Austin Jackson, Ian Kennedy and Phil Coke. You don’t give up prospects and let him walk at the end of 2010 season. Draft picks mean much less for Yankees than other small market teams. As Girardi shows he can handle the bullpen well, Yankees will need all the pitching depth they have on the higher minor league system to fill up their bullpen and(or) rotation. You can’t deal all of them away.

If I have to guess now, I think Yankees will bet and sign one or two veteran starting pitchers for a short term deal this off-season in order to fill up the end of rotation. Let us wait and see.

Let’s Go Yankees!

A rebound year from Hughes, Kennedy, Melky and Cano?

Accroding to RAB regard of Greg Maddux's retirement at winter meeting, the information to young pitcher:“the best way to learn is to screw up and not do it again.”

Immediately, I think about Hughes, Kennedy, Melky and Cano. I hope Yankees don't trade them and believe they may have a bound back year in 2009. Before 2008, they haven't actually failed in their professional baseball. I believe they all learn a lot from 2008 season and will do well in 2009.

Don't trade Phil Hughes

I am pretty sure Mets regret the decision to trade Kazmir to Rays.

I know Hughes just ended his terrible 2008 season when pitches not so well in Arizona Fall League. I am sure a lot of fans regret not to trade him for Santana when a lot of writers and experts say how terrible decision Cashman make past off-season. Not for me. I still believe Hughes will be a good no.3 pitcher at major.

I realize how impatient a lot of Yankees fans are. Guys, Hughes is 22 year old. The reason for Phil Hughes to pitch in Arizona Fall League is to gain more experience, use his secondary pitches more, fix his delivery and command and get more innings in. The same thing goes to Kennedy when he was sent back to minor league second time. They should not focus on putting great stats because it's impossible to allow them to practice other pitches at major league level.

It's over, but don't play blame game.

First of all, I am so happy for Moose for his 19th win. I really hope he can win 20 this season. When I was watching Yankees game yesterday, I can't help myself about keep tracking score of Red Sox-Indians game. I usually don't care much about what happen to Red Sox and only check boxscore. I was hoping Yankees was eliminated because of losing game, not because of Red Sox winning game.

I know there are tons of news about how poor Yankees have been played, how much Yankees should miss Joe Torre, how well Red Sox has played, how many players Red Sox raised from their farm system, how badly Yankees spend their money, how terrible job Brian Cashman does, how dreadful Yankees young players have been played and why Yankees should trade for Santana. Anything else?

But, I am not going to talk about this. As you guys know, this is a blog to talk about positive things. These are all second-guess. No one knows what would happen during any game. No one knows what would happen if Joe Torre was here. No one knows what would happen when you sign any free agent and draft any prospect. No one knows how young players would peform every year. No one knows what Hughes and Kennedy would do the rest of his career. No one knows what would happen if Santana was here. No one knows how Santana would perform the rest of his contract for Mets. No one knows if we really go after Santana, how many potential major league players or superstars we would give up. No one knows if we really go after Santana, he may end up in Boston.

The things I know for sure. We will have a great bullpen next season. Wang, Matsui, Posada, Hughes, Joba and Jeter will be back and healthy for us next season. A-Rod and the rest of position players will not hit worse when runners on base than this season. Joe Giradi will do his job better when he gets his feet wet this year, especially when you consider he well he manages the bullpen. All young players get one more year experience. We will have money to address our problems this off-season. What else?

Let's Go Yankees!

Give the kid a second chance

These are quotes from Kennedy from Pinstripe Posts before sending down 3A,

Kennedy regretted saying that he was not too broken up about the way he pitched in Friday night's disaster.

"I could tell by some of your faces that it came out wrong,'' Kennedy said. "I was very disappointed with myself.'' IPK said

Despite his troubles in '08, "I wouldn't trade this year for the world.''

This reminds me when I get my first job after graduating from University. I remember I made all kind of mistakes and I actually thought I was going to get fired very soon.

Kennedy is a kid who is just 23 year old and just graduated from university like you, me and everyone else at some point. Everyone makes mistakes. Why not give him a second chance as long as he learns something from mistakes.

Some random thought...

****What Yankees fans are doing when they don't have Yankees games to watch? Well, we pay attention on Red Sox and Mets games, aren't we? We should just focus on our team, but it's hard to blame us when we have free time, right?

****After watching Red Sox-Diamondbacks game, I know one thing for sure, Joe Girardi is not the only manager in the major who decides to pitch to Manny when game is on the line even though I am fine with that decision. Why manager of Diamondback decide to pitch to Manny when you lead 2-1 in the 8th inning, second and third with 2 outs, first base open and Lowell on deck? Talk about crazy move. This one is true one than the one Joe Girardi has. How about taking Haren out when he hadn't pitched more than 100 pitches?

****After watching Mets-Mariners game and Dice-K's first game back from DL, I know one thing for sure, I am glad Brian Cashman is our GM who doesn't do everything without thinking. Santana will be a great pitcher in few years, but we won't miss him down the road. Giving up grand slam to a AL pitcher and blaming teammate about making error behind him after the game. How about his defense? Who gave him that gold glover last year? I also notice Dice-K's velocity is way down. We all know the command will be the problem for pitchers who just come back from DL. But when you see their velocity is not there, you know there is something you need to worry about, especially when you consider Dice-K comes back from shoulder injury and the long history of pitching crazily long back to Japan.

****I read couple of news about how well Yankees' starters have been since Wang's injury. Guys, Don't get too excited too soon, when you consider Wang's turn just comes up once and Yankees is on soft schedule which they faces a lot of weak hitting NL teams. Don't get me wrong. I am happy every one pitches so well and can't wait to have the happy problem which we have too many starters when Kennedy will be back in July, "Pavano" and Hughes in August and Wang in September.

****When you talk about crazy fans, I think Yankees fans can be included on the list. Don't forget Taiwanese fans as well. Some Taiwanese start dreaming that Wang does his rehab games for Taiwan national team in 2008 Olympic in Beijing. Crazy!

****I will keep updating Wang's news I get from Taiwanese news. Basically, Yankees teammates keep teasing Wang because he hurts himself by running bases. But, they all keep eyes on him when he is on the trainer's room the whole day. Trainer and Wang seems to have confidence in beating the time.

That's why you need to keep watching game...

I have to talk about Mets first. I hate those Mets dancing and act cockily when they won two games against us at Yankees Stadium. That's why I am so happy to hear they got swept by Brave, especially Johan Santana can't be their stopper while Kennedy pitch well at the same day. I know it's only one day and Santana still pitch pretty well so far this season.

I am always the one only care about how Yankees performance. The reason I am so mad because I heard Willie Randolph saying "You can't assume getting the same offense against Braves like we did against Yankees when you consider what kind of pitching staff Yankees have " when he was asked by reporters before Santana's start why Mets' offense have been struggle mighty against Braves. Don't get me wrong. I like Willie Randolph, but why say this kind of words("What kind of pitching staff Yankees have")?

I believe that most Yankees fans like me have faith on our team and that's why we keep watching games. Those games in the past week you hope you miss them, but these 4 games this week you better not to miss. It seems that first game against Orioles will be our turning point of the season, right?

One thing Todd is right on the money,

They will tighten up the defense and pound out some hits and runs tonight.

They certainly play good defense, pitch well, and score some runs at the last couple of games. But the thing I like the most is tactics from Joe Girardi. For example, Girardi play hit and run at the 2-1 game that leads to first run of game. He also put Kennedy in the spot which he has to work out of his own trouble in the 6th inning. I like this and he is right. I think Girardi said, "he can't expect to be rescued all the time". This is the way to let young pitchers grow up.

SEE...

RELAX...

Our captain is BACK and contribute 2RBI immediately. Kennedy pitches a good game. On top of that, We will have Pettitte, Wang the next two games.

This game is from relax to nervous to sweat to angry to happy, right?

We all know they play indoor ballpark. If weather is the reason why our offense is struggling, we certainly can see why we struggle at playoff, right? We may need to put the top on New Yankees Stadium, right? Just Kidding...

lousy blogger with her lousy Yanks and team?

I have to admit one thing. When it comes down to being a blogger, I am a lousy one. Sorry for lack of posts recently. Being busy should not be a legit reason. I always think and check more than twice before posting any opinion because I want to make sure I say something it's worthy to read, otherwise I will just delete it.

One thing I remain pretty consistently is trying post positive somethings about my New York Yankees. Few Yankees(Kennedy, Andy, Mussina, Farnsworth and Hakwins) all have a rough week for sure, but I am not going to go through that. Even more Yankees fans complain about Yankees' 3-3 record and slow offense start. Well, I actually think We will be fine if we get a split with Rays when we win first series with Blue Jays. It's not easy to win a four-games series against any team and it's normal to split them.

I think Kennedy, Andy and Mussina all will be fine for different obvious reasons. As a whole, I like what I saw from our pitching staff. As long as they all stay healthy the whole season, our pitching staff will be better than 2007 for sure. I haven't gotten the point to worry about our offense for sure.

The most impressive thing I got during the first week of 2008 season is the ability to push the right button and recognize his players from Joe Girardi. For example, He put Matsui on the 8th hole on the opening day because of his bad stats against Roy Halladay, but move him behind A-Rod last night after seeing few good swings from him. He also left Wang in the 7th inning on the Opening day, but quickly made a pitching change last night when he recognized Wang was tired in the 7th last night.

We are going to have a good season behind Joe Girardi. I can feel that.

Yankees(Kennedy) vs Indians(Byrd)

I think we all read into too much about Spring Training games, Thanks to Chad Jennings' SWB Blog, We get one of best quote from players to prove that statement,

One of the New York reporters asked Hawkins if this spring training has been about as good as he could have hoped,

"Spring don't mean sh**, dude."

But, I do believe you definitely can see epitome of players' possible regular season performance.

When you saw Kennedy throwing 48 out of 91 pitches for strikes which is 52%, you know his stuff and command wasn't there. After giving up 4 runs in the first inning, Kennedy actually came back to pitch almost 4 scoreless innings even though he continuously struggled through the whole 5 inning. I like he didn't give up and lose composure in order to keep Yankees in the game, especially when you consider he pitched against great hitting team(Indians). If Hughes, Kennedy and Mussina all give us 3-4 runs at 5-6 innings, we are in good shape. Of course, They will turn into a gem once a while.

The only thing I have problem with Kennedy is his PFP(Pitchers Fielding Practice). He should and will pay attention on that more for sure after this game. If he cover first base and turn that DP, He probably escape this first inning disaster. You can't afford to give good teams extra out because they will make you pay for that.

As for Melky's error, I won't react that too much after I see how difficult for Matsui and Sizemore catch couple of flyballs. These are obvious evidences to prove that difficult condition(wind/no cloud) for players tracking the balls. But, since Melky plays center field, I do feel Melky is not so good at first jump as a CF. He probably need more experience or practice for that, but Melky did has a great arm to stop opponents' running game.

I won't overreact Giambi's missing tag for that possible out when Molina threw to him because Giambi did pick up a nice ground ball and almost turn a beautiful DP if Kennedy remember to cover first base. We all know Giambi won't be a gold glover at first base and won't play there every game. As long as he stays healthy and produce, I won't have problems with that.

The more I saw Molina playing, the more I feel what a great underrating signing and trade for cashman. He gives us a great backup catcher who is very good at defense while he is not automatically out on the plate as well.

Interesting...

I just notice this news from Taiwanese media. Wang threw 75 pitches bullpen section for 25 minutes yesterday. 75 pitches?? Is it too much?

Also, Peter just posted pitching lineup for today game. Joba will pitch ahead of Kennedy?? I think Kennedy pitched ahead of Joba the last couple of games before today game. Does this mean something? Does this mean Joba lead the case ahead of Kennedy for a spot in the rotation? I don't know. I may read into too much. How do you guys think?

Kennedy, Melky, Wang for Santana?

Buster Olney on ESPN Radio just blew me away regard for one last call from Twins GM Bill Smith to Brian Cashman yesterday. Bill Smith asked Cashman:" How about Kennedy, Melky and Wang for Santana?" Man, Sorry for away from being a Yankee fan for a moment. As a Taiwanese, Thank God! Cashman said "No, Thanks". After a while, I am glad to hear Cashman said" No, Thanks" even though I am being a Yankee fan after wondering this ideal again. But, How about you?

P.S Just Rumors... I have no idea what kind of degree the truth of these rumors reach... I believe we will have tons of rumors flying around continuously on following days as well.