Why is that? 6 more wins is six more wins no matter who it is against. With six more wins we have the same record as Boston. If one of them comes against Boston then our record is one game better than theirs.
I'm not positive either are gone. They need a first baseman and they need starting pitching. If they can't get who they want then they may go back to them, at far less money of course.
As of the time of my writing this, you've had 11 minutes to read further down the page to where jonnyd already pointed this out, and I accepted my fault for the mistake.
Six games is an awful lot for one pitcher to make up, no matter how good he is. And you can't go into 2008 with the knowledge of how it happened. If we go into next season with Sabathia, Sheets, and Teixeira, and the three of them are involved in a freak spring training accident with Joba, Wang, and Pettitte that puts every one of them out for the season, would you think it was a bad move to sign them? Would you blame Cashman for not doing more for the rotation? Of course you wouldn't. (Well, Don probably would.) No one expected Hughes and Kennedy to be AS bad as they were. No one expected to lose Wang AND Joba for 30+ starts. No one expected that the Yanks might need to rely on Ponson, Rasner, and assorted riff raff for those starts. And no one COULD reasonably expect that. The only thing you might say is that Cashman didn't do enough to improve the rotation after the injuries did happen... but as has been stated, the pitching wasn't the problem much of the time.
Ahaha. Its a good economic strategy with high yield contingent upon whether they sign elsewhere or not.
oh yeah, and he threw only 59 pitches... I guess BUST is the right word to describe the kid. Especially since out of the hundred-something pitchers in the AFL he's the 12th youngest i think
:up: Seriously though, I doubt Giambi comes back, unless he plans to play for the vet's minimum, and even then, I doubt he comes back. We need a first baseman, and Giambi showed this year that he doesn't have enough left to be that guy. We already have too many DHs on the team. Giambi won't be back, I'm all but certain of it. Pavano, maybe. If the Yankees can't get enough help (which I think would only be one or two of the whole Peavy, Sabathia, Burnett, Lowe, whatever group,) then I'd say Pavano has a shot to come back on a low-ball salary, especially if Moose can't be convinced to return on reasonable terms. Right now, we have Wang, Chamberlain, Hughes. Yes, I'm counting Hughes in the starting rotation. Chances are we can get Andy to return at low cost. So really, right now, if we only got one of those guys, we'd be okay going into the year. If we can get Moose back, even better. Let's not forget Aceves and Kennedy for the back of the rotation. It's clearly not ideal to not get at least one name out of the pitching market, but it's survivable. So really, in the end, it's doubtful the Yankees become desperate enough to bother with Giambi or Pavano.
thankfully the Yankees are not agreeing with you at this point in counting Hughes in the rotation. It would be very irresponsible to do so after last years happenings. Cashman already said, Joba and Wang are all thats being counted AT THIS POINT.
I absolutely understand that, and I also totally agree with that thinking. My point wasn't necessarily that Hughes is a sure-bet for the rotation come April, but rather that if we can't sign Sabathia, Burnett and trade for Peavy, it's not the end of the world.
Don't forget Pettitte...he seems in now if only as a 4th or 5th. Mussina may still decide to come back too and that's when things get tricky. Do the Yankees pass on some of these FAs or decide against a trade to bring them back for 1 more year? I don't think that's a great idea.
stubbed toe is drastically different from the severely sprained ankle he actually had... but good try
Obviously, there was some slight bit of sarcasm in that. The point is that in two years he almost pitched as little as Pavano. Maybe he did actually depending on which two of Pavano's years you take. And he wasn't even as good as Pavano save 2 or 3 games when he did pitch.
dwalsh, we all know that Don can go overboard but in fairness, Hughes can be labeled a bit fragile at this point no? And certainly not a quick healer
...with the major league club. Because they didn't want to rush him back from either of his injuries. What a joke of a comparison. Don would be right about everything if it weren't for the 98% of the time he was wrong. Maybe. The thing is, none of the injuries are Mark Prior-ish. He's not winding up on the DL with elbow or shoulder problems again and again. A cracked rib, a popped hammy, and a sprained ankle. I don't know if it's fragility/injury proneness or just freakish accidents. Obviously, we'd all like to see what he could do with a full season of good health... and we haven't seen one the past two years. As it stands, I'm withholding judgment until we see what happens the next two seasons. And his recovery time was exactly what would be expected given the injuries he sustained. It's not like he missed eight months with tendonitis that wouldn't go away or something. The reason it might have seemed like a longer rehab than "normal" is that -- with a very young, top prospect -- they weren't in a hurry to rush him back to the bigs.