[SteveR]

Here's all the problems now;

Steinbrenner said Torre is out. A lot of the players are on Torre's side and said they'll walk if Torre goes. I bet a lot of the older players that have a history with NY will be among those walking, including Posada, Clemens, Pettitte, Mariano, etc.

It's been the front office screwing things up since the beginning of the 2004 season. After 03, we lost most of our pitchers, except Moose. Their big idea from 04 to 05 was to sign a string of washed up pitchers for a rediculous amount of money. The big trifecta was Wright, Brown, and Pavano. Pavano is by far the worst. Why he is still getting paid is ludicrous. He pitched TWO games this year, ZERO last year, and 17 in 05. He keeps saying that he's hurt, but behind closed doors he says that he doesnt feel like pitching and keeps collecting paychecks. Then Wright who was also hurt for forever, and brown, who hurt himself by breaking his hand on a wall. Then we had Contreras, Loaiza, and a string of bad pitching descisions. The good ones that were made were destroyed by over using them to the point where they were permanently injured and wouldn't pitch again as well. Such as in 04 with the QuanGorMo plan. They used Quantrill so much that year that he burnt his arm out. But the good pitchers that did great were let go. Leiber, El Duque, Small, and a few others picked up the slack that year and were rewarded with a trade somewhere else, most of them to Philly. I think it's quite amusing that all of the pitchers that NY fired after 04, went on to win the World Series with the White Sox the very next year (El Duque, Vazquez, Contreras, Loaiza, and I think one or two relievers).

What NY needs to do is establish a pitching staff. Since 2003, every year the team averages a 60% change over in the players. They never get time to settle in and get used to playing as a team before more trades are made. I think we finally have a few young pitchers that can hopefully stay for a while and develop, such as Chaimberlain, Kennedy, and Hughes. I also think NY needs to look for a closer to work under Mo to eventually take his place. He's an amazing pitcher, but he's been sliding for four years now and he's not getting any younger. Borowski with Cleveland is a free agent after this year, and Lidge will be healthy again next year. They did good over the last two seasons with young position players with Melk, Cano, and Duncan. A few pitchers to look at are; Clement who's now healthy, Colon from Anaheim, Garcia from Philly (he has a lot of potential), Affeldt, and Rogers as starters. Timlin from Boston and Julio from Colorado are good relievers to look at.

The next problem is who to resign and who to let go.

Abreu has shown that he is very consistant and not injury prone. 16 mil is a lot, but drop Pavano and look to trade Damon and you have that money freed up right there.

Damon is a good player, but is prone to injury and can be very streaky. Another possibility for Center Field is Andruw Jones who was released from Atlanta. Two more outfield prospects are Hinske, and Green from the Mets.

Next is A-Rod. The organization has been trying to get rid of him for a while. He is a great player, but has a lot of clubhouse shenanigans. The Yankees dont want to deal with it anymore. A few teams are offering him a lot of money, like the Cubs, but I seriously cant see Panella tollerating A-Rods behavior. I also cant see him going to Detroit as Lelland wont deal with it either. I can however see A-Rod fitting in nicely with the White Sox. Guilen is a young energetic manager and A-Rod's bat on that team would be deadly. You'd have A-Rod, Thome, Dye, Konerko, Pierzynski, Uribe, and Fields. There arent too many free agents at 3B, but Mike Lowell will be available.

As injury prone as Giambi has been, I might keep him as the DH and look for a full time 1B.

Catcher will be pretty good in terms of negotiations. There are a lot of good catchers up this year so look for possibilities with I-Rod, Kendall, Ausmus from the Astros, Lo Duca from the Mets, Javy Lopez, and do I dare say it? Mike Piazza.