Saturday, August 4, 2007

Roster Moves

With Hughes being activated from the 60-day DL today, the Yanks will have to (a) remove someone from the 25 man roster and (b) remove that same player, or a different player, from their 40 man roster.

Any guesses as to who that might be? My guess is Karstens or Henn gets sent back to AAA, and one of the fringe guys on the 40 man roster is removed (like Bronson Sardinha or something).

The more difficult decision will come on Monday when Giambi is activated from the 15-day DL. It pains me to say it, but I think the odd man out has to be Miguel Cairo. The trade for Betemit makes him expendable, even though he's done an admirable job filling in wherever needed for a long time. Giambi should then join a rotation with Phillips, Damon, Abreu, Matsui, Melky, and Duncan where 2 of those players will have to sit each day. This should keep everyone fresh and give the team its strongest bench since the Cecil/Strawberry/Chili days.

Which leaves two questions. (1) If Joba Chamberlain is called up soon, as expected -- who goes? Probably whoever doesn't get sent down today between Karstens or Henn. Of course someone else will then need to be removed from the 40 man (Kevin Reese?).

And (2) What do they do if/when Mientciewicz comes back? Phillips and Duncan are the two most obvious choices to get sent down just in terms of stature, but both are clearly superior hitters -- and Phillips MORE than holds his own defensively. If I'm Cashman, I wait until the last possible minute to make sure no one else gets hurt, and then I release Dougie. He's just not a major league hitter, and his defense doesn't make up for his lack of offense. I could also see the Yanks waiting until September to activate him since the rosters will expand at that point.

September callups should include Chris Britton, Edwar Ramirez, Tyler Clippard, whoever gets sent down this week (Henn/Karstens?), and Igawa (give him a look in the 'pen). Please though --- no more Colter Bean.

5 comments:

Michael in New York said...

Any chance we could just keep Giambi off the roster? It's not a coincidence his home run or nothing style of play hasn't been missed in the least. Even if he gets a walk, the guy is like a 2 ton roadblock out there on the bases.

joe said...

Not surprisingly we disagree on this. I'm of the opinion that I'd rather have Giambi on base "clogging" things up than have someone faster making more outs. Of course, I'd much rather we had someone that got on base as much as Giambi but could actually contribute in other facets of the game, such as running and fielding. Bottom line -- Giambi gets on base and wears down pitchers, and that's a good thing no matter how you slice it. Plus you have to give the guy credit -- he goes balls to the wall every time he's on the field...he just isn't blessed with much athletic ability.

priv8pete said...

I say we shoot Farnsworth and then shoot him again when Joba is ready to come up.

Michael in New York said...

Boy do we disagree. Giambi is not a positive. We're a better team without him. The DH in general is a poisonous position and it's even worse when the DH is such an uber DH who can barely MOVE and has no skills in the field and exemplifies everything wrong with the game and who can't help but make the players who might want to bunt or hit a single feel like the long ball is the only way to go because that cement mixer on first can't steal a base or even pretend to steal and certainly isn't going to get to third on a single if he's at first. We are a much better team without him and we've seen that. We're winning because we've got eager beavers like Phillips and Duncan and Betimet mixing in with Cano and Melky and veterans like Matsui and A-Rod (who slumped most of July, batting just over .200 while we went on our winning streak) and Jeter and Posada. Giambi pulls us right back in the wrong direction.

Michael in New York said...

Nice guy though, that Giambi. Every player says so.