Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Santana Banana

The NYTimes: describes a "flicker of life" in the Santana deal for Yankees.
The NY Daily News: "Yanks Slam Door On Santana"
The NY Post: "Santana Deadline Passes But Yanks Still Favorites"
ESPN: "Red Sox Are Favorites"

Sports "reporting" is a joke. Did all these guys transfer from their jobs covering the build-up to the Iraqi War?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Look at it from an insurance point of view.

If we do the deal and Santana wins the Cy Young, is that enough to put us over the top?.... maybe not.

If we do the deal and Santan blows out his arm or averages 15 wins or less for the next five year, this deal cripples us. Not only do we lose two "potential quality starters", we also lose a center fielder and a boatload of money for FA acquisitions.

Michael in New York said...

I couldn't agree more. The upside -- an extra five games versus one other pitcher's reasonable estimation of 15 wins (I'm thinking Hughes) -- still includes an extra $35 mil to the payroll between Santana and replacing Melky (at the very least). As someone else said, that's like paying $5 mil per game. A wise spending of money? hardly. And as you say, the downside is very very down. The deal never made ANY sense to me. I could see trading Melky alone (though it would have bothered me) but Melky AND one of those three pitchers? Two chips for one chip is a bad trade.

Anonymous said...

Two chips for one chip can be a good trade if you're getting the better of the two chips with no strings attached. The problem in my opinion is the extra money.

I think it's fair to say that the Yankees will win more games with Melky+Hughes+Kennedy and 35 million worth of other free agents per season then they will with Santana and the best CF and 5th starter that negative 35 million (before luxury tax) can buy.

Take Kennedy out of the equation and I still the Yankees win more games with Melky+Hughes+35 million worth of free agents.

Michael in New York said...

And I think since you can't really know the value of the chips that it's all the more important to keep all three. That way you're certain to have the one or two that flourish. Make a trade and you're guaranteed to keep the guy who gets injured and trade the guy who wins 19 games.