ESPNDEPORTES.com is reporting that the Yankees and Ronnie Belliard have agreed to a minor league deal. Belliard will make $825,ooo plus incentives if he comes up to the Bronx. I suspect he will and he will also be a good bench player. Not a bad choice. One problem, he'll need to cut his hair.
And of course, on the pitching front, there are many many names being thrown around. Ken Rosenthal had tweeted that the Yankees are also looking at Scott Kazmir, Joe Saunders and even Gio Gonzalez. What did I tell you. The floodgates are opening. Money is burning in Cashman's pocket. Moves need to be made. Patience is out the window.
There is also still plenty of talk and rumor about Cashman continuing to have conversations with starters like Kevin Millwood or Jeremy Bonderman but I suspect something bigger is in the works. Something that no one expects. A February Surprise. I wrote about it in WHY THERE ARE 21 DAYS LEFT and I believe it. Now that Pettitte's retiring is officially confirmed, whatever moves Cash was getting in place are now IN place. I suspect that that whiff about Joba being on the trading block a month ago is actually true, and Cashman's leak to the media about being willing to trade him was just setting it up. Now, he could move forward. I just have no idea who the other player would be and what Yankee prospects Cashman would need to include with Joba to get the deal done. That being said, I think it's going to happen. Why do I feel that way? Because I just don't understand why the Yankees would go after someone like Jeremy Bonderman. It doesn't make sense to me.
And here's a good rumor. Carlos Zambrano. There was talk about this crazy dude last year and it disappeared. But now, the Morris Daily Herald took a nugget from the Chicago Sun Times and are suggesting that Carlos Zambrano is on the Yankees radar again. What? Do we really want to do that? We all know Carlos is a gamer and yes, maybe a change of scenery would be good for this guy, but let's face it, this guy is a ticking time bomb and the Bronx will eat him alive in his first bad outing. But hey, these are desperate times, who would you want, Zambrano or Mitre. (It all goes back to Mitre. Poor, poor Mitre.)What's my point? The Yanks are about to go into high gear, they got the signal and have some extra cash now and my God... here we come. Get ready.
Hey BYB, I totally agree with you. The Yankees already went down the road of getting players with great numbers, but crummy attitudes (ie Kevin Brown and Randy Johnson) and it soured the team chemistry. Zambrano is a good pitcher, but has WAY too much baggage. Fights in the dugout, losing confidence to the point that he was in the bullpen for awhile. Players like Swish and CC are worth so much more than their on field talents because of the great vibes they bring into the clubhouse. I don't know who they need to get, but they do need to make a move. At this point I don't think this rotation intimidates anyone. GO YANKS!
ReplyDeleteBeWi, you sound like you should write for sports. thanks champ.
ReplyDelete