CJ, FIELDER & YU... OH MY

We sit here in October, and it is already the off season for the Yankees. That's odd. We are the New York Yankees, known for our October excellence and at the moment we are sitting here watching two decent teams playing in the World Series, a series we should be in.

Did you know that the Yankees have played in 37% of the World Series', and have won exactly 25% of the World Series' ever. Pretty incredible. Now that my venting is done. Let's get to why I'm writing this post.The Bombers sported a great team this year, and with a few good breaks could have been in this year's World Series. Unfortunately we're not. During the regular season, our problem supposedly was pitching, but during the playoffs it was hitting. When we had runners in scoring position, no one could come through! Not Alex Rodriguez, not Mark Teixeira, not Nick Swisher... NO ONE!
That's $59.5 million the Steinbrenner's paid out this year to those players and none of them could come through when we needed it.

Our pitching was so much better than expected with the out of nowhere season Ivan Nova had, plus, Freddy Garcia had his late career re-emergence, and Bartolo Colon's early season excellence provided some stability, for a bit, but in the end, it obviously was not good enough to propel us past the Tigers in the ALDS.

So what happens now? Moves need to be made. My moves are harsh but fair, listen up:

• Nick Swisher: Let him walk or if the Yankees do pick up his option, do what Casey had suggested, make him compete for his outfielder role with a young stallion to prove that no job is safe.

• Bartolo Colon, Freddy Garcia: Thank then for their service and move on. They helped us out wonderfully in 2011, but it's over.

• Jorge Posada: Keep Jorge. Let him take a mentoring type role sort of like Kurt Warner did with Eli. (Read HERE.) Posada would mentor Jesus Montero.

• CC Sabathia: Re-sign CC if he opts-out, a must.

Now, like I've said before, we need a huge bat. I think although one of the best players ever is Albert Pujols, my feeling is at 32 , he's getting up there in years. We also don't need to spend millions on this guy and give him a lot of years. It doesn't make sense to me. To me, I feel like the Yankees should look into Prince Fielder.
He's only 27 and will be entering his prime next year. Ink him to a long term deal and have him split DH duties with Jesus Montero, and have him split first base duties with Tex. Crazy? Not really, in fact, it makes perfect sense. With the short right field porch in Yankee Stadium, I could see him breaking Maris' record... seriously he's that good.

As for the pitching, we need a lot of help there. The bullpen is awesome though with Joba coming back next year it should look something like Joba (6th), RaSo (7th), DRob (8th), Mariano Rivera (9th). That bridge is longer then the Verrazano.For starters, the Yankees could use 2 elite pitchers for next year to have them make the jump from a great team to a legendary team. Those 2 guys in my mind are CJ Wilson who seems like he will be leaving Texas in my opinion, and the other is Japanese import Yu Darvish.
Darvish is twice as good as Daisuke Matsuaka, and is not anal about routine like Dice-K is. Yes, it's risky,but this kid looks like the real deal out of Japan. This is a high risk, high ceiling type of signing.

With the Yankees not making it to the World Series this year, it is obviously looked at as a failure, and we need to improve immensely. The potential signings of Prince Fielder, CJ Wilson, and Yu Darvish, while expensive, would be huge for the Bombers and propel them into World Series favorites for 2012. Now it's Cashman and Hal's time to play. Go get 'em!



--Will Cohen, BYB Staff Writer

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