I AM THE GM!

Difficult decisions, even keeled disposition and still able to land on his feet?  Not always, as our GM Brian Cashman went on the DL himself after a charity sky dive in early March that broke his leg, so no he does not always land on his feet, but he will die trying.  And as difficult as his decisions are, he has to make them because he is in fact, the head master of the team. 

I would be hard pressed to criticize the decisions he has made, but like all of you, I would love a crack at it.  I mean, who wouldn't want to sit at the helm of one of the biggest and best sports franchises in the game?  Well, I guess some would shy away, but I am up for it, so when I was asked by a colleague, "would I do anything drastic right this moment or let things stay for a while," I contemplated the juxtaposition and came up with this answer- "Who's our next star?" 

Who is going to play first base would be my first challenge.  I am a Mark Teixeira lover, but I fear the worst right now.  As GM, I would not be able to let on that I was worried about Mark's future unlike Kevin Long's diagnosis to reporters this past weekend.  The New York Daily News reports (HERE) that "Saturday night, hitting coach Kevin Long said he didn’t know if Teixeira’s wrist had “been right since he’s been here,” a comment which seemed to irk Cashman.

“It’s alarming in the fact that K-Long would say that to the group of the reporters, but he never said that prior to that,” Cashman said. “This is a lot of times how things work out when things go bad, things get said that if K-Long felt that way he should have been saying that from Day 1, but we never heard that from K-Long."

GMs have to make statements like that and keep other comments to themselves  I can understand why he was "irked."  My boss would be irked at me if I said something like that without letting her know first.

(In Photo: David Adams)
So after I go first base shopping, I would move over to the other corner and find someone to play third.  Now, David Adams certainly came up hot but he hasn't done much for us lately.  He is batting .213 right now and he needs to step things up if he wants to stay in it.  I actually think that Robby Cano would be a good prospect to move over to that side of the diamond but who knows...just speculating.

According to MLB.com, "Brian Cashman knows the First-Year Player Draft is the lifeblood of any Major League team. No matter how much money a team spends in free agency, the key to sustained success on the field is a deep and talented farm system."  This season, is what we need to fulfill right now before the trade deadline.  Who can we pick up?  Chase Utley to play second and Cano at third?  The last Phillie to join us was a real score, but we let him go back to Seattle.  I am talking about fan favorite Raul Ibanez (bad move in my eyes).

I have been hearing so much about the Phillies and Red Sox woes, I can't take it.  I would look very closely at them and see who is available and who wants to be a Yankee.  With the mindset of "you don't need to be a superstar to be a star" we can find another Lyle Overbay to complete our roster.  Who knows, maybe even Jonathan Paplebon will come to his senses and join the Yankees.

 I am tired of getting emails from Phillie fans like this, "BTW do you want Papelbon? Utley? Howard? Chooch? The sky is the limit."  Really?  I need to be selective on one side but practical on the other.  Most of their salaries would be picked up by the Phillies in this case.  I could be smart here and savvy and think this out.  Play it cool, but not too cool that the prospects get cold.  As GM in the off season, I passed on a lot of opportunity but ended up ahead.

I won't get lured into an ARod situation again that's for sure and as the era of PEDs comes to a close and the era of Frugality opens with full force, I won't be taking any trips Africa or Belfast, but I might take a chance on some half eaten contracts before the trade deadline to fill in my pitching, fielding and offensive woes.  I mean, I am the GM, I can make it happen.

--Suzie Pinstripe, BYB Opinion Columnist
Twitter: @suzieprof




Please comment, we have DISQUS, it's easier than ever. Let me know what you think and follow me on Twitter @BleednYankeeBlu and join the group Bleeding Yankee Blue on Facebook, just type it in.