SANTANA & BALFOUR ARE GOOD PREDICTIONS

So, you need to appreciate all that MLBTradeRumors.com does, I mean everyone goes there for information. They do a wonderful job.  I read this morning some 2014 Free Agent predictions and I wanted to share them.

Tim Dierkes put together a list of 50 players.  No easy task, but he makes it look easy.  He mentioned 2 pitchers that every once in a while, the Yankees are connected to right around the trade deadline.  Ervin Santana and Grant Balfour.  Here's what he said about each:

"Ervin Santana - Yankees.  Santana is competing with Tanaka and Garza for the title of best available starting pitcher, after posting 211 innings of 3.24 ball for the Royals this year.  Santana throws relatively hard, avoids walks, and doesn't turn 31 until December.  He has been homer-prone at times, and some teams may balk at losing a draft pick and giving Santana our projected five-year, $75MM deal.  Nonetheless, the list of suitors should be long if the Royals aren't able to retain Santana, potentially including the Yankees, Twins, Blue Jays, Nationals, Mariners, Rockies, Phillies, Dodgers, Astros, and more."

I like this idea.  I don't love it, but I like it and I get it.  Clearly I am more excited about Masahiro Tanaka than Santana, but he could be valuable in our starting 5.  Good idea.

"Grant Balfour - Yankees.  After saving 62 games over the 2012-13 seasons, Balfour will likely be seeking a closer gig in free agency.  The Aussie, 36 in December, could get something like $18MM over two years. As with Joe Nathan, the Yankees, Angels, and Tigers make sense, but with more than a half-dozen closer types on the market, a few of them will need to settle for set-up jobs."

Tim makes alot of sense, in fact, I was just speaking to someone on Twitter about Grant Balfour and they suggested to me that they would rather have Balfour than say Joe Nathan, a guy I noticed was a free agent just the other day, read JOE NATHAN'S AVAILABLE & WE NEED TO GET HIM.

Anyway, I thought this was interesting and wanted to bring it to you this morning.  Good work as always Tim.

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