Why not Dunn in Left? The guy averages 40 HR/100 RBI a year. Plus he bats left. Next year the team will be down Giambi & Abreu, and we’ll need someone to hit behind Arod.

OK this isn’t wisely.

Wallace Matthews from Newsday is another of those blowhard ignoramuses, pure Yankee hater, who writes negative articles about the Yanks just for attention. Today, he wrote about how the Yanks need to go back to just spending into oblivion. Pretty convenient column to write today, isn’t it? He brought up not pulling off the Santana trade, which many have brought up at this point, but at the time a lot of people (myself included) were against including Hughes in any deal. Wallace, the Yanks will spend this off-season, but it’s different to spend on big-time FA rather than deplete the farm system (and in the case of Santana, award the big money as well!) as a cost. The Yanks are on the verge of not making the playoffs for the first time in 13 years. That’s pretty damn good, considering Boston missed the playoffs 2 years after winning in 2004 (and then bouncing back to win in 2007). Even now, this team is still on the fringe of making it if one of these teams decides to pull a NY Mets impersonation (you remember that, don’t you Wallace?). If Matthews had half a brain, he would say the key for the Yanks in 2009 is for Wang not to get hurt, which of course, if the Yanks took Matthews’ advice, Wang would not be here anyway, since he would have been traded years ago…By the way, Wallace, if I were a Mets fan, I’d be very worried again this September. The Phillies are even closer now than they were this time last year!

Umm….Regardless of the false pretenses, you GAVE the man the food. I’m no lawyer, but even the real Joba Chamberlain should expect to pay for his food wherever he goes. It’s your fault to be dumb enough to believe an impersonator, as Pete said. Pete, next time you’re in Jersey you should dress up like Elvis, maybe these idiots will get fooled again!

I partly understand going through the transition again (maybe this time the rotation will be good enough where he can be sent down for it), but I don’t understand why the Yanks don’t just send him to Winter ball to get more innings this year. Is it because they want to shut him down in the off-season? Do they want all his innings to be pitched for the big club? I understand Joba is young and he’s the special type of pitcher that you take extra care of, every pitcher is not Mark Prior. The Yanks haven’t come even close to abusing this guy. As a trainer, I’m into this sort of thing and am on board to an extent, but at what point are they overly babying these pitchers? I know Nolan Ryan would punch Cashman right in the face if he was running things. That notwithstanding, I feel like if Joba continues his strengthening and conditioning in the off-season and is able to build up his throwing strength from February to the end of Spring Training, I don’t think anyone should be crucified for expecting him to go 160-180 innings. He can do that as the fifth starter. They’re so cautious about his health anyway, and he’s honest enough where he’s not going to exascerbate things if he’s not feeling right.

I’m not necessarily of the belief that being a reliever saves your arm. I know you throw less innings and theoretically have less workload. But there’s different conditioning involved, which makes me believe being a reliever is not easier, just different. As a reliever, it’s usually max effort right out of the pen, and you could be called to pitch multiple days, certainly not a 4 or 5 day rest period. The routine is different and the recovery is different. I’m just not necessarily subscribed to this whole idea, but teams follow it because there’s a precedent. But what if, God forbid, Joba gets injured as a reliever or in transition, then the whole system has to get revamped once again, doesn’t it? Why does 40 innings have to be the magic number in terms of increase? Why not 50, or 20? Again, I understand the idea of these guidelines partially, especially with the politics involved, but I don’t completely agree with it.