Add to that, this might be the worst defensive OF in MLB. When slow-footed Nady is your best OFer…. well, ’nuff said. Add the that, all 3 are gone in 2010. This is really an OF you want to see on the ‘rebuilding’ Yankees?

Does anyone else here see the Mets looking like the Yankees of post 2004? Over the last 3 years they have gotten: Pedro, the best pitcher since WWII, Santana, the best pitcher in MLB, Beltran, maybe the best CFer in the game when he was gotten, Delgato, a stud, Wagner, another stud, Alou, a one-time stud. SIX big name, expensive FAs. And what have they to show? 2 collapses and a strong 2nd place team with the highest payroll in the NL. And what is the future of the Mets? David Wright, Jose Reyes and John Maine.

I still say the Yankees should ditch 2009, maybe 2010, and build for the next dynasty starting in 2011. Hopefully, this will be built on a young pitching staff of Wang, Joba, Phil, IPK, Brackman, Betances, Melancon, Sanchez, Aceves, Bruney, Robertson, Wright and others. ARod, Cervelli, AJax, Montero and others. Throw in some well rounded FA’s like Holliday, Tex, Crawford, and others.

Our team has a lot of holes. We are not really in a position to compete in the AL East. Our last Dynasty was build on a foundation that came from the farm: Jeter, Posada, Rivera, Pettitte and Bernie. An under-the-radar trade for an average guy named Paul O’Neil. Once this young, talented, CHEAP foundation was built, selected trades and FAs put us into history.

Jeter, Mo, Pettitte and Posada are all old and in decline (except maybe Mo… but he IS 39). Hopefully, we can count on ARod for the foreseeable future.

We have a few pegs in place in Wang, Cano, Joba and hopefully Phil. Maybe Brett or Melky will surprise us. AJax and Montero look like the real deal. Maybe Cervelli Lots of talented arms a year and 2 and 3 away. We may have part of the foundation for the future.

But right now, spending huge money building on a shakey foundation is foolhardy. Look at the Sox. Prdro is gome. Manny is gone. Papi might be going. Yet there are a strong team. Youkilis, Pedroia, Masterson, Lowrie, Ellisbury, Papsmear, Lester, Buccholz, Beckett (gotten for Hanley). Even if none turn out to be stars, this is a foundation of young, talented, CHEAP players. The Manny’s and Ortis’s might put them over the top, but their (potential) Dynasty is in the kids.

I won’t even bother to call out TB by names. We can see where they’re going. Thank God they don’t have money, or they could dominate for a long time.

I say get Tex because he has future and is both an offensive and DEFENSIVE player. Look for Swisher like deals… where we buy low, and get more value then we give. Don’t trade and more Tabata’s. Get smart. Get lean and mean. Forget and the Burnetts and Lowes of this world. Too many problems, not enough future.

Posada, Jeter and Mo could hit a wall at anytime. We could get a good year or 2 out of them, but it’s a gamble. Don’t build a team that might win (although probably not) in 2009. Build a team for a decade.

Our future is our current youth, the farm, and a reasonable payroll so we CAN get the future FAs to put us over the top. You don’t build with expensive and overlong contracts of FAs. They are he icing on the cake. You build with kids.

I was a fan in 1965. I watched a team of Gods collapse. Mantle, Maris, Tresh, Whitey, Stottlemyre and a whole bunch of ‘qualtity’ guys. And it took us MORE THEN A DECADE to have a real team again.

Believe me guys, NOT winning in 2009 and 2010 is not near as bad as 1965 thru 1977. We need to stop throwing good money after bad.

It’s irrelevant. Relievers are compared only to other relievers (maybe also starters, but I don’t think so).

Good evening to you. Thanks for the reply.

Regarding the yankees vocal support for going after Lowe and AJ – just guessing but the way I read that was that everyone knew the yankees had 3 large holes in their rotation and were looking for pitching. I thought their leaking interest in AJ and Lowe was them trying to let CC know that yes you are our absolute priority but there are two other guys on the market we are very interested with. I thought that was a direct message to CC and his agent. Not that it was going to do much – but it was something.

The sox could be trying to scare off other bidders – but I’m not sure that’s really practical. I don’t think the Angels will get scared off and if the yankees are interested they certainly won’t get scared off. So I’m not sure that’s it.

It’s just strange for any team to be so vocal about any player, especiallly a Boras player. If this was from Heyman I’d just write it off as Boras leaking the stories as he usually does.

But for multiple boston based writers to come out with essentially the same story and using hyperbolic language like the sox were “lusting” after tex and describing him as their dream player was peculiar.

That type of hyperbolic language was particularly strange in the midst of a free agency. I mean if the Sox have said they won’t be topped then why would Boras bother to given in at all?

It’s not often you see different writer’s use that same kind of overblown language to write essentially the same story about free agent.

It strikes me as very strange. And given the writer (particularly the way gammons is talking about this…) you can tell its from inside the sox organization. They wouldn’t just start using words like “lusting” without some basis.

The Yankees followed up the talk with an offer to keep other teams away. Have the Sox made Tex an offer or just talked about doing it?

Seems like no one wants to be the team that Boras plays everyone off of for Tex.

Good question about why it would benefit the Sox to make their intentions known to the public. I honestly don’t know the answer to that question.

But it was interesting that the Yankees did the same thing and it may have worked out for them with CC if it scares off other bidders, but it didn’t make sense to me to come out and say that they were also going to make offers to both Lowe and Burnett.

God forbid. I guess times are really tough when the payroll dips below $200 m!

Question – how does it benefit the sox for all of these stories to be leaked to the press regarding their intense interest in Tex?

Caffardo, Silverman, Gammons, etc. are all essentially reporting the same story. That the sox are dying to sign Tex.

Not all of them are going to independently come to this same conclusion at the same time and write such similar stories unless they have the same source.

And given history – especiallly with Caffardo and Gammons I’d have to think that source is someone inside the sox leaking this information to them.

I just don’t get how making their interest so public helps them sign Tex?