Comments on: Cameron to Yankees is back on

By: Peter

Peter — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 22:38:54 +0000

That’s what we need a guy for strikes out 28% of the time he is at bat…Abreu and Giambi were at about 20%…real great improvement.

By: Mike

Mike — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 16:10:07 +0000

Red Sox fans won’t be laughing once we Sign Manny !

By: AD

AD — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 15:28:02 +0000

Who is coming up with this fantasy that Hideki Matsui is going to bat 5th?? He is by far and away at best a number 7 Hitter, He is old and decrepid, My guess is that at some point this season the yanks make a deal for a bat if they need it. We’ve seen what sluggers have brought us in last few years…. a whole lotta nothing….

I like this lineup of contact hitters and high OBP guys… No more OLD SLUGGERS>>>

By: Travis Bickle

Travis Bickle — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 14:46:00 +0000

Boston fans are falling down laughing at this sorry deal. All these snot nose fantasy geeks seem to miss it…Cameron is the king of swing and miss. A real rally killer. Amazing how many of these posters would be the same ones telling you to hang on to the pitchers who after 2 years or less have yet to reach thier potential..But melky and gardner they need replaced asap with a 3rd rate old never was.
Must have more to do with thier fantasy team than anything. BIG NEWS: Sad thing is with “upgrades” like this Boston or Tampa will easily win the division. Fire Cashman now before it gets worse.

By: Alvin

Alvin — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 14:35:32 +0000

And to clarify I’m obviously not comparing Cameron to Manny vis-a-vis. I’m also not saying that the $10 mil saved will be enough to get Manny. But you save $10 mil by sticking with Gardner/Melky/Damon at CF, $5 mil by (hopefully) getting Pettite over Lowe, and $[a lot] mil by no longer having to get a bat for the otherwise weak 3 hole (like Dunn, for example). That’s a good chunk of money saved, and is more than enough to pay for Manny’s 2009 salary.

Then in 2010 you have Damon and Matsui off the books so you have even more flexibility then.

Overall this seems to make much more sense from a baseball and money standpoint.

By: Alvin

Alvin — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 14:26:38 +0000

Serious,

I was using CB’s estimate of Cameron’s value over Melky/Gardener (net gain of 1-2 games) from a couple hundred posts up.

Of course Cameron is an upgrade over Melky. But everybody knows that and it’s not the point. You can’t upgrade every position every year – you have to give some when you take some. In this case, Manny gives you so much more than Cameron. Cameron upgrades a position. Manny single-handedly transforms your team.

You said:

“How many people would be begging for this trade after the combo of Gardner/Melky produces nothing?”

If Manny is raking up that those left-field bleachers behind ARod, with our projected rotation, I don’t think people will mind that we’re getting less power from CF since we’d have an OBSCENE line-up anyway, for relatively little cost.

You then said:

“And you know what, if Cameron stinks, then Gardner will get a full time job. He has more upside than Melky anyway.”

This seems to be an argument *against* the necessity of the Cameron trade, not for it. Like you say, we already have two backup CFers in Melky and Gardener (Gardener being the one with the most upside) and a part-time CFer in Damon. Cameron would be a nice acquisition, but is he necessary? How good does Cameron over Damon and Gardner sound if it means cutting Manny?

The bottom line is you can’t have it all, so you have to pick and choose. And my choice would be to use that $10 mil on Manny and have him cover for our lack of power at CF, which he can do multiple times over even when he’s NOT “on”.

By: NY fan

NY fan — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 14:10:13 +0000

Now the Brewers want a second player in the deal. Cameron is not worth two players let alone Melky. Even if he comes to NY, he won’t start. Him and Swisher will set the MLB record for strikeouts in a season!

By: Serious

Serious — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 13:50:36 +0000

Alvin, I admire your ability to to do random math. How can you say they will only cost use one game? How do you know that? Melky was God awful last year, and part of being on the Yankees is when it’s your time to shine as a young player and you do NOT, then your chance is pretty much over. We don’t have the time to keep a player in there to “mature”. Thats why Hughes/IPK aren’t guaranteed a rotation spot this year.

Cameron is a veteran who IS an upgrade over Melky. And I don’t understand why everyone is screaming about Gardner, he will clearly be our fourth OF and will clearly get playing time. But he too is not ready for a starting CF job. How many people would be begging for this trade after the combo of Gardner/Melky produced nothing? And you know what, if Cameron stinks, then Gardner will get a full time job. He has more upside than Melky anyway.

By: rick

rick — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 12:05:54 +0000

I applaud the Yankees for spending money. All teams in professional sports are owned by super rich people and they could spend money too. The Steinbrenner family has always put their money back into building the Yankees. I applaud them.

By: Alvin

Alvin — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 10:39:12 +0000

The reason I (and a lot of guys here, it seems) don’t like Cameron isn’t because he’s not an upgrade over Melky/Gardener or anything like that. He definately is, both offensively and defensively.

But these are the exact kind of deals that the Yankees can try to pass on to save money for other uses. If you’re trying to cut payroll without cutting talent, it’s the Camerons of the world that need to go.

So you save 10 mil by sticking with Melky/Gardner (costing you maybe 1-2 games) and you save $5 mil by going with Pettite instead of Lowe. That’s $15 mil out of nowhere, and just like that you have 2/3s of Manny’s annual salary covered. I’m pretty sure Manny gives you more wins than the differential between Cameron vs. Melky, and Lowe vs. Pettite.

Yankees took $88 mill off the books after 2008 and will take off another $35 in 2009. CC at $23, Burnett at $16, Pettite at $10 only equals $49 mill. Assume they want to lower payroll by $20 (which is a lot), and you’d still have $20 mil left over. You can either waste it away on Cameron and his ilk, or you can use that to sign a legit difference maker.

Just because you have a $180 mil payroll doesn’t mean you shouldn’t count your pennys when it’s prudent to do so.

Mike Cameron won’t win championships.