And he’s a huge Yankee fan! I’ll have to make sure to tell him in the fall that I was there last night and saw him throw out the first pitch.

God’s clearly a Yankee fan too.

But if Joba had been given $50MM for 6 years starting in 2007, it would be close whether or not he would earn it. If I had to guess, I’d say yes, but he has to be worth a lot at the back end to justify the amortized cost of $50MM over 6 years taking his limited innings in 2007-2009 into account.

The Chapman analysis is similar. Plus, as he’s not in the majors, and has some issues as we speak, you need to build in the risk factors and the chance he won’t be near his amortized cost in the early years of his contract. You can’t ignore them.

I know there is a value just in denying him to the Red Sox or LA. And I see CB’s argument that it gives the Yanks a leg up in negotiating the next contract. But I’m still not convinced – it will be interesting to see what happens.

Kay is talking about him now. Olney is going to be on with him shortly to discuss Chapman.

Actually, most people felt that in practical terms Dice-K had no real option to go back because it would have been such a public relations disaster given the build up of him leaving and the record fee his club was getting.

This seemed to be an absolute plank the red sox used as their foundation in the negotiations.

It would have been a disaster for Dice-K to go back after being so public with his desire to pitch against the best.

Free for who I guess was my point. Certainly not Matsuzaka.

“#Yankees senior VP Mark Newman in an email to me on whether we can assume they will target Chapman “Safe to assume.” So it begins!”

http://twitter.com/jorgearangure/status/2440396516

You stockpile pitching because guys get hurt.

You stockpile pitching because the more you have, the more assets you have in play to perhaps deal some of it to fill other holes on the roster.

There is no one hitting the open market in the next 2-3 years with Chapman’s skillset as a pitcher.

You sign him now and develop him, you have a guy that is a front of the rotation talent for a very long time.

Think about it, he’s 2 years younger than Phil Hughes and 3 years younger than Joba and most scouts will tell you his upside is greater than both of those guys, and Hughes and Joba have excellent futures ahead of them.

To spend what it would spend to get him is a drop in the bucket to the Yankees.

It also fixes their cost for a frontline asset for the next 6-7 years. Its hard to pass on that.

Putting the cart ahead of the horse, eh WYH? CC is great. AJ is not, never has been and probably never will be. Joba and Hughes aren’t yet and may not be. Same with Chapman.

But there is no such thing as having too many high ceiling pitchers, because sooner or later 1 or 2 or more will hit. Having pitching should not preclude the Yankees or anyone else from getting more.