The LoHud Yankees Blog

Not sure there were any rumors linking Hideki Matsui to the Chicago White Sox, but White Sox GM Ken Williams was asked about him just the same.

“I would imagine that he’s going to command more in salary than we have to pay,” Williams said.

Yankees general manager Brian Cashman rolled into the hotel lobby a little before 3 p.m. this afternoon. He checked into his room and before he could make his way to the elevators, Cashman was surrounded. Such is the life with the Yankees, especially when it’s less than a week after a World Series title and the World Series MVP is eligible for free agency.

When the rush was over, Cashman’s first order of business was to explain that everything will likely move slowly these three days in Chicago and probably beyond.

“I’d rather focus on the process and make sure we do that right than treat this like a fast food situation and all of the sudden get indigestion,” Cashman said.

Cashman has already contacted some teams to find out what those organizations are looking for this offseason, but the Yankees have not had their internal meetings to discuss free agents or to share opinions. Those meetings will come soon — Cashman wouldn’t say exactly when — and until then, it’s unlikely the Yankees will make any significant moves. Cashman said he expects these three days in Chicago to be an opportunity to get a feel for the trade market that’s already developing, but major announcements are unlikely.

“I just know that I don’t see anything happening here in Chicago in the next three days,” Cashman said.

Just talked to Mariners general manager Jack Zduriencik. His highest profile pitcher — and highest profile player outside of Ichiro — will be the subject of trade rumors all winter, and Zduriencik said he won’t try to stop the calls about Felix Hernandez from pouring into his office. But he also said the Mariners are moving forward as if Hernandez will be their ace next season.

“He’s our property this year and next year, and we’re looking forward to him being part of the organization as we move forward,” Zduriencik said. “I can’t control other people calling and people wanting to have discussions. That’s the job to do and certainly we’re going to dot our i’s and cross our t’s. But where we stand right now is that he’s an integral part of what we’re doing and we’re looking forward to having him.”

As for Seattle’s possible interest in Hideki Matsui.

“I won’t comment on any free agent players,” he said. “I don’t think that’s in the best interest of the player or the organization.”

My first few hours of the General Managers meetings have tought me this: It’s nice to have a cell phone with Internet access. Checking email and such seems to be a pretty important part of this event.

Most everyone seems to be just arriving. Some writers are just getting here. Front office people will be trickling in throughout the day. There hasn’t been much excitement so far. The only front office personnel I’ve seen has been John Hart, the former Texas Rangers GM who now does a lot of work for MLB Network.

As more people get here, I’m sure there will be more to discuss. Right now, it’s just a bunch of writers standing in a hotel lobby, sipping coffee and playing on their cell phones.

Let’s consider this the official start of the offseason.

The General Managers Meetings take place today through Wednesday in Chicago. As a general rule, this week is not nearly as exciting as the December Winter Meetings. Not the same number of hot stove rumors. Not nearly the same wheeling and dealing.

But, things can and do happen here. You can’t put this many GMs in one place and not see the potential for significant conversations, even if those conversations simply set the stage for big announcements in the future.

It’s actually not all that windy in Chicago. Right now, the weather’s nice and I’m just settling into the hotel, listening to some Bob Schneider and reading through the comments from the previous post. Good to see folks are ready to jump into the hot stove season.

My two cents on two of the topics you’ve been discussing…

Top moment of the year? Alex Rodriguez coming off the disabled list with a home run stands out to me. It was a moment that held up through the year; the relaxed and productive A-Rod. I think the Yankees wanted and needed Rodriguez back in the lineup. They were below .500 at that point.

From the playoffs, I think I’ll always remember Johnny Damon sprinting for third base. A lot of baseball games and baseball plays bleed together, but that was something new. I’d never seen it, anyway. A great heads-up play in a huge, critical moment. Maybe not the most important play of the postseason, but I really good one that gave the Yankees a win. Also, I think A.J. Burnett’s performance in Game 2 of the World Series was huge. I think that’s a bigger game than Game 5. Yankees lose Game 5 — which they did, obviously — and they’re still going home with two chances to clinch. Lose Game 2, they’re going to Philly down 0-2. Burnett was incredible that day. That’s another that stands out to me.

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As for trade possibilities, I’m not sure about the idea of trading Robinson Cano. That’s an awfully good bat at second base, and while the Yankees have plenty of in-house utility options, I’m not positive they have a guy who can step in and start right now. I’m really high on Kevin Russo and everyone loves Ramiro Pena’s glove, but I don’t see the Yankees handing either of them — or a guy like Jerry Hairston — the starting job at second base. Cano might frustrate fans because he doesn’t appear to be passionate — I don’t know whether he is or isn’t — but he’s a very good hitter at a position where very few good hitters exist.

Felix Hernandez is worth salivating over. Rafael Chaves was Hernandez’s pitching coach his first two full seasons in the big leagues, and when Chaves coached in Scranton, he said Hernandez is everything – and will be everything – he’s cracked up to be. Hernandez is 23 years old and he’s already one of the best pitchers in baseball, so you’d be hard-pressed to find a better trade target. But it’s going to take a ton to get him, and if I were the Mariners, there’s no chance I’d move him. I’m not sure anyone can match his combination of youth, talent and proven success.  As for trading Phil Hughes or Joba Chamberlain, it’s impossible to rule it out and in certain situations it might make sense, but my concern would be that their current trade value might be a little lower than their long-term value to the Yankees. I really believe in both of them, and while you wouldn’t be trading them for pennies on the dollar, you might be moving them for 90 cents on the dollar.

It’s only been a few days since the final game of the World Series, and already the Yankees are transitioning to next year. Some of the players have already cleared out their lockers, fans chanted “28″ at the parade and the free agent decision making process will begin shortly. That’s what I wrote about in today’s paper.

And with that, I’m going to start making my way to the airport so I can fly to Chicago for the General Managers’ meetings. These are not to be confused with December’s winter meetings, but we can all hope for some nice hot stove gossip. And maybe even some cold, hard facts!

By the way, Yankees lefty Mike Dunn got the win in that Arizona Fall League all-star game last night. One scoreless inning. Two strikeouts. Eleven of 14 pitches for strikes.

After 22 regular season games, the Arizona Fall League has it’s all-star game tonight. One Yankees prospect, left-hander Mike Dunn, is on the West ros

ter. He leads Fall League relievers with 15.26 strikeouts per nine innings. My guess is that Ian Kennedy might have made the team — he leads the league in innings and strikeouts — but he last pitched on Thursday, so he wouldn’t have been available anyway.

You might remember Dunn from his September call-up. He’s a fastball-slider lefty, who can throw in the mid-90s and seemed to make a pretty good impression with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. He certainly made himself a go-to reliever down the stretch. Damaso Marte seemed to rediscover himself in the postseason, and Phil Coke pitched well enough to be considered a big league front runner next spring, but Dunn is one of those guys who could make a significant impact in New York next season.

Other noteable Yankees minor leaguers playing winter ball…

• I haven’t talked to OF Colin Curtis since he went down to the Arizona Fall League, but he missed roughly a week starting at the end of October, so he might have been slightly injured. He played again on Friday and he’s hitting .358 with two home runs and four doubles in 13 games.
• C Jesus Montero has just four hits through 15 games in Venezuela. The numbers are bad, but he also missed most of the season half of the regular season with a hand injury. He’s just getting going again.
• RHP Ivan Nova was terrific in the Triple-A playoffs and he seems to have carried it with him to the Dominican Winter League. Through four games, three of them starts, he’s allowed one run in 18 innings. He was lost in the Rule 5 draft last winter — and ultimately returned by San Diego – but Nova might be pitching his way onto the 40-man this winter.
• 2B Reegie Corona is still hitting in Venezuela, .310 through 13 games. He’s also made three errors without seeing any time at shortstop. All at second. I tend to think of him as a notch below Ramiro Pena, Kevin Russo and Eduardo Nunez for a potential utility job, but there are plenty who disagree and like his speed and versatility.
• You might remember that RHP Josh Schmidt, kind of an overlooked pitcher in the Yankees system, opened his offseason with 11 scoreless innings in Venezuela. He’s since allowed 17 runs, 12 earned, in 12.1 innings.
• Hard-throwing RHP Romulo Sanchez has seven strikeouts, two walks and no earned runs in his past 6.1 innings, spanning three appearances, in Venezuela.
• Always worth checking on switch-pitcher Pat Venditte. He has a 4.82 ERA through 9.1 innings in Venezuela. Lefties are hitting .188 against him. Righties are hitting .421.

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It’s also worth mentioning that Shelley Duncan and Austin Romine were named the Topps Minor League Player of the Year for the International League and Florida State League.

Also, both the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees and Trenton Thunder have stories on their web sites about the Yankees minor league impact in the World Series.

I’m posting from the middle if the Yankees clubhouse, where a dozen or so reporters are waiting for news that might or might not come.

Some players are supposed to be clearing out their lockers this morning and afternoon, but we have yet to see anyone.

The name plates are off the lockers, big boxes are scattered here and there and some of the lockers already have nothing in them. It’s looking like a long day of waiting.

UPDATE, 11:30 a.m.: Absolutely nothing has changed except that one writer from an outlet with more than one reporter covering the “event” has agreed to make a McDonalds run. Writers working together. It’s a beautiful thing. We’d attack one another for a Freddy Guzman interview right now.

UPDATE, 11:47 a.m.: The food is here, and this is what the day has become. Blogging about a fast food burger. It has occured to me that I forgot to do a Today in The Journal News post this morning. Feel free to check out my story about yesterday’s parade.

UPDATE, 12:15 p.m.: We weren’t allowed to bring the food into the clubhouse because they just shampooed the carpet. It hadn’t occured to me until hearing those words, but this place is spotless. Three days ago, all sorts of chaos broke out in this place. Today it’s perfect.

By the way, when reporters are in a baseball clubhouse, they never sit down. I did it once or twice in Scranton, only when doing a one-on-one interview during which the player asked me to sit. It seems to be a kind of acknowledgement that this is their space, not ours. Right now, though, everyone of us is sitting. Some are on the couches. Some are sitting in the chairs in front of lockers. I’m one of three or four sitting on the floor. It’s kind of odd to be watching college football while literally lounging in the Yankees clubhouse.

UPDATE, 12:40 p.m.: We’re approaching hour number three, and still not a single player has arrived in the clubhouse. Whenever a reporter leaves the room for a bit, he comes back to a series of jokes about all the great stuff he missed. A Derek Jeter and CC Sabathia brawl. A tearful Jorge Posada interview about his lost hopes of becoming a forest ranger. Robinson Cano’s unexpected retirement. Such is sports reporter humor. It makes us laugh every time.

Here’s a leftover Joe Girardi quote from yesterday. He was asked about the uncertainty of whether Hideki Matsui will be back next year.

“There’s always uncertainty in this game,” Girardi said. ”Even if you’re signed, a lot of times there’s uncertainty in this game and you always want to hold onto the good times as long as you can. What he did in this postseason is truly amazing. What he did in the World Series is truly amazing. He was such an important part to our club. You look at his numbers after had those nine days when we played in the National League cities, which I complained about that I didn’t get to use our DH for nine days, I really think that rest helped him. He was a difference maker for our team.”

He was later asked when he would start planning for next season.

“Probably on Monday,” Girardi said. “I’ll start going in to meet with Cash. Try to put some semblance to my office. It’s out of control right now and I’ll even ask Kim to come in and help me organize it… You start with what you have and what you feel you might need next year. I think you start looking at everything from the rotation to the bullpen to positions, infield, outfield. You look at everything.”

UPDATE, 2:43 p.m.: I’m back at my friend’s place in Harlem, where I’ve been a guest throughout the playoffs. Four hours came and went at Yankee Stadium with not a single Yankee to be found. The clubhouse was open to the media from 10 to 2 — with no guarantee any players would actually show up to clear out there lockers — but we all showed up just in case. Oh well.

Thus concludes the most absurd and unintentional live blog ever.

Several people have written to suggest that a little housekeeping is in order and I agree: I have submitted a request to our Web Guru to change the info in the “About This Blog” box on the right so that it reflects the fact that we are writing about the 27-time World Champion Yankees. Thanks to all who noticed and wrote in.

With that, I’m taking a short break. It’s been a crazy six weeks or so, from when Pete left to Chad arriving and then on through three long rounds of playoffs, and so I’m headed off to a very special place for a few days. Well, either there or here. One of the two. I’ll send postcards.

Anyway, Chad will be all over the Yankees clubhouse clean-out today and then off to the GM meetings on Sunday night as the Hot Stove League gets going. I’ll talk to you all soon.