The LoHud Yankees Blog

Part of the reason for a slow winter: High asking prices on the trade market.

Even with CC Sabathia and Freddy Garcia locked up, Brian Cashman’s made it clear that he’s still interested in starting pitchers. The White Sox are reportedly shopping starters, including John Danks, but the prices are astronomical.

“Kenny (Williams) asked for everyone on our roster in return,” a source told the Chicago Sun-Times.

Jon Heyman says the asking price for Danks was both Jesus Montero and Manny Banuelos, and the Yankes obviously aren’t willing to give up that much. It’s a thin rotation market, and it’s hard to blame the White Sox for trying to take advantage. For now, though, such demands are keeping things from happening.

The Golden Era committee has elected Ron Santo into baseball’s Hall of Fame. For a lot of fans, this has been a long time coming. Santo is the 12th third baseman ever elected to the Hall, and his election came in a landslide, getting 15 of 16 votes from the committee.

Of the other candidates on the Golden Era ballot, Jim Kaat was next closest to election. He got 10 votes and needed 12 for election. Former Yankees starter Allie Reynolds received fewer than three votes.

Another reminder, I’m hosting a chat at noon. Hope to see you in about a half an hour.

Welcome to Day 1 of baseball’s Winter Meetings, where the Marlins already have a head start after last night’s agreement with Jose Reyes. The Marlins are spending big this winter — they’ve already agreed to a deal with Heath Bell — and they’re obviously generating the early buzz here in Dallas.

Most of the game’s movers and shakers have already arrived at the Hilton Anatole for four days of meetings both big and small. It’s the small meetings – the ones taking place behind closed doors – that we’re most interested in. With so many general manager and agents in the same spot, the Winter Meetings are an annual hot bed of hot stove action, hence the massive media presence.

So, what are the Yankees in for this week?

Brian Cashman has said he doesn’t expect to make much news during these four days. In fact, he’s not even arriving in Dallas until this evening. There are going to be conversations, and of course the Yankees will check on various targets, but there might not be the Curtis Granderson splash of 2009 or the Cliff Lee saga of 2010.

Cashman will likely meet with the Yankees beat writers once a day, and Joe Girardi will be here to address the media on Wednesday. Away from official interview sessions, there will be a lot of lobby loitering in hopes of seeing someone – anyone – who might have a nugget of information.

There are plenty of reporters here from every market, so even if the Yankees are quiet, there will be no shortage of information coming out of this place. The Rule 5 draft is on Thursday morning before everyone leaves. People usually clear out pretty quickly after the Rule 5.

The Winter Meetings are just getting started. Don’t forget, I’m hosting a chat at noon. Hope to see you all then.

Associated Press photo

We’re going to have a lot of baseball to talk about in the next few days, but tonight we’ll wrap up with a football story. Here’s the Yankees announcement that Iowa State and Rutgers will play in the Pinstripe Bowl. 

The Rutgers University Scarlet Knights of the Big East Conference and the Iowa State University Cyclones of the Big 12 Conference will play each other in the 2011 New Era Pinstripe Bowl, scheduled for Friday, December 30, 2011 at Yankee Stadium. Each school accepted bids this afternoon. A press conference with New Era Pinstripe Bowl participants and officials will be held on Wednesday, December 7 at 11:00 a.m. at Yankee Stadium. Further details will be provided in the near future.

The 2011 New Era Pinstripe Bowl will mark the first time Rutgers and Iowa State will play each other in college football.

“We are excited to feature a neighboring school in Rutgers against an outstanding Big 12 representative in Iowa State for this year’s New Era Pinstripe Bowl,” said Mark Holtzman, Yankees Executive Director of the New Era Pinstripe Bowl. “This first-ever football matchup between these schools offers each institution’s dedicated fans the opportunity to celebrate the holiday season with a unique bowl experience in New York City and Yankee Stadium.”

In 2010, the Syracuse Orange defeated the Kansas State Wildcats, 36-34, in the inaugural New Era Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium. It marked the first college football bowl game played in the Bronx since Nebraska edged Miami (Fla.), also by a score of 36-34, in the Gotham Bowl on December 15, 1962 at the original Yankee Stadium.

This will be Rutgers’ second appearance at Yankee Stadium this season, after the Scarlet Knights defeated the Army Black Knights, 27-12, on November 12 in their first game in the Bronx since 1948. Rutgers, whose main campus in Piscataway, N.J., is located less than 50 miles away from Yankee Stadium, also played nine times at the original Yankee Stadium – all against New York University – going 1-7-1. This will mark the seventh time that the school has played in a bowl game, having tallied a 4-2 record in their previous six appearances with wins in each of their last four bowl games.

“It is a terrific situation when you can play your bowl game in the greatest city in the world,” said Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano. “Getting an opportunity to play in a bowl game hosted by the New York Yankees is a great reward for our players.”

As expected, the Hilton Anatole is massive, and various baseball executives, agents and reporters are already making their way back and forth through the lobby. Things seem pretty quiet for now, especially for the Yankees, whose general manager isn’t even getting to town until tomorrow evening.

The good news is, Cashman has survived yet another Heights & Lights event in Stamford. Dan Barbarisi was there, and reports that Cashman made his way down the Landmark Building and ripped away his elf costume to reveal a Yankees jacket. He did something similar last year.

As you might expect, Cashman was asked about Manny Ramirez — who is apparently trying to be reinstated into Major League Baseball — and Cashman said the Yankees have no interest. 

The Winter Meetings begin tomorrow. Here are some dates to remember.

Monday, December 5
Last time to outright a player prior to the Rule 5 draft is at 5 p.m. ET.
Also, Hall of Fame Golden Era Committee voting results are announced at 11 a.m.

Tuesday, December. 6
Hall of Fame J.G. Taylor Spink Award winner announced.

Wednesday, December 7
Last date for player who declared free agency to accept an arbitration offer from former club. Deadline is midnight.
Also, Hall of Fame Ford C. Frick Award winner announced.

Thursday, December 8
Rule 5 Draft.
Also, the last day of the Winter Meetings.

Monday, December 12
Deadline to tender contracts is midnight.

Just a heads up, with Brian Cashman not arriving in Dallas until late tomorrow, I’m going to host a quick chat here on the blog Monday starting at noon. We’ll hit on everything the Yankees have done this offseason, and when those two minutes are up, we’ll move on to all the things they might do between now and spring training.

Stop by if you can. Noon on Monday. LoHud Yankees chat. See you there!

I’m flying to Dallas this morning. Maybe the hot stove will heat up down there.

Baseball’s Winter Meetings begin on Monday, but Brian Cashman has made it clear that he’s not optimistic he’ll get anything done in these next four days. Something could happen, Cashman just doesn’t expect anything to happen.

“If you’re asking me do I expect to do something in the next week? No,” Cashman said on Friday. “But I’ve had enough conversations where I could wind up doing something today. A lot of work has been done. A lot of conversations have been had. If somebody bends or adjusts, then I’m ready to make a recommendation for us to make a move.”

Cashman is flying to Dallas on Monday. The Winter Meetings are always good for some sort of action. For now, here’s the rest of a fairly slow week in review…

• Mariano Rivera had surgery on his vocal cords. Should be fine in about two weeks, but the game’s greatest closer isn’t supposed to do any talking for the next few days.

• Bernie Williams is the among the players making their first appearance on the Hall of Fame ballot this year.

• The Yankees still haven’t met face-to-face with C.J. Wilson, and they have no such meeting scheduled. Cashman has downplayed the idea of the Yankees signing a big name free agent this winter.

• Joe Girardi told the Daily News that he doesn’t expect a major addition to the rotation. He wouldn’t be surprised — or so he says — if the Yankees opened the season with CC Sabathia, Ivan Nova, Phil Hughes, Freddy Garcia and A.J. Burnett.

• While being honored by the March of Dimes, Mark Teixeira said that he’s planning to focus on his left-handed swing this offseason, putting in extra work on the side of the plate that gave him trouble last season.

• Cashman is going to rappel down the Landmark Building in Stamford again. Tonight’s the main event, but on Friday he did a few practice runs, did a television interview on his way down the building and spoke highly of new Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine.

• Curtis Granderson helped open a new playground in the Bronx. He said he wasn’t surprised to see Justin Verlander win the MVP.

• Playoff shares were announced. The Yankees split $1,718,977.33. Not bad.

Associated Press photo

In the wake of the new collective bargaining agreement — which, after this winter, makes it harder to spend big money on the international market — it will be interesting to see how the Yankees handle international amateurs this offseason. Yesterday Brian Cashman said the Yankees are still studying the CBA, discussing its details and deciding how to react.

Might not be much more time for discussion, though.

According to Ken Rosenthal, Japanese starter Yu Darvish is expected to be posted after the Winter Meetings. When the offseason started, it was widely assumed Darvish would become available, then there was some doubt, and now Rosenthal has two sources saying it’s going to happen. The Yankees have scouted Darvish extensively since 2008, but they know there’s no guarantee that his success will translate in the  big leagues.

Also from Rosenthal, Cuban outfielder Yoenis Cespedes is also expected to become available either in the later half of next week’s meetings or soon after them. The Yankees have also done plenty of scouting of Cespedes since he left Cuba and settled into the Dominican Republic to establish residency and become big league eligible.

If you haven’t already, check out Jerry Crasnick’s story on Cespedes.