"1. Brian Giles, RF

Giles will be 35 years old before opening day, which means he's not a good bet to return value on an extended long-term contract. But in the here and now, he's one of the best hitters in the game. This season, he finished third in the NL in OBP and put up a batting line of .333 AVG/.463 OBP/.545 SLG away from run-suppressing Petco. Giles has been performing at this level for years, and he's without a notable platoon weakness. He'd be a great fit for any win-now team in need of a middle-of-the-order bat.

4. B.J. Ryan, LHP

Billy Wagner will justifiably be the off-season prom queen among closers, but don't overlook Ryan. He's coming off his first season as a closer, so some GMs might (unwisely) view him as being unproven in the role. In any event, Ryan was utterly dominant in 2005 — 100 strikeouts in 70 innings, 26 walks and only four homers. And it's his second consecutive season performing at such a high level."

The Yankee organizational meetings, traditionally held in Tampa, are taking place in New York today (and I'm not sure, but probably for the next few days as well).

Also, I wouldn't mind the Yanks trying to get Bradley from the Dodgers on the cheap. It seems now that Depo is gone, it will be a lot easier to get him. He might be a good stop-gap candidate for CF until Melky comes along in a couple of years.

Of course, I really want Brian Giles for CF, but I'm not he can still play it or not, or he's willing to come to the Yanks, or if the Yanks would pay him as much as he wants for as long as he wants, considering his age and that we have Melky waiting in the wings.

Keep Pavano and Wang and Chacon along with Randy and Mussina as your starting give. Wright is the long man and fillin guy for when one of the pitchers gets injured.

It's not really a lot of movement, but I think that with the Yanks' offense, we just need our pitchers to be healthier this year. Of course, we could always go after Millwood and get rid of Pavano, but I think that if Pavano can stay healthy, he'll be a fine #3 pitcher.

I think we Yankees fans have always known that "team chemistry" was overrated, at least since the Bronx Zoo Yanks of the late 70s. Credit where credit is due - go to WasWatching (and/or netshrine.com) and you'll see a great post about some of the chemistry/character guys who've been on past Yankees-championship-winning teams, compliments of Raf and Lee Sinins. Hilarious stuff.

I'd love to have Brian Giles on the Yanks, but I heard a rumor that he either wants to stay on the West Coast or go play with his brother Marcus on the Braves. Can anyone confirm/deny these rumors? Any SD-resident Yankee fans out there?

We are laying the foundation gentlemen. Role players are next...

sabernar, Millwood will not go near the Yankees with Kerrigan around.

http://www.pitch.com/issues/2005-05-19/news/strip.html

This is hilarious....Tony Pena is quite the ladies man. Just for that, I think he should be a coach on the Yankees next year.

See last paragraph here: http://www.signonsandiego.com/sports/padres/20051028-9999-1s28padres.html

Interesting that Ramon Hernandez is on his way out of SD, but I'm not sold on him coming to the Yanks as Posada's co-catcher/successor. I like Hernandez a lot better than Bengie Molina, though.

http://redsox.bostonherald.com/redSox/view.bg?articleid=109723

Amazing news, isn't it? Say what you will about Steinbrenner, but he always said Lucchino was a snake.

Red Sox nation lost a great mind, the PR backlash is going to be huge. I'll just sit-back and crack up at the spin that's going to come out of Boston and the Red Sox. By the end of the week we'll be getting reports that Theo has been hiding WMDs, he visited a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan and was in a sex tape similar to R-Kelly's. Boston fans, media and the Red Sox are going to be ruthless. They've never heard the term, "both sides decided to depart amicably".

Again…good luck Theo and F- the Sawx.

Larry Lucchino on the other hand, easily goes down as a villain. And it sounds like Curly Haired Boyfriend is at least a player in Theo's decision to leave. That's priceless.

I'm sure the Red Sox will be alright, but it is nice to sit back and relax, knowing the Yankees have things pretty much in control going into the offseason. Sports media seemed to be licking their chops for a Bronx Zoo implosion after the opening round loss, but now the onus seems to have flipped over to Yawkey Way.

Looks like the honeymoon is over for the 2004 World Champions...

"A leading contributing factor, according to sources close to the situation, was a column in Sunday's Boston Globe in which too much inside information about the relationship between Epstein and his mentor, team president and CEO Larry Lucchino, was revealed -- in a manner slanted too much in Lucchino's favor."

That was Shaughnessy's column. Unfortunately the column is registration only, so I've only seen snippets.

Things must be bad for a home-town boy like Theo, who was instrumental in the Sox winning in '04, to leave Boston. We hear a lot about George and Cash, but shit must have been flying in Beantown for a while.

Theo's a good man. Boston's loss is our gain.

With all the talk about no privacy in Boston and the intense hype/glare, it makes you wonder: I mean, even Wells complained about Boston's atmosphere, and he thrived in NYC, is Boston that much worse? Cashman has stuck around under George and with the NY media, what makes Boston so much worse?

Also, I don't want Tavarez, as he's a bit of a wild pitcher (8 hit batters and 1 wild pitch?) and relies a little bit too much on the defense for a set up man. Scott Eyre I'm not a big fan of either as he had a career year in his contract year and has only had 3 years with sub 4 ERAs and none of them are consecutive. (In fact they've happened in 2001, 2003 and 2005. Anybody want him in 2007 instead?)

I heard a theory somewhere once that Boston is the toughest media market in the country due to the fact that it is the largest city with only one baseball team. In markets like NY, Chicago, LA, etc., the two team system diffuses tension, etc. Situation is further exacerbated by fact the the Patriots serves as all of New England's team. Thus the Sox are the focus of a lot of media scrutiny.

The pressure ultimately would have gotten to him - better he leaves now with his legacy intact that suffer 10 more years of no championships and be run out of town on a rail by the fickle Bostonians...