eric gagne just signed a one year deal for $10M.

it could be a lot worse...

...right?

Also, by signing Hawkins, it shows the Yankees aren't willing to commit to a long-term deal for questionable middle relievers, which is a good thing. Finally, by swapping Viz out for Hawkins, the Yankees will also get a supplemental round draft pick.

I think Hawkins for one year + a draft pick isn't such a bad deal...in fact, I think it's a pretty good one.

Interesting-looking guy though. He's got that looooong neck. Always reminded me a little bit of a horse.

Hell, I'd have been up for signing Gagne too (the stuff was still there), though not necessarily @ $10 mil.

For the record, I don't think Hawkins will be any good either.

And yes, I know I said yesterday that he was awful, and now I'm walking away from that comment, so who knows, by tomorrow I might think he's Mariano Rivera.

Speaking of arbitration, Cot's Contracts' "unofficial" arbitration list includes Bruney. Will the Yankees non-tender him to clear another roster spot (for A-Rod or Mo)?

As mentioned, Hawkins' low walk totals are nice. The 3.06 GB to FB ratio last year is especially appealing, though potentially a fluke as it isn't really in line with his career numbers.

Without checking the splits, it seems to me that the Yankees always beat him up pretty good, which may be coloring the some people's opinions. He's basically always around league average or a little better. And on a one year deal, if he stinks, you cut him.

115.6 IP
486 Batters Faced
56 Strikeouts
125 Hits

Last year, lefties slugged .443 off him. The year before: .505

Last year he had an unheard of (outside of CMW) G/F ratio of 3.05. If that remains true, we're going to be hearing a lot of Pastadiving Jeter a lot- check out his Fielding Independent Pitching, which the last two years has been half a run above his ERA.

The WHIP of 1.5 that Sctheeve cited is about right for two of the last three seasons. Sure he doesn't walk many but gives up a TON of hits. I'm envisioning a lot of runners inherited on second base scoring on a groundball through the middle.

I'd rather have Andy Hawkins.

He has had some excellent years in the BP, and if Girardi is as good at building a pen as I think he will be, Hawkins can be a big asset.

Rivera would set a record for most 2-inning appearances by a closer!

Anyway, how would you all feel about signing Bartolo Colon to a one-year incentive loaded contract (if he would take it). He's not a type-A FA (right?) and could help lighten the innings load on the kids. And he has considerable upside to go with his considerable injury risk. Maybe the opening day/first third of the season's rotation should be Wang, Pettitte, Moose, Colon, Kennedy, to keep the innings down on Sir Phil and Sir Joba. Then Phil & Joba come up to replace Moose & Colon as they suck/get injured, and Moose can spot Kennedy later in the year to keep him fresh. Pretty distasteful to start with a rotation designed for mediocrity, but I really worry about all those innings we'd need from the kids.

Wang - good for 200 innings
Pettitte - same, though age/injury more of a concern
Mussina - "good" for ~180 innings but those innings might suck
Hughes - good for ~140 innings
Chamberlain - good for ~140 innings
Kennedy - good for ~190 innings

The trouble is finding ways of keeping Hughes & Chamberlain's innings down. If I was in charge, and I could get Moose to agree, I think I'd open the season with this rotation:

Wang
Hughes/Mussina
Pettitte
Kennedy
Chamberlain

I'd have Hughes on a loose* 5 inning/start cap to start the year, and put Moose in for multiple innings in relief. Chamberlain, as 5th starter, would throw less innings because he'd have fewer starts, and one could also implement a first-half innings cap with him, and if the timing worked out right Moose could be the innings eating reliever for him too. In the second half, if all is going well, the innings caps can be relaxed and you can try stretching the kids out a bit more. Depending on how the farm is doing and the needs of the 'pen, it might also make sense to skip a start or two and plug in the 6th/7th guy on the depth chart (Horne? Igawa? Rasner?)...

* - by loose I mean that # pitches and the stress level of said pitches should be important too. If he's at 90 high-effort pitches after 4 innings, pull him and bring in Moose.

But I think Mussina would hate that, and complain. A lot.

22 Agreed.

No teams have all of their starters make it through a season unscathed, why should the Yanks be the exception?

If one could sign Colon to a 1-year deal and stash him in AAA as a "break in case of emergency" sort of thing... um, ok. But I don't want to start the year with him in the rotation and quality like Hughes or Joba in the minors.

Besides, would you rather have three years of Viz instead of one of Hawkins plus a supplemental drat pick? What would you have preferred? Use all youngsters to fill out the pen (weren't we anxious to have Bruney and Henn take a more prominent role last season? look how that turned out).

"Already high, expections for Phil Hughes has reached a new level"

http://tinyurl.com/ystvqq

32 In the abstract, the Hawkins signing is blah to me, but in context, its hard to argue that 3 years of Viz are preferable. And that draft pick is very nice.

Besides, its not like the Yanks haven't cut bait before on a mediocre middle reliever, even if they owed them $3.5M. I'm thinking of Mike Stanton and his $4M salary in 2005, DFA'd late that June.

When the team has such an average defense, it's a combination of limiting all three fielding-independent results that matters. While Hawkins seems reliable on the HR and BB front, I worry about the lack of strikeouts. I really think they could be better provided by decent strikeout numbers of Britton, Albaladejo, and Ohlendorf.

I agree it's a better deal than signing Viz to three years. But it looks like the Yankees might be making that mistake anyway with a different mediocre reliever- Ron Mahay.

Not a lot of Yankee News this time of year. Maybe someone can review ARods tax returns or check Cynthia's wardrobe for leather goods.

These writers don't bother me a bit. I don't think they bother Phil. I hope Phil is a solid #3 or better this year, and a solid #2 or better for a decade after that.

Or maybe, we need a Phil Hughes facts page (hat tip to Chuck Norris). Like Phil Hughes curveball breaks so hard it can tunnel through the earth to Australia.

There IS a huge difference between historically awful, which a BP of Bruney, Igawa, Henn, Veras, etc may be, and just bad/poor, which has Mahay and Hawkins in it.

I'm high on Melancon (especially) and Humberto & Cox, but they'll probably need another 6mo to heal & maybe another 6mo-1yr after that to get ready. Vet stopgaps on short contracts are the best way to bridge.

Sure, if Giambi is playing first base then all bets are off, but otherwise I think the Yankees have good hands out there. A-Rod and Cano are both excellent at their positions, and Jeter is - well - let's not go there (dead horse alert). I don't believe the Yankees have quite settled their first base situation yet. I think Giambi is gonna be the full time DH (assuming Matsui is traded), which leaves open a spot for a first baseman. If Minky - excellent defense, crappy bat. If not - then who knows.

There is potential there for above average defense. Not best in league, but not bumblers either.

Robinson Cano- .883 (13th in the majors)
Derek Jeter- .777 (23rd of 25 SS)
Alex Rodriguez- .662 (17th of 21 3B)

The X factor is Shelley Duncan, who doesn't have a whole lot of numbers to go by. Giambi has not had enough innings to qualify since THT started keeping track, but he's had the follwing seasons:

2004: .818 in 375 innings (would have been #1 in the majors)
2005: .722 in 560 innings (would have been 15th of 17)
2006: .695 in 480 innings (would have been dead last by a huge margin)

So I think it's safe to say that, as measured by THT's Zone Rating, the Yankees have an average to below-average infield defense. As for handling ground-ball pitchers like CMW, consider that the Yankees "Team Defensive Efficiency," literally the number of non-homer batted balls turned into outs- was .696: 14th in the majors. So, overall, the Yankees were pretty average at turning batted balls into outs.

Further, consider that Wang's BABIP last year was .297. That's pretty average as well... perhaps if he had a better defense behind him, he'd have a much lower ERA.

So let me revise my statement to read:

"Mattpat might kill me for saying this, but looking just at K-rate, BB/9, and HR/9, I'd be really surprised if there's a heck of a lot of difference between Ron Mahay and Kei Igawa over the next 3 years."

My opposition to signing Mahay is in giving him a 3 year deal, because IMO, the Yanks do not need a lefty reliever so badly as to be paying Ron Mahay when he is 38 in 2010. And, the overwhelming evidence shows that multi-year contracts to middle relievers are a huge waste.

If they sign Mahay to a one-year deal like Hawkins', the Yanks will get no beef from me.