Melky, Sanchez, and Duncan for Texeira
Proctor and Kennedy for Salty or Clement

That would be nice! Otherwise, my shopping list includes:

1) Craig Wilson
2) Chris Gomez

That just leaves a backup C - just say no to Baraja and Molina. But what does it leave?

http://tinyurl.com/yhfekl

NEW YORK (5) -- Miguel Cairo, 2b; Octavio Dotel, rhp; Tanyon Sturtze, rhp; Bernie Williams, of; Craig Wilson, of.

Please tell me that this is simply a misprint or that we've got some sort of blockbuster deal in the works to lure him back. I mean, how could we ever replace a gem like Tanyon Sturtze? Who is going to step it up and pitch terribly out of the bullpen now? It's all downhill from here, guys. Go ahead and kiss your playoff hopes goodbye.

5 Sounds about right. As a bleacher season ticket holder I'd be happy if the plan is to keep the cheap seats cheap. Let's face it, you can't get those good tickets anymore anyway, even if you could afford them. It's a crime, but it's true.

1 Gomez might not be a bad idea given his solid OBPs with the O's the past couple years, though I'm still suspicious about those numbers.

3 Diana, I think I've seen you at a few BP events at the Coliseum and elsewhere. Didn't know you were blogging!

I do wonder sometimes if my Yankee loyalties will truly survive Yankee Stadium 2. Blasphemy, I know. But when you consider, for 80-90 days of baseball:

1) The way the Bronx residents were screwed out of prime parkland with much of it replaced with grass on top of parking garages
2) How social classes will be further segregrated in a "modern" park
3) How the city gave away prime tax revenue to make great the glorious benefit of the new stadium
4) Those old Yankee films of Dimaggio and Ruth can no longer be played in your mind when you look down at the field

It's a bit hard to feel excited about the product on the field when the business just becomes seedier and seedier. Yankee Stadium 2 is about profit, and that's it. That just saddens me when they are setting attendance records in the old park with their own cable channel, while reducing payroll. There's plenty of profits to go around, esp if they got payroll down to $150 million or so.

Luckily there's still plenty of places in this great land to enjoy a ballgame.

2004 took the air out of that and I'm over it. Socioeconomic impacts aside for a moment, I am excited about the new park. The renderings look great, and I think it will be a step up on Pac Bell Park out here in S.F., in capturing the retro appeal. I'll make the trip to see the old one for the last time, but can't wait for the new one.

Yes Cliff .... I was one of the very first fan bloggers on mlb.com. (that only means I was one of the first suckers to lay out $49.95 per year for the right to post on mlb.com) :-)

But, I have been interviewed on mlb radio because of my blog, so that was cool.

Shouldn't it really be Yankee Stadium 2 1/2?

Fans there for the game will still enjoy the games in the bleachers.

The Bling Bling ones there to talk on their cellphones can cetainly find those $400 tickets (I doubt they will have to pay for them) to sit there and continue to talk on their phones.

The current Stadium is not the Stadium of Ruth and Mantle, that one was destroyed in the 70s. There have been a lot of great moments in this current Stadium but I won't miss it that much. Especially if it means getting a Pac Bell/PNC type palace. I just wish it had a retractable roof.

he played horrendous here. he couldnt hit a lick and he was a below avg fielder

id rather take my chnaces with phillips and if need be trade for a bat in june

But to build another stadium next door?
Whatever improvements it has could have been added to the 'old Stadium' at a fraction of the cost. For what the new stadium costs, they could have added parking, new bathrooms, new seats, upscale/executive (re: expensive) areas/seating, an indoor atrium around the entire stadium, possibly a roof and all kinds of other goodies.

Imagine what an architect could do with a 500 million$ budget! The new stadium is costing around a billion... correct?

There must be some politics involved.
There is nothing better then an old, historic building that has been totally upgraded and modernized... as you get the best of both worlds.

Am I missing something?

Yankee Stadium truly is one of the great temples of American sports. Out here in Vegas the Stardust hotel recently closed to make way for a $4 billion development called Echelon Place, with glamorous new hotels, shopping, a huge casino, etc. Even though Echelon Place will be far superior to the Stardust in every way, the Stardust's closure is a huge loss for Las Vegas because it is such an important part of our history. That's the same way I feel about Yankee Stadium. Even though the new one will be very nice, Yankee Stadium's closure will be a huge loss.

As for the old stadium...The bathrooms are horrible. The concourses are narrow. Getting in and out is a nightmare. I won't miss those things.

I would be more behind the new stadium if they restored the 500 foot left center field, and if they provided every paying customer with a taser to hurry up the service at concessions.

Well, I guess you really do have to spend it to make it.

1. Bronxbanter
2. Lohud
3. Replacement Level
4. Pintripe Bible
5. NoMaas

My wintertime oxygen.

Better seats, better parking and traffic

Cant beat it

And because I have no idea how to do sorts on OPS+, I can only offer you this name as another player with a career OPS+ of 115--Alfonso Soriano.

Oh, wait....

I love Mike Axisa's Pending Pinstripes in addition to the above mentioned blogs. The other blogs I like, beyond Deadspin and Fire Joe Morgan, are Red Sox blogs. You can find them here or at COH in the linkroll. Soxaholics, Boston Dirt Dogs, Firebrand of the AL.

There are some great Red Sox blogs that raise the level of the rivalry out of the sewer and actually make it feel more like some brilliant chess match, conducted in a mud pit. Good stuff.

I've been saying since I was a university student, 15 years ago, that I'd turn in my Yankees membership if they ever moved to New Jersey. I was VERY serious about that, and that saying something, given all the baby clothes I have so far for my son, due in less than a month, are Yanks stuff.

When they decided to build next door, I breathed a sigh of relief, shook my fist at the money-grubbing capitalists that are stealing part of the heart of the game from regular fans, and resigned myself to the fact that this is modern baseball. If we enjoy the benefits of a $150 million+ roster, we have to give them something too.

George and company throw a lot of their profits back into the team, unlike many other franchises, and we have to be thankful for that. It's great to be outraged at the situation because it helps us all maintain our own rights and keeps baseball in perspective. Rage against the machine, just let it pass to the point where you can enjoy the product on the field and all the roller coaster rides we take here and elsewhere, be it blogs, bars, conversations with strangers in the subway, etc.....

Yankee Stadium will never turn into Madison Square Garden because Isiah isn't at the helm, and the Yankees brass is way smarter than Dolan.

Is it really true that I occasion as many as 7 Yankee blogs a day? Jeez, I need a 12-step program.

I suppose it could be worse. I could be addicted to SOSH.

But I've also always believed that the NEW Yankee Stadium should include a piece of the old stadium. My idea was to move the Yanks to Shea for a couple of years like they did in the 70's and build the new stadium around the left field wall and monument park. Therefore, one of the four sides of the stadium would still have the genuine structure left over from The Stadium as we know it. Future fathers could take their sons and daughters and motion to left field/monument park and point out that what they saw was the actual remains of the old stadium -- a Bronx version Jerusalem's Western Wall, if you will.

I'm not too crazy about the idea of a new park, but given all the new parks being built, it was only a matter of time before the Yanks got a new park. Hate to see it go, but that's progress.

I was speculating a couple years ago with a friend of mine; what if YS had never been renovated? Do you guys think it would be on the level of Fenway or Wrigley?

In the Postmortem on infielders, Cliff wrote this about him: "... there's a strong chance that he'll right himself with his new team, making the Yankees look foolish for allowing 104 at-bats to outweigh his previous 1858."

About Yankees blogs: I read about ten a day. The Banter is the best.

I will gumble and complain and pay my tickets and go enjoy the new stadium and make fun of all of the box seaters as I always do.

I can easily live with a new ballpark if it comes with a few championship teams :)

I guess if the NFL allows NBC to cherry pick games, someone has to get the crap. The new NFL Network should offer single game PPVs, they'd make a fortune.

First base is to the 2007 Yankees as Shortstop was to the 1978 Yankees.

==
ATLANTA — The Atlanta Braves signed right-hander Tanyon Sturtze to a one-year contract Sunday on the eve of the winter meetings, hoping he will be able to come back from rotator cuff surgery.

Sturtze is guaranteed $750,000 and would make another $350,000 if he spends one day on the Braves' 25-man roster. He also could earn another $450,000 in bonuses based on the number of appearances he makes as a starter and reliever.
===

Whatever shall we do?

I can't seem to get a straight answer from those who went to the original YS; were the monuments moved, or are they in their original location?

Either way, it would've been cool to watch a game in the original park (perhaps from the #4 platform.. lol), what with the short porch and death valley. I guess I could live with the obstructed views if I were a paying customer.

Will the new park be a monstrosity? Can't really say for sure. It reminds me of Comerica, which is a very spacious park. Reminds me, I gotta get back to Tiger Stadium before they tear it down. How cool would it have been to play a playoff game (or least an All-Star Game) there? They couldn't b/c the park was in disrepair, for those who care

Can't describe it, but Jint letdowns will place me in court-ordered anger management classes way before Yankee failures will...

60 Good for Tanyon. He'll thrive for a year in the NL, and Baltimore or Toronto will throw $20M at him in '08 — so in a way he'll still be working for us ;-)

It's just like Nixon, "What will we do now that we don't have Tanyon Sturtze to kick around anymore?"

Without looking at the numbers, I think Andy had many more chances to try to hit a lick than Craig Wilson did. Plus Craig Wilson has shown the ability to hit MLB pitching, Andy Phillips has not.

Yeah, Grammatica was definitely a curious move, let alone cutting Vanderjagt in the first place, but the Tuna is looking like Einstein right now. Should be an interesting December, but the 'Boys are in control for sure...

But Grammatica...oy. The guy who blew out his knee celebrating an extremely routine and unimportant field goal. And who perhaps has reason to celebrate even routine field goals, since he's not exactly Mr. Accurate. :-P

I'd hate to see Melky go, but I think I'd do it.

I've invested far too much emotional energy in Melky to see him just walk away.

I just want to watch one of our guys develop for once, is that so much to ask?

I'm eager to watch Melky play and help the team win.

I want to see him hit .320 and turn into the next Derek.

He's got so, so much potential.

So I'd pass.

In Willis, you get a 24 year old pitcher who has shown to be very talanted. Sure, he slipped last year, but hes only 24. And he's fun, really fun.

There is no way you couldn't be happy with that trade, love for Melky aside, I just don't see it happening, they could do better than that package...

The Yankees would be getting a soon-to-be 25 year old left handed starter with a career ERA+ of 120. For that, we'd be giving up:

1. A player who BR projects to have a 20% chance of being star quality by 2010. (Melky)

2. A top pitching prospect with injury problems.

3. A 1B prospect that can't do anything past the AA level.

Whatever upside any of those players has, it won't begin to show until 2009-2010, if ever. I hate to give up Melky, but the Yankees can buy players much better than Melky Cabrera, and probably should. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see Melky turn into Bernie, Jr. but I'd much rather see a 24 year old lefty ace in pinstripes. They just don't grow on trees like good outfielders.

For me, it's very important to develop relationships with the players on my team. That's a huge part of my enjoying the experience.

Let's say, for argument's sake, that you could, with one stroke of the pen, replace each and every man on the current roster with a player of superior or at least equal value.

Would you make the deal?

I wouldn't.

Sometimes love is more important than statistics.

I'm not insensitive to that fact.

I think maybe I'm drawing a line in the sand here.

I understand that sometimes it's important to make tough choices for the good of the team, and I'm not saying this wouldn't be a tough choice, it would.

It's just that I was so attached to both Johnson and Sori, both because I was looking forward to see them develop as individuals and because I felt like they were a bridge between the 2001 and the future.

Continuity is important to me.

Juan Rivera's another guy I was looking forward to watching, but I wasn't as attached to him because he never got the same playing time as the others, but same idea.

And one last thing: If this trade should go down, don't let me find out they trade Willis after two seasons because he's not the ace they expected, like they did with Vazquez.

If Willis is really their plan for the future, they'd better stick with it for more than one or two seasons.