According to Torre, M-z is going to be the regular 1B. Like I said on the other thread, I'll take the "he'll be here all year" square in the "how long does Man cave itch last" office pool.

I like Phelps a lot, he seems clutch, too. But his defense ain't pretty (it ain't Giambi, either, but nobody except maybe Hafner or Big Papi are that bad). And the only way I'd take Philips over Phelps would be for his reported clubhouse presence, which Phelps may or may not be lacking; team chemistry is big, especially in the Coporation.

Also, I hear they might start Igawa in the minors depending on his performance Tuesday. Whaddya think about THAT? I'd be up for it, since Karstens would fill in nicely. It would be tough (for either of them), though, since AAA has 5 starters already: Clippard, Hughes, Sanchez, Rasner, & Ohlendorf. Maybe bump Rasner?

I've been knocked off the Comix tip for a few days now, due to work and paying too much attn to hoops, but I'm about to be getting back into my groove again.

3 That is a very accurate (if not too late!) assessment of Cairo. I was happy when the Yanks re-acquired him last year, but not this winter. Nick Green emerged as a better option in '06, and it appears Basak could probably fill the role nicely this year. Gonzalez needs time. But until someone gets hurt there's no point discussing these younger options. Cairo is firmly entrenched in Team Torre, as is Doug Out 1.

2 Experience tells us the players who are expected to produce at the plate generally do, regardless of their spring training struggles. The problem with Doug Out is that he's not far from mid-season form with his bat. He'll be this bad for long stretches this year, and it will require a great deal of patience to appreciate his defensive effort.

One other thing, maximumnomad: Giambi is hardly the whale out of water at 1B that Papi is. He's surprisingly adept at picking throws out of the dirt. The problem is, Giambi always seems to tweak something reaching for high and off-target throws. But remember, Minky's surgically-repaired back could also be one bad stretch from a DL-worthy tweak (not that I wish this upon him, mind you).

I'm not sure what I'd say if I was hitting .077 this spring, but this quote from Doug Out in today's NJ Star Ledger irks me for some reason: "No one's ever flipped over a baseball card to see your spring-training stats."

Be that as it may, Defensive Dougie, there are probably other first basemen in the league who could hit .077 WITH A BASEBALL CARD, so please, GET OFF THE SUCK when the games count!

http://tinyurl.com/ysnf5s

and echoing 7, please keep the Comix coming, when your March madness and work demands subside.

Youkilis for a couple of the excess Yankee young AAA pitchers and Phelps?

Then we slide A-Rod to 1st, put Youk at 3rd ...

then ... world domination!

(or not)

As for Mientkiewicz, I am less concerned as of now. Spring Training stats rarely mean anything for players who have been in the majors for a while (Alex Rodriguez has yet to hit a HR this spring, and Jason Giambi hit 0 HRs last year during spring). What I do find ominous is that Torre repeatedly saying he has struck out only a couple of times as a justification that all is well. Has anyone kept count of how many times he has GIDP'd himself (and someone else)?

He is not an automatic out, his career OBP is higher that Mattingly's (barely so, but still), for comparison. What he does lack is power, but that is probably less of a concern in a line-up like the Yankees. He still does have a very good glove, even statistically (I believe Dewan's fielding stats have him at third behind Pujols and Teixeira).

I would have still liked Craig Wilson, but he was Joe Torre'd out of Yankees. Minky, given the circumstances, is really not that bad.

2 I know this is heresy to all save Jim Dean, but it's time for the Yankees to look into trading some young pitching. Nothing urgent, but they're overloaded with a valuable commodity, and there are holes they could fill.

Cliff, I know you've said repeatedly that there's no such thing as too much pitching, and I agree. The problem is that they really don't have any place to put all these guys. Providing prospects to be trading chips is a legitimate - even essential - use for a farm system.

Prediction - Minky will come out of the chute on April 2 with a vengeance! 3-4, 3 RBI, diving all over the field. Then we'll all be saying maybe we were wrong, at least until April 25 or so, when he's back to .160 and hasn't had an RBI since opening day. Then the cries for his head begin anew...

I would much rather rotate those 5 thru the back end of the rotation than the slop we dealt with in past years: Redding, May, Ponson, Erickson? Gimme a break. If I truly thought we could get 150 starts out of Wang/Moose/Pettitte/Igawa/Pavano/(Hughes) AND the Yanks had a desparate need, then deal away. But at the end of the day- none of these guys is gonna fetch Posada's eventual replacement, and they're worth too much to go get a 1B/Util when all Cash/Torre needs to do is make the right decisions with what they have in camp: ie, Phelps over Minky and a Basak type over Cairo.

You're right, they need some decent arms to rotate through that fifth spot as needed. They've got Karstens, Rasner, Sanchez, Clippard, Ohlendorf, maybe Henn if he's actually improved. That's a lot of leeway before you have to stoop to Scott Erickson or Sir Sidney - and that's not even counting Hughes.

In the mean time, you've got about 7 AAA starters, and teams who'll be interested in them. Not every deal has to be a blockbuster, but getting a couple of high A position players for a AAA pitcher works fine for me.

Moose and Pettitte are both almost guaranteed to spend time on the 15-day DL this year. And then there's Pavano . . . The Yanks will need 2 or 3 of those 'AAA' guys, outside of Hughes. Only Rasner and Karstens are ready to go in the bigs right now. Sanchez hasn't pitched an inning in any ST game yet. Hughes clearly isn't ready. Clippard and Ohlendorf have a combined 6 IP above AA; rushing them seems imprudent.

Long story short (too late!) I don't think there's nearly enough depth here to make a deal.

Last note - Boston traded Arroyo last year because they thought they had enough SP depth; they were horribly wrong. I'd rather the Yanks didn't make that mistake.

Echo 7.

18 Rookie ball and low-A players are not prospects IMHO especially since the best case scenario is they reach the Bronx in 2010 - alot can happen in three years. After a full year at High-A, then we can talk. So right now, the Yanks have nothing in the way of position prospects (save Tabata).

Otheriwse, I've beaten the "trade the excess pitching" to death. The Unit trade is still killing me - it hurts so bad, mommy.

I'm still not convinced that there's an excess of SPs, even if Henn somehow manages to remain under the Yanks' control. And, like my fellow dutchman says in 21, these 'AAA' guys are pretty worthless on the trade market right now.

Now, if July rolls around, and Moose and Pettitte have already been hurt, and Pavano is doing OK and Hughes is up . . . I say trade Carl and throw in a lesser guy (Jackson?) and see what you can get (Sexson? though I still don't see that). Until then, it's better to wait.

7 word. keep 'em comin' knuckles, looking forward! i check your comix at least once a day to see if there are new ones...

thanks for saving me wsporter! doh, i'm afraid i may have just ki..., uh, ended it...again. :~

8 I have an ingrained image of Giambi whirling and making an errant throw to second to start a dp. Admittedly a difficult throw, but even before it starts I'm sucking breath. And he does dig out throws OK. Some of Alex's sailing throws from 3rd, could only be saved by spiderman. But if the big guy needs a security blanket at 3rd to slug 53HR, let him have it.

I'm not convinced all our pitching kids are destined for glory. As much as I like Clippard, I don't see him making any impact this year. Karstens I think will take over for Igawa. Igawa needs to start strong and I don't see that happening. Success is the key to the Japanese Male Psyche.

Still looking for our Number 1. For that, trade away. No such thing as surplus starting pitching. That and bullpen by committee are two things the sawks have blazed the trail on...

Yankee scouts should know their own prospects better than the other guys do, and they should be able to make pretty good guesses as to which are overvalued. Sometimes they'll be wrong, of course - I'm not saying it's risk-free. But there's a risk in keeping everyone as well, because some of them are going to lose value. Somewhere in there you're going to be squandering a valuable commodity.

An example of how to do it right: Brandon Claussen.

Unless a true building block position player becomes available (i.e. Texiera), it wouldn't make any sense to pull the trigger now. Just look at last season. The Yankees could have jumped the gun early and dealt prospects for Abreu. Instead, they waited things out and came away with El Come Dulce for a lesser package. What's more, Abreu now seemingly fits well into the Yankees plans both this season and next. That is exactly the kind of the deal the Yankees should make.

22 Why does the RJ trade "kill" you? Not only did Ohlendorf look good at times this Spring, but the Yankees are still saving a lot of money as a result of the deal. Also, last time I checked, the Big Unit still has not thrown a pitch this Spring.

I basically agree that they should be looking for a good trade, not just any trade. But I also think they should be keeping their eyes and ears open. The one reason to pull the trigger sooner rather than later is if they really do believe that they have an overvalued prospect - in that case, make a move before others figure out what the Yankees already know.

(Umm, just so no one thinks I'm being less-than sensetive, DTK = Designated Thread Killer)

Let me know when it's time...

I really like Andy Phillips, but think Phelps holds much more potential. I am not sure if he is out of options, but demoting Phillips would allow the Yankees to at least take a look at Phelps before offering him back to Baltimore. The irony, of course, is that neither will really play much anyway, especially as it seems DM will be a semi-regular coming out of the gate.

Uh-oh, you may have opened a can of worms, Coke. What positions hasn't Cairo played this spring?

The Yanks might as well let him be the manager for a day...

Lineup:

L - Miguel Damon (DH)
S - Melky Cairo (CF)
L - Robinson Cairo (2B)
R - Miguel Rodriguez (3B)
L - Doug Mientkairo (1B)
R - Todd Cairo (C)
L - Miguel Sardinha (RF)
R - Chris Cairo (SS)
R - Miguel Cairo (LF)

Pitchers: Jeff Cairo, Chris Cairo, T.J. Cairo, Miguel Proctor, Miggy Bruney, Miguel Cairo

Subs: Miguel Cairo (3B), Miguel Cairo (C), Bernie Williams(CF), Miguel Cairo (PR/LF), Miguel Cairo(DH), Miguel Cairo(PH), Miguel Cairo(PR)

(cough)

Going into spring training, the Sox had:

Schilling
Wakefield
Beckett
Wells
Clement
Arroyo

6 guys for 5 rotation spots, with Lester and (if need be) Papelbon to step in (Paps had been a starter, and Foulke was the presumptive closer). They also had Tavarez as an emergency starter and guys in the minors (like DiNardo) who could be called up if need be. Even after trading Arroyo, the Sox figured they had plenty of pitching depth.

Sorry to be the contrarian to you, JL, but living outside Boston, all I heard last spring was about the Sox pitching depth and how the team believed it had so much of it.

Finally, they didn't trade away depth - they traded away a legitimate major-league pitcher. Not a great one, but one who'd proven his value to the team. Was Tavarez supposed to fill that swingman slot?

Even at the time, I thought that move was highly dubious (not to mention scummy as hell). I like to think that the Yankee depth is a lot more legitimate than Lenny DiNardo.

As for all the stories in the papers, yeah, the Red Sox had the hype machine in full gear. The problem was that, as usual, they believed their own hype.

We have too damn much pitching!