http://tinyurl.com/25tvek

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11N-BD1aBo0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pqDwQMq2B0

IMHO, the truth hasn't been told about the Torre thing. Seems like he lost the support of management by his failure to win. The Swindal DUI could have resulted in the deal being taken off the table. Who knows?

No one has answered the question that Hank asked. Who was Joe Torre before they handed him a team of studs that had a hunger to win? And his going to LA for less bucks has an odor to it.

Having things fall apart re: Rivera and A-Rod is a bit different than having it fall apart re: Yorvit ...

(just sayin')

in other news, the White Sox just traded Jon Garland to the Angels for Orlando Cabrera .... curious move.

I don't understand how that's relevant.

If this is the kind of deal Kenny Williams is going to make, I'd suggest that Cashman get on the phone with him; there's a fleecing to be had...

They way overvalued Cabrera. Kind of like the Angels did three years ago.

The Halos have replaced Colon in the rotation, and opened up a spot for Brandon Wood. Can't find much fault on their end of the deal.

http://tinyurl.com/28gqju

3 years at $12-13M per year.

Ah, that SO takes me back to the Saturday mornings of my youth.

#1 A-Rod
#2 Ordonez
#3 Ortiz
#4 Posada
#5 Granderson
#6 Sabathia
#7 Carmona
#8 Ichiro
#9 Vlad
#10 Lackey

Honorable mention: Sizemore, Martinez, Beckett, Pena.

I was tempted to put Granderson over Posada for his superior defense, but I couldn't do that to Jorgie. Choosing among the four Indian studs was really tough. I'm curious to see whether the writers will under-value Ortiz after they have over-valued him for so many years.

10 19 I thought turkey with bread stuffing was the meal of choice during Thanksgiving week, not dead horse with Torre stuffing.

Having said that, the Yankees have really struggled to find competent lefthanded relievers in recent years. Mahay should be a relatively low-cost, low-risk pickup.

BTW, you can get the 30th anniversary edition (yes, we're getting old) DVD from Amazon for 15 bucks (it has all the classics). I got it for my 3-year-old and he loves to watch it (almost as much as I do).

Hmmm... I wonder which town the two writers who voted for Ordonez reside in... gee, wouldn't be Detroit, would it?

"The only two first-place votes that didn't go to Rodriguez were from Tom Gage of The Detroit News and Jim Hawkins of The Oakland Press in Pontiac, Mich."

Gage and Hawkins, please explain yourselves before we revoke your right to vote for MVP.

I've enjoyed my copy of "Rock" DVDs.

Conjunction Junction .... what's your function?

I would pin that series loss on CMW, Derek Jeter, and midges.

A-Rod played well enough, especially since they faced the Cy Young winner twice. No reason to keep harping on his supposed lack of success in the play-offs.

My guess is no.

By the way, Henn is out of options, so he'll have just one more shot at proving himself.

Over the course of a season, no they have not. Not that either has exactly been given a whole season's worth of a chance. Still, I'd rather see the Yanks take a chance on Henn or Igawa and if there is that much need, try someone else. Why waste money on a guy like Mahay, who, as OYF points out 29 , is just as likely to flop as he is succeed?

Besides, a team doesn't need a lefty in the bullpen to win.

38 I don't know what the solution is - but I would guess that at least 2/3 of the internal possibilities have to at least be competent for the bullpen to not be a major liability. I tried to follow some of the action in the AFL and Ohlendorf didn't seem to do that well (I know it was a short time/hitters league, but you'd still like to see someone that had the major league time he has to do better). I'm not necesarily advocating signings because I agree with many of the comments over the fallacy of money to middle relief - but I am not that confident with most of the internal choices. It also seems like a lot of hopes are being placed on Sanchez - supposedly control is the last thing to come back, so he might not be that useful until after the ASB.

But the point is, if it costs only money, and if they can easily be cut (e.g. Mike Meyers 6-12 months too late), use the money bags.

Theoretically, you're probably right. You probably don't need any lefty hitters to win, either, but you'd be a damn fool not to go looking for one.

Never mind David Ortiz; I want a lefty reliever to turn Brian Roberts around.

But regardless, A-Rod doesn't need a "tiebreaker." He was better.

46 Oh yeah, I agree - he was far better - that's why I put tiebreaker in quotes, but if for some reason voters were trying to decide between the two, that should have put him over the top.

44 That's a good point, but its not like the Yanks don't (at least) two internal options. And who else is on the market?

45 No more so than the bats going cold, or Torre not pulling the team off the field, or Joba imploding at the worst time.

After that...Bruce Chen, Everyday Eddie, The Patriarch, Ray King, Mike Myers, Arthur Rhodes, Ron Villone. All of a sudden Ron Mahay doesn't looks so bad.

Also, you can take serviceable righties off the scrapheap, but lefties are tougher to find.

52 I just don't buy that not having Mike Myers or Ron Villone around was that much of a difference.

As for the "a good righty ..." argument, an elite righty such as Rivera or Joba is a safe bet pitching to anyone. But when you have a bullpen full of mediocre righties, you'll need a mediocre lefty to balance things out. And beware of one or two-year reverse splits. Vizcaino came in with them too.

I think we should celebrate by dumping Worthless.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Now, the only player who seems to be holding out is Pettitte, and I suspect his current lean toward retirement has little to do with the former manager's departure, though that is just a hunch.

Who knew?

Not nearly so guarded as he used to be.

"I was trying to please everybody rather than do what made me happy...some people are going to like it and some people are not, and that's just the story of my lie."

He's settling in, finally.

That's "life!" not "lie."

http://tinyurl.com/26ny23

:)