You also correctly point out explanations for why so many tickets might be available. You’re right, Yankee Stadium is huge. For that reason, there are more tickets to be had. In addition, the economic downturn hit NY harder than other towns. Thirdly, the tickets are expensive. Season ticket holders down on their economic luck have incentive to try and sell their tickets for very real money.

Great blog. Thanks for your kind words about FanSnap!

From the context, you really couldn’t tell that I was talking about the BIF role? Really?

Hmmm, Cody Ransom at 455k or Loretta at 1.25M? Hmmmm. Ramiro Pena at 450k or Mark DeRosa at 4.75M? Hmmmm. Angel Berroa at ???? or Mark Grudz at ???? Hmmmm.

Yeah, there was nothing out there.

2% of that is $4.03 million.

Yanks bench on opening day:
Nick Swisher — $5.4 million
Ramiro Pena — $400K
Melky Cabrera — $1.4 million
Cody Ransom — $455,100
Jose Molina — $2,125,000

Total == $9,780,100 ~4.85% of total payroll

So the Yanks are spending more than twice what you ask them to spend on their bench.

What? Grudz is still out of work and still better than any of the above.

Furthermore, the Cubs traded DeRosa for bullpen fodder. If there’s a better deal to be had, who’s to say they wouldn’t have taken it?

That’s two players. Loretta, may or may not, have signed. Money talks and the Dodgers gave him $1.25M. If it was a priority for the Cashman, they could have easily spent 1 or 2% of their payroll on a decent bench. Instead, you didn’t hear one rumor about any of these guys. They didn’t even try. Instead, they will have given over 200 ABs this year to below replacement-level talent. And that’s not even counting CF.

Sorry, william, but there were guys “the Yankees should have and could have signed over the off season”. You’re just holding your ears and your nose for some weird reason…

Somehow I’d knew you’d find a way to shat on all three players even though all are clearly better than Ransom (or Pena or, shudder, Berroa) and all were available for little more than cash or AA/A bullpen fodder.

You’re using the term “prospect” loosely. The Yanks could have had DeRosa for the equivalent of Hacker, Jackson, and Sanchez. That’s exactly what those “resources” should be used for.

I guess the Yankees could have traded three pitching prospects for a guy who might never play regularly, but that would seem to me to be a poor allocation of resources.

Also, this year, Swisher was a bench player. Melky was too. I think they are two players teams would like to have.

[15] I don’t think Loretta or DeRosa would have had any interest signing with the Yankees, especially DeRosa who has made himself into a quasi-starter. As for Grudz,depending on him to be healthy would mean you’d wind up counting on Ransom anyway.

Hear hear!

Its nice to be able to call up Hughes, rather than sign someone like Ponson.

The Yankees are now stocked with pitching prospects as a result of Cashman’s stewardship, and we are now seeing the fruits of that effort with Joba, Melacon, Roberson, and others.

I agree that they need to start having the same success with position prospects. Many of their Latin American signings have been focused in that area. The problem is that they enter the organization at an extremely young age, so it takes a longer time for them to develop.

But Cashman took over a farm system that was awful, and it is far better now, although not yet good enough.

I would tend to agree with that opinion, except that she often throws in a reference that sends me Googling, and I kinda like that in a way.

If she were a road map, she’d take you next door by way of going across town.

So that’s three very realistic candidates – Grudz, Loretta, and DeRosa – for this year’s bench – all better than Ransom. Now they’re relying on Angel Berroa instead.

You’ve just nailed it. Players want to be on winning teams. If that means a spot on the bench, so be it.

Grudz and Loretta. If that failed there’s a guy like DeRosa. What did Cleveland trade to get him? Three middling pitching prospects. And Grudz is still available. He’s not better than Berroa?

The roster construction has been an absolute embarrassment the last few years – unless you think there wasn’t another option at 1B besides Cairo?

To be fair, Charlie Hays wasn’t a good starter. Strawberry was signed as a reclamation project. Canseco was a waiver claim. Chad Curtis was always a 4th OF type. Raines had durability issues. So on and so forth.

That young player you speak of would have been traded or moved elsewhere on the diamond. If I’m a SS or 3B prospect in the Yankee system, I know that I’m not going to get a call to the ML club unless there’s an injury, so I’d be better off trying to learn another position.

At least they had Jed Lowrie, the Yanks never had a Lowrie type.

And before Lowrie, they had Lugo, Cora, Renteria among others…

I can’t think of any bench player of recent vintage who you’d want to start.