So many choices…
Over at Bats, Tyler Kepner examines the Yankees off-season:
After Sabathia, Burnett and Pettitte (assuming he re-signs), the Yankees have a slew of options still under contractual control: Joba Chamberlain, Phil Hughes, Ian Kennedy, Chad Gaudin, Sergio Mitre, Alfredo Aceves and (gulp) Kei Igawa. But what about a high-risk, high-reward gamble from the free-agent market?
Ben Sheets, Rich Harden and Erik Bedard have all been top-of-the-rotation starters in the recent past. All are free agents coming off seasons marred by injury. Really, the Yankees would have nothing to lose by signing one of them. The price would probably be low enough that the Yankees could afford to outbid other teams, and if they sign someone and he gets hurt again, they are protected with the starters they already gave.
No mention of the Worm-killer? He has shown an ability to be an effective ML pitcher, though he's lost 1.5 seasons to injury. I would rather open the last two slots to Joba, Phil or Chien-Ming. If you want a starter who's low-priced because he's damaged goods, you only have to look in house. Unless CMW really is finished.
[1] My understanding is that the earliest the Worm-killer could be ready to face ML hitters is late June 2010 - so I'm not sure he's worth counting on at this point.
I do think that he might be worth a Lieber-type deal, but not through arbitration.
I suppose if you were to line up the priority of signing any of these guys, I'd flip-flop Bedard and Harden; Was Watching made an interesting point about Harden the other day. To paraphrase one commentor; if you're looking for a surer bet with comparable numbers, you might as well go for Lackey.
I worry about Bedard's head; he was hell bent on getting out of Baltimore by any means necessary (but not to the extent of Manny) and got himself shipped to Hell-on-Earth, where he broke down into little bite-sized pieces. You have to wonder what effect being on a Yankee team that's of a "Let's Do It Again" mindset will have on someone who's never done it and fell apart when the going got tough. Taking a big chance on a rebound; Lieber was a different mindset than this.
Ben Sheets I would stick in my pocket like Lieber and let him get healthy, as I would do with Wang. The two of them at the top of the rotation at Scranton in August sounds intriguing, as would a September call up for the playoff drive.
[0] I went to the Automat at the Hippodrome a few times before it was shut down and removed. Uncle Woodrow talks about them like it was a wonderland. I still look with a certain fascination when I pass by. There's an automat at this place on St. Mark's Place, but it's not really the same; too small.
Bedard is scary-bad. He seems to always give up the big hit at the worst time. Do we really need another 4-A pitcher?
Oh, the H&H. My grandfather used to take me there after the Macy's Day parade for hot chocolate and apply pie. When I was a bit older (in the mid 1960's), I ran into my radio hero, Jean Sheppard, there one day.
[3] Did you really just refer to Seattle as "Hell-on-Earth"? Aside from Seattle being a really great place to live, Safeco is a pretty good pitchers' park. Just ask the Tigers...
Seems like Kepner did a better job of making the case *against* signing one of those guys. As for Bedard, you know it takes a lot for a team's fans to go negative on players when they are willing to worship the guy who blackmailed the franchise after they just finished building a ballpark to accommodate his sweet left-handed swing. But the fans in Seattle did turn on Bedard due to the craziness. He's American Idle II.
[2] Did not realize that. Must be a real bad injury. Maybe he should work out of the pen in 2010, just to get built up and back to facing ML hitters after basically two years out. Be real nice to have a ground ball specialist in the pen.
[6] Just for the record a.O and any Seattlites (whassup standup!), I wasn't referring to Seattle the city as "hell-on-Earth (good coffee, bad weather, Microsoft geniuses, inter-galactic mansions; it's all good!), but the Seattle Mariners. It sure seems like they play better on the Wii than at Safeco >;)