Blog Archives

The Yankees got their first game action of the spring yesterday afternoon with a seven-inning intrasquad game. Pete Abraham posted the lineups, and play-by-play of the first 3 1/2 innings, as did Bryan Hoch of MLB.com. Hoch also posted the final tallies and pitching lines (compare them to Abraham’s accounting here).

It’s interesting to note that Girardi distributed the regulars between the two teams, whereas Joe Torre used to put them all on one squad (see last year’s lineups). Girardi had four of the Yankees’ expected regulars in each lineup. Hideki Matsui didn’t play, likely because he’s still rehabbing his surgically-repaired knee. Matsui also missed the 2006 intrasquad game due to his aching knee (which may be one of most insignificant facts I’ve ever cited on this blog).

Looking over those pitching lines, Sean Henn and Billy Traber, the top two contenders for the lefty spot in the pen, both had rough outings, with Henn having some obvious control problems. Mike Mussina threw 77 percent of his 30 pitches for strikes, but didn’t get the results he wanted. At least he has the excuse of having faced the starters, allowing hits to Derek Jeter, Robinson Cano, and Morgan Ensberg. The fourth hit off Moose came when a would-be double-play ball from Jose Tabata took a wild bounce over the shortstop’s head. That drove in Mussina’s only earned run. He also allowed an unearned run in the first after an error by Brett Gardner in center field (overrunning Cano’s single) allowed Jeter to go to third and subsequently score on an out.

Moose wasn’t the only pitcher to pitch in bad luck as there were seven errors in the game (in addition to Gardner, the offending fielders were Justin Christian, Chris Woodward, Cody Ransom, Nick Green, Eduardo Nuñez, and Marcos Vechionacci, all but one of them playing for the “Gator” team). At the plate, Ensberg had the big day, picking up the only extra base hit of the contest (a double off Mark Melancon) and scoring three of the “Goose” team’s six runs.

In the third inning, righty reliever Scott Patterson was hit in the foot by a comebacker which ricocheted to shortstop for an inning-ending double play. Patterson walked gingerly off the field and has a contusion on his right ankle. In other aches-and-pains news, fellow righty reliever Scott Strickland has been shut down for a few days due to a swelling near his pitching elbow. I don’t expect either hurler to factor into the bullpen competition even if healthy.

The Yanks have a light workout today and will play an exhibition against the University of South Florida tomorrow before starting their official spring schedule against the Phillies on Saturday. The Yankees trio of young starters (Chamberlain, Kennedy and Hughes) are all scheduled to pitch tomorrow. The USF team is coached by Tino Martinez’s brother-in-law, and Tino was a volunteer assistant coach for them last year. Tino’s a special instructor for the Yanks this spring and, per the Daily News‘ Mark Feinsand, offered the USF staff some advice on how to be good hosts to the Yankees.

The Yankees rotation starting Saturday will be Chien-Ming Wang, Andy Pettitte, Mike Mussina, and Phil Hughes, with Ian Kennedy and Joba Chamberlain pitching in tandem out of the five-spot. Tyler Kepner believes this is how the rotation will look to start the season, barring injury and pending a decision on the fifth spot, of course.

(more…)

Spring training is officially one week old, but since I posted my look at the 69 players the Yankees have in camp this year, the sum total of our commentary on the goings on in Tampa has been Alex’s post of Andy Pettitte’s opening statement from his press conference on Monday. Why? Two reasons: 1) there’s been no news, and 2) Peter Abraham has it covered.

The back-page stories thus far have been Andy Pettitte’s late arrival due to his stopover in Washington, DC to give a deposition about the contents of the Mitchell Report, and Alex Rodriguez sticking his foot in his mouth regarding how often he was drug tested last year. Both stories are dead. Pettitte reported on Monday, four day’s late with the team’s permission, and is already on a normal pace. Rodriguez just misspoke, and I think the media and fans are finally getting used to the fact that he has a tendency to say the wrong thing and learning to ignore it when he does.

Otherwise it’s the usual business. Joe Girardi’s focus early on appears to be on conditioning and fundamentals. On the first day of camp, he told his pitchers, “Take care of your bodies. You can’t make the team today, or tomorrow, or the next day, so take it slow and make sure you get your arm strength before you start trying to impress people.” According to Pete, Girardi has been more active on the field than Torre, going from spot to spot to observe his players up close, but has been relatively hands-off thus far, letting his coaches coach while taking extensive notes.

The one big change in camp this year appears to be an increase in running, with Girardi having the players working on stamina where Torre used to have them do more sprinting. Both Derek Jeter and Jorge Posada have joked to the media about their dislike for the increased running. Alex Rodriguez, a workout junkie, kinda likes it. Pete Abe wisely points out that the running has less to do with Girardi than new strength and conditioning coach Dana Cavalea, who replaced Marty Miller after the rash of hamstring injuries the Yankees suffered early last year (apparently because they weren’t doing enough running).

Speaking of workouts, as per the usual spring training script, most of the news in week one was about who has come to camp in great shape, though Abraham attributes some of that to Girardi’s having explicitly told his players to do so. The Yankee list includes Johnny Damon, who came into camp last year a bit heavy and has something to prove after a season in which he was slowed by a variety of injuries and terrible in the first half, Bobby Abreu, who also has something to prove after his terrible start to last season and is in the walk year of his contract, Jason Giambi, who was injured and unproductive last year and is likely in his walk year as well as the Yanks are sure to buyout his option at year’s end, Derek Jeter, who may finally be accepting the fact that things won’t come quite as easy to him as age starts to catch up to him, and Joba Chamberlain, who seems to have put the conditioning concerns that allowed him to slip to the Yanks in the 2006 draft behind him.

In addition to those guys arriving in great shape, Pete Abe said that Mike Mussina, another veteran in his walk year with something to prove after a poor 2007, and Phil Hughes, who lost a lot of time to injury last year, have arrived with a “sense of purpose.” I’m not sure what that really means, but Abraham did follow up by reporting on strong bullpen outings from both of them. Hughes and Chamberlain have also been seen working out with Andy Pettitte doing a reduced version of the Roger Clemens workout which, for all of the wisecracks that can be made given the Mitchell Report fallout, is no joke. Bryan Hoch of MLB.com has more encouraging news on Hughes.

The exception to all of this appears to be Kei Igawa. According to Abraham, the player nicknamed “Quest” because of his affinity for running (or was it his affinity for video games?), is “the only Yankee who looks like he spent the winter on the couch . . . He’s so behind in running drills it’s like he’s carrying his translator.” No comment.

The reporters have developed the habit of asking Girardi at the end of each day if everyone is healthy. Thus far the only issue has been some back spasms suffered by center field prospect Austin Jackson, though they didn’t seem to be of any particular concern. Abraham reported that Kyle Farsworth survived a staph infection in his leg in January and that Hideki Matsui, despite reports that his surgically repaired knee was bothering him, is moving smoothy during drills and showing no ill-effects.

Giardi has said that Chamberlain and Igawa will both be in the competition for the rotation, that he hopes to get Johnny Damon 600 at-bats as the team’s primary left fielder, and suggested that Bobby Abreu will remain in his customary number-three spot in the lineup. Legends Field has been renamed after George Steinbrenner, an appropriate and deserved honor. Morgan Ensberg is wearing number 21, ending the unofficial retirement of Paul O’Neill’s former number.

And that’s about it. Pete’s blog is essential reading for some of his great slice-of-life observances, which lend color to a fairly mundane part of the season. Among the highlights thus far have been notes on the clubhouse attendants’ disrespect for Carl Pavano, Sean Henn needling Andrew Brackman about his the college basketball career, Mike Mussina’s interior decorating, the wild fielding drills Toñy Pena puts his catchers through, Kevin Long filling Larry Bowa’s shoes as a friend to Chien-Ming Wang and Robinson Cano, or Tino Martinez, who is in camp as an instructor for the first time, learning how to hit fungoes. Also, check out this shot of Derek Jeter messing up Andy Pettitte’s official photo.

In the meantime, no news is good news.

I knew Santino was going to have to go through all this . . . but I never wanted this for you. I work my whole life, I don’t apologize, to take care of my family, and I refused to be a fool dancing on the strings held by all of those big shots. That’s my life, I don’t apologize for that, but I always thought that, when it was your time, that you would be the one to hold the strings.

In his introduction to the first major interview conducted with Hal Steinbrenner in roughly 20 years, GQ staff writer Nate Penn positions the younger Hal as the Michael Corleone to older brother Hank’s Sonny:

During their first, busy off-season, Hank, 50, emerged as a sort of Sonny Corleone figure, impetuous and impudent, throwing down gauntlets left and right. . . . His outspokenness—on subjects ranging from A-Rod to Joe Torre to a possible trade for ace Johan Santana—led many to assume he was running the team, but behind the scenes the chain of command was a work in progress. “They indicated that now Hank is the baseball person,” a baffled Scott Boras tells me during the first, ill-fated round of A-Rod negotiations, “yet they had me talk with Hal.” . . . Throughout, Hal, 38, remained, like Michael Corleone, in the shadows—subtle, wary of media, a private family man.

The interview is a must-read throughout. In the key sections, Hal explains his vision for how decisions will be made by the team moving forward:

I’m going to sound like a military-school guy, but I’m a big believer in chain of command. Under George, I think a lot of people felt like George was going to make the decision, no matter what, and they just didn’t make many decisions. The direction that we’re moving toward is more along the lines of how I think an efficient corporation should run. It doesn’t mean I’m right, but that’s my take. I don’t want to have to be here twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, analyzing every single piece of information that comes across the desk and feeling like I need to make decisions that other people are perfectly capable of making.

We understand this is New York. We understand winning is expected. We want to win. Even if that wasn’t the case, we would want to win; that’s just the way we are. But I think we’re both more introverted and more analytical. We tend to want to take time to come up with a solution to a problem, as opposed to making a seat-of-the-pants–type decision. And I think that showed in some of these off-season signings. Some people didn’t understand why we took so long to decide this or to decide that, but we want to get it right. . . . What’s been determined is that this is a family business, and if we’re both gonna be involved, it has to be an equal thing, and we both need to be involved with all major decisions, whether it’s the stadium, big expenditures, or [the unconsummated trade for Johan] Santana, for instance.

That sort of measured, analytical approach which trusts the expertise of the people hired to make decisions rather than second-guesses or haphazardly overrides them is good news for Yankee fans, as is Hal’s attitude toward the team’s home grown pitchers. Continuing from above:

It’s well publicized in New York that [Hanks and I] didn’t agree on that deal. My concerns were economical and financial, and I’m not gonna get into those, but I also had baseball concerns. I didn’t want to get rid of these kids! Boy, the last time we had three young pitchers like Philip Hughes, Joba Chamberlain, and Ian Kennedy, I couldn’t even tell you. [Never -CJC]

The Super Bowl this year was unbelievable, and the one thought I took away really has a lot to do with us this year, with these three young pitchers. Eli struggled a bit his first couple years. I think New York fans might realize now that if you give a young kid time, great things can happen.

Sounds familiar. Elsewhere, Hal confirms the perceived split between his strengths and those of his brother: “My background in grad school [Hal earned an MBA in 1994] led me to do certain things, like finance, that weren’t his strong points. Hank always loved the baseball operations and knew the statistics for every player. We each had our strengths.”

He also confirmed that his close involvement in the team really only dates back about 12 months, and Hank’s even less: “I obviously became considerably more involved at a somewhat dramatic pace when Steve [Swindal], my sister’s ex-husband, left [in February of 2007]. A couple months after that, I think Hank realized I could use some help.”

(more…)

The Yankees didn’t make any radical changes to their roster this offseason. In fact, of the 21 players most likely to head north with the team, only veteran reliever LaTroy Hawkins wasn’t on the team last year. Still, Spring Training 2008 feels like a new beginning for the team. A lot of that has to do with the fact that there’s a new Joe running the show. Joe Torre managed the Yankees to a dozen playoff appearances in as many seasons, including six World Series appearances and four world championships. This spring, he’s over in Vero Beach, decked out in Dodger blue as that team’s new manager. Back in Tampa, the new Yankee skipper is Joe Girardi, who was the Yankee catcher during four of Torre’s seasons at the helm, three of which ended in championships.

Over the past twelve years, more than a third of which I’ve covered either here or at my previous blog, Yankee fans became used to Joe Torre’s managerial style, his likes and dislikes, his tendencies, preferences, and pet peeves. Of Girardi’s managerial style, however, we know very little. Girardi has been retired for four years, three of which he spent as a broadcaster for the YES Network and one of which he spent as the manager of a newly-gutted Florida Marlins team. Though Girardi’s Fish had a losing record in 2006, their 78-86 performance and brief late-season flirtation with the NL Wild Card race was viewed as an unexpected success. Still, Girardi came under criticism for feuding with ownership, overworking his team’s young pitching staff, and exhibited an alarming affection for the sacrifice bunt. This offseason, Girardi has often said that he learned a lot from that experience, hinting that his approach as the manager of the Yankees will differ in meaningful ways. Exactly how he’ll affect those changes remains to be seen.

We don’t really know what to expect from Girardi at any point this season, nor do we know what impact will be felt from the resulting turnover in the team’s coaching staff. Mix in the continued emergence of the team’s pitching prospects starting with Phil Hughes, Joba Chamberlain, and Ian Kennedy, the continued development (or lack thereof) of Melky Cabrera, and the wide-open front half of the bullpen, and this spring should be unlike any the Yankees have experienced since Torre’s inaugural season of 1996, despite lacking the significant roster turnover experienced by the team that year.

While the Yankees once again have the potential to be one of, maybe even the best team in baseball in 2008, the season will ultimately be one of transition. Beyond the introduction of Girardi and his coaches, this will be the first season in which George Steinbrenner’s sons Hank and Hal, who emerged from the long shadow of their father’s failing health over the offseason, will be in public and practical control of the team. Thus far, Hank has filled his father’s shoes as a blustery boaster constantly feeding the media leap-before-you-look quotes, while Hal has worked quietly behind the scenes to support Brian Cashman’s team building efforts, though some have said he is as motivated by penny-pinching as by his belief in his GM. This season will also be the last for the original Yankee Stadium, which conjures up a flood of mixed emotions from sadness over the loss of the landmark which, for many Yankee fans, is something of a second home, to cynicism borne from the Stadium’s loss of character following renovation 30 years ago and the design flaws apparent in the new stadium, to anger over the mistreatment of the community and the city both physically and financially as a result of the construction project, to excitement over the state-of-the-art structure rising in the Bronx, despite it’s already apparent flaws and the damage inflicted by its creation.

On the field, this will also be a year of transition, as the young starters will have to cope with innings limits as they build up their stamina for their first full major league seasons. Those extra innings in the rotation will be consumed by Andy Pettitte and Mike Mussina, two long-time Yankees who are likely taking their final tour in pinstripes. Similarly, a long-term fix at first base is being put off one more year as Jason Giambi plays out the final year of his contract. This season also finds the Yankees waiting out the final year of their commitments to Kyle Farnsworth and Carl Pavano, which will leave Kei Igawa as the last barnacle stuck to Brian Cashman’s hull. Then again, Cashman’s in his walk year as well.

There’s a lot of change on the horizon for the Yankees, and a lot of change already at hand. With all of that looming in the background, let’s get to the business at hand and take a look at the 69 players Girardi and his coaches will have to sort through in Tampa this spring in order to settle on the 25-man Opening Day roster of the 2008 New York Yankees.

(more…)

The official reporting date for pitchers and catchers is still two days away, but a number of Yankees are already in Tampa working out. Jack Curry of the Times reports on Jorge Posada and Derek Jeter. Pete Abe reports on Joba Chamberlain, who is already working out with new pitching coach Dave Eiland. Phil Hughes, who has taken Sean Henn’s number 34, is among the other pitchers in camp. He went to a NASCAR race at Daytona with Shelley Duncan and Ian Kennedy on Saturday, so count those two as in camp as well as Henn, Jeff Karstens (per Pete’s post), and . . . Carl Pavano [insert joke]. There are others there as well, I’m sure. Up around these parts, my lawn is frozen solid, but news like that makes me think I can smell the grass.

Pitchers and catcher report a week from today, but I must admit, I’m still glowing from the Giants’ Super Bowl win this past Sunday, which was my best experience as a football fan since the Giants won their first Super Bowl 21 years ago. Gregg Easterbrook had high praise for the the Giants and the game in his alternately essential and indulgent Tuesday Morning Quarterback, meanwhile the almost exclusively indulgent Bill Simmons was able to step back and notice the strong parallels between the Giants’ upset and the then-underdog Patriots’ upset of the Rams six years ago. Simmons, who attended the game with his dad, concluded his column thusly:

The last thing we heard as we were walking (OK, hustling) out of the stadium right after the final play . . . was the sound of euphoric Giants fans chanting, “Eighteen and one! Eighteen and one! Eighteen and one!” Yes, it’s safe to say the Boston-New York rivalry has been taken to new heights. As a tennis umpire would say, “Advantage, New York.”

That “18-1” rings like a distant echo of the now-dormant “1918” chant that was once heard throughout the Bronx. That said, I have a hard time translating the rivalry between sports. The Patriots are an expansion team that plays in “New England,” not Boston, and their natural New York rivals are not the Giants, but the Jets, who aren’t up to the task. Still, after watching the Pats and Red Sox claim five championships in the past six years, even Jets fans and local football haters have to have a glimmer in their eye after the Giants knocked off the near-perfect Pats.

If nothing else, the Yankees can take inspiration from the Giants, who beat a seemingly unbeatable team from Massachusetts with a roster stocked with young homegrown players including Eli Manning, David Tyree, Steve Smith, Brandon Jacobs, Ahmad Bradshaw, Kevin Boss, Madison Hedgecock, Osi Umenyiora, Justin Tuck, Barry Cofield, Jay Alford, Corey Webster, and Aaron Ross (along with a couple of key homegrown vets in Michael Strahan and Amani Toomer). As much as I’m still watching The Play on a loop on my DVR, the thought of the Yankees getting their turn to do something equally amazing is all I need to redirect my thoughts toward roster minutia and the $600,000 that separates the team and Chien-Ming Wang in the right-hander’s arbitration case. Until Wang and company report to camp a week from today, however, I think I’ll go watch that play a few more times . . .

(more…)

Entering the new year, the Yankees had four arbitration-eligible players on their 40-man roster. Of the four, the two who will see the largest increase in salary this year are second baseman Robinson Cano and starter Chien-Ming Wang. Even if they are awarded the salaries they requested ($4.55 million and $4.6 million, respectively) Cano and Wang will continue to be bargains considering their contributions on the field.

Reliever Brian Bruney requested just $845,000 while the Yankees offered $640,000, a $205,000 difference that, in the big picture of the Yankees’ team payroll, is little more than petty cash. The Yankees should be thinking seriously about signing Cano and Wang to long-term contracts to control their salaries over the ensuing two years of arbitration and to delay their arrival on the free agent market (reportedly both players are interested in making long-term commitments to the team). Bruney, however, is dangerously close to pricing himself off the team, not because he’s so terribly expensive, but because his primary value over the past two seasons was that he was a player earning the league minimum who was obtained at no cost to the team. Bruney has pitched well for the Yankees at times, but entering his age-26 season, and with the team essentially holding open auditions for what will now be less expensive relievers, he’ll have to step up his game this year or the very thing that made him valuable in the first place–the fungibility of relief performance and the ability of teams to obtain solid relief contributions from replacement-level acquisitions–will make him expendable, possibly even before the year is out.

The Yankees most compelling arbitration case, however, is that of infielder Wilson Betemit. Betemit and the Yankees have already settled their case, with Betemit signing a one-year deal for $1.165 million, but what makes Betemit’s case so interesting is that unlike the team’s other three arb-eligible players, Betemit’s future is much more difficult to discern. Cano and Wang are already stars and are headed for eight-figure paydays be they in the Bronx or elsewhere. Bruney is a marginal reliever who will either establish himself as a go-to journeyman or fade from the major league scene. Betemit, however, is a former top prospect locked into a reserve role, but who still retains some promise of emerging as a starter. The problem is that Cano, Wang, and Bruney could all fulfill their potential in pinstripes, but Betemit can’t.

Betemit is blocked at third base, his natural position, by the largest contract in baseball history, at his original position, shortstop, by the immovable icon that is Derek Jeter (whose lifespan at short is a whole other issue, but one that seems unlikely to be addressed by the team in time to help Betemit), and at the keystone by fellow arbitration case Cano. He’ll get his chances this year at first base, but limiting a player like Betemit who can play all around the infield to first base is a considerable misallocation of resources, as it both reduces the player’s value while simultaneously increasing the offensive standard against which his value is measured.

The irony is that if Betemit were to serve as little more than a utility infielder this year, he’d be hard pressed to get much more of a raise when arbitration rolls around again a year from now and thus would still be a good value given his price, power bat, and versatility. However, if he fulfills the Yankees’ best hopes for him this year by earning a share of the starts at first base while experiencing a spike in production because he’s properly used as a lefty-hitting platoon player (a switch-hitter his career marks are .268/.347/.464 batting left and .232/.281/.353 batting right), when arbitration comes around next year he could price himself off the team, particularly if the Yankees block him at first base by signing Mark Teixeira or Adam Dunn, as they should.

What’s strange is that the latter scenario, in which Betemit plays his way off the team by proving too valuable to keep, would be the best for Betemit, who at age 26 still has time to establish himself as starting third baseman in the major leagues (though one gets the sense that he’s likely to be the sort of player who would start for a second-division team but ride pine for a contender), but it would likely send the Yanks back to the good-field/no-hit barrel, where their current best hope for a 2009 replacement for Betemit is former Diamondback prospect Alberto Gonzalez, a career .278/.329/.383 hitter in the minor leagues. It’s something of a lose-lose situation for the Yankees, which is an odd way to look at the best reserve infielder they’ve had in recent memory.

(more…)

As frustrating as it might be to have my life overtaken every winter by Baseball Prospectus annual (I just edited what will be the largest and should be the earliest edition ever), I can’t say I was terribly upset to be otherwise occupied while Johan Santana trade rumors and Mitchell Report fallout were repeated and rehashed ad nauseam by media large and small. As far as I’m concerned, the only significant Yankee news I missed over the past month and a half was the LaTroy Hawkins signing, the departure of a few enduring (and fewer endearing) Quad-A staples, the announcement of a roster’s worth of non-roster invitees (whom I’ll address in my annual Yankee campers post when pitchers and catchers report in just over three weeks), and the early stages of the team’s arbitration negotiations. Here’s my take on the first of those:

The Hawkins singing seems rather pointless, but also relatively harmless. One could argue that the Yankees should have re-signed Luis Vizcaino instead, but with Kyle Farnsworth in the final year of his deal, there’s something reassuring about the fact that the Yankees refused to make a multi-year commitment to the overworked Viz, instead affecting what amounted to a cost-cutting trade that saw Vizcaino sign a two-year deal with the Rockies for $7.5 million with a club option for 2010, and ex-Rocky Hawkins sign with the Yanks for a single year at $3.75 million. Given that exchange, here’s a full list of Yankee pitchers who are under contract for 2009:

Mariano Rivera (2009-2010: $30 million)
Kei Igawa (2009-2011: $12 million)
Andrew Brackman (2009-2010: ~$3 million)

That’s it. Carl Pavano’s 2009 option will be bought out for $1.95 million. Andy Pettitte, Mike Mussina, Kyle Farnsworth, and LaTroy Hawkins will be free agents at the end of the season. Everyone else remains under team control with only Chien-Ming Wang and Brian Bruney (if he lasts that long) having reached arbitration. Looking at things that way, the Hawkins deal allows the Yankees to build an entirely new pitching staff for 2009 around the young starters and relievers who are expected to emerge this season.

(more…)

What? No! Not that. Sorry.

Lefty = Andy Pettitte.

Santana = Nationals’ righty reliever Jonathan Santana Albaladejo.

Pitching Prospect = Tyler Clippard, who went to D.C. for Albaladejo.

Now that we’ve cleared that up, for all I know there could be some other news by the time you’re reading this but as of 2:30am EST, when I’m writing it, the big news is that the Yankees have added the first piece to their bullpen by trading faded pitching prospect Clippard to the Nationals for Albaladejo.

It’s a solid trade. The Yankees have a full rotation worth of pitching prospects who both ranked ahead of Clippard and had passed or were about to pass him on the organizational ladder, including Phil Hughes, Joba Chamberlain, Ian Kennedy, Allan Horne, and Jeffrey Marquez, not to mention 27-year-old Chien-Ming Wang, who’s a back-to-back 19-game winner. With Horne and Marquez due to start the 2008 season in Triple-A and the other three ticketed for the major league rotation, there’s simply no room for a B-grade starting pitching prospect such as Clippard in the upper levels of the organization.

That wasn’t the case a year ago, as Clippard was considered the runner-up to Phil Hughes in the Yankees’ pitching-prospect hierarchy. He fell behind in part because of the outstanding performances of Chamberlain, Kennedy, Horne, and Marquez, but also because of his own failings in 2007. Called up amid the flurry of debuting rookie starters the Yanks were forced to employ in the first half of the year, Clippard struggled in five of his six major league starts, and returned the minors without the pinpoint control that had fueled his prospect status to begin with. Clippard was actually bounced all the way down to Double-A and posted a 5.40 ERA there. Though he’s still just 22, that took a considerable amount of shine off his status.

Further reducing Clippard’s value to the team was the fact that his lack of a dominant out-pitch (he survives on a 90-mph fastball, some slop, and that ability to deceive hitters and locate his pitches) makes him a poor candidate for conversion to high-leverage relief. Thus, the Yankees flipped him for someone already excelling in that role, Nationals reliever Jonathan Albaladejo, who shot from Double-A to the majors last year, posting a 1.41 ERA in 38 1/3 innings between Triple-A Columbus and the majors.

A tall, 25-year-old, Puerto Rican righty, Albaladejo was drafted by the Pirates in 2001 and began his professional career as a starting pitcher in the Pittsburgh organization. He was converted to relief in 2005, finally cracked Double-A in 2006 (a season in which the presence of 3 games at Rookie league suggest an injury rehab, though I’ve been unable to find evidence of the actual injury), then signed with the Nationals as a six-year minor league free agent and promptly pitched his way not only to the majors, but to the New York Yankees.

Albaladejo throws in the mid-90s and appears to have tremendous control, having walked just 1.73 men per nine innings in his minor league career and just two men in his 14 1/3 major league frames. His strike out rate isn’t quite as impressive, but in combination with the walks it yields a 4.27 K/BB over more than 500 minor league innings, which is remarkable. Albaladejo has also allowed less than a hit an inning in his pro career and doesn’t seem to have much of an issue with home runs either (though he was somewhat protected by RFK Stadium last year).

(more…)

Breaking News: Twins Acquire Top Prospect from AL East for Starting Pitcher!

Neither Johan Santana, nor the Yankees were involved, though one might wonder how the mega-deal that sent Matt Garza and Jason Bartlett among others to the Rays for Delmon Young and others might effect both the trade market for Johan Santana (the Twins are up and outfielder, but down a starting pitchers) and the rapidity of the Rays’ rise in the East now that they have a Big Three in their rotation.

Earlier in the day yesterday, the Pinstriped Bible‘s Steven Goldman and I got to chatting about the viability of including Phil Hughes in a deal for Johan Santana. Steve thinks it’s worth the risk. I’m not so sure. Here’s what we had to say:

Steven Goldman: I was just listening to Jon Heyman on WFAN from yesterday talking about Yankees/Santana. He says the Twins want Hughes/Melky/a couple of other guys who aren’t Chamberlain, Kennedy.
Cliff Corcoran: I dunno if I can do Hughes. I could do Kennedy/Melky plus a couple B-prospects. I don’t think I can do Hughes.
SG: That’s why this is hard, and why the Twins want Hughes rather than Kennedy. Scout-wise, no one is a Kennedy fan. Results wise, we know he looks great.
CC: Melky’s easy though, here, take him.
SG: Agreed on Melky.
SG: Clay Davenport’s peak DT gave me pause. Clay projects Melky at 25 to hit .312/.378/.461.
CC: Yeah, he’s Bernie Williams right now, but will he be Bernie then? I dunno.
CC: Plus Austin Jackson . . .
SG: Well, Jackson may not be a CF.
CC: Kevin Goldstein seems dubious about Melky as a CF, so what’s that really worth until you see him?
SG: Yeah, I know.
SG: I’m dubious about Melky. The arm is great anywhere. The range I think, is not exactly Tris Speaker. It’s better than Damon, certainly.
CC: Damon’s not terrible out there, but it’s all so much better than the fading Bernie, it’s hard for us to judge.
SG: He looked worse than he really was because of the early back problems.
CC: Yeah, and the arm makes you ignore that he actually got to that ball.
SG: True.
CC: In left, it all works out quite nicely. I like that Girardi came out and said Damon’s the LF. That means Melky’s the CF unless he’s traded and they sign Andruw, and Matsui and his ouchie knees DH. It’s the ideal arrangement. I also like that Girardi said all three kids are in the rotation (the Andy-free rotation, that is). That helps with trading leverage as well.
SG: Heyman is talking about David DeJesus -> Yankees, which wouldn’t be bad if Melky was traded. About the same level of production.
CC: Yeah, but DeJesus is what he is, Melky could improve.
SG: Sure. But Melky -> Santana/DeJesus, you live with that.
CC: But, what will KC want? That’s more players gone from the system, so the trade for Santana is essentially the guys that go to MIN with Melky + the guys that go to KC, that’s a lot of bodies out of the system, and several of them will be important ones. Hughes/Melky –> Santana/DeJesus is still a tough sell for me
SG: Why?
CC: potential
CC: price
CC: decline
SG: Who is going to have more value over the next five years, Hughes or Santana?
CC: Could be a wash. If not, it could be a lot closer than it’s worth for the extra bodies and salary involved.
SG: I dunno, Yogi. Seems to me Santana is already good and Hughes might be good.
CC: That’s 100% true, but Santana is also already expensive and he’s already been good, and could be in decline already.
SG: It’s very difficult to balance the chances of Santana not being who he is versus Hughes becoming Santana or even a declining Santana. He might be, but chances are he won’t be.
CC: Yes, but will he be a large enough percentage of Santana to make it not worth the salary and the extra pieces involved in the trade, which will be costly as well? I’m thinking yes.
SG: Woof.
SG: A reader of Rob Neyer’s pointed this out in a chat the other day…

Adam (NYC): It’s hard to believe that Santana will win another 100 games though…wouldn’t Hughes have a better chance of reaching that mark than a 29 year old pitcher past his prime? If the Yanks sign Santana to a 10 year extension, they’d be paying Santana $20 million a year at age 39…at the same time Hughes would be entering the prime of his career. Can you say Kevin Brown? Not a very wise business move to say the least.

Rob Neyer: Adam, here’s a chance for some research. Go back and make a list of 20 pitching prospects with Hughes’ credentials. Then make a list of 20 pitchers with Santana’s credentials. I’ll bet you the Santana comps won more games afterward than the Hughes comps did.

Doug (NY): A little research; according to BA, the top pitching prospects since 1990: S.Avery, T.Van Poppell, B.Taylor, Bere, J.Baldwin, B.Pulsipher, P.Wilson, K.Wood, R.White, R.Ankiel, R.Anderson, J.Beckett, M.Prior, J.Foppert, E.Jackson, F.Hernandez, Liriano. It’s too early to tell on some of them (King Felix for example), but other than Beckett, not really a list of HOFers.

Rob Neyer: Exactly. Thank you for doing what I couldn’t do. Granted, Hughes has done more than Van Poppel or Taylor or some of those other guys had done at his age. But the point still holds, I think.

CC: I think that last “granted” is where that argument loses me. Hughes has already had success in the major leagues. He’s not a prospect any more, he’s a major league starting pitcher.
SG: Based on a weally, weally small sample.
CC: Yes, but prospect + ML success > prospect . . . by a lot.
SG: True.
CC: So the relevant points from that list are Avery, Ankiel, Prior and Wood, Beckett and King Felix. Still troublesome, but the Yankees have learned the lesson of Prior and Wood in terms of workload, and Ankiel was a fluke. Beckett and King Felix are not guys you’d give up in a Santana trade, and Avery won 47 games from age 21-23.
SG: Well, Ankiel had a kind of injury. Or numerous injuries as it turned out.
CC: I’m just saying, I’d make the trade and take on the salary straight up, but with all the other stuff involved, it may not be worth it.
SG: You can argue it either way.
CC: And indeed we have.

The Yankees and Scott Boras are still grinding out Alex Rodriguez’s contract. Yesterday some details emerged about the milestone bonuses that will be included. Seems the contract will get around the fact that player contracts are not allowed to include bonuses connected to performance by terming each milestone along the way to the career home run record an “event,” and then compensating Rodriguez handsomely for personal appearances and memorabilia connected to each event (specifically career home runs 660, 714, 755, and the eventual career record).

It’s all just a lot of money none of us reading this will ever see, but it’s evidence that progress is indeed being made on Rodriguez’s contract.

Meanwhile, the Times has some fun with the Toledo Mud Hens contract offer to Rodriguez by trying to figure out how his production would translate to the minors, and los amigos Robinson Cano and Melky Cabrera have popped up in a reggaeton video (see Cano dance at :49, see Melky lip-synch at 1:06, and see Melky credited at “Melkys Cabrera” at 1:09; Jose Reyes pops up later on as well). Expect to hear “Pa La Tumba” during their at-bats in early 2008.

Reserve lists were due yesterday, which meant that it was teams’ last opportunity to protect their eligible minor leaguers from the upcoming Rule 5 draft. The Yankees added three men to their 40-man roster yesterday and a fourth at the end of last week to bring their total roster to 39 men.

That group of 39 does not, however, include re-signed free agents Jorge Posada and Jose Molina, nor does it include Mariano Rivera, who has supposedly accepted the Yankees three-year, $45-million offer, nor Alex Rodriguez, whose record-breaking deal has yet to be finalized. Mix in those four and they’re up to 43, which is three more than 40 for those who lost count.

So what’s going on? Are the Yankees going to try to hold off making those four signings official until after the Rule 5 draft? If they pull that off, I’ll be mighty impressed. The Rule 5 draft isn’t until December 6, more than two weeks away. Will MLB really stand for these sort of roster shenanigans?

No matter what happens, the Yankees will eventually have to drop at least three men who are currently on their 40-man roster, and more if they’re able to talk Andy Pettitte into coming back, or if they plan on adding anyone else to the bullpen (such as Luis Vizcaino, whom Brian Cashman has said he wants to re-sign).

This is one reason why there are rumors swirling around that the Yankees will release Carl Pavano to clear room on their 40-man roster, but Pavano’s just one man. I wonder if this is a sign that the Yankees are trying to swing some sort of multi-player trade for a big target.

As for the new additions, a few quick words:

Francisco Cervelli is an actual catching prospect. He’s a switch-hitter who hits for average and has strong on base numbers, will start the 2008 season in double-A, and doesn’t turn 22 until March. On the flip side, he hasn’t shown much power, but still strikes out quite a bit, and needs to work on his right-handed stroke.

Steven White is a 26-year-old righty starter who was drafted out of Baylor, but has had his progress slowed by injuries. He’s spent most of the past two seasons in triple-A and could prove to be a useful utility pitcher. Says new pitching coach Dave Eiland, “His arm is very resilient. I think he can fit that role as a middle guy, long reliever, spot starter. I think he’s somebody you’re going to see and hear some things from in ’08 at some point.”

Jeff Marquez, another righty starter, is a 23-year-old sinkerballer with a great changeup and a good curve who can also hit the mid-90s with his straight heater. He was the lesser half of the Trenton Thunder’s 1-2 rotation punch with Allan Horne last year and should join Horne in the Scranton rotation this year.

Scott Patterson is essentially another Edwar Ramirez, a righty reliever signed out of the independent leagues who has put up some goofy numbers in the minors. The 28-year-old Patterson has spent most of the last two seasons in double-A Trenton and posted a 1.47 ERA in 116 1/3 innings with 10.52 K/9 and nearly six Ks for every walk (5.91 to be exact). Not to be confused with the former Yankee farmhand who went on to star in Gilmore Girls.

(more…)

Has everyone lost their minds?

Look, we all knew Alex Rodriguez was going to get a ridiculous contract. He didn’t get the $300 million guaranteed he was aiming for, but he came close enough, landing a record setting deal that has the greatest total worth ($275 million guaranteed) and greatest annual salary ($27.5 million) in baseball history and won’t expire until Rodriguez is 42 years old.

We all knew Jorge Posada was going to get a ridiculous contract for a 36-year-old catcher, and he did, landing a four-year deal with an average annual salary of $13.1 million that won’t expire until Posada is 40 years old.

One can justify overpaying those two because their value so greatly exceeds the other available players at their positions, and in Rodriguez’s case, so greatly exceeds all other available players, period.

On top of those two deals, the Yankees offered Mariano Rivera a three-year, $45-million contract that would give him an annual salary nearly 43 percent higher than the next highest closer in baseball (Billy Wagner, $10.5 million) and would cover his age 38, 39, and 40 seasons. That’s a legacy deal, a contract that has more to do with what Rivera has done for the Yankees than what he’s likely to do over the next three seasons. It’s the Yankees showing respect and saying “thank you” to the greatest closer the game has ever seen. Yet, somehow, Rivera thinks he deserves a fourth year despite the fact that he’s coming off his worst season.

Maybe it’s because Posada got a fourth year. Maybe it’s because Hank Steinbrenner just couldn’t keep his mouth shut (in confirming the Yankees offer to Rivera on Tuesday, Steinbrenner said, “He’d be, by $4 million a year, the highest-paid relief pitcher. To say that’s a strong offer would be an understatement. . . . The ball’s in their court. If they still want to look for more somewhere else, that’s up to them.” With those kind of diplomacy skills this guy could be president.) Whatever it is, Rivera is holding out for more, and I’m not sure the Yankees should give in.

To begin with, the ability to close ballgames is overrated. Just look at the Blue Jays. Two years ago, the Blue Jays gave B.J. Ryan a contract that everyone thought was ludicrous. (Ryan was 30 at the time of the deal, which was for $47 million over five years. Compare that to what Rivera seems to be asking for on the verge of his 38th birthday.) In the second year of the deal, Ryan’s arm blew out on him so, after a brief period of trial and error, the Jays made Jeremy Accardo, a third-year reliever making the league minimum who was picked up in the Shea Hillenbrand dump trade the previous year, their closer. Accardo converted 30 of 35 save chances over the remainder of the season while posting a 2.79 ERA and a 1.22 WHIP. Compare that to Rivera’s 2007 season in which he converted 30 of 34 save chances while posting a 3.15 ERA and a 1.21 WHIP. Similarly, Rule 5 draftee Joakim Soria was more effective closing games for the Royals than veteran free agent Octavio Dotel, and the A’s got on just fine with journeyman LOOGY Alan Embree closing games when Huston Street hit the DL.

If you look around the majors, you’ll see that, outside of Rivera, Wagner, Trevor Hoffman, and Jason Isringhausen, closers are either players who have yet to hit free agency (Accardo, Papelbon, Ray, Nathan, Jenks, Soria, K-Rod, Street, Putz, Otsuka, Lidge, Gregg, Chad Cordero, Capps, Valverde, Corpas, Saito, Hennessey) or underwhelming veterans who have found success in a role that’s not nearly as demanding as the mythmakers would have you believe (Jones, Borowski, Reyes, Weathers, Dempster). It seems that the word is getting around that it’s easier to make a new closer than pay an old one (we should be able to add Chad Qualls and Rafael Soriano to the former list for 2008, and it seems likely that the Tigers wouldn’t have thrown $7 million at free agent Todd Jones if Joel Zumaya hadn’t hurt his arm attempting to evade the wildfires in Southern California this fall).

Of course, the Yankees need good relief pitchers, period, and Mariano Rivera is still one of the best relief pitchers in baseball, even if he had his worst year as a closer this past season. He is, however, less than two weeks from his 38th birthday, and greatly overvalued because of his history and his role. Unlike Rodriguez and Posada, Rivera isn’t worth such an extravagant contract relative to his peers. Francisco Cordero, who is currently a free agent, made just $5.4 million last year and is five years younger than Rivera. Cordero will certainly get a raise, but he won’t get anything near $15 million a year, and I doubt he’ll get more than three years either. The gap between Rivera and Cordero in the closers role is not nearly big enough to justify the giving Rivera a fourth year at what is likely to be double Cordero’s salary.

Some think that Alex Rodriguez returned to the Yankees because he couldn’t get the money he was after anywhere else. I’m not so sure. I still believe that Angels owner Arte Moreno would have given him $30 million per year (and until Rodriguez’s signature is on his Yankee contract, I won’t feel confident that his contract talks with the Yankees aren’t just an elaborate plot to force Moreno’s hand). I’m utterly convinced, however, that if Mariano Rivera shops himself around, he will not get a single offer to rival the three-year, $45-million deal the Yankees have offered him. Rivera has threatened to join Joe Torre in Los Angeles, but the Dodgers have a good, inexpensive bullpen (their closer, Takashi Saito, the highest paid of the bunch, earned an even million bucks in 2007). Any team would benefit from adding Mariano Rivera to their pen, but there’s no reason for the Dodgers to pay Rivera much beyond the going rate for established closers, which seems to be about $7 million a year, and there’s really not much reason for them to even offer that much. Heck, the highest paid starter on the Dodgers staff will make $12 million in 2008.

To their credit, the Yankees don’t appear to be budging. Here’s Hank again from yesterday: “[Rivera and his agent, Fern Cuza] haven’t rejected it outright, as far as I know. It’s pretty much known that they’re seeking a fourth year, or more [money] for three years.I want him back, and that’s why the offer is as high as it is. We don’t have to change anything. Everyone in baseball knows it’s a great offer; we’ve even gotten a couple of complaints about it.”

If Rivera bolts, the Yankees can go after Cordero at half the cost, or they can let the kids audition for the job. I’m sure the Yankees have an Accardo of their own among the young arms on the bubble of the major league roster. The requirement is that the Yankees avoid the temptation to make Joba Chamberlain the closer in Rivera’s absence. Yes, Chamberlain would excel in the role, but, as we’ve just seen, finding a closer isn’t hard. Finding an ace starting pitcher, which Chamberlain has the potential to be as early as the 2008 season, is.

(more…)

The last time the Yankees had an open casting call for third basemen, I spent three weeks poring over the team’s options only to have Alex Rodriguez swoop down and render it all meaningless. A bit gun shy from that experience, I’d held off pouring over the Yankees’ third base options this offseason until yesterday morning. Thankfully it only took a few hours for Rodriguez to strike me moot once again.

After an exciting day in which rumors slowly coalesced into truths, we were left with the knowledge that Rodriguez and the Yankees are hammering out the details on a ten-year deal worth something in the area of $275-280 million. SI.com’s Jon Heyman, who broke the news of Rodriguez opting out, seems to have the best inside info as of this writing. One key detail is that, though Rodriguez initiated talks with the Yankees without his agent, Scott Boras is indeed involved in hammering out the details (something the union made sure of). From Heyman:

A 10-year megadeal for about $280 million — yet another record contract for A-Rod — is expected to be completed in the next day or two. There is a great deal of optimism that an accord can be struck soon, as the sides were down to discussing incentive monies and contract language, an indication they possibly were in the final stages of negotiation. But while an agreement seemed extremely likely, both sides cautioned late Wednesday that it had yet to be completed. The new contract is likely to include an unprecedented incentive package that could put the total package at well over $300 million.

The Yankees’ spin on this sudden about-face was that they didn’t go back on their word not to pursue Rodriguez after he opted out. Rather, Rodriguez came crawling back to them. In the words of Hank Steinbrenner, “Alex reached out to us. He wants to be a Yankee. . . . he made clear he’s willing to sacrifice something.” What that something is remains unclear.

The best guess at what’s going on in Rodriguez’s head that I’ve read thus far is Sweeny Murti’s take on his blog (of course, Sweeny botches it up with an addendum that wildly overstates Mariano Rivera’s value both past and present). As for the contract, Baseball Prospectus’s Joe Sheehan, writing prior to much of the above action, sums it up well (bear in mind that BP actually has a stat that measure players’ value in dollars, so the following assessment of Rodriguez’s worth is most likely based some on actual number crunching.):

If you can sign Alex Rodriguez, you do so; he’s worth somewhere around the $30 million a year he’s supposedly asking for to a team that’s on the brink of contention right now. His decline phase may well be worth that kind of money as well, given where the marginal value of a win is headed, and the additional revenues that Rodriguez can generate as he chases down some of the game’s most hallowed records.

Me, I’ll wait until the deal is final and I hear Rodriguez speak before adding my two cents. I just hope that the new contract doesn’t include any of those pesky opt-out clauses, at least not for the first three-to-five years.

Yankees’ Offseason To-Do List

• Hire new manager: February 2026  (1) October 2025  (4) September 2025  (3) August 2025  (2) July 2025  (2) June 2025  (2) May 2025  (2) April 2025  (3) March 2025  (4) December 2024  (1) October 2024  (9) September 2024  (2) August 2024  (2) July 2024  (3) June 2024  (4) May 2024  (1) April 2024  (3) March 2024  (1) February 2024  (1) December 2023  (2) November 2023  (1) October 2023  (2) September 2023  (3) August 2023  (2) July 2023  (3) June 2023  (3) May 2023  (2) April 2023  (2) March 2023  (2) February 2023  (1) January 2023  (2) December 2022  (2) November 2022  (2) October 2022  (12) September 2022  (5) August 2022  (5) July 2022  (5) June 2022  (3) May 2022  (3) April 2022  (4) March 2022  (2) February 2022  (2) January 2022  (1) November 2021  (1) October 2021  (3) September 2021  (4) August 2021  (3) July 2021  (3) June 2021  (2) May 2021  (2) April 2021  (5) March 2021  (3) February 2021  (1) January 2021  (2) October 2020  (5) September 2020  (3) August 2020  (2) July 2020  (9) May 2020  (3) April 2020  (2) March 2020  (2) February 2020  (4) January 2020  (3) December 2019  (6) November 2019  (3) October 2019  (6) September 2019  (3) August 2019  (3) July 2019  (4) June 2019  (2) May 2019  (3) April 2019  (7) March 2019  (4) February 2019  (2) January 2019  (4) December 2018  (4) November 2018  (3) October 2018  (7) September 2018  (5) August 2018  (6) July 2018  (12) June 2018  (7) May 2018  (12) April 2018  (19) March 2018  (10) February 2018  (6) January 2018  (5) December 2017  (4) November 2017  (1) October 2017  (24) September 2017  (22) August 2017  (28) July 2017  (16) June 2017  (32) May 2017  (23) April 2017  (28) March 2017  (14) February 2017  (6) January 2017  (2) December 2016  (6) November 2016  (4) October 2016  (8) September 2016  (38) August 2016  (36) July 2016  (30) June 2016  (26) May 2016  (38) April 2016  (38) March 2016  (21) February 2016  (9) January 2016  (16) December 2015  (24) November 2015  (24) October 2015  (57) September 2015  (96) August 2015  (96) July 2015  (98) June 2015  (115) May 2015  (115) April 2015  (121) March 2015  (78) February 2015  (60) January 2015  (56) December 2014  (70) November 2014  (67) October 2014  (107) September 2014  (86) August 2014  (107) July 2014  (113) June 2014  (127) May 2014  (136) April 2014  (168) March 2014  (133) February 2014  (122) January 2014  (144) December 2013  (121) November 2013  (151) October 2013  (169) September 2013  (179) August 2013  (205) July 2013  (222) June 2013  (210) May 2013  (226) April 2013  (225) March 2013  (177) February 2013  (155) January 2013  (173) December 2012  (166) November 2012  (178) October 2012  (228) September 2012  (221) August 2012  (216) July 2012  (230) June 2012  (237) May 2012  (243) April 2012  (221) March 2012  (202) February 2012  (178) January 2012  (178) December 2011  (181) November 2011  (182) October 2011  (213) September 2011  (220) August 2011  (240) July 2011  (216) June 2011  (235) May 2011  (266) April 2011  (253) March 2011  (226) February 2011  (208) January 2011  (188) December 2010  (141) November 2010  (158) October 2010  (191) September 2010  (215) August 2010  (210) July 2010  (185) June 2010  (200) May 2010  (187) April 2010  (190) March 2010  (190) February 2010  (139) January 2010  (111) December 2009  (101) November 2009  (113) October 2009  (131) September 2009  (121) August 2009  (125) July 2009  (130) June 2009  (135) May 2009  (137) April 2009  (139) March 2009  (106) February 2009  (89) January 2009  (93) December 2008  (113) November 2008  (140) October 2008  (128) September 2008  (151) August 2008  (134) July 2008  (153) June 2008  (136) May 2008  (104) April 2008  (95) March 2008  (59) February 2008  (39) January 2008  (42) December 2007  (31) November 2007  (42) October 2007  (46) September 2007  (73) August 2007  (75) July 2007  (62) June 2007  (54) May 2007  (60) April 2007  (69) March 2007  (57) February 2007  (39) January 2007  (23) December 2006  (32) November 2006  (39) October 2006  (51) September 2006  (49) August 2006  (66) July 2006  (65) June 2006  (74) May 2006  (71) April 2006  (54) March 2006  (43) February 2006  (27) January 2006  (24) December 2005  (43) November 2005  (51) October 2005  (46) September 2005  (63) August 2005  (64) July 2005  (58) June 2005  (62) May 2005  (67) April 2005  (59) March 2005  (51) February 2005  (29) January 2005  (28) December 2004  (52) November 2004  (37) October 2004  (47) September 2004  (39) August 2004  (37) July 2004  (34) June 2004  (36) May 2004  (37) April 2004  (41) March 2004  (39) February 2004  (60) January 2004  (58) December 2003  (57) November 2003  (76) October 2003  (97) September 2003  (60) August 2003  (80) July 2003  (91) June 2003  (58) May 2003  (66) April 2003  (77) March 2003  (54) February 2003  (59) January 2003  (46) December 2002  (20) November 2002  (10)