Phil's pitching for a job - Cashman's
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PHIL'S PITCHING FOR A JOB - CASHMAN'S
By JOEL SHERMAN
January 31, 2008 -- BRIAN Cashman better be right. Phil Hughes better
be special. Not good. Special.
Because if Hughes is just another pitcher, dependable but not
dominant, then he might find himself spending his time in New York
hearing who he is not - namely, that he is not Johan Santana.
And Cashman will soon be the ex-GM of the Yankees.
Let's put it this way: If Johan Santana is 10-2 in June and Hughes is
on the DL again or back at Triple-A or explaining the growing pains
that have led to his 4-6 record and 4.87 ERA, then you can expect few
Yankee fans to still be on the bandwagon about entrusting young
pitchers.
And you can expect Hank Steinbrenner to be Bossy. You can expect Son
of Slam to be channeling his father with a hailstorm of "I told you
so."
As autopsies are being performed now to explain how the Mets ended up
obtaining Johan Santana (pending a signed extension), there is little
doubt Hughes is the player the Twins wanted most in all their trade
discussions. And there was a moment in December they could have had
him plus Melky Cabrera, Jeff Marquez and Mitch Hilligoss.
But in a "greed is bad" moment, the Twins wanted more, namely Ian
Kennedy. They speculated the Yanks would never really leave the
bidding. However, Andy Pettitte shunned retirement and the Yanks
pulled their offer. They never made another one. On Monday, Minnesota
called to say Hughes could be removed from the offer if Kennedy and
Chien-Ming Wang were the replacements. The Yanks hated that idea, too.
So in an attempt to move the B-plus offers of the Yanks and Red Sox to
A-plus, the Twins ended up with a C-minus package from the Mets, the
last team standing. This had happened once before. After the 2004
season, the Yanks decided they had the money for either Randy Johnson
or Carlos Beltran, and opted for Johnson. Beltran's agent, Scott
Boras, then - like Minnesota now - always believed the Yanks would
eventually get back into talks. They didn't.
At the last moment, Boras even offered a gigantic discount to the
Yanks, who still refused. With no place else to exceed $100 million,
Beltran fell into the Mets' lap.
Good for the Mets. Persistence and fortune matter in life and
baseball.
Johnson, though, was a Yankee mistake. Beltran would have been a
better choice. Johnson proved to be part of another class of failed
veteran starters imported that offseason - along with Carl Pavano and
Jaret Wright - that finally convinced Cashman the Yanks had to stop
chasing this ilk and fully invest, instead, in high-end young
pitching.
Cashman won a power struggle that offseason and gained a three-year
extension based on a plan to protect touted arms already in the
organization, such as Hughes, and find more in the draft and
internationally such as Kennedy and Joba Chamberlain.
It was absolutely the right path. But it misses a fact about the arms
the Yanks had chased recently. This has been a group that has been too
old (Johnson, Kevin Brown, Roger Clemens last year) or full of too
much guesswork/projection (Jose Contreras, Javier Vazquez, Jeff
Weaver, Pavano). Santana is a prime-age ace. He is great. No
guesswork. As an executive from another club said, "If I had to gamble
on one pitcher to be great the next six years, I would bet on
Santana."
Cashman did not want to make that bet, not at the cost of Hughes and a
contract that would swell the payroll to about $230M, tie them to a
starter for seven years.
However, that three-year contract Cashman signed ends after this year.
That ties his administration - his survival in the job - more to these
young pitchers, Hughes in particular, than ever before. Hank
Steinbrenner already is offering "make the playoffs or else"
proclamations. Again, imagine Santana on a Cy Young track in Flushing,
and Hughes on the Scranton shuttle from The Bronx.
"These decisions are not being made for what is the best interest of
Brian Cashman," Cashman said. "I am paid for recommendations. I made
my recommendation. The people above me and the fan base get to judge
me."
All that is riding on the recommendation is the immediate future of
the Yankees and their GM.
Tom K
> Let's put it this way: If Johan Santana is 10-2 in June and Hughes is
> on the DL again or back at Triple-A or explaining the growing pains
> that have led to his 4-6 record and 4.87 ERA, then you can expect few
> Yankee fans to still be on the bandwagon about entrusting young
> pitchers.
Anyone who expects Hughes to pitch on the same level as Johan given
age, experience, league, etc. is delusional to begin with.
> And you can expect Hank Steinbrenner to be Bossy. You can expect Son
> of Slam to be channeling his father with a hailstorm of "I told you
> so."
Why should we "expect" that? We have no idea what Hank is going to be
during the season.
> It was absolutely the right path. But it misses a fact about the arms
> the Yanks had chased recently. This has been a group that has been too
> old (Johnson, Kevin Brown, Roger Clemens last year) or full of too
> much guesswork/projection (Jose Contreras, Javier Vazquez, Jeff
> Weaver, Pavano).
Vazquez was not guesswork, nor was he projection. He was great in
Montreal, flopped in the second half with the Yankees, and is now very
good again.
>Santana is a prime-age ace. He is great. No
> guesswork. As an executive from another club said, "If I had to gamble
> on one pitcher to be great the next six years, I would bet on
> Santana."
Nobody is disputing that.
> However, that three-year contract Cashman signed ends after this year.
> That ties his administration - his survival in the job - more to these
> young pitchers, Hughes in particular, than ever before. Hank
> Steinbrenner already is offering "make the playoffs or else"
> proclamations. Again, imagine Santana on a Cy Young track in Flushing,
> and Hughes on the Scranton shuttle from The Bronx.
It could very well happen, and it still wouldn't be justification to
make the trade.
Thermos
> http://www.nypost.com/seven/01312008/sports/yankees/phils_pitching_fo...
Yawn. This is a typical sportswriter's hack job. I'd bet he had
another column that blasted the Yanks for trading prospects and
signing another fat contract. Besides, I thought this was a
"unanimous" decision by organizational management, including the 2
kids running the team for ownership - are they all being fired?
Lastly, as you'd think Sherman notes, Cashman's contract is expiring
and he may well be happy to move on to a less dysfunctional
organization.
HPLeft
"Thermos" <cfb...@adelphia.net> wrote in message
news:d970be58-d74f-480a...@z17g2000hsg.googlegroups.com...
>Yawn. This is a typical sportswriter's hack job.
*****
Wasn't Sherman the guy who was sure that A-Rod was going to choke in his
walk season? That's great thing about being a pundit nowadays. You just
need to have opinions. They don't have to be informed opinions.
Erasmus Brown
"Thermos" <cfb...@adelphia.net> wrote in message
news:d970be58-d74f-480a...@z17g2000hsg.googlegroups.com...
> http://www.nypost.com/seven/01312008/sports/yankees/phils_pitching_fo...
>
> PHIL'S PITCHING FOR A JOB - CASHMAN'S
>
> By JOEL SHERMAN
>
> January 31, 2008 -- BRIAN Cashman better be right. Phil Hughes better
> be special. Not good. Special.
>
> Because if Hughes is just another pitcher, dependable but not
> dominant, then he might find himself spending his time in New York
> hearing who he is not - namely, that he is not Johan Santana.
>
> And Cashman will soon be the ex-GM of the Yankees.
>
> Let's put it this way: If Johan Santana is 10-2 in June and Hughes is
> on the DL again or back at Triple-A or explaining the growing pains
> that have led to his 4-6 record and 4.87 ERA, then you can expect few
> Yankee fans to still be on the bandwagon about entrusting young
> pitchers.
>
That's if you count the ones who don't know shit about baseball.
:Yawn. This is a typical sportswriter's hack job. I'd bet he had
:another column that blasted the Yanks for trading prospects and
:signing another fat contract. Besides, I thought this was a
:"unanimous" decision by organizational management, including the 2
:kids running the team for ownership - are they all being fired?
:Lastly, as you'd think Sherman notes, Cashman's contract is expiring
:and he may well be happy to move on to a less dysfunctional
:organization.
"Again, imagine Santana on a Cy Young track in Flushing, and Hughes on the
Scranton shuttle from The Bronx."
So Sherman thinks the Yanks might *demote* Hughes sometime this season?
Tom K
> "Again, imagine Santana on a Cy Young track in Flushing, and Hughes on the
> Scranton shuttle from The Bronx."
>
It's a typical bad writer trick - put together Best Case Scenario A
with Worst Case Scenario B and sound off the alarms.
Where's the article about:
"Omar has put all of his eggs into the Santana basket. Again,
imagine if Santana is having the worst season of his career in
Flushing, and Carlos Gomez is hitting .300 with 50 stolen bases while
Moises Alou is taking another 2-month vacation."
I realize this is about as likely as me winning the Yankees' first
base job this spring, but using Best Case Scenario & Worst Case
Scenario is an old, played out trick by bad sportswriters.
Thermos
Absolutely. Trust me that Sherman had the other version of this
article ready to go in case the Yanks traded Hughes and Kennedy for
Santana, lamenting how the team still deals away prospects to pay
established ballplayers in an effort to buy a championship.