My version of the 2008 N.Y. Yankees by Mr.BiLLyBaLLa

Hello Memo; to George subscribers,

This is a new blog covering the NY Yankees and we hope that we can keep you up to date on the everyday activities of the greatest franchise in the World. I am BillyBalla, one of the covering editors to Memo; to George M. Steinbrenner. The other editor goes by the name mr. Yankee. As you will quickly discover we do not agree on anything sport or general world topics related. I shall refer to him as mrs. Yankee. Why you ask should I insult our female subscribers with his new name change? One reason and one reason only is he lacks the knowledge of a true male Yankee fan with his outrageous suggestions on what Brian "the GM" CASHman should do to tweak this team to be rightful front runners again. He lacks vision, vision I shall enlighten you with now with my 2 part series of events that covers both angles of rebuilding for 2009 or restocking for a run in 2008. I hope you enjoy!

Part 1:

My feelings are that the NY Yankees need to keep all there farmhands and not making any blockbuster trades. Part 1 emphasizes and prioritizes team defense and young pitching. The influx of youth is essential to remake this franchise into a Dynasty again. Lets start with the resigning of MO better blues Rivera and hip hip Jorge Posada. Now with the addition of the big 3 pitchers; Joba, King Phillip, and IPK
in the rotation along with the Wangster and God willing Andy snake eyes Pettite as we are all done with watching the Moose nip pick at the corners and get slapped around when he's off by a millimeter. Adding those 3 youthful pitchers along with some much needed youth in the bullpen with a Russ Ohlendorf, a hopefully healthy Humberto Sanchez, Mark Melancon, and perhaps J. Brent Cox sometime during the season. Ridding the team of Kyle Farnsworthless and lefty non-specialist Ronald the villain Villone needs to be done.Now your relief corps has Mo anchoring a much younger group with room to only get better in a call it what you want but I insist on referring to it as a rebuilding year in by the way the last year in the Real Yankee Stadium.

Now lets go around the horn shall we. We all know that hip hip Jorge needs to be resigned, hopefully at only 3 years as we need to rid ourselves of these obnoxious long contracts with old players. Well hip hip is our catcher until Jesus Montero, Austine Romine, or Brandon Laird is ready to take the spot. At 1st we go with a platoon of Jason I'm so happy this is your last year Giambino and Shelly the crazed Duncan. A righty / lefty platoon that lacks glove and will be replaced by Andy Phillips in the 7th inning on in close games. Now we move Robbie Cano to 3rd base. Cano has decent range and a power arm and he hits more like a 3rd basemen. He is a future 300. plus avg, 20+ home runs, and 90-100+ rbi's. That's perfect for a 3rd basemen. Now here comes the shocker, I suggest we move Derek el capitan Jeter to 2nd base. Why 2nd base? Well it's obvious. Joe the skipper Girardi himself admitted this past year in the YES booth that what Jeter lacks and it has been his only real flaw is the ability to range towards the middle of the diamond, towards second base, thus cutting off 30+ hits a season. Jeter has good range to his left and as a 2nd basemen his range would be an improvement over Cano. He may cut off some balls that Cano seemed to unintentionally lackadaisically flail his glove at while not diving to cut the ball from escaping to the outfield. Cano has excellent reflexes and an outstanding arm, 2 much needed strengths on 3rd base. Jeter will add offense to 2nd base and Cano will continue to create offense on 3rd base, a offensive position if you will throughout baseball history. Now we need a stop gap shortstop until Carmine Angelini develops. My suggestion is letting the kid from the Randy Johnson trade Alberto Gonzalez man the position until than. He is said to have gold glove caliber skills right now with little pop. Well we are losing pop from that position but we are gaining an overall outstanding and improved defensive infielder for our young pitching staff. Maybe sometime during the season you add a !st basemen with a glove and stick without giving up too much if we are in the playoff hunt.



Now for the outfield. Leave the Melk man in CF as his arm makes up for any loss of speed he may have. He will only improve offensively as well as some feel that he has the potential one day to be a mini Kirby Puckett. I'll take half of Kirby.









Damon will man LF and that alson increases your speed out there even though he lacks any resemblance of a major league arm. I've seen girls in HS throwm more dignified than him. But his offensive prowess makes up for that arm and his uncanny stand up attitude makes up for the rest. Bobby Abreau God bless you gazoon-tite will be in RF for the final year of his contract and his arm and speed are above avg. This defensive outfield while not the best is at best above average and can improve for last year offensively. During the season maybe we give a Austin Jackson, Brett the fastest minor league player alive Gardner, and Jose Tabata a shot to make a name for themselves and platoon with a veteran or fill in during injuries. These are the future outfielders along with a Abe Almonte that we hope to see creating excitement in the new Yankee Stadium. The speed in Gardner and Jackson can only improve a base to base lineup that we all know Girardi will insist on changing. Part UNO keeps our system stocked with blue chip potential ballers. The fact of the matter is that Boston is the team to beat right now and we need to concentrate on not going for it only for 2008 but for rebuilding a dynasty in the coming years. We can do so while contending next year. This team will prove to be more exciting defensively and more exciting offensively as the days of waiting for the big hit that never comes in playoffs of late are over. The days of getting back to strong pitching and manufacturing runs on days when the bats are cold all while playing outstanding defense limited the opposing teams scoring chances.

In 2009 the free agent market stands to be overwhelmingly good, that is if Santana, CC Sabathia, and Miggy Cabrera do not sigh prior. Regardless we would not be sacrificing our future. Making trades now prior to the 2008 season is risky in that we will most certainly overpay. Waiting for the free agent crop of 2009 may also be risky in that those big free agents may have been traded to other teams that have resigned them to long term deals. This is the chance I am willing to take in order to see this rebuilding through. Gone are the days of Z-Rod (zero rod) and his greedy, non genuine characteristics that so per versed Yankee baseball these past 4 years. These were not our 1996-2001 Yankees we lived and dies for. It became a circus led by the ring leader z-Rod.

Part 2 will cover the opposite spectrum where we should trade some of the youth to improve our team in 2008 and beyond. Trading for a Johan Santana, Miggy Cabrera, Miguel Tejada, maybe Scott Rolen will be covered. Part 2 covers those young Yankees I would be willing to trade, but caution, it may or may not get the trade done. It is mere rumors and back alley chatter tossed around the general meetings with further conjectures added to spice up an already twisted possibility. I will pointedly demand that Miggy Cabrera should only be traded for with his knowledge that he will be the 1st basemen. Santana would have to be resigned along with Miggy for these trades to go through. This will all be covered in part 2. I hope you enjoyed part 1 and remember caution with an eye towards the future is my hope. I would hope as a Yankee fan that part 1 is at least considered.