Recapping Sunday’s Show
By Mike Silva ~ November 17th, 2008. Filed under: Radio Show.
We talked Hot Stove on last night’s NY Baseball Digest Radio Show. Howard Megdal of the NY Observer joined me in his usual co-host role. We spent a great deal of the show talking about the Yankees and how they have set the tone for the off season.
We kicked off the night discussing the recent moves of re-signing Damaso Marte and the trade for Nick Swisher. Although both moves are “no-brainer’s” you have to be concerned with the age of the Yankees starting lineup. Swisher makes them younger, but the lack of positional depth was a problem in 2008. The signing of Marte for long term dollars shows where the market for middle relievers will be set. We both doubt you could obtain any decent set up man on the market for less then the $4 million per season that was given to Marte.
Another area we discussed was why would the Yankees need CC Sabathia plus Lowe/Burnett (or both) when they have three young pitchers (Hughes, Aceves, Kennedy) to round out their rotation. Sabathia will anchor the Yankees rotation just like Santana did for the Mets. This should allow the Yanks to play “fast and loose” with their fifth starter position. A rotation of Sabathia, Wang, Joba, Pettitte, and one of the aforementioned three is pretty solid. The one curious part of the Sabathia offer is why the Yankees feel the need to put an offer that is 40% higher then the Milwaukee package.
Doug Sisk called in about 7:15 to discuss his thoughts on bullpen construction and some of the available free agent closers. He is currently a part time scout for the Mets out in Washington state area. We asked him to give us a scouting report on JJ Putz. Although he has good stuff there was some question as to whether he could withstand the tough New York environment. Doug, as most of us here at NYBD, was concerned with the motion of Francisco Rodriguez and questioned giving him a long term deal. He, unlike Howard and I, was not as concerned with the drop in strikeouts when we talked about Bobby Jenks. Doug believed that walks/hits to innings was more important then the dropped strikeout rate. Jenks faired well in that category and very well could be the best choice, depending on the cost. Howard stands by Brian Fuentes as being the best combination of cost, performance, and injury risk.
Dave and Aziz Nekoukar rounded out the show to answer some of the top comments of the week. We discussed fans thoughts on Brett Gardner in CF, whether the Yankees need more offensive protection for A-Rod, and their thoughts on Yankees prospects Austin Jackson and Jesus Montero.
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