Friday, July 9, 2010

Yankees on Verge of Winning The World Series in July


Despite the amazing disapointment of New York basketball fans last night when LeBron James chose to head to Miami and join the Heat, a move came closer to happening about the same time that would pretty much send a ripple of glee through a large amount of New York baseball fans.

There are indications that the Yankees have stepped up their efforts to acquire LHP Cliff Lee from the Mariners in exchange for catching prospect Jesus Montero and at least two other prospects (possibly including 2nd baseman David Adams) and that the Mariners, who wanted to wait until after the All-Star break, suddenly want to move fast and were fairly close to making the deal.

This is a little bit of a surprise seeing that all we’ve heard is that it’ll take a few prospects and at least one major league ready player which seems to not be part of the discussed deal.

If the Yankees acquire Lee, it would give them a pitching rotation that pretty much eclipses anything any other team could dream of throwing. Lee, C.C. Sabathia, Andy Pettitte, Phil Hughes and A.J Burnett/Javy Vazquez suddenly becomes a team that has a rotation no worse than a #3 starters. It has two legit #1 pitchers in Lee and Sabathia, three legit #2 pitchers in Pettitte, Burnett (if he is himself) and Hughes, and with his resurgance into solid play the last month, a solid #3 in Vazquez .

It also makes the Yankees look unbeatable.

Of course there are obvious signs that Vazquez will be traded if Lee comes on board… but the strong rumor is him going to the Phillies for OF Jason Werth.

In other words, the Yankees could be literally adding the two best players available on the trade market.

For Yankee fans, this is amazing news. For the rest of baseball it mostly becomes time to start looking towards 2011 and hope that the two players don’t resign with the Yankees in the offseason.

As a Mets fan, it’s quite hard to look at this objectively, but it would be a windfall for the Yankees, who never seem to let this sort of oppertunity pass them by. The move is smart and, barring unforseen issues such as injury, pretty much ensures a world series appearance (and likely victory). For them, it’s almost a no-brainer.

But is it good for baseball in itself? Of course you’ll have many people screaming about the rich getting richer… and the Yankees ARE the perfect picture of that for sure… but it’s hard to kill a team for doing what they SHOULD be doing… and that is putting the best team, on the field to win.

I cannot imagine a team overcoming a rotation like that. Lee and Sabathia ALONE would be daunting… but add in how fantastic Pettitte and Hughes have been this year and it’s just unreal.

So if this happens, congratulations to the Yankees for bowling over Major League baseball and grabbing for the trophy three months before any actual games are played for it.

But just wait till 2011.

Oh wait… that’s right… both Lee and Werth could sign with the Yanks then.

Um… just wait till 2015!!!!

No comments:

Post a Comment