The next 4 year $52 mil man

Hey guys!

Sorry it has been so long since I last updated, I just haven't gotten around to it with school and such. There have been reports swirling since last week when the A's came into town that Matt Holliday would be interested in playing Left Field for the Yankees next year so it got me thinking about what the outfield will be looking like in 2010 and who I personally wanted to see.

Next year, coming off the books we have five players. Hideki Matsui ($13 mil), Johnny Damon (also $13 mil) Andy Pettitte ($5.5 mil), Xavier Nady ($6.5 mil) and Jose Molina ($2 mil), doing some quick math that means we have about $40 mil coming off the books. But, C.C. Sabathia's contract increases by $9 mil next year and Nick Swisher's increases by $1.5 mil, meaning we actually have closer to $30 mil coming off the books.

Nick Swisher has proven all of the nay-Sayers wrong (pretty much the people who didn't know who he was and then fell in love with him once the season started), so I believe he will be the starting RF next year. Austin Jackson is currently hitting .371/.444/.468 at AAA. He has no home runs, but 10 RBI, 2 doubles, 2 triples and is 6/6 in stolen base attempts. He is still only 22 right now so his power will continue to develop and while many people think he will reach the majors this year, at the very least he should be ready for the CF job in 2010.

That leaves us only with LF to fill. Here is a list of all the 2010 free agent LF's, courtesy of mlbtraderumors.com:

Garret Anderson (38)
Marlon Anderson (36)
Jason Bay (31)
Emil Brown (35)
Carl Crawford (28) - $10MM club option with a $1.25MM buyout
Johnny Damon (36)
David Dellucci (36)
Cliff Floyd (37)
Matt Holliday (30)
Jacque Jones (35)
Gabe Kapler (34)
Greg Norton (37)
Wily Mo Pena (28)
Manny Ramirez (38) - $20MM player option
Dave Roberts (38)
Fernando Tatis (35)

Wow, that is pretty much a whole bunch of nothing. Of that entire list, only four names are interesting, Jason Bay, Manny Ramirez, Matt Holliday and Carl Crawford. I am a firm believer that Jason Bay will re-sign with the Red Sox so that rules him out. Manny will exercise his option and he is certifiably insane so that rules him out. That really only leaves Crawford and Holliday. Crawford does have that $10 mil club option, but if he reaches incentives this year, that option is raised to $11.5 mil. While Crawford is probably worth that much, it may be too much for the Rays to handle.

Signing Matt Holliday would be a terrible idea, lets be honest. He will be 30 years old when we will be a team still trying to get younger. Not only has he not had any power this year in Oakland, but from during the last month and a half last year in the friendly confines of Coors Field, he only managed to hit one home run. So far this year he is hitting .240/.288/.360 with 1 HR and 12 RBI. His power is gone, and when you're a power hitter without power, your patience usually goes as well, considering the .288 OB% when his career number is .383.

I know its early, and he can still turn it around, but dating back to last year (as well as spring training where he had zero home runs), there are many troubling signs. If somehow Holliday performs so poorly he will be forced to take a one year deal to re-establish himself a-la Bobby Abreu, then maybe you pull the trigger on a Holliday deal, but if he gets the contract he is looking for (and honestly, when was the last time Scott Boras didn't get someone to pay for a big name?), we can't continue to hand out multi year deals for almost $100 mil to aging outfielders. That is one reason we are in this situation.

My pick for 2010 left fielder, as you probably can tell from before, is Carl Crawford. He will only be 28, has great speed and is currently hitting .283/.350/.359 with 9 stolen bases in 9 attempts. He fits into either the lead off spot or the #2 hole perfectly and has a nice left handed swing for Yankee Stadium. If we were to give him a 4 year deal for $52 mil (I think that is the necessary rate for Yankee Left Fielders after Damon and Matsui), we would still have approximately $17 mil off the books with no positions to fill outside of the bench. This can only happen of course, if the Rays decline his option, so lets pray for that.

This will be brought up in a future post, but with that $17 mil remaining, I think you need to spend it on Chone Figgins. He is a super-sub who can literally play every infield and outfield position except for 1B, but we got one of those. With Posada, A-Rod and Jeter all getting older, we are going to need to get them some spots at DH. With Hideki Matsui being a full time DH this year, next year with Figgins it will be nice to have a guy who can hit, but also play the field and give almost everyone a day off. You give him $10 mil a year (if that) and the Yankees still reduce payroll by $7 mil.

Sounds easy on paper, so it must be this simple in real life, right? Right? Tell me what you guys think though. Should we give Holliday a shot in left? Is Carl Crawford the answer? Do we resign Damon or do something that really makes no sense and sign Cliff Floyd or Jacque Jones? (that was a joke, please don't hurt my feelings anybody and say one of those names)

On a side note, this is nothing against Johnny Damon, I love the guy and hes a great left fielder, but he will be 35 so it is clearly time to move on. No more multi year deals for 35 year old's!

On another side note, I added another blog link on the side to the right, its Kevin Schwoer's The Future Machine! It has nothing to do with sports, but if you like Comics, TV, Movies, creative writing and great humor, check it out. If you don't, then you probably should not check it out because it involves a lot of talk about comics, TV, movies and its written creatively and has great humor. Your decision!