To Start off I am a life long Yankees fan who is attending Dowling College this fall and majoring in Sports Management. I would one day like to pursue a career as a General Manager in the Major Leagues. Now I would like to share my thoughts on what should be done with the New York Yankees. I'll start off by saying that we can not trade Phil Hughes. Out of the pitchers I have seen this year I think that Matt DeSalvo and Tyler Clippard could be extendable. I would hold on to Chase Wright for the sole fact that he is a left and lefties can be hard to come by. Now my idea for a solid baseball team is more of a National League style of play. Now for this offseason there are several moves that I think need to be made. I know it is easier said than done but Johhny Damon must be shipped and we have to cut ends with Bobby Abreu. Hopefully hold on to Alex Rodriguez but I would make my final decision on how he performs in the postseason. At first base I would hold onto either Doug Mientkiewicz or Andy Phillips at first base on the fact that they have gold glove defense. As for the DH position I would say bring in Adam Dunn for the big power in the lineup. I would only hope that he could learn how to cut down on the strikeouts and raise his On Base Percentage. For rightfield I would love to see Eric Byrnes be brought in. He is someone who would be able to steal 30 bases and playes his heart out in the outfield. In centerfield I think you would be able to go in two directions. Personally I would love to see someone with gold glove defense, a strong arm, a high On Base Percentage and capable of stealing 60 bases for a leadoff man. The other option would be signing Andruw Jones. Now as we both know he is having a miserable season but he is possibly one of the best of all time defensively in Center and could come pretty cheap. As for the pitching staff goes, Mike Mussina, Kei Igawa and Carl Pavano all must go. I think you should lure Andy Pettite into coming back for another season and start off with Wang, Pettite and Hughes. For the fourth and fifth spots I like John Lackey if you could put together a trade, if not I also think Jason Jennings is a viable option. For the fifth spot I would love to see Rasner and another free agent battle it out for the spot. I would also love to see Mike Myers be let go becuase frankly I don't think he's getting the job done. I would love to see a Jason Isringhausen be brought in if he is not resigned by the Cardinals. Scott Linebrink would also be a great addition. As for our main free agents, Posada and Rivera both should be resigned to what they want. Now I think a lineup like this:
1. Speedy Centerfielder-CF
2. Derek Jeter-SS
3. Robinson Cano-2b
4. Adam Dunn-DH
5. Alex Rodriguez-3b
6. Jorge Posada-C
7. Hideki Matsui-Lf
8. Eric Byrnes-Rf
9. Andy Phillips-1b
And a pitching rotation of:
1. Chien-Ming Wang
2. Andy Pettite
3. Phil Hughes
4. John Lackey/Jason Jennings
5. Jason Jennings/Darrel Rasner/Jon Lieber
With some additions in the bullpen:
Jason Isringhausen
Scott Linebrink
Brandon Lyon
Royce Ring
Sean Henn (Call Up)
I hope that you have read this through and thought about some of the points. This is something I always love to do because I am such a sports fanatic. I one day hope to be a General Manager making some of these key decisions. Thank you for your time.
Sincerley, Mike Caprio
