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Friday, November 14, 2008

Yanks Add Swisher - Great Move

I'm Mister Six, and I approve this deal. Basically, we're buying low on a guy who's coming off his worst year and is almost a lock to improve.

Swisher's a good defensive player, he's versatile, and his salary for the next 3 years is pretty tame, at least in Yankeeland.

Plus when you take into account that he batted .245 on balls in play last year, it's hard to imagine him being that unlucky again. He fits the Yankee mold for patient hitters, drawing 82 walks last year and seeing 4.51 pitches per at bat.

In my opinion at least, that pretty much spells the end of Bobby Abreu in pinstripes... and I have no problem with that. Swisher should be good for .270/.380/.500 next year. He should hit 30 homers and drive in 100 in our offense, and also should return to 30+ doubles.

The way I see it, the Yankees desperately need to move Hideki Matsui. Right now, our starting outfield should be Nady/Damon/Swisher. We don't want to be locked into using Matsui as a full-time DH... especially since, as you all know, I'm a huge advocate of signing Manny Ramirez as our DH.

Stick Posada behind the plate, Teixeira at 1B, Ramirez at the DH and Sabathia in the rotation and the 2008 season is a rap. Mark it down.

As for what we gave up... Wilson Betemit was a huge disappointment. Jeff Marquez was 23, and probably not in line to make an impact in the Bronx any time soon. He's just got too many guys ahead of him in line, and at 23, how long can you hold onto him with no intention of making him more than a Darrell Rasner-type fill-in guy?

Hughes, Kennedy, Brackman, Aceves, Betances, and even Alan Horne were probably ahead of Marquez in line, so it's not a huge loss.

And whenever you get the White Sox to throw in a "prospect" in a trade, you've probably got a pretty good chance of striking gold.