Saturday
Yankees not spending enough?
Larry Mahnken posts an observant and humorous recap of the Yankees postseason moves to date. The best lines are:
While they were busy solidifying the rotation, they made time to increase their bullpen depth. The first thing they did is re-sign Tanyon Sturtze, who had mastered the repeatable skill of coming into a blowout, giving up a couple of runs, and then having the team come back behind him.
And
They could have grabbed Richie Sexson or Carlos Delgado, but why settle for a tall freak or a Commie traitor when you can inject some Mystique and Aura in the person of Tino Martinez?
Mahnken's main point however is that the Yankees are making a mistake by not pursuing Carlos Beltran. He discusses how many wins the Yankees would gain per year by replacing Bernie William's terrible defense and rapidly declining bat with Beltran's performance. While Beltran is presumed to be re-signing with the Astros, he hasn't as of this writing. Therefore, Mahnken's pessimism is presumably based upon public statements by the Yankees that they are not pursuing Beltran and find him too costly. While this may be true, the Yankees could also be saying it for strategic reasons. Also, it's not clear that the alternative to Beltran in centerfield is Bernie in centerfield. It could be the position change many people have lobbied for, moving Jeter to the outfield and A-Rod back to SS. The Yankees could then pick up a 3rd Basemen, and there are reasonably priced options at that position on the market. I don't know what Bernie's fate would be with Jeter in center.
