Should the yankees trade for Halladay?

I have been hearing and seeing a lot of speculation on what kind of package it would take and which teams have that package in order to land Halladay.

Using Twitter to have mini updates between articles

Since my life seems to get in the way of posting regular research articles, I am attempting to keep this going with twitter updates inbetween, with the goal of having 2-3 Research articles per month.

Check out the old articles, hopefully you’ll like what you see (even if you dont agree with it).

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If I were the Orioles GM…

Sticking in the American League East, the Baltimore Orioles seem to have a daunting task in front of them.  The success of the Rays has to give them hope that if you build a quality team you can certainly outplay the heavy weight Redsox and Yankees.

So lets start off by taking a look at what is on the roster right now.
C  – Ramon Hernandez ($8m)
1B – Aubrey Huff     ($8m)
2B – Brian Roberts   ($8m)
3B – Melvin Mora     ($9m)
SS – Juan Castro     ($1.1m)
LF – Luke Scott     ~($0.5m)
CF – Adam Jones     ~($0.4m)
RF – Nick Markakis  ~($0.5m)
DH – Luis Montanez  ~($0.3m)

SP – Jeremy Guthrie  ($1m)
SP – Radhames Liz    ($0.4m)
SP – Garrett Olson   ($0.4m)
SP – Daniel Cabrera  ($3m)**arb
SP – Chris Waters    ($0.4m)

CL – Chris Ray?  ($0.4m)
SU – Jim Johnson  ($0.4m)
MR – George Sherrill ($1m)
MR – Lance Cormier   ($0.5m)
MR – Jamie Walker    ($4.5m)
MR – Dennis Sarfate  ($0.4m)

Bench
C – Guillermo Quiroz ($0.4m)
INF – Scott Moore    ($0.4m)
CI – Oscar Salazar   ($0.4m)

This is about $50 million payroll on the 25 man roster.

Do the Yankees have an unlimited payroll?

Well a poster left a comment on my If I were the Yankee GM moves, claiming

how hard is it really to be the Yanks GM? If anyone had the money to get Burnett and CC and Tex and Cameron, they’d do it. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to sign high value free agents if you have the money.

And he certainly has a point (forgetting the arguments about team dynamic and locking yourslef into unmovable deals and a bunch of DHs).  That if you have a bottomless pitt, why not just sign all the best players available and call it a day.

Defending my GM picks for the Yankees.

I spent a lot of time talking about the Yankee options, but I did not spend a lot of time talking about exactly why those players would help the yankees…. I will try to use a few different metrics to give you a complete picture of how these players improve a team.

Jake Peavy could affect the CC sweepstakes

I was reading an update over at MLB Trade Rumors about Jake Peavy and the fact that he is legitimately on the block.  Basically Peavy would have a similar effect as Johan did last winter.  A couple of differences.  Peavy has a limited no trade clause, and Peavy is under contract that is considered under market value.

His current contract calls for him to make the following:

2009 – $8 million
2010 – $15 million
2011 – $16 million
2012 – $17 million
2013 – $22 million dollar option ($4 mil buyout)

C.C. Sabathia

Probably the biggest free agent prize this off-season will be C.C. Sabathia. Sabathia is coming off back to back monster years in which he carried his team into the postseason.  Sabathia joined the strong but in need of help Brewers about half way through the year.  He went on 3 days rest for his last 5 starts (including 1 postseason), and helped overcome the Mets in order to take the wild card on the last day of the season.

How do you really build a World Series Quality Team?

There is this commonly used word thrown around about teams, Chemistry… while I agree that players who get along and respect each other and ultimately have a good time, tend to perform better, I don’t think that a) its really something that matters and b) I think that winning breeds chemistry more then the other way around.

The late 70s yanks were a great example of a team that hated each other and was dysfunctional yet won 2 rings.  The Redsox couldn’t stand Manny (or at least so they say now), and Curt Schilling is an a-hole.  Yet they won 2 rings together.

If I were the Yankees GM…

In the first of what will hopefully be a series, I would like to play General Manager for my personal favorite team, the New York Yankees.

So first lets take a look at who is under contract for next year

C – Posada ($13.10)
C – Molina ($2.00)
1B – Juan Miranda ($0.4)
1B – Duncan ($0.4)
2B – Cano ($6.00)
3B – Arod ($32.00)
SS – Jeter ($20.00)
LF – Damon ($13.00)
CF – Gardner ($0.4)
RF – Nady ($5.00**)
DH – Matsui ($13.00)
U – Betemit ($1.50)
4th OF – Cabrera ($0.4)
Bench – Ransom?, Christian?,

SP – Wang ($5.00)
SP – Joba ($0.4)
SP – Hughes ($0.4)
SP – Kennedy ($0.4)
SP – Aceves/Rasner/Giese ($0.4)

Closer – Rivera ($15.00)
Setup – Veras ($0.4)
Lefty – Coke ($0.4)
MR – Ramirez ($0.4)
MR – Bruney ($0.4)
Long – Aceves/Rasner/Giese ($0.4)

Other PItchers : Albaladejo, Brackman, Britton, Marquez, Robertson, Sanchez, Wright

All together the yanks 25 man roster will be worth about $130 mil.  The public rumor is that the yanks are looking to keep payroll around $180 mil.  The Yankee’s had revenues around $400 million last year, and are expected to make somewhere between $600-$800 million in their new park next year.  They spent just under $220 this past year.  So I will attempt to keep my payroll somewhere between $180 and $220, as the yankees clearly can afford to go much further north.

Manny Ramirez

Manny has been the focus of a lot of controversy this season.  Tim McCarver recently called Manny despicable; Joe Sheehan became very angered by McCarver’s lack of use of facts and data, and just using hearsay to knock Manny.  He wrote about that on BP Unfiltered today, and was quite enraged.

Tim McCarver doesn’t care, and that’s why this is important. See, come Thursday night, Tim McCarver is going to look into a camera and tell tens of millions of people what he thinks about Manny Ramirez. He’s probably going to revisit this theme any number of times over the following couple of weeks, especially if the Dodgers reach the World Series. When he does, there isn’t going to be a graphic showing Ramirez’s stats during the timeframe when he was supposedly being such a detriment to his team. There won’t be a cutaway to Joe Sheehan in the studio pointing out that Ramirez outplayed most of his teammates and carried two or three of their carcasses while not getting the three-day paid vacation they got. We won’t hear Joe Buck come over the top of McCarver and point out that Ramirez played nearly every day in July.
It will just be McCarver making fact-free assertions, and America listening. That’s wrong.