YANKS ARE NO LOCK
By Derek Bunker
Well, Yankee fans, for once you didn’t get what you thought was your divine right — the best available pitcher on the trade market. Randy Johnson is staying put. How does it feel? How does it feel to be just like the other 29 teams and not be able to buy the best player for nothing but a bag of baseballs? Finally, somebody (Jerry Colangelo) came to his senses and didn’t give Georgie whatever he desires. AMEN!
The bottom line is your farm system stinks. That’s why "The Unit" is not in pinstripes. Now I’m not saying Boston’s system is much better, but the proof is in the pudding….nobody wants your "prospects." Not KC (for Beltran), not Chicago (for Garcia) and not Arizona. And God forbid you should trade a quality player off your major league roster as Boston had to do with Nomar. Did the Sox get equal value for him? Of course not. But that trade was not about equal value. It was about getting something for a disgruntled superstar player who was going to walk at the end of the season anyway and who was getting to be a bigger clubhouse cancer everyday. But I digress. This is not a rant about Nomar and his feud with Sox management. The final story there is yet to be told.
This, Yankee fans, is about your chances in October. I’m sure you all thought that ol’ Brian Cashman would come strolling in with a scintillating offer of about 13 prospects for Johnson before the 4pm EDT trade deadline to guarantee your millionth World Series appearance, but it was not to be.
Instead you acquired Esteban Loaiza (from the White Sox) as the answer to your problems. Congratulations! (I think). But about the best thing I can say for that is that at least your GM had enough sense to get rid of your biggest headache in Jose Contreras. I guess White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf is waving the white flag again as he did a few years ago when his team was roughly 3 games out of first and he gave the abandon ship signal by trading a major core of his team to help out the Giants in a pennant race. He’s a real "credit" to baseball owners everywhere as he’s proven once again. Why any team would trade their best pitcher for the headache that is Contreras is beyond me. (Oh yeah, I forgot- Yanks threw in $3 million for Reinsdorf to put in his pocket. That must have been the big attraction)
But to me, getting Loaiza is not that big a deal. It will get them to the playoffs, but once there it guarantees them nothing. Loaiza may have won 21 games last year but he’s not a guy that strikes fear into other teams. He is what he is- an average pitcher (9-5, 4.86 ERA in ‘04). On most teams other than the White Sox he’s at best a #2 starter and I’d say he’s more of a #3 if you look at his career numbers (99-87 with 4.60 ERA overall and 78-78 if you factor out last year’s career year of 21-9).
Average pitcher plus average career equals average impact in my view. Again, the Yankees made out best here through addition by the subtraction of Contreras. But as far as putting a lock on yet another World Series appearance, I say, at least for today, no way. Thank you, Jerry Colangelo for your good sense.
