tonytalkssports My Take on Sports, particularly the Yankees, Maple Leafs and Browns

Heat’s on Mr. Cashman

As the Yankees begin spring training down in Tampa, questions abound over their starting rotation, which has been an issue since last year when Andy Petitte went down in July, A.J. Burnett imploded and Phil Hughes wore down.  It's apparent that the Yanks put all of their eggs in the Cliff Lee basket only to have the big guy from Arkansas spurn Pinstripe dollars for Philly.  The winter was further thorny for the Yanks as their blood rivals made two big acquisitions in the off season.  While Brian Cashman was having  dinner with Carl Crawford, Crawford's agent was working out a deal with the Red Sox to have his client join with Adrian Gonzalez to make the Red Sox lineup very formidable.  Talk about being played!!

Cashman had a bad winter.  He openly questioned the signing of Rafael Soriano, publicly feuded with future Hall of Famer, Derek Jeter and lost out on Lee.  It's been reported that Cashman resents the notion that he's nothing more than a money manager for the Yankees.  There are some who believe that Cashman may want to go somewhere else to prove he can build a winner without Steinbrenner dollars behind him.  If that's true, Brian must have hit his head when he was repelling down that building in Connecticut.

Cashman, and rightly so, has stressed the importance of building up the farm system.  But what has the farm system produced during Cashman's tenure as GM?    The last first baseman that the Yankee farm system developed was Don Mattingly.  Robbie Cano is obviously a success story for Cashman, though the truth be told Cano was not a top prospect in the Yankee system.  Derek Jeter goes back to the Gene Michael days.  Third base???  Are you kidding, the last Yankee bred third baseman of note may have been Clete Boyer!!!

But for Bernie Williams, Yankee raised outfielders are far and few between.  Austin Jackson was traded to Detroit but it remains to be seen whether he could reach Bernie status and as for Brett Gardner.  Please.  As far as pitchers go, Phil Hughes is a bona fide keeper.  Remember the young guns of three years ago: Hughes, Ian Kennedy and Joba Chamberlain.  Kennedy has proven to be a serviceable starter and quite frankly the Yankees have messed up Chamberlain to the point that the best thing for the kid may be a change of scenery.  Oh and by the way, who on the horizon is going to step in when that fateful day finally arrives and the greatest closer in the histoty of the game calls it quits??

If Cashman is committed to the farm system, then why sign Russell Martin when you have extraordinary young talent at the catching position??  With Jorge Posada there as a mentor,(by the way Jorge was from Michaels era) similar to the way Girardi was with Jorge, let's see if Montero or Romine can pull it off.  If these young guns on the farm are as good as they say they are why sign Colon and Garcia??  Let Nova pitch and let either Dellin Betances or Manny Banuelos battle it out for the 5th spot.

You see Cashman wants it both ways.  He wants a good farm system but he also knows that he needs Steinbrenner money to make sure the Yanks are a winner.  He would not be able to come out to this fan base and say, "we are going with the kids because we are building for the future."  Yet, he doesn't want to be a money manager.

The heat is squarely on Cashman.  He must hope that Garcia or Colon (mini Andre the Giant) can nail down a rotation spot.  He must hope that Ivan Nova can slot in the rotation.  He must hope that AJ Burnett shows he's worth the $82 million they signed him for.  He must hope that Sabathia and Hughes pitch to the Yankees expectations for them.  And if any of these don't come to pass, he must hope that his offense and re-tooled bullpen will be able to carry them through while he is able to make a trade to bring in another top line pitcher.  A trade that will certainly involve talent from the Yankee farm system, a system that Cashman holds dear but doesn't have the courage to use to start the season.  By the way, he also better hope that Eduardo Nunez is the eventual replacement for Derek Jeter because if he had included him in the deal with Seattle for Lee, the Yanks may have won a World Series last year.  Some pressure for the kid, replacing a legend and being the reason why the Yanks may have missed out on a championship in 2010.  Heat's on Brian!!!