http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseba...The Yankees have found their center fielder for 2009, as they are set to send Melky Cabrera to Milwaukee for veteran outfielder Mike Cameron on Thursday, according to two major league sources.
The Yankees have been saying that Cabrera and Brett Gardner would compete for the center field job, but the acquisition of Cameron gives them a veteran presence at the position.
Many believed Cabrera would be the center fielder of the future entering the 2008 campaign, but a disappointing season, in which he hit .249 with eight homeruns and 37 RBIs in 129 games, led many to believe he was destined for a future as a utility outfielder. Yankees blue-chip prospect Austin Jackson is not expected to be ready for big league action until at least 2010, making Cameron the ideal one-year stopgap in center field.
Cameron, a former Met, hit .243 with 25 HRs and 70 RBIs in 120 games last season. He will earn $10 million in 2009.
I get the feeling this is a package deal with Sabathia.. Cameron and Sabathia are close.
Baseball-wise... Cameron is well past his prime, but I guess he isnt the worst one year stopgap player. The middle of the Yankee lineup is pretty questionable right with guys like Nady and Cameron who are low OPS guys probably taking up the 6,7 spots in the order.
so we dont sign Beltran because Bernie has one more year on his contract. Then we dont trade for Santana becuase we want to hold onto our 23 year center fielder who is an outstanding defensive player. Then we trade him a year later for a guy thats 35. Now we are going to give 5 years to a pitcher who has had one healthy season in his MLB career.
Why not just bring back Pavano, Wright and Bernie and go from there?
Use some of the pitching in the farm system to get a good young position player. Sucks.. this is my last year buying season tickets.
We didn't pass on Santana because of Melky. We passed to keep Hughes and Kennedy. Melky sucked. Cameron is not ideal but better than Melky. Hopefully Gardner can show something.
What a thoughtless trade. This team is becoming more and more unenjoyable to pay attention to as the clock ticks.
don't like this one...probably kills any yankee talk. melky had a long way to go tho as his plate discipline was downright terrible. probably one of the worst hitting OF's in the AL. and that rumored ankiel deal had me salivating a bit, so we end up settling for cameron? i guess we're just waiting for austin in 2010...
but i will say this, apparently guys like cameron + swish are real clubhouse guys and grinders. so they are really looking to replace that o'neill quality that this team has been missing. like nyk said, that middle of the lineup is kind of scary (and not in a good way). and 5 years for burnett is crazy...
not to mention that this probably takes them out of the manny equation...
[Edited by - djsunyc on 12-11-2008 09:27 AM]
Man I really liked the idea of trying to do something with the Dodgers for Matt Kemp and a pitcher. Oh well...
CC Sabathia is one biscuit short of being three-fidee. He is a walking billboard for how NOT to force your heart to pump that much harder to carry so much extra weight.
Give me JJ Putz any day of the week, thank you.
Posted by fishmike:
so we dont sign Beltran because Bernie has one more year on his contract. Then we dont trade for Santana becuase we want to hold onto our 23 year center fielder who is an outstanding defensive player. Then we trade him a year later for a guy thats 35. Now we are going to give 5 years to a pitcher who has had one healthy season in his MLB career.
Why not just bring back Pavano, Wright and Bernie and go from there?
Use some of the pitching in the farm system to get a good young position player. Sucks.. this is my last year buying season tickets.
I warned you that Cash wasn't the man for the job
Posted by Allanfan20:
What a thoughtless trade. This team is becoming more and more unenjoyable to pay attention to as the clock ticks.
Cameron for melky is thoughtless, I agree, and giving CC that kind of money is crazy, although he is a stud... offering burnett 5 years is ridiculous.... wow.. and I am a diehard yankee fan..
If we really didn't believe Melky would have turned out to be much, we could have just kept him on the bench. I'm sure half the clubs in the league feel they could turn Melky into what the Yankees don't think he is, and they would have given up a young stud. Which young stud. I don't know, but it could have easily happened. Yet the Yankees got desperate for a little bit of instant gratification. Oh wait, Cameron sucks on offense too and Melky is probably almost as good a CF anyway. There goes that theory. I'm starting to side with Bonn a little more as the time goes on.
We beg on our hands and knees for CC and get ourselves PLAYED (For that extra year.) Then we do this piss poor trade. Now we're superoverpaying for Burnett???
This isn't the way the championship Yankees were built. This isn't legendary nor historic. Nor is this being sensitive to the economy. I just can't pay attention to this team like I used to. But then again, it's the system that is flat out horrible.
Are we gonna trade Cano for garbage too?
yankees championship teams lead the team down this road.
winning championships ---> higher ticket prices ---> more fan pressure to win ---> higher payroll --> higher ticket prices ---> more fan pressure to win ---> new stadium ---> higher ticket prices ---> more pressure to win ---> higher payroll...
Stupid trade, I know the organization was way down on Melky but Cameron. This guy was past his prime when he was on the Mets. The Yankees still need a centerfielder. This guy will camp out on the 60 day DL. What a joke. Sabathia is clearly in charge of this franchise now sorry Hal.
after this season, damon + matsui + cameron + nady are all free agents.
they'll probably let all of them walk. so they need to replace them with some young guys. austin jackson is on his way up in 2010 so cameron is the placeholder.
i think they will be going hard after holiday next winter.
Melky had very little trade value. ..no team was giving up a young stud for him. I don't love the trade but it should give us insurance in CF next year. We do need a big bat for this team also.
it's also possible that damon + matsui + nady are being shopped around as well. we still have 2 months before pitchers & catchers have to report.
Posted by djsunyc:
after this season, damon + matsui + cameron + nady are all free agents.
they'll probably let all of them walk. so they need to replace them with some young guys. austin jackson is on his way up in 2010 so cameron is the placeholder.
i think they will be going hard after holiday next winter.
I wonder if they have to wait that long? I know the A's have no intentions of signing him and attained him for the sole reason of flipping him for more prospects. I don't know what prospects we have that fill into Billy Bean's thought process, but I'd explore it.
I don't mind the trade. Melky sucked, let's be honest. Plus they didn't want him around Cano while they try to get his career back on track. I see this as the Yankees committing to Austin Jackson as Cameron is obviously nothing more than a 1 year stop gap. Cameron can't be any worse than what they were going to put out there.
As dj said, I love the fact that they're looking for grinders and good clubhouse guys. The championship teams of a decade ago never had the biggest names but were professional teams that were able to grind out wins. We all loved their mentality then, so I see nothing wrong with trying to get back some of that now.
The possibility of signing Burnett to a 5 year deal is puzzling though. I think they're still a little awed by how he dominated them the last few years.
burnett vs. boston: 5-0 2.56
vs. tampa: 3-2 2.98
8-2 with a 2.75 era vs. boston + tampa with a piss poor lineup in toronto. 5 years is crazy tho...
[Edited by - djsunyc on 12-11-2008 11:44 AM]
