Trade Talkin' Time

Having just read this article, I thought I'd throw in my two cents of what the Yanks may want to trade for this year.

I should first note that the article points out that the Yankees put Barry Bonds on the table as a possible player to sign. But it doesn't sound very serious, they were just noting that he could be a resource for the rest of the year. It looks like Matsui is done for the year, Damon is banged up and won't play much LF, so they need someone who can platoon and be willing to DH now and then. Is Bonds a solution? Sure. But that solution will come with lots of baggage. And honestly, can we see Bonds handling the NY media at all? It could be a potential disaster and huge distration should anything go down.

And now for the worst joke of the day, if the Yankees sign Bonds he'd finally be behind bars...get it, the pinstripes are like bars. I told you it was bad...

Besides Bonds in terms of priority here's where the Yanks need the most help:

1. Starting pitching. I don't even know the rotation anymore. Wang's out til Sept the earliest, Hughes and Kennedy are long forgotten, Igawa is never an option, and there's risk among the rest of them for injury due to age and just the long season. The article mentions Jared Washburn as an option--and he'd be a decent #4 starter. I think a starting pitcher who's a veteran and has post season experience would be my criteria. Which means I'd also look at Greg Maddux as well.

2. Relief pitching. There have been a good deal of injuries here too and no one's really made up for it. Edwar Ramirez has been tremendous and Farnsworth has finally been pretty good. Everyone else, I don't trust (except Mariano). If Kennedy or Hughes come back, they should go to the bullpen, but they could use some help down the stretch. A good middle reliever who can get outs is the way to go.

3. Another bat. The offense is fine, but there's always slumps in the dog days of summer. LF is a mess obviously, but so is catcher. Finding a catcher who can throw runners out is ideal, but it'd be nice to have them be able to hit some. That's a bit lofty since Posada has been one of the better offensive catchers the last decade, but they also don't need a guy who will hit below .250 the rest of the way. They're looking into Benji Molina. Or maybe Tony Pena could come out of retirement.

Don't expect a blockbuster trade. There isn't a crisis per say and the tone of trading has changed for the Yankees of late.

The All-Star Game/Rev Up for the 2nd Half

Elmo aside (see prior post from Doug), the All-Star game was fun to watch this year. Sure the AL won again, even with a DH the NL can't win. As I've mentioned in prior posts, I'm not big on the All-Star game, but since this one was at Yankee Stadium I had to watch it. What was interesting about the game was how fast paced it was up until the 7th or 8th inning when it reversed gears and went into slow motion. The best inning to watch was when Aaron Cook took over and Uggla made some very bad mistakes in the field subsequently loading the bases. But they got out of it with no outs on the board.

In the end, the game ended around 1:30am, which was a good thing since Kazmir was the last arm and everyone kept thinking back to that time in Milwaukee 6 years ago.

So now the second half is underway and there are going to be some great races in the AL East, AL Central, NL East, NL Central, and a very weak NL West. I exclude the AL West because assuming the Angels don't get an injury bug, they are surely going to win the division. Once again:

• A Mets-Phils rivalry is beginning (if there's a Mets fan and Phillies fan out there start blogging daily) again--start the smack talk folks.
• Can the White Sox keep up their offensive prowess and keep Ozzie Guillen calm?
• Do the Sabathia and Harden trades start an arm race?
• Will we have a repeat 2005 season in the NL West where one team finished above (barely) .500?

For the Yankees, last year they had the best record during the 2nd half. Off to a 5-0 start they'll be in the hunt for the Wild Card or division. While they're offense is good, their starting pitching is not, and it will be interesting to see if they trade for a good #3 or #4 pitcher. This year they got their wish at first base having just claimed Richie Sexson off waivers. I'm not sold on Sexson at all though as his batting eye and power skills are sliding away quickly. But he holds the promise of resurrecting it all. Look for Robinson Cano to have his tremendous 2nd half surge and Derek Jeter will get it going too.