So with their recent drafting history, they'd probably turn the two picks into a decent/good pitching prospect and a hitter who can't hit :P

This just in: Yankees won't pursue ARod if he opts out. Give me break.

So with their recent drafting history, they'd probably turn the two picks into a decent/good pitching prospect and a hitter who can't hit :P



So Phil Hughes and Melky Cabrera. Might as well keep him and see how the season turns out.

Larry, that's like saying that a desperate man who buys a woman a $20k ring to get her to marry him is not pursuing her as long as he doesn't grovel excessively. If A-Rod came to the Yankees and said that he changed his mind and would come back for the same contract out of which he had just opted (same length and salary), then they would not have pursued him.

They can contend with him, especially if Young turns into Frank Robinson, which he could.

The New York Yankees likely will pull out of trade talks for Johan Santana if the Minnesota Twins don't make a decision by late Monday.

"I'm not going to be played against the Red Sox. That's not something I'll do. That's not something the Yankees should ever do, and that's I think what they're trying to do now," Yankees senior vice president Hank Steinbrenner said Sunday. "So if they want the best offer that has been offered to them, then they need to make up their minds."
...
Steinbrenner wouldn't set a specific time Monday for pulling out.

"We'll see how it goes, but this is not an act. It's not a bluff. It's just reality," he said. "Because as much as I want Santana, and you can make that clear -- for his sake, to know that I do want him -- but the fact is that I'm not going to play the game. We've made them the best offer. And at this point, it's not going to get any better. So they can decide. At this point, it's up to them. I don't think they want to lose us in this thing, obviously. Nobody wants to lose the Yankees in a negotiation."
...
Steinbrenner said the Yankees didn't want to wait too long, miss out on Santana and then find out it was too late to get involved in talks for other pitchers, such as Oakland's Dan Haren.

"We need to get things straightened out, and not wait around for them to run back to Boston and back to us, and then back to Boston," he said. "I'm not going to do that."

July 30: Twins: "Johann, we got a deal for you to (whatever team you most want to be with) with a 100 year eleventy bazillion dollar extension." Johann: "I told you I wouldn't talk during the season..."

What's Selig going to do? Fine him?

Why should they blow them out the water? If they have an idea what the Yankees and Red Sox are offering, they should offer just a bit more. To blow them out the water and unnecessarily deplete your organization of valuable assets would be ridiculous.

Shouldn't that be considered tampering by Steinbrenner to mention another team's player when they haven't acquired them yet?

"I’m not going to be played against the Red Sox....We'll see how it goes, but this is not an act. It's not a bluff. It's just reality,"

"It's clear he didn't want to be a Yankee,...He doesn't understand the privilege of being a Yankee on a team where the owners are willing to pay $200 million to put a winning product on the field...I don't want anybody on my team that doesn't want to be a Yankee....We're not going to back down...It's goodbye."

Steinbrenner on A-Rod on October 29

If Jacoby Ellsbury is included in the package, the rest of the package won't include Jon Lester or Clay Buchholz. In other words, the Red Sox are taking a very systematic approach to this.. They're telling the Twins, you can have one of these guys, but the rest of the package won't include our three best prospects. The rest of the package will be something less than the Twins desire.

The Twins wanted to hear the Yankees say OK on Phillip Hughes and apparenly they have heard that. But the Yankees, according to sources, are taking a similar approach to Boston: take Hughes and maybe Melky Cabrera, but don't expect much after that.

I don't think what Hank is doing is tampering, but it's close enough that Selig should call him and tell him to keep quiet before he crosses the line.

“This is not a bluff; it’s just reality,” the senior vice president Hank Steinbrenner said in a telephone interview Sunday night. “It’s a fact. The Yankees will not be used to jack up the price on people — whether by agents or other teams — ever again. That’s over.”
...
[The Twins] are lukewarm about Cabrera and would prefer Boston’s Jacoby Ellsbury as their new center fielder, but the Red Sox will not trade Ellsbury and pitcher Jon Lester unless the Twins expand the deal, possibly to include closer Joe Nathan.

That is unlikely, and it emboldens the Yankees’ stance. If they back out and the Red Sox do not cave in to the Twins’ demands, Minnesota will seem to have no trade partner, considering that Santana would require a contract extension of at least six years and $120 million to approve the deal.
...
Steinbrenner said the Twins and the Yankees had not haggled over the third player in their potential trade, because Minnesota had not accepted the premise of a deal centered on Hughes and Cabrera. But if the Twins asked for Kennedy or a comparable prospect — a group that includes Dellin Betances, Alan Horne, Austin Jackson and José Tabata — the Yankees would pass.

“How can I go any higher?” Steinbrenner said. “What do they want — Hughes, Kennedy and Cabrera? I can’t do that kind of thing. It’s crazy. It’s suicidal. In the past 20 or 30 years, teams have always asked more from the Yankees than they have of anybody else, and that’s going to stop. I’ve made the best offer Minnesota is going to get, and the fact is, it’s an offer we can go away happy and they can go away happy.”

In the past 20 or 30 years, teams have always asked more from the Yankees than they have of anybody else, and that’s going to stop.

Hank has been waiting for like 30 years to play with his toy. Like any small child, he just can't help himself right now.

According to a source familiar with Santana’s thinking, the pitcher over the weekend was growing tired of the uncertainty and had given the Twins several ultimatums.

Santana, who has a full-no trade clause and intends to wield it to land a six-year contract extension from any team striking a deal for him, told the Twins that he would veto a trade to any team except the Yankees or Red Sox. He also warned them that he would not accept a deal in-season, forcing the Twins to move him this week or lose him to free agency after the 2008 season, when his current contract expires.

Even as the Sox monitor the Santana talks, they remain interested in at least two other starters said to be available at the meetings. Don't know if he asked him to cough, though.

Oakland’s Dan Haren, whose acquisition cost would be nearly that of Santana but who is under contract for another three years at $15.4 million — just slightly more than Santana’s $13.5 million for 2008 — is one target.

Yesterday, indications surfaced that the Sox have also had discussions with the Milwaukee Brewers regarding Ben Sheets.