Cash Has Spoken!

“I will not lose our No. 1 draft pick.  I would have for Cliff Lee. I won’t lose our No. 1 draft pick for anyone else.” (via LoHud)

Goddamn right, Cash!  You let them haters know what's up! 

Seriously, though.  Anybody who really wants the Yankees to sign Soriano or thinks they have to is a fucking moron.  Sure the dude is really good, but he's not filling a gaping hole in the roster.  Would it be nice to have him as the 8th inning guy and let D-Rob and Joba and the rest of the 'pen tear up the 6th and 7th innings as needed?  Sure.  Is not having Soriano as the 8th inning guy going to completely cripple the team and have them finish 83-79 as a result?  Of course not.  Cliff Lee was a necessity because of the holes in the rotation.  Soriano is a luxury.  You don't give up 1st round picks in a stacked draft for a luxury.

Come on, people.  Drink some reality potion.  And trust in Cash.  Dude can scale down the sides of buildings with the best of them.  He knows what he's doing.

Friday Afternoon Linkapalooza

There isn't much going on today in Yankeeland and I'm not feeling all that clever or creative right now, so once again we'll take a look at the stuff out there that's much much better than what I'm doing.

- Steve S. at TYU compares the Yankee and Red Sox lineup position by position.  As any sane person who watches baseball would know, the Yankee lineup looks just as good, if not a little better, than that of Boston, owners of the supposed best lineup EVAAAHHHH after signing Crawford and A-Gon.  And that's not even factoring in The Almighty...

- Gary Wallace at NoMaas has his 2 breakout stars for 2011 in the Minors picked out.  I'm not gonna lie, I didn't have either of the 2 guys he mentioned on my radar, but if they progress like Gary thinks they can then it just means a more jam-packed farm system and I'm more than OK with that.

- Emma Span at Bronx Banter has a quick little blurb on the possibility of Gary Sheffield coming back with the Rays.  I find Sheff to be wildly entertaining in his craziness, so that's fun news for me.

- Ben Kabak at RAB discusses the most important factor in the potential signing of Rafael Soriano a/o Johnny Damon, the Scott Boras Factor.  How I managed to not consider that factor is beyond me.  But since the Yanks are saying they're only interested in Soriano at the right price, I think it's safe to say he won't end up in pinstripes with Scotty B as his agent.

- Last but not least, Bob Klapisch at The Record talks about the potential effect the pending Roger Clemens trial might have on Andy Pettitte's decision to retire or return.  As the key witness in the case, Pettitte will be in the spotlight just as much as Clemens, so that factor is definitely worth considering.  Good call, Bob.