4 Reasons To Not Be Interested In Lance Berkman

(No thanks. Courtesy of The Daily News)

The big news of the day today is Ken Davidoff's report that the Yankees are interested in and "have been in contact with" free agent and short-time former Yankee Lance Berkman.  Berkman, as you may recall, was acquired at the 2010 trade deadline to shore up the bench, then went back to the NL with the Cardinals in 2011 and absolutely tore it up to the tune of a .408 wOBA and 163RC+.  He missed most of last season with more knee problems, and beyond just that there are a multitude of reasons to NOT be interested in Lance Berkman, not the least of which is the fact that he hasn't even officially decided if he wants to play in 2013 or the fact that he would prefer to stay in Texas to be closer to his family.  But there's actually on-field reasons too.  Check them out after the jump.

A-Rod's Surgery Not Scheduled. Cause For Concern?

A piece of potentially unsettling news came from this short story by Dan Martin in The Post yesterday.  He reported that the Yankees still hadn't set a date for Alex Rodriguez's hip surgery, which is supposed to be taking place sometime this month.  It could be nothing, or it could be a sign that A-Rod's hip isn't in good enough condition for the doctors to want to schedule the surgery.

Like they did with Mo when he tore his ACL last year, the Yankees penciled A-Rod in for 4-6 weeks of pre-surgery exercises to strengthen and better condition the hip, possibly to help shorten recovery time.  One has to think they've been doing follow-ups on that condition, and to be only a week or so away from the proposed surgery timeline and not have a date set could signify that A-Rod isn't responding to the conditioning as well as the doctors would have hoped.  That wouldn't be the most surprising thing in the world given Alex's advanced baseball age, but if that is the case it probably signifies that he's not coming back on the early side of the 4-6 month post-surgery recovery time.

The surgery is going to happen.  That much we know.  With all the injury problems Rodriguez has had in the last handful of seasons, though, it'd be nice to have a little more certainty as to when.

** UPDATE 2:17PM- Via Anthony Rieber, Cash has stated that there has been no setback in A-Rod's surgery plans and that a "tentative date" has been decided, which he would not reveal.  Sounds like everything is OK. **