Dropped Third Strike

Brian Cashman hates us. From a Newsday piece about the Yankees’ needs:

Barry Bonds is not considered an option. Cashman said: “I guess I can say that they have engaged us in the past and I’ve told them that I have too many people, maybe not too many people with the same ability, but too many people at the same spot that you have a lot of dollars committed to.”

This is a terrible argument and B-Cash must know it. He basically admits that there is a better option out there (and can we reiterate: BONDS WILL PLAY FOR A PRORATED SHARE OF THE LEAGUE MINIMUM — THAT IS LESS THAN 200K NOW) but says that because he has signed lower quality players to bad deals he is unwilling or unable to sign this better option. Sigh. Even if Hideki Matsui and Johnny Damon come back at full strength (they won’t), doesn’t it make sense to have the best possible bench players? Cash is right, though, if Damon and ‘Sui are healthy, then he does have a lot of players to fill in the LF and DH spots. But doesn’t a rotation of Giambi, Damon, Matsui and Bonds seem a lot more comforting than just the first three? There’s no way those four guys can go out there and play every day from here on out. But some combination of those four can probably find their way into the lineup for the entire second half. We’d never have to see Justin Christian again, and with more DH options, Girardi and B-Cash would be more motivated to play Jorge at catcher, meaning we’d see less of Jose Molina.

Check it:

1. Damon/Matsui LF
2. Jeter SS
3. Abreu RF
4. A-Rod 3B
5. Giambi 1B
6. Matsui/Bonds/Damon DH
7. Posada C
8. Cano 2B
9. Cabrera/Gardner CF

Seems to me that that’s a lineup that’s pretty certain to score runs. Ultimately it comes down to this — Matsui, Damon, Giambi and Bonds are 4 guys who are going to be hurt, or worn down during the course of a long year. If Bonds was going to cost upwards of $4 million it wouldn’t make as much sense to sign him (though it’s been said there’s no such thing as a bad 1 year deal [never mind, Clemens disproved that theory last year]) but since Bonds is coming so cheap, it boggles the mind that the Yanks wouldn’t at least consider it. Brian Cashman is a smart, sophisticated baseball man: the argument he gave against signing Bonds was far from smart or sophisticated. We can’t help but conclude that there’s a wholly different reason for his refusal to look at the home run king. Bud Selig, we’re looking at you.