Yankees Continue Dealing

December 22, 2009 · Paul Raymond · Jump to comments

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Fresh off a World Series Championship and a blockbuster trade, the New York Yankees continue wheeling and dealing, landing another “ace” pitcher. That pitcher is former Yankee Javier Vazquez. The Yankees sent outfielder Melky Cabrera and two prospects to the Atlanta Braves for Vazquez and Boone Logan.

So you did notice I used quotation marks around the word ace. I use the term very loosely when it comes to Vazquez. Yes, he was the ace of an Atlanta Braves staff and one of the better pitchers in the National League, but throughout his career that hasn’t been the case. Regardless, being an ace the Yankees gave up a pretty penny for him.

The Yankees gave up a starting outfielder, not a star one but at least an average starter who the team rallies around. They gave up their third best prospect in starting pitcher Arodys Vizcaino and a lefty Mike Dunn who was projected to make the big league roster.

The key to the deal was probably Vizcaino a 19-year old starting pitcher who destroyed hitters at Single-A in 2009, with a 2.13 ERA over 42 innings pitched with 52 strikeouts. Vizcaino is still years away from being able to contribute so down the road this can hurt the Yankees, but the Yankees don’t think about down the road. It’s all about the here and now.

And the here and now is answering the Boston Red Sox signing of John Lackey. While Lackey projects to be the Red Sox number two or three starter, Vazquez should be the Yankees number four. Both rotations now seem to be equally as strong.

It leaves the Yankees a little short in the outfield but as we’ve seen many of times pitching wins championships.

This deal has to bother the fans of the Philadelphia Phillies thou. Why? It looks like Braves got more for a fringe ace, at best, then the Phillies got in return for Cliff Lee. FanGraph even says that the Braves got a significantly better return then the Phillies did. While it will take a number of years to find out if that’s true it must be troubling for the Phillie faithful to hear that.

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