Is Johan Worth It?

[BuckFoston]

I agree with you Dry. Melky Cabrera is a fine young ballplayer. If the Yankees and Twins do pull the trigger on this deal, I will be happy to see the outfield of Delmon Young, Melky Cabrera and Michael Cuddyer. All have great arms and are very athletic. Speed will have improved as well. Those guys can cover a lot of ground. When the Twins move into their new ballpark in a couple of seasons, I expect Young and Cuddyer to switch positions, moving the speedier player to right.
Phillip Hughes and Fransisco Liriano will be a very nice 1-2 punch for the Twins rotation as well.
From the Yankees perspective, if they don't bring in a proven starting pitcher this winter, they may as well get used to looking up at the Red Sox in the standings. The 3rd player the Yankees send in the deal will determine if the deal will be done, IMO.
In the long run does this deal really strengthen the Yankees though? They give up a lot for one of the best starting pitchers in the game and then have to negotiate a $150M 6-year deal with him to keep him happy. Fortunately, they have the resources to make this happen.

Yeah the Twins will look very good if this deal goes through but no catman in the longrun the Yankees will regret this. They would be giving up 2 star pitching prospects and 1 great OF. Once Santana takes his decline and Hughes is being a n ace in the league then the Yankees will really regret this. But like I said on the other page, why can't the Yankees learn from their mistakes?

[love_that_reefer]

Can we just call Cabrera good? He's not great. He's no Torii Hunter here. They would be getting hopefully a future ace and a good OFer.

[BuckFoston]

Right now Cabrera is a good OFer but like Dry pointed out he led the majors with 16 outfield assists. He has a great arm much better then that noodle arm of an Ofer we have starting in Damon. I would much rather see Melky in CF then Damon... In a couple of years I think that Melky will really break out and be an elite OFer in the league.

[General]

And you're wrong.

[Veovis]

On Jeff Marquez - so he's basically Masterson only more accomplished. He certainly isn't an A-level prospect, but he is a serviceable piece.

On Melky - his only plus tool is his arm. He has good range now, but that will only decrease with age. He doesn't take good routes to the ball. He is basically as good as he will get as far as defense goes. He isn't a burner on the bases. He won't steal a lot of bases. My hope for him was that he was taking walks in 2006. In 2007 his OBP dropped way down to .327. That being said, he is playing better than Bernie did at this stage of their respective careers. Will that continue? I'd say it is questionable that he projects to be even close to that good, but we'll see.

My assertion that Santana becomes too pricey if we include Hughes, Melky, and a blue-chip prospect is taking a broad look at the situation. We would be trading away one of our starting pitchers, our starting CF, and Austin Jackson (the guy who will be replacing Melky in 2009 probably), in order to get Santana who will go down hill from here on out and will be paid 20-25 mil a year. Also, consider that without Melky or Jackson, the Yanks will have to go out and get a CF as they don't want Damon there anymore. So now we are talking about a large contract for Jones or Rowand, both of whom won't be worth it.

And let me just say, if the Twins decide Ellsbury with his .810 minor league OPS is better than Phil Hughes then something is wrong with that organization.

[BuckFoston]

Jeff Marquez- Scout.com: Scouting Yankee Prospect #17: Jeff Marquez

[Saber]

I like the date on that report.

[BuckFoston]

Holy crap I didn't even notice that...I'll find an updated one.

[BuckFoston]

Replacement Level Yankees Weblog

Thats the only review I could find on him that was in '07.

[Providence A's]

I've never seen or heard anything refer to Cabrera as to anything but average except by some of the Yankees fans here. OK, so he had a lot of assists, so what? He doesn't do much of anything else above average...

[BuckFoston]

Not only does he have a great arm but he has pretty good range. And for a guy that has only been in the league for two years his stats weren't that bad. Granted he doesn't have that much power but he still had decent stats. He batter .278, 73 RBI's and 8 HR's. Yes I know the HR count is way down but Jeter has proven that you don't have to hit 30+ HR's a season to be a productive player in the Yankee line up.