Manny with an interlocking NY

Could it actually happen? Could Manny Ramirez be manning left field or DH for the Yankees next season? It's an interesting question to ponder, so we will.

Most Yankees fans don't hate Manny. They may hate his posturing during home runs, his poor play in left field or his slovenly look, but most get a chuckle at his antics. At least that was true until his recent immature behavior that got him exiled from Boston.

Manny's entire goal was to have his team options for 2009 and 2010, at $20 mill a pop, dropped so that he could become an unrestricted free agent after the season. Had Boston stupidly agreed to it, Manny would still be wearing a Red Sox uniform. Instead, GM Theo Epstein and company got what they could for him, a very good player in Jason Bay.

So Manny will finish out 2008 in the city that always sleeps and will test the free agent waters after the season. And that's when debate will kick in big time as to whether the Yankees or Mets should try to sign the Man-child.

Manny grew up in the shadow of Yankee Stadium in the Bronx and is obviously familiar with the intensity of the AL East. The Mets have a large Latin American contingent which would probably be favorable to him. For now though, let's just concentrate on the team with the true Pinstripes.

Manny will probably be looking for, a minimum, 5 years of guaranteed money. No small feat, considering he will turn 37 next May. His numbers in 2007, .881 OPS, 20 HR, 88 RBI, were well below his career numbers. He also missed 29 games with assorted ailments.

His numbers have been modest this season. He suffered through a miserable May, and hasn't hit more than 6 home runs or driven in more than 17 runs in a single month. It's possible he may go on a huge tear the rest of the season now that he's more motivated on a personal level. But his .926 OPS is the second lowest of his career, with last year's total being his rock bottom.

Don't get us wrong, .926 is still very good and he's on pace for a 33 home run and 106 RBI season. The home run total is still good, but the level of RBI is much less than Manny's usual standard.

With the exception of 2004-2005, when he averaged 44.5 home runs and 137 RBI, Manny's home run and RBI total have been on the decrease. He's also missed 61 games the prior 2 seasons and was bothering by hamstring, knee, and "mental" issues this season.

Manny is still a feared hitter though and the prospect of batting him in front of or behind Alex Rodriguez is very intriguing. A 3-year, $45 million deal is certainly in range to us, but we feel Manny will be seeking a minimum 5-year, $100 million deal. If that's the case he can take his dreadlocks elsewhere.

Manny would probably also be best served by a move back to the original outfield position, right field, that he played with the Indians. Left field is much too expansive for Manny to cover properly.

If the Yankees were to sign him, it could possibly mean trying to deal Johnny Damon and the one year left on his contract. Dealing Hideki Matsui is probably a foregone conclusion.

So there you go. We've tossed a bunch of info at you. We would sign him, but to no more than a 3-yr, $45 million deal. What do you think? Would you want Manny's bat along with his sometimes free spiritedness, lack of hustle, and poor fielding? It's all part of the package they call Manny. Fill it our new poll and let us know.

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Results of Pirates Trade Poll

Not counting the horrendous outing by Damaso Marte last week, this deal has looked good thus far. Xavier Nady's 6 RBI Sunday afternoon certainly helped that out.

The top vote getter was "Great job by the Cashman", which coincides with our feelings. Next up was a good deal for all, followed by the Yankees getting a steal.

There were 9 of the 90 votes that felt the Yankees gave up too much. We're thinking some of those votes were after Nady's initial oh-fers and Marte's meltdown.

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Results for Wang Poll

First off, thanks to the 76 respondents of our most recent poll. We asked what the Yankees should do to replace the injured Chien-Ming Wang in the rotation, and unlike past polls, there was no clear cut answer.

What may represent a change in fan attitude, paralleling the front office, is the largest margin (42%) selected to use a pitcher within the organization, rather than trading for a player on another team.

32% of you did want to go for the big gun though- a C.C. Sabathia, Ben Sheets, or A.J. Burnett type.

The final tally was a split between going after free agent Freddy Garcia, and trading for a less stellar pitcher, such as Randy Wolf or Kevin Millwood.

One things for sure, Sidney Ponson is NOT the answer.

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Celebrate Good Times C'mon

The results are in. Of the 120 of you that voted in our most recent poll, let Joba do his thing was the popular vote by a 2:1 margin over those who find it bush league and unprofessional (the pro Goose Gossage contingent?). Only 6 voters were unsure of whether it was a good or bad thing.

We were undecided for quite some time, but we think Joba should cut it out. We don't mind him being emotional, but it ticks us off when Manny stands there during a home run or K-Rod goes wild after a strike out.

But unlike Goose Gossage, we're not going to campaign to have him stop and we're not going to lose sleep over Joba being Joba.

Thanks again to all of you who are participated.

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Results of the Manny Poll

Okay, we admit that we probably overreacted a bit when we said Manny Ramirez should be treated the same way as Barry Bonds. Okay, make that we overreacted a little bit.

When Manny (we will not refer to him as Man-Ram as that idiot Eric Karros does on Weasel Fox Sports) is in a hot streak like he is this month, there's absolutely no reason to pitch to him. Especially when throwing an 85-mph fastball inside on him isn't exactly "busting" him inside.

That being said, 31% of you said walk no matter what. 17% completely hate the idea of walking a batter when it's not called for.

We guess the 52% of you who said it depends on the situation are the most rational of all. Well, maybe.

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Batting Average Poll Results

Thanks to the 76 of you who answered our most recent poll. 38% of you agreed with us that Robinson Cano would have the highest average on the Yankees this season. Now we just need him to start hitting.

24% of you went with Derek Jeter, 16% for A-Rod, 12% picked Bobby Abreu, 8% chose Hideki Matsui, and 1 voter selected Johnny Damon.

1 voter also selected the anonymous "Other". We would put an a fill-in entry, but we're afraid of what might get written. ;)

Stay tuned for our next poll.

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Better than Average

The Yankees have a number of players who have hit .300 or better in their careers. Derek Jeter hit an impressive .344 in 2006 and is a .317 lifetime hitter. Alex Rodriguez hit .314 in his latest MVP season and has a .306 lifetime average.

Bobby Abreu hit .330 after coming over to the Yanks in '06 and is right at the .300 mark lifetime. Robinson Cano has a .314 mark in his short career and hit a whopping .342 in '06. Jorge Posada is coming off a career best .338 season.

Jason Giambi put up back-to-back season, albeit probably tainted, of .333 and .342 in 2000-2001. His then A's teammate, Johnny Damon hit .327 in 2000 and has topped .300 four times in his career.

So what we want to know is, of all the Yankees who will have the best batting average this year. It's a tough choice. But for various reason we've narrowed it down to Derek Jeter and Robinson Cano.

Because of his fabulous '06 season and his .343 2nd half last year, we are going to go with Robinson Cano. Just a hunch he's ready for a monster season. What do you think? Be sure to answer our poll at the top of the page. Thanks!

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You Like the Yankees Chances

First off we want to thank our readers for our latest poll results. 118 of you answered the poll, which is a new all-time high for My Pinstripes. :)

21% of you felt the Yankees will top the 100 victory mark. We found that a little surprising considering the newness of the pitching staff and the uncertainty of the bullpen. The team hasn't won 100 games since a streak of 3 straight seasons from 2002-2004.

31% of you felt the team would pick up 96-99 victories.

25% of you agreed with us on the 93-95 range.

10% said 90-92.

Then come the naysayers, Mets fans, and Yankees haters ;)

4% said 85-89 wins and 9% voted for less than 85 wins.

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93 Wins

In calculating the Yankees record for the upcoming season, we've used a complex mathematical formula. Okay, not really. We did create a spreadsheet with all the teams running across the columns and up and down the rows. Then we guestimated how well the Yankees would do against each team.

The result is a 93-69 record that may or may not be good enough to make the playoffs. We tended to be conservative in our picks, only using the Orioles as doormat. We gave the Red Sox 2/3 of the games played between the two, and split the 6 games against the Mets.

Here's the complete breakdown:

vs. Bos 6-12
vs. Bal 14-4
vs. Tor 11-7
vs. TB 9-9

vs. Cle 3-4
vs. Det 2-4
vs. KC 7-3
vs. Min 6-4
vs. Chi 5-2

vs. Sea 6-3
vs. LAA 4-6
vs. Oak 4-2
vs. Tex 5-2

vs. NYM 3-3

vs. Hou 2-1
vs. Cin 2-1
vs. Pit 2-1

vs. SD 2-1


Now it's your turn, fill our poll and let us know how many wins you think the Yankees will take this year.

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Starting Rotation and Bullpen your Biggest Concerns

Sorry for the lack of posts the last couple of days. We've been laid up with a bug again and threw our back out to top it off. In the meantime our poll has expired, and we thank the 69 of you who responded.

Not surprisingly, pitching is your biggest worry, both starting and the bullpen. 43% of you said the starting rotation was your biggest concern. While another 39% of you felt the lack of solid relief would be the Yankees undoing.

The Smörgåsbord at 1st Base received 7% of the vote, while defense (4%), Mariano Rivera (3%) and Joe Girardi (3%) rounded at the voting.

Stayed tuned for more polls and thanks again for participating.

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A Full-Time Joba

Depending on the day of the week and who is doing the talking, Joba Chamberlain will definitely be a starter or definitely be working out of the bullpen. We've seen that Hank Steinbrenner has already established himself as the lead decision maker, at the expense of some of Brian Cashman's power.

Earlier this week, Prince Hank stated that Joba would begin the season in a starting role. Cashman returned service yesterday with Joba will most likely start the season in the pen. We can already see where this is going and Cashman isn't going to come out on top. He mentioned on YES' Hot Stove show this past Thursday that the bullpen was once again an option.

Just to clarify, Cashman does want to see Joba as a starter, but is concerned as to the number of innings his prized right-hander pitches.

"We're going to prepare him as a starter and we see him as a starter," Yankee GM Brian Cashman said yesterday. "But we have an innings limit that he won't exceed. How we manage the innings limit remains to be seen. The plan is to have him start, but there are a number of scenarios that we'll review."

Cashman would give no indication to just how many innings the plan translates to (hmmm, he didn't use the word process).

What do you think Joba's role should be next season? Take the poll on the right-hand side bar and let us know.

NY Daily News

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