this team is awful

[Pharmcat]

Once again, cashman has overspent on the wrong players and the team is stuck at 500

they need to do a full rebuild, starting with firing the FO, focus on international signings while they are still allowed without strict rules (its ridicolous how many blue chip prospects nyy has missed out on and all they would cost is money, something nyy is supposed to have), trade whomever you can and start over....this team is functionally deficient and throwing money at old players (beltran) or offensively/frequently hurt players (elsbury) is not going to fix it

[Sacramento_King]

I agree completely. Should have signed vets for one year to allow Jeter go out trying to win but no multi year deals. The losing of picks each year while also giving other team comp picks is killing us prospect wise. We need to focus on the farm system and international players and try and rebuild from the bottom up.

[Dr. Detfink]

The injuries to the rotation have really affected the return to small ball. Guess Cashman once again, couldn't see the forest before the trees. CC is shot, really a #4 when healthy. Kuroda was overused last season. Pineda is a Carl Pavano mystery.

[moocow007]

The only saving grace about the Yankees giving up all those compensation picks is that they likely wouldn't have been able to pick the right one's anyway, and if they did, they wouldn't be able to keep them healthy and/or develop them.

I was listening to MLB.com recapping the Yankees 1st overall pick..."possibly developing into a middle of the rotation guy" isn't exactly something you want to hear as a Yankee fan. Honestly I have no faith in anything that the Yankees front office can do.

Right now? Everyone just needs to accept that Jeter has won all the World Series rings he'll ever win, let the season play out as is. Then clean house. Get rid of Cashman and Oppenheimer and that entire worthless scouting staff.

[Dr. Detfink]

Jeter with 7 extra base hits. Boosted his average to .262...not bad for a man playing on one leg at SS no doubt.

This team has no power. Soriano, McCann are strike out machines. Beltran's bone spurs means that's a dead weight contract. Scary that Teixiera's achy wrist is the most reliable RBI producer.

[duetta]

Yankees have the worst roster that money could buy.

We're looking at a repeat of either 1965 or 1989, I can't figure which. Yanks minors are largely bereft of talent, with only Robert Refsynder appearing ready to make his MLB debut -- but unfortunately he's still being converted to a new position, and would likely profit from another full season working on his defense in the minors. Murphy could play in the majors right now, but is buried behind Cashman's insane decision to throw $17 million a season at a guy who hit .230 two seasons ago.

The lower minors has some talented guys, but at this point nobody knows how they will do even at the AAA level. Yankees just threw tons of cash at International free agents, so hopefully some of these kids will deepen their pipeline.

But it could be ugly for a while here. Still, I've seen 7 world championship teams in my lifetime and more than 10 American League Champions. It's been a great run. But it's time to let a Gene Michael take over the club and put in the same hard work he did when Faye Vincent spared us of Steinbrenner two decades ago.

[TNBT]

I seem to be the minority in this thread, but I'm not too upset with the team at the moment. I get why others are, as we Yankees fans have been spoiled with some of the greatest teams/players to every play the game. However, given the bad hand that Cashman had to play, I think he got a decent return. No stars, but to pick up solid if unspectacular players like McCarthy, Capuano, Headley, Drew and Prado while giving up very little in return and not taking on any future money (except for Prado), is a pretty decent haul. When you consider that he managed that without giving up any of the few promising prospects we have, it looks even better.

With the off-season signings, I honestly am pretty confident that Ellsbury and McCann will turn things around. I don't see why two highly productive players throughout their careers would suddenly both start to suck at 30 years old. Everyone has slumps and I have no doubt that they'll break theirs. As for Beltran, I wasn't a big fan of his signing at the time and still am not a fan. His hitting has come around but being basically useless in the field makes him a pretty expensive full-time DH. On top of that, what role will he have next season and beyond when A-Rod (assuming we keep him) needs to be rested at the DH spot?

Overall, I don't think it would have mattered what Cashman had done in the off-season, as this team was already running on one leg anyway. The terrible contracts that guys like A-Rod, CC and to a lesser extent Tex are on, there's not much that we will realistically be able to do until we can get out from under them, preferably without taking on any other long-term money in return. Signing two (in my opinion) good long-term deals in Ellsbury and McCann, and overpaying for another in Beltran isn't going to sink the ship. In a few years time when we can get out of some of those terrible deals, including Beltran's, Ellsbury and McCann should still be at least decent players, and some of the promising young prospects should hopefully be ready to step up. We'll then have more money free to add supporting pieces around those guys... hopefully without overpaying them and ending up back where we are now.