Christophersp10 wrote:Ummmmmm what? We are aren't far removed from refusing to trade Montero?
1. The Yankees and the Mariners had agreed to trade Montero for a 2 month rental of Cliff Lee back in the summer of 2010. The Mariners balked at the last second wanting to get someone who had MLB experience and traded Lee for Justin Smoak instead. Yankees had also offered Montero to the Royals for Soria. Royals decided not to to do the trade. So that is two instances right there of Cashman trying to trade Montero.
2. How many times have scouts been right about anything? They are like the weatherman on the news. It's all forecast and you cant predict what kind of impact is going to happen with a player on a new team, playing with another player or coach who can teach him something new. Look at Halladay. He lost a ton of games and had an era of 11.00 in his second season as a starter. The Blue Jays demoted him all the way back down to the low minors to work his way back up. His career after the fact was revolutionized when Mariano tought him the cutter during the All Star Game one year.
3. Do you know how hard it is to find good pitching? CC and Mussina are far and way the best pitchers the Yankees have brought in since 2000. Do you know how easy it is to find good hitting? Yankees during that time have brought in Swisher, Tex, Arod, Sheffield, Justice, Granderson, Matsui, Damon, Abreu. It's not that hard to find a guy who can hit 25 hr's plus with 100 RBI's via trade or open market. Lets not even mention the free agents in the past decade the Yankees have passed on. Manny Ramirez and Belle in 2000, Pujols and Fielder in 2012, Vlad in 2003.
That is the reason why the Yankees are putting their emphasis on pitching. They want young great cost controlled pitchers. Pitching is the most expensive thing to buy via trade or in free agency. Would you go out and give CJ Wilson 70 million? Hell no.
1. True, if David Adams hadn't been hurt the trade would have happened. However, the Yankees refused to replace Adams with Nunez and maybe Nunez the deal breaker. My point being that if they were so willing to move Montero for the best pitcher in the world, they wouldn't have let Nunez be a deal breaker. They weren't trying to dump Montero. And Seattle looks to have admitted their mistake by dealing Pineda for Montero this time around, and are laughing that they held off on trading Lee for him but got him anyway for Pineda.
The Soria story is BS. Most baseball experts came out and claimed that discussions never got far, and there was nothing concrete that the Yankees ever offered something like that. It doesn't mean there weren't discussions, but if the Yankees did in fact ever make that offer, KC would have accepted before Cashman can hang up the phone.
I will give you the Lee one, although its not as if the Yankees were dying to move Montero for him or else Nunez would have been put in the trade.
2. I agree, scouts are not always correct. I would have just liked to move him for somebody most established and highly regarded. Hitters are always more of a "sure thing" than pitchers, so I don't like trading a hitter for pitcher at the exact same points in their career. You should receive some kind of premium in a trade for a hitter, instead we included a major league ready pitcher in Noesi and got another unknown in return in Campos.
3. I understand good pitching is hard to come by, that is why the Yankees have pumped all of these resources into their farm system and international scouting the past 5+ years, so that they would NOT have to do exactly what they did in this trade. Hughes, Kennedy, Joba, Banuelos, Brackman, Betances, Mitchell, Marshall, Nova, Noesi, and on and on. The time and money spent scouting these guys was done so that they would NOT have to trade Montero for a 22 year old pitcher.
