Home Run Derby

Sometimes the best trades are the ones you don’t make.  But don’t tell that to the New York Yankees.

Back in December, the Yankees and the Boston Red Sox were each trying to negotiate a trade with the Minnesota Twins for pitcher Johan Santana.  At the time, Minnesota wanted two of the top three young players from either the Sox or Yanks.

For the Yankees, that basically meant CF Melky Cabrera and young pitchers Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy.  The Yanks seemed satisfied with their offer of Cabrera/Hughes and when the Tiwns wanted more …  the Yanks wouldn’t add Kennedy to the mix.  

Santana ended up being traded to the crosstown New York Mets.  

For the Mets, Santana is 11-7 with 20 Quality Starts in 26 games with a 2.75 ERA and a 1.13 WHIP for the NL East-leading Mets.  He should be 17-7, but the Mets’ bullpen has blown six saves for Santana (five coming in the ninth inning).

Considering that the Yankees haven’t tasted World Series Champagne since 2000 … they wouldn’t have gotten unfavorable results by not pulling the trigger … would they?  The Yankees must be getting good results from the trio of players they refused to deal to the Twins for a two-time AL Cy Young Award winner, right?  

Not as such …

Phil Hughes
6 Games, 6 Starts, 22.0 Innings, 0-4, 9.00 ERA, 2.14 WHIP

And those stats were before the Yankees put him on the Disabled List on April 30. 

He’s currently rehabbing at AAA Scranton and hopes to return soon … but he got rocked for five Earned Runs in 3.2 innings this past Sunday (8/17).

Ian Kennedy
10 Games, 9 Starts, 39.2 Innings, 0-4, 8.17 ERA, 1.92 WHIP

Kennedy has bounced in and out of the Majors this season, due to ineffectiveness and injury.  During the time he’s been at AAA Scranton – he’s been nearly unhittable (4-2, 2.10 ERA, .90 WHIP). 

But he’s been eaten alive when brought up to The Show.  Most recently, Kennedy was called up to start in place of the injured Joba Chamberlain - and the Angels torched him for 9 hits and 5 Earned Runs in 2+ innings and he was sent back down to AAA.

Melky Cabrera
.242 AVG, .296 OBP, .204 RISP

So far this season, the Yankees’ 2008 Opening Day CF has fallen harder than a Chinese gymnast.  Cabrera has sometimes looked lost at the plate this season and absolutely tanked in August, batting a pathetic .115 – he was demoted to 4th Outfielder before being optioned to AAA Scranton on Friday 8/15.

One world class pitcher vs three guys in Triple-A.  Ignoring Cabrera in the non-deal, let’s compare the pitchers to Santana …

Ugh.  I hate doing this because baseball is such a game of variables … but I will guarantee you that if Johan Santana was pitching in Yankee pinstripes, they wouldn’t be eleven games out of First Place in the AL East. 

So now, the Yankees have to watch an stud pitcher (who they could have had) play across town for the next five (maybe six) years while they develop two potential studs.   Usually the Yankees don’t have the patience to do that. 

Then again, the Yankees didn’t spend $137.5 Million on Santana … and Hughes and Kennedy might end up being the front end of the Yankees’ starting rotation for years to come … provided they can figure out how to pitch in the majors. 

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 20th, 2008 at 5:08 pm and is filed under Mets, Pitching, Twins, Yankees. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.