The way people are talking you would think that the Yankees are going into the 2006 season with a team that is as flawed as the Yankee teams of the early 1990's.  Bubba Crosby has range and the ability to catch the ball in center.  If he is the team's opening day center fielder and number nine batter, so be it.  Lest we forget, the Yankees will still have A-Rod, Jeter, Sheffield, Matsui, Posada, Cano and Giambi.  If a team with that much firepower needs Bubba Crosby's offense then something in Yankeeville has gone terribly wrong. 

Brian Cashman has stuck to his guns when it comes to not dealing away his young talent, or offering big money contracts just for players who don't fit, and I don't blame him.  When you look at the players available through trades are there any who would be major upgrades over the players Cashman has penciled in?  Juan Pierre in center dropped off last year and is entering his final arbitration year prior to free agency; Jason Michaels is a right handed Bubba Crosby both are 29 and neither have been regulars yet in their career, why deal a Wang for that?  Why sign a flawed Johnny Damon to 15 million this year when much better centerfielders like Hunter and Andruw Jones will hit the market next winter?  And don't write off Yankee prospect Melky Cabrera after his poor showing in a cup of coffee with the team last season.  Remember Yankee fans, Bernie Williams wasn't an instant success either. 

The bullpen is still the weakest link of this Yankee team, but as with center field there just are not many other options that represent upgrades over what the Yankees have already.  Teams that have quality arms in the bullpen know the value of those arms and are not going to just give them away and the free agent market is so thin that marginal relief pitchers like Bob Howry are pulling down contracts that are obscene (really, BJ Ryan deserves to be the second highest paid closer in baseball behind Mariano Rivera?).  So instead of getting into bidding wars for marginal players the Yankees may go with Tanyon Sturtze, Aaron Small, Jaret Wright, Kyle Farnsworth and youngsters Scott Proctor and Matt Smith in front of Mariano Rivera.  The young pitchers are exciting, Proctor is a lot like Farnsworth with an electric fastball and like Farnsworth, early in his career he has had trouble controlling it, perhaps the addition of Farnsworth can help usher Proctor's career along.  Smith, a left hander, has impressed at every level and his success in this past year's instructional league has drawn the interest of those putting together teams for international competition.  Other youngsters such as J. Brent Cox, Colter Bean and Ferdin Tejada could also be in the mix.

Remember something else Yankee fans; the team the Yankees break camp with in March is hardly ever the team they close the season with in September.  Trades can and will happen.  By not locking himself into bad deals Cashman is keeping the door open for trades during the season, when prices on pending free agents tend to drop.  Last season the Yankees were  just as flawed as they are now, the difference was they lacked any flexibility with the high priced contracts of players like Tony Womack, Steve Karsay, Paul Quantrill, Mike Stanton and Kevin Brown.  Filling spots with young players gives the team the ability to create roster spots by optioning players to Triple A instead of buying out big money players and releasing them.

With that in mind I will close this first posting with the following trade proposal:  Mike Mussina to Atlanta for Andruw Jones.  The money is a wash with both players being free agents at the end of the season.  Mussina, at this point in his career, would be well served by a move to the National League.  Last year he struggled to get through five innings for the Yankees, but with the shorter lineups in the National League he could once again be a seven or eight inning pitcher.  He would slot into the Atlanta rotation nicely behind Smoltz and Hudson and infront of lefties Mike Hampton and Horacio Ramirez.  With the size of the stadiums in the NL East (with the exception of in Philly) his propencity for giving up fly balls also would not hurt him as much as it did this past season in New York.

Just something to think about.