Unless you are TB/a last place team, and get lots and lots of high picks, it’s hard to win without taking chances.
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And even they took chances, rolling the dice on Carlos Peña & Troy Percival.

I hate the idea of Old Lowe for 5 years. With our youth, I prefer Pettitte and Sheets.
However…. Evan3457 is correct in that the market determines price/length of contract, not the Yankees. Boston took a pretty big chance with Dice-K. They took a chance by trading H-Ram, who has turned into a stud, for Beckett/Lowell. They took a chance on Nancy Drew… we all laughed at that.

Unless you are TB/a last place team, and get lots and lots of high picks, it’s hard to win without taking chances. We didn’t pay for Sori and Zito. We dodged a lot of bullets in the last few years.

CC and AJ/Lowe/Sheets represent both great potential and high risk for the long run. So if we win the WS twice in the next 7 years, is it worth problems in 2013-2015?

It’s a tough call.
But ya can’t accuse Cashman of being too conservative or not trying to win.

Right now, the Yankee rotation is:

Sabathia, Wang, Chamberlain, Hughes, Kennedy/Aceves

I don’t know about you guys, but that rotation doesn’t seem very solid to me.

The Yanks clearly intend to bolster that rotation by signing 2 pitchers from among: Burnett, Lowe, Sheets, and Pettitte.

Each of the 4 comes with plusses and minuses.

Sheets is the best pitcher, but it unproven in the AL, and is frequently hurt. The market for him is unknown at this time.

Burnett has the best stuff, and has pitched brilliantly vs. the Red Sox, but is hurt as often as Sheets, and his reliability factor overall is pretty low.

Lowe is the most reliable, the most durable, and has an excellent postseason record, but his stuff is the poorest, and he got worse each year he was a full-time starter in the AL.

Pettitte is the home-town favorite, his character is known, his professionalism is known, but his stuff seems to be fading and his body seems to be breaking down with age.

The consensus here seems to be that the Yanks should sign either Burnett or Sheets, but only to a short-term deal, and not for an excessive salary, and that if Cashman does anything else, he’s an idiot.

Well, guess what? The free (agent) market may not permit any of that. It may take a 4- or 5- year deal to land Burnett. You think that’s crazy? Then live without him, because the Braves have already offered one. It may take a bigger offer to Sheets than the alleged 2-year, $26 million reported (I am highly dubious of that report, anyway.) You think it’s insane to give a 35-6 year old Lowe a 4- or 5-year deal. Maybe I think so too, but that’s likely what it will take.

So maybe they’ll give in and sign Pettite, and then the Yanks’ rotation will be Sabathia-Wang-Joba-Pettite-Hughes/Aceves.

When you make demands on Cashman that the players will not agree to, that rotation is what you’re demanding.

but i mean, was that the reason he wasn’t signed?
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I doubt it. He gave the White Sox a hard time before he was traded, and he and the Yanks had an opportunity to hash something out before the season started. IIRC, there were concerns about his arm as well, since he had a lot of mileage on it.

yanksofny: I wasn’t really speculating on injuries or durability, I just meant the contract is going to be similar in that it will be an unmitigated disaster. Yes, Lowe once proved himself in the AL East, but that was for one season when he was 29, and then he sucked the next two seasons. I mean, 2002 was his last season in the AL East, and he gave up 224 hits in 183 innings, sporting an ERA of 5.42. Calling him a proven AL East starter is absurd.

I don’t think people realize the extent to which the NL West sucks. Seriously, look at the NL division break down for average runs scored by teams in the 2008 season:

NL East: 752 runs
NL Central: 756 runs
NL West: 689 runs

Ah yes, Derek Lowe certainly has been impressive pitching in the worst offensive division in baseball. Man, this contract is going to be a horrible. How is Cashman making the same mistakes the Yankees made throughout all of the 2000′s? How has he not learned that signing aging free agents through the age of 40 is a terrible idea?

jmeisner:

Wouldn’t signing Burnett to a 5 year deal be more of a situation similar to Pavano than Lowe? Burnett has started 30 games 2 times in the past 4 years (both of which in contract years), 29 in another year but Lowe has started 30 games the past 7 years. 4 years might 1 year too much but still not a bad idea for a reliable pitcher who has proven himself in the AL East.

antone:

“If I’m Andy Pettitte I’m pissed off right now. They are the same age but Lowe gets 4 years and Andy has been forced to sign year to year deals. I think Andy leaves now by his own choice if the Yanks make this move.”

Lowe has been more reliable than Pettitte, that’s why he’s getting a long term deal

but i mean, was that the reason he wasn’t signed?

im going back (for me i was very young when this happened) but didnt black jack mcdowell flip off the stadium?
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Yep. I thought it was hilarious at the time. I think Rags started that game, I don’t remember.

im going back (for me i was very young when this happened) but didnt black jack mcdowell flip off the stadium?

But Cashman says he’s got a budget, and pitching comes first. Of course, I don’t necessarily believe that Cash was telling the truth when he said that people who are thinking “Sabathia + Teixeira” are living in “fantasyland”.
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Exactly.

“The Yankees said they could not afford DAVID CONE and JACK McDOWELL, but three weeks after McDowell signed a two-year, $10.15 million contract with the Indians, New York signed KENNY ROGERS to a four-year, $20 million deal.”

I’m sure if you look enough, you’ll find other times where the Yanks preached fiscal responsibility, so I’ll believe it when I see it.