Yankees Target: 2012
Here's a news flash for Yankees fans: Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman isn't planning on going full guns to win another championship in 2010.Mr. Cashman has been quoted over and over again in the New York tabloids in the weeks since the 2009 World Series victory, and he's said all the right things, never showing his hand (at least outwardly). He's said that free agents Johnny Damon, Hideki Matsui and Andy Pettitte are all terrific players, and he'd speak to their agents first before "engaging" other free agents. He's also said the Yankees plan to keep the 2010 payroll in the same ballpark as last year's - ab

Out with the Old?
One of the toughest decisions New York Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman faces this off season is whether to resign his top three free agents: Hideki Matsui, Johnny Damon and Andy Pettitte.Now, if these three players were in their primes, this would be a no brainer: he'd resign all three. But Matsui and Damon will be 36 next season, and both will likely want at least a three-year deal. Pettitte will be 38, but would likely want a one-year deal.Pettitte's the easy call here. He he wants to play, sign him to a one-year deal for about 10 million. It's worth th

Note to Free Agents: Sign Early!
Here's a tip for this year's MLB free agent class: don't wait around until January for the best deal. Sign early, and take the best deal you can get before the calendars switch to 2010, or risk taking a lot less as spring training draws closer.Don't believe me? Take a look at the lesson Angels outfielder Bobby Abreu learned. Last off-season, he started off thinking he was going to get a 3-year, 34 million dollar deal from the Yankees. He ended up waiting...and waiting...and waiting...for a deal that never came. He ended up taking a 5 million dollar one-year deal with the Angels right before spring training started.This year

World Series Heroes
The New York Yankees claimed their 27th World Series Championship on Wednesday night, defeating the Philadelphia Phillies in six games, thanks to some outstanding performances from some likely heroes and one unlikely hero:Derek Jeter - As usual, Jeter hit over .400 for the series, and was especially effective against Phillies ace Cliff Lee, who none of the other Yankee batters could solve.Johnny Damon - Also hit over .400 in what might have been his last games as a Yankee. His incredible at-bat in the 8th inning of game 4, and subsequent 2 steals on one pitch, wer

Pettitte vs. Pedro
With only minutes until first pitch at Yankee Stadium, I figured I'd post a quick thought or two on game 6. Here's the question I have: why is the New York media acting like this is another 2004-like collapse?Don't believe what you read in the papers: the Yankees clearly have the edge in this series the rest of the way, even though Pettitte goes on 3 days rest tonight. Would you want A.J. Burnett pitching in this spot? I wouldn't. Yankees manager Joe Girardi pitched Burnett in game 5 because it didn't matter if they lost. Now he's got Pettitte on the mound for game 6, the man he wants there with the season on the line, and if the Yanke