Who would I sign?
FOLLOW-UPSA couple of quick responses to the comments here on the eve of the long weekend:• I listed a few outfielders not to sign. Who would I sign? As I've said in weeks past, I would bring back Hideki Matsui if the contract length was manageable. There are worse things than having a regular designated hitter--sure, it messes up roster flexibility, but those teams that don't often wind up with a mélange at the position that proves to be not all that productive. This will be especially true for the Yankees if Matsui yields to Jorge Posada, which in

The Hot Stove is Cooking with Turkey
STATEMENT OF BELIEFSThursday my family will celebrate Thanksgiving. I'm not going.On Friday there is a pre-party for my 20th high school reunion. I'm not going.On Saturday, my high school reunion itself takes place. I'm not going.If you want to find me, I'm here at the Pinstriped Bible.A BAKER'S DOZEN OF HOT STOVE THOUGHTS1. Five veteran outfield free agents who would should be avoided if the Yankees don't come to terms with Johnny

Jeter received the hype, but not the award
JETER HYPE OVERSTATEDThe AL Most Valuable Player vote is in and it's Joe Mauer. No surprise there, but the frequent mutterings down the stretch that Derek Jeter would receive a kind of John Wayne-"True Grit" career achievement MVP award proved to be pure fantasy. Mauer received 27 of 28 first-place votes, the remaining first-place ballot going, somewhat inexplicably, to Miguel Cabrera of the Tigers. Jeter did not receive a single first-place vote, and his own teammate, Mark Teixeira, out-polled him in second-place votes, 15-9, third-place votes, 6-5, and fourth-place votes, 4-3. Total points for the top three finishers: Mauer, 387; Teixeira, 225; Jeter 193.

Mystery day Friday
MYSTERIES OF ARIZONARiddle me this, Batman: when is it a bad thing when a prospect has a great Arizona Fall League season, batting .397/.472/.731? Answer: when the prospect isn't a prospect. Colin Curtis, 25 in February, was the Yankees' fourth-round selection in the 2006 draft, one of those so-called "polished college hitters" that don't have much projection but should at least be able to give you a little something in the way of the league averages. Instead, he's been a complete disaster since rookie ball, hitting an aggregate .264/.334/.375 in 431 games. This year he pancaked at Scranton, hitting .235/.302/.347. He was a bit better at Trenton, hitting .268/.343/.

The garden of Halladay
Since new Blue Jays general manager Alex Anthopoulos let it be known that he would not object to trading Roy Halladay within the American League East, there has been much speculation about another Yankees-Red Sox competition for the veteran right-hander's services. If true, this almost ensures that Halladay will be traded in the division, because these are two teams deep in resources who will be motivated to top each other, thus escalating their offers above and beyond what teams ou