Predictions? Thoughts? Comments? Were are only about 3 months away from the pre-season.

Well, we were using this thread (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=39712) but i guess that one got old.

GO YANKEES

Yeah, I'm glad the Brewers signed Todd Ritchie.. now I don't have the temptation to protect him in my fantasy league.. boy was that a horrible trade for me last year.

All i gotta say is Atlanta (my local team) made a bunch of very dumb trades. Of course, that's how things work. And my favoite team (the Yankees) came out of Atlanta's stripping w/ a good reliever.

People need to realize that Atlanta is becoming like the Phila A's were back in the 50's. The owner put enough money into the team that you would barely make the playoffs each year and your doing it w/ young talent, therefore maximing profit. The only problem is you need a good farm system to do this. And over the longterm people are gonna sign w/ the winners.

The Braves' move that will pay the most dividends this season is the cheap acquisition of Rob Fick from Detroit. Given a chance to get 500+ ABs, he'll put up McGriff-type numbers at first base for Atlanta this season.

BIG TRADE!

This is kinda bad for a Yankee fan because we traded away Hernandez :( and got Osuna (not sure how good) and a Minor League pitcher.
Oh yeah, the White Sox got Bartolo Colon!

http://espn.go.com/mlb/news/2003/0115/1493081.html

Interesting trade. The Sox are much more solid in their rotation, though the Twins are still the faorite IMHO.

The Yankees clearly acted as facilitators in this deal, to keep Colon away from the other Sox presumably. They unloaded a SP with no roll, and Osuna is a nice consolation prize. But having Colon out west is likely the big motivator.

Montreal is giving up its best pitcher, but they get some solid talent back. El Duque can be quite solid, plus the Yankees are picking up part of his salary. Biddle is a decent addition to the bullpen and Liefer is at the pint of his career that he either produces or finds other work. A lot of people think he will produce decent numbers with regular AB, but he was never going to get them in NY.

J

This is from www.nesn.com

"Instead of Colon, the Yankees came away from the deal with two other pitchers: Osuna, a reliever who was 8-2 in 59 games with a 3.86 for the White Sox last season, and Lantigua, 7-7 with a 4.38 ERA at Triple-A Charlotte"

Osuna isn't that bad, but his ERA could use some improvement. However i say all this as a Red Sox fan. :lol:

The yanks only made the deal to prevent the Red Sox from getting Colon.

Osuna was once a closer-in-waiting both in LA and in Chicago, so he'll fit right into the Yankees' bullpen mentality, probably taking over the Ramiro Mendoza role. Colon to the White Sox gives Chicago the ace they thought they were getting with Ritchie last year, now they have a legitimate 1-2 punch in Buerhle and Colon. Montreal, well, they'll be in DC or Puerto Rico next year so I guess either way El Duque will be popular. :)

Have that desided if their contracting? If so, when and where?

Tori Hunter (http://espn.go.com/mlb/news/2003/0117/1494370.html) signed back with the Twins. Of course this doesnt really matter to us Yankee fans since our team is stocked! Go Godzilla!

Originally posted by Alcibiaties of Athenae
The yanks only made the deal to prevent the Red Sox from getting Colon. Not Quite, but that was a big part of it. Getting a good middle man helps, but the real reason for the Yanks is that they could not afford to have El Duque around. He had no job, but they could not just cut him. This way they cut payroll, get a quality RP, unload a large potential problem AND keep Colon away from Boston.

J

PS Lantigua has a shot at being something also.

GO YANKEES

Alot of Yankee fans here at CFC, more than I expected. Lets hope all those trades turn out to be a good one.

Oh, and we got that Japanese outfielder, can't remember his name. 50 homeruns, 100 RBIs in Japan. Lets hope he keeps those numbers up in America. But I guess we should only expect about half those home runs. ;)

i wish there were some mets fans here...hehehe

cgannon64, the Japanese baseball player you're thinking of is Hideki Matsui.

And anyway, your profile says you're from Brooklyn. You're not supposed to be a Yankees fan. You're supposed to be like any good Brooklyn baseball fan, lamenting the fact that the Dodgers left town and went to LA. :)