Baseball Free Agency Starts at Midnight

Start at midnight, the Yanks can start bidding on free agents, including the prize of this year's pitching class CC Sabathia. Rumors have swirled that the Yanks plan on making the Sabathia the highest paid pitcher in baseball, and that would be a pretty good idea. Sabathia, for all his size and girth is very athletic, and big, fat athletic lefties like David Wells and Rick Reuschel have proven to be surprisingly durable in the past. Sabathia seems like a better version of the same model, and he looks like a good investment.

Other rumors have the Yanks interested in signing either Derek Lowe or AJ Burnett to join Sabathia in a revamped rotation. Lowe is a ground ball pitcher who has been producing good ERA+'s for the past several years. Now, while ground balls are better than fly balls, I think the Yanks should be focusing on K pitchers as long as Jeter is playing short. That brings us to AJ Burnett. Burnett now, while his performances in ERA+ have not been up to Lowe's, he's younger, has some of the best stuff in baseball and produces the kind of K's that could protect the Yankees from their own D. That said, I'd rather trade for another pitcher or just re-sign Pettitte or Moose, because...

The Yanks need two bats. When Giambi and Abreu filed for free agency, they took a hell of a lot of walks with them. That's why the Yanks, who I believe are limited to adding 3 type A free agents, should make two of them Mark Teixeira and Adam Dunn. These guys put up .900 OPS seasons as regularly as Giambi and Abreu used to, and surroundng ARod, would give the Yanks an absolutely lethal 3-4-5 in the batting order. Now, while there seems to be a lot of interest in Tex that could lead to his receiving a ridiculous deal somewhere else, Dunn could be a bargain. The man walks, and the Yanks cannot add enough patient hitters.

Obviously, the Yanks are also exploring trades to meet their needs, but as of midnight tonight, the market is officially open, and the Yanks will be big game hunters.