Bleacher Creature Feature

#44: "Dreaded Deadline Doom"

31 July 2003

So the Yankees made three trades (technically it's four, but one was a single trade with the Reds split in two), none of which will really hurt the team, unless Brandon Claussen turns into a big star.

George Steinbrenner apparently decided that he just had to have Aaron Boone, and Boone wanted off the team that fired his Dad, and suddenly the previously untouchable Claussen was available. So they traded Claussen, another prospect, a player to be named later, and cash for Boone and Gabe White. This in turn meant that Robin Ventura was redundant, and so he was traded to the Dodgers for some decent-looking prospects.

Now Boone is signed into next year (though he's arbitration eligible after this year), which Ventura wasn't, and he can play second base, which gives the Yanks some flexibility, especially since I maintain that Derek Jeter needs to be a third baseman next year (maybe in spring training put Jeter there, move Alfonso Soriano back to his natural position of shortstop, and stick Boone at second). In addition, Boone is right-handed, and doesn't need a day off a week which -- combined with the triumphant return of Nick Johnson to the starting lineup -- means fewer at-bats for Todd Zeile, which is always a good thing.

I have to admit that I had to talk myself into this analysis, because from the minute I heard the Yanks traded Claussen for Boone, I was befuddled. I'm still befuddled to some extent. Why was Claussen suddenly available? Now it's possible that the Yankee staff saw something in Claussen that didn't encourage them (you'll note that Ted Lilly hasn't exactly torn up the league in the last year, though the guy we traded him for has been something of a disaster, too), and they wanted to get rid of him while his value was still up. And I've always liked Ventura and will miss him. But, dammit, he hasn't been playing well, he's at the age when players can decline in a big hurry, and he was being replaced once a week by Zeile.

And yet I keep thinking about Claussen, and how impressive he was against the Mets. Of course, that was only against the Mets -- it would've been nice to see him against a major league team...

So this might work out okay in the end. We shall see.

We also got White, who's on the disabled list, but certainly can't make the bullpen any worse than it is now when he's back healthy again.

This leaves Raul Mondesi.

That deal amused the heck out of me, because Raul was one of those guys George wanted. I thought the deal was pointless a year ago, and I thought he should've been traded for something useful -- say, a bag of fries and a large Coke -- at the beginning of the year. His early hot streak fooled people into thinking he was a useful player, but by June he was back to his old pointless self, and -- after two trades were vetoed by George -- they were finally able to dump him when he walked out on the team in a huff because Joe Torre (sensibly) pinch hit for his sorry ass in an important game against the Red Sox. Frankly, I see the new right-field Cerberus of Ruben Sierra, Karim Garcia, and David Dellucci as more useful than Raul by himself, and it also gives Torre more flexibility on his bench (and less need to use Zeile as anything other than a defensive replacement).

There's been lots of chest-beating over this, but to my mind Brian Cashman fleeced the heck out of Joe Garagiola Jr. David Dellucci's a good fourth outfielder, Bret Prinz, if he returns to his 2001 form, could be very useful, and the Yanks' farm system is bereft of catchers, so the one we picked up and sent to A-ball certainly can't hurt. In exchange, the Diamondbacks "upgrade" their offense by getting a crappy hitter who has fooled everyone into thinking he's an offensive force.

The Snakes deserve him.

I take back everything unkind I ever said about Alex Rodriguez. As I write this, he just hit a grand-slam home run in the bottom of the eleventh inning to hand the Red Sox a humiliating 7-3 defeat. Life is good.

During the seventh-inning stretch at Yankee Stadium, following the tiresome playing of "God Bless America" (and the sooner that tiresome bit of propaganda disguised as patriotism ceases, the happier I'll be, especially since 99% of the time it's Kate Smith's stomach-churning version) and the traditional rendition of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" from the ageless Eddie Layton on the organ, they have been playing "Cotton-Eye Joe." I wondered whence derived this particular tradition, and at last the secret has been revealed.

I love the web.....

NEXT: "Ding-Dong the Hitch is Dead"

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