Abreu Deal

This deal should certainly help this year. I rarely like giving up prospects, but CJ Henry has been disappointing so far, Matt Smith is already 27, and the single A players are unknown, and going by their stats, nothing too special (so far).

I honestly dont know much about Abreu (aside from his stats). I know he leads the NL in BB, 3rd in OBP, and has 20 SBs. That sounds very nice, and should fit in well with the lineup. The short porch should provide him easy HRs, but a feeling i've got watching the yankees acquire power-hitting lefties over the last 5 years is that they see that 314 RF and try to pull everything, e.g. giambi (who used to hit all over). i hope this doesnt happen to Abreu, who i've read has become far more pull conscious since last year's HR derby.

He's supposed to have a strong arm, but is shy of running into the wall. I've hardly seen him play so I cant attest to this. It will certainly provide better offense than Aaron Guiel and Bubba Crosby though (who've been surprisingly helpful).

The only downside is that Melky, who I like a lot, will see less playing time when Matsui comes back. For the record, I would have been fine with a Matsui, Damon, Melky OF this year (and next).

Cory Lidle seems like a throw in, just for the Yanks to hope he can be better than Ponson or Chacon. Hopefully he can. Torre said (before acquiring Lidle) that Ponson would get at least one more start (after his bad Toronto outing). I doubt this is still true. Who's going to be sent down with getting Abreu & Lidle? Beam? Ponson? Chacon? Guiel? Crosby?

Monday July 31, 2006 - 03:27pm (EDT)