It appears as though Gary Shefield will be dealt to the Tigers for three minor leaguers.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/base...gers/index.html

Somebody's probably very pissed off right about now...Well, at least he isn't in the division anymore. He was one of the Yankee hitters that actually made me a little fearful when he was up with RISP. I can't wait for a reaction from Shef.

ESPN just reported that Sheff got a 2 year extension with the deal. I can't believe that the Tigers gave up Sanchez + 2 more prospects for Sheffield coming off a wrist injury, 38 years old, makes $13M, and demanded an extension.

I can't wait to see Sheff face the MFY...It could be very, very ugly.

1 less place for jd drew to land

Terrible. The Yankees did very well here, IMO. Humberto Sanchez is a very good pitching prospect, and so is Whelan. Never heard of Claggett, but his 0.91 ERA last season and 1 K/IP suggests he's a pretty darn good pitcher. Big boost to their minor league system.

Fantastic deal for the Yankees. Never in my wildest dreams would I expect Sheffield at his age, salary level, and coming off that injury, to pull a prospect at the impact level of Humberto Sanchez. Plus Whelan and another arm? Bow to the Cashman.

Great deal by Cashman.

The Tigers got bent over a table.

At least the Yankees have less offense going into next season and none of the prospects are likely to contribute next season...still a horrible deal.

They'll just sign Drew or Lee or Soriano to fill the void.

And they got one of the top 10-15 pitching prospects in all of baseball.

Not bad, Cashman, not bad. You just might make a good GM after all.

I'd love to know how the conversation on the extension was generated...was it offered by the Tigers or demanded by Sheffield?

If that's the haul for Sheffield, then maybe I am ok with possibly trading Manny. We should be able to get an entire farm system in exchange for him.

True, but at least if that happens Drew can continue to spend time with his other team that includes Mark Prior, Kerry Wood, Trot Nixon, and Nomar (DL).

And if they sign Sori for 7/119 it'll be fun to watch him bitch about not being able to play 2B every time he screws up.


Even idiots get lucky sometime.

Don't have any gripes, though losing his bat will hurt if he comes back to put up his normal numbers. More firepower for the Tigers as well and that scares me!

All in all.... I'm happy, we got a steal! :

Great, I now have a reason to detest the Tigers. I was kind of up on the Tigers after they vanquished that team 206.4 miles away, but ugh, they're the Yankees of Michigan to me now. Sheffield's special... he's one of those guys who can make me hate an entire team.

But Yankee fans should be very pleased. Hopefully, there will be a chance when we can B.F. Dombrowski too.

While Cash certainly enjoys natural advantages other teams lack, to refer to him as an idiot is off-the-mark.

FWIW, a very knowledgeable poster over at USSMariner commented thus on Sanchez:



Don't know what that means, but it SOUNDS like the poster figures Sanchez will be overmatched once he's promoted from Triple A....either that or he's rapidly becoming Bartolo-Colon-ish in size (he's listed as 6'6" 270 pounds). He's already got a face like Al Roker before his stomach surgery.

Edit: His bio says he lives in the Bronx, NYC. How handy...

Re Edit: I'll be danged! Wikipedia's entry on the kid has already been changed to reflect the trade! Egad! (would that the Daisuke Matsuzaka news would move that fast.... )

Looks like a good deal for the Yankees, but Dombrowski is no dummy either.

I can't believe the Yanks got that much for Sheff. Sanchez and Claggett would have been okay, but the Tigers put Whelan in the deal also?

I don't really know what the Tigers are thinking here, but I said that when they let their young pitchers get bombed in '03 and when they signed Magglio and Pudge, so whatever.

One of the head honchos at USSMariner (who's been right about nearly every thing except saying Hargrove would be canned by the Mariners) said that Sanchez has a bad elbow and is a high-risk prospect.

That might be true if the elbow hampers his progress, and his weight continues to balloon....regardless of how much a "blue chipper" he is.

That's what the other poster might have meant.

Dam it there we go again, giving up young pitching for and aging star......oh...wait...never mind.

Any chance these minor leaguers will be dealt for talent (Cabrera/Willis)? I know the MFY are always looking to shed payroll for young pitching talent...but...it makes some sense that they'll try and spin these minor leaguers. George isn't exactly known for his "patience"

Sanchez has already been in AAA and posted a 3.86 ERA. He is one of the ten best pitching prospects in baseball, so is Hughes. This is one of the most lopsided trades I've seen recently. He has shoulder trouble this season and was shut down, which may be what the poster was talking about, but it's irrelevant. Sanchez alone would be a nice haul for Sheffield. Two other very good young arms is a steal.

Betcha at least two of those arms are flipped for an aging bat in July...

Shoulder trouble....elbow trouble....irrelevant only if there aren't any more problems of either kind or the Yanks flip him over to some other team. But quite relevant if they recur, or have anything to do with that enormous body of his.

Whatever. The trade, in that light, solves problems for both teams.

What void do they need to fill in the OF? They've got Matsui, Damon, Abreu and Cabrera right now. I think 1B is the only position they're looking to fill (besides pitching), so that Giambi can DH.


I agree that it's a good trade for the Yankees, but Sanchez's weight and elbow issues aren't irrelevant. They raise legitimate questions about his future, which reduces his value. Of all the Tigers' young pitching, he was always the guy they wanted to move. As someone else said, Dombrowski's a pretty good GM, too.

Now, if Sanchez stays healthy, he sure looks like he's going to be a solid pitcher, which makes him a very nice return on a 38-year-old OFer coming off a serious wrist injury.

Pretty damn good haul by the MFY if you ask me. Sanchez is a very good prospect and they also got some other good arms for an aging disgruntled player. Good job by cashman.

More gossip from nyyfans.com, albeit from someone labelled as a Red Sox fan :

As a former owner of Sanchez in WAU, I can tell you he isn't as good a people make him out to be. He gets hit a lot (.260 BAA), his K/BB isn't all that impressive, and he's pitched in two of the most favorable pitching parks in the minors this year. Whelan is, IMO, more likely to be successful, and Claggett is another nice arm. Humberto is a top 25 pitching prospect (definitely not Top 10, his upside is a #3), but nothing more.

I'm not even sure that he's that high. His 2005 in AA was nothing special, and in 2006 he got very lucky regarding home runs allowed (only two in 71.2 IP in AA and only two more in 51.1 IP in AAA). Also, minorleaguesplits forecasts his MLE at over five BB/9 IP. If I had a good way of computing AA/AAA xFIPs, Sanchez would have one much higher than his ERA for both AA and AAA.

I don't know about the two younger pitchers, but I'm not impressed with--nor worried about--Sanchez.

A great haul for an extraneous player that wouldn't be utilized much by the Yanks. If nothing else, they've cleared some $$ (not that this is ever an issue for them) to become more active either with FA or with trades (by taking on a bad contract). That they added players with some possible upside or who can be spun for better players is gravy.

Great deal by Cashman. I'm kind of ticked because I wanted to see if the Tigers would have any interest in Manny

Well he's the number 10 ranked RHP pitching prospect in baseball, so he's sure fooling a lot of people right now. Him and Hughes together is what bugs me, along with the fact they got him for a malcontent OF that everyone knew was being moved. I like Hughes a lot, and if Sanchez is even a good number four, he plugs two Yankee SP holes at once in 2008.

Yeah, but last winter he wasn't in the top 100 BA prospects--the escalation is strictly because of his first-half AA performance, and he faltered later at AAA, perhaps due to an elbow injury, but perhaps due to competition. He's got two good months in his second go-round in AA at age 23 in his fifth pro season, and I'm not seeing any other reason to suggest that he's anything like a top prospect. If his tools had been so great that he'd been touted last winter, I'd be more impressed--but he wasn't.

2007 ZiPS: 7-7, 4.42 ERA in 108 innings pitched. Not bad--certainly not an exceptional forecast, particularly regarding likely innings pitched. Not a Top Ten Type forecast, IMHO. Of course, forecasting is imprecise--YMMV.

If the Yanks can get all of those prospects for Sheffield, we should be able to get more for Manny. I know someone has probably already made this statement in this thread, but it probably bears repeating. Seriously. We should be able to get at least two good MLB-ready prospects for Manny.