Clemens Staying in Houston.

Mike Lupica ponders what the Yankees will trade to Houston in their obsessive pursuit of Roger Clemens:

"Do they give up Robinson Cano, perhaps the first middle infielder produced by their farm system since Derek Jeter? Do they trade Chien-Ming Wang, who has a chance to be the first starter they have developed since Pettitte was a kid? Just when their farm system seems to have produced at least snapshots of an actual future, do the Yankees trade it away?"

Short answer to these questions: No.

First of all, Clemens is not going to say goodbye to his boyfriend in Houston.

As Lupica points out, the price to get Clemens for half a season -- the payroll price and the trade price -- would be way, way, WAY too high.

Also, as Lupica points out, even the addition of Clemens hardly guarantees a World Series victory (can the Yankees get out of fourth place before we start thinking about their World Series rotation?). No single player guarantees a World Series victory.

Do the Yankees really have a history of trading away their promising youth for expensive, short-term solutions?


"Who's the biggest name? Who costs the most?

Get him.

This time the biggest name out there could be Clemens. Stay tuned. It will be interesting to see if the Yankees look to stack the deck again. And give away young for old. Everybody knows how well that's worked out for them over the last four years, at least in the end."

Who is Lupica referring to? Who is the big name the Yankees have added to their roster in the last four years? Esteban Loaiza? Karim Garcia?

See, I'm trying to be very specific here. Because I think Lupica is talking about mid-season deals, trade-deadline deals. Lupica implies that the Yankees have a habit of trading away their farm system for a short-term, pennant race fix.

But what trades is he talking about? Is he still referring to Ken Phelps?


If Lupica is talking about off-season deals, then it's a different story. Mussina, Giambi, ARod, Vazquez (say, can we get Nick Johnson back?), Contreras, Matsui, etc., etc., etc. Big names, big money.

But from the gist of his article, I think he's talking about mid-season deals. The Yankees could have made many of these types of deals -- Sosa, Griffey, Maddux, etc. -- but the Yankees seldom pull the trigger.


In '95 and '96 the Yankees added two huge players mid-season: David Cone and Cecil Fielder. Pretty big names, pretty big money, the Yankees probably don't win the World Series in '96 without 'em.

So, these mid-season deals worked out fine, even if the Yankees had to face the new century without Marty Janzen.

Since Cecil Fielder, what are the big deadline deals for the Yankees?

I can only think of the 2000 pickups (and the Yankees won the World Series that year, too): Jose Canseco was picked up on waivers, cost the Yankees nada; David Justice was huge in 2000, cost the Yankees Ledee and Westbrook (Lupica wants to throw a nutty about Jake Westbrook? Fair enough, I suppose); Denny Neagle was so-so in 2000, cost the Yankees Ed Yarnall.

Canseco, Justice, and Neagle. Kinda big, I suppose. Kinda expensive, I suppose. But hardly the biggest and most expensive.

Since then? The four years where the Yankee Big Name Big Money Trade Deadline deals supposedly haven't worked out?

They haven't made any Big Name Big Money Trade Deadline deals.