The Yankees will no longer be ANYONE’S Sugar-Daddy.

They may, however, be the Angles’ bitch once more come October — if they manage to grab the WC and run into them in the first round again, that is.

Seattle is dealing from a position of great weakness but acting otherwise. They’re on track to be the 1st team to loss 100 games with a $100 million plus payroll.

But, you already know this.

The Mariners have already had to suck it up & eat the rest of Sexson’s ludicrous contract. What happens if they stubbornly hang on to Washburn & he gets seriously hurt?

Like that never happens to a pitcher…

That’s another $14 million that won’t be available for the Mariner farm system, scouting, & player development.

$14 million is about how much my Yankees spent this year in signing drafted players from the 2008 amateur draft, international free agents, & bonuses paid to over-slotted premium talent.

As for playing a game of chicken with the Yankees, GM Brian Cashman is not about to flinch on this issue, as the following article from below from last year illustrates…

http://mlb.fanhouse.com/2007/03/27/cashman-were-not-going-to-be-anybodys-sugar-daddy-anymore/

The Yankees realized a long time ago that no one is going to help them. In turn, they have made it abundantly clear that they will no longer be the white knight riding in to relieve other teams of their bad contracts & expensive mistakes. Mistakes such as Seattle’s.

The Yankees will no longer be ANYONE’S Sugar-Daddy.

And given the Mariners’ tradition of buying high and selling low, no other MLB team is going to make such an offer.

Arthur to Florida for a potentially decent pitcher couldn’t be turned down. I guess.

Damning with faint praise.

1. Lee Pelekoudas is just holding the bag for the next GM.
2. They’ve made it clear they don’t want to make any major moves now until the new GM is inserted…unless they’re blown away by the offer.
3. How much money will the M’s save by trading him now vs. waiting until the offseason to trade JW? $4 Million??
4. It’s the Yankees. I hate the Yankees so on one hand…we save some money. On the other hand…we tell the Yankees to take a hike. Either way…I’m happy!

So really…the number we’re talking about here is $4 Million. Trade him now and save $4 Million. That’s nothing really (except…I wish they would just give me $4 Million because it’s nothing).

So back to the original point…the M’s are posturing. It really isn’t that much money they save now by trading him rather than waiting to the offseason. They’re stating the obvious to everyone to convince the Yankees to pony up if they want to get it done because they haven’t “blown away” management with any offer so far.

Yep…all obvious. So, why rag on the M’s for stating this? There’s other things to worry about.

Instead of asking for a prospect back, why don’t the M’s ask NY to pick up Batista or Vidro too? Batista could be a useful SP/RP for the Yankees. Vidro would just add to the salary dump. Either way, while the M’s still don’t get a prospect back from the Yankees, they get additional value out of the trade. Not carrying Batista and Washburn’s salaries next year would be great for the team, as Dave pointed out.

Trading the Bus and Batista to the Yankees would get the M’s to about $70M of committed payroll in 2009. If there was a compelling trade available for JJ, that would take the team to $65M of comitted payroll. Take would give the M’s room to improve the infield defense by acquiring a plus 1B, 2B, and SS.

Lee, stop it.

Olney has changed his story so many times on that trade it’s disgusting. I don’t even think he’s really thinking about it anymore, he just throws a dart at a chart of a baseball field and whatever position the dart lands closest to he spews out of his mouth. I’ve lost a lot of respect for him over the last few months on this and other stories where he’s done similar “work”.

Pretty much everywhere else has had a similar story: top outfielder, higher-grade (but not HIGH grade) pitcher.

“Do you think the Yankees get their executive strategy from blogs?”

You’d think so, were you to read the comments section on Peter Abraham’s LoHud Yankee blog.

As reported by CC03, Buster Olney this morning:

The Yankees are willing to pay the rest of Washburn’s salary, about $14 million, but aren’t willing to trade a good prospect in the deal, and the Mariners asked for the Yankees’ best pitching prospect. It is a situation, however, that could change rapidly with one phone call.

Say, what? I thought the M’s were asking for Melky Cabrera. This Yankees-Mariners on-again off-again deal has morphed into something totally unrecognizable. I wonder what the deal REALLY is…?