Unit to Arizona a done deal

[Frayed Knot]

The Snakes get a 72-hour window to negotiate an extension -- apparently they want him for '08 as well at around $10mil or so.
It's unclear at this point whether or not the MFYs are picking up any of the '07 money.

Yanx get 4-for-1:
- ML reliever Luis Vizcaino -- RH innings eater, decent ERA & WHiPs. There was talk about the Mets looking at this guy a few years back.
- minor league RHP [u:35014c1560]Russ Ohlendorf[/u:35014c1560] (a "C+" prospect says John Sickels - "a sleeper who throws strikes")
- minor league RHP [u:35014c1560]Steven Jackson[/u:35014c1560] (also C+ ... "Excellent season in AA after mechanical rebuild")
- minor league SS [u:35014c1560]Alberto Gonzalez[/u:35014c1560] (C+ ... "Good glove")


So either this clears the way for them to go after Clemens (be interesting to see if they agree to his creative schedule) or Vizcaino allows them to move Proctor into the rotation ... or some combo of both.

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

Good! Now I can go back to liking the Unit again. Although, he'll have to do something to cleanse the Yankee taint.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Frayed Knot wrote: - minor league SS Alberto Gonzalez

AKA: The Attorney General.

[Frayed Knot]

His glove denies batters their right to first base

[Guest KC]

I think there should be an investigation into why teams do deals like this with
only seemingly the Yankees. In my mind, the only end to the Randy era would
have been to have him rotting and scowling on the bench while Steinbrenner looks
down clenching his teeth and fists for having to pay the back end of that (stupid
to begin with) contract.

I don't get it, someone 'splain it to me ....

[nymr83]

it really makes no sense, the prospects might not be that great but Vizcaino is something. Considering how Johnson pitched this past year and his age I wouldn't take him unless the Yankees took on the entire salary. Why relieve the Yankees of that salary burden? if anything they should be throwing in a top prospect to get rid of the salary.

[Guest Rotblatt]

]I don't get it, someone 'splain it to me ....

Well, it's not gonna be me, cause I don't get it either. Unless, that is, the Yankees are paying a huge chunk of his contact--like $7M or more. In which case, this strikes me as a close-to-even trade.

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

I think that Arizona thinks that Randy Johnson is a draw to the good old days and is, fwiw, a "true Diamondback."

They probably also feel if he's healthy and the DBacks are good, it's not a bad combination to start with, as opposed to, you know, being pretty good and then going to need to go trade for a veteran anchor, like the Mets probably will.

Either way I think the MFYs are the screwees here. They coughed up Vasquez, that young catcher, whatshisname, and the reliever, whozit, and they aren't getting much better back, and Johnson embarrassed them for a few years and they didn't win dick. It's all good.

[Guest ABG]

Edgy DC wrote: ="Frayed Knot"]- minor league SS Alberto Gonzalez AKA: The Attorney General.

How do you say Souter in Spanish?

Ordonez

[Guest sharpie]

Yankees pay $1.5-$2 million of Johnson's salary.

[nymr83]

thats nothing, way to get hosed Zona.

[A Boy Named Seo]

His splits still look pretty good against NL teams the last couple of years. I'm sure the DBags are banking on him looking more dominant being back in the NL. San Diego's supposed interest must have been enough for AZ to eat all that dough.

[nymr83]

even ifhis ERA drops half a run he's still a disaster at that price.

[Frayed Knot]

Assuming that he's healthy (admitttedly not a given coming off back surgery) Johnson can still be useful even if no longer THE BIG UNIT of old. For all the Yanqui fan bitching over the last two years it's not like he's been terrible, just somewhat unpleasant, not as good as they wanted him to be, and not an automatic in THE BIG GAME - somthing Skank fans seem to think should somehow be guaranteed if you give up a big enough contract and put on the pinstripes.
Interestingly enough, I caught a few minutes of Michael Kay on the radio just as the news of this deal was coming down and he thinks the Yanx blundered here: giving up a 17-game winner while netting themselves just a set-up man and a couple of middling prospects while paying for the privelege. Now Kay was wrong about a lot he said during his discussion of it but he was right in that the fact that just because many wanted his less-than-sunny ass out of town doesn't make this an automatic addition-by-subtraction move.
And, don't look now, but the Yanx 4th & 5th starters at the moment are Carl Pavano & Kei Igawa.

Plus, part of what Arizona wants is he name/drawing power as he approaches win #300 which is why they're so interested in an extension. They also owe him a boatload of deferred money from his previous contract and those extension conversations might involve some restructuring of that debt that'l help AZ get out from under the slew of "manana-economics" deals they made in trying for that '01 championship.

[nymr83]

he WAS terrible in 2006. the Yankees got back a decent reliever, but more importantly they removed a huge and unnecessary salary from their team, that makes it a good trade by itself

[Frayed Knot]

I'm not really endorsing the deal from the Snakes side or trying to dismiss his 5.00 ERA this past season - but I also saw enough of his games to know that he usually wasn't as bad as all that and his peripherals seem to bear that out. He had a habit of giving up his baserunners in bunches and would get burned that way.

Was he overpaid, unpleasant, and not as good as the team bargained for or as the fans think they're automatically entitled to? ... Sure.
But in two seasons he started virtually every turn out (67 times), threw over 430 innings, won 34 games, still gave up under a hit/inning even in his "bad" year, and kept a K/BB ration at around 3-to-1.
Expensive? ... hell yeah -- but an "unneccesary" or easily replaceable part ... not so much.