Huh? Willy Taveras?
October 31, 2008, 2:17 amFrom the Denver Post:
A trade that makes sense in the coming weeks: Rockies center fielder Willy Taveras for Yankees starter Ian Kennedy. It’s not a longshot
That would be a terrible trade for the Yankees, and is probably just unfounded speculation on the part of the writer. Willy Taveras IS Brett Gardner, although I think Gardner may be able to exhibit better OBP skills at a fraction of the cost. The only things Taveras has going for him is his unbelievable speed (which Gardner has), and the fact that he is a “proven” CF, in that he’s played there for a few years and has never been totally useless.
Cashman has to know that such a trade would be idiotic (it wouldn’t make sense, at all). Besides, why would the Rockies want Kennedy, anyway? A relatively soft-throwing, breaking ball pitcher like IPK wouldn’t fair well in Colorado. If the Yankees were going to deal IPK to the Rockies, I wouldn’t settle for anything less than a Ryan Spilborghs (hey, that’s not a bad idea…).
(Props to RAB).
Just sounds like writers trying to come up with something, and thinking “hey, IPK struggled so the Yankees should unload him at pennies on the dollar, AND they need a CFer so Tavares makes sense, even though you are 100% correct in that Gardner is the same player on a cheaper contract with more potential OBP upside.”
But its the offseason and these hacky sports writers have to write columns whether or not they have something actually to write about.
Seriously, some of these rumors are worse than stuff you would hear on a message board.
[...] let’s stop the Willy Taveras talk. Why would the Yankees be interested in him? He’s Brett Gardner except with an extremely [...]