My Plan

Yeah, I said that I would wait until tomorrow, but I am an insomniac. While I wait for the cold medicine to kick in, I will write my master plan. This is what I would do if a) I was Brian Cashman b) I had complete and total control of the Yankees c) I could play God and make any reasonable trade be completed.

Step 1. Fire Joe Torre. Replace him with Lou Pinella, Lee Mazzili, Larry Bowa, or whomever. Anyone but Joe. Its too bad but we missed Joe Girardi by a year.

Step 2. Have Bernie Williams retire. Schedule "Bernie Williams day" and thank him for everything that he has done for the organization.

Step 3. Trade Scott Proctor and Justin Pope to the Brewers for Geoff Jenkins. The Brewers need the pitching. Jenkins has a season and a half and over 10 million left on his contract. Out of contentions, the Brew Crew will want to get rid of him.

Step 4. Release Aaron Small.

Step 5. Activate Octavio Dotel and Darrel Rasner from the DL.

Step 6. Call up Carlos Pena

Step 7. Trade Mike Myers for... anybody. Add him in to the Jenkins trade if need be.

CF Damon
SS Jeter
DH Giambi
3b Rodriguez
C Posada
RF Jenkins / Thompson (Platoon)
1b Phillips / Pena (Platoon)
2b Cano
LF Cabrera

1b Phillips / Pena
C Stinnet
OF Thompson/Jenkins
OF Crosby
Util Cairo

(Anyone gets injured and Erubiel Durazo and Kevin Reese are call ups)

SP Mike Mussina
SP Randy Johnson (unless he somehow retires or goes on the DL, then Rasner can start)
SP Chien-Ming Wang
SP Shawn Chacon
SP Jaret Wright

(Anyone gets injured and Steve White comes up, or Rasner goes to the rotation)

RP Mariano Rivera
RP Octavio Dotel
RP Kyle Farnsworth
RP Ron Villone
RP Matt Smith
RP Darrell Rasner

(Anyone gets injured and T.J. Beam or Jose Veras come up)

I hold the firm believe that a good baseball roster is all about being flexible. Players can do lots of different things. One player that prevents doing this is Mike Myers. I am a big believer in the 5 man bench. A 4 man bench is great when you have Hideki Matsui and Gary Sheffield added to this lineup, but it is unacceptable in the lineup's present state. Bernie Williams also has the same effect. Myers has one really specific use, but Bernie has no use.

When Matsui returns, and possibly Pavano and Sheffield, this becomes a really special team.