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Alright this throwdown is total speculation but what the hell...

Melky Cabrera is a golden god, by the way.

The greatest player of this generation is Derek Jeter. A Rod can't match up with the Ice Veins.

He'll get that money no matter where he plays and how do the Yankees give him the best chance to win? They didn't even win their division this year and haven't won a world series in what? 7 years now? And a part of that has been HIS inability to hit in the post season.

If he becomes a F.A. I expect the Angles, Mets, Red Sox, and possibly the Cubs depending on their ownership situation, to be major bidders who can all afford to pay him and are all contenders with or without him. He would be a perfect fit with the White Sox, too, but they are reluctant to deal with Boras. Of those 5 teams, 3 of them have won the W.S. since the last time the trophy was raised in the Bronx, and at least two would move him back to his favored SS position.

A-Rod would absolutely RAKE in Fenway. he'd keep his HR total up and he'd probably break the doubles record. however, by the same logic you've used with tabloids, it'd be just as bad, if not worse, in Boston as it is in New York. with that said, if he DOES leave, i'd like to see him go somewhere where he can play SS again so he can solidify his place as the best SS of all time.

the Yankees lack of playoff success is not just because of Rodriguez but because of lack of good pitching. also, you can't use 2001-3 against him since he was not with the team then.

C'mon up to Toronto, we'll spend the Canadian $s to be the Beast of the AL East again...

Then ship him to the White Sox. His offensive production would be even higher at U.S. cellular than at Fenway, he might even make a run at the single season HR record, and he'd definitely be playing SS. Defensively, Joe Crede makes ARod look like a little leaguer at 3B.

Alas, Jerry Reinsdorf and Scott Boras haven't gotten along since the Jeff Weaver fiasco so it's probably just a pipe dream.

I know their lack of success isn't BECAUSE of him, I said he was in part responsible. Their pitching problems are another reason ARod isn't likely to get that big pay raise, they are going to have to go after pitching in the off-season. Just how high is Steinbrenner going to run that payroll? $250mil? $300mil?

if there's anyone who'd do it, it's Georgie boy.

and they're not going to go after pitching becuase of guys like Chamberlain, Hughes, and Kennedy, who will be the middle and back end of the rotation next year. they have very well priced, very good young pitching so they don't need to go out and get an aging vet like Mussina or Johnson. the Yankees are set at pitching right now, and if he's healthy next year, Humberto Sanchez can sure up the 'pen. it's at the positions that they are weak in the minors but for the time being they don't need help becaue of the good talent level in the majors.

He's not about to run out 3 youngsters as starters next year. That's suicide. Especially in NY where you never know how a seasoned vet is going to handle the pressure, let alone a kid.

Hughes pitched head and shoulders above Mussina this year who is clearly too old now. next year will be a biiiiiig step forward for him. all he's gotta do is improve his changeup to go along with his fastball and excellent curve. if that happens, he will be great.

Kennedy will be the weakest link but he'll be just as good and/or bad as anyone's 5th starter, and is an improvement over Mussina's sub-par year and Igawa's horrid efforts; speaking of him, hopefully San Diego still wants him and he can be moved in the offseason.

Chamberlain will be absolutely fine as a starter. he has excelled in every role at every level this year and if he keeps working out over the offseason to keep his arm strength up, he will be a very good starter in the Majors.

of all the Yankees pitchers, i'm honestly most concerned about Wang at this point because of his inability to pitch with runners on base. there are two ways to counter this--the first would be to keep his pitching style now but work exclusively out of the stretch in workouts, spring training, side sessions, bullpen sessions, etc. the second, the one i'd prefer, would be to work to turn his sinker into a strikeout pitch and make him the American League version of Brandon Webb. a contact picther who has trouble pitching out of the stretch is a recipe for disaster--especially with a medicore fielding team like the Yankees.

the fielding brings me to another problem--Doug Mientkiwicz is also a free agent. i would love to keep him on but he and Andy Phillips are essentially the same player--great defense with streaky, inconsistent hitting. it makes no sense to keep 3 1B on (incl. Giambi) so that will pose a definite problem in the off season.

sorry for the novel, i hope someone reads that.

Talent isn't questioned. It's the pressure of playing in that city for that team. MUCH more experienced players than Chamberlain, Hughes, and Kennedy have wilted under the bright lights of Yankee mania. New York isn't just a "what have you done for me lately" town, it's a "what have you done for me TODAY" town. The Honeymoon period ends the first time one of those kids gets tagged for 8 runs in 2 innings. ARod wins MVPs and is the most criticized man in town at times. That's a lot of pressure for a youngster to shoulder.

I've only ever seen two players get a pass in NY. Jeter and Reggie. And I think that's because the Boss loved those two guys so much the tabloids didn't dare rip them for fear of losing quotes from Big George.

i'm kinda tired of Jeter getting a free pass. i love him and he's one of the reasons i'm as big a baseball fan as i am today but his preferential treatment is getting very annoying. his fielding is downright average, if not worse, and his recent playoff performances have not been very "Jeter-like."

also, i think fans are going to be much more patient with these young pitchers due to them a) being young and b) not being "overpaid." Hughes had some not so impressive starts this year and wasn't really jumped on too badly like i thought he would be when he tripped up. i'm away from home so i don't know how the NY reaction was to Joba's slip ups the other night but i'm sure it was nothing horrible, or i would've heard about it. with the recent youth movement, there seems to be a patience coming with some Yankee fans that wasn't there before. hopefully, it continues.

after the yankees lose to the Indians, A-Rod will leave. He won't be able to take the abuse the yankee fans would give him if he stayed.

"also, i think fans are going to be much more patient with these young pitchers due to them a)"

There is no a, b, c, or d. There is only history to go by. And history says the tabs and the fans will NOT be patient with anyone who wears pinstripes or plays in the house that Ruth built. You might HOPE that is the case, but you know as well as I do that it won't be.

And, frankly, if you are going to spend $200mil on a roster, it SHOULD be scrutinized from top to bottom. Seriously, you said earlier that the Yanks are "worth" $1bil. They spend that much on player salaries every 5 years. Think about that. If a company spends 20% of it's entire net worth on 25 employees, shouldn't those 25 be under intense scrutiny?

I put "worth" in quotation marks because we have no clue what the Yankees are truly worth on the open market. Magazines such as Forbes and Money like to speculate, but it's all nonsense unless and until the entity is actually put up for sale. The Yankees have strong ties to the YES network and Madison Square Garden among other things. Unless we knew the extent of all those type of contracts we have no real knowledge of the teams true "worth".

"also, i think fans are going to be much more patient with these young pitchers due to them a)"

There is no a, b, c, or d. There is only history to go by. And history says the tabs and the fans will NOT be patient with anyone who wears pinstripes or plays in the house that Ruth built. You might HOPE that is the case, but you know as well as I do that it won't be.

And, frankly, if you are going to spend $200mil on a roster, it SHOULD be scrutinized from top to bottom. Seriously, you said earlier that the Yanks are "worth" $1bil. They spend that much on player salaries every 5 years. Think about that. If a company spends 20% of it's entire net worth on 25 employees, shouldn't those 25 be under intense scrutiny?"

and that history has already started to change due to the fact that the fans have been VERY patient over the last two years with guys like Cabrera (save for his first week in the Majors, which was a disaster...), Cano, and now Hughes. Yankee fans don't get too hard on rookies (see: Shelley Duncan) because they know that they're just rookies. Hughes went through a lot of growing pains this year with minimal resistance from Yankee fans. Yankee fans get on aging, underperforming veterans, not rookies who are still working to prove themselves. i expect the payroll to drop a bit, despite A-Rod's probable pay increase, due to the loss of Clemens this year (he should retire or go to the NL, Curt Schilling should do the latter) and Mussina's probable departure next year.

an "edit" of sorts: i just checked the article i'd read earlier and Kennedy is not projected to be in the rotation next year, my mistake.