3 Reasons Why This Yankees' Fan is NOT Panicking:

1. They have an aging, mediocre rotation that could be even worse in 2011 than 2010:

W L ERA G GS CG SHO SV SVO IP H R ER HR HB BB SO AVG WHIP GO/AO
J LACKEY 14 11 4.40 33 33 0 0 0 0 215 233 114 105 18 9 72 156 0.277 1.42 1.23
J BECKETT 6 6 5.78 21 21 0 0 0 0 127.2 151 89 82 20 8 45 116 0.292 1.54 1.38
D MATSUZAKA 9 6 4.69 25 25 0 0 0 0 153.2 137 84 80 13 8 74 133 0.24 1.37 0.64



2. They have spent $340 million on two players just to maintain last year's offense. And, since both are lefties, they now have five lefties in their line-up, which is good for Pettitte and CC:

BooooSox 2010

Beltre, A RH
G AB R H TB 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO SB CS AVG OBP SLG OPS GO/AO
SEASON 154 589 84 189 326 49 2 28 102 40 10 82 2 1 .321 0.365 0.553 0.919 1.06
Martinez, V SH
SEASON 127 493 64 149 243 32 1 20 79 40 5 52 1 0 .302 0.351 0.493 0.844 0.96

BooooSox 2011

Gonzalez, A LH
G AB R H TB 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO SB CS AVG OBP SLG OPS GO/AO
SEASON 160 591 87 176 302 33 0 31 101 93 35 114 0 0 0 .298 0.393 0.511 0.904 1.15

Crawford, C LH
SEASON 154 600 110 184 297 30 13 19 90 46 3 104 47 10 0 .307 0.356 0.495 0.851 1.07

3. Paying $160 mil for C Lee would have been a disaster. He was only 26-22 in his last two seasons!


SEASON??? W??? L??? ERA??? G??? GS??? CG??? SHO??? IP??? H??? R??? ER??? HR??? HB??? BB??? SO??? AVG??? WHIP??? GO/AO???
2009[+] 14 13 3.22 34 34 6 2 231.2 245 88 83 17 5 43 181 0.272 1.24 0.98
2010[+] 12 9 3.18 28 28 7 1 212.1 195 84 75 16 1 18 185 0.24 1 0.82


How many days 'til pitchers and catchers show up for spring training??

The point is the process works a certain way: every team makes its best offer and the best offer (normally) wins. It can't work any other way. Certainly it can't work the way Nolan would like it to, how can it? How can Lee's agent answer the question when he doesn't have all the offers? And should he give any one team an advantage? Would any of them deal with him next time around? Bottom line, it is a weak move by Nolan. Maybe, as it's been said, it's a concession by Nolan that Texas can not compete with New York (or Boston).