Steve Goldman of YES Network

Steve Goldman, a noted Yankee historian and author of the Pinstriped Bible on YESNetwork.com, was nice enough to give me a few minutes on the Yankees and their upcoming 2008 season.


Baseball-Rumors: Let's start with Alex Rodriguez. Did Alex not want to opt out of his contract at the end of the 2007 season and how strained is his relationship now with his agent Scott Boras?

Steve Goldman: I think only Alex Rodriguez can tell you that for sure. It seems doubtful that Boras went cowboy and opted out all by himself. It may be that Alex wanted to stay and found that he had overplayed his hand to some degree, that the market wasn't going to top the Yankees or top them by enough to really want to make a change. Add in the botched announcement during the World Series and you had a complete disaster. It could be that Boras is just taking one for his player so that Rodriguez doesn't have to spend another year answering questions after they decided to stage a general retreat.


Baseball-Rumors: Fans had heard the name Ian Kennedy mentioned in the Johan Santana trade rumors, but the Yankees were unwilling to part with him. What do the Yankees like so much about Kennedy and what should Yankee fans look forward to about him?

Steve Goldman: It's a cliche, but he knows how to pitch. Kennedy's stuff is unexceptional, but he knows what to do with it. You hear about these polished college pitchers with a low ceiling--they are what they are. Teams draft them because they're guaranteed a certain minimum level of competency. But what if the player doesn't get even to that low ceiling, if he gets only 75% of the way there. Then you have, I dunno, a back-end guy, someone qualified to pitch for the O's or the Royals. Kennedy, as my Baseball Prospectus colleague Kevin Goldstein put it, has nailed that ceiling. It will be interesting to see if big league hitters figure himout, if he can keep making adjustments.


Baseball-Rumors: When do you expect the deal to be finalized with Robinson Cano?

Steve Goldman: Done, and not a moment too soon. The Yankees did themselves a favor by locking Cano in at a set cost rather than dragging through arbitration and all that jazz. He's really grown these last couple of years, and if he has just a little more of that coming he's going to be something quite special. Maybe he's already there.


Baseball-Rumors: Do you expect Joba Chamberlain to be in the starting rotation or will he be coming out of the bullpen?

Steve Goldman: They seem to be fluctuating on this somewhat. I don't think it matters so much so long as he's ultimately a starter. If a pitcher has his stuff and can sustain a starter's workload there isn't much of an argument for putting him in the pen. Unless you get 100 innings, all crucially timed, I don't think the contributions are equal, and of course most relievers don't throw 100 innings and most managers don't get the timing right, throwing away the best pitchers on some fairly safe game situations.


Baseball-Rumors: I understand there's going to be quite a battle for 1st base during Spring Training. Is there one guy that you think is the front runner going into camp?

Steve Goldman: It's hard to describe it as "quite a battle" when the players involved are such minor chess pieces as the pawn, the other pawn, the jester, and thejanitor. The Yankees decided to punt on the position again, hoping to catch lightning in a bottle and maybe keep things empty for Mark Teixeira a year from now. Jason Giambi is an amazingly productive hitter even batting .250, but that's if he's healthy and you can tolerate his defense, and both criteria haven't been met in some time. You have to hope Joe Girardi feels differently about these things than Joe Torre did. Failing that, a Wilson Betemit/Shelley Duncan platoon might be adequate.


Baseball-Rumors: What are you expectations for this team going into 2008?

Steve Goldman: I think it's going to be a very interesting year, with the young pitchers coming on line. There isn't much of a safety net and the Red Sox are going to continue to be very good... There isn't a whole lot of middle ground given that even if you label this a rebuilding year, because it's the Yankees it will be called a failure if they don't make the playoffs. As such, the youth movement will either succeed gloriously or fail gloriously. Either way, it was the right thing to do.