Patrick O’Keefe

I want to focus on the playoffs, but since there are news pieces coming out about it, I thought I’d talk about it.

Sammy Sosa in a Yankees uniform. What do I think?

First, assuming we fail to get Beltran, I think I like it. Forget getting older, this guy is being chastised for averaging a .260ish average with 35ish home runs and 90ish RBIs. Three words: I’ll take it! I have watched Sammy only in limited action as I am a Yankees fan, but when I have watched him, I’ve generally liked him. He seems like he plays hard and he’d be a good Yankee.

I have a couple of issues with this. First, I don’t want to give much up, especially youth.

Second, there has to be a spot for him. I like Matsui, I like Sheff. I wouldn’t want Sosa over them. If Bernie wants to play next year - I want him to play and I want him to start. So, what are the possible configurations assuming he does?

Well, Sheff can play RF or LF. He’s had a good amount of time in left.

Corner OFs can play both corners, typically, I’d say… so both Matsui and Sosa could play LF and RF, as well. But, I think Matsui could play some CF where he played 46 games last year.

Bernie could hypothetically play any outfield position. I have also thought before that Bernie could make the move to 1B, since he is a good fielder - the shorter coverage area would allow him to take advantage of that. However, we do have Giambi coming back.

Any of them could DH, obviously, but Matsui is a pretty smart fielder, so he should always be out there.

We dump Lofton.

So, let’s just stick Giambi at 1B. Bernie, Sosa, Sheff and Matsui could them rotate various spots. Is this bad? Maybe, maybe people can’t get in a “groove”. Bernie could be the main CF with Matsui playing part of the time and Bernie heading to DH. Sosa and Sheff would them rotate between DH and the remaining OF spots (both out there if Bernie is DHing that day).

Would it be worth the trouble? It could be. Like I said above, I suppose this really would only be interesting if we failed to get Beltran. What would the lineup be?

1. SS Jeter
2. 3B Rodriguez
3. RF Sheffield
4. DH Sosa
5. LF Matsui
6. C Posada
7. 1B Giambi
8. CF Bernie
9. 2B ?

What if we traded for Soriano? lol. What if we had Beltran and Soriano in the same lineup with the rest and Bernie at DH?

I am gonna stop talking now because I am starting to drool.

Is this worth sharing?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 6th, 2004 at 12:23 pm and is filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.