The Off-Season

How appropriate a title for baseball's "other" season, according to The Hardball Times contributor and Yankee-fan Larry Mahnken. Here is an excerpt from his latest piece, commenting on the on-again, off-again, on-again Randy Johnson trade and the possibility that the Yanks will pass on Carlos Beltran:

Oh, sure, [the Yankees] had a problem in the rotation; it was old, it was fragile, and Javier Vazquez, Jose Contreras and Esteban Loaiza had regressed severely from the previous season. They'd absolutely have to take care of that, so they traded for 41-year-old Randy Johnson and signed Jaret Wright (who had averaged 39 innings over the previous four seasons and has a career ERA of 5.09) and Carl Pavano (and his 4.21 career ERA). Just for good measure, they let their two most valuable starters from the previous season, Jon Lieber and Orlando Hernandez, walk as free agents. Brilliant! The departing trio would cost $22.5 million in 2005 to the newcomers' $33 million, but hey, nice things cost money.

On the other side of Connecticut, it looks like Derek Lowe may be heading to the Dodgers (or the ill-named Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim) and Byung-Yun Kim may move to Colorado.