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Boy, if Cashman could get more control and does stay, that might be the best news of the last few days! Thanks, Steve!

Contrast the off-season in which (if you believe some reports) decisions were divided among Tampa, New York and some hybrid between, and the excellent work of Cashman during the season (forcing Cano and Wang on Torre, Chacon)and then maybe that's why the Boss has warmed to Cash getting more power. Just a hope.

I guess I'm the contrarian in the group. It's not that I don't like Cashman but I am not 100% convinced that he's such a brilliant GM. He's made some great moves. He's also the guy with the fingerprints all over our horrendous middle relief since 2002 as well as other dubious decisions (Lofton in/Lofton out, Womack in, keeping Bernie in CF when there was a good CF market a few years ago, Jeff Weaver, Jaret Wright). We can't continue to blame EVERYTHING on Steinbrenner and the Tampa braintrust.

I'm not advocating that we toss Cashman away because there's no evidence that others could handle the pressure the way he has. Just mentioning that we Yankee fans are too quick to exonerate people we like (Torre, Cashman) in the face of some damning evidence.

I'll duck now before as people line up to throw rotten fruit and vegetables at me.

It's a fair point MJ, and, by no means do I think Cashman is a brilliant GM. I think Steve is right though. The alternatives aren't too appealing. The most frightening rumor, Bowden coming here I saw was posted hear earlier this year. That would be awful. But I tend to think that Cashman takes a pretty intelligent approach to personnel moves. In other words, he seems to rely on statistical analysis in making decisions. Also, based on interviews I've heard with him, he does preach player development and shorter-term contracts. That could all be BS and politicking.

Lofton was a reasonable signing, I wasn't too sure about the trade to Philly. Weaver was a good signing at the time, as was Karsay.

The idea that the Yanks are going to put more emphasis on scouting is a good one. If they ever put the $$ in their minor league operations that they did in their major league operations, they'd be unbeatable

Like I said, I'm convinced that not just anyone could do the job he's done. Cashman's handled himself very well and the fact that the team is still alive and kicking is as much a testament to him as it is to Joe Torre, Steinbrenner's deep pockets, the undying devotion of the fans and all that other good stuff.

The alternatives are probably not good so we stay with Cash. I'm ok with that. I just make my point only because should Cash go somewhere else, I don't think people should expect that much out of him. It's not like he's not without his failings. He's not Al Harazin but he's not Branch Rickey either.

It's not that Lofton was a bad signing, it's just that the logic behind it was reactionary and dubious. If Cashman was tired of seeing shoddy defensive play in center field, there were a number of other CF available, including Mike Cameron. If Cashman was tired of watching the Marlins run on us in the World Series and wanted a speedy player, well, Lofton's speediest days were behind him.

BUT, that said, Lofton wasn't a bad pickup. What made no sense was then playing Bernie over him just about every day and then jettisoning Lofton to Philly and bringing in Womack to play the same exact role with less than half the talent Lofton had. It seemed to be a duplication of the same faulty logic but with worse results.

Anyway, I don't want to bash Cashman because I don't dislike him. I just think that we need to be more objective about him and Steinbrenner. I won't blame Boss every time the bullpen door opens and Wayne Franklin or Alan Embree pops out. That's on Cash to fix.

I think the Lofton signing was a good one. It shows that Cashman clearly recognized Bernie's decline, and wanted to have some sort of contingency (platooning Bernie and Lofton).

For whatever reason, Joe did not play Lofton.
For that reason, Lofton was pretty unhappy and probably not the best clubhouse influence.

Cashman had to make the best of a bad situation. It was clear that Joe was not going to play Lofton, and Lofton was on his way to becoming clubhouse poison.