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March 30, 2006

The Roster Is Set

I sort of called it. From the Times:

The Yankees' 25-man roster is set for Monday's opener at Oakland, with Scott Proctor winning the final spot on the pitching staff and Wil Nieves earning a spot as a third-string catcher. "It's a little boring right now," Manager Joe Torre said. "Everybody is ready to start the season." ...

The call to keep Nieves is sofa-king-we-todd-ed. He's not going to help in any way. They might as well play with twenty-four.

Posted by Steve Lombardi at March 30, 2006 02:07 PM

Comments

Who's call is this - Joe's or Cashman's?

Posted by: MJ [TypeKey Profile Page] at March 30, 2006 02:23 PM

Good question. I'm guessing Cashman.

Posted by: Steve Lombardi [TypeKey Profile Page] at March 30, 2006 03:01 PM

I am so confused. Sometimes Cashman uses progressive thinking and rolls the dice and sometimes he is more conservative than GM's from the 1930's.

Posted by: MJ [TypeKey Profile Page] at March 30, 2006 03:35 PM

I think it's the fact that they have ZERO catchers in the system being near MLB ready is the driver here.

Posted by: Steve Lombardi [TypeKey Profile Page] at March 30, 2006 04:13 PM

Most of the guys that Torre is leaving on the roster are out of options, correct? That's my guess as to why Bubba got chosen, and why Nieves is still around. They don't want to risk putting them through waivers. My guess is if Bubba plays poorly and one of the minor leaguers plays well, Bubba will get waived, and someone called up. Who else is out of options?

Posted by: Rich [TypeKey Profile Page] at March 30, 2006 06:00 PM

If Posada's eye doesn't heal for several months, then the Yankees will be glad they kept 2 more catchers. Seems like an unlikely contingency, though.

Posted by: David [TypeKey Profile Page] at March 30, 2006 06:13 PM

I wonder if Stinnett isn't impressing in ST, and this gives them a couple more weeks to decide if he's worth the bother or not.
Michael Tucker is available. OK, I don't think he's that good at this point, but I've always had a soft spot for him since he played for the Omaha Royals and signed tons of autographs before every game. He was a class act back then.

Posted by: JeremyM [TypeKey Profile Page] at March 31, 2006 12:07 AM

Steve, how can you blame Cashman for the putrid benches and moronic roster choices made by Torre? Everyone and their sister has been extolling the play of Reese and Thompson (to name only 2 of the "young turks" Joe has lavished praise on this Spring...it's in every quote he's made since the end of February)and Cashman of all people has to realize that Bubba and Nieves having no options left is not sufficient reason to undermine the structure of the team. Only Torre in his cracked view of life would think that a pair of 29 year old never-wases deserve some sort of "respect" while we're trying to win a friggin' championship.

Posted by: JohnnyC [TypeKey Profile Page] at March 31, 2006 01:00 AM

JohnnyC, I STILL don't understand your recurring theme of Torre-bashing. If you're saying that Torre, not Cashman, sets the roster then you may as well condemn Cashman too for being such a weak GM that he can't impose upon his manager the need for more flexibility at the end of the bench. After all, if Cashman is so powerless, then how did Cano and Wang make it up to NY last May when "everyone" knows that Torre didn't want them?

Posted by: MJ [TypeKey Profile Page] at March 31, 2006 09:51 AM