As expected, the Yankees officially exercised Sheff's option today. They are expected to trade him.
The NY Daily News thinks the Yankees will trade Sheff for pitching:
As for trading for top-of-rotation starters, it's not going to be easy since nobody is inclined to deal other than the White Sox, whose starters are all tainted by last year's declines in efficiency. One of the reasons the Yankees have backed off from entertaining ideas of trading Alex Rodriguez is word out of Anaheim that the Angels are no longer willing to trade No. 2 starter Ervin Santana.
But Cashman has at his disposal a prime trading chip in Gary Sheffield, for whom he'd ideally like to get back a young pitcher - such as he did a couple of years ago when he sent Robin Ventura back home to the Dodgers in return for two prospects considered marginal by L.A. that turned out to be Scott Proctor and Bubba Crosby.
I loved Ventura, but I must say, that was a great trade for the Yankees, even if Proctor and Crosby never play another inning for the Yanks.
And on Friday, the NTSB issued a preliminary
report on the Cory Lidle plane crash. They think the accident was caused by the combination of the narrow space in which to make the turn, starting the turn from the middle of the river instead of the far bank, and a light wind, which blew the plane several hundred feet closer to the bank than it might otherwise have traveled. Three small things that added up to a fatal tragedy.
I'm reminded of a poster that was on the wall when I was in the Air Force. It said:
Aviation in itself is not inherently dangerous. But to an even greater degree than the sea, it is terribly unforgiving of any carelessness, incapacity or neglect.
