If they don't make the playoffs this year, especially if Johan gets the Mets to the playoffs and/or wins a Cy Young and/or 20 games, Cashman is gone. If he doesn't win a World Series in 2008 or 2009 and they don't have an ace pitcher that makes it likely that they will win one in the near future, Cashman is gone.

It will be interesting to see what happens in the Yankee front office if Hughes and Kennedy flop and the Yankees miss the playoffs.

Anyway, I've agreed with you all along that Humber seems like a good candidate for the bullpen. They probably figure he doesn't have good enough control to go deep into games as a starter. (Which is probably true.)

Lightning already struck once: in 2006. No reason to believe it will happen again.

It's that power potential that makes the rampant bunting so maddening. I don't see Gomez hitting 40 HR a year, but 20 or 25 is definitely possible, and with his speed he could stretch a lot of singles into doubles and doubles into triples. I'd sure like to see Rod Carew make Gomez a personal project and work with him extensively, a la Tony Gwynn and Jacques Jones (only with much better results).

Fixed that for you, E-6

I would have been in favor of something like:

- Santana for Hughes/Cabrera/something
- Sign Mike Cameron for a year + option year, roughly
- Sign Adam Everett and move JB to 2B (Yeah, I know, they've both been awful at the plate so far this year, but I do like my defense, and hopefully Everett looks better with a healthy shoulder. Plus, I just didn't see any particular long-term 2B/SS solutions that would have really been worth going after. This way, you at least have flexibility going forward.)
- Try to flip some of the midlevel pitching (on the order of Glen Perkins) for a decent but unspectacular 3B.
- See how things shake out in '08 and hopefully a couple of shrewd moves in the '08 offseason could put the '09 team in contention

It's hard to get hitting up-the-middle, and that's where this organization lacks hitting the most. (Other than third base. Which has been a ridiculous pile of suck since Koskie left.) But Cameron/Cabrera/3B could well be a significant upgrade over Gomez/Young/Lamb for the next couple of years. Since it's going to be hard to overhaul this into a team that scores a lot of runs overnight, I thought it would be better to embrace my inner 1969, and do what I could to build the team around pitching and defense. You get the same trophy for winning 3-2 games as you do for winning 5-4 games. (My thought process, in essence, being: it's easier to make lemonade from lemons than it is to make orange juice from lemons.)

With the way things actually went down, I think that by the time Delmon and Gomez really get it going (if they get it going--they seem light years away from where they are "supposed" to be) Cuddyer will have seen his best seasons, and for one reason or another, Mauer or Morneau might wind up past his peak, too. It's just so hard to count on things 4-5 years down the line.

I did have the thought "glad we didn't trade for Hughes!" but there are plenty of question marks around the pitchers we did get.