Teixeira And Manny On Yanks Radar?

According to George King of the NY Post, the Yankees are planning on going after Mark Teixeira and Manny Ramirez. King's article is based on information he received from "several baseball officials." Back on November 18th, George King reported that the Yankees were preparing an offer to A.J. Burnett for about 5 years and $80 million bucks. His source for that story was "several industry insiders." I blogged about his November article when it was originally posted. Here's what I had to say:

And who exactly are "industry insiders?" That seems like an odd term to use. Wouldn't it have to be either someone with the Yankees if the offer hasn't been made yet? How would anyone else know? It just seems a little odd and I can't get it to add up........ And I still don't buy George King's story. Something about it just smells kind of funny.

As it turns out, George King and his "industry insiders" were dead on about the offer to Burnett. Maybe George has some pretty reliable sources. Here's what those "sources" have to say this time:

According to several baseball officials, the Yankees remain in the Mark Teixeira hunt. But the same connected voices insist if the Yankees don't land the switch-hitting first baseman, they will turn their money toward controversial slugger Manny Ramirez. "If they can't get Teixeira, they are right there on Manny," an official with knowledge of the Yankees' plan said yesterday.

Seems plausible. Every Yankee fan from here to Bangladesh knows that the Yankees need to add a big bat to the lineup. It's been discussed here several times. I like to think I have my finger on the pulse of the average Yankee fan and I'm pretty sure that we'd all want Teixeira over Manny. I know I sure do. He's younger, a switch hitter, a first baseman, he'll cost about the same if not less, he'd be around longer, he won't go to the Red Sox, and you don't have to worry about him flaking out on you. He's better suited for the Yankees.

I'm going to choose to believe George King this time. I questioned him last time and he ended up being right. Maybe my judgement was more clouded last time because I really didn't want them offering that to A.J. Burnett. I totally want the Yankees to make an all-out blitz for Mark Teixeira. I think they'd be fools not too. Teixeira said a few weeks back that he wanted to know where he'd be next year by Christmas, which is 11 days from now. We likely won't have to wait long to see just how interested the Yankees really are. I hope we find out that we're very interested.

And I still want to know the definition of "industry insiders" and "baseball officials." Anybody know?

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

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