We’re back after a week hiatus to bring you the another edition of The RAB Radio Show. Mike and I kick back and talk about the Yankees situation and the hot stove season. What more appropriate place to start than with the arbitration situation?
This caused a stir earlier in the week, with many chastising Cashman and Co. for not offering arbitration to Abreu, Pettitte, and Pudge. There were a couple of external factors playing into this as well. First, it had been over a week since we had something to argue about, so clearly people were ready to chime in. Second, we were basically expecting them to offer arb to at least Abreu, so when they announced they didn’t it came as a shock.
Reflecting on it, it’s not a black and white decision. Both sides have valid cases, I think, but ultimately the Yanks are going to make the move that best fits their overall strategy. It’ll be tough to tell whether this works out or not, but if the Yanks make a haul over the next few weeks I think everyone will be satisfied.
Then we’re onto the hot stove, where a few things have happened in the past day or so. Last night we discussed two shortstop transactions, Edgar Renteria signing with the Giants and the Padres dishing Khalil Greene to the Cardinals. Turns out Renteria’s getting $18.5 million over two years, which seems a bit steep for a guy as inconsistent as he’s been. The Giants could win out on this, though. Mike doesn’t think it has any bearing whatsoever on their ability/willingness to sign CC Sabathia.
Another shortstop appeared to be on the move, Jack Wilson to the Tigers, which we talked about a bit. Turns out that’s false. Oops. As I’ve mentioned before, reporters seem to be jumping the gun this off-season. The trade could certainly still go down, though. Not that Jack Wilson is much of a haul, especially with his contract.
We take some Q & A, though we didn’t get many questions. We did hit on a new Ken Rosenthal column, wherein he discusses a resurrection of the Cano for Matt Kemp trade, as well as the Yanks potential interest in Oliver Perez and Randy Wolf. I’m figuring that last part was just filler — not that I think the Cano rumor has any legs.
Oh yeah, and we’re going to the Winter Meetings. Should be a good time. Anyone who’s going to be out there for any reason should drop us a line. We like drinks, and we like our readers. Those two have to fit together somewhere. We’ll be podcasting all week.
The podcast is available in a number of formats. You can download it here by right clicking on that link and selecting Save As. If you want to play it in your browser, just left click the link. It’s a .m4a file this week, meaning it’s a bookmarkable file. If you hit stop, you can pick up where you left off (which is good for a podcast this length). You can also subscribe to the podcast feed, which will send it to you every Thursday. You can also subscribe in iTunes. Finally, we have the embedded audio player below.
[audio:http://riveraveblues.com/podcasts/RABRadioShow120408.mp3]We appreciate any feedback. You can leave it in the comments or email either of us.
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