Nick Swisher

General Manager Brian Cashman's answer to all the Yankees problems? A 27 year old journeyman named Nick Swisher who owns a bat made of used 2x4s held together by duct tape and twine, named Thunderbolt, which he carries around in a guitar case, for inspiration. A career .244 hitter, with almost no speed or defensive capabilities, Swisher relies on the occasional long ball and a decent sense of plate discipline to keep a spot on a big league roster. Unfortunately, the Yankees already have a bunch of guys exactly like him, which is why this move puzzles me so much. They want a guy who is kind of big and sweaty like Giambi, but they dont want to have to pay $20M a year.

Personally, I think they should have traded for more pitching, and tried to focus the team on defense and contact hitting - which is what won them 4 World Series in a row. None of the players on the 1998 team that went 114-48, scoring 965 runs in the process, had over 28 home runs. They were all hard nosed, situational hitting, glove flashing, make you pay for your mistake position players, 3 lights out starting pitchers, 2 money in the bank relief pitchers, and couple solid guys like Darryl Strawberry off the bench. Thats the proven formula. If the Yankees want to get back to winning in the playoffs, they need to sign players who fit the mold which produced one of the best teams in the 100+ year history of baseball.