WHY I'M IN A NEW YORK STATE OF MIND

Since the unpleasant shock of Cliff Lee not coming to New York yesterday, and every Phillies fan acting like a bunch of tools from about 8am until 3pm toward any Yankee fan they saw, I'm starting to come out of my funk. It's going to be alright. So we didn't get Lee, so what. It's great that the Phillies got him and he's not on the Red Sox.

Cashman, at his press conference yesterday took offense to everyone getting on his ass for thinking he doesn't have a plan B, and you know what? I jumped on him too... fact. So I'll back off now and watch him work. Maybe he does have a plan, an ace up his sleeve we don't know about. So far, it been uneventful. A lot of minor league signings of pitchers coming off injury and a deal for a major league catcher coming off a .248 season named Russell martin. Oh, and it continues, Mark Prior just signed a minor league deal with the Yanks. See, progress is slow, not exciting, but slow and yes, we have $161 million to spend now that we didn't spend on Lee, so can we spend some of it please?

First off, for Relief:

• Kerry Wood: Reports are he wants 2 years, $12 million. We love Kerry Wood, plus we already have Former Cubs, Girardi, Mitre, Rothschild and Prior, why not finish off the set. Hell, give him $13 million. We love Kerry Wood.

For Starters:

• Carlos Zambrano: Did I say finish off the set and I didn't include Carlos Zambrano? Look Zambrano may have brought trouble to the Cubs clubhouse with his attitude, but he's still a horse. Now, I don't follow the National League as closely as my buddy Dan, but based on pure appearance, Carlos may be able to bring something to the table. Cashman's eyeing him, and I'm not quite sure what to make of this move yet, so, forgive me, I'll get back to you on this one.



• Freddy Garcia: A safe Free Agent pickup in my opinion. He's on the way back and the Yanks always liked him. The timing however hasn't ever been right. Did Garcia's good years pass him by? I guess the only wat to know is if we pick him up. With the White Sox last year, Garcia was 12-6 with a 4.64 ERA.



• Carl Pavano: um...no


• Felix Hernandez: Not a Free Agent but a trade situation. Can you imagine? Look, I see King Felix in pinstripes. We'd have to give Seattle the farm for him but look, if he won 14 games with that Seattle lineup, can you imagine what he would get with our lineup? Jon Heyman reports that the King has a no-trade clause to the Yankees, but money talks so we shall see.



• Mark Buehrle: The White Sox are listening, and hopefully Cashman's talking. I like this kid. He's a gamer and there's a lot of money in his contract over the next few years but we have a lot of dough to put towards that investment. I say it's worth it, plus we'd have to unload some of our farm system, maybe and outfielder but I tell you what, Buehrle would be a great addition to the New York Yankees. Buehrle had a 13-13 record last year with the Sox.




• Zack Greinke: All indications are the Yanks and Royals are having a dialog and Gardner's name keeps coming up. I like Greinke but not on the Yankees. But what do I know, I'm a blogger. There has been talk about trading for him, or waiting 2 years when he hits the free agent market. What would you do?


• James Shields: I like him, but everyone knows the Rays would never trade him within their own division. Pass.


• Matt Garza: a good number 4 for the Yanks, but a great number 5. Again, Rays are not parting with this guy if it means a trade in the eastern division.
  

The Yanks have choices. It's limited, yes, but there are names and quality out there, it's just going to be interesting how creative they get to get a pitcher for our slim rotation. Let's hope Pettitte comes back first. That's a big one, after that, it's gravy.

Please comment and let me know what you think and follow me on Twitter @BleednYankeeBlu and join the group Bleeding Yankee Blue on Facebook, just type it in.

WHY IT ALL GOES BACK TO SWISH

A lot of trade talk, free agent talk, Jeet talk and Lee talk. And just when you thought we were done talking about the Greinke talk, well... there's Greinke talk again. More specifically, there is alot of talk about trade packages for Greinke... and it's about to heat up.

Look, Rumors this winter have been wrong 80% of the time. First I heard the Yanks had made a $140 million offer to Lee... then, it was not true. Then Nolan Ryans tried to woo Pettitte... Maybe. Or maybe not.

It's the world of blogging and trying to get the story first on the cyber. I have news for you though and it's important I get it off my chest... NO ONE KNOWS ANYTHING. Jon Heyman from SI has had some really great tweets. He's had plenty of bad ones too. You can't fault the guy, he's great at what he does, he's just trying to get the story like everyone else. We all have sources and Bleeding Yankee Blue probably have the fewest, but the ones that I do have are currently knee deep in Greinke and Jeet talk and they're hearing all sorts of wacky things.

Jeter Front: Derek Jeter will probably make between $55 and 60 million for between 3 and 4 years. It will be wrapped up by the weekend, according to my guys. But only if everything continues to go as smooth as it has since this Tuesday after their meeting in Tampa where everything was "positive." Once that's done the Yankees and die-hard Jeter fans can breath a sigh of relief.

Greinke Front: 2 things I'm hearing about this Greinke thing.

1. Zack wants to be part of a winning team, yet he doesn't want to come to New York. So which is it? I don't have that nailed down yet. I'll get back to you.
   
2. This is more disturbing because I'm a Swisher fan. I'm hearing trade scenerios with Swisher's name attached to at least 1 of them. - - Greinke for Swisher and minor league pitching. - - Greinke for Gardner, minor league pitching and player to be named. - - And the 3rd one is Greinke for Jesus Montero. Wait... Wasn't Jesus Montero going to be taking over catching duties for the New York Yankees next year? WOW.
   

I don't like Swisher in any trade package, unless we're getting Swisher in return. Ha Ha. Seriously, My only thinking is if Swisher's name is on the block, the Yankees are looking hard at immediately replacing him with Carl Crawford, an obvious upgrade I understand, but Swish is the man and I'm not going to lie, many of us are attached.

And now for my shamess plug: Join WE WANT NICK SWISHER TO HOST SNL. The dude has a following, there's no denying his popularity. I'm amazed by it.

I know, it's all about winning, and unloading Swish for young great pitching is a good idea, but players like Swisher are a special type player. The energy he provides in the clubhouse is awesome. He hits for power and does what he can in the field. He's Swisher, leave him alone Cash.

If I get more info for my guys, I'll fill you in, but something's about to happen and let's hope it doesn't include Swisher.

Please comment and let me know what you think and follow me on Twitter @BleednYankeeBlu and join the group Bleeding Yankee Blue on Facebook, just type it in.