Cuban Sensation: Aroldis Chapman

Aroldis Chapman is a 21 year old pitcher from Cuba who successfully defected from Cuba while in the Netherlands this past July while pitching for the Cuban National team.  Word from scouts is that his fastball has been clocked as high as 102 MPH during the 2009 World Baseball Classic.  Not sure how accurate that figure is, but he can bring the heat to say the least.  So now he stands to get a pretty decent contract despite the fact he has no big league experience.  Anthony McCarron of the New York Daily News thinks that the Yankees will have the inside track to land Chapman.  The one advantage is the Yankees can eat up their mistakes and are one of a few teams who can afford to give Champman a 4 year 20 million dollar contract, which is what it appears he is shooting for.

The Yankees are no strangers to pitchers defecting from Cuba.  They landed Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez back in 1998 and he made his debut with the club in June of that year.  El Duque became one of baseballs best big game pitchers, winning his first 8 postseason starts.  He may have also saved the 1998 season for the New York Yankees in Game 4 of the ALCS against the Cleveland Indians.  El Duque delivered 7 shutout innings to help the Yankees tie the series and eventually go on to win the World Series and go down as one of the best teams in baseball history, boasting 125 wins including the postseason.

Christmas Eve of 2002 brought another hot Cuban commodity to the Yankees.  Jose Contreras defected and the Yankees and Red Sox fought it out over his services.  Theo Epstein wanted him so badly that he purchased every room at the hotel where Contreras was staying at in Nicaragua, to try and keep the Yankee brass as far away from him as possible.  The move failed and the Yankees still ended up landing Contreras.  Epstein was said to be so irate that he hurled a chair through his window in his hotel room. Though Contreras didn't succeed in New York, he did help the Chicago White Sox win the World Series in 2005, their 1st since 1917. 

Expect the Yankees and Red Sox to be the two teams most involved in the Chapman sweepstakes.  Keep the chairs away from Theo if the Yankees beat him to the punch again. 

By Vinnie Ferrarini

Red Sox, Yankees and Angels for Holliday

Truth be told I'm not the biggest Matt Holliday fan. He has spent his career in the NL playing in the hitter haven known as Coors Field for the Rockies. He than came to the American League and spent a little over half a season with the Oakland A's. In 93 games he only hit 11 HRs and it started to look like he was going to struggle to even get to 20 HRs and 100 RBI, all of a sudden on came his deal to the Cardinals. He spent 63 games with St. Louis where he hit 13 HRs and drove in 55 Runs and hit a robust .353, 67 points higher than he hit in Oakland. So when you look at his overall numbers from 2009, they look good. I for whatever reason still remember that guy struggling in Oakland; especially the first couple of months of the season. I was doing the I told you so, and spouting off at the mouth about how much Colorado and a weaker NL made Holliday better than he actually was.

So now into the offseason rumors have it he wants Mark Teixeira money, which is not going to happen. However, it does look like he will be one of the most coveted bats out on the market and the race has apparently come down to three teams according to John Paul Morosi of Fox Sports. It's going to come down to the Angels, Red Sox and Yankees. I'm not so sure how much interest the Yankees do have, but it would be pretty interesting seeing him in that lineup and then if you also bring back either Matsui or Damon to go along with him, that lineup gets even more impressive. I really think it's just one of those deals where the Yankees are said to have interest because hey, they are the Yankees. Plus they'd love to simply drive up the price on Holliday for the Red Sox.

I personally still see him ending up back in the NL, but I'm torn on how good of a fit it would be in New York with the Yankees, but on paper especially if you also bring back Damon or Matsui, that lineup would be looking pretty fat if it wasn't already robust enough.