Welcome to the Bronx Austin Kearns and Lance Berkman

Past trade deadlines for the Yankees have produced sub-par trades. I mean if you consider Kyle Farnsworth for Ivan Rodriguez a big deal than i guess not, but the last big impact player the Yanks acquired at the deadline that I can think of is Bobby Abreu (great deal). Yesterday the Yanks acquired two players that improve the team, Lance Berkman and Austin Kearns coming to the Bronx in separate deals.

Lance Berkman is the bigger name of the two, being a five time all star and known for his hitting ability. Due to his 10 and 5 rights (10 years in the league, 5 with the same team) Berkman had the right to veto any trade. Berkman turned down a trade to the White Sox and after that Brian Cashman was all over him. Cashman offered Mark Melancon and a prospect for "The big puma", who agreed to the trade. I think that it is a great trade for the Yanks, early reports are that the Astros will eat four million of Berkman's 7.5 million contract. Berkman can play first base and play the corner outfield spots, although he will see most of his time at DH. What I love the most about Berkman is that this year he is having a "down" year yet has an OBP of .372 and has 13 homers and 49 RBI. The only thing that worries me is that with Jorge Posada struggling to stay behind the plate, Posada will need to share the time at DH, possibly moving Berkman to the bench or outfield. With the move the Yanks can send Juan Miranda back to AAA Scranton.

With the addition of Berkman the line up could possibly look like this :
Jeter
Swisher

Tex

A-Rod

Cano

Berkman

Posada

Granderson

Gardner

You could always switch Berkman and Posada depending on who's hitting better.

The other deal the Yankees made that was over shadowed by Berkman was adding Austin Kearns to be a role/bench player. This season with Cleveland, Kearns was having a nice season hitting .272  with 42 RBI along with playing spectacular defense. When Kearns was told the news that he was going to the Yankees he said that playing time didn't matter to him with a team like the Yankees. You gotta love a player like that right away, it says something about Kearns, a free agent after this season, that he isn't worried about his next contract and his stats but more importantly helping the team win. The Yanks can now send down Colin Curtis who played decent in his time up and was a fan favorite, but the Yanks don't need him if they have Kearns.

Marcus Thames most likely will lose some playing time now that Berkman and Kearns are here but that's not a huge loss. Granderson may lose a bit of playing time against lefties since Kearns and Thames hit them well, most of all it strengthens the bench. For Kearns the Yanks gave up nothing just cash and a player to be named later.

The Yankees made two big moves that really helped the club out, the trade deadline isn't done just yet so more help could be on the way. The bombers could use some help in the bullpen so maybe a small move may be made there to help the club. If the Yanks don't make another move I wouldn't be upset they have already made two good trades. Now if they could just get rid of Chan Ho Park....

Yankee All Star happenings: Rivera Hurt and withdraws, Cano in HR derby

Today the home run derby contestants were announced, one of those participants will be the Yanks own Robinson Cano. While if this was 10 years ago i would have been delighted that a Yankee was part of the derby. But nowadays I want the Yanks to have nothing to do with the derby, the home run derby is know to have messed with the swing of many of the participants. Two past HR derby participants that struggled to regain there swing following the home run hitting contest, is Bobby Abreu and David Wright. Both batters are similar to Cano, they would hit for power but at the same time they were both more of  line drive hitters.

When Bobby Abreu was part of the home run derby in 2005, he put on a show hitting a record 24 homers in his first round. Abreu would win the event by hitting a total of 41 dingers, that season before he took part, he had hit 18 home runs and was hitting .307. Following his 41 exhibition homers he hit just .260 and only six home runs. Prior to 2005 Abreu's lowest home run output in an entire season was 20, since then his highest total has been 20.

The other example is cross town rival David Wright, in 2006 he was having an MVP caliber first half and was named to the All Star team. Wright also participated in the derby that season and in the first round hit 16 home runs. Wright would hit a grand total of 22 and would lose to Ryan Howard. That season before the derby Wright hit 20 home runs and drive in 74 runs, after the derby he hit just 6 home runs and drove in only 42 runs.

So as you can tell I am not a fan of Cano taking part in the HR derby, especially since i would consider Wright and Abreu hitters who are similar to Cano. All three are more of the line drive, gap hitting type. Cano is having such a good season and such a smooth swing that the Yankees could not afford for him to slow down and have his swing tinkered with. Cano in the past was known for getting into bad habits such as chasing pitches out of the zone, he has since taken a more pitches and doesn't chase as often.

The other news of the evening is that Mariano Rivera has pulled out of the All Star game due to injuries. Rivera had said prior to Tuesdays game against the A's in Oakland that he would not take part in the mid summer classic due to a left side injury and a knee injury. Mo will be available to pitch for the Yankees before the break, but is limited to one inning. This is a mature move by Mo to rest and help his team rather then aggravate the injuries worse.