You Too Can Write For Foxsports.com

What The . . . ?

I happened to read a column by Ken Rosenthal today. Rosenthal is a senior writer (ooooo!) for foxsports.com, and you may have seen/heard his stands reports during Fox Saturday telecasts.

The column I read today had as its central theme that the Yankees should trade Philip Hughes to Texas for Mark Teixiera.

Along the way Rosenthal makes some observations that are so wrong, so egregiously wrong, that I can't let them them pass without comment.

His basic premise is that we should trade Hughes because, well, prospects don't always pan out, and the Yankees need Teixiera.

Um, Ken, have you been paying any attention to the Yankees the last month or so? Offense at first base wasn't this team's problem, and certainly isn't now. The Yankees have cut Boston's lead significantly and are right there for the wild card with basically no offensive contribution from first base. And going forward they don't need other than what Cairo will give them.

And while prospects, especially pitching prospects don't always pan out, can't we Yankee fans please have a couple of starters under the age of 36 for a change? And, more importantly, so far everything points to Hughes actually being that good.

Rostenthal floats the possibility that Hughes is overrated, based on . . . get this, a comment from a rival GM! Wow, Ken, way to dig for those unbiased sources! This "rival GM," who of course has no interest in driving Hughes' value down, said that Hughes is "only a number 3 or 4 starter." No assessment like that from any scout, or anyone with no axe to grind in either direction. Fascinating.

And since this one of those cutesy "pile on the Yankees without making it look like that's what I'm doing" sort of columns, Rosenthal makes the claim that the Red Sox have done a "much better" job of bringing along home grown talent, and cites as evidence Youklis, Pedroia, Papelbon, and Lester.

Where do I begin? OK, Cano is markedly better than Pedroia. I'll give you Youklis over Melky, but not by that much, especially since Melky can play center field. Lester? can Lester actually do something before we proclaim him any good? And as for Papelbon, he's been an outstanding closer so far, but, more than likely he will still end up a starter, and if he doens't he can't close on successive nights, severely limiting his potential impact. And who exactly was the Red Sox homegrown closer before Papelbon? So, if you want to say Papelbon you have to say Mariano. Oops!

What the Yankees need to do is resist, with all the will they can muster, the urge to get a "name" first baseman and to hold on to some of these prospects nutil at least we know what we have. Want to trade Eric Duncan? By all means do so -- he's had time to blossom and it hasn't happened. (And I'd be the first to admit the Yankees have held onto Duncan too long already.) Don't trade Philip Hughes. Not yet.

I'd hate to read Foxsports.com's "junior" writers.