I never knew that he idolized Mattingly.  And you see people kick Mattingly to the curb?  He’s got tremendous street credibility among active players.  Anyway, that’s a different story.   But you’re right it all makes sense.  If he idolized Mattingly – why would he ever play for the Red Sox?  And, if Cashman knew that - he could have told Teixeira early in the process: “Look, we’ll be there at the end, we have a need at the position, field some offers and then come back to us and we’ll see if we can work something out.”  What I like about how the Yankees go about things is this: They respect players.  The Yankees figure out what the market value is for a player and they never insult the player.  The Yankees are willing to pay market value (sometimes over if there’s a glaring need like Sabathia) but for the most part – it’s all around market value.  They don’t “low ball” guys.  They obviously overpaid for Sabathia but they figured they really needed him.   This is how the system works.  Players gained free agency to decide where they want to play.  Teixeria just wanted to play in NY and be paid market value.  The Yankees obliged.  I don’t see anything wrong with any of this. 

Congratulations to Cashman and his staff.  Excellent work.  Now, the Red Sox are boxed in – because they ain’t going back to the Manny well.  They are still a formidable opponent and I would expect them to go after a pitcher now via trade.  The Yankees have to clear somebody out so the job gets a little harder now because Matsui makes $13 mill, Nady is marketable because he makes much less but he’s the guy you’d probably prefer to hang onto. 

The other thing I would read into this, and obviously we don’t have access to the reports, is Posada.  Perhaps the Yankees are very encouraged about Posada’s ability to catch and those reports on his arm.  Last I heard he was playing catch and doing so freely and without pain.  If Posada returns, this lineup makes sense.