And our misleading headline of the day award goes to...John Harper, for this little number: Scouts say Yankees should have traded for Johan Santana (and I followed a link to get there that read: Scouts down on Yankess' young arms, which is equally as misleading).
Going in, I expected to read about how scouts were skeptical of the future potential of the young guys and about how they will probably never be successful enough to lead the Yanks to championships. Instead, I found that Harper polled 6 scouts and executives, and 4 of them said they think the Yanks will miss the playoffs this year. The consensus seemed to be, however, that their future is extremely bright given all the young talent. To wit:
Each of the six polled made a point of saying they were impressed by the way the young trio performed in spring training, yet four of the six said they believe the Yankees indeed will miss the playoffs in 2008, citing the inevitable growing pains as well as questions about the rest of the pitching staff.
"I love their future," was the way one scout put it. "But if you think those young guys aren't going to take their lumps at times this season against American League lineups, you're dreaming."The pollees are in no way down on the Yankees' young arms and don't seem to be saying the team should have traded some away for Santana. They just think that they will take some lumps this year and that the team may miss the playoffs as a result, a perfectly reasonable belief. However, the presence of a bright future means, to me at least, that the team made the right decision in not trading for Johan. In a few years, we'll probably all be glad that the Yanks kept the kids while they're dominating and Santana is breaking down.
Also, forgive me for not respecting the opinion of unnamed executives and scouts. Particularly with the executives, it's quite possible they don't know what they're talking about.
Enough of that. It's opening day. Baseball is back, baby!
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