The Dbacks are IDIOTS

Jeff Moorad and Joe Garagiola, Jr. are idiots. After letting Boston steal Curt Schilling from them (though that was Colangelo) over the winter last year, they've rejected a premium offer from the Yankees for Randy Johnson. Lingering effects of departed Jerry Colangelo's hate for the Yanks? Maybe. But when you lose 111 games and get a superb package for a 41 year old pitcher, you lunge with both paws.

From the NYT:

But the Yankees did respond, asking Arizona to consider a deal for Vazquez, the left-handers Alex Graman and Brad Halsey, the Class A left-hander Abel Gomez and a significant portion of the $19.5 million, believed to be $12 million to $13 million.

The Diamondbacks rejected that offer and told the Yankees they would do only one of two deals: Vazquez, $19.5 million, Gordon and Halsey, or Vazquez, $19.5 million, three or four prospects and a pitcher from the original list of 10.

[The 10 are: Jeremy Bonderman of Detroit; A. J. Burnett of Florida; Shawn Chacon and Jason Jennings of Colorado; Tim Hudson and Barry Zito of Oakland; Edwin Jackson of Los Angeles; Scott Kazmir of Tampa Bay; Ted Lilly of Toronto; and Kenny Rogers of Texas. The Yanks would have to acquire one in a trade.]

Halsey could be a very decent lefty in the majors. Graman probably needs a bit more work. Vazquez is 28 and had one bad half-season. The Yankees thankfully broke of talks.

Idiots, a highly paid 41 year old pitcher, though dominant is only really attractive to a handful of teams in contention. Are any of those handful going to better the Yanks' offer??

The Yanks should try very hard to sign Pavano and Leiter, keep Vasquez and try to work a trade with Atlanta - Kevin Brown + money for Andruw Jones and save 100+ million on Carlos Beltran whose numbers are slightly though not overwhelmingly better than Jones.