Hot Stove Letter to Iraq

Nov. 21, 2008

Dear Solie,

Well, it has finally turned cold here.  Had a hard freeze two nights ago that killed the last of the flowers.  And we had some snow flurries last night.   Guess it’s about time for some cold with Thanksgiving just a week away. 

Sure won’t be the same this year with you so far away, but we’ll be thinking of you and set aside one drumstick in your honor.

I guess from what I read it’s probably pretty cold over there where you are, too.  It’s hard to believe it can be so hot there in the summer time and get as cold as they say it does in the winter.  Try to stay warm and safe.

Granny got down some of the Christmas stuff out of the attic and has been putting up a little at a time as she feels like it.  But I think I can tell she’s pretty sad knowing you’re not gonna be here this year.

Well, enough about that kinda stuff.  I know what you probably wanna hear about and even though I know you get the internet over there and cable tv, I guess you can’t get the YES network and can’t see the hot stove stuff like we do here.

I watched Bob Lorenz on the hot stove show last night.  He had Jack Curry from the New York Times and Bob Klapisch of The Record on with him.  And they brought on Brian Cashman to talk about what’s going on.

Cashman wouldn’t really tell them nothing.  He was about as closed up as anybody you can imagine.  He wouldn’t even admit that they had made an offer to Sabathia, but I guess you’ve already heard about that.

Cashman actually talked about Damon being the centerfielder as of now.  That just can’t seem right to me.  I know from what you said about him before you left to go over there that you didn’t think they would ever rely on Damon in the outfield any more.  But that is what they are saying right now.  And the two newspaper men said they didn’t think Damon could possibly play as much as 120 games in the outfield.

And for the second straight week, nobody even mentioned Melky Cabrera.  I guess he's just off everybody’s radar for now. 

Klapisch did say that Gardner was never going to be the centerfielder on a full-time basis.  He even made some comment about Gardner being like Bubba Crosby, that there was just no way he’d ever be a regular in center.

Cashman says Nick Swisher is the first baseman.  But the other guys didn’t believe it.  Everybody on there said there had to be another plan and that Swisher would just be a utility man or play a corner outfield spot.  All the talk was that the Yanks just have too much money and that eventually they would go out and get Mark Teixeira to play first. 

They talked a little bit about whether they would just hold first open in case Posada can’t catch or in 2010 they need to put him at first.  But the general thought was that by 2010 with Matsui and Damon both gone, Posada would be the full-time DH.

I just don’t know.  He’s older and except for '07 he never did put up the kinda numbers you’d want out of your DH.  I guess all that will just have to wait.  But I can’t see him catching full time.  I guess Molina is gonna be the best we get behind the plate.

Everybody on the show seemed to think it was almost a sure thing that they’ll get Sabathia sooner or later.  And there was a lot of talk about AJ Burnett coming too or maybe Derek Lowe. 

They seemed to think the Red Sox were just stirring stuff up talking about signing Burnett and going after Teixeira.  I even saw something about that on one of the Boston shows this week.  One guy used the term that the Red Sox were just "peeing in the pool," meaning they didn’t really intend to go after those players, just mess with the Yankees.

One good thing was that Curry said Phil Hughes has really been good in Arizona in the fall league.  That was interesting because I had heard just the opposite.  So I called Jimmy who can check that stuff on the internet and he said Hughes really is pitching pretty good out there.  He’s won two games and has struck out 38 hitters in 30 innings.  So that sounds pretty good.

Of course you heard that Moose quit.  I guess I’m sorta mixed on that.  But it was classy.  He mighta been able to help the Yanks again next year, but then he mighta fallen on his face too.  I guess for the next five years we’ll be hearing about whether he’ll make the Hall of Fame or not.  That’s gonna be interesting because so many good pitchers are gonna be eligible about the same time.

That may make it easier to make a decision on Pettite, but they’ll probably wait and see what happens with all these free agents.  And that’s all we can really do, ain’t it, is wait and see.

Well, I better finish this up so I can get it in the mail. By the time you get it, you’ll probably know a lot more than I’ve told you here. 

I know you’ve only been over there a few months, but it seems like a lot longer.  There’s some talk here that with the new President, you may get to come home sooner than we thought.  I guess there’s still a job to do over there, but we all wish you were home. 

Well, you take care of yourself and try to get some turkey next week.

All our love,

Papaw