Speculation: Jack Cust next Yankees’ DH?

The Athletics are non-tendering RF/DH Jack Cust. Why should you care? Because this guy has serious power and I think he could be a good fit for the Yankees as a DH or bench player (to replace Eric Hinske).

He’s been fairly consistent over his last three years batting in the middle of the Athletics’ lineup. Here are his averages:

G	AB	2B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	AVG	OBP	SLG
140	572	18	28	83	103	182!	.241	.378	.462

Please, notice the exclamation mark after his strikeout average. He’s led the American League in strikeouts in each of the last three years. But, along with all of those strikeouts comes a lot of walks. He led the league in 2008 with 111 free passes.

He reminds me a little of Nick Swisher, but with more strikeouts and more home runs. Thoughts?

Fans call Sabathia MVA (Most Valuable Add)

The fans have spoken.

In my latest poll, CC Sabathia was named the most important addition to the Yankees last winter.

I have no quarrels with these results. Perhaps maybe a few more votes to Mark Teixeira. The guy came in second for the MVP of the league and batted third in the World Series champions’ lineup.

Next poll: What area does Cashman need to focus on next?

There’s two ‘N’s in Jamie Hoffmann!

I’ve been misspelling Jamie Hoffmann’s name ever since the Yankees picked him up, spelling his last name like the closer Trevor Hoffman would.

My mistake, Jamie. I’ve just never heard of a Hoffmann with two ‘N’s before!

Wang: To tender, or not to tender

The deadline to tender contracts to players is Saturday. The forgotten Chien-Ming Wang must be offered a contract of at least 80 percent of his $5 million he earned last season ($4MM).

So, should the Yankees give this guy another shot? It’s really a tossup. Here’s a guy who put up near-Cy Young caliber numbers for two straight seasons. But Yankees’ GM Brian Cashman has hardly mentioned him in rotation talk for 2010.

He’ll open 2010 with whatever team at the age of 30, which gives reason to believe he has his best years ahead of him. But with his injury-plagued 2008 and 2009 seasons, it’s tough to lay down at least $4 million on him.

My call: Lay the money down. Pitching coach Dave Eiland should tell him to go back to his old sinkerball ways of 2006 and 2007. Ease up on the slider, there’s no need to break out a strike out pitch so often when you have a dynamite sinkerball.

Rangers winners of winter meetings

I was going to tab the Yankees for the most as the winners of the winter meetings, but it’s tough to ignore what the Rangers have done.

They’ve brought in Rich Harden, Chris Ray and Mike Lowell. Props to them.

The Yankees also did good, but with the Johnny Damon deal yet to be complete, I favor the Rangers.

The Yankees pulled off the biggest trade of the winter meetings (blockbuster?) in acquiring Curtis Granderson, re-signed Andy Pettitte to a reasonable contract and got rid of Brian Bruney for a solid outfielder/bench player candidate in Jamie Hoffmann.