Yankees not interested in Pujols; Find C.J Wilson an “attractive candidate”

Yankees not interested in Pujols; Find C.J Wilson an “attractive candidate”

By Delia E.

Yankees GM Brian Cashman was a guest on the Dan Patrick Show on Friday morning & Cashman had confirmed what was the obvious: The Yankees were not interested in pursuing Albert Pujols.

“Despite him being fantastic, it’s not an efficient way to allocate our resources.” Cashman explained. “Offense is not an issue here. Our priority this offseason is pitching.”

It’s not that Brian Cashman doesn’t want Pujols. Let’s face it; Pujols is one of the best power hitters in the league, but Cashman feels that by giving Pujols the full-time DH spot that he is locking up a player who may perform well now, but can decline well into their 30’s. Cashman had planned to use the DH spot for Alex Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira since he had offered them both long contracts.

On C.J Wilson, Cashman finds him the most attractive candidate out there since he is the one that everyone seems to be after at this point.

“I’d say it’s fair to say C.J Wilson is probably the best pitcher in the marketplace right now since CC Sabathia’s been taken out and retained here” Cashman said. “I don’t think it’s a stretch to let anybody know that he’s an attractive candidate.”

So is Brian Cashman going to show all of his cards and attempt to lure C.J Wilson with lots of money? No. C.J Wilson wants one thing; a big contract and the Yankees can easily offer him one, but it is up to Cashman to decide whether C.J Wilson’s asking price matches with the talents that he has, and also if he can keep up in the New York environment.

Hot Stove Targeting: C.J Wilson

C.J Wilson made his debut on June 12, 2005 with the Texas Rangers and has shown to have been a dominant force on the team since, recording a 43-31 record from 2005-2011. Wilson will be a free agent after the 2011 season and he is on the radar of many teams, including the New York Yankees. Although the Yankees are not as interested in C.J Wilson as you would like them to be, Wilson has untapped potential which made him a rising star, but the question that all of us have on our minds; Is C.J Wilson New York Yankees material?

C.J Wilson has pitched 223.1 innings this season with a .294 ERA

Positives: C.J Wilson was relief pitcher converted into a starting pitcher, and he seemed to have converted quite nicely. In 2005, Wilson had a horrendous 1-7 record but he turned that all around in 2011 when he went 16-7 with 223.1 innings under his belt along with 206 K’s. Wilson’s numbers earned him a spot into the All-Star game, which actually turned into a negative but we’ll get to that later. Wilson also has a .294 ERA in which he only gave up 73 runs. Here are some of C.J Wilson'[s #’s during the regular season since 2005:

 

Year	Age	Tm	W	L	W-L%	ERA	G	GS	IP	H	R	SO	WHIP
2001	20	TEX-min	2	2	.500	2.01	13	13	71.2	54	19	75	1.005	PUL,SAV · APPY,SALL
2002	21	TEX-min	11	2	.846	2.78	31	20	136.0	109	54	93	1.191	CHT,TUL · FLOR,TL
2003	22	TEX-min	6	9	.400	5.05	22	21	123.0	135	79	89	1.407	FRI · TL
2005	24	TEX-min	0	5	.000	4.17	16	16	58.1	61	37	57	1.354	FRI,BAK · TL,CALL
2005	24	TEX	1	7	.125	6.94	24	6	48.0	63	39	30	1.688
2006	25	TEX-min	1	0	1.000	2.51	13	0	14.1	13	4	23	1.395	OKC,FRI · PCL,TL
2006	25	TEX	2	4	.333	4.06	44	0	44.1	39	23	43	1.286
2007	26	TEX	2	1	.667	3.03	66	0	68.1	50	25	63	1.215
2008	27	TEX	2	2	.500	6.02	50	0	46.1	49	35	41	1.640
2009	28	TEX	5	6	.455	2.81	74	0	73.2	66	29	84	1.330
2010	29	TEX	15	8	.652	3.35	33	33	204.0	161	83	170	1.245
2011	30	TEX	16	7	.696	2.94	34	34	223.1	191	89	206	1.187
7 Seasons			43	35	.551	3.60	325	73	708.0	619	323	637	1.291
162 Game Avg.			7	6	.551	3.60	56	12	121	106	55	109	1.291

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 11/2/2011.

Negatives: C.J Wilson’s negatives are a little easier to distinguish than his positives. Wilson cannot seem to pitch in high profile situations. Let’s take the All-Star game for example. Wilson gave up the lead by giving up a 3 run home

In his career in the postseason, C.J Wilson is 1-5 with a 4.82 ERA. Not exactly what the Yankees would want from a pitcher in the postseason.

to Milwaukee Brewer Prince Fielder, which gives the National League home field advantage and Wilson the loss. Kind of ironic how the Rangers don’t have home field advantage because of C.J. Wilson also has some issues with pitching in the postseason. In 2010 & 2011 combined, Wilson is 1-5 with a 4.94 ERA. It is important to get into the postseason but if you are a team that wants to win the World Series, then it is important that you keep up production for when I really matters. Now…here is a chart for C.J Wilson’s postseason’s numbers and I should tell you, they are not pretty:

Year	Age	Tm	Lg	Series	Rslt	Opp	W	L	W-L%	ERA	G	GS	IP	H	R	SO	WHIP
2010	29	TEX	AL	ALDS	W	TBR	1	0	1.000	0.00	1	1	6.1	2	0	7	0.632
2010	29	TEX	AL	ALCS	W	NYY	0	1	.000	6.00	2	2	12.0	12	9	6	1.500
2010	29	TEX	AL	WS	L	SFG	0	1	.000	3.00	1	1	6.0	3	2	4	0.833
2011	30	TEX	AL	ALDS	W	TBR	0	1	.000	10.80	1	1	5.0	7	8	6	1.600
2011	30	TEX	AL	ALCS	W	DET	0	1	.000	6.75	2	2	10.2	14	8	11	1.969
2011	30	TEX	AL	WS	L	STL	0	1	.000	2.92	3	2	12.1	8	5	9	1.541
2 Seasons (6 Series)							1	5	.167	4.82	10	9	52.1	46	32	43	1.433
2 ALDS							1	1	.500	4.76	2	2	11.1	9	8	13	1.059
2 ALCS							0	2	.000	6.35	4	4	22.2	26	17	17	1.721
2 WS							0	2	.000	2.95	4	3	18.1	11	7	13	1.309

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 11/2/2011.

Is C.J Wilson A Fit For The Yankees: Before the post season I thought C.J WIlson would be the perfect fit for the Yankees, but after watching the postseason, it seems that his value goes down a little bit after every sour performance. The Yankees goal is to get to the World Series so they could win #28, but they can’t possibly do that if they have a pitcher that is 1-5 in the postseason. Let’s face it, even A.J Burnett knows when it’s time to play hard and win so if A.J can do it then it shouldn’t be hard for C.J. At this point there are no real rumblings for C.J but if I were the Rangers I would try to hang onto “pretty boy” for as long as they can because right now, I don’t think I can picture “Starting Pitcher, C.J Wilson, #36 of the New York Yankees.”