Bowa to the Yankees?

Larry Bowa is talking to the Yankees about becoming a coach.

There are a few openings there including, pitching coach (no way), bench coach, (maybe but doubtful) and third base coach (smart money). Bowa being the bad cop to Torre’s good cop could be just what the Yankees need. One would think that Bowa hasn’t given up being a manager and being a coach on the Yankees seems to be just as good of a place to start if not better than others.

ESPN radio last night said he was contacted by Cashman, which is very interesting if true.

Lieberthal has minor knee surgery.

He should be back by the time pitchers and catchers report. Libby is having the surgery in hope to regain some of his old form. I’m pretty sure he’s one of the Phillies we can count on coming back next year. The team shopped him last year with few interested, but when you throw in he has a no trade clause, and he seems to not to want to go anywhere, we can only hope for a speedy recovery and that the surgery works out well.

Marcus Hayes is my boy with the Phillies info. This came from his article yesterday about the Phillies latest offer to Wagner.

League sources indicate that the Phillies plan to move Madson from the bullpen, where he has spent his first two seasons, and make him a starter, most likely to replace enigmatic talent Vicente Padilla. The Phillies are not expected to offer arbitration to Padilla. Madson probably would join 2001 first-round pick Gavin Floyd in the back of the rotation.

I really like Madson and have thought he could be given the shot to close if Wagner isn't back. But I wouldn't mind if he was the 5th guy in the rotation. With Floyd I would love to see what really could do, but I'd much rather they find at lest one pitcher we know can start and if that meant including Floyd in a trade with another player and keep Lidel as the 4th starter and not move him up to the 3 I'd be all for it. Which brings me too...

If you haven’t heard by now I’m fully on the trade Bobby Abreu for starting pitching train.

There’s been some speculation that the Phillies would trade either Abreu or Burrell and I think you have to go with Bobby as the trade bait for a few reasons.

1) Pat is clearly the better defender.

2) Pat is also the only right handed bat in the lineup teams have to fear. After him it’s Bell and Libby. Not very scary. If you move Pat and don’t replace him with another strong right handed slugger we’ll have to get use to teams bring in lefties to mow down Utley, Howard and Abreu all season long.

3) Pat is younger cheaper and Bobby may even have more trade value.

4) Pat is an RBI machine when healthy, coming off his best season in the bigs, and entering his prime years as a hitter. No matter what my brother says about his swing.

5) Pat actually comes through when you need him two from time to time.

Now I've been all for trading Bobby in the past, and I'll admit that in the past I haven’t fully appreciated how good Bobby really is. But you know it’s become a lot more then a trend that Bobby vanishes when the games really start to count and that’s what frustrates me the most about him. Maybe a change of scenery would help him break out of that.