And the beat goes on with Yankee propaganda in the Cliff Lee Chase (courtesy of their ESPN hack, Ian O'Connor):

http://sports.espn.go.com/new-york/mlb/columns/story?columnist=oconnor_ian&id=5810925

The essential argument presented - Yankees make the postseason 15 of the last 16 years, so Lee just HAS TO choose New York. Uh...puh-leez!

Earth to New York: Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. Isn't Wall Street located there? You'd think they'd know this.

The stars aligned for the Yankees in the mid-90's with the Jeter, Rivera, Pettitte and Posada core that emerged. Other than Cano, what young core does NY really have now? They're going to overpay for past performance with Jeter and Rivera. There's no argument, they can buy, buy, buy. But wouldn't the Rangers approach of growing your own make better sense to Lee? Bueller? Anyone?

I read that article this morning.

Find it interesting (see: bollocks) considering that:
During the ALCS, I never once thought to myself "If Cliff Lee were on the Yankees' staff, this series would be completely flip-flopped."

I just don't see the Yankees doing much to fill up their other holes besides Javy Vasquez's rotation spot. They still have the ever-unreliable AJ Burnett. Phil Hughes isn't quite there yet. Pettitte hasn't decided what he's doing. So, Sabathia is the only 'sure-ish thing' in their starting pitching.

On top of that, they're moving at a sluggish pace towards re-signing Jeter, which means next year's infield will be the same. They're not going after Carl Crawford or any other big OFs as far as I know, so their outfield will essentially be the same.

Which means that, aside from trying to land a big-time starter and trading out a couple of part-time players and relievers, their team is going to be the same (or maybe even worse if you consider that their over-the-hill players are spending the off-season getting more over-the-hill).

Maybe Clifton talks to Sabathia and decides to go with the pinstripes, but to me there is no definite indication that they'll have more success next year and no guarantee that they won't be any worse.

I almost hope Cliff signs with the Evil Empire for a highly inflated amount of money. It would be that much sweeter to hammer him in the playoffs. Cliff Lee has had some special postseason moments and some impressive regular season ones as well. But he has to be too fine with his pitches and seems to be a guy who can get off track easily. In other words, I don't see him being Halladay or someone that dominating. He'll be up and down. He was down in August and up in September. He was up in the ALCS and down in the WS. He tends to have an up year, then a down year. He isn't a guy to give $160 million to. Add him to the old NY roster and hope you can beat them with youth and speed.

An ESPNNewYork.com writer penned an article with a pro-New York bent to it? Oh The Humanity!!!

"But wouldn't the Rangers approach of growing your own make better sense to Lee? Bueller? Anyone?"

Why would it make sense to Lee, who as a free agent doesn't fit that approach? Either the Rangers stick with this approach and don't sign a $1XXM free agent or they do sign a $1XXM free agent thereby abandoning the approach.