AL East

Jack Curry of the YES Network tweeted recently that the Yankees are having internal discussions about picking up free-agent outfielder Manny Ramirez.

What else is new?

For those of you who know anything about baseball, you know that you can always count on the Yankees to make offers to big ticket players every offseason, whether that be through trades or free agency.

Take Mark Teixeira as a great example.

The Tampa Bay Rays have shown that they don't have the cash to splash in the hot-stove season, which is why they were forced to let Carl Crawford sign a mega-deal with the Boston Red Sox, Carlos Pena sign $10 million single-year deal with the Chicago Cubs and trade Jason Bartlett to the San Diego Padres for next to nobody.

When the Yankees began their offseason plan, they probably didn't think it would be this difficult to land starting pitching after making it a priority.

They were turned down by Cliff Lee, and Andy Pettitte is likely leaning towards retirement.

This has lead the Yankees into Plans C, D, E and F.

Rarely is it the case that one baseball player can change the entire fate of his division. But it could happen when a star player leaves one contender for another, as Crawford did, from the Tampa Bay Rays to the Boston Red Sox.

We can start by looking at the 2008 and 2010 Rays. In 2008, the team had a bunch of "stars", including Crawford, and a few superstars. But just about every everyday player was "league average" or better, except for Ben Zobrist (who has since become a star) and Willy Aybar, still a "utility" player.

It's a few days before Christmas and so far, the Yankees have been relatively quiet in their off-season shopping.

So far, after missing out on Cliff Lee, the Yankees have brought in Russell Martin to be the starting catcher and Pedro Feliciano for the bullpen.

For the Yankees, that's an extremely quiet winter considering their deep pockets and myriad of resources.

Right now, though, it looks like the Yankees are attempting to bring back a familiar face to the lineup.

After the Yankees missed on Cliff Lee, there has been a lot of talk about Jesus Montero being used as a major trade chip to haul in another ace. The ONLY way I am in favor of this is if Felix Hernandez somehow is put on the block.

If it is not King Felix, I say hold on to him. Montero is the top Yankee prospect, top five in all of baseball, according to Baseball America and it would be a shame to lose him.

Via Ken Davidoff of Newsday:

The Boston Red Sox made their moves. Trading for Adrian Gonzalez and signing Carl Crawford has transformed the Red Sox from one of the better offensive teams in the league into the most feared lineup in the American League.

The Philadelphia Phillies stole Cliff Lee right out from under the Yankees' nose. Imagine facing a playoff rotation of Lee, Roy Halladay, Roy Oswalt, and Cole Hamels.

Via two tweets from Buster Olney of ESPN:

As we near the end of 2010, we can look back on the 2010 baseball season as one of change. Wins are no longer the deciding factor in Cy Young races, the Yankees aren't automatically World Series bound each year and even if a team doesn't hit immensely well, if they have pitching and defense, they can win championships.

As for what 2011 will hold, some things seem obvious; the continuation of this new era after the end of the steroid era will continue, ERAs will remain relatively low and we will see maybe one 50 HR performance, or more likely none at all.