Red Sox:re-signing Trot Nixon::Yankees:re-signing Bernie Williams.

Had a great run, was a fan favorite (though Bernie had a more productive career) but like good teams set their emotions aside when they put together a team, the Yankees would do well to look to Melky Cabrera as their future Williams.

Tru True Bernie IS a Yankee Hall Of Famer.I hope he retires and has his day in the Monuments in Centerfield this year!!

...it's august with the yankees going into fenway with a few games separating them and the red sox, giambi's on the DL with a bad back, johnny damon and matsui are unavailable for a few days because of being banged up running into each other on a fly ball, mientkiewicz is hitting
.230 with 3 homers, and andy phillips is still in a deep slump.
so who's your dh? who's your left fielder? center fielder? who's your late inning pinch hitter?
oh yeah. that's right. bernie can do all those things.
there is no reason to have a platoon at first base and a dh who only plays first. that's three players for first base.i say get one first baseman and keep bernie. cashman is overthinking first base, it's not that complicated. a switch hitter who can play three outfield positions plus dh is more valuable than a platoon of weak hitting first basemen. bernie is still at this point in his career a better hitter than either mientkiewicz or phillips.
hopefully the yankees will figure out a way to bring bernie into spring training. once all the players are on the field ,torre will know who he wants . my guess is that bernie would be on the team he chooses to go north with.
why not buy some time for everyone by cashman figuring out a way to get bernie into spring training? if it doesn't work out bernie would be in shape to go to another team if he wants to. the yankees owe him at least a spot in spring training.

I agree Randy. I fail to see the logic in what the Yankees are doing at first base. I like the Mientkiewicz signing because, despite the fact that his numbers are not that great compared to other first basemen, he's a grinder. The Yankees have needed grinders since Clemens and Pettite and O'neill and Tino left. Bernie is definitely not worth losing Melky over, but Giambi + 1 at first with Bernie is definitely better than Giambi + 2 at first without Bernie. Not really sure what Cashman is thinking here, but I'm sure he has a plan of some sort. Will be interesting to see what it is.

I love Bernie, but it is time for him to call it a day. It would be horrible if he went somewhere else. Hopefully he goes into the music biz full-time now. The Yankees don't owe Bernie anything any more. He can make a graceful exit after having a fine 2006 season. He is NOT the prototypical DH, pinch-hitter, or 4th outfielder. He doesn't have the speed to make up for bad jumps in the outfield and he doesn't have much pop left in the bat, especially from the left side.

I love Bernie as well because he's one of the first players whose whole career I grew up seeing and he's just so graceful and quiet, but he doesn't belong on the Yankees anymore. Melky can easily outperform him these days. And a fifth outfielder? Try Kevin Thompson. Cashman's thinking is sound in that Bernie is likely to have a drop in numbers at his age and because of shoulder injuries. Plus you know Torre wouldn't be able to resist playing Bernie all of the time and that would leave Melky with no time to play.

As for 1B, Cashman is thinking that since none of Phillips, Phelps and Mientkiewicz are great against both lefties and righties, and since Doug is coming off of back surgery, a platoon will work well

Guys - thats just the point. Bernie can't play OF anymore. He is a liability out there. And he can only DH/PH from the right side.

I watched Mantle retire and then Mattingly, I can live through this.
If you look at his offense and defense numbers combined, he's in the bottom 10% for an OFer.

Stop hanging on. Show your manlove another way. The Sox are gonna be good this year. Every position we have counts.

And Pretty Girl... Bernie won't coach. He's got no baseball instincts.. thats well known. It's time for Bernie to Jam....

All right, maybe it's because I'm so damn old that I'll swim upstream here, but I'll throw a completely ridiculous suggestion out here.

I say bring Bernie back and stash Melky in AAA!

"Are you f***in' kiddin'" I hear you all say. Hear me out.

First, the Bernie argument. Contrary to the above comment, Bernie was 33rd among HR by AL outfielders, 35th in BA w/over 100 AB. Let's remember there's 14 AL teams, that's 42 starting OF's, up to 70 with reserves. His BA was equal to Melky's, he out homered and doubled him. Clearly Melky is a better fielder just due to his speed, but are we looking to turn Melky into a late defensive replacement? Bernie is now a reserve OF.

Melky Cabrera is 22 years old, younger than most all AAA OF's. Melky needs to play everyday. How much will he play if Matsui, Damon, and Abreu are healthy? And if they get hurt, he's 3 hours away by car! He starts in that instance. But Melky needs to play, not sit. And he has a minor league option left.

The last spot goes to Phillips or Phelps. Phillips is out of options - not on, he's gone or at best off the 40. Phelps is a Rule V - not on, he's gone. 1 or the other is a goner. Should both be. And if someone's gonna keep the bench warm, who's butt do you want on the bench watching?

I know it sounds crazy, but that's my tweak on it. MELKY MUST PLAY... somewhere every day!

"Are you f***in' kiddin'" - that did say it all

Sad, but true.

It looks like the Yankees are best to move on, but it's admirable that Bernie has been so loyal.

They should invite him to ST and let him do what Al Leiter did.

The man is a class act...

during the five game boston massacre last august that defined the yankee season, the yankees used five outfielders.
they also had five outfielders on the playoff roster . why is there an assumption that there isn't going to be five outfielders on the 2007 team? just because cashman sends josh phelps and andy phillips go to spring training doesn't mean torre is going to take either one of them north for opening day.
why have a throw away position at first base? even the combined stats of mientkiewicz and phillips/phelps would rank at the bottom of the league for first basemen.
so far this platoon plan is all cashman. when it gets down to crunch time, torre may have different ideas.

I love bernie. He's a true yankee. BUT it's time. The old dynasty has ended. It is time for a new one to begin with a new core group of players. Cano, Wang, Melky, and Hughes will lead the way. Let Bernie go.

Bernie is a Yankee that even a Mets fan can love.

Unfortunately, you are 100 percent correct. Let's hope he retires so we don't have to see him in another uniform.

By the way, your new profile photo on this page is stunning, but I'm afraid you might be subjecting yourself to a series of "balls under your chin" jokes. Not from me, though!