The Top 5 Worst Moves Of Brian Cashman: Part 1

When you have an infinite amount of money to spend, and a team that expects to win a championship every single year, a lot is expected of you. Brian Cashman is hated by plenty of people and even though he takes a ton of unfair heat from fans, at times he deserves it. Here's a look at some of Brian Cashman's worst moves as the Yankees General Manager.

5. Ted Lilly to the Tigers for Jeff Weaver


No, that isn't the guy with the 2.13 ERA... If you don't know about Jeff Weaver, then think about how you feel after the 6th inning of a start by A.J. Burnett, then imagine it for every inning instead of just one, and proceed to throw something through your television. That's the feeling Yankee fans got just about every time Weaver pitched. In 32 starts for New York, he went 12-12 with a 5.35 ERA. His Yankee career came to an end after giving up a walk off hit to the Florida Marlins in extra innings of game four of the World Series. As if that wasn't bad enough, Weaver was the center piece of a trade that brought Kevin Brown to the Yankees the following season.

Ted Lilly hasn't exactly lit the world on fire, but a pitcher like Lilly could have went a long way in the mid 2000's due to the fact that the Yankees had to deal with the likes of Javier Vazquez, the aforementioned Kevin Brown, Randy Johnson and many more misfits.

4. Arodys Vizcaino and Melky Cabrera to the Braves for Javier Vazquez


Alright, I thought this was a great deal at the time too. Vazquez was coming off a season where he finished in the top five of the MVP voting and sported a 6.6 WAR, 2.87 ERA with 238 K's. He seemed primed to redeem himself with Yankee fans after the nightmare that was his first stint as a Yankee in 2004. Unfortunately for the Yankees, Vazquez's second go around in pinstripes did not go as planned.

Vazquez nearly had a 10 K/9 rate in 2009, but with the Yankees in 2010, it dropped to just under 7. His ERA jumped up three runs and he was removed from the rotation by the end of May. In 26 starts he posted a 5.32 ERA with a 10-10 record. According to Fangraphs.com, Vazquez' average velocity on his fastball has sat around 91 in every year of his career except for 2010 where it was nearly 2 mph slower (88.8). It's back up to 90 this year by the way. Even in his first year with the Yankees in '04, his fastball velocity was down a notch from other years. What does this mean? Javy either hates the Yankees or is the definition of a pitcher who can't handle New York.

Unfortunately for the Yankees, the worst part of this deal wasn't gaining an awful season from Vazquez, it was trading away a young pitching prospect named Arodys Vizcaino. Prospects as young as Vizcaino are very hit or miss, but in his case, he has dominated the minor leagues at the age of 20 and has even contributed to the Braves major league team as a reliever this season allowing 0 runs in just under six innings. Vizcaino's future is as a starter and he shows plenty of promise so far.

On a side note; even though he didn't do much with the Braves, Melky Cabrera is having an excellent season with the Royals this year as well putting up a more than respectable 308/344/483 line with 16 homers, 73 RBI's and 16 steals. He doesn't exactly fit on the Yankees anywhere, but who would have thought Melky Cabrera was capable of those numbers?