WillyCoPapi3 wrote:Understood, the question is if you're going to talk about giving up quality prospects for a fifth starter (CC, Burnett, Pettite, Joba as the 1-4) who could very easily only give you league average numbers.....how valuable is that really? If Jackson isn't the guy he was for the Tigers in the first half last year, I don't see the value in trading for him rather than simply buying a better pitcher on the free agent market. If he's the guy he was in '07, '08 and the second half of '09, you could probably find someone better on the FA market. But again, there's always the chance that the yankees see something and can help Jackson transition, a la Joel Piniero this year.
I get what you're saying with the Jackson-Hermida comparison, but here's the difference: Jackson fills a definite need for the Yankees, while Hermida doesn't - and more than likely won't - for the Red Sox. While I agree that Jackson is really just an average AL starter, that is still clearly better than anything the Yanks had at their back of the rotation last season (which really was the only major hole for the team). Hermida is (still) a big talent, but it's very unlikely he'd be an upgrade over Bay this season, or that he'll go into this season as more than the team's 4th OFer. And needless to say, 4th OFers are pretty much never as valuable as starting pitchers.
Again, I get what you're saying with the comparison, but I don't think the two players are comparable when looking at the context of each of their respective situations.

