nice headline, Alex.
Luxury taxes all around, barkeep.

[1] Probably not a good idea with Miami over there in the corner; yunnow how MLB tries to discourage public drunkenness...

Meanwhile, from MLBtraderunors:

The Yankees are hesitating on A.J. Pierzynski because they only view him as an average defender, Heyman tweets.

Yeah, because building winning team around no-hit catchers has been a Yankee tradition. It's like Jorge Posada never existed.

[3] Posada wasn't that bad on D until his last contract, where he declined fast. And with the bat, AJ is no Jorge.

[4] AJ is no Jorge, to be sure. But if the Yankees are so worried Pierzynski is only *average* on defense that they will go into the season with Frankie or Stewart or the like as the starting C..if that's the case, the Yankees' thinking is screwed up royally.

[5] Hm. reviewing his stats... Pierzynski has been much worse offensively through his career than I had thought.

Let the Chris Stewart Era begin!

Yeah, being an average (or worse) defender is quite acceptable if a catcher hits like Jorge. If you hit like AJ, you have to be able to do something better. Otherwise you're Frankie Cervelli. (Plus some homers.)

And from RiverAveBlues:

They view the long-time White Sox backstop as just an average defender, and apparently catcher defense has become a top priority in the organization over the last few years.

Let the Chris Stewart Era begin!