Mercer News...RJ Too......

The good news out of Texas is that doctors removed Bobby Murcer's cancerous brain tumor and late yesterday he was awake and resting comfortably. No further details were released, but I know we hope that the doctors were able to remove ALL of the growth and that Bobby will be in no way permanently disabled. Cancer is scary, especially brain cancer.
In RJ news, losing out on Barry Zito seems to have in no way affected the Yankees desire to trade RJ for young pitching. The wire services tell me that the Yankees would like at least two of the following three pitchers from the Diamondbacks, who are the team hottest on the trail of Ol' Lefty.....Dustin Nippert is a 6-8 righthander who was 13-8 with an ERA of 4.87 at Triple A. Micah Owings, a 6-5 righty, was 6-2 at Double A and 10-0 at Triple A (!!). And lastly, Ross Ohlendorf, a 6-4 righty who was 10-8 ,with a 3.28 ERA in Double A. By acquiring 2 of those 3, the Yankees will add young dependable arms while jettisoning RJ's $16 million dollar paycheck. Now that doesn't sound like a bad deal to me. In fact, I'm wondering why the Diamondbacks are so hot and heavily going after Johnson. The Yankees, at least in this case, are being smart.
More news later, but with the Sox offices closed for the holidays, there might not be much about them until Tuesday, when we should hear something about JD Drew. Enjoy your New Year weekend everybody. I'll pop up from time to time to check in. Count on me!