Out Field Corners

Center Field

A good read on the “Competitive Balance Tax”

The article is about the Phillies and how they’re up against the Luxury Tax. One point that’s made is a team’s AAV is what dictates the Lux Tax not the payroll. So back loading a players contract will not help lower the team’s AAV. So if as fan goes to Cot’s Contracts and adds up the 2012 payroll using what the contract for that year is they’ll compile the wrong information

The complication lies in two factors: Major League Baseball recognizes contracts by their annual average value (AAV) — not by the dollar amount the team is actually paying that player. So, for example, Cliff Lee earned $11 million in salary last season because the Phillies back loaded the contract. But under the guise of ML

 Spring Training Schedules

Pitchers and catchers for the Bombers is Feb 19th

Oswalt A Geography Major

Heyman has the rumor Oswalt turned down $10M to pitch for Detroit. This before the Prince signing of course. We knew he was looking for location, and it must matter more to him then the money. Texas and St Louis are his targets, neither team has room for him. Our concern is the Red Sox but not only are they a Northern team but I seriously doubt they would pay him $10M or above, and even if they made that offer it appears he’d pass.

Kuroda Leaves Money On  the Table

I was a bit shocked to read the OsWalt turning down $10M rumor and that Kuroda choose the Yanks because his chances of winning were greater. He had higher then $10M offers but declined and took the NY contract. Sounds like a 2:30 AM Lifetime Movie if you buy in, or maybe we got us a real gamer

Yanks and Ibanez Sweet music?

Raul Ibanez in blue pinstripes? LH DH

Valentine Slams Cherington?

Valentine said he’s more concerned with adding quality than quantity. With so many pitchers already vying for a job, he will be hard-pressed to find enough innings in spring training to give everyone a thorough look.

“I think we’ve got a lot of numbers right now,” Valentine said. “Another pitcher, I guess, would be OK. It’s not at the top of my wish list.”

Dancin Bobby is doing a good job deflecting the desperation Boston has for Quality depth in the GTE rotation, no doubt they’ve cornered the market on low risk high reward types. Let’s face it with all the money Cherington has spent on reclamation projects he could have handed Oswalt enough money to be a one year gunslinger.

On the other hand Roy doesn’t want to pitch in Boston, maybe not in the AL at all, turning down a rumored $7M to pitch alongside V’lander in Detroit in a weak Central Division is puzzling. I guess after you’ve made close to $100M in your career the fire doesn’t burn so hot anymore, better stay out of Boston then, he doesn’t need a “pillow contract” he needs a Murphy Bed..

The real buzz in this Boston link is Youkilis saying to the media the GTE collapse was a total team effort. They weren’t focused and bought the hype they were the GTE. I’m just wondering between 2-10 and 7-20 they were the best team in baseball so were they so good they won 90 games without focusing?

Bottom line Boston could never replace the Buchholz injury and the pitching wore out. They have really done nothing to insure that won’t happen again, one injury to their Big Three and they’re in the same boat as 2011, maybe worse now that Papelbon is gone. If they don’t make a trade, or bring in Jackson or Oswalt, Bard and his limited innings will be in the rotation further weakening the bull pen.

It’s sounding like Eddie Jackson might have teams that will give him  a mutiple year deal, and Roy is either trying to convince St Louis or Texas to sign him or he’s playing hard to get looking for a Kuroda deal. I’ll be shocked if Boston goes into the season as is pitching wise..

Yanks Take Care Of All Family Business

The last arbitration case Boone Logan was settled out of court yesterday, and Kuroda was officially signed. Still up for grabs is another bat and Chavez or his replacement. Per Cashman the Bombers need the remaining top free agent pitchers like Oswalt and Jackson to land so they can target the remaining desperate GM’s hoping to dump Burnett in their lap. He didn’t say Burnett but you don’t need to The Amazing Kreskin to know that $33M on the books is a nightmare

Trade Bait

I saw an article on potential trade partners for DH. The one name that popped out was David Dejesus who has a  2 year $10M deal with a $6.5M option (Cubs). Obviously that’s more money then Cashman wants to spend but if the Yanks ate half  or more the contract would Epstein trade Burnett for Dejesus?

The Cubs will be out of it anyway by July so maybe as the article suggests that might be the time Dejesus becomes available, but Epstein will want a haul for the out fielder, and even at $8M per season is AJ even mildly on Epstein’s radar, I doubt it. Hughes going in  a trade could be a possibility too, just wondering if the Yanks want to see what Hughes has in spring training. Hughes pitching to his potential would be a dream come true for prudent Cashman at this point, and AJ Burnett unless you eat most of it is a fixture in pinstripes

International Law

( new spending limits on international amateur talent will limit clubs in most foreign markets. Cuban defectors and Asian players who are older than 23 and have more than five years professional experience will not be subject to the restrictions.)

Are the Yanks secretly in on Cespedes?  Soler who is 19 might be more of a tangled web to negotiate, chances are neither guy will  wear the pinstripes because they’re too expensive, man George is turning in his grave.

Anyway Cespedes might have been rusty but he exposed himself recently in a small sample size showing in the Dominican winter league. That said it doesn’t take much in the what have you done for me lately world of sports and Yo-Ces came on in the final two games by getting three hits, including a home run, and the series-clinching double.

Sugar Coma

Mikey Ax at RAB is at it again, I’m thinking he cashed in a months worth of those buy one get one sundae’s at Friendly’s and went into sugar shock, either that or the bloom is off the Banuelos rose for the WPA maven. Mike’s idea to grab a young stud who recently has trended downward is a good idea and going after a Brown or Heyward sounds like something worth investigating but neither the Phils or the Braves are gonna just hand over one of their top prospects

Mike suggests  Hughes and Banuelos would get it done, he calls trading from a strength position  Sports GM 101, so Mikey is ready to float the Bombers top LHP prospect almost an untouchable in every trade but a King Felix deal for one of these guys who look like they belong in  a Hollywood baseball movie, but even with all the hoopla surrounding them haven’t been able to make a  huge impact at the big league level just yet.

Will they become stars, very possible, they look the part, but at this point with salary restrictions pending and pitching at a premium why in God’s name would you dangle Banuelos for a fathead poster boy?

If the Yankees want a young hitter just spend the money on Soler and tuck him away, teach him to hit the breaking pitch, they made Granderson a good hitter against LHP for Christ sake.  How about the hated Eddie Nunez who showed flashes of a quick bat that saw the ball just jump off the barrel at times? What happen to the bogus Baseball America prospect list  that RAB raves about, it shows three outfielders in the top ten?

Mikey the Bombers are gonna pick up  a bat for meal money here in the next few weeks or trade one of the excess baggage hurlers at the MLB level to fill that need. They already lost they’re top hitting prospect on a gamble move, now you want to dump their top LHP prospect for another gamble? Is this Yankee farm system all hype or is Cashman really developing legitimate MLB talent?

Hey it’s the hot stove season, no crazier then wanting to trade Burnett for Dejesus

Pitchers and Catchers report February 19th

Amos Jones deal Done

A day later and this Prince Fielder deal is still buzzing through my head. It’s truly amazing how Scott Boras landed his client a $214M payday in this supposed down financial climate, especially in Detroit. Still think the  poor owners are struggling? Out of the blue  bean counters Miami and Anaheim, and now the Detroit Tigers have thrown down crazy money in an effort to bring in fans and make a run at the World Series trophy. All I can say is the  MLB owners should count their blessings that King George isn’t still around.

That said the Ilitch Family with Little Caesars Pizza and a huge stake in the Motor City Casino business aren’t exactly dining at the soup kitchens on Medbury Street. Mikey Ilitch also owns the Detroit Red Wings, and even with the acquisition of Fielder the Tigers are still miles away from any Lux Tax penalties. This contract will have all the baseball accountants in a frenzy for sure. The bottom line Ilitch is a billionaire, so this is just another play toy in his trophy case, one he hopes to book end with  World Series hardware

We’re gonna need the ghost of King George here soon because Robbie Cano will be commanding monopoly money in 2014 with Scott Boras pulling the strings

The Prince of Detroit

It didn’t take the Tigers long to replace V-Mart, they went shopping at Tiffany’s acquiring Prince Fielder. Not a big time hitters park so the kid dove into the dough. Boras strikes again..

“You can’t ever say that you look at a kid that age and say that you know he’s going to hit 40 or 50 home runs someday, but Prince was unbelievable,” Kaline said then. “Here’s a 12-year-old kid commonly hitting homers at a big league ballpark.”

 Heyman a Boras guy is all over this deal

he’s tweetin up  a storm

JonHeymanCBS Jon Heyman

price deal is $214M, 9 yrs. #tigers

JonHeymanCBSJon Heyman

JonHeymanCBS Jon Heyman

there is no opt out in #prince deal. heard $214M is spread pretty evenly over term. about $23.8M a yr. #tigers

Stuff is really flying off the shelves in baseball yesterday.

  Next up Cespedes turns Dominican

Yanks Go With One Yr Deal For Martin

JonHeymanCBS Jon Heyman

russell martin settles with #yankees at $7.5M plus 100 grand in incentives

Sado Gets the Royal Treatment

The Yanks did a great job sending Sado into retirement  so a huge hat tip to them and Sado, not to mention all his pals that showed up lending support, again all the best Jorge..!

The buzz for me  out of that whole extravaganza was the CashMan stating the free agent market is of no interest to him Re: another bat, he’s gonna make a trade.  The  hand writing is on the wall, the only two guys in the rotation making any money who could possibly be flipped are Burnett and Soriano, I guess you could throw Kuroda in that mix, so the next few weeks should get real interesting.

CashMan is saying all the right things about Hughes he’s a starter not a bull pen guy, he’s working out, blah blah blah, so I wouldn’t dismiss Mrs Hughes’ Son being shipped out either, although if it’s about the money then we know who has the for sale sign on him.. Just eat half Cash, get er done, after him knowing your trying to unload him he’s gonna be toast between the ears, or maybe not, sometimes being a cement head is a good thing.

In case you missed the show the link provides all the interviews and more

Yanks Go With One Yr Deal For Martin

No dough was announced just yet

The Prince of Detroit

It didn’t take the Tigers long to replace V-Mart, they went shopping at Tiffany’s acquiring Prince Fielder. Not a big time hitters park so the kid dove into the dough. Boras strikes again..

“You can’t ever say that you look at a kid that age and say that you know he’s going to hit 40 or 50 home runs someday, but Prince was unbelievable,” Kaline said then. “Here’s a 12-year-old kid commonly hitting homers at a big league ballpark.”

 Heyman a Boras guy is all over this deal

he’s tweetin up  a storm

JonHeymanCBS Jon Heyman

price deal is $214M, 9 yrs. #tigers

JonHeymanCBSJon Heyman

Sado Hangs Em up

Without a lot lot of hoopla, Jorge Sado Posada will hang up the pinstripes today. For a lot of fans it’s a sigh of relief, I won’t sugar coated it, Sado was a nightmare the last few seasons.  The 5 time World Series winner came to his senses about looking for another gig and will finally end the madness

I always admired Posada’s intensity, but hated when he strapped on  the tools and lets face it last season sans the day the Bombers clinched and the ALDS it was pure misery watching him struggle at the plate. After a career year in 2007 when he posted a .970 OPS, he held the Bombers up for a 4 year $52.4M contract. The next season he was DL’d for the first time in his career and only compiled 195 PA’s. He made a nice comeback with the bat in 09 putting up a .285 BA, 36 % on base and a solid .885 OPS, but he was a butcher behind the plate. 2010 saw his  offensive numbers  drop from the previous season and last year was just pure torture.

Jorge no doubt  was a great Yankee so we wish him and his family all the best. Maybe the Bombers will bring him back as some sort of coach, but then again maybe they’ll just throw him a big party and leave it at that. I’ll admit the fans at Yankee Stadium showed Sado a lot of love in his farewell tour, which surprised me because he was murdered in cyberspace.  Sado no doubt held on too long and for the last two seasons ate up $26M in payroll flexibility

Some of these guys signing crazy money long term contracts should realize that on the back end of those gaudy deals the fans aren’t gonna welcome them with open arms, but I guess you get what you can while you can get it, and only a handful of guys take that aspect into consideration and get out on top.

With the new CBA agreement in place going over the Lux Tax will grossly penalize the team’s pocket book so teams will no doubt be shying away from handing out long term contracts if at all possible. The Bombers had to extend Sabathia this year and will owe him $50M the last two years of his deal, and we all know Arod’s contract will be a hammer lock until 2017

Enjoy your retirement Jorge see you at the old timers day festivities.

LoHud Update

Lohud has some decent Yankee updates with CashMan explaining how the Montero Pineda deal went down, more of a necessity then a want re: trading the Bombers best hitting prospect in years. Jack Z wasn’t excatly jumping for joy moving a kid like Pineda who has tremendous upside also. Again if your worried about Mikey P’s second half plunge, do what we did and check out the splits, or not, they cover that aspect  in this link.  Pineda was still missing bats and not really walking more guys even though his peripherals went up from his first half dominance.

“I took comfort in the fact that his strikeouts-per-nine in the first half of last year were 9.0, but they went up in the second half to 9.3. His walks-per-nine were 2.8 in the first half and 2.9 in the second half, so they were relatively the same.”

The only problem with that quote is CashMan’s track record bringing in pitchers, hopefully he’s turned his bad luck around in that regard and last year’s lightning in a bottle acquisitions for Garcia and Colon is a new trend for the Bomber GM, and for us. I would think with all the veteran presence in the Bomber clubhouse Pineda will have no choice but to focus a lot more.

Also in the link is a quick blurb about Mrs Hughes’ Son, and although Albatross Rodriguez is hamstringing the payroll flexibility it appears he’s still a strong voice with the young players in the Yankee clubhouse, so we can take comfort in the fact that  they have a real live Dr Phil on the team for the next 6 years @ $143M

The Burnett Debacle

To Trade or Not to trade. It should be Who Wants or doesn’t Want without NY eating most of the paper.

Two of the Three Stooges from the RAB site make a case for AJ Burnett. Let’s face it they can cherry pick all the positive stats they want, but at $16.5M per for the next two season’s this guy is a total mutt, I don’t care what kind flea and tick collar for dogs you put on him.

The bottom line is he’s on the market, but CashMan is in dreamland if he thinks he won’t have to eat a minimum of half that $33M. Mousse Curry who no doubt loves those YES  paychecks, which is a safe bet are a lot heftier then the ones he cashed writing for the  NY Times must think we all just fell off the turnip truck when he mentioned on the Yankees Daily Show last week “if you don’t take into account his $16.5M salary, he’s a great number 5 starter.

Go sell that spin to the crowd at RAB Mousse,  actually you don’t have to their resident #2 Stooge Joe Paw is doing  it for you. Make us eat our Words AJ, please…

Since I started to actually watch these games when the playoffs started no rundown from me, but  congrats to the Giants for slipping past the 49er’s, who look to be a handful on defense. It looked to my novice eye the Giants weren’t gonna see the end zone again once the 2nd half progressed  but at 8:34 of the 4th quarter Mario Manningham made a tough catch to put the Giants up by 3.

Almost 3 minutes later David Akers kicked a 25 Yd tying field goal to send it into OT. Neither team could score the last 5 minutes. Thanks to  a fumble deep into the 49er’s part of the field the Giants Lawrence Tynes after a delay of game pushed the ball back  nailed a 31 Yd game winning Field goal at 7:06 in OT.

Box

Much to our Chagrin the Pats  barely got past the Ravens 23-20. Sterling Moore, who earlier missed a tackle on Torrey Smith that led to a touchdown, broke up the second- and third-down passes on the final drive from Joe Flacco. I don’t know enough to say if Brady would have miraculously marched his team down the field with time running out on the clock so i’d have to say Moore saved New England’s season  right there.

Ravens field goal kicker Billy Cundiff yanked a tying 32-yard field goal attempt left with 11 seconds to play. It looked like this game, another hard hitting contest was on it’s way to OT also but it wasn’t in the cards for the Ravens. Should make for a fun Super Bowl for us North Easterners.

Congrats to poster JG who not only picked both winners but almost nailed the exact score for both games..

 Can’t Make It  Up Segement

 How old is this guy?

PhilHughes65 Twitter

Almost Tampa time. Gonna miss mom not doing my laundry #hardships

This tweet confirms our special moniker Mrs. Hughes’ Son, put it in the books… lol

Gardzilla the World’s Newest Millionaire

What  a country, run real fast and catch the ball with regularity and you to can become a $2.8M aire. Mama don’t let your baby’s take music lessons

MLBTR Beating the Deader Horse

“# One club official estimated that he had about a dozen conversations with the Mariners this winter and Michael Pineda’s name never came up. That’s probably because M’s GM Jack Zduriencik wanted young, controllable, impact bats like Jesus Montero, Mike Stanton, and Logan Morrison and only dangled the pitcher to those teams. Eventually, it was the Yanks who made the deal.

# There are also two “conspiracy theories” floating around regarding the deal. One school of thought has people wondering if Pineda’s fading velocity down the stretch trigged the M’s to trade him. There are also clubs wondering if the Yankees had concerns about Montero’s mental make-up”.

“Agents who have spoken with the Yankees say that, despite rumors they could sign a DH-type like Damon, Matsui or Ibanez, the team isn’t too hungry for a bat. One source says that, in truth, the Yankees have told agents that a veteran DH is actually “a very low priority.”

“It’s because I can actually relate to this one”.

Mike Ax’s love letter to Jesus Montero a few days ago took the cake, this link leading to  a quick youtube puts the icing on the enigmatic RAB big wig’s preferences, actually it’s  “thumbing his nose” at the old school baseball fan that hasn’t memorized the FanGraphs glossary that irks me, I could care less how he and Joe Paw  decorate their apartment

Oh Danny Boy

“There’s been significant commitments made the last two offseasons which pushed our payroll further north, and we made those decisions knowing that it wasn’t going to continue to go further north at the same trajectory forever,’’ said new general manager Ben Cherington before last night’s feast.

Nice job by Boston Globe writer Dan Shaughnessy in yesterday’s Globe article Re: John Henry has deep pockets but short arms. Never piss off the guy with the pen or the keyboard in this case I guess is the moral of this story. Apparently Danny didn’t like what he heard from Ben Cherington’s state of the Red Sox address to the BeanTown scribes. Basically “Cherry” told the writers at the The Boston chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of American dinner we’re out of dough fellas

Another words after Theo raided Henry’s Red Sox coffers in a last ditch effort to make a splash last season the Ghost was not throwing down in 2012, no matter who became available. I guess Epstein knowing 1. his allowance would be taken away from him and 2. the desperado’s that call themselves Cubs fans would think he walks on water in Chicago, made it the perfect storm for the Brookline Brat to bolt his home town for a Greener Horn in Tom Ricketts and his daddy’s billions.

No doubt all those Benny’s are just burning a hole in the Ricketts family’s deeper then Henry’s pockets but Epstein hasn’t spent a dime of it just yet. He’s made some questionable  low key moves up to this point  but now he’s the front runner on Rumor Row to land Cuban Hot Dog Yoenis Cespedes.

A memo to Theo, your walking on water right now kid, but remember it gets really really cold in Chicago so your really walking on ice, come May / June at this pace your Cubbies will be bottom feeding the NL Central. Maybe a smart move might be to hire Capt. Frankie Schettino, your gonna need a life boat to fall into when that ice melts

In a desperate effort to free up some dough Cherington apparently tried to swing a deal with the Rockies for his starting SS Marco Scutaro ($6M). Somebody came to their senses and the deal fizzled.
The leaked rumor  sends out some smoke signals that maybe Cherry and Dancin Bobby V aren’t as enamored with their pitching as we’re being led  to believe. They seriously need an innings eater after Beckett, Lester, Buchholz, and Bard. Let’s face it they’re one DL stint from being in the same boat as last year after Buchholz went down. They have a stockpile full of re-treads looking for the next Bionic Bart or Mugsey Aceves but does lightning ever strike the same place twice?

Actually yes it does, I looked it up, lightning doesn’t have a memory, so the GTE could be this year’s big surprise, especially if Sing Along With Mitch Williams doesn’t anoint them the GTE. Cherry is on course to be the next Andrew Friedman, the new Paul Revere

Mike Ax does what he does best break down value. Didn’t have time to read through it but  how out of whack can a copy and paste from Cot’s contracts get? Nothing new on the take after the C&P. It’s a no brainer that Selig and his cronies hog tied NY by inserting crazy Lux Tax penalties after 2013. Boston is hog tied too, but John Henry secretly loves the idea, the carpetbagger Henry and his slime ball CEO Lucchino don’t have to spend to fix their mess and they can blame the new CBA as their alibi. He sells out every game so why buy the cow if you get the milk for free

(man that’s so old my grandfather used to say it )

Yo-Ces

Yoenis Cespedes most likely wiped away all those strike outs he accumulated playing winter ball as this youtube shows what can happen when Yo-Ces’s lumber meets a well placed fastball. I’m sure Epstein and Loria got especially excited when  they saw the link.

The $60M bomb did make the game 6 nothing so maybe the tater was hit off a tomato can, regardless it left the building pretty damn quick..

“Cespedes finished 1 for 4 on the night and is now 3 for 23 (.130) with six strikeouts, while being hit by a pitch as Aguilas’ designated hitter. There are plenty of questions about Cespedes, but the guy certainly has some power — and a heck of a bat flip. The Cubs are thought to be the leader to sign Cespedes, with the Marlins second and the field a distant third”.

Yu A Ranger

It won’t be hard to find Yu Darvish articles today, we’ll drop the link from Heyman and start with that one since Heyman is our go to knucklehead. As expected the boy got his dough $60M the Rangers got the extra year so 6 years for $60M, nice job by the Rangers and congrats to NY native Jon Daniels and those guys, they threw down almost $112M to get this kid to Arlington

If they really want to set baseball on it’s ear they’ll talk Boras into letting the Prince beef up his stats in Rangers Ballpark for three years @ Pujols money, come on cowboy with all those oil wells and that new TV money it’s a no brainer, your nowhere near the Lux Tax.

Boras should also come to his senses and let Big Daddy’s Little Boy play where he can actually have a chance to win while he tacks on softball numbers in that line-up. I tell you what the top two dogs in the  AL West will make the AL East look like a beer softball league if Prince lands a pillow contract in Texas.

Coco Poof!

And in the Big Buzz news yesterday Carl Coco Crawford once again didn’t disappoint the boys in the back room at Sal’s. The second worst contract in baseball behind our boy Albatross Rodriguez, Coco Crawford has waited until 4 weeks before Spring Training to let Dancin Bobby V know he’s going under the knife for a cartilage issue in his wrist.

This comes as  bitter sweet news. First off we never like to hear any player gets hurt, secondly you know how easy it is to replace a .289 OBP and a sub .700 OPS?

That said this shelves  the GTE’s $142M man  for a while no matter how nonchalant Cherington’s reply to the Boston media was. Come opening day the GTE will  have $49M AAV contracts on the DL if you count Lackey’s $13M, Dice K’s $10M, Fatso Jenks’s $6M, and Coco’s $20M. Jesus the Christ that’s the kind of genius GMing I could do, who needs the Brookline Brat

A memo to Tommy Boy Ricketts in Chicago, you better be-careful kid, Epstein is ready to throw down for Yo-Ces, but after watching  Crawford, Lackey, Jenks, and Dice almost paralyze Cherington’s budget I wouldn’t let that school boy build me a dog house no less a baseball team.  Better keep Daddy’s money in an accessible account your gonna need it

This Crawford debacle reminds me of Beltran telling the Mets on 1/13/11 that he has decided to go under the knife. These guys can’t tune into their bodies a little sooner then mid January at what they’re getting paid? This guaranteed money is highway robbery I tell you, but if your gonna rob somebody it might as well be some billionaire schmuck chasing soccer Moms.

Speaking of Schmucks, didn’t Dancin Bobby V a few days ago say he had a phone conversation with Coco Crawford?  The meat of the article before Dancin Bobby dissed NY’s Pineda/Montero trade was Crawford sounds determined, determined to do what Bobby, stay out of your training camp, and hopefully get paid to stay out of Boston until May?

“He seemed very determined and understanding of the fact that things got spinning a little fast for him last year in a new environment. And he seems to be determined to correct that.”

With a little bit of luck  Dancin Bobby V will be dancing back to tending bar in Stamford by next January

Two guys the Bombers couldn’t come to terms with were Gardner and Martin

Gardner filed for $3.2 million while the Yankees offered $2.4 million (via Jon Heyman’s Twitter). Martin filed for $8.2 million while the Yankees offered $7 million (via Jon Heyman’s Twitter).

YES’ Yankees Baseball Daily with top YES man Bob Lorenz, Willie Randolph, a great addition BTW, Mousse Curry, and Tyler Big Eyes Kepner had a different line-up projected then I’ve been throwing around. I actually forgot that Cano has a better then excellent chance to snatch that 3 hole  in the order with Teixeira moving to the 5 slot behind Rodriguez. HollyWood Nick in the 6 hole, Amos Jones for now against LHP behind Nick and Martin and Gardner bringing up the rear. Jeter and Granderson grabbing the 1-2 spots in the order

Damon was the at the top of the want list as a platoon DH but as expected he’ll  probably make more money somewhere else, as will Carlos Pena so Matsui was in the mix as a good possibility. Unless the great Matsu’s knees are completely healed I’d stay away from him but again that DH spot doesn’t involve a lot of playing time as long as the team stays healthy so the panel felt he’d be a good fit, and you can’t argue with YES men..

If it’s my team I’d bring up Babe Vazquez and let him go for it, he can also spell Teixeira at first base. In 783 chances he made 6 errors and his fielding percentage was .992 what’s wrong with that?  The Big boy hit 32 HR’s at SWB and knocked in 98 runs, he also struck out 166 times in 500 PA’s and only walked 30 times. His OBP was .314 so he’s a long shot, but I’d try him anyway, get K Long to talk some sense into his approach and see if you can’t catch lightning in  a bottle. Or maybe he needs to play everyday, so I don’t know.

The panel also broke down the Pineda, Campos, Montero, Noesi, deal, it was good having Willie in on this segment. The buzz was Pineda needing that third pitch (change up) If the 23 year old can master that one he could possibly reach his potential and beyond.

Also on the agenda was Burnett and Hughes. Burnett”s money makes him the incumbent for that 5th slot in the rotation, the good problem to have is fitting 7 pitchers into 5 spots, we know Hughes could go to the pen so Freddy and Burnett will battle it out for that last chair.

Pineda Vazquez Similarities?

Over at our favorite Glass House, RAB, the Larry portion of their version of the Three Stooges rips into the Montero Pineda trade. It takes Larry awhile to get to the point but he finally comes clean that his man crush on Montero made Mike Ax’ melt down  a few days ago look like the Frankie and Jamie McCourt divorce proceedings

Larry compared Nicky DL Johnson to Montero and HR Javy Vazquez to Mikey Pineda. Hopefully he’s wrong, personally I never thought of it that way but it’s a welcome read chock full of all the ingredients that make the RABz our favorite bulls-eye

We shouldn’t get depressed over Larry’s cold shoulder toward Pineda, he admits he’s ready to fall in love as soon as he can start to dissect Mikey’s PITCHf/x data. So we’re looking at  a few months of empty  Turkey Hill ice cream containers and no doubt a scattered pile of Mary Higgins Clark mystery love triangle novels before we get Larry to realize that top of the rotation pitchers cost over $20M per and that Bud and his posse have hog tied the Bombers spending ways by inserting that new CBA soft salary cap .

We all enjoyed Monty in pinstripes, maybe not to the point where we carry his photo in our wallet or put his September stats under our pillow as we rest our weary body for a long winter’s night. Soon Larry,  Mike Ax, and Joe Paw will lay themselves down to rest in a big field of tall grass, they’ll fall asleep and dream they were in a Hollywood movie and that Pineda, Nova, Banuelos, and Betances were the stars of that movie.This will really blow their minds, the fact that them, overfed, scraggly haired leaping gnomes could be writing about a NY Yankee team that is under the Luxury Tax and that they can finally in their lifetime bloviate in print about how the Bombers pitching staff’s  xFIP,yFIP,zFIP,Dips,EqA,ERA+,ISO and Lips are second to none.

The Yu Darvish sweepstakes are coming to an end within the next 48 hours, Wednesday is the deadline and all signs are pointing toward a deal getting done. Per the rumors we saw on Saturday Darvish and the Rangers are in-sync with the dough it’s the years. Darvish wants 5 yr’s the Rangers would like to hold on to him for 6, and the money is similar to Dice K’s contract 6 yr’s for $52M

It was obvious from the reports that Darvish was a better pitcher then Dice  the minimum deal would be close to the Seibu / Boston Nibbler’s numbers, and tweets coming from Rangers HotStove are indicating deal is in place. So less me and more Yu

Yanks avoid arb with Hughes

With this arbitration thing done Hughes has been spit shined and put on display in the Bombers store front window, IMO Mrs Hughes’ Son is now available in a trade, whether anybody wants to take the chance is still anybody’s guess but it is pretty crowded in the Yankee rotation with Sabathia, Kuroda, Nova, and Pineda the likely incumbents for the rotation. My guess is Freddy is the #5, Hughes is bait for a deal and Burnett is priority number one in terms of a salary dump.

Hughes of course would need to build up his value before anything substantial could be put in a package unless Cashman can find some GM asleep at the wheel, so there is a possibility Hughes either blows away Girardi in spring training or he’s shipped to the pen to join Mo, D-Rob, MFYS Soriano, Wade, and Boones Farm Logan. Hughes would be the long man I guess. You never have enough pitching is as over used as one day at a time but it’s true. so NY is going to camp with a stock pile of starters

Next Move A DH

Once Monty became a Mariner the very next thought we had after the shock of that deal subsided was what to do with the #6 hole in the line-up. Monty really had no future as a catcher, no athleticism to be an out fielder and his footwork resembled Don Butch on the dance floor but he was one hell of a sight batting 6th protecting Cano.

We woke up in a cold sweat thinking perhaps Johnny Drama would be back in pinstripes. Seriously/ to be honest, as a platoon DH he would work, but where would you hit him, 7th? Damon was a good top of the order guy but Girardi isn’t moving Jeter and I doubt he’ll mess with the success The Grandbino has had in the 2 hole.

If the Binder wants to go left /right in the batting order Damon would bat 7th behind HollyWood Nick I would assume. Anyway Damon will get  a better offer then $1.5 or $2M so we won’t have to take out the one hand clap track and brush up on that technique, unless Johnny Drama wants to play for a winner and possibly grab another ring in November

The Carlos Pena rumors were interesting but Pena is a Boras client, he spent one yr in exile on the North side of Chicago and rumor is he did create some value for himself so kiss that notion goodbye I would think.

Next name on the rumor mill is  the Great Matsui as an option maybe even Vladimir Guerrero. The Great Martsu really had an off year so I don’t know, maybe there is no rush to fill this spot, CashMan has been patient and on paper at least he’s done pretty good so far. TBC

We haven’t heard anything on Eric Chavez since January 7th, so also up for grabs is that final bench spot. I was wondering about the back up catcher role but my guess is Romine goes to triple A for more seasoning and Cervelli grabs that spot with Austin breathing down his neck first sign of incompetence. It should be interesting to see how the Bombers approach Russell Martin’s arbitration date.

Do they pay him for 1 year to avoid the mud slinging  in the arbitration hearing? Do they extend him long term and let Romine swim in the shallow end of the pool for 2 or 3 years before handing him the gig? Again we’re a day away from finding out with the deadline approaching

Mike makes you wanna turn into a Hockey fan or woman’s tennis here. Find a girlfriend Mikey

Scary Stat of the Day Segment

What I want to know is who wrote this stuff for ESPN Bobby Valentine? Damn, sounds like both teams made a mistake if you buy these metrics. the Kuroda stuff is even scarier. If you check the splits you’ll find Pineda gave up 9 Hr’s at home and 9 away, so a light at the end of the tunnel. Does ESPN own a minority share in the GTE? What we need to do is find out how much of that got hit pretty hard came in the second half of the season.

“Pineda made nine starts against the AL East last season and he got hit pretty hard, posting a 4.73 ERA and allowing eight home runs in 53 1/3 innings. Pineda was also considerably better in Safeco Field, a pitcher-friendly park”.

“He was 5-4 with a 2.92 ERA and .182 opponents’ batting average there last season, 4-6 with a 4.40 ERA and .234 opponents’ batting average on the road”.

Montero has significant power potential (.590 slugging percentage, four home runs in 69 plate appearances in 2011) but the right-hander will find it difficult to replicate that power in his new home park, Safeco Field.

Buster_ESPN Buster Olney

Interesting question raised by official:why is Cespedes playing? All he can do is hurt his value. Already red flags up about seeing sliders.

wholio23 Julio Gonzalez

by Buster_ESPN

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@Buster_ESPN Everybody here in DR is saying that, playing at night out of shape, no good idea, so far 0-6 with 4K

13 Jan

Congrats to the Giants,

 The  easy win sort of killed the experts take didn’t it? Sort of marginalizes the season don’t it? Kind of makes Mikey Football look silly saying this game was gonna come down to what QB had the ball last.  Tough to listen to 24/7 football chatter on the radio tearing one game apart all week for 168 hours straight. At least in baseball we get 5 or 6 games to rip apart a week. Hopefully the Giants can take out the 49er’s and go to another Super Bowl. By the end of the week we’ll know just how many fillings Brandon Jacobs has in his back teeth

It’s True, Yanks Talking to Pena and Damon

Doesn’t make much sense to bring in Carlos Pena money wise but it would be nice to have him that’s for sure. And with the DH opening of course Johnny Damon’s name has come up also TBC

Garcia Colon-itus

Like we’ve mentioned before the advent of Colon having a great half season has given the GTE a leg to stand on Re: not addressing their starting pitching. Valentine seems content to go to Spring Training with what he has, Saltalamacchia seems content to follow the Bombers template of Garcia and Colon. What the GTE aren’t coming to grips with is Colon had a stem cell procedure and was being monitored closely by Tony Pena a brilliant baseball mind in Winter ball, and Garcia was coming off a 12 win season with Chicago, not to mention Larry the Stable guy, Pena, and Martin were a great combination working with an unheralded pitching staff, Boston doesn’t have any of that in their organization.

First off they have a new pitching coach one who still has to prove he won’t Gil Meche the Boston staff, Saltalamacchia is no Russell Martin when it comes to pitchers having any confidence in his game calling or nursing pitchers through tough at bats, and the reclamation projects Cherington is bringing in are all rejects coming off injuries, so they’re your typical low risk high reward types.

We all killed the Bombers for signing Colon and Garcia and we all had to eat out words so we have to give Boston the benefit of the doubt, but IMO Boston saying NY did it so now it’s our turn to find lightning in  a bottle is whistling past the grave yard, it’s also a smoke screen hiding the fact that the front office did nothing substantial to get Dancin Bobby V  a qualified innings eater. Let’s hope they continue to be smarter then everybody else, that worked like a charm for us last year.

In a you can’t make it up segment

Bartolo Colon has signed with an Unknown Team

They’ll be playing an unknown schedule in an unknown league but the acquisition of Bionic Bart gives the unknown fanbase something to hope for this season. The unknown GM said Bartolo will be a big asset for the unknown youngsters on the team

Be My Valentine

Dancin Bobby V wasn’t that enamored with the Yankees acquiring Mikey Pineda

“Pineda, when I saw him in the first half (last season), he looked unhittable. In the second half, he looked OK,” the Red Sox manager said today before a Jimmy Fund charity event at Jillian’s, near Fenway Park. “I don’t know. (Seattle) saw a lot of him, and they traded him. And Kuroda’s a good pitcher — a year older than he was last year, pitching in the American League and not the National League, pitching in not a great pitcher’s ballpark (Yankee Stadium) from a great pitcher’s ballpark (Dodger Stadium). They probably upgraded from (Bartolo) Colon and (Freddy) Garcia. Probably. I don’t know. It seems it.”

Dancin Bobby V once again shows he has Zero Class. Let’s see The A’s saw a lot of Andrew Bailey and they traded him, and the Astros saw a lot of Mark Melancon and traded him, last I looked  neither guy was breaking the payroll bank Bobbie so they weren’t salary dumps..

The Morning After

Monty from Seattle

Jesus Montero who you had  a gut feeling was never the teacher’s pet in NY say the way Brett Gardner, Nick Swisher, or Russell Martin are was traded away in a shocking deal to Seattle for equally touted Mike Pineda. Also in the deal was another interesting swap of RHP’s, Hector Noesi goes to the Mariners and 18 year old Jose Campos a kid who just dominated A ball last season comes to the Yanks. Campos will most likely perch alongside Banuelos and Betances on the Bombers top 5 prospects list.

As much as I like Noesi the Bombers have Nova who Noesi resembles while Campos is said to have front of the rotation stuff, the overstocked pitching rotation in Seattle afforded them the luxury of trading away two of their top chips, while the thin Yankee rotation cost them their top hitting prospect in the system.

Losing Monty will create a huge hole in the middle of NY’s line up, personally I was looking forward to watching Monty spark Rodriguez and Teixeira and provide  much needed protection for Cano but que sera sera. Pineda on the other hand was off the charts good the first half of last season but basically trended down after the All Star break, so this was a deal that saw Montero sold high for  Pineda who’s upside and stuff obviously won the Yankees over and not the small sample size that saw him struggle to  a 5.12 ERA in the second half of 2011

What is impressive about Pineda are his over all splits, even with the 1-4  second half W-L record which is irrelevant when you pitch for Seattle and his plus 5 ERA, the kid misses bats, a plus 9 K/9 rate, a good BB rate roughly  3/9, he was murderous vs RHB, very good against LHB, he held hitters below the Mendoza line  from his 25th to 75th pitch on the pitch count chart, so you have to get him early or extremely late in a game, he was also very good with 5 days rest.

The Red Sox weren’t impressed they clobbered Pineda to a plus 1 OPS in one start while the Bombers just flailed away to a .683 OPS in 1 start. He seemed to hold the Orioles, Jays, and Rays, in check although he did get lit up pretty good in Fenway and Camden Yards. Over all In 171 innings last season he pitched to a 3.74 ERA and 3.42 FIP, striking out 173 and walking only 55. Hopefully he just ran out of gas as a young pitcher the second half of the season.

He’s already being anointed the #2 behind Sabathia but I wouldn’t go pinning any CY Young ribbons on the kid just yet but the Bombers could possibly have found a gem here if he pitches the way he did the first half of last season. I would think finally pitching for a team that is always in the hunt for a ring and one that can score runs will inspire the 22 year old Dominican youngster

The Bombers also tossed any lux tax worries out the window signing  free agent pitcher Hiroki Kuroda on a $10 million contract for one season. The 36-year-old righty was 13-16 with a 3.07 ERA for the Dodgers last season. Kuroda’s contract is pending a physical. Say what you want about trading away the beloved Montero, the Bomber front office is the anti John Herny here when it comes to spending on what you need to win.

This most definitely ends the Cespedes hunt, but opens up the DH spot, or not, the Bombers are loaded with DH contenders thanks to Rodriguez and Jeter needing days off in the field. An addition of a corner infielder and another OFer is now upfront on the acquisition list. This could also mean a battle for back up catcher between Cervelli and Romine, I seriously doubt they’d carry both light hitting back stops.

If you were  a sleepwalking Yankee fan this winter, the alarm just went off kids, this is a bona fide blockbuster deal..