Thursday, March 1, 2012

New Faces In Our Place

Yankees photo day has come and gone and here are some pictures of the new guys officially dawning the pinstripes. All pictures courtesy of Zimbio.com where the best sports pictures are taken and stored in my opinion. 

Raul Ibanez


Hiroki Kuroda


Michael Pineda

Spring Training Day 12

No news is good news? The Yankees really did not do anything today as far as conditioning drills, bullpen sessions, etc. Instead they rested and prepared for their exhibition game tomorrow against South Florida and preparing for their bonding event. Adam Warren is slated to get the start tomorrow against the university with a bullpen behind him consisting of  Brett Marshall, Dan Burawa, Juan Cedeno, Graham Stoneburner, Ryan Pope, and Kevin Whelan. The regular lineup will be batting behind this pitching barrage but only expect them to get an at bat or two each before the bench players and invites start getting time. Cano will not be in the lineup tomorrow or Saturday because he has been out due to his grandmothers funeral. Girardi expects him in his first game on Sunday.

George Kontos expects to throw for the first time tomorrow since he was set back with an oblique injury. All eyes will be on him since this is probably his last chance as a Yankee since he is on the 40 man roster, 27 years old, and not performing the way the Yankees would have hoped. I know he is not a Yankee anymore but AJ Burnett has broken his right orbital bone and will have surgery on Friday. He broke the bone when he was bunting and fouled a pitch off of his face. No word yet on how long he will be out for. Add Manny Delcarmen to the Yankees injured players this spring as he hurt his lat and is expected to miss four to five days with that. That is a huge setback for a guy that was a long shot to make the team anyway.

Tomorrow we finally have baseball, in whatever shape or form we can get it in. I , for one, am excited to see my team back on the field. Go Yankees!

Yankees make $16M offer to Adonis Garcia

From our friends over at River Avenue Blues

First of all... who? Judging from the scouting reports he seems like nothing special whatsoever so why Brian Cashman would want to give a 26 year old virtual unknown with average stuff a 6 year contract is beyond me but it is not my money right? Anyways, here is the write up.

Via Jorge Ebro (translated article), the Yankees have offered 26-year-old Cuban infielder Adonis Garcia a six-year contract worth $16M. The Athletics offered six years and $18M, and would keep Garcia at shortstop while the Yankees want to move him to the outfield. He could make a decision by next week.
Ben Badler’s scouting report (subs. req’d) from January isn’t exactly glowing. Garcia, a right-handed bat, stands only 5-foot-7, 180 lbs. with “some feel for hitting and surprising power for his size.” He hit .270/.313/.461 during his winter ball stint this offseason, with at least one dramatic homer. Badler says Garcia is “around an average runner” who has played second, short, and third in the past, though he spent most of his winter ball time in left field. Chances are the Yankees caught a glimpse of him this winter and really liked what they saw, but $16M seems a bit excessive.



Hal Confirms the $189m Goal

This morning Hal Steinbrenner confirmed that it is indeed the goal of the team to get team payroll at or under $189 million by 2014.
“The 189 in two years is definitely a goal of ours,” Steinbrenner said. “We’re not too far off. We’re going to have a very similar payroll this year to last year, but I think we have a better team. Somewhat of an accomplishment I guess, on paper anyway. We’ll see. But yes, that 189 is a real number, and we’re going to be shooting for it.”
I'm a numbers geek, as you've probably noticed in my writing. From using numbers to prove a player is good or bad, to looking into and organizing the Roster & Payroll page, I've always been interested in ways to prove my opinions. Some people are good with just saying "Player X is not that good", and that's fine for them. It's not fine for me.

I've already wrote articles, like this one about being able to sign Cole Hamels next offseason, concerning that $189 million goal. But until now it really wasn't confirmed by a front office member to be a true goal.

I understand wanting to save all the money the Yankees would by getting to $189 million in 2014 (and it's far from chump change), but I don't believe the team would feel too bad if they didn't get to that goal. We've all been shown how much the Yankees have spent on the Luxury Tax, or on Revenue Sharing, so doing so again can't be that big a deal (even though the Luxury Tax will be rising to 50%, instead of the 40% it was last season and this season).

Either way though I feel vindicated in talking about the austerity budget as much as I have. And we can move forward and keep it in mind without wondering if the front office is aiming for it or not.

Meet A Prospect : Brett Marshall


Brett Marshall has been now labeled a tommy john survivor after going under the knife in 2009. This all came  after being drafted in the 6th round by the Yankees in 2008, the same draft that they snagged Manny Banuelos. He has a pretty good sinker and looks to be a middle of the rotation starter for his ceiling following a very solid year in High A Tampa last year. Some scouts have even said that he is our best pitching prospect outside of the guys that are currently in AAA, Banuelos, Betances, Mitchell, Warren, and Phelps. This was obviously before the trade for Jose Campos but still should tell you something about where he ranks with scouts in our deep system.

Marshall was named the 2008 All Greater Houston Player Of The Year by the Houston Chronicle with a pitching line of 10-2,  2.27 era and 116 K's as a senior. Did I mention that he also batted clean up that season putting up a hitting line of .440 with 10 HR's and 49 RBI's? He signed a letter of intent to Rice University but the Yankees and their printing press were enough to lure him out of Sterling Texas High School and straight to the pros. Brett also has a brother, Chris, who is serving in the Army so a big thanks goes to him for all that he does for us.

Marshall possesses two fastballs, a 4-seamer that sits in the mid 90's and can touch the upper 90's at times and a 2-seamer that sits in the low 90's but has tons of movement against right handed hitters. He also throws a slider which has tons of late movement and has recently started tinkering with a curveball. He is averaging about 3 walks per 9 for the command is an issue but he has not been pitching that long so there is definite room for improvement. I fully expect Marshall to make the jump to AA Trenton this season, his age 22 season.