Monday, October 7, 2013

Ask A Greedy Pinstripe: Edition One


We asked our twitter followers and readers to send us in their questions for this offseason for our first ever "Ask A Greedy Pinstripe" post here on the blog. This is much like your run of the mill mailbag type question scenario except we totally expect to do it better then every one else. Maybe that is me being sarcastic, maybe that is me being biased, and maybe you will never know which one.

Submit your questions for edition two on twitter by tweeting @GreedyStripes or by emailing us at the greedy pinstripes on g mail dot com. Now on to the questions!


I want to say first and foremost thank you to @ThaChosenOne as you are the first person to ever ask us a question for our Ask A Greedy Pinstripe portion of the site. #SlowGolfClap Okay now back to work.

I think the Yankees do not even know who they will target this off season, nobody does and nobody will until this whole Alex Rodriguez mess is sorted out. If A Rod is suspended like we all expect him to be then I think the Yankees will use that $27.5 million AAV to go after a combination of Masahiro Tanaka, Hiroki Kuroda, and Matt Garza in that order. I think we will go after at least two of those and ultimately end of signing one of them to a deal. Tanaka and Kuroda would be nice but I could not see us signing more then one of them if Garza is signed.

If we whiff on all three of these guys then I could see us going after an Ervin Santana, Tim Lincecum if he is not resigned by the Giants (although I think I would prefer him in the bullpen), and maybe even a Tim Hudson. We need a veteran starter or two to replace possibly Kuroda, Andy Pettitte, and Phil Hughes so the Yankees will be very active in the starting pitching market this offseason.


Good question here because the Yankees fans always want to know who the next hired mercenary and fan favorite will be and in 2014 I think it will be Jose Dariel Abreu. I know this is not the big splashes that we have grown accustomed to, this is not the Mark Teixeira or the CC Sabathia or the Alex Rodriguez additions we have grown to be spoiled by. I really think it goes to show you just how weak the free agent pool is in 2014 with all the teams locking up their young talent long term earlier then usual. While Abreu is not going to be anywhere near the top of anyone's free agency power rankings list he makes sense for the Yankees, in my opinion, as he fills a huge offensive hole while severely upgrading the DH position while also allowing us to give Mark Teixeira a night off or two every now and then. The Yankees will presumably not have many at bats for aging veterans outside of Derek Jeter in 2014, especially if Alex Rodriguez gets suspended, so we can afford to have a DH only type that delivers raw 30 home run power to the lineup, .250-.275 batting average and all.



Honestly this started out as a joke way back in the offseason before the 2009 World Series year and it has really taken fire. If you all remember that was the offseason the Yankees went on a huge spending spree signing CC Sabathia, Mark Teixeira, AJ Burnett, and traded for Nick Swisher a year after missing for the playoffs for the first time since the strike shortened 1994 season. I was posting on sports forums back then and had a pretty significant following there and started to tease about how we needed to "get greedy and get Manny (Ramirez). I, looking back and hindsight being 20/20 and all, guess I was kind of trolling because I wanted no part of Manny Ramirez on the team but I still clamored for the need for more right handed power and brought up how he could solve all of our runners in scoring position, clutch hitting, and postseason hitting woes all in one shot.

I decided to leave that site later in the 2009 season for another opportunity elsewhere and took, and I am not exaggerating in the slightest, 85%-90% of that forum with me to my new site. I did not know the following that I would accumulate taking on the "big shots" and the "veterans" of this very well known forum and when I asked why they decided to follow me it was always the way I handled myself during the Manny Ramirez debates and how they liked how I thought outside the box. We spent a few years over at the new place and had your typical "I am tired of working for someone else" and "I wanna be my own boss" kind of epiphany and decided to get into the blog world. Anyone who has ever started a blog knows that coming up with the name is first step and probably the hardest part for most but this came easy. Bryan Van Dusen and myself decided to name ourselves The Greedy Pinstripes and the rest is history.



I will assume that you mean David Price since there is no other Price available this offseason and to answer that question, um no? He is not a free agent, the Rays have not made him available yet, and will never trade him within the division and probably not within the American League if they can help it.

Masahiro Tanaka seems like an easy decision and the Yankees have been watching him very closely since the news broke that he would be posted this offseason. I think whether we get him or not depends on the new Japanese League posting system rules that are said to be implemented this November actually are or not. If we stick with the ole "highest bidder in a closed bid gets exclusive rights" system I think there is one team, the Chicago Cubs come to mind, will blow us out of the water simply because they can. If we go to the new proposed rules in time where the top three bidders are revealed and the player gets the decision of who he will negotiate with I think we will absolutely be in the top three and will be chosen by Tanaka.

Jose Abreu I think we should go after as I have been clamoring for him shortly after he defected from Cuba but we have only just recently heard that the Yankees are interested. Abreu has been hosting showcases at the Yankees minor league complex in the Dominican Republic so there is always that and at the end of the day I think the Yankees will sign Abreu because everybody thinks that they won't.



I think I can do a whole lot more than three but I will go ahead and stick to my top three for simplicity sake. Honestly I do not think the Yankees get under the $189 million luxury tax threshold.  If the YES Network ratings were not down over 30%, if we did not miss the playoffs in 2013, and we did not see failure after failure in the minor league system I think we would give it a real shot but they are, we did, and they did so there you have it. I am not expecting the Yankees to go all circa 2009 and sign the top three or four free agents but I can see us delaying the luxury tax threshold reset for a year or two.

Secondly I think the Yankees are going to go with a team that is at least 50% homegrown next season 25 man roster wise.  I think we have a home grown player at catcher in Francisco Cervelli, third base in Eduardo Nunez, short stop in Derek Jeter, second base with Robinson Cano, left field in Alfonso Soriano (yes I know he technically signed out of Japan so sue me), center field in Brett Gardner, right field eventually in Zoilo Almonte, two out of the five starting rotation spots in Adam Warren and Ivan Nova, and at least five out of the six or seven relievers that we will carry in David Robertson, Preston Claiborne, Dellin Betances, David Phelps, and Matt Daley. I also expect our back up catcher, Austin Romine, our back up infielder, David Adams, and our first in line for a starting rotation spot in Vidal Nuno will all be homegrown. I know, as I eluded to above, that many fans are expecting the Yankees to rebuild and retool but I cannot see it.

Finally what I think will surprise everyone is the fact that the Yankees and Brian Cashman will make zero, count them, zero trades this offseason. With the implementation of  the second wild card along with more and more teams locking up their young talent years before free agency  to long term deals means to me that more and more teams think that they are in it for the long haul. Also teams will be holding onto their talent for the July 31st trading deadline. I do not see any glaring salary dumps that the Yankees have seemingly fallen in love with and I cannot see the Yankees taking any of those guys while making a run at the $189 million luxury tax threshold so this will be another cold and long offseason for the Yankees and their fans.


That's it for this edition of Ask A Greedy Pinstripe. Once again if you want to be a part of the next edition of this please submit your questions as we will try to make this a frequent part of the blog. We like to let our readers and followers be heard and part of the discussion as much as we can because we are nothing without you guys. Go Yankees!

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Sorry for the Capatcha... Blame the Russians :)