Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Greedy Pinstripes Elf On A Shelf Waiting Up For Santa


Santa loves his cookies....

Twas the Night Before Christmas - Yankee Edition

'Twas the Night Before Christmas and all through the land,
Not a Yankee was stirring, not even Cashman.
Stockings not red were hung at the Stadium with care
In hopes that Drew and Tanaka soon would sign there,
The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of the Sandman danc'd in their heads,

And Mama in her visor, and I in my NY cap,
Had just settled our brains for a long winter's nap --
When out on the grass there arose such a clatter
I sprang from my box seats to see if it was a batter.
Away to the plexiglass I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shades, and threw my beer in the trash.

The moon through the frieze lit the new fallen snow,
Giving the luster of mid-day to the ball field below;
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a man in a hat, it was Derek Jeter,
With a group of petite women, so lively and quick,
I already knew that this man's luck made me sick.

More rapid then Ellsbury, his courters they came,
And he took their cell phones as he called them by name:
"Now! Alba, now! Carey! now! Biel and Union,
On! Minka, on! Brewster! Banks and Johansson;
To the short right field porch! To the center field wall!
Now go to your places, I have time for you all!"

As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky;
So up to their places the courters they flew,
Sans cell phones, hoping to be with #2:
And then in a twinkling I heard on the roof
The prancing and pawing of someone aloof.

As I drew in my head, and was turning around,
Into the box suite, A-Rod came tumbling down
He was dressed in Armani from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished like his run at the record book;
A bundle of P.E.D.s was flung on his back,
And he looked like a PEDdler just caught in the act;

His eyes how they burned like the color of cherry,
His cheeks were like roses, his arms were like Barry's
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow
And the beard on his chin--don't let Steinbrenner know!
The wad of bubble gum he held tight in his teeth,
As he turned to the window to see his friend Jeet.

Right behind him came a tall man with a belly
That shook when he laughed, like a bowl full of jelly;
He was chubby and plump, a big jolly old elf,
I was relieved when I saw him, C.C. you're finally your self!
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head
Soon gave me to know the rotation was nothing to dread.

He spoke just few words, and went straight to his work,
Telling A-Rod to shut up; cause he was being a jerk,
And laying his finger aside of his nose
And giving a nod, out the door they both go.
They sprung to their limos, to DJ gave a whistle,
And away they all flew, like Gardner the missile

But I heard Jeter claim, ere he drove out of sight --
"Even though this team is old, we'll still be alright!"

What I Want For Christmas: Get Greedy


Christmas Eve, still technically twelve hours left of Christmas shopping before Santa Clause makes his big debut. If you didn't get my mass email containing my likes, needs, sized, color preferences, and other Christmas presents here is another one for you last minute shoppers. I want the Yankees to continue to make me proud, I want the Yankees to continue to make me feel justified in creating a blog named The Greedy Pinstripes, I want the Yankees to get greedy and get everybody.

Blow up the Hal cap, screw the luxury tax, and spend money like the world won't be here in 2020. The Yankees still have a few holes to fill and instead of being money conscience or trying to bargain shop let's remember that we are the team that has already signed Carlos Beltran, Jacoby Ellsbury, Brian McCann, and Kelly Johnson. Sign starting pitching, sign relief pitchers, sign positional players, sign them all. THEN you start making trades. Get Greedy and tell Bud Selig to go to hell. Merry Christmas all!

News & Notes From This Past Week

Like most people, I've been pretty busy recently (I think there's some holiday coming up), so my weekly recap was pushed back a couple of days. I'm actually driving 450 miles later today to be with my family, and then I have to drive 450 miles back to central Ohio since I work on Thursday. By this time next week I'm going to be so happy.


So let's see what's happened lately...
  • The Yankees signed two players without spending $100+ million! First, the team acquired Brian Roberts on a one-year deal worth $2 million plus incentives. Roberts has missed a ton of time over the past four years due to a really bad concussion suffered in May of 2011, along with having surgeries on his right hip labrum and right hamstring in 2012 and 2013. I think he'd make a fine player when healthy, but the last time that happened was the same year the Yankees last won the World Series, which for us Bombers fans seems like decades ago. While Roberts is unlikely to be the everyday second baseman, his experience along with switch-hitting ability will be nice.
  • Matt Thornton will also be joining the Yankees for 2014 and 2015, after signing a two-year contract worth $7 million. I thought the Yankees would be okay when it came to lefty relievers, thanks to having a choice between David Huff, Cesar Cabral, and Vidal Nuno, but Cashman and company thought otherwise (again.... UGH!). From 2008 to 2010, Matt was an awesome reliever, striking out 11 batters per nine innings. Unfortunately that strikeout rate has fallen each season since 2010, all the way to 6.2 batters per nine innings last year. But Thornton is still very effective against left-handed batters, as they could only muster a batting line of .235/.267/.370 against him in 2013. I think the team could still use somebody like Grant Balfour to pair with David Robertson in the last couple of innings, but bringing Thornton on board definitely makes up for the loss of Boone Logan.
  • The new posting system between Nippon Professional Baseball and Major League Baseball, which we've known about for a while now, was made official last week. The posting team can request any amount up to $20 million, and any team that agrees to that price can negotiate with the player. Soon after that various reports saying Tanaka would be posted, Tanaka would not be posted, and Tanaka might be posted popped up. That means somebody will be right, somebody will be wrong, and many others wasted our time.
  • The Yankees offered Shin-Soo Choo $140 million for seven years, only $13 million less than they gave Jacoby Ellsbury, but Choo and his agent Scott Boras turned it down. I'm a fan of Choo, as I love the fact that he gets on base around 40% of the time, but I think that's a bit much for a guy that can't hit left-handers. Sure, you're going to face a righty more often, but if you're making $20 million a year you should be able to hit anybody. This non-signing led to the Yankees signing Carlos "The Mets Can Suck It" Beltran.
  • Speaking of Carlos Beltran, his signing was finally made official on Friday. At the press conference on Friday, Carlos had plenty of negative things to say about the Mets, who clearly soured on Beltran towards the end of his time playing for New York's red-headed stepchild of a baseball team. The Mets openly criticized Carlos for missing a visit to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center (Beltran was busy building a high school in Puerto Rico), and for the knee surgery he had in 2011. But when Carlos said "when they say all of that, of course I was hurt because you can’t believe the organization that signed you for seven years is trying to put you down" I had to laugh. I mean, the Yankees signed Alex Rodriguez for ten years and they seem to be doing all they can to get out of that deal.
  • Kevin Youkilis, who just missed out on winning the American League MVP award in 2013, signed with the Rakuten Golden Eagles in Japan. The Yankees and every other MLB team didn't want Youk, so he figured this was the only way he could possibly play on the same team as Masahiro Tanaka.
  • The Yankees were hit with a $28.1 million Luxury Tax bill for last season. They weren't alone, unlike just about every other year, as the Dodgers had to cough up $11.4 million themselves. After a quick search through their couch cushions at home, Hal and Hank Steinbrenner gave Bud Selig a bunch of bags with the money symbol on them, while apparently smirking and saying "whatever" under their breath.
I'm not expecting the Yankees to pull a "Teixeira" and sign somebody right before Christmas, so we can all relax for the next couple of days. But before I head out for my 900 mile round trip I want to thank each and every one of you for sharing our passion for the Yankees, and wish you a safe and happy holiday.

Yankees Stadium Legacy: #98 Randy Johnson


Randy Johnson was a 6'10" left handed pitcher that threw 100 MPH and once obliterated a bird on the mound just to show off his command, sarcasm, it was definitely a freaky mistake so call of PETA. Randy was a Yankee during the 2005 and 2006 seasons and won his 250th game of his career at Yankees Stadium when he beat the Oakland Athletics 6-4 on 5/15/05.

98 days until Opening Day

Tanaka Posting Could Come Today Or Tomorrow


The Masahiro Tanaka sweepstakes, that on again and off again girlfriend a lot of us have had in our lifetimes, may be on again as soon as today. The Rakuten Golden Eagles have been going back and forth on whether to post their star starting pitcher and news broke that we may get an announcement, either way, on either Christmas Eve, today, or Christmas Day. Leave it to the Japanese to upstage a holiday for us.

Various travel problems and appearances have kept Tanaka from meeting with the Golden Eagles to finalize any kind of deal until yesterday reportedly and we are expecting some kind of announcement today. We may finally know today whether the Golden Eagles will take the $20 million from the Yankees for the 25 year old right handers services in pinstripes/

Stay tuned today as we will have it as soon as it breaks, unless Santa is here then it may be delayed.

This Day In New York Yankees History 12/24


On this day in 2002 the Yankees officially got the name the "Evil Empire" from the Boston Red Sox when they reached an agreement from free agent Jose Contreras. The 31 year old right handed Cuban defector would sign a four year deal.

Also it is highly unreported that on this day George Steinbrenner bought Santa Claus from the North Pole for season tickets to the new Yankee Stadium.