Thursday, January 9, 2014

Josh Spence Signs With The Miami Marlins


Last season Josh Spence was signed as an insurance policy for the Yankees rotation and bullpen and spent the entire 2013 season in the minor leagues. Spence spent the entire season at AAA posting a 3.98 ERA with an impressive 8.6 K/9 ratio and will spend the 2014 season in the Miami Marlins system. Spence signed a minor league deal today with Miami and will be entering his age 25 season next year. Spence is a left hander and has a career 3.15 ERA in 40 Major League innings. Good luck to you Josh and I hope you get the chance to showcase your Aussie talents in the majors next season.

Dan Le Batard Tells The BBWAA "You're My Daddy"


Dan Le Batard screwed with the integrity of the game, the integrity of the Hall of Fame, and his own integrity when he basically, for lack of a better word, sold his Hall of Fame vote to the popular website Deadspin. Le Batard is a writer for the Miami Herald and now a former Hall of Fame voter, maybe they will give me his vote I would put it to good use.

Basically, long story short, Le Batard gave his vote to Deadspin and Deadspin in turn gave it to their readers and that is a big no no. Le Batard will never vote for the Hall of Fame ever again and is banned for one year from baseball press boxes.  Here is the statement:

The BBWAA Board of Directors has decided to remove Dan Le Batard’s membership for one year, for transferring his Hall of Fame ballot to an entity that has not earned voting status. The punishment is allowed under the organization’s constitution. In addition, Le Batard will not be allowed to vote on Hall of Fame candidates from this point on. The BBWAA regards Hall of Fame voting as the ultimate privilege, and any abuse of that privilege is unacceptable. -BBWAA President La Velle E. Neal IIIJanuary 9, 2014

Masahiro Tanaka Is In The United States


I am seriously considering renaming this blog to MasahiroTanakaPinstripes.com because it feels like that is all I talk about lately but I digress. Tanaka is now stateside on the day that marks the halfway mark in his 30 day negotiating window. Tanaka plans to meet with teams immediately and has flown to Los Angeles to meet with at least the Dodgers and the Angels and possibly the Athletics. Tanaka was originally slated to go to Chicago to meet with the Cubs and the White Sox but weather has changed his travel plans just a little.

Tanaka plans to meet with as many as a dozen teams today and tomorrow including the Dodgers, Angels, Cubs, White Sox, Yankees, Diamondbacks for sure. There is always a surprise team or a mystery team thrown in there that we never heard about but one team is obviously absent, the Seattle Mariners. It is still unclear whether the Toronto Blue Jays will have a face to face with Tanaka or not so only one way to find out, stay tuned to Masahiro Mania.

Japanese Posting System Cut Into Four Payments


Earlier in the week we learned that the Japanese posting fee of $20 would be split up over two years to help smaller market teams compete for Japanese free agents. Today we learned that these payment swill be split up in four easy payments of only $19.99. Not really, obviously, as that was my failed attempt at humor, sorry.

Here is how the payments are broken down:


  • 50% of the posting fee is to be paid 14 days after the player has signed. $10 million in the case of Masahiro Tanaka. 
  • 17% is due six months and 12 months after the player has signed for a total of $3.4 million for each payment. 
  • 16% of the posting fee will be paid within 18 months of the player signing for a final payment of $3.2 million.


In a world where there is luxury tax, teams getting kickbacks from television networks, profit sharing, and all that good stuff I don't get it. Even the Houston Astros or the Tampa Bay Rays can pay $20 million you would think for Tanaka. Oh well, whatever gets Tanaka in pinstripes.

Jayson Nix Signs With The Tampa Bay Rays


The New York Yankees have been signing a ton of middle infield depth for the minor leagues this season but that will not include Jayson Nix for a third season as he agreed to a minor league deal with the Tampa Bay Rays today. Nix knows that he would probably have been at the top of the ladder when an injury came, not if an injury came, but you can't blame him for being on the back burner on a team when he could be at the front of the pack for another. Good luck in Tampa Jayson and thanks for the memories, even if they weren't so great.

ARod Could Seek Injunction & Accept 65 Game Ban


According to the New York Daily News Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez could seek an injunction from a judge if he feels that arbitrator Frederic Horowitz's ruling is unfair, which is very likely. He is obviously very unlikely to get one from a judge but it is right to ask for one and with him suing the world lately why not right? The NYDN also reported that Alex would accept a 65 game or less suspension without a fight which I think is absolutely fair and what he should receive anyway. This would obviously match the suspension that Ryan Braun accepted last summer in the same Biogenesis fallout. Just waiting on you Horowitz.

Mike Mussina Was Better Than Tom Glavine


Mike Mussina was a better starting pitcher in his career than Tom Glavine, write it down because that is a fact. Sure Mussina did not pitch far too long in search of 300 wins, Moose went out on top, but Moose was better. I want you all to notice that I did not say there was a huge gap between the two but, in my opinion, the numbers do not lie. Let's take a look:

18 seasons | 3562 IP | 123 ERA+ | 82 ERA- | 7.11 K/9 1.98 BB/9 | 3.58 K/BB
22 seasons | 4413 IP | 118 ERA+ | 86 ERA- | 5.32 K/9 | 3.06 BB per 9 | 1.74 K/BB

Imagine if Moose had pitched until he was 42 years old and not until he was 39, almost 40. Imagine if Moose had pitched four more seasons like Glavine did. Imagine if Moose pitched im the then much weaker offensively National League and not the American League East. Imagine if Moose had gotten more than 20.3% of the Hall of Fame vote, like say Glavine's 91.9%

Yankee Stadium Legacy: #82 David Wells


In the first of his two stints with the New York Yankees David Wells followed a 16-10 season in pinstripes by going 18-4 for New York in 1998. His 18 wins helped him lead the American League in winning percentage (.818), WHIP (1.045), and shutouts with five. Wells finished third in the AL Cy Young Award voting  and capped his stellar 1998 season with an ALCS MVP AWARD and a World Series ring.

82 days until Yankees Opening Day

RANT: Steroid Users Hit Hard In Hall of Fame Voting


As everyone knows by now, whether you agree with it or not, I am a huge advocate for forgiving steroid users and the players associated with them in the Steroid Era. I am not a member of the Baseball Writers Association of America so I do not get a vote unfortunately and it's probably a good thing because I may shake up the system. The current system is flawed and ruining the prestige and the aura behind Cooperstown. The Hall of Fame and the voting is now a sham, a joke, and being compared to the NFL's Pro Bowl that nobody watches. This is not the players fault, especially the ones that took steroids, this is the writers fault and it's a damn shame.

Yesterday I did not expect to come home and read that Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds made the hall but the vote was downright embarrassing. The best players in the history of this great game are supposed to go into the hall, bottom line. Sure you can make exceptions, see Shoeless Joe Jackson for example, but this has gone far enough and is now beginning to make the game as a whole look bad.  If you're not going to wipe the record books and make Hank Aaron the all time home run king again and you're not going to say that no pitcher has ever won seven Cy Young Awards then you have no right or basis to keep these men out of the hall.

I really hate ranting this early in the morning so I will simply end it here before I am annoyed for the rest of the day. Here are the results from yesterdays voting for the devils of this great game of baseball. You know those terrible, horrible, no good very bad guys who brought the game back after Commissioner Bud Selig and his greed cancelled the World Series and almost ruined the game.

Sammy Sosa, 7.2 percent
Mark McGwire, 11.0 percent
Roger Clemens, 35.4 percent
Barry Bonds, 34.7 percent

This Day In New York Yankees History 1/9


On this day in 1903 Baltimore's American League franchise is sold to Frank Farrell and Bill Devery for $18,000 and is moved to New York. The Manhattan team will be known as the New York Highlanders before being renamed the Yankees in 1913.