Sunday, March 2, 2014

Yankees Reportedly Offered Jhonny Peralta Three Years

Mike Puma's Twitter account told us that the Yankees offered Jhonny Peralta a contract this offseason to play third base. The Yankees offered a three year deal and news broke that the crosstown Mets offered Peralta a two year deal. Ultimately Peralta decided to go to St. Louis to be the Cardinals every day shortstop on a four year deal but Peralta would have been a huge upgrade for New York.

Ichiro Intends To Play "Many Seasons" Past 2014


Ichiro Suzuki is entering the last year of his contract with the New York Yankees just 258 hits away from 3,000 hits as a Major League player but the problem is Ichiro is 40 years old. Ichiro will be 41 years old in October but in an interview with Wally Matthews Ichiro said he intends to play "not just a few" but "many" seasons after this season. Ichiro also went on to say that "retirement from baseball is something I haven't even thought about. For me, I feel there's no reason for me to retire right now." If anyone has the work ethic and the love for the game to play well into his 40's it is definitely Ichiro Suzuki, good for him going out when he feels like he wants to, not because he feels like he has to.

Ichiro is no longer a starting outfielder for the Yankees but is preparing as he would be playing 162 games this season. Even as a backup Ichiro gives great defense in the outfield with an average of +17 UZR/150 the last two seasons. Ichiro is also very durable missing only 13 games in the last three seasons. Ichiro has a triple slash of .273/.305/.356 in his last three season and although in decline can still get it done at the plate and with his legs. If Ichiro wants to play ten more seasons I think he should and I think he could with ease, again good for Ichiro.





Yankees homer three times in 8-2 win over Blue Jays

Vidal Nuno gave up just 1 run in two innings of work today as the Yankees beat a team who's played pretty well lately, the Blue Jays, 8-2. In those two frames, Nuno also impressively struck out 3, so yea, he did give up a run, but it's not like he wasn't still sharp. 

Anyway, the Yanks full 8 runs in this one came on an RBI Single from Dean Anna, a rare 2-run Home Run from Eduardo Nunez, a Solo Home Run from Carlos Beltran (his first hit of the spring), an RBI Groundout from Corbon Joseph, and a 3-run Home Run from John Ryan Murphy. With this victory, the Pinstripes record on the year improves to a decent 4-2 going into Ivan Nova's start tomorrow against the 3-0 Nationals.

New York Yankees @ Toronto Blue Jays 3/2


The Yankees have won a couple games in a row this spring and are taking their talents to take on the Toronto Blue Jays. Vidal Nuno will get his second start of the spring while working on winning that 5th spot in the Yankees rotation.  This game will be televised at MLB Network on a delay and it doesn't look like anywhere else, bummer. Enjoy the day Yankees fans, here is the lineup:

Jacoby Ellsbury CF
Eduardo Nunez SS
Carlos Beltran DH
Adonis Garcia RF
Austin Romine C
Brendan Ryan 2B
Russ Canzler 1B
Dean Anna 3B
Ramon Flores LF

MLBAM Releases Details On New Player Tracker


Major League Baseball Advanced Media has released details on a new player tracker system and it could be huge for the game, especially for us in the sabermetrics community. This new system will track everything, and I mean everything, that goes on when the players are on the field. It will track the players route to the ball, the ball, maybe even the peanut vendor in the crowd, it's that impressive. We will finally be able to analyze and use everything in the game to evaluate a player now, not just some numbers on a stat sheet. This combines the stats and the eye test into one tell all system, I like it.

The plan is to have this system in all 30 Major League parks by the 2015 season but we will only see it is three stadiums in 2014, CitiField, Miller Park (imagine that Bud Selig), and Target Field.

Mark Newman of MLB.com broke the story, here is a quote from his piece SEEN HERE:

The goal is to revolutionize the way people evaluate baseball, by presenting for the first time the tools that connect all actions that happen on a field to determine how they work together. This new datastream will enable the industry to understand the whole play on the field — batting, pitching, fielding and baserunning — and enable new metrics for evaluation by clubs, scouts, players and fans.

For instance, on a brilliant, game-saving diving catch by an outfielder, this new system will let us understand what created that outcome. Was it the quickness of his first step, his acceleration? Was it his initial positioning? What if the pitcher had thrown a different pitch? Everything will be connected for the first time, providing a tool for answers to questions like this and more.

We have been having issues embedding videos from certain places, MLB.com being one of them, so if the embed doesn't work please click the link and watch the video. Wow.. that's all I have left, wow.

More Yankees Spring Training News & Notes 3/2


We brought you a few spring training news and notes earlier this morning and we have a bunch more to bring you now that we are a little closer to game time. I am excited because due to work, my wife and her need to shop, and all that grownup stuff this will be the first spring game I have been able to watch live and in it's entirety.

Michael Pineda threw another simulated game today to Scott Sizemore and Zoilo Almonte with Yankees pitching coach Larry Rothschild calling balls and strikes. Pineda got rave reviews from the players who talked of the movement on Pineda's pitches and a velocity that was estimated in the low 90's. Not bad for a guy that is coming off shoulder surgery two years ago.

Pineda will make his spring debut on Friday going three innings. Mark Teixeira is expected to make his spring debut either Thursday or Friday next week. Alfonso Soriano is expected to make his debut early to the middle of next week.

Masahiro Tanka will pitch next on Thursday against the Philadelphia Phillies. CC Sabathia is expected to throw a simulated game that day. Hiroki Kuroda will pitch again on Friday splitting time with Pineda and is expected to throw three innings as well.

Nik Turley has been shut down with arm soreness but is expected to begin throwing again tomorrow, probably just catch. Scott Sizemore slid into bases in the dirt today with no problem which was the last obstacle before being cleared to get into games after a second ACL surgery, good news for a guy fighting for the last bench spot.

David Herndon threw a simulated game today against Zoilo Almonte and Scott Sizemore, breaking one of Sizemore's bat. Herndon threw to Francisco Arcia.

Chad Jennings as always have the assignments from this morning:

Today’s bullpens:
Adam Warren (to Brian McCann)
Preston Claiborne (to Francisco Cervelli)
Brian Gordon (to Roman Rodriguez)
Chase Whitley (to Jose Gil)
· Today’s batting practice groups (in Tampa)
Group 1: Derek Jeter, Brian Roberts, Alfonso Soriano, Ichiro Suzuki
Group 2: Francisco Cervelli, Brett Gardner, Brian McCann
Group 3: Zoilo Almonte, Kelly Johnson, Scott Sizemore
· Today’s second string: C Gary Sanchez, 1B Francisco Arcia, 2B Corban Joseph, SS Yangervis Solarte, 3B Jose Pirela, LF Zelous Wheeler, CF Antoan Richardson, RF Addison Maruszak
· Today’s scheduled relievers: Bryan Mitchell, Shane Greene, Bruce Billings, Fred Lewis, Matt Daley (Dan Burawa, Chris Leroux and Mark Montgomery are also making the trip)

Are Qualifying Offers Ruining Baseball's Free Agency?


The question is simple, are qualifying offers ruining baseball's free agency season? The answer may not be so simple but it is hard to ignore the fact that it is early March and very capable players like Stephen Drew, Ervin Santana, and Kendrys Morales are still available, likely due to teams reluctance to give up draft picks.

While players like Ubaldo Jimenez have gotten nice sized deals they had to wait for them far longer than he probably would have or should have under the old system. Nelson Cruz rejected a $14.1 million qualifying offer and settled on a one year deal worth $8 million with the Baltimore Orioles. It was definitely not his ties to Biogenesis that caused that because look at the deal that Jhonny Peralta got with his ties from the Cardinals, four years and $52 million.

Look at last years qualifying offers, Michael Bourn did not sign until mid February due to his draft pick attachment. Nick Swisher was one of the better outfield players available and did not sign until nearly January. Adam LaRoche did not sign until the second week of January and simply re-upped with the Nationals rather than going elsewhere, David Ortiz also went back to the Red Sox rather than testing the market. Rafael Soriano was the best closer on the market and did not sign until the middle of January. Go figure though, BJ Upton signed in the middle of November. Kyle Lohse signed on March 25th, that's not a typo! This is broken!

The only way the qualifying offer system works is if the teams like the Yankees, Red Sox, Angels, Dodgers, etc. are buying these players. When they are not this will severely hurt the players and in my opinion the game. It's no coincidence in my opinion that all 13 players this season rejected their qualifying offers and they all rejected them last season as well. We have this system through the 2016 season when the new collective bargaining agreement is up and I think when it comes up again this will be rejected again. Until then this is a big problem and it is ruining baseball's free agency and hot stove season.

New York Yankees Spring Training News & Notes 3/2


The Yankees take on the Toronto Blue Jays today on the road but we have a few news and notes from this early Sunday morning before the game including an injury update to Alfonso Soriano.

Soriano has been scratched from today's game, which was supposed to be his spring debut, because he is still not feeling quite right from this fight with the flu bug. Soriano saw a doctor and Joe Girardi said it may be a few more days before Soriano gets to full strength and can get in a game.

Dean Anna made manager Joe Girardi put his name on the lineup card today after a strong showing at shortstop yesterday, today he is playing third base. Anna made that awesome play in the hole at shortstop and singled, stole a base, and scored a run yesterday.


Yankee Stadium Legacy: #29 Billy Martin


Billy Martin was aggressive on the field and strong minded in the dugout when he was the manager and member of the New York Yankees. Martin was an asset for the Yankees in the 1950's. In 1953 Martin hit a career high in home runs with 15 and also drove in 75 RBI's. In 1956 we may have all seen Martin's best season as he scored 76 runs and was named to the MLB All Star Game. Martin managed the Yankees five or six times but whose counting.

This Day In New York Yankees History 3/2


On this day in 1927 Babe Ruth became the highest paid player in Major League history at the same when the Yankees announced that the Bambino will make $70,000 per season on a three year contract. Ruth asked for $100,000 but Colonel Jacob Ruppert and Yankees owner got him to agree for less.