Thursday, July 17, 2014

Yankees Sign Rich Hill To Minor League Deal

The New York Yankees have signed right handed starting pitcher Rich Hill and have assigned him to Triple-A with the Scranton RailRiders. Looks like the Yankees are finally on the prowl for minor league pitching depth since losing four of their five starting pitchers this season to injury.

Billy Eppler Finalist For San Diego GM Job


The San Diego Padres are taking their time looking for a general manager to replace Josh Byrnes and assistant GM of the Yankees Billy Eppler is a finalist for the job. Joining Eppler, the San Diego native, is Red Sox assistant GM Mike Hazen, Rangers assistant GM A.J. Preller, and MLB executive Kim Ng.

San Diego would also be interested in bringing back Kevin Towers if the Arizona Diamondbacks were to let go of their GM so that may be the explanation for San Diego seemingly dragging their feet.

Forbes Ranks Yankees 4th In World Ranking Sports Franchises


Forbes has once again released their Top 50 list of the most valuable sports franchises in the world and the New York Yankees have come in at the #4 spot. The Yankees are worth an estimated $2.5 billion and trail only Real Madrid ($3.44 billion), Barcelona ($3.2 billion), and Manchester United ($2.81 billion). Who knew soccer teams were worth so much money? The Dallas Cowboys ranked fifth at $2.3 billion while the Los Angeles Dodgers are ranked sixth at $2 billion. Here's a quote from the article:

“The Yankees are the most valuable non-soccer team in the world with a worth of $2.5 billion,” writes Kurt Badenhausen. “TV is driving the value of the Bronx Bombers. Fox exercised its option to increase its ownership of the Yankees’ regional sports network, YES, to 80% earlier this year (Yankees Global Enterprises, which is majority owned by the Steinbrenner family retains 20%). As part of the deal, the programming rights fee for the Yankees starts at $105 million (including the amortized value of a $400 million upfront payment) and will hit $350 million a year by 2042.”

Francis Excited to Join Yankees, Pitch in the Bronx

While you could make a strong argument that recent Yankees acquisition Jeff Francis isn't necessarily going to make a difference, you can't ignore the possibility that he could end up being an asset.

Francis, a 33-year-old veteran who was traded from the A's to the Yanks back on July 11, has gone just 0-1 with a 6.08 ERA so far this season, numbers much worse than the ones he use to put up as a Colorado Rocky. 

Now whether those stats improve or not is obviously yet to be known, although one thing you can't hate about the guy is the fact that he's at least excited to wear Pinstripes, something he told MLB.com's Bryan Hoch earlier this week.

"It's probably been said a hundred times over, but (Yankee Stadium has) a lot of history, even though it's new," Francis said. "The team has a lot of history, so it's something that I'm looking forward to."

Since starting his big league career with the aforementioned Rockies back in 2004, Francis has surprisingly never pitched in the Bronx, a rarity that could motivate him in the near future.

Who knows? Maybe all the struggling lefty needs right now is a change of scenery.

New York Yankees Award Winners At The Break


With today being the last day of the All Star break and All Star week we want to take a look at who takes home the major awards for the New York Yankees. I think we can all agree with the fact that Masahiro Tanaka has been the Yankees MVP this season with the emphasis on valuable but for simplicity sake I stayed away from that. These are just for fun so enjoy:

Offensive MVP: Brett Gardner

Defensive MVP: Mark Teixeira

Cy Young: Masahiro Tanaka

Mariano Rivera Award : David Robertson

Comeback Player of the Year: Derek Jeter

Rookie of the Year: Dellin Betances

Most Likely To Improve In Second Half: Brian McCann

Most Likely To Regress In Second Half: Ichiro Suzuki

Most Likely To Be Traded: Shane Greene

Most Likely To Be Designated For Assignment: Kelly Johnson

Most Likely To Be Demoted: Chase Whitley

Most Likely To Be The Best: Daniel Burch


First Rule Of Fight Club Should Be "Don't Be A Douche"


The first rule of Fight Club should be don't be a douche, that should cover about everything including talking about it. I had to wait a full day to let this sit and digest because when I woke up yesterday I was angry, truly angry. I promised to go to bed after Derek Jeter was taken out of the game and I am a man of my word. When I woke up yesterday morning I woke up to a certain individual, who will remain nameless, being an absolute jerk to a very good friend of mine on Twitter.

Why was he being a jerk you ask? Because my friend the Mighty Casey is not a MLB insider, never claimed to be an MLB insider, and probably doesn't want to be an MLB insider. Casey was asked who the Yankees would give up to get Troy Tulowitzki and said, paraphrasing here, that he did not know because he wasn't in the meetings. Totally legit and honest answer that apparently angered this one Twitter user.

How did Casey handle it? With class, respect, and patience like it should be. We're all adults here, I graduated High School and had no plans of going back for obvious reasons. Casey is not retarded, the farthest from a prick, he's not a poser, and he's not embarrassing. Casey is a FAN and runs his site as a FAN, not as an "expert."

This user was ballsy enough to harass and insult a guy who would give you the #BYB shirt right off his back both literally and figuratively. Casey and his site are different by design and it's truly refreshing and enjoyable to read something besides the same recycled robotic garbage. Casey does it different and Casey does it well and that's all that matters. Keep it up Casey and don't let the little people get to you.

Please don't be a douche. We're all adults here and we can all be successful and respectful without stepping on each other's toes. We can disagree with each other and not burn bridges and make ourselves look like "retarded pricks" and "embarrassing" in the process. Be a leader, be a teacher, and be a trend setter. Don't bring the rest of us down by giving us a bad name. If you can do better I challenge you to open up your own shop, hell I'll help you. Just don't be a douche. Thanks for listening.

#DontBeADouche

The Big Three Yankee Acquisitions At The Break


We're off today so no better chance to check in on the big three Yankees acquisitions and how they are doing at the All Star break. This is especially significant since Brian Cashman is a free agent at the end of this season and the Yankees are right at the .500 mark struggling for a playoff spot.

Brian McCann
Year Age G R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS OPS+
2014 30 85 31 73 10 1 10 39 21 49 .239 .294 .377 .671 86
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table

Brian McCann is making $17 million this season and has been worth $6 million

Carlos Beltran
Year G R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS OPS+
2014 61 22 50 16 0 9 28 18 42 .216 .271 .401 .671 84
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table

Carlos Beltran is making $15 million this season and has been worth $4.6 million

Jacoby Ellsbury
Age Tm G R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS OPS+
30 NYY 91 44 100 20 2 6 42 24 5 35 63 .282 .346 .400 .746 108

Jacoby Ellsbury is making $21,142,857 this season and has been worth $10.3 million


Not a great start but there is plenty of time to turn things around. Hopefully these three get going out of the gate and lead the Yankees to the postseason.

Yankees Off Day Walk Up Music: Brian McCann


Just one more day before the Yankees get back to work tomorrow night in Yankee Stadium when they host the Cincinnati Reds. While we enjoy our last off day we look at the walk up music of Brian McCann. When I thought to start posting these walk up music recommendations I wanted to stay away from McCann because of his choice of DJ Khaled's "All I do is win" for obvious reasons. McCann seems revitalized and has hit well recently and seems primed to be the most improved player in the second half for the Yankees.

All he does is win? I hope so. Enjoy the day Yankees family.

This Day In New York Yankees History 7/17 Reggie Jackson Suspended For Five Games


Reggie Jackson and Billy Martin was the epitome of the Bronx is Burning era and on this day in 1978 the feud only got worse as Jackson was suspended for five games by the New York Yankees. In a Yankees loss the future Hall of Fame outfielder was told to swing away by Martin and instead struck out while attempting to bunt.

And finally on this day in 1941 Joe DiMaggios' record streak of hitting in 56 straight games ended as the Indians third baseman Ken Keltner robbed DiMaggio more than once. DiMaggio batted .408 during the streak and would start another 17 game streak after this game hitting in 73 of his last 74 games.