Thursday, December 31, 2015

Remembering 2015: Andrew Miller


2016 is a Leap Year & the New York Yankees


If you didn't know the year 2016 is going to be a bit of a special one. It's Leap Year where every four years, basically, we have 366 days in our year instead of 365 days like in a traditional year. The reasoning behind this is because, and you can Google the exact numbers if you'd like but for the purposes of this post they are really just irrelevant, the year on the calendar is roughly 365 days and five hours and change. If we didn't do the leap year the calendar would simply get farther and farther behind the longer the timeline. Anyway, I said all that to say this. It's Leap Year, what does that mean for the New York Yankees?

Well if history is any indicator of the future the 2016 season may be a good one for the New York Yankees. In recent memory, recent memory being any year I have been alive, we have seen a leap year in 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012. How did the Yankees fare in those seasons?

Let's ignore the 1988 Yankees. They finished with just an 85-76 record and finished in 5th place within the AL East Division. They were terrible and George Steinbrenner was just about to be suspended. Billy Martin and Lou Piniella were the managers and the team was stocked full of talent including Dave Winfield and Rickey Henderson. It just didn't work out.

The 1992 Yankees is the team that started to show the fans some glimmer of hope. Buck Showalter was the manager, Bernie Williams was coming through the system, J.T. Snow was showing promise and the team looked like they far outplayed their 76 victory season.

In 1996 and 2000 the Yankees won the World Series. During the 2004 season there was a strike and the rest of the ALCS and World Series was cancelled despite the Yankees being up 3-0 over the Boston Red Sox an the Yankees missed the playoffs completely in 2008. This was the first time the Yankees had missed the postseason since the 1994 strike-shortened season. The 2012 Yankees made it all the way to the ALCS before Derek Jeter broke his ankle and the Yankees were swept away by the Detroit Tigers.

In closing the Leap Year Yankees is a very mixed bag of results here. The team could miss the playoffs entirely, suffer devastating and historic losses in the playoffs, or win the World Series. Nobody knows, that's why we play the games.

Disclaimer. The Yankees could go out and lose 162 games next season. They could also win 100, this post was for fun and hopefully you all treat is as such. Thank you. 

Remembering 2015: Nathan Eovaldi


The 2015 TGP Awards


Welcome ladies and gentleman to the second annual The Greedy Pinstripes Award Show live from Yankee Stadium. We're going to be doing things a little bit differently this time around and we're not going to be handing out the traditional awards. We already know who the MVP is and who the Cy Young and Rookie of the Year Award candidates were for 2015. Those are given out by the BBWAA and the IBWAA, here at The Greedy Pinstripes we have a different set of awards to be given out.

The first award of the night is the "Andruw Jones" award for the player we are likely to rather see elsewhere by June of 2016. This is in no way, shape or form meant to be a slap in the face or an insult, sometimes the team and the fans are going in two totally different directions and the fans want what the fans want. The nominees are Carlos Beltran, Mark Teixeira, Alex Rodriguez, CC Sabathia and Aroldis Chapman. And the winner is..... Carlos Beltran!

Beltran should be decent with the bat but his defense in right field and his throwing arm out there is not getting any better. In fact it is only going to get worse the more mileage that gets put on those knees and right shoulder. Beltran was not here to accept the award on his own behalf.
The next award is called the "Scranton Shuttle" award and it will go to the player we think made the most trips back and forth between Scranton and the Major Leagues in 2015. The nominees are Caleb Cotham, Branden Pinder, Nick Goody, Nick Rumbelow and Chris Capuano. And the winner is, with 25 appearances in the MLB bullpen and the man who began the Scranton Shuttle in 2015, Mr. Branden Pinder.

Pinder was the first arm to begin the process of coming up, pitching a night, and going back down. Many did it before him but he was continuously called back to the majors when his 10-day window expired. Pinder was out of the country using his frequent flyer miles he built up during the 2015 season and was unavailable to accept the award on his own behalf. 

And the final award of the night goes to the player who got the greediest during the 2015 season. We call it the "Get Greedy" Award and it's the big one of the night. The nominees are CC Sabathia who will make the most in salary with $25 million, Jacoby Ellsbury who is making over $21 million next season and looking to bounce back from a tough 2015 season, Mark Teixeira who will go for the "contract year" in 2016 before hitting free agency presumably for the final time in his career or the entire Yankees bullpen who will likely throw more innings combined than the starting rotation in 2016. And the winner is... the Yankees bullpen!

None of Aroldis Chapman, Andrew Miller, Dellin Betances, Ivan Nova, Chasen Shreve, James Pazos and the rest of the crew could be here but the bullpen is expected to take on a lot of the load in 2016. Chapman will likely close before hitting free agency next season while Andrew Miller becomes the best 8th inning man in the game. In the 7th, and most times the 6th inning as well, Dellin Betances will be the fire man and the multi-inning reliever while Chasen Shreve, Branden Pinder, James Pazos, Ivan Nova and others compete for the rest of the innings that the starters can't give the team. 

Thank you for coming out to the second annual Greedy Pinstripes Award Show! Happy New Years everybody!

Happy New Years Yankees Family!


Wow Yankees family, we made it. We all made it another year and here we sit on New Years Eve. Here's to hoping that you did everything you wanted to this season and then some, and if not the good news for you is that you have a few more hours left. A few more hours to do what you wanted to do, say what you wanted to say and burn or repair the bridges that you want or don't want it life. Take it from me, do it now before it's too late.

We recently lost my mother in law the day after Christmas and the bridge, while on its way to being mended, was not cemented and the cement was not dry just yet. Live every moment and every day like it's your last, because it could be.

Happy New Years Eve everyone. Be safe, have fun and forget those resolutions. No one likes a skinny, rich good-nature person anyway.

Remembering 2015: Alex Rodriguez


This Day in New York Yankees History 12/31: #BringBackTino




On this day in 2004 the Yankees agreed to a contract with Tino Martinez for a one year reunion after the Tampa Bay Devil Rays declined his $8 million option. Martinez was coming off a .262 batting average with 23 home runs and 76 RBI's and signed a $3 million deal with New York. Tino played in New York from 1996-2001 and was replaced by Jason Giambi in 2002 before coming back in 2005 to be Giambi's backup.

Also on this day in 1974 free agent pitcher Catfish Hunter ended an unprecedented bidding war when he signed with the New York Yankees. Hunter signed for $3.75 million, which ended up being three times more than any other player at the time, to leave the A's for New York.