Wednesday, November 9, 2016

Every 2016 Home Run from the New York Yankees


The 2016 New York Yankees hit 182 home runs this season.... here is every single one of them. Enjoy.

MLB Award Finalists & the New York Yankees


Major League Baseball has announced the finalists for the major awards in the league and a member of the New York Yankees showed up on the list. The Baseball Writers’ Association of America announced the top three vote-getters in each category on Monday and here they are.

Nov. 14
AL ROY
Michael Fulmer, Tigers
Tyler Naquin, Indians
Gary Sanchez, Yankees

NL ROY
Kenta Maeda, Dodgers
Cory Seager, Dodgers
Trea Turner, Nationals


Nov. 15

AL Manager of the Year
Jeff Banister, Rangers
Terry Francona, Indians
Buck Showalter, Orioles

NL Manager of the Year
Dusty Baker, Nationals
Joe Maddon, Cubs
Dave Roberts, Dodgers


Nov. 16

AL Cy Young
Corey Kluber, Indians
Rick Porcello, Red Sox
Justin Verlander, Tigers

NL Cy Young
Kyle Hendricks, Cubs
Jon Lester, Cubs
Max Scherzer, Nationals

AL MVP
Jose Altuve, Astros
Mookie Betts, Red Sox
Mike Trout, Angels    

NL MVP
Kris Bryant, Cubs
Daniel Murphy, Nationals
Corey Seager, Dodgers



The awards will be handed out next week on MLB Network. 

2017 Qualifying Offer Predictions


Ten players received qualifying offers as the offseason before the 2017 MLB season began and like I do every year I want to take a stab at predicting who will accept and who will decline their offers. Now as you probably already know the qualifying offer is basically a one-year deal offer sheet worth $17.2 million that the player can either accept and return to his old team or decline in order to test free agency. If the player declines and signs with another team that team will lose their highest round draft pick (unless it’s a Top 10 protected pick) and the players former team will receive a sandwich pick as compensation in between the first and second rounds of the 2017 MLB Draft. Now you know so let’s get to the predictions.

Jose Bautista
Edwin Encarnacion
Yoenis Cespedes
Neil Walker
Dexter Fowler
Kenley Jansen
Justin Turner
Mark Trumbo
Ian Desmond
Jeremy Hellickson

Honestly, and I may even admittedly be reaching here, the only player I can see accepting a qualifying offer is Jeremy Hellickson. Hellickson has come into his own as a member of the Philadelphia Phillies and while he may use that to cash in on the free agency market I just have a gut feeling that he may accept. I thought the same with players like Matt Wieters and Brett Anderson last year and I get the same gut feeling with Hellickson. It wouldn’t surprise me to see none of these players accept it but it would surprise me if anyone besides Hellickson did.


Players have until November 14th to accept or decline their qualifying offers. 

Free Agency: Complete List of 163 MLB Free Agents


MLB free agency has officially begun and 163 players including players with club options, player options and vesting options will officially hit the market. While the free agent class is presumed to be pretty light by all accounts there may be a few diamonds hidden in the rough for the Yankees to take a waiver on. Here is the complete list for your reference thanks to the crew over at USA Today.



AMERICAN LEAGUE
BALTIMORE (10) — Pedro Alvarez, dh; Michael Bourn, of; Brian Duensing, lhp; Tommy Hunter, rhp; Logan Ondrusek, rhp; Steve Pearce, 1b; Nolan Reimold, of; Drew Stubbs, of; Mark Trumbo, of; Matt Wieters, c.

BOSTON (5) — Ryan Hanigan, c; Aaron Hill, 3b; Junichi Tazawa, rhp; Koji Uehara, rhp; Brad Ziegler, rhp.

CHICAGO (5) — Matt Albers, rhp; Alex Avila, c; Austin Jackson, of; Justin Morneau, dh; p-James Shields, rhp.

CLEVELAND (4) — Marlon Byrd, of; Coco Crisp, of; Rajai Davis, of; Mike Napoli, 1b.
DETROIT (3) — Erick Aybar, ss; Casey McGehee, 3b; Jarrod Saltalamacchia, c.

HOUSTON (4) — Jason Castro, c; Doug Fister, rhp; Colby Rasmus, of; Luis Valbuena, 3b.

KANSAS CITY (6) — Drew Butera, c; Luke Hochevar, rhp; Kris Medlen, rhp; Kendrys Morales, dh; Peter Moylan, rhp; Edinson Volquez, rhp.

LOS ANGELES (7) — Andrew Bailey, rhp; Jhoulys Chacin, rhp; c-Yunel Escobar, 3b; Tim Lincecum, rhp; Geovany Soto, c; Jered Weaver, rhp; Chris Wilson, lhp.

MINNESOTA (1) — Kurt Suzuki, c.

NEW YORK (2) — Billy Butler, of; Mark Teixeira, 1b.

OAKLAND (2) — Ross Detwiler, lhp; Sam Fuld, of.

SEATTLE (5) — Franklin Gutierrez, of; Chris Iannetta, c; Dae-ho Lee, 1b; Adam Lind, 1b; Drew Storen, rhp.

TAMPA BAY (3) — Kevin Jepsen, rhp; Logan Morisson, 1b; Alexei Ramirez, ss.

TEXAS (6) — Carlos Beltran, of; Ian Desmond, of; Carlos Gomez, of; c-Derek Holland, lhp; Colby Lewis, rhp; Mitch Moreland, 1b.

TORONTO (10) — Jose Bautista, of; Joaquin Benoit, rhp; Brett Cecil, lhp; R.A. Dickey, rhp; Edwin Encarnacion, dh; Scott Feldman, rhp; Gavin Floyd, rhp; c-Jason Grilli, rhp; Dioner Navarro, c; Michael Saunders, of.
NATIONAL LEAGUE


ARIZONA (2) — Daniel Hudson, rhp; Rickie Weeks, of.

ATLANTA (3) — Emilio Bonifacio, of; Eric O'Flaherty, lhp; A.J. Pierzynski, c.

CHICAGO (9) — Trevor Cahill, rhp; Aroldis Chapman, lhp; Chris Coghlan, of; Dexter Fowler, of; c-Jason Hammel, rhp; Munenori Kawasaki, 2b-3b; David Ross, c; Joe Smith, rhp; Travis Wood, lhp.

CINCINNATI (2) — Ross Ohlendorf, rhp; Alfredo Simon, rhp.

COLORADO (6) — Jorge De La Rosa, lhp; Daniel Descalso, inf; Nick Hundley, c; Boone Logan, lhp; Ryan Raburn, of; Mark Reynolds, 1b.

LOS ANGELES (11) — Brett Anderson, lhp; Joe Blanton, rhp; Jesse Chavez, rhp; Rich Hill, lhp; J.P. Howell, lhp; Kenley Jansen, rhp; p-Scott Kazmir, lhp; Josh Reddick, of; c-Carlos Ruiz, c; Justin Turner, 3b; Chase Utley, 2b.

MIAMI (7) — Andrew Cashner, rhp; Mike Dunn, lhp; Jeff Francoeur, of; Chris Johnson, 1b-3b; Jeff Mathis, c; Dustin McGowan, rhp; Fernando Rodney, rhp.

MILWAUKEE (2) — Blaine Boyer, rhp; Chris Capuano, lhp.

NEW YORK (9) — Jerry Blevins, lhp; Yoenis Cespedes, of; Bartolo Colon, rhp; Alejandro De Aza, of; Kelly Johnson, 2b-3b; James Loney, 1b; Jon Niese, lhp; Fernando Salas, rhp; Neil Walker, 2b.

PHILADELPHIA (7) — Andres Blanco, 3b; Peter Bourjos, of; A.J. Ellis, c; Jeremy Hellickson, rhp; David Hernandez, rhp; Ryan Howard, 1b; Charlie Morton, rhp.

PITTSBURGH (5) — Neftali Feliz, rhp; Matt Joyce, of; Ivan Nova, rhp; Sean Rodriguez, inf; Ryan Vogelsong, rhp.

ST. LOUIS (4) — v-Matt Holliday, of; Brandon Moss, 1b-of; Jordan Walden, rhp; Jerome Williams, rhp.

SAN DIEGO (6) — Edwin Jackson, rhp; Jon Jay, of; Brandon Morrow, rhp; Clayton Richard, lhp; Adam Rosales, 3b; Carlos Villanueva, rhp.

SAN FRANCISCO (8) — Gordon Beckham, 2b; Gregor Blanco, of; Santiago Casilla, rhp; Javier Lopez, lhp; Joe Nathan, rhp; Angel Pagan, of; Jake Peavy, rhp; Sergio Romo, rhp.

WASHINGTON (9) — Matt Belisle, rhp; Sean Burnett, lhp; Stephen Drew, 2b; Chris Heisey, of; Mat Latos, rhp; Mark Melancon, rhp; Yusmeiro Petit, rhp; Wilson Ramos, c; Marc Rzepczynski, lhp.



So What About Derek Holland?


We discussed it and discussed it already this week on the blog and we’ll go over it again today. The New York Yankees need to add starting pitching this offseason if they plan on competing and the free agent well looks pretty dry. One starting pitcher that may interest the Yankees was added to the fold though when the Texas Rangers decided to decline the team option on his contract for the 2017 season. Should and will the Yankees be interested?

The Rangers decided that they would rather pay Holland his $1.5 million to walk into free agency rather than pay him his $11 million option and some might argue they made that decision for good reason. Holland has missed significant time over the past three seasons due to injury and has been placed on the 60-Day DL in consecutive years after missing the better part of two months with a shoulder inflammation injury in 2016. That mixed with the fact that Holland gives up the long ball a little too much for my liking may be the ultimate deciding factor of whether the Yankees will or should be interested in my opinion.

Holland was a part of the Texas Rangers World Series teams in 2010 and 2011 so the postseason and World Series experience is there but is that enough to ignore the injury history of the past three seasons? Holland has shown an ability to pitch, not only pitch but be dominant at times, and could be a huge low-risk high reward type guy for the Yankees. There is no such thing as a bad minor league deal but the problem is I can’t see Holland accepting one with the starting pitching market as thin as it is this season.

So should the Yankees sign Holland and do I think they will sign Holland? No and No. Again, if he wants to take a minor league deal and try to feed his family off the $1.5 million the Rangers are already paying him, fine. Sign me up. Load up the contract with incentives and give the man his $10 million or whatever the going rate is for middle-of-the-rotation type pitchers is these days. If not, and I’m sure he will find guaranteed money elsewhere, then I won’t lose sleep over it. Holland isn’t a game changer but I would be foolish to completely dismiss a better season from him in 2017 than he has had over the last three seasons.


That’s where I stand. What say you?

Weekly AFL Check In: James Kaprielian


James Kaprielian has pitched well for the Scottsdale Scorpions this Arizona Fall League season but like I’ve said many, many times during these check in posts the stats don’t really matter. The health of his right throwing elbow and his ability to avoid Tommy John surgery, which according to many news sites including Baseball America was on the table at one point this season, is all that matters. Another week and he made it out alive. Breathe Yankees family.


Here is the stat line he made it out alive with down in the AFL this week: 


This Day in New York Yankees History 11/9: Yankee Stadium III


On this day in 2008 participants in a team sponsored high school program whose job was to help Bronx, New York youths pursue careers in architecture, engineering, and construction remove dirt from the old Yankee Stadium and bring it to the new Yankee Stadium. A few players helped with the cause while the rains came down as they hauled the dirt across the street to the new $1.3 billion field. The dirt was then mixed with the new stadium's dirt around home plate and the pitcher's rubber which were also removed from the old Yankee Stadium during the ceremony.