Thursday, March 2, 2017

Las Vegas Has Their Say on the 2017 Yankees


It is that time of the year where optimism reigns supreme, the sky is the limit and everyone has a real shot at winning their divisions in Major League Baseball. That’s the fan in me speaking and the eternal optimist but Las Vegas, who has the betting odds and has made a living off not only the triumphs but the falls of optimists such as myself, may or may not have something entirely different to say about some teams including the New York Yankees. Bovada Las Vegas has released their over-under win total predictions for all 30 MLB teams and it looks like it may be another frustrating season for the boys in pinstripes this summer.

Here are the win totals for the American League East from Bovada’s predictions:

Boston – 92.5 wins
Toronto – 84.5 wins
New York – 82.5 wins
Baltimore – 80.5 wins
Tampa Bay – 77.5 wins


According to this the Yankees will very likely miss the postseason once again in 2017 and the American League East may only send one team to the second season. Ouchies. 

YES Network Returns to Comcast, Finally


Yankees fans who have Comcast, don’t fret. The return is coming and it’s coming on March 31, 2017 as the YES Network makes its triumphant return to Comcast customers after missing the entire 2016 season. Conveniently the New York Yankees and Atlanta Braves will play their exhibition game to open up newly built SunTrust Park in Atlanta on that day, or maybe not so conveniently.


Yankees Opening Day baseball will come on April 2 against the Tampa Bay Rays and can also be seen on YES at 1:10 pm ET. In face the first two weeks of baseball will all be on YES so Comcast customers get ready, the Yankees are finally coming back into your homes. It’s been too long. 

Top Yankees Prospects & MLB Player Comps


The New York Yankees invited many of their top prospects to their spring training camp this season as a sign that the future is not only now but it’s bright in the actual future as well. Players like Justus Sheffield, Clint Frazier, Aaron Judge, Jorge Mateo and Gleyber Torres were able to grace the Yankees with their presence this season which left me wondering who their MLB player comps, or comparisons, would be going forward. Here’s my best guess and comparisons, if you disagree or have a better one please leave them below in the comments section.

The Yankees top prospect is Gleyber Torres so what better place to start then there. Torres reminds me a lot of a scrappy young shortstop over in Houston named Carlos Correa. Correa won the American League Rookie of the Year Award in 2015 as a 21-year old prospect and while Torres, who is just 19-years old, has not quite reached that level yet he did recently become the youngest MVP Award winner for the Arizona Fall League so there’s always that. Both are young, great shortstops and both will be around the league for a long, long time.

Speaking of Yankees shortstop prospects and top prospects the Yankees top prospect heading into the 2016 season was also a shortstop and his name is Jorge Mateo. Mateo has already moved off the shortstop position because of Torres and may not ultimately stick their going forward, our very own Ken Reed has been very adamant about Mateo moving to center field in the future, but luckily for him he has the speed and athleticism to basically play anywhere he wants. That sounds a lot like, and I know I’m going to catch flak for even saying this, Jose Reyes while he was in his prime for the New York Mets. You know, the speedy guy who could hit close to .300 and steal 30 bases a season and not the guy who beat his wife. Plug Mateo at the top of an order and watch him go.

If Mateo sets the table and Torres likely hits near the top of the order behind him the Yankees are going to need some big boppers to drive them home and I don’t think anyone is bigger right now than Aaron Judge. Judge stands 6’8” and already got his feet wet at Yankee Stadium last season hitting a home run to dead center field in his first MLB at-bat. So who can you compare an intimidatingly huge man that plays right field and can hit 500-foot home runs on the regular? One man and one man only, the right fielder for the Miami Marlins. Giancarlo Stanton.

The problem with Judge, and it always has been despite the fact that some experts and fans act like this was new and breaking news last September, is that he strikes out a little more than you would like. The Yankees need someone protecting him in the lineup going forward that can get Judge a lot of fastballs to hit and I truly think that man could be the Yankees #2 prospect in their system Clint Frazier. Frazier is a toolsy outfielder that plays balls to the wall each and every play. Frazier is not afraid to get his uniform dirty and he isn’t afraid to show you just how good he is. The easy comparison here is Bryce Harper but I don’t see Frazier as having a confidence that borderlines on cocky so I went in a bit of a different direction by comparing him to the Yankees current left fielder, Brett Gardner.

Hitting and offense is fun and it can win you a lot of games but without pitching it can all be for naught so the final prospect we will look at is another prospect the Yankees acquired during their fire sale last season, left-handed pitcher Justus Sheffield. Sheffield is still just 20-years old but has been impressive at the upper levels despite a small frame that is usually damning for a pitcher. I’ve seen the Marcus Stroman comparison thrown around a lot and I have to say I agree. They both have a smaller frame but both has fluid motions and deliveries that produce a ton of velocity. I have a feeling the Yankees would take five-or-six years or more of control of their very own Marcus Stroman. I know I would.


Those are mine, what are yours? Leave them below in the comments section or shoot me on line on Twitter by giving @GreedyStripes a follow. 

NJ.com Opened My Eyes to Matt Wotherspoon


I have to admit that my personal feelings towards this whole media, journalism and blogging thing is probably a little bit different than most people. Some people see sites like this one or others as competition where as I see other sites and media outlets as inspiration, sources of information and part of the same team. When I find something interesting that I’ve seen elsewhere I, unlike certain people whose name we don’t mention on this site, have zero issue linking back and giving them full credit as I talk about it. With that theme in mind I have to give kudos to the crew over at NJ.com because as I like to take credit for introducing the likes of Chance Adams and Jordan Montgomery to the casual Yankees fan that site actually introduced me to a prospect recently and his name is Matt Wotherspoon.

Wotherspoon was drafted in the 34th round of the 2014 MLB First Year Players Draft, so excuse me if I didn’t exactly know his name and what he brought to the table off the top of my head, by the New York Yankees at 6’1” and 210 lbs., a great frame for a power pitcher in today’s game. Wotherspoon is 25-years old and is heading into spring training camp this season fresh off a 2016 campaign that included stops in Double-A Trenton with the Trenton Thunder and in Triple-A with the Scranton/Wilkes Barre RailRiders. While in Trenton with the Thunder Wotherspoon posted a 4-2 record with a 2.66 ERA in 26 games, 24 appearances coming out of the pen and two appearances coming as a starting pitcher. This prompted the Yankees to bring Wotherspoon up to Triple-A for a 10-game stint that included one start and a 2-0 record with a 2.01 ERA. Impressive numbers all around and numbers that are definitely eye-catching for a team lacking in middle relief going forward.

Wotherspoon will likely start the 2017 season as a relief pitcher and a spot starter in Triple-A for the RailRiders, think Adam Warren here people, but he should conceivably make his MLB debut this season as long as he is healthy and doesn’t become his own worst enemy on the mound like some young pitchers tend to do. The talent is there and so is the experience so now it’s only a matter of time before Wotherspoon is sporting the Yankees pinstripes, and that time will likely be this coming season.


Thank you to NJ.com and their crew over there for bringing this guy to mine and our attention. I always enjoy reading about any and all Yankees prospects, especially before they break onto the scene in a big way. I’ve got my eye on you now Matt, no pressure. Enjoy your day Yankees family. 

So it Seems the Blog is Going in a Whole New Direction


When I got home last night I checked my email as I always do to find an email from GoDaddy.com. Five years ago yesterday I purchased the domain TheGreedyPinstripes.com and set it up on an autodraft with my bank account. I was reluctant but I was that confident that we would be here to stay and now five years later here we stand stronger than ever with a possible new direction for the blog. When Bryan Van Dusen and I started this blog over five years ago today, for the first two months we used the .blogspot.com domain and not our custom domain, we set out to be different and do things our way and we are going to continue that going forward. 

We had a discussion this week and we decided to put more of "us" into our blogs. Sure, if the Yankees make a trade or something we will always report on the major news, moves or rumors but we are not a news site. We are a blog and we are going to start acting like it a little more.  

What is a blog? Here is the definition from Dictionary.com:

noun
1.
a website containing a writer's or group of writers' own experiences,observations, opinions, etc., and often having images and links to otherwebsites.
2.
a single entry or post on such a website:
She regularly contributes a blog to the magazine's website.

We have already begun this with my morning ramblings here on "So it Seems" and now Bryan and I are ready to take the next step. We have vowed to stop being the "nice" guys and the politically correct guys that simply report the news, garner the clicks and move on. We are going to be us and we are going to put more of "us" into our work. We're going back to our roots and we are going to start truly enjoying writing and BLOGGING. 

To be honest you may not even see a huge difference on the blog. I was never one to simply recycle the same old boring crap over and over again anyway but now we are going less "business as usual" and more casual and fun. Don't fret, we wouldn't be making this change if we didn't think you guys would enjoy it and we wouldn't do it if it was going to  upset the masses. Well maybe that's a lie and maybe that's part of the problem here. We didn't want to really upset the masses before, now we are going to be us, FANS not professional writers, and you will just have to take us as we are :)

It's time to have fun again and I think you guys truly will have fun beside us in this new direction. Stick around because this is just the beginning and you are still my favorite thing in this world. Cry but cry those good tears. Laugh but laugh because I made you laugh. Smile but smile because I made you smile. Smile because I made you laugh and made you cry the best cries and reassured you of what I already know to be true. Love because I love you and know you're my favorite thing because you are my very favorite thing. 

Do you know the way to Jose?…

No, no, no…

The Yankees should NOT trade for Chicago White starting pitcher Jose Quintana.  I do not dispute that he’s a good pitcher, but until last year, he had never won at least 10 games in a season.  From 2013 to 2015, Quintana won a grand total of 9 games each year.  Yes, he’ll give you over 30 starts, a sub 4.00 ERA, and over 200 innings pitched.  2016 was his best year yet, with a 13-12 mark, 3.20 ERA, 181 strikeouts and 208 innings pitched.  Solid numbers, but they do not put Quintana among baseball’s elite.  

Quintana is two months older than former teammate Chris Sale.  Quintana made his major league debut in 2012.  Since that time, Sale has never won less than 11 games.  Sale has the better career ERA, has won 28 more career games, and consistently strikes out more than 200 batters per year.  He is recognized as one of the premier pitchers in the American League.

The resumes are not the same, and it is unrealistic for the Chicago White Sox to expect a return comparable to the one they received from the Boston Red Sox for Sale.  

The Yankees need pitching.  I know it, you know it, and the Steinbrenners know it.  But it is not worth sacrificing one of the team’s top prospects in a package with other top minor leaguers to secure the rights to Quintana.  I am convinced that a prospect such as James Kaprielian will have a better major league career than Quintana in the long run.  Quintana made it to the Show much quicker, but injuries have held Kaprielian back.  He is a big league pitcher and it is only a matter of time before he’s handed his pinstriped uniform for duty in the Bronx.  

There is no doubt the Yankees need to make a trade for upper shelf starter, particularly since it’s possible that Masahiro Tanaka may walk at the end of the year.  But if the trades involving Aroldis Chapman and Andrew Miller have proven anything, they have shown Yankees scouts have a good eye for uncovering quality talent.  They obviously have the same ability to scout and uncover hidden pitching gems.  GM Brian Cashman has been doing this long enough that he is nobody’s fool and will only make a deal if it is clearly in the best interests of the Yankees to do so.

I do not expect the Yankees to make a trade for Quintana unless the price drops substantially.  Given the number of interested teams, it is unlikely the price is going to drop very far.  So, my vote, which is worthless of course, is no trade for Quintana.  I want to see Gleyber Torres and Clint Frazier flourish in the Bronx.  I want to see James Kaprielian become his generation’s Andy Pettitte.  I want to see Blake Rutherford join Aaron Judge in the outfield and become the hitting machine he is destined to be.  

I am prepared to lose good prospects in a quality trade that makes sense.  Trading for Quintana does not.  So, let’s pass.

I was listening to the MLB Network on SiriusXM Radio yesterday morning and one of the announcers, I forget who, made the statement that it is a not question of "if" Dellin Betances will leave the Yankees in three years but rather he "will" leave the Yankees.  I understand the bitter feelings that the arbitration process created and of course the ‘gasoline on the fire’ was the subsequent remarks made by Yankees President Randy Levine.  But there’s still time.  

The Steinbrenner Family needs to make Betances feel wanted and appreciated.  When the time comes, they need to pay him his worth.  Three years is a long time to mend fences, but it is up to Hal Steinbrenner to lay the foundation now.  I had hoped they’d already begun this process behind the scenes, but according to today’s New York Post, Betances said he has not talked with anyone and that he is just focusing on baseball.  I am not convinced that it is a given Betances will leave, but the sequence of events through the arbitration process certainly made it a possibility.  

If Dellin provides another All-Star performance in 2017, the Yankees need to fork up the dough.  In my opinion, it would have been worth paying the additional $2 million to maintain a harmonious relationship with the Bronx-born pitcher.  But it’s not my money and I am not the one trying to get under the luxury tax threshold next year.  In all sports, teams get creative.  The Yankees have a collection of brilliant minds.  They can figure it out.  If the approach is continued denial until Betances becomes a free agent after the 2019 season, he will be gone and that dude on MLB Network was frustratingly correct.

The Yankees won their latest Spring game yesterday with an 8-7 squeaker over the Atlanta Braves.  Bryan Mitchell pitched masterfully for the first three scoreless innings, giving up no hits and only a walk.  Daniel Burch’s horse, Jordan Montgomery, gave up three runs (two earned) in the seventh when the Braves started their unsuccessful rally.  The Yankees moved to 6-1 with the win.  It would be wonderful if the Yankees could get off this same start in April.

It is still early, but so far based on performances, I’d have to say that Luis Severino and Bryan Mitchell are my current favorites for the #4 and #5 starting roles.

Have a great Thursday!

This Day In New York Yankees History 3/2: Babe Ruth Gets Paid

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.