What Do the Yankees First 30 Games Look Like?

The New York Yankees knew when they acquired closer Aroldis Chapman from the Cincinnati Reds that the left-hander was going to be suspended using Commissioner Rob Manfred’s new Domestic Violence Policy. The team didn’t know for how long but it was almost a foregone conclusion that a suspension was coming but New York took a chance regardless. Whether the team and their GM Brian Cashman secretly counted on Chapman getting suspended for 46 days or more making him ineligible for free agency at the end of the season is anyone’s guess but common sense would tell you that the team would not have been terribly upset if it happened, especially for a year-and-a-half of control of Chapman for what they gave up in return. In the end Chapman was only suspended for 30 games, rumor has it that it would have met the 46 days suspended if he had appealed which is kind of shady in my opinion but that’s another discussion for another blog, so I wanted to take a look at what the Yankees first 30 games will look like in 2016.

As you can see the Yankees can absolutely weather the storm without Chapman if the team comes out of the gates firing on all cylinders. The bullpen is still strong with the returns of Dellin Betances and Andrew Miller and the bullpen has the potential to be truly unfair and absolutely ridiculous, in a good way, if Chasen Shreve, Jacob Lindgren and others can return healthy and return to form. It sucks losing your closer for a month of baseball but when you put it into perspective it’s not that bad. A closer averages about 10-15 innings per month so that’s all the Yankees would be losing. This is easier to swallow when you have two potential closers in Betances and Miller behind him so in my opinion the Yankees will be fine.

Don’t fret Yankees family the 30 games will be over before you know it and Chapman will be back to throwing 105 MPH+ heat coming to a mound near you. Stay tuned. 

Yankees Almost Acquired Jose Reyes?

The New York Yankees almost made me look like an idiot and the Colorado Rockies are the ones left with egg on their face. What do I mean? The New York Yankees and the Colorado Rockies must have been reading my blogs because they attempted to hook up on a trade involving Reyes before the July 31^st trade deadline came to a close. After a winter where Reyes was charged with domestic violence issues this could have been a disaster for the Yankees, a disaster that I asked for many times while blogging this winter.

Reportedly Colorado asked for “big-time” prospects back in return for Reyes at the trade deadline according to Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports and the Yankees were one of the teams that were interested. The Yankees were interested in Reyes and his, at the time, $54.37 million contract as a second baseman as long as Colorado was willing to pay at least some of the contract down. It’s unclear whether the two sides got really close on a deal but you have to think that Colorado is kicking themselves right now if the two sides were close.

So instead of Starlin Castro manning second base for the Yankees this season it could have been Jose Reyes. How interesting that could have been to see Reyes back in New York. 

Suspending Chapman Sets a Scary Precedent

Major League Baseball is treading water in uncharted territories this offseason when it comes to the league’s newly enacted domestic violence policy. This is the first such policy in MLB and there are already three such cases that the league and Commissioner Rob Manfred have to decide on in just the first few months of its existence. Aroldis Chapman, Jose Reyes and Yasiel Puig have all been accused in some way, shape or form of domestic violence this winter and the league has threatened action in terms of suspensions and/or fines for all three of them because of it. Suspending Reyes is fine and suspending Puig is okay by me but in my opinion, and no it’s not because I am a Yankees fan, suspending Chapman would set a scary, scary precedent for the league.

I say it would set a scary precedent because the evidence is not there to support the fact that Chapman did anything “wrong” in the matter. Is he a jerk and an idiot? Absolutely, I’m not trying to downplay anything that he did or didn’t do and I’m definitely not for domestic violence in any capacity nor am I for shooting off guns inside your garage or home, 2^nd amendment be damned, with children in the house. What I am adamant about though is innocent until proven guilty and the prosecutors and police in Florida where the event occurred or didn’t occur haven’t proven a damn thing.

I’ll even take it one step further, the police and prosecutors in the state of Florida  have decided not to file charges whatsoever in the case of Chapman due to a lack of true and/or tangible evidence. There’s no evidence and there is conflicting reports of what happened that night by both parties. Pictures were taken by the police of Chapman’s girlfriend and no marks were found on her, not even a red mark, and the only thing Chapman did for 100% certainty was fire a gun that he owned inside of a house that he owned.

The police closed the case completely and this did not even come to light until almost three months later when the Los Angeles Dodgers did some digging around before acquiring the left-handed closer. If Chapman hit his girlfriend then shame on him and he should be punished by the law, by the league and by his maker but you can’t punish him in my opinion just because you think he did it. He may have done it, and if he did he’s an asshole and he’s dead to me as a person, but you know there is that possibility that maybe he didn’t do it as well. No one is talking about that side of the story though even though the evidence supports it. Suspending him, even though if it were for more than 45 days it would benefit the Yankees, would set a scary precedent for the league and it would make the league and its domestic violence policy loses all credibility and gains a black eye. Again, in my opinion. 

Aroldis Chapman's Possible Suspension, Math & the New York Yankees

I have many people emailing me and tweeting me about a potential suspension Aroldis Chapman and what it could mean to his impending free agency. I wanted to take this opportunity this morning to quickly put it all in once place rather than responding to everyone individually, some call it lazy but I call it efficiency.

If and when Chapman is suspended by the league due to his altercation in Florida with the league's Domestic Violence Policy he would have to be suspended for at least 45 days to delay his free agency. Free agency is based on MLB service time and if Chapman was suspended for at least 45 days, not games, he would not accumulate the amount of service time needed to qualify for free agency thus leaving him under team control for the 2017 season as well.

So I did the math and the 45th day of the MLB season, for the Yankees anyway, is on Wednesday, May 18th. That is a game against the Arizona Diamondbacks just as an FYI. This accumulates to a 40 game suspension. If Chapman gets a 40 game suspension or higher we will see him in pinstripes for the 2017 season with one more year of arbitration eligibility. If it's less than that, and Jon Heyman formerly of CBS seems to think it will be, than he hits free agency as expected and the Yankees can offer him a qualifying offer.

Now everyone is caught up. Carry one.

Aroldis Chapman vs. Craig Kimbrel – The Ultimate Fantasy Showdown

The American League East Division boasts some of the best relief pitching and closers in all of Major League Baseball. The Toronto Blue Jays have an up-and-coming closer in Roberto Osuna while the Yankees bumped the reigning Mariano Rivera Award winner to the 8^th inning after acquiring Aroldis Chapman from the Cincinnati Reds. Meanwhile the Boston Red Sox added a new 9^th inning guy themselves this offseason trading four top prospects to the San Diego Padres for Craig Kimbrel completing the AL East closer trifecta. While Osuna is good, and no disrespect is intended towards him, he’s not on the same playing field as Kimbrel and Chapman. While I cannot predict how it will play out on the field for these two and their respective teams I can take a guess at how it will work out for them in the fantasy world.

I told you fantasy baseball talk was coming to the blog and I meant it. Chapman and Kimbrel are both top closers in baseball and in fantasy but which is better? If we’re looking at strictly the career numbers on the back of a baseball card you have to think that Kimbrel is better, he’s been the best closer in the league since he came bursting onto the scene, but that doesn’t necessarily make him the better fantasy option in my opinion. Keep reading.

The Boston Red Sox starting rotation and bullpen were big suspects in 2015 and the team, led by Dave Dombrowski and company, did what they could to patch up those holes with the Kimbrel acquisition and the free agent signing of David Price. While I think the team will be better in 2016 I can’t see them simply winning the division after finishing in last place in the division last season because of just two guys. The bullpen is still weak behind Kimbrel, although I personally like Koji Uehara, as is the starting rotation. Wade Miley is gone from Boston, at worst a 200 innings eater, and in his place is “Cy Young Award winner from 2015” Joe Kelly. Rick Porcello, in my opinion, is overpaid and Clay Buchholz, again in my opinion, is overrated because of the uniform he wears. Both are nice pieces, don’t get me wrong, but they aren’t the top of the rotation guys that Boston is paying them, expecting them to be and needing them to be. You can have the greatest closer on the planet but if he only gets 30-35 opportunities to close out a game a season it kind of nerfs his ability to be a dominant closer, fantasy baseball and statistically speaking. I’m also not convinced that the offense can be loads better than it was in 2015 for Boston leaving the Red Sox to love many 3-2 or 4-3 ball games.

Meanwhile in New York the team was built around a strong bullpen and locking down saves. The offense is good enough, despite what they showed in the last month of the season and in the playoff game against Houston, to match almost any offense in the league despite the score. The Yankees offense will win an 11-10 game and then win a 1-0 game the next night. The starting rotation is built to give you 5-6 strong innings, seven on a good day, before handing it over to a shutdown bullpen. When the Yankees had a lead after 7 IP and after 8 IP the game was basically over every single time. This will equate to a ton of saves for Chapman and a ton of opportunities. Lots of K’s, lots of saves and lots of fantasy points for whoever owns him.

If you have the opportunity to grab Chapman I think you almost have to, even if it means grabbing him in the 5^th-7^th rounds. It’s a risk, especially with the suspension looming, but it’s a risk worth taking. Kimbrel is a good consolation prize but in this battle he is just that, a consolation. Maybe it’s the Yankees fan in me talking or maybe I’m making a ton of sense. You decide and let me know how he does for your fantasy team. 

Okay People…. Overreact Much?

The New York Yankees have ruffled the feathers of more than a few people by trading for Aroldis Chapman. Why? Chapman has been accused, although the case has been closed and no files were charged by the police to be fair to both sides here, of choking his girlfriend and firing eight rounds into a wall in his garage. Chapman more than likely made his girlfriend a victim of domestic violence and he will be punished for it, either by the league, his friends, family and peers or by his maker, but some people, I think the most accurate word I’ve seen was opportunists, are overreacting just a tad. And when I say a tad I mean a lot.

You can have strong feelings about what he did and you can truly not want the player on the team but some people are taking it to that next level. I have seen people say the Yankees have “sold their souls” in acquiring Chapman and that the organization doesn’t have class anymore. I guess we’re back to being the Evil Empire again in some households. I’ve also seen someone “burn their season tickets” because Chapman was acquired. First and foremost I don’t believe you burned your actual season tickets and secondly how is this hurting the team exactly? What point is this driving home? The Yankees want to sell tickets, they already sold those tickets. Sure you could cancel your subscription for next year but who is that hurting in the long run? Not the Yankees, and certainly not Chapman. No, just you.

Look. You can like a player and you can like this trade and not like the person inside the uniform. The Yankees are not the first to acquire someone with a troubled past or history and the Yankees won’t be the last. Who cares about the tradition and the class and all that jazz. The goal is, was and always will be winning and Chapman gives the team a great chance to win. That’s Brian Cashman’s job, to put a winning team on the field the best he can with the resources and finances that Hal Steinbrenner gives him.

I hate what Chapman did, and I’m sure most people do. My mother was a victim of domestic violence and I saw it first hand on more than one occasion. I’m sensitive to the subject but as a spiritual person I also believe that it’s not my place to judge him. The league will judge him and his maker will judge him. As a fan I root for the team to win and I root for anyone and everyone wearing the pinstripes. There’s a line that separates the man wearing the uniform and the player and some are crossing that line a bit much. Be pissed off, voice your opinion, etc. but it’s not fair to be criticized for my own opinion when I never once criticized you for yours.

Everyone. Chill. These things have a way of working themselves out in the end. This will to. Stay well.