The Yankees Should Target Chase Headley & Other Padres

The New York Yankees have gotten terrible production out of their third basemen this year and should look to upgrade at that position this July 31st trading deadline. A perfect place to begin that look is in San Diego where once division hopefuls have lost 14 of their last 15 games and have fallen way out of the Wild Card and National League West races. The Padres seem to be ready to start selling off pieces and I think Brian Cashman should be monitoring this situation closely as the Padres have many players that could conceivably improve this team, name Chase Headley.

Chase Headley is under team control for the 2014 season as a Super Two and is making $8,500,000 this season and expects a raise next season somewhere around the $12,000,000 that will come off the books with Kevin Youkilis leaving.  Headley's stock is down right now with a .229/.330/..359 with seven home runs output but the Yankees brass and fans know that Chase Headley can be a lot better. Even with Headley having a down season the Yankees have only gotten a .218/.281/.293 triple slash out of their current crop of third basemen David Adams, Alberto Gonzalez, and Jayson Nix. Even if we did acquire Chase Headley we could still have the highest paid designated hitter ever in Alex Rodriguez for the 2013 and 2014 seasons and beyond and still compete. Would the San Diego Padres be interested in a deal centered around Phil Hughes to get Headley in pinstripes? I know that Hughes would love pitching in Yellow Stone Park Stadium in San Diego but the issue would be if he would be willing to sign an extension with the Padres. I would be willing to give up Phil Hughes, David Adams, and a lesser and lower pitching prospect or two to acquire Chase Headley but would it be enough?

If the Yankees are still interested in a right handed outfielder we could make a run at guys like Chris Denforfia who is signed through 2014 and has put up a .271/.328/.394. We could also make a run at Carlos Quentin who is a little too much home run or nothing for me although he has put up an impressive .275/.366/.496. Quentin is owed $17,000,000 through 2015 and has a $10,000,000 option for the 2016 season. I cannot say I am exactly happy with our current crop of outfielders but I see a lot more needs in front of outfielders so I would pass unless the price was right. I really think Chase Headley is the obvious upgrade here and his stock is not going to get any lower so I say pounce now or there are going to be some empty seats and really cheap New York Yankees tickets to be had in the near future. Are you reading this Brian Cashman?

2014 Yankees = 2013 Astros?

Catcher Jason Castro is the lone representative of the team with the worst record in Major League Baseball, the Houston Astros.

"I don't want your sympathy."

A catcher hitting .269/.331/.475, with 12 home runs by the All Star break, is not bad at all. Heck, those are Hall of Fame numbers compared to what Yankee catchers have done this season (.228/.299/.320 with 6 HR). And I like that Castro is unfazed by the fact his inclusion in the All Star game may only be thanks to the rule stating that at least one player from every team must be selected.

"I'm grateful to be here," the modest 26-year-old said. "I haven't even thought about the fact that I'm the only one."

But Jason and Astros fans shouldn't fool themselves. The Houston catcher is third in the American League in wOBA and wRC+. His homer total is tied for 2nd among AL catchers, behind leader JP Arencibia (16) and tied with Matt Wieters. Not that I think Arencibia or Wieters deserved the All Star nod over Castro, but Joe Mauer and Carlos Santana probably should have made the team instead of him.

I'm not writing to dump all over Jason Castro, though. He's a young kid that has a nice future ahead of him, and I wish him the best of luck (it helps doing so when he plays for a team that likely won't ever challenge the Yankees). However, this news got me thinking about the fact that there are only two Yankees on the AL All Star roster... Robinson Cano and Mariano Rivera.

Don't get me wrong, both of those players absolutely deserve to be a part of tonight's game. Cano leads all AL second baseman in wOBA, bWAR, home runs, and RBI. While Rivera is... well... Rivera. But what happens next season? Mo is going to *sob* retire, and Robbie could sign with another team when he likely becomes a free agent, at the end of this season. That could mean that a player for the Yankees could find themselves in the same position that Jason Castro is in this year... wondering if he would have even made the All Star game if not for that "every team must be represented" rule.

I don't see that happening, as I feel very strongly that Cano is going to re-sign with New York, and will continue to be the best second baseman in the American League (actually, I think he's the best two-bagger in MLB). I also believe, although not as strongly as I feel about Robinson returning to the Bombers, that the Yankees will acquire a player that will be worthy of an All Star selection in 2014. Beyond that, CC Sabathia could really settle in and return to his ace-like ways, Hiroki Kuroda could return and continue pitching incredibly well, and Derek Jeter may be an All Star as 2014 could be his final season (his contract expires after next season, assuming Derek exercises his Player Option).

It just makes me shudder to think of how close the Yankees are to being on the same level as the Houston Astros.

Yuck!

Tonight Is The 84th Annual MLB All Star Game

The 84th edition of the Major League All Star game will be played tonight between the American League and the National League with home field advantage for the World Series on the line. The game will be televised at 8:05 pm ET on FOX and the game will be played in New York at the home of the New York Mets in Citifield.

Here is a list of the New York Yankees that will be attending the game:

Robinson Cano

Mariano Rivera

Welcome To Our Newest Writer Neil Dwyer

The Greedy Pinstripes are proud to announce that we have a new writer to welcome to the family and his name is Neil Dwyer. Neil also writes at Steelin South Florida which I have recently become a big fan of and felt like I had to bring his talents to TGP. Welcome to the family Neil and we look forward to everything that you will bring to the site. You can follow Neil on twitter by following @neildwyer1993.

You can read how Neil welcomed himself to the site by reading his first post seen HERE.

Curtis Granderson Hopes To Be Back This Month

Curtis Granderson has been out since late May with a broken left pinky and has not been healing as much as would have hoped since having surgery on the finger. Brian Cashman over the weekend said that he did not think the Grandy Man would be back in July and thought that early August was more of a realistic goal for the 32 year old outfielder but Granderson does not agree. Granderson is hitting batting practice and is doing some soft tee and toss and thinks he can be back by late July. No word on when he will start a rehab assignment but they Yankees would have to really rush him to get him back in the next 15 days.

Alex Rodriguez Homers In Latest Rehab Game

Alex Rodriguez made his Trenton Thunder debut in his rehab assignment and started off pretty well. Alex ended his night 2-4 with a home run and a single. Alex played another seven innings at third base and fielded four ground balls cleanly. The original plan was for Alex to play all three games in Reading so I expect A Rod to be the DH tonight against the Phillies.

Charleston Riverdogs Game Recap For 7/15

GreenJackets Win 8-5, Split Series with RiverDogs

Three run first inning sparks Augusta offense

CHARLESTON, SC – Chuckie Jones drove in four runs as the Augusta GreenJackets won 8-5 and split the series with the Charleston RiverDogs Monday night in South Atlantic League play at Joseph P. Riley, Jr. Park in front of 3,113 fans.

The RiverDogs are now 12-10 in the second half and 51-39 on the season. The GreenJackets move to 49-42 on the season and 11-11 in the second half. Charleston remains in second place in the Southern Division for the second half of the season while Augusta is in fifth place.

The GreenJackets came out swinging in the first inning and were also helped out by some shaky RiverDogs defense. A Trevor Brown single and two errors loaded the bases for Chuckie Jones (2-3, 4 RBI, HR) who then plated all three base runners with a double to deep center field. All three runs were unearned.

Andrew Cain made the score 4-0 in the second inning with his sixth home run of the season, a solo shot to left.

In the third inning, Jones picked up his fourth RBI of the night and made the score 5-0 as he blasted his fifth homer of the season.

Charleston cut into the Augusta lead with runs in the third and fourth innings. In the third inning, Wes Wilson doubled to left field and later scored on a Cito Culver double. Another Wilson double in the fourth inning with the bases loaded scored Angelo Gumbs and Dante Bichette, Jr. and made the score 5-3 after four innings.

RiverDogs starting pitcher Luis Niebla (3-5) was relieved after four innings in which he allowed two earned runs on six hits, issued two walks, and struck out two batters on the way to his fifth loss of the season.  

Bichette then made the score 5-4 in the sixth inning as he scored on a Kelvin De Leon groundball single to right field.

After three scoreless frames, Augusta pushed insurance runs across in the seventh and eighth innings. Stephen Branca doubled to center field and later scored on a Cain triple to right-center in the seventh. Matt Duffy led off the eighth with a walk and eventually came around to score on a Shayne Houck single. Houck later scored on a wild pitch to make the score 8-4.

In the bottom of the eighth, Bichette’s seventh homer of the season kept Charleston within striking distance with the score at 8-5. He led all RiverDogs batters going 2-3 with a home run and three runs scored.

However, Tyler Mizenko entered the game after the Bichette home run to record the final five outs and shut the door on the RiverDogs. In his 1.2 innings of work, Mizenko allowed one hit, no runs, walked one batter, and struck out one batter as he picked up his 21^stsave of the season.

The winning pitcher was Jorge Bucardo (1-0). In his 1.1 innings of work he allowed no hits, no runs, walked one batter, and also struck out one batter on way to his first win of the season.

BALLPARK FUN: Former Major Leaguer and current Colorado Rockies hitting coach Dante Bichette, Sr. was in attendance to watch his son Dante Bichette, Jr. play third for Charleston. There were $1 beers and $1 hot dogs at the Ashley View Pub for Dollar Dogs and Dollar Beers Monday.

COMING UP: The RiverDogs will travel to Greensboro for a three-game series with the Grasshoppers. The first game of the series will be Wednesday night at 7:00 after an off day on Tuesday. LHP Daniel Camarena (2-3, 4.58 ERA) will be on the mound for Charleston and Greensboro will start RHP Austin Brice (5-6, 5.68 ERA). Fans can listen to the game live locally on ESPN Radio 910AM or online at www.riverdogs.com.

BOX SCORE

--RIVERDOGS--

Being posted with permission from the Charleston Riverdogs organization. The original article can be seen HERE. 

Trenton Thunder Game Recap For 7/15

	Press Release - July 15, 2013 A-Rod Homers, Three-Run Ninth Gives Thunder 6-5 Win BOXSCORE (Reading, PA) – Alex Rodriguez slugged his first home run since last September, then the Thunder rallied for three two-out ninth inning runs to come from behind and stun the Reading Fightin Phils, 6-5, Monday night at FirstEnergy Stadium in the opener of a three-game series. Rodriguez played seven innings and batted 2-for-4 with a two-run blast, an infield single and a strikeout.  He also successfully completed four defensive putouts at third base.  The Yankees’ slugger is expected to play another seven or eight innings Tuesday night. Slade Heathcott and Jose Pirela picked up back-to-back RBI hits with the squad down to its final out in the ninth as the Thunder won for the seventh time in nine games, including five straight against Reading. With Trenton trailing 4-3 in the ninth, leadoff batter Cody Grice reached on Reading third-baseman Maikel Franco’s throwing error.  After a lineout, Ramon Flores reached on an infield single to put runners on first and second.  Fightin Phils pitcher Mike Nesseth (1-2) then induced a fielder’s choice from Casey Stevenson to leave runners on the corners. Heathcott then grounded an RBI single through the right side to tie the score at 4. Pirela followed with a hard grounder past third base into the left field corner, scoring both Stevenson and Heathcott with the go-ahead runs. Tommy Kahnle allowed a two-out run in the bottom of the ninth on Cesar Hernandez’s RBI single.  Franco’s single and Kahnle’s subsequent wild pitch left the tying run at third and the winning run at second.  The closer then got Jim Murphy to ground out to third however to end the game and notch his 11th save of the season. Reading took a 4-1 lead after four innings paced by three two-out first inning tallies against Trenton starter Nik Turley.  But Rodriguez struck in the fifth against Fightin Phils’ hurler Austin Wright, following Flores’ leadoff walk with a mammoth no-doubt shot to left.  It was his first longball since September 14, 2012. Danny Burawa (3-2) tossed a perfect eighth inning to record the win.  Flores and Andrew Clark joined A-Rod as Thunder players with two hits. The second of the three-game series is scheduled for Tuesday night at 6:05 pm. Thunder left-hander Fred Lewis (0-4, 2.70) is expected to pitch against Reading All-Star right-hander Seth Rosin (6-4, 4.13). Radio coverage on 91.3 FM (WTSR), 1490 AM (WBCB) and also streaming online begins at 5:50 pm.   --THUNDER-- Being posted with permission from the Trenton Thunder organization. The original post can be seen HERE.

Morning Bits

Good morning everyone!

Robinson Cano was an early elimination in last night's Home Run Derby and now turns his focus to tonight's All-Star Game where he and and Mariano Rivera will be the only representatives from the Yankees.

Here are today's news links:

John Jeansonne of Newsday.com has this piece about the value of the Yankees as a franchise.

Howard Unger of Yahoo Sports says that Hiroki Kuroda is the biggest All-Star snub.

Scott Miller of CBSSPORTS.com thinks that Mariano Rivera is closing his career with grace and style.

Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com reports that Alex Rodriguez hit a home run last night for Trenton as he continues his rehab stint.

Have a great day everyone!

This Day In New York Yankees History 7/16

On this day in 2006 Mariano Rivera pitched two innings to record his 400th save against the Chicago White Sox. Rivera is only the 4th player to ever reach the milestone.

On this day in 2010 the Yankees honored Bob Sheppard by wearing a commemorative patch on their left sleeve and leaving the PA booth empty for the entire game against the Tampa Bay Rays.