Friday, January 6, 2012

What do you resolve to do in 2012?



I was going to write something having to do with my 10 Christmas wishes for the Yankees for 2012, but I’m a bit late on that. Besides, how many more Christmas related articles can you put up with? So what I’m going to do instead is write something totally unique… my three New Year’s resolutions for the Yankees!
*groans*
Okay… okay. It’s not totally unique, but every Yankee fan has a list of things they’d like to see the Yankees do to improve. Some ideas are good, most ideas are utter junk, but my ideas are… umm… well… they’re mostly junk too. I guess that’s not much motivation to read this. I think I read somewhere that introductions should draw in the reader, making them want to continue reading. Hmm. Yeah, I should probably work on that.
How about this?
The following ideas are bound to bring the Yankees the 2012 World Series Championship, as well as another championship in 2013, and on and on. So let’s do this!
Over-selling? Really? First I under-sell the article, now I’m over-selling it? I just don’t understand this World. Well here are my 10 ideas, do whatever the hell you want with them.
1. Sign Yoenis Cespedes.
Although there are many reasons to want Cespedes, I would like to see the Yankees sign him for one reason… to replace Nick Swisher after next season. I was looking at the free agent outfielders next offseason (you can see for yourself here), and the only guy that excites me on that list is Curtis Granderson. And since he’ll likely have his option picked up by the Yankees, he’s not an option to replace Nick. Others may like Josh Hamilton, but since he’ll be 32 and command a pretty good contract, I’m going to say “pass”. That would leave Nick Swisher himself as the only other guy I’d like to see in pinstripes for 2013.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I love Nick Swisher. I’m a big Ohio State Buckeye fan, and Nick played baseball at tOSU from 2000 to 2002. And who doesn’t love his playful attitude? But looking outside of who he is, and into what he is, you see that he’s just not a good fit for this team. Basically Nick gives the team a good OBP and good power (in 3 years for the Bombers he’s had an average OBP of .368 while hitting 28 HRs). Well the Yankees are not short on HR hitters (Teixeira, Cano, and Granderson all had more dingers last season, and that list doesn’t include a healthy Rodriguez), and while Swisher’s OBP last season was the highest, we still had three more guys above .350… and Cano was at .349.
So by signing Yeonis not only would we have a guy that would play better in the OF (which could make the Yankee OF the best defensively in MLB), but we’d also have a guy that could hit around .300 too (last year in Cuba, Cespedes batted .333/.424/.667). And we’d have that for less money per season than what Nick would command. And speaking of money, the new Collective Bargaining Agreement doesn’t effect International Free Agent signings until next offseason, so spending big on Cespedes now seems like a fine idea (click here for a good article from The Yankee Analysts regarding this subject).
FYI, I was thinking of adding “or Soler”, but with Mason Williams, Ravel Santana, and Slade Heathcott, I thought “why spend money on another OF prospect?”
2. Have Mark Teixeira stick to batting from the right side.
This one doesn’t need much explanation. All you have to do is look at last season’s splitsand you’ll understand why I say this.
  • vs RHP as LHB – .224/.325/.453
  • vs LHP as RHB – .302/.380/.587
Now it’s a very small sample size, but Mark has only faced a right-handed pitcher while batting from the right side 31 times in his career. But in those 31 plate appearances Teixeira has put up a triple-slash of .321/.355/.536. Although I wouldn’t expect those numbers in more PAs, that at least tells me that Mark is not awful vs. same-side pitching. And I’ll admit that it’s not often the Yankees will face a left-handed starter, so what Mark can do against same-side pitching is important. So whether he can hit well against RHPs as a RHB is a legit question. But looking at what he did from the left side last season, I don’t think the Yankees would be missing anything except a few home runs (and like I already mentioned, the team would be okay without a few of those).
3. When Alex Rodriguez gets a day off, put Teixeira at DH, and play Jesus Montero at 1B.
Seeing how Joe Girardi played ARod after he came off the DL on August 21st, it’s safe to say that Joe will be giving Alex a day off every week or so. If you look at Alex’s game loghere, you’ll see that after August 21st he never played more than 5 days in a row. And during that 5-game stretch he actually was the Designated Hitter once.
Although Mark is still only 31 (he’ll turn 32 in April), he’ll still need some rest (everybody does). Sometimes it will be a full day off, but mostly I’m thinking he’ll get a half day off (meaning he’ll DH instead of play 1B). Well when Alex gets a full day off, they should have Mark be the DH, and put Jesus Montero at 1B.
I believe Mark will be okay to be the regular first basemen until his deal is up after the 2016 season, when he’ll be 36. Afterall, Carlos Lee not only started 70 games at 1B last season, but also started 78 games in the OF, and he turned 35 in June. Paul Konerko turned 35 before last season, and he started 110 games at 1B for the White Sox. But after that I’d love to see Jesus Montero take over. It’s been said many times that Jesus is not a MLB-caliber catcher, but if we could at least open up the full-time DH spot for ARod in 2017 that would be great. Assuming he’ll be a Yankee his entire career, by 2018 Robinson Cano will be 35. If Curtis Granderson is brought back, there’s a good chance he’ll still be around by 2018, and he’ll turn 37 that season. Either way, I’m sure there will be at least one other player that will need to DH every once in a while by then, so getting Montero out of there would be a really good idea.
So there you go. Three ideas for the New York Yankees to do for 2012. I’d love to hear your take on these things, as well as your own ideas. So either add them right here in the comments, or go to Daily Sports Pages so you can not only discuss this but everything else Yankees as well.

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Sorry for the Capatcha... Blame the Russians :)