Thursday, March 8, 2012

Update On David Robertson

Borrowed from River Avenue Blues


Update: Robertson’s MRI shows “cause for concern”

By 
Update by Mike (4:09pm): Via Barbarisi & Boland, Girardi said Robertson’s MRI showed “cause for concern.” He’s being sent for more tests — including a CT scan and a weight-bearing MRI — and the skipper is worried. Whatever it is, the Yankees have to make sure it’s completely healed before he’s back on a mound. It’s his push-off foot, and they don’t want Robertson changing his mechanics or doing anything else that can result in an arm injury.
Update by Mike (12:12pm): Via Jack Curry, Robertson’s MRI results have been sent to Dr. Ahmad in New York and they should know the diagnosis soon enough. Joe Girardi said his ace setup man could miss up to two weeks before Opening Day becomes a question mark, though he was just speculating. “Just clumsy,” said Robertson to Dan Barbarisi and Erik Boland. “Mo already wore me out about it … I don’t feel it’s something that will set me back for a long time.”
9:30am: We got a bit of a surprise this morning when Bryan Hoch reported that David Robertson fell down stairs last night and hurt his right foot. He showed up this morning in a walking boot, and has been sent for an MRI. The x-rays, thankfully, are negative; the Yankees are currently calling this a right midfoot sprain. They’ll know a bit more once the MRI results come back this afternoon.

Spring Training Day 19

The Yankees played the Toronto Blue Jays in Grapefruit League play today and the Yankees endured another loss today, 6-1 being the final score. Ivan Nova started today and while his fastball hit 95 mph at times his command, much like his last start, was (to not equivocate) terrible. Colin Curtis hit a home run for the only Yankees run and rbi, Ramiro Pena had 2 hits, Gardner, Texeira and a few others all had one hit a piece.

David Phelps let one of Nova's runs score on a passed ball and did not look sharp at all, unlike his last outing against the Phillies. in 2.1 IP he allowed one hit, two walks, and a strike out to go with that passed ball. David is not making the team out of spring training so no big deal for him.

Cesar Cabral, a rule 5 draft pick and one of the many fighting for the last bullpen spot, has not had a good spring to speak of. We signed him to possibly be our LOOGY and get left handed batters out but today Travis Snider, a lefty obviously, took him deep and another lefty, Eric Thames, singled off him. Not a good start in a very tough competition.

Three Yankees Agree to Contracts

River Ave Blues reported (via George King) that Michael Pineda, Ivan Nova, and Eduardo Nunez have agreed to 1 year deals with the Yankees.

Seeing as how none of those three are arbitration eligible the Yankees can pretty much pay them whatever they want, provided that it's at least the league minimum of $480,000.

Pineda will make $528,475, Nova will make $527,200, and Nunez will make $523,800 this season.

Note: The Payroll & Roster page has been updated with these numbers.

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Edit: I just realized that Cory Wade is included in that article. I read back on January 11th that Wade had agreed for $500,000, but apparently I read wrong.

Do You Believe The Yankees Will Reach $189m?

Imagine each penny is worth $1 million.


A few times now I've talked about the Yankees goal of getting at or under a $189 million payroll in 2014, in order to avoid paying even more in Luxury Tax and Revenue Sharing fees to MLB. And there's been plenty of talk about just how important that goal is to the team.

A week ago Hal Steinbrenner confirmed that it is indeed the goal of the team to reach a payroll of $189 million in two years, and month ago I took a look at the possible roster in 2014 to see if the Yankees could sign Cole Hamels this offseason and get there.

Well, there's nothing new to report on this, however MLB Trade Rumors polled their readers on this subject. They asked if the Yankees would get to $189 million in 2014, and as of right now their readers don't think so, as over 70% of readers said "no".

Personally, I'm leaning towards "no" as well. Although it's possible for them to get down to that level of payroll, I believe winning is way more important to them. And knowing that winning is very important to the team's revenue, that opinion is strengthened. Basically, the team could save around $50 million in 2014 by getting at or under $189 million (the real number is impossible to know, but the final number seems to be in that area). But if the team misses the playoffs in 2014, they could lose more than $50 million in ticket sales, merchandise sales, playoff perks, etc. So it wouldn't make sense, financially, for them to be okay with missing the playoffs in order to reach $189 million.

The Luxury Tax and Revenue Sharing fee is based on the final team payroll, not the payroll at the beginning of the season. Which means any pick-ups during the season via trade, or whatever, counts. So this is a conversation that will happen until the 2014 World Series is over with, and possibly longer if the team misses their goal and decides to try again in the future.

Kevin Goldstein Releases Top 33 Prospect List

I may not be a prospect hugger like Burch, but I'd be a fool not to see the importance of having good, young, players in the organization. Guys like newly acquired Michael Pineda, and possible future stars like Manny Banuelos, will make the difference between getting to a $189 million payroll in 2014, or once again paying a ton of money to MLB for nothing. Not to mention those kids give the Yankees the ability to sign big-time free agents like Robinson Cano after 2013, or like Wilson Betemit in 2014*.

We've already seen a bunch of lists ranking the best prospects in the Yankees system (Baseball America, Keith Law (Insider required), River Ave Blues, and right here at The Greedy Pinstripes), but today Kevin Goldstein released his top 20 as well. Although you can see the full list, and you can see a write-up for Banuelos, you'll need a subscription to Baseball Prospectus to read all the player write-ups.

Also, you can read a cumulative prospect list compiled by Steal of Home, which takes a bunch of lists into account to create a top 30 list.

*In case you aren't fluent in the language of sarcasm, this is a joke.