Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Yankees Not Interested In George Kottaras


The New York Yankees have announced that they have no interest in recently designated for assignment catcher George Kottaras. The left handed former Oakland Athletic was DFA'd last week when the A's acquired Jon Jaso in the Michael Morse trade. I cannot for the life of me understand why the Yankees would not be interested in this guy especially with him making $1 million and still under team control with arbitration. Real head scratcher here if you ask me.

Yankees To Invite Tyler Austin To Spring Training


The Yankees have not officially announced their list of Spring Training invites for the 2013 season but Tyler Austin, the Yankees super prospect, has announced that he has been invited to Spring Training camp. Tyler told MiLB.com in an interview, seen here, that he was excited to be invited to the camp and it will be an "unbelievable experience that I will never forget." Click the link for the full interview.

Nobody Interesting This Offseason

From MLB Trade Rumors, here's something that can be filed under "Bull****"...
The Yankees intend to lower their payroll below $189MM by 2014, but the financial incentives in place for doing so might not be as strong as initially anticipated. The team could end up obtaining less than expected from the new market-disqualification revenue-sharing program, as Rosenthal explains. However, Yankees officials say the team’s offseason strategy has been influenced by available players rather than maneuverings based on the sport’s collective bargaining agreement.
I'm assuming that un-named Yankee official is only referring to this offseason, which I can kind of understand. I wasn't dying to get Josh Hamilton or Zack Greinke, and seeing what happened between the Red Sox and Mike Napoli has changed my mind completely on that player. I keep reading that the austerity budget could be thrown out should the team not be up to snuff, but I guess we'll have to wait another year to see for sure.

Youkilis And His New Batting Stance

I read some news regarding Kevin Long working with Kevin Youkilis on his batting stance, and trying to get Youk back to the all-star caliber player he once was. Well, instead of reporting it here, and possibly because I'm lazy, I'm going to advise everybody to click here and read the article posted by Mike over at River Avenue Blues. He did an excellent job of going over the changes, and why they are being made.

By the way, don't forget to read Daniel's interview with Dante Bichette Jr. right here.