Monday, January 27, 2014

Ben Nicholson Smith has tweeted that the New York Yankees have inked 29 year old right handed pitcher Chris Leroux. The deal is a minor league deal and will more than likely include an invite to Spring Training. The Canadian has nearly 70 IP of Major League experience that he brings to the table along with his 5.56 ERA, 8.1 K/9 and 4.3 BB/9 career numbers.

Gary Sanchez Makes Baseball Prospectus Top 100


Baseball Prospectus' Jason Parks has released their annual Top 101 Prospects list and Gary Sanchez was the only New York Yankees player to make the list. The list is free, no subscription needed, so check it out by clicking HERE, thank you BP.  Sanchez made the list ranked at #85 down from #47 last year, even after steps forward with his offense and his defense. Mason Williams was ranked #51 last year and totally fell off the list, and the face of the Earth for most of the season for that matter, after a disappointing 2013.

To no surprise Byron Buxton of the Twins was at the top of the list followed by the Red Sox Xander Bogarts and the Cardinals Oscar Tavares.

Michael Young Says Dodgers, Retirement, or Bust


Another third base option may potentially be off the board in Michael Young, not that we showed much interest anyway. Young is contemplating retirement at age 37 but said if he did play in 2014 it would be with the Los Angeles Dodgers or bust. Young has said this before as recent as last year as he would only accept a trade back to Texas, and then New York, and ended up being traded to LA. He may just call it a career or he may change his mind, honestly who knows?

Yankee Stadium Legacy: #64 Dave Winfield


Dave Winfield was a powerful home run threat for the New York Yankees winning five straight American League Silver Slugger Awards starting in 1981. Winfield was also named a starting outfielder in the MLB All Star Game for the American League in seven of eight seasons from 1981-1988. Dave was one of only eight Major League players to get over 3,000 hits (3,110 to be exact), and 400 home runs (465) in their career.

64 days until Yankees Opening Day

Yankees Still Showing Interest In Ervin Santana


According to Chris Cotillo the New York Yankees are still showing interest in Ervin Santana for their starting rotation. The Yankees have some stiff competition for Santana as the Rockies, Orioles, Mariners, and Dodgers are also said to be interested in the right hander. The Cubs have also asked about Santana but are reluctant to give up their draft pick associated with signing Santana after he rejected a qualifying offer.

Yankees & Baseball Players Turned Poker Stars


I kind of fell into this article here and I am still doing my research on it but it truly amazes me how many baseball players have turned into poker players that we don't know about. We all heard about the whole Alex Rodriguez, who else right, attending illegal 888 poker games scandal where drugs were used and all that and it got me thinking, is it as wide spread as maybe steroids were speculated to be? So I went to PokerStars.net where they have a list of "famous" poker stars and the list really surprised me which led me to do my own research, because surely this poker craze is not a new thing, and have compiled a list here of the Major League Baseball players that have turned into poker stars.

As we referenced above Alex Rodriguez is apparently a big fan of poker and has even went as far to break the law to do it, SEEN HERE from a post that was posted when the news broke in . Also Alex's foundation was in hot water for not donating enough of the donations and proceeds from a charity poker event, also seen HERE. Alex has proven two things over the last few years when it comes to baseball stars and poker, it is much more prominent then we thought and that Alex is an idiot, but I think we all knew that already.

Hall of Fame pitcher Orel Hershiser has been playing professional poker since 2006 after retiring from Major League Baseball and moving to Summerlin, Nevada. Hershiser signed with Poker Royalty to get his professional career started after becoming a regular at Red Rock's poker room in Summerlin. Hershiser drew some attention with his poker playing and was invited to participate in the 2008 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship and made the quarter finals under the Poker Stars banner beating poker legends like Ted Forrest, Allen Cunningham, and Freddy Deeb who has a total of 12 World Series of Poker bracelets between them. Hershisher took his hot streak all the way to the 2008 World Series of Poker and to the 2009 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure tour and has made thousands of dollars playing professional poker. It's kind of cool to play with him though because Hershiser gives an autographed baseball to the poker player that eliminates him.

There are many other examples of pro baseball players turned pro poker players including Jose Canseco who was in Celebrity Poker Live, former Red Sox player Gabe Kapler is a well known poker player, Jeff Francoeur, Ricky Henderson, Bobby Bonilla, Randy Wolf, Jason Giambi, Cory Lidle, Vicente Padilla, career minor league player  Al Barbieri, and college baseball player and star Eric Baldwin to name a few. That's just who we know about and could find links on Google talking about playing or getting in trouble for playing, imagine the players we don't know about. Poker may be on the fall on news networks like ESPN but it is still very much alive and kicking inside of MLB clubhouses.

This Day In New York Yankees History 1/27


On this day in 1956 the New York football Giants switch their NFL home games to Yankee Stadium. This fueled tons of speculation that the baseball Giants would also be leaving the Polo Grounds.