Monday, November 10, 2014

David Robertson Declines Qualifying Offer

As expected David Robertson has declined his one year deal qualifying offer worth $15.3 million in lieu of a multi-year contract. If Robertson signs somewhere other than New York the Yankees will get a supplemental draft pick in return. If Robertson decides to come back to New York then the Yankees will get nothing obviously. I believe this is procedural more than anything as Robertson wants the security of a longer termed deal and if anyone deserves it, in my opinion, he does.

Ichiro Plans To Play in 2015


Ichiro Suzuki is about to turn 41 years old but left no doubt about his plans for the 2015 season, Suzuki plans to continue his quest for 3,000 hits next year. It seems highly unlikely that Ichiro will be wearing a New York Yankee uniform after the team signed Chris Young to a one year deal meaning Suzuki will likely test the free agent market for the first time in his career. Ichiro has been a free agent before but never fielded offers from other teams and always returned to either the Yankees or Mariners if he did not sign an extension before hitting the market.

Earlier in the offseason I personally predicted that if the New York Yankees did not sign Ichiro for 2015 that the New York Mets would and I still hold true to that prediction. Ichiro hit .284/.324/.340 last season for the Yankees after starting the season as the fifth outfielder and finishing basically as the every day right fielder for the team. Ichiro hit one home run last season but played stellar defense at all three outfield positions, can still bust it down the line for infield hits, and can steal a base or two over the course of a season.

Nobody knows where Ichiro will land in 2015 but I know one thing, someone will hand this guy a contract. He is in too good of shape, he adds too much to a young team, and he loves the game too much to be done at age 41. Look out for Ichiro in 2015.

This Week's Most Popular Article: A Rod Urine Memes

My Favorite Alex Rodriguez Urine Memes


http://www.thegreedypinstripes.com/2014/11/my-favorite-alex-rodriguez-urine-memes.html
Courtesy of Bald Vinny.


I really am....

Probably my personal favorite...

#SupportAROD

@MLBMEMES


He's coming...

Rumor: Yankees "Intrigued" By Rangers SS Andrus

The Yankees are "at least intrigued" by Rangers SS Elvis Andrus, The New York Post's Joel Sherman reports. 

Andrus, who has played for Texas since his rookie year of 2009, is a .272 career hitter. He was an integral part of the the teams who took home AL pennants in 2010 and 2011, and has appeared in two All-Star games. 

However, he does have some negatives.

From Sherman's article:

"Andrus’ eight-year, $120 million extension does not even begin until next season and runs through at least 2022. Texas would love to unload that deal as it searches this market for starting pitching. The Rangers can go inexpensive in the middle infield with some combination of Rougned Odor, Jurickson Profar and Luis Sardinas. However, they would be more comfortable doing that if they knew for sure Profar was going to be healthy moving forward after missing all of 2014 after tearing (then re-tearing) a muscle in his shoulder."

Indeed, Andrus will cost the Yankees a good amount of money. According to Sherman, he also showed up to spring training overweight this year, something that may have factored into his being caught steeling 15 times (most in the league) over the course of the schedule.

So yes, in some ways, it certainly seems that Andrus isn't someone worth acquring. Nonetheless, since he's still a relatively young 27 and probably a better offensive contributor than Stephen Drew, it's still a possibility that the Yankees' will make a run at him this winter, as expensive as he is.

What do you guys think?

A Hat Tip to Buck Showalter


As we saw this morning in the TGP Daily Poll the American League and National League Managers of the Year Awards will be handed out today by the BBWAA. The finalists for the American League are Buck Showalter from the Orioles, Mike Scioscia for the Angels, and Ned Yost from the Royals. In the National League Bruce Bochy from the Giants, Clint Hurdle from the Pirates, and Matt Williams from the Nationals are up for the award. Good luck to all six of these men tonight as all of them are definitely deserving of the award.

If Showalter wanted something to feel confident about going into tonight he can remember back on this day in 2004 when Buck won his second AL Manager of the Year Award. Showalter managed the Texas Rangers to a 89-73 record which was an 18 game improvement over the previous season. The first time Buck won the award was with the New York Yankees in the strike shortened 1994 season.

I think Buck wins his third Manager of the Year Award tonight with the Orioles as much as that pains me to admit. Good luck Buck and thank the writers that they don't take douchiness into account.

Chris Young Will Not Bring On The Yankees Apocalypse

The offseason has only recently started, however the fact that the Yankees haven't even been in contention for the postseason for around two months has made some fans antsy.

Were you expecting a picture of an ant?

Yankees fans are notoriously impatient, so they want to see changes made now. Not in January, not at the Winter Meetings starting December 8th, not even during the last day of the GM Meetings that start today and go through Thursday. Yankees fans want a resolution to the team's issues now.

One of the problems the Yankees face is the lack of a true right-handed power hitter. So when it was announced that the team and Chris Young had come to an agreement on a one-year contract, some fans got up in arms over it. They don't believe that Young is the same guy that in 2010 hit 27 home runs for the Arizona Diamondbacks, let alone the same guy that hit .282/.354/.521 for New York in 23 games last season. And to be honest... neither do I.

But the difference between those fans and myself is that I'm far from "up in arms" over the signing. While I understand that injuries happen, and somebody that was supposed to be a backup could very well end up getting a decent chunk of playing time, Chris Young was simply not signed to get regular playing time.

One fear is that when Carlos Beltran gets hurt (yeah, I don't think the word "if" fits), Young will get regular starts in right field. I'm not so sure about that. In fact, if we were to bet on such a scenario, I'd put my money on Martin Prado doing what he did in 2014 and getting the majority of the starts in RF. That would leave second base open for a youngster like Jose Pirela.

"Yeah, you're right... I'll probably get hurt again."

And I'd like to also point out that, outside of the nine regulars for the Yankees last season, nobody had more than 238 plate appearances (Alfonso Soriano), which equates to about 4% of the team's at bats last season. For reference, Brian Roberts had 348 plate appearances (a little under 6%), Ichiro Suzuki had 385 PAs (a little over 6%), and Derek Jeter had 634 PAs (about 10%).

By the way, a couple of notes regarding the four players mentioned in that last paragraph...

  1. Soriano had the lowest OPS+ among players with at least 160 plate appearances for the Yankees in 2014, while the other three had the three lowest OPS+s among the regulars.
  2. They are no longer on the team.
The last thing I want to say, to help bring some fans off the edge, is that Young's contract is not so big that the team will feel they have to keep him around. This isn't like with Alex Rodriguez, who the team would probably cut if it wasn't for the fact that he's still owed $61 million. We don't know what the incentives in Chris' contract are, but even if we assume he's on pace to hit them all by mid-season, we're only talking about a little over $3 million. And last season the Yankees released Alfonso Soriano in July, and he was guaranteed to make $5 million from the Yankees in 2014 (and another $14 million from the Cubs).

There are much bigger moves that have to be made by the team this offseason rather than securing a fourth outfielder. I'm way more concerned that the Yankees will miss out on Brandon McCarthy and settle for somebody like Jason Hammel or Chris Capuano for the Opening Day rotation. Then, will the team have to lean on Alex Rodriguez to play 3B most of the time, as they couldn't get Chase Headley or Pablo Sandoval? If the Yankees don't retain David Robertson then who fills that big hole in the bullpen? And what is going to happen at shortstop, where the only good free agent at that position either can't stay healthy or shouldn't play there in the first place?

"Is he talking about me?"

Unfortunately, we have to be patient during the offseason. Nothing of significance tends to take place until the first week or two in December. It's not what Yankee fans want to hear, but that's the truth.

IBWAA SELECTS KIMBREL, HOLLAND IN RELIEF PITCHER VOTE

Los Angeles – The Internet Baseball Writers Association of America (IBWAA) announced the winners in the relief pitcher category Sunday, with the Atlanta Braves’ Craig Kimbrel winning the group’s National League Hoyt Wilhelm Relief Pitcher of the Year Award, and Greg Holland, of the Kansas City Royals, being selected as the American League Rollie Fingers Relief Pitcher of the Year.
 
The IBWAA established the relief pitcher awards in 2010. Kimbrel wins for the fourth consecutive year; Holland for the second straight year.
 
Election results are as follows:
 
AL Relief Pitcher
 
1st Place:                  Greg Holland , Kansas City Royals
2
nd Place:                 
Dellin Betances, New York Yankees
3rd Place:                  Wade Davis, Kansas City Royals
 
NL Relief Pitcher
 
1st Place:                  Craig Kimbrel, Atlanta Braves
2
nd Place:                 
Aroldis Chapman, Cincinnati Reds
3
rd Place:                  Kenley Jansen, Los Angeles Dodgers
 
Ballot tabulations by Brian Wittig & Associates.
 
Below is the remaining IBWAA Awards announcement schedule:
 
Rookie, Monday, November 10, 2014, 11:00 a.m. PST.
Manager, Tuesday, November 11, 2014, 11:00 a.m. PST.
Cy Young, Wednesday, November 12, 2014, 11:00 a.m. PST.
MVP, Thursday, November 13, 2014, 11:00 a.m. PST.
 
The IBWAA was established July 4, 2009 to organize and promote the growing online baseball media, and to serve as a digital alternative to the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA). Voting for full season awards takes place in September of each year, with selections being announced in November. The IBWAA also holds a Hall of Fame election in December of each year, with results being announced the following January.
 
Among others, IBWAA members include Jim Bowden, Jim Caple, Mike Petriello, David Schoenfield, Mark A. Simon and Dan Szymborski, ESPN.com; Kevin Baxter Los Angeles Times; Tim Brown, Yahoo! Sports; Craig Calcaterra, NBC Sports Hardball Talk; Bill Chuck, GammonsDaily.com; Derrick Goold, St. Louis Post-Dispatch; King Kaufman, Bleacher Report; Kevin Kennedy, Kostya Kennedy, Sports Illustrated; Jonah Keri, Grantland; Vlae Kershner, SFGate.com; Chuck Culpepper and Will Leitch, Sports on Earth; Jill Painter Lopez, FoxSportsWest.com, Bruce Markusen, Hardball Times; Ross Newhan; Dayn Perry and Matt Snyder, CBSSports.com; Mark Purdy, San Jose Mercury News; Eno Sarris and Wendy Thurm, FanGraphs; Tom Hoffarth and J.P. Hoornstra Los Angeles Daily News; Pedro Moura, Orange County Register; Neil Payne, FiveThirtyEight.com, Tracy Ringolsby, MLB.com, Ken Rosenthal, FoxSports.com, Dan Schlossberg, USA Today and Jesse Spector, Sporting News.
 

Association membership is open to any and all Internet baseball writers, with a yearly fee of $20, or $35 lifetime. Discounts for groups and scholarships are available. Members must be 18 years of age to apply.

For more information please visit 
www.ibwaa.com.

TGP Daily Poll: Predicting the Managers of the Year


I predict that Buck Showalter of the Baltimore Orioles will win the American League Manager of the Year Award while Bruce Bochy of the San Francisco Giants will win the National League Manager of the Year Award.

Vote in our poll.

It's Monday But It Could Be Worse....

Arod urine pee NoMaas Yankees
You could be this guy. Smile, it's Monday. Thanks Nomaas.org for the picture. 

This Day in New York Yankees History 11/10: Enter Sheffield


On this day in 2006 the New York Yankees traded Gary Sheffield to the Detroit Tigers for pitching prospects Kevin Whelan, Humberto Sanchez, and Anthony Claggett.  The deal included a two year extension for Sheffield worth $28,000,000 through the 2009 season. Nothing ever came of any of the three pitching prospects but Sheffield had to watch from home as we won the 2009 World Series so there is always that memory to hang on to.

Also on this day in 1978 the New York Yankees traded the 1977 Cy Young Award winner Sparky Lyle, Dave Rajsich, Larry McCall, Domingo Ramos, Mike Heath, and $400,000 to the Texas Rangers for left handed pitchers Dave Righetti and Paul Mirabella, right handed pitcher Mike Griffin, and outfielder Juan Beniquez. What made this deal interesting was earlier in the year Graig Nettles spoke of Lyle by saying he would go from "Cy Young to sayonara" making his prediction a reality.