Sunday, August 14, 2016

An Early Prediction at the 2017 Yankees Opening Day Roster


The New York Yankees have shook up things a bit and despite their best efforts to remain cool, calm and collected to the media this team is building for the 2017 season and beyond. The 2016 season has become a wash at this point so excuse me for looking into the future a bit as I take a stab at predicting the Opening Day roster for the Yankees come 2017. Obviously a lot can change between now and then, injuries and free agency/trades for the most part, so this is obviously subject to change but this is how I think it stands as we sit here today.

SP:
Masahiro Tanaka
Michael Pineda
Luis Severino
Nathan Eovaldi
CC Sabathia

If the Yankees decide to give CC his $5 million and ask him to go much like they did to Alex Rodriguez then I could see Chad Green or Luis Cessa, maybe even Bryan Mitchell taking his rotation spot.

Bullpen:
Dellin Betances
Tyler Clippard
Adam Warren
Chasen Shreve
Ben Heller
Nick Goody
James Pazos

The bullpen is seemingly wide open again as you can mix and match a ton of these names and come out with a similar or comparable bullpen. The main three-to-five pieces at the top may be mainstays though in my opinion.

Positional Players:
Jacoby Ellsbury, CF
Brett Gardner, LF
Aaron Hicks, RF (barf)
Greg Bird, 1B
Starlin Castro, 2B
Didi Gregorius, SS
Chase Headley, 3B
Brian McCann, C
Aaron Judge (others), Rotational DH

Bench:
Rob Refsnyder, RF/2B/1B
Gary Sanchez, C
Ronald Torreyes, 3B/SS/2B
Tyler Austin 1B/3B/OF



5 comments:

  1. Remember that Co's option will vest, so the Yankees are stuck with him another season.

    And I'd bet on Judge being in right field.

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    Replies
    1. They are already showing the stats where he is hitting nearly .300 since Carlos Beltran was traded. He is a Girardi favorite, he will be here.

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  2. Agree with Bryan. I'm still traumatized, but I think hicks should be beaten to death, and that's never changing. I would like to see Adam Warren get stretched and start now. Shit, two of our sp's routinely go less than 3 innings, so he's not far behind... But I've been saying Warren to rotation since I joined here last year. None of this bullshit "Warren's too important to the bullpen" crap.

    And clearly this "best pitch" change up doesn't exist for severino, or if it does, I'm not sure what they base it on, as he has thrown it under a hundred times.

    But judge starting RF, sanchez/McCann rotate btwn DH and C.

    But this rotation is godawful.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm with you. We literally have nothing to lose stretching Warren out. Weakens the bullpen, yes, but like you said when Eovaldi and Severino (and Chad Green) can't go five or six innings you are making that bullpen useless anyway two or three days a week or more.

      Delete
    2. Trying Warren at SP is a great idea. He's done it before with some success, so why not try it again while the rotation clearly needs something... anything?

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