So the Marlins Want a Yankees Starter? Okay.

The New York Yankees have shown at least a willingness to sell at this year’s trading deadline after already completing a deal with the Chicago Cubs involving Aroldis Chapman and at least discussing deals involving others. We’ve heard it for the better part of a month now that the Miami Marlins need starting pitching and pitching upgrades across the board and the organization may be interested in some arms currently wearing Yankees pinstripes so if Miami wants one of the young arms currently on the Yankees staff I have a few demands before we make this work.

The problem for Miami is there farm system is almost as barren as Brian Cashman’s head (that’s a bald joke for those who are looking to deep into this) which means the Marlins would have to trade from their MLB team to facilitate a trade in my opinion. Now I know what you’re thinking, that kind of defeats the purpose. No? Well yeah it does unless you consider that injured players can be traded as players to be named later. Enter Carter Capps.

Carter Capps had tommy john surgery back in March of 2016 and will miss the entire season and likely part of the 2017 season with the ulnar collateral ligament surgery. Would the Yankees be willing to take a waiver on Capps for say an Ivan Nova, Michael Pineda or Nathan Eovaldi in hopes of him coming back better and stronger than ever after rehabbing? Maybe.

Capps posted a 1.16 ERA in 2015 with a whopping 16.8 strikeouts per nine innings with a blistering 98.1 MPH fastball that would fit in quite well with Dellin Betances and Andrew Miller. Wait a second. D for Dellin. M for Miller. C for Capps? The return of No Runs DMC? I like it. 

Spring Training Competitions & Fantasy Baseball

Pitchers and catchers have reported to their various spring camps and first workouts are already underway as we inch closer to the 2016 regular season. As we inch closer to the 2016 regular season we also inch closer to the 2016 Fantasy Baseball season and your fantasy baseball drafts if you haven’t had yours already. I tend to like to wait until March, sometimes even late-March, before having my draft because so many things can happen between the beginning of spring training and the beginning of the regular season with injuries and spring training competitions being at the top of my precautionary list. You can’t predict or analyze injuries for the most part but you can analyze and take a stab at predicting the spring training competitions though and I will attempt to do just that in hopes of helping you with your upcoming fantasy baseball drafts.

We’ll start in the American League East with the Toronto Blue Jays and their closer situation. Will it be Roberto Osuna or will it be recently acquired Drew Storen? Storen could close and the Blue Jays could opt to place Osuna in the starting rotation or they could place Aaron Sanchez in the rotation and let Osuna and Storen battle it out for the 9^th inning. In my opinion I think the team attempts their own dominant back end of the bullpen and at least starts the season, barring one disaster or amazing spring training from either one of these men, with Storen in the 8^th and Osuna in the 9^th.

Sticking with the AL East theme we head down to Tropicana Field with the Tampa Bay Rays to try and sort out their outfield, first base and DH position battle they have going on. As it stands now Kevin Keirmaier is a lock for the team with Corey Dickerson, Steven Souza, Desmond Jennings, Steve Pearce, Logan Morrison and Mikie Mahtook vying for playing time. The team also has James Loney at first base but with capable first base options like Morrison and Pearce his job may be on the line as well. This is going to be one of the tougher ones to predict but you have to think Dickerson gets one of the starting spots with Keirmaier and Jennings while Loney stays at first base and Morrison spends much of his time at the DH position. Pearce should see plenty of time off the bench though and is eligible at multiple positions this season once again.

I’ve said many times this winter that even the worst team is going to have around 30-50 saves throughout a season. Even a team that loses 100 games is going to have 62 wins so giving a team 30-50 saves is not out of the realm of possibilities. The real question is will all those saves go to one person, which is ideal in fantasy, or to multiple people, which obviously is not. This is the question you should be asking if you’re in need of a closer and trying to decide who will close games for team’s like the Miami Marlins, Atlanta Braves, Philadelphia Phillies and Milwaukee Brewers to name a few. Spring competitions are all over with Will Smith battling Corey Knebel and Jeremy Jeffress in Milwaukee, David Hernandez battling Ernesto Frieri and Edward Mujica in Philadelphia, AJ Ramos battling Carter Capps in Miami and Jason Grilli battling former Yankees prospect Arodys Vizcaino in Atlanta. If I had to pick a winner in each of these competitions I would have to go with Will Smith in Milwaukee, David Hernandez in Philadelphia, AJ Ramos in Miami and Jason Grilli in Atlanta but all will have extremely short leashes on from Opening Day on. If you’re set elsewhere and you absolutely need a closer it may be worth grabbing two options from one team just to make sure you have the saves situation handled, one can easily be traded or passed through waivers to the free agent market later on.

So there you have it, the spring competitions that could impact your fantasy baseball draft and league this season. There are more, the Yankees bullpen, the Washington Nationals shortstop situation, the Tigers center field situation, whether Hanley Ramirez will stick at first base in Boston, various starting pitching competitions around the league and almost the entire Atlanta Braves team is up for grabs. Spring training is close and I can’t say how excited I am to be talking about it and how excited I am to be talking about fantasy baseball. That means real baseball is near and that makes me smile. Hope this information helps and if it does pass it on!

Fantasy Baseball: Who are the Miami Marlins?

If you’re sitting in front of your computer on draft night and Jose Fernandez or Giancarlo Stanton are sitting there on the board you need to hurry up and take them. Obviously if you have the first few picks in the draft then maybe you want to stay away but other than that you need to take these new perennial fantasy baseball superstars. This much you probably already know though and I doubt you clicked on my post because you needed guidance whether to take one of these superstars or not. No, you clicked on this post because you want to read about the sleepers and who should be taken around Round 15 and beyond. You know, the sleeper picks that more times than not win or lose you your draft. Don’t fret, I’m here to help.

The Marlins are an intriguing team because even last season they had so much talent on the ball club and despite the talent lost far more games than they won. Not many people saw the miraculous season that Dee Gordon had at second base or the season that Adeiny Hechavarria quietly had at shortstop for the Marlins due to all the losing and the distrust of owner Jeffrey Loria. The Marlins have quietly assembled one of the better young teams in the league but the talent there needs to trust their talent before they can truly succeed. That’s where veterans and key players like Wei-Yin Chen, Carter Capps and Christian Yelich come in.

Chen specifically should benefit from the move from the AL East to the NL East and should especially benefit from pitching in the park, Marlins Park, which has allowed the second fewest home runs in the Major Leagues since its inception in 2012. Even if the team decides to move the fences in a bit like they are discussing this winter pitching in Marlins Park will never be like pitching inside Yankee Stadium or Fenway Park three or four times a season and it won’t be like facing that powerful Toronto Blue Jays lineup in his old league. Chen should see a spike in all his major stats except for obviously his strikeout numbers which have never been truly high in his career. Chen is a winner and can pitch like an ace despite pitching to contact and limiting his walks to get by.

Yelich got a big contract extension last season much like Giancarlo Stanton did and Yelich went out and did what Yelich does, he hit for a high batting average and he stole a lot of bases. Yelich is not a huge home run threat, even if they move in the fences down in Miami, as he hits the ball on the ground more times than not but he could jump up to a 10-20 home run guy as he matures and grows into his body. If you need average, stolen bases and runs scored than Yelich is your man. If you need power you’re probably not going to get it, although you may be pleasantly surprised by September.

Finally you have Carter Capps who is likely to start the season as a setup man for closer A.J. Ramos but will not likely stay there for much of the season. Ramos struggles with his command and has for much of his career making a huge stride in that department unlikely, although not impossible, in 2016. The difference between Capps and Ramos though is that Capps can be had around the 20^th round or so while Ramos is still a Top 20 closer in the league even with his command struggles. Capps would be the smart pick and easily put back on the waiver wire or traded if Ramos somehow finds the zone more consistently this season. You can always pull the “he may take over for Ramos if he continues to walk guys” card and get something valuable out of him. Plus his strikeout numbers are great anyway so you may just want to keep him.

There you have it, those are the Miami Marlins that could help you win your Fantasy Baseball league this spring. Also be on the lookout for any and all pitchers that make impacts in camp or are signed by Miami because Edwin Jackson’s value to the team is more as a reliever than a starter even though he is listed as the team’s 5^th starter currently. That can and likely will change before the end of the season so be on the lookout. 

Coming To Terms After The Trade Deadline

The Toronto Blue Jays are better, the Kansas City Royals are better, the Los Angeles Dodgers are better, and the Texas Rangers are better. The New York Yankees are... pretty much the same team they were last week.

"That was a pretty boring week."

I'm not happy that Brian Cashman didn't find a way to improve the team, but I'm not convinced that something had to be done. Take the bullpen for example, where we heard rumors of Craig Kimbrel, Aroldis Chapman, or Carter Capps being traded for...

While it would have been incredible to have Dellin Betances, Andrew Miller, and Craig Kimbrel/Aroldis Chapman/Carter Capps in the bullpen, would that be necessary? Those three could take care of four innings, making the starters only have to throw for five. But Masahiro Tanaka has averaged 6.23 innings per start, while Michael Pineda has averaged 6.21 innings per start. That means, unless those guys have a bad game, one of Betances, Miller, or Kimbrel wouldn't even be used in a game. And a bad performance by one of the starters could very well mean the Yankees are losing more than half-way through the game. That's not good, especially against the Royals, Orioles, Blue Jays, Angels, and Astros... all of which have pretty good bullpens.

I don't mean to be a hypocrite here. Yes... I was cool with the Yankees offering Jorge Mateo for Craig Kimbrel. I would have liked to keep Mateo, as you can never have too many middle infield prospects, but the facts are that Jorge is only in single-A, and Didi Gregorius has looked really good over the last month. So losing Mateo wouldn't be that bad. No, the bad part was Jed Gyorko.

The fact that Gyorko's OPS+ since the beginning of the 2014 season is only 77 wouldn't be that big a problem, especially seeing how the Yankees traded for Dustin Ackley and his OPS+ of 78 this season. The problem with Gyorko is that he's signed through 2019 for $32 million (plus a $1 million buyout of a team option for 2020). It's surely not an albatross contract like Sabathia's, but the idea of paying this guy $13 million in 2019 is ridiculous.

To sum up the bullpen, with the top two along with guys such as Chasen Schreve and Justin Wilson, a big upgrade was hardly necessary.

What about the starting rotation, which could use an upgrade at the top?

The Yankees were never close to acquiring an ace-type starter, and it turns out that doing so would have taken at least one of the big four... Aaron Judge, Luis Severino, Greg Bird, and Jorge Mateo. But even if Brian Cashman would have been okay parting with one or more of those guys, would doing that for somebody like Johnny Cueto be necessary?

Yankees starters are currently ranked 6th in the American League in FIP, and out of the five teams ahead of them in that category, the Houston Astros are the only team with a good chance at making the postseason (the other four are the Oakland Athletics, the Chicago White Sox, the Tampa Bay Rays, and Cleveland Indians).

Meanwhile, the Toronto Blue Jays did a good job of improving their rotation, adding David Price. However, the Yankees have destroyed Price recently, and the Jays' next best starter is Mark Buerle, who would struggle to strike out you or I.

Yes, a pitcher of the Mike Leake or James Shields variety would have been welcome, but there's no certainty that they would be any better than simply calling up Luis Severino. Not to mention that Adam Warren did a really good job in the rotation earlier this season, and he could be put back there. Then there's Bryan Mitchell, another fine starting candidate. Sure, Masahiro Tanaka and Michael Pineda haven't been true #1 starters, but I still trust those guys. And Nathan Eovaldi has been fairly good lately.

Yeah.. anyway...

Fine, but Stephen Drew and Brendan Ryan are still our regular second basemen. Ugh!

That's true, and it's not good. However, there was never a solid rumor regarding an offensive upgrade. Plenty of people, myself included, brought up guys like Ben Zobrist or Martin Prado. Well, the Yankees' bats are already pretty good (2nd in AL in runs scored and wRC+), so I don't think a trade in this area was truly necessary. Bringing back Rob Refsnyder to be the team's regular second baseman over Stephen Drew may be all the team needs on offense.

What I find really funny is that, in the past, a number of fans spoke out against trading away all of the team's good prospects. Now that the team has changed gears when it comes to building from within, and we got through a trading deadline without losing a top 15 prospect, you'd think the fans would be happy. But no... they wanted a "big" trade to happen. Face it... Brian Cashman can't win.

I'm extremely excited about the team. Without possibly damaging the future of the team, they're six games in first place with 60 games to play. That may not be a lot, but it is hardly an easy hill to climb for the second place Blue Jays and Orioles.

We've been waiting to see Luis Severino get called up, and next week we're going to finally see it. And against the Red Sox no less. How awesome is that?

And as early as next season we could see the team's top prospect, and somebody the offense may be built around in the near future, Aaron Judge. Of course, that would mean delegating Carlos Beltran and his $15 million salary to the bench, but I don't think it's out of the question.

I've already talked about Rob Refsnyder being brought back up to permanently replace the combination of Drew and Ryan at second base.

Then there's Greg Bird, who may very well get a promotion to the big league some time next season, where he'll take his next stop towards taking over for Mark Teixiera at first base.

However, with how he's hitting homer after homer, and making plays like the gem last night, I'm not in any hurry for him to step down.

Finally, one of the best parts about not dealing for Craig Kimbrel, Cole Hamels, or others is that the Yankees are not obligated to pay a large chunk of money to another player. Nor are they on the hook for so many years of their contracts.

The New York Yankees are not the same team they were a few years ago. Maybe not even two years ago. If you're too young to remember when Don Mattingly played for the Yankees, then I can understand your frustration with the team not bettering their chances to win it all this year. But if you do remember Donnie Baseball, and the team's struggles prior to 1996, then building another Core Four like what Brian Cashman has said he's trying to do sounds pretty damn appealing.