Available First Base Options for the Yankees

The New York Yankees have seemingly lost Mark Teixeira for a bulk of the 2016 season, best case scenario, or for all of the 2016 season, the likeliest scenario, and have found themselves exposed on their roster. The team did very little to address their first base depth problem after losing Greg Bird to a shoulder injury and now find themselves trying to patch together the first base position once again. Dustin Ackley is gone, Robert Refsnyder is learning the position and Chris Parmelee, not Nick Swisher, has been called up from Triple-A to serve as a warm body but what if the Yankees aren't happy with this combination of players? Are there any presumably available players that can fill the void either by trade or free agent signing to help fill the position for New York?

The first place I went to when looking to do some research for this blog post was MLB Trade Rumors list of free agents for the 2016-2017 season and the pickings were slim to say the least. Most options are either on teams that aren't looking to sell, Justin Smoak (TOR), Carlos Santana and Mike Napoli (CLE), James Loney (NYM), and Edwin Encarnacion to name a few, so I went a little above and beyond and scoured the Independent League to find a familiar face and a face we may see before the end of the season.

I have to admit I didn't scour the entire Independent League and instead stuck to the Lancaster Barnstormers, the former team for Phil Coke. While looking at their roster I saw a pair of players who on their own aren't game changers but may both be better options than Parmelee and Swisher. The reason behind my thinking that the Yankees may need a new minor league deal is that Swisher owns a June 15th opt out date in his minor league contract and may choose to try and latch on with another club here in less than two weeks. The two members of the Barnstormers who could potentially replace Swisher and/or Parmelee down in Triple-A are former Yankees prospect Josh Bell and Kevin Ahrens.

Rk	Name	Age	G	PA	R	H	2B	HR	RBI	SB	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
1	Kevin Ahrens	27	40	171	20	47	8	4	29	4	16	27	.307	.374	.451	.825
2	Josh Bell#	29	37	161	20	37	11	4	24	0	20	26	.266	.360	.446	.806

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table

Like I said neither of them are going to propel the team back to the top of the division but both may be better options than Parmelee or a vacant Swisher. What say you?

Fantasy Baseball: Who are the Pittsburgh Pirates?

The Pittsburgh Pirates have quietly made the postseason as a National League Wild Card team three consecutive seasons and enter 2016 looking for a fourth straight trip to the postseason. While the team would like to avoid the Wild Card Playoff round for obvious reasons I am pretty sure the team will take any playoff spot they can get. The same can likely be said for you and your fantasy baseball league this season. Just get into the playoffs and give yourself a shot to do some maneuvering to win the league championship. Maybe these Pittsburgh Pirates can help you.

While everyone salivates over drafting McCutchen you may want to keep an eye out for Starling Marte. Marte has stolen over 100 bases in the last three seasons combined and set career highs in home runs (19) and RBI (81) in 2015. Marte is getting closer and closer to his prime and he may become a perennial fantasy stud as soon as this season. The same can be said for Gerrit Cole who enters his fourth MLB season fresh off a 19 win and 2.60 ERA campaign in 2015.

While we’ve covered McCutchen and Marte we would be silly not to at least mention their fellow outfielder Gregory Polanco in this post. Polanco is at least a step or two behind his battery mates in the outfield but he possesses the same speed and power combination as the other two do. Polanco should be fully recovered from the knee injury that hampered his 2015 production for much of the season and should be able to give you good quality from a later round pick.

The final pick for you today is not a pick that will help you on draft day but could help you by the end of the season. Every year we see a class of prospects that come up around June or July and take the league by storm for the second half of the season, see Carlos Correa’s 2015 campaign as a recent example of this, and the 2016 class may be led by Josh Bell. Bell, now 23-years old, is an outfielder by trade but was moved to first base simply because he’s blocked by so many talented players. Pittsburgh looks to have a combination of Michael Morse and Jon Jaso at the position to begin the year but they can only keep Bell down for so long and when they finally let him out he is likely going to take out all his frustration on opposing National League pitchers. Keep him on your watch list.

So there you have it, technically four players that could help you in your fantasy draft and they are all either young or prospects. I love Prospects Month and I love fantasy baseball so I really enjoy putting these posts up and I hope you enjoy reading them just as much. Pass them along if they help. 

Flurry Of Minor League Roster Moves Announced

The Yankees announced a flurry of roster moves last night that I apparently missed so I will share them with you now.

Corey Patterson has signed a minor league deal with the Yankees and has been assigned to AAA Scranton Wilkes Barre Railriders. I cannot see him as anything other than minor league depth to replace the promotion of Zoilo Almonte and the injuries to Brennan Boesch and Melky Mesa.

Zach Nuding and Fred Lewis, both right handed pitchers from the Trenton Thunder, have been promoted to Scranton to play for the Railriders. Zach was brought up to make a spot start for Ivan Nova after he was scratched, presumably to make a start for the big league Yankees.

Caleb Cotham and Jose Ramirez, both right handed pitchers from the Scranton team, have been sent down to the AA Trenton Thunder. Both were presumed to be there temporarily, especially Ramirez, and are now sent back down to AA. I do not expect Jose to be down there much longer but the log jam is growing more and more in Scranton so who knows.

Infielder Josh Bell has been placed on the disabled list retroactive to June 19th. No word just yet on what is wrong with him.

Yankees Sign Josh Bell To Minor League Deal

The Yankees have announced that they have signed former Chicago White Sox player Josh Bell to a minor league deal. Josh Bell is a third basemen so he seems like the obvious choice to replace David Adams down in AAA since it does not look like he is going anywhere any time soon. Bell has a major league career .195/.223/.265 triple slash in the majors so don't expect much from the guy.