Yankees Spoke With Bronson Arroyo Last Week

The New York Yankees are "casting a wide net" on the remaining free agents in the league and that net reached out to free agent pitcher Bronson Arroyo last week. This was obviously before the Masahiro Tanaka decision was handed down so definitely Arroyo is being classified as a Plan B or C, I hope anyway. The Yankees were also interested earlier in the offseason for the right handed innings eater from the Cincinnati Reds and Boston Red Sox.

Arroyo is 36 years old and while his numbers look good, 3.79 ERA in 202 innings, I think his stuff would not translate well back into the AL East. He did pitch in one of the better hitters parks in the league in the Great American Ball Park but he also faced the pitcher two or three times a night too, which helps. Arroyo's value is in his durability as he has pitched at least 199 innings in the last nine seasons consecutively.

Again he is definitely not a Plan A and should not be a Plan B either but he would definitely fill a need, a need of 200 innings to take the toll off the bullpen.

Yankees Stadium Legacy: #96 Alex Rodriguez

Alex Rodriguez joined the New York Yankees in 2004 coming off an MVP award in 2003 with the Texas Rangers. Alex would win the award again, this time in pinstripes, in both 2005 and 2007. His 2007 campaign was a memorable one as Alex hit 54 home runs, scored 143 times, and drove in 156 RBI's.

96 more days to Opening Day.

Masahiro Tanaka To Be Posted Today

There is no going back and changing their minds this time for the Rakuten Golden Eagles as Masahiro Tanaka will be posted sometimes today. That gives teams until January,24 2014 to pony up the $20 million and exclusively negotiate with Tanaka.

Tanaka has hired agent Casey Close, agent of Derek Jeter and Mark Teixeira, to be his man to talk with teams. That's a great sign since he has such a relationship with the Yankees organization as a whole. The Cubs, Angels, and Diamondbacks appear to be New York's  stiffest competition for the 25 year old right hander but I fully expect teams like the Texas Rangers and New York Mets to at least be in the discussion.

People have been asking me on Twitter and such what I think about Tanaka and two words come to mind, all in!

Greedy Pinstripes Elf On A Shelf Returning Presents

That's what he told the police officer anyway...

This Day In New York Yankees History 12/26

On this day in 1919, although not official until January, the Yankees purchased pitcher in outfielder Babe Ruth from the Boston Red Sox. Ruth would end up costing the Yankees $100,000 with a $300,000 loan with Fenway Park as collateral. Too bad they didn't default on that huh?

What I Want For Christmas: One More Year!

It is not a coincidence that I am inherently a greedy person when it comes to my Yankees fandom and that translated into my Yankees blog writing, and blog name for that matter. While other teams are talking about "maybe next year" I am always screaming for one more year!

I have already wrote an open letter to both Andy Pettitte and Mariano River asking for one more year, giving them the true World Series send off they deserve, and yada yada yada. This time around I am just going to ask for one more year of you guys, our readers. My last adventure I tried I purchased a domain and hosting for seven years, it was a great deal and I was highly confident. We almost made it a year before I took it down and scrapped the whole idea, and hell I still own the domain. This time around I decided we would go one year at a time with The Greedy Pinstripes as to not force content or put too much pressure on ourselves.

The first year was great for us and the second year has been nothing short of amazing here on the site. We exceeded our goals in views, content, writers, Twitter followers, etc. two fold in all areas. We want to stick to that mantra by saying we won't make any outlandish promises, we just want one more year. The Greedy Pinstripes will be back for the 2014 season if you will have us and beyond. Merry Christmas everyone I hope the day is great and everyone gets what they wanted because I know I did.

Yankees Release 17 More Minor League Players

At first sight I thought this was a recap of the Yankees releasing those 16 minor league players a week or so back but New York has released another 17 minor leaguers just in time for Christmas. No huge names pop out at you but here is the list anyway:

Ryan Baker

Jeff Farnham

Sean Black

Saxon Butler

Shane Brown

Neil Medchill

Tim Flight

Victor Beriguete

Mariel Checo

John Brebbia

Rich Macheri

Charlie Haslup

Hector Crespo

Ty Afenir

Johnny Falla

Aaron Gates

Daniel Aldrich

Baker was the guy who got suspended for 50 games for refusing to take a drug test, just in case the name sounded familiar to some of you out there. I am a bit surprised by the Butler release as he was only drafted in the 2012 draft, talk about a short leash. Crespo is really surprising as he was drafted in 2013 and made it all the way to Scranton this season and now he is a free agent, head scratcher. Afenir was also drafted in this past June's draft but did not turn many heads in his debut season. The rest of the names I have either never heard of or are so far off the radar that they are not huge losses at all. I don't know what is going on in Yankee land down on the farm but someone is definitely cleaning house.

Masahiro Tanaka Will Be Posted, For Real This Time

Praise the lord, praise the baseball Gods, praise whoever we need to praise because Masahiro Tanaka will be posted after all, for real this time. This was announced yesterday so sorry for the delay as I have two young children and we had some sort of holiday going on all day.

I don't think the Yankees or their fans could have asked for  a better Christmas present than this as Tanaka is easily the best starting pitcher available on the market now. Tanaka is coming off of a 24-0 season and a 30 start unbeaten streak that he will be bringing over to the states.

Just as a reminder there will be no posting system going on here. Any team that brings $20 million to the table can negotiate with Tanaka for 30 days. Only the winning team has to pony up the $20 million and if they cannot come to an agreement with Tanaka the $20 million will be returned to the team and Tanaka will be returned to Rakuten. That means it would be next season before we saw Tanaka posted again.

Here is the quote from the Rakuten Golden Eagles team president Yozo Tachibana:

“After evaluating Tanaka’s contributions in the seven years since joining the franchise, owner Hiroshi Mikitani accepted his wish to challenge himself in the Major Leagues and decided to petition for him to be posted” said Tachibana in a statement. “As a team which has valuable players, there’s no change in our view that this is an extremely unfair system.”

Yankees Stadium Legacy: #97 Randy Johnson (Again)

Randy Johnson was 41 years old in 2005 when he showed that he still had plenty left in the tank when he struck out 211 batters in one season. This was the second highest total in the American League that year and the 13th time that Randy had eclipsed the 200 strike out plateau. In 2006 Randy joined some elite company with Roger Clemens and Nolan Ryan as the third pitcher to ever have 4,500 strike outs in his career.

Merry Christmas everyone and just remember just 97 more day until Opening Day

Merry Christmas From The Greedy Pinstripes Crew

Merry Christmas to everyone out there from everyone here at The Greedy Pinstripes. It has been a great year and we got everything we wanted for Christmas from you guys and so much more. I hope everyone has a great day spent with family, friends, and what Christmas is really about. Enjoy the day everybody.