Yankees Had Interest In Free Agent Chris Dickerson

"Still no, Chris."

Chris Dickerson, former Yankees outfielder, signed a minor league deal with the Pittsburgh Pirates today and the Yankees were reportedly interested in a reunion with a similar deal. As you remember Andruw Jones held, speculation here, naked pictures of Joe Girardi's wife and that kept him in the lineup over an obviously better Dickerson. The outlook would not look much better for C Dick this time around either with about 27 outfielders ahead of him on the depth chart, so I am glad that he signed with a team that he may get some big league time with, but the nostalgia would have been nice for a big Dickerson fan.

Pittsburgh offers a right field spot and the Yankees offer a 5th outfielder spot only if they can unload the likes of Ichiro Suzuki and/or Vernon Wells so it makes sense for Dickerson. Good luck to him and maybe next time, again.

Five Offseason Dates To Remember

Here are five upcoming dates to keep in mind while the offseason progresses.

1/8/14

The always controversial, lately anyway, Hall of Fame voting goes down and is announced this Wednesday. Voters are only allowed to vote for 10 players each and after last years shutout there are far more than 10 eligible players in my opinion. There also is the possibility, with around 35 players on the ballot, that some players may not get enough votes to warrant staying on the ballot.

1/15/14

Frederic Horowitz has to announce his decision regarding Alex Rodriguez's career, legacy, and Biogenesis suspension by this date. This date will make the Yankees offseason plans much more clearer.

1/17/14

Arbitration figures are exchanged on this date as the whole arbitration process begins. The key Yankees players that are arbitration eligible this year are Brett Gardner and David Robertson for the last time, Ivan Nova, Francisco Cervelli, and Shawn Kelley.

1/24/14

The Masahiro Tanaka sweepstakes officially ends on this date, if not before. Tanaka gets a 30 day negotiating window after being posted and that 30 days ends today. Tanaka has to agree to a deal, pass a physical, and be on the 40 man roster with an official signing by this date.

2/14/14

Pitchers and catchers report. Sorry love of my life but you will be thoroughly ignored on this day, just letting you know in advance. The offseason officially "ends" on this day as well, which is always nice.

Mariners Need Approval For Spending On Tanaka

Sources: #Mariners weighing a number of options - Tanaka, Price, N. Cruz, etc. - but need to persuade ownership to keep pressing forward.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) January 6, 2014

The Seattle Mariners jumped ahead of everyone in the Masahiro Tanaka sweepstakes last week and today we learned that may have been a bit premature. Seattle is awaiting management approval to further open the purse strings to make any more significant additions, namely Tanaka or another starting pitcher. The Yankees and the Mariners seem ready to go head to head in the starting pitching market, whether it be for Tanaka or another free agent on the market, and hopefully the Yankees don't lose out this time.

Plan C: Joe Blanton In Pinstripes?

If the Yankees miss out on Masahiro Tanaka and really do not like the other options in Ervin Santana, Ubaldo Jimenez, & Matt Garza to name a few what would the Yankees do to fill their razor thin rotation? Would Brian Cashman dumpster dive, which he has already stated that he would, would he build the rotation from within, or would he just throw his hands up and say the hell with it? Obviously the latter is not happening with Cash in a contract season and with so many question marks down on the farm right now Cashman may have to try and catch lightning in a bottle again. Enter Joe Blanton.

The bad on Blanton is obvious but the good you may have to look a little deeper to see. Blanton went 2-14 with a 6.04 ERA in the first year of a two year deal worth $15 million, which is bad. The good thing is he is on a one year deal, is affordable with a $7 million AAV, and would be easily obtained for scraps, a PTBNL, or cash in a trade, which is good. The Los Angeles Angels are even reportedly willing to eat salary to move him and if they don't they are prepared to release him before Spring Training, again good. Why would we want him though, right? Keep reading.

Blanton, using advanced metrics, was an average pitcher or maybe a tick above in 2013 in the American League. His xFIP was a respectable 3.84 which was 26th best in the AL. Yankees ace CC Sabathia's xFIP was 3.76, albeit in a down year, Jimenez's xFIP is 3.62 in 2013, and Santana's xFIP was 3.69 in 2013.

Blanton still misses enough bats, 7.33 K/9 in 2013, and keeps it in the strike zone, 2.31 BB/9, which is another attractive element to look at. You would also have to think that Blanton's 2013 BABIP, batting average on balls in play, has to come down from an insane .346 and come back closer to his career .305. One alarming rate though is his fly ball rate which produced a home run which was a staggering 19.1%, up from a career 11.0%, would probably not translate well into Yankee Stadium if this were to come to fruition.

Blanton's numbers may not look great, pitching in the batter friendly Citizens Bank Park for four of the last five seasons has not helped that,  but the guy can give you 175-200 innings and has all the signs of improving next season with a change of scenery. If it comes down to Spring Training and we still need a starting pitcher lets make sure that change of scenery happens in the Bronx.

Yankee Stadium Legacy: #85 Paul O'Neill (Again)

Paul O'Neill was an RBI machine for the New York Yankees driving in at least 100 runs each season from 1997 to 2000. A career .346 hitter with the bases loaded O'Neill hit his fifth and final grand slam of his career at Yankee Stadium on 8/16/01 to help the Yankees beat Tampa Bay 12-5.

85 days until Yankees Opening Day

Happy 2nd Birthday To The Greedy Pinstripes

It's hard to believe that on this day two years ago myself and Bryan Van Dusen bought the domain and opened up shop on The Greedy Pinstripes. 440,000+ views later, tons of tweets, twitter followers, posts, and great conversations we sit here today on our second birthday more grateful for you guys then ever. I know a lot of guys sit on here and say how they appreciate their readers and love their readers and enjoy talking with them only to ignore them on twitter, clutter their site with ads, and play the political games. Not here! For the second consecutive season we had 162 game threads, something a lot of sites cant boast, we added minor league recaps daily, game recaps daily, a stable of terrific writers, and most importantly a ton of new readers to interact with on a day to day basis.

Thank you to everyone reading this and who has ever read any of our posts, followed us on twitter, or been a fan or a help in any way. We truly appreciate you guys and we truly love you guys too. This is our birthday and I am very happy to be sharing this with you today because if it were not for you this would have never even got off the ground and made it worth doing for the last two years. Thank you!

This Day In New York Yankees History 1/6

On this day in 2006 the New York Yankees finished the year with a then record payroll of $207.2 million. That staggering number was $90 million more than the second highest spending Boston Red Sox. The World Series champion Chicago White Sox only spent $73.2 million while the Tampa Bay Devil Rays had the lowest payroll at $26.6 million.

On this day in 2009 the Cleveland Indians signed oft-injured starting pitcher Carl Pavano, formerly of the New York Yankees. Pavano signed a one year deal worth $1.5 million for his age 32 season after only making 26 starts for the Yankees in four seasons and making $40 million.

Anecdotal Look at Baseball Player Life Spans by Position

“Tools of ignorance” isn’t an ironic description. Although catchers tend to possess a very high baseball IQ, there isn’t much wisdom in crouching behind the plate for nine innings of target practice. With that in mind, major league baseball has decided to eliminate violent collisions at home, a long overdue application of common sense, not to mention the rules.

MLB is on the verge of banning collisions at home plate.

Concussions have been a hot button issue throughout the sports world. And, although MLB may not have a concussion epidemic like the NFL, recent revelationsabout Ryan Freel’s untimely death prove it is not immune. Undoubtedly, sensitivity to this issue is driving MLB’s proactive policy against head injuries, which not only includes the proposed ban on home plate collisions, but also an option for pitchers to wear protective head gear. Many baseball observers, including current and former catchers, have bristled at these new rules, but if there’s one lesson to be learned from the NFL, when it comes to player safety, leagues should error on the side of caution.

One argument made by those who oppose banning collisions at the plate goes something like this: catchers are more prone to concussions by foul tips, so are you going to ban those as well? That’s an obvious non sequitur. After all, foul tips are not intentional actions and their occurrence can’t be avoided. What baseball can do to limit the effect of foul tips is improve catchers’ equipment, but when it comes to collisions, legislation is more effective.

Albeit logically inconsistent, the “foul tip” argument against the collision ban is interesting in that it raises the question of the inherent danger at the position. This same issue has been examined endlessly in the NFL, with some studies suggesting football players have an average life expectancy of only 55 years, while others indicate a mortality rate lower than the general population. But, what about baseball?

There have been a few studies about the mortality rate of baseball players, but, for obvious reasons, they have not been done to the same extent as those being conducted on football players. Also, the studies done on baseball player mortality have not been broken down by position. A scientific analysis of that question is best left for the more qualified, but the chart below provides an anecdotal, position-based look at the average life span of a segment of the baseball player population.

Average Life Span of MLB Players, by Position

Note: Includes all players since 1901 with at least 500 games for a hitter and 100 games for a pitcher. Players with at least 75% of their games at a position were also classified into those distinct categories. Age is calculated by year of death minus year of birth, not actual age at time of death.

Source: baseball-reference.com

Again, it’s important to stress that the chart above is nothing more than an anecdotal exercise. No scientific methods were used and the cumulative results are prone to numerous errors. However, the data presents an interesting range of life expectancy from a low of 69 for pitchers to nearly 74 for shortstops. Catchers also rank near the bottom of the scale with an average life span of 69.3, but the position would climb to 69.9 if Thurman Munson (plane crash) andBo Diaz (broken neck caused by an accident while installing a satellite dish) are excluded. Of course, the same exceptions could apply at other positions, and, in a more scientific analysis, these adjustments would be made.

When studying mortality, it hard to separate specific activity related impacts from those resulting from lifestyle. For example, baseball’s chewing tobacco culture may be specific to the sport, but it is not a pre-requisite for playing the game. So, when it comes to understanding overall safety and implementing precautions, aggregate data can be misleading. In order to truly examine the potential impact of baseball activity on mortality, a more thorough methodology is required. Hopefully, baseball never reaches the point when such as study becomes necessary.

Being posted as a part of Syndicated Sunday from The Captain's Blog

Yankee Stadium Legacy: #86 Paul O'Neill

Paul O'Neill had 281 home runs and 141 stolen bases on his career resume and earned a notable distinction in his final season of 2001 when he became the oldest Major League player to register a 20-20 campaign. O'Neill was 38 years old when he hit 21 home runs and stole 22 bases for the Yankees. His 22 steals were the most of any of his 17 Major League seasons.

86 days until Yankees Opening Day

This Day In New York Yankees History 1/5

On this day in 1920 Boston Red Sox owner Harry Frazee defends the selling of Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees for cash. Frazee calls Ruth "one of the most selfish and inconsiderate men to ever put on a baseball uniform." Ouch!

On this day in 1999 Yogi Berra received an apology from Yankees owner George Steinbrenner after his 1985 season as a manager was cut short after only 16 games and ended his self exile from Yankee Stadium. Yogi would then participate in future Opening Day and Old Timers Day festivities.

On this day in 2010 Randy Johnson announced his retirement after 22 big league seasons playing for the Montreal Expos, Seattle Mariners, Houston Astros, Arizona Diamondbacks, New York Yankees, and San Francisco Giants. Johnson won five Cy Young Awards and 303 victories in his career including a perfect game, two no hitters, a World Series Most Valuable Player award, and 4,875 strike outs.