July 31st Trade Deadline Eve Fact or Fiction

The July 31^st non-waiver trading deadline ends in right around 31 hours, not that I’m counting, and the New York Yankees have some work to do despite having a comfortable lead in the American League East Division race. We mentioned yesterday on the blog that standing pat meant getting worse when teams like the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim are acquiring three outfielders in a week and the Kansas City Royals are snatching up every player the Yankees had targeted this summer and that is no more evident than it is today. This morning I want to do a little fact or fiction regarding the fast approaching July 31^st trading deadline specifically geared towards the New York Yankees.

Will the Yankees acquire a starting pitcher before the deadline?

With Ivan Nova being limited to just 75 pitches in his last start due to tired arm, whether that is normal or not for recent Tommy John surgery recipients or not, mixed with the fact that he wasn’t overly dominant beforehand leads me to believe that yes, the Yankees will make a move. It won’t be for Cole Hamels obviously or David Price in my opinion but a Mike Leake or Dan Haren type back end of the rotation type starter. FACT.

Will New York upgrade their bullpen and completely rid themselves of Chris Capuano?

This one is easy, the team has already designated Capuano for assignment and called up Caleb Cotham but the team could also make moves for Bryan Mitchell, Branden Pinder, Danny Burawa or a slew of other names including Tuesday night’s savior Diego Moreno. The bullpen would be better and the team would be better. I don’t think New York acquires a relief arm with so many plentiful in the minor leagues and on the 40 man roster. FACT.

Will the second base situation be solved by August 1^st?

The New York Yankees could designate Stephen Drew for assignment, bench him in favor of Brendan Ryan who has actually shown some signs of life with the bat in an extremely small sample size this season, the team could acquire Martin Prado from the Miami Marlins or they could simply call up Robert Refsnyder. The Yankees aren’t going to get in any hurry as long as Ryan is hitting and Drew hits a home run once every two weeks so I think this drags out until August or later. FICTION.

Will the four “untouchable” prospects be untouched on August 1^st?

I can get behind the notion of holding onto Luis Severino, Aaron Judge and Jorge Mateo but I don’t understand the line of thinking that keeps Greg Bird untouchable. Sure he’s a great prospect and I’d like to see him in pinstripes one day but he’s not going to ever hit .300 or anywhere close even in his prime and he’s no defense wizard at first base like Mark Teixeira is. Granted he’s not a natural first baseman, he was drafted as a catcher, but he’s not a natural high average hitter either. Think Mark Teixeira this season, all home runs and doubles but that is about it. If the Phillies want Bird for Hamels without any of the other three I think the Yankees pull the trigger, and should. FICTION.

Will the blog do more posts like this in the future?

I really enjoyed this and I don’t know why I haven’t done more of them to date. FACT so be on the lookout for more fact or fiction posts. Thank you as always for the support. 

Meet a Prospect: Caleb Cotham

Caleb Cotham has been called up to the Major Leagues after the New York Yankees designated Chris Capuano for assignment, finally. Cotham was spending his time in Triple-A with the Scranton Wilkes-Barre RailRiders when he got the call and will presumably make his next appearance in a Yankees uniform inside the great state of Texas. Let's take a second to mee the man who replaced Little CC, Mr. Caleb Cotham.

Caleb Kent Cotham was born on November 6, 1987 in Mount Juliet, Tennessee before taking his baseball talents to Vanderbilt University to play College Baseball. Cotham was drafted by the Yankees in the fifth round of the 2009 MLB First Year Players Draft and has seemingly worked his way through New York's farm system with relative ease.

Here are Cotham's stats in his minor league career:

Year	Tm	W	L	ERA	G	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	SO	WHIP	H9	HR9	BB9	SO9
2009	2 Teams	0	1	3.38	3	8.0	7	3	3	1	3	13	1.250	7.9	1.1	3.4	14.6
2009	Yankees	0	0	0.00	1	2.0	2	0	0	0	0	5	1.000	9.0	0.0	0.0	22.5
2009	Staten Island	0	1	4.50	2	6.0	5	3	3	1	3	8	1.333	7.5	1.5	4.5	12.0
2011	2 Teams	0	1	1.96	13	23.0	23	9	5	1	10	32	1.435	9.0	0.4	3.9	12.5
2011	Yankees	0	0	4.50	1	2.0	2	2	1	0	1	3	1.500	9.0	0.0	4.5	13.5
2011	Staten Island	0	1	1.71	12	21.0	21	7	4	1	9	29	1.429	9.0	0.4	3.9	12.4
2012	2 Teams	5	7	3.64	23	101.1	103	44	41	5	29	76	1.303	9.1	0.4	2.6	6.8
2012	Charleston	3	1	2.31	8	39.0	32	11	10	1	7	32	1.000	7.4	0.2	1.6	7.4
2012	Tampa	2	6	4.48	15	62.1	71	33	31	4	22	44	1.492	10.3	0.6	3.2	6.4
2013	2 Teams	8	7	5.07	28	124.1	142	77	70	12	47	86	1.520	10.3	0.9	3.4	6.2
2013	Trenton	2	1	3.72	7	29.0	27	13	12	1	13	26	1.379	8.4	0.3	4.0	8.1
2013	Scranton/Wilkes-Barre	6	6	5.48	21	95.1	115	64	58	11	34	60	1.563	10.9	1.0	3.2	5.7
2014	5 Teams	0	4	4.70	18	53.2	57	31	28	4	20	44	1.435	9.6	0.7	3.4	7.4
2014	Tampa	0	0	0.00	4	4.0	3	0	0	0	0	5	0.750	6.8	0.0	0.0	11.2
2014	Trenton	0	2	6.04	5	25.1	25	17	17	3	13	16	1.500	8.9	1.1	4.6	5.7
2014	Scranton/Wilkes-Barre	0	2	5.40	5	18.1	25	14	11	1	7	17	1.745	12.3	0.5	3.4	8.3
2014	Yankees 1, Yankees 2	0	0	0.00	4	6.0	4	0	0	0	0	6	0.667	6.0	0.0	0.0	9.0
2014	Yankees 2	0	0	0.00	2	2.1	1	0	0	0	0	4	0.429	3.9	0.0	0.0	15.4
2014	Yankees 1	0	0	0.00	2	3.2	3	0	0	0	0	2	0.818	7.4	0.0	0.0	4.9
2014	Scottsdale	0	0	6.08	10	13.1	18	9	9	2	2	14	1.500	12.2	1.4	1.4	9.4
2015	2 Teams	5	2	2.17	27	45.2	35	12	11	1	10	53	0.985	6.9	0.2	2.0	10.4
2015	Trenton	4	2	2.77	15	26.0	20	8	8	1	8	31	1.077	6.9	0.3	2.8	10.7
2015	Scranton/Wilkes-Barre	1	0	1.37	12	19.2	15	4	3	0	2	22	0.864	6.9	0.0	0.9	10.1

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table

Weekly Check In: Brady Lail

The July 31^st trade deadline is fast approaching and the New York Yankees have a slew of talent not only on the field in the Bronx but in their various farm system affiliates. While the Yankees have stated that four of their top prospects, you all know the names by now, are untouchable at this year’s trading deadline there is still plenty of talent to pull from if the team decides to make a deal. The team is unlikely to trade much away from their Triple-A affiliate the Scranton Wilkes-Barre RailRiders but the team has just as much talent, if not more, down in Double-A with the Trenton Thunder and that talent begins and ends with starting pitcher Brady Lail.

Lail has quietly had one of the best seasons for the Thunder this season pitching alongside of Eric Ruth, Miguel Sulbaran and others in Trenton. Lail could easily be one of the arms that is sent to, for example’s sake and not an actual rumor, Miami for a Martin Prado or Cincinnati for a Mike Leake. Lail hasn’t been an ace by any means but does have the same makeup and ceiling in my opinion as a good Adam Warren or David Phelps.

Will Lail survive the deadline in Pinstripes? Stay tuned. 

Year	Lev	W	L	G	CG	SHO	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	SO	WHIP	H9	HR9	BB9	SO9
2015	AA-A+	7	3	20	1	1	105.1	88	28	25	2	25	70	1.073	7.5	0.2	2.1	6.0
2015	A+	1	0	1	0	0	5.0	4	0	0	0	0	9	0.800	7.2	0.0	0.0	16.2
2015	AA	6	3	19	1	1	100.1	84	28	25	2	25	61	1.086	7.5	0.2	2.2	5.5

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table

This Day in New York Yankees History 7/30: Bobby Abreu is a Yankee

It's July 30th, trading deadline eve, so this post should be littered with tons of trades that happened on this day in Yankees history. We begin by looking back to this day in 2006 when the Yankees sent a package of four minor league players to the Philadelphia Phillies for Bobby Abreu. The package included shortstop CJ Henry, lefty relief pitcher Matt Smith, catcher Jesus Sanchez, and right handed pitcher Carlos Monasterios. The Yankees also received Cory Lidle back in the deal while New York would be on the hook for all of Abreu's remaining salary. Abreu made $13.5 million in 2006, $15.5 million in 2007, and had a $16 million option for 2008 with a $2 million buyout.

The Yankees later ended up getting CJ Henry back on a minor league deal in one of the better trades in the Brian Cashman era.

Also on this day in 2008 the Yankees acquired Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez from the Detroit Tigers for relief pitcher Kyle Farnsworth. The Yankees were in need of a catcher after Jorge Posada's season ending surgery earlier in the month. Rodriguez had to waive his no trade clause to make the deal happen.

Also on this day in 1990 George Steinbrenner announced that he would agree to go on the permanent ineligible list which would give the Yankees owner a lifetime ban from day to day operations of his team. The Boss was later reinstated in 1993 but subsequently agreed to the ban to avoid jeopardizing his relationship with the U.S. Olympic Committee.

Outside of Yankee Stadium on that day in 1990 24,037 fans in attendance started chanting "NO More George! NO More George." The Boss reportedly did not hear about the chant at the stadium until he watched the 11 o'clock news later that night.

Game Thread: New York Yankees @ Texas Rangers 7/29

Tonight for the third time already this week the New York Yankees and the Texas Rangers will face off inside the Ball Park in Arlington. The Yankees have been red hot since the All-Star break and so has the thermometer needles inside of the great state of Texas and neither should be any different tonight. The Yankees will send Masahiro Tanaka to the mound looking for some length out of their ace while the Rangers counter with Colby Lewis. The game will be played at 8:05 pm ET and can be seen on the YES Network and MLB TV.

The Yankees have one more game in Texas, three games in Chicago and an off day on Monday before returning home to the Bronx, New York and Yankee Stadium. This gives you a little under a week to click the Yankees Tickets link at the top of the blog to grab your tickets for the upcoming series with David Ortiz and the Boston Red Sox. Until then head over to twitter and give @GreedyStripes a follow to root for the home team while they play outside the Eastern Time Zone.

Happy Tanaka Day everybody and Go Yankees!