There a slew of sharp Yankees fans here with great insight into the minors who I hope will fill in some blanks.
Right now it hurts, but we were kidding ourselves if we thought they would win last night with that anemic offense that played through September.
Beyond the obvious that Drew and Ryan must not be in pinstripes next April, where do they go? I think Headley must be replaced. His bat died and he became a liability at third - every throw was an adventure. Beltran must go. He's simple incompetent in RF and his bat is not good enough to overcome that hole. It comes down to DHing vs Arod. Beltran may be the better choice because he switch hits, but they really need McCann to do some DHing next year, so they cannot afford to carry two part time DHs.
Pitching?
Tanaka, Pineda, Eovaldi and Severino are a lock. Nova is an enigma. Warren, they need to make up their minds SP or RP.
I'd cut loose CC.
Maybe get Mitchell going, he showed some decent talent.
If Nova was more consistent, I think they would be in very good shape with what they have already on the roster at SP.
Miller, Betances, Wilson are a lock. Did Shreve burn out or did the league figure him out? I think it was burnout.
Good Arms in AAA Lindgren, Pazos, Goody, Rumbelow, Pinder and even Bailey.
I think the pen will be a strength with what is already on the roster.
Miller and Betances just need to have the load reduced by about 10%. Miller with the sore arm midseason looked sharp up til the end and Betances fought through it despite too much use.
Catching is in excellent shape. Murphy is much better than I thought and I have no clue about Sanchez.
So have at it. What FA are there young enough to be around 5 to 8 years? Do they need to package Gardner to get a power bat in the corner outfield (hope not as I'm a big Gardner fan)?
What 3rd baseman are around, starting quality, to replace Headley? I don't see any at SWB or Trenton.
IMHO, the problem is offense, not pitching or defense.
1. Much improved with the knee brace.
2. Alcohol rehab.
No reason to sell low on CC imo.
One of the best CFs in baseball sucks...
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with the way this FO works, but I'd like to see them cut ties with CC. Oh, and fuck Gardy. Guy sucks.
One of the best CFs in baseball sucks...
in what world is Gardner one of the best CFs in baseball? He's not in the top 2 in NY. And when Ellsbury is healthy Gardner gets moved to LF. I like him, he's a gritty guy, but he's a 4th outfielder.
I agree, but apparently Girardi doesn't think so. I am not an Ellsbury fan.
as the gritty good defending speed guy with a great eye he was a good value batting like 9th... sometimes move him up. but at his pay now... hes no longer good value-- his ABs last night looked like a bad little leaguer.
In the beginning of the year, he was one of the key catalysts that kept the Yanks afloat and in 1st place.
I like the role he has right now - we need less of an albatross with some of the contracts out there for m ore $$ and for more inconsistent play.
They made the post season.
They won the wild card game on the road.
3-0. 66.6% of their runs were via home runs.
I'm also surprised nobody's really talking about Ellsbury not being at his locker for the reporters after the game. I won't be surprised one bit if this guy is gone this winter.
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In comment 12532102 Dave in Hoboken said:
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with the way this FO works, but I'd like to see them cut ties with CC. Oh, and fuck Gardy. Guy sucks.
One of the best CFs in baseball sucks...
in what world is Gardner one of the best CFs in baseball? He's not in the top 2 in NY. And when Ellsbury is healthy Gardner gets moved to LF. I like him, he's a gritty guy, but he's a 4th outfielder.
He's better than a 4th OF, he's proven that. Stop saying stupid shit, everybody.
in what world is Gardner one of the best CFs in baseball? He's not in the top 2 in NY. And when Ellsbury is healthy Gardner gets moved to LF. I like him, he's a gritty guy, but he's a 4th outfielder.
Ellsbury is in center because he doesn't play left. Joe moved Gardner to left after the trade because Gardner is more versatile than Ellsbury. Ellsbury is good and can cover ground. Gardner is better and he's one of the best defensive outfielders in baseball.
No shit, we all know the contracts are guaranteed. Sometimes you just have to eat them, since that is all you are doing with a cooked player even with the guy sitting on the bench. What is the difference if CC plays and has a 5.50 ERA or goes home and collects his check there. Actually at home he's not getting knocked out of the game in 3 innings and wasting a spot on the rotation. As for Beltran, he is useless as an outfielder, useless. I'm not sure his bat makes up for how much they lose having him in the outfield. If he was strictly a DH, that would be fine, but ARod is the DH and he costs a lot more.
But like Cashman said, they are not going away. We can only hope they go on the DL and another player takes their spot.
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In comment 12532309 section125 said:
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In comment 12532102 Dave in Hoboken said:
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with the way this FO works, but I'd like to see them cut ties with CC. Oh, and fuck Gardy. Guy sucks.
One of the best CFs in baseball sucks...
in what world is Gardner one of the best CFs in baseball? He's not in the top 2 in NY. And when Ellsbury is healthy Gardner gets moved to LF. I like him, he's a gritty guy, but he's a 4th outfielder.
He's better than a 4th OF, he's proven that. Stop saying stupid shit, everybody.
It's not stupid shit, it's fact. He isn't an everyday player mainly because he has shown that he wears down over the season and the numbers bear it out: career .283 1st half, .236 2nd half. He peaks in June (.328 career), falls off a cliff in July (.244) and descends from there (.229 in AUG, .227 in SEP) and (see link). And he will be 33 next year, so that will not improve. I like him and root for him. He's a gritty guy, but he isn't an everyday player.
Gardner stats - ( New Window )
Teixeira gets hurt every year. Bird will get plenty of time in the bigs next year and be the full time 1b in 2017
If they do trade some of the young guys who have shown they can play, I hope it is for younger, top end prospects who are a year or 2 away.
2017 is the target season. That's when this team comes full circle
I can't wait for the day this team is out from under the insane contracts. What is very scary though is they seemed to be against them starting with Cano and yet they brought in Ellsbury who everyone knew would be a disaster with that contract.
Going into 2016 the 25 man must be deeper so guys can sit and not wear down. At the deadline cashman got fucked Bc teams asked for the moon for bench guys. I don't think he was prepared for that. This is a GM who added chile Davis, strawberry, fielder etc during the season for garbage in years past
Automated ball and strike calls can't come soon enough for me.
Astros Had a Bigger Strike Zone - ( New Window )
You can't really DH him much thanks to ARod not playing the field at all and you're stuck with that contract for two more years. He's probably the full time DH again next year unless he's doing really poorly. I assume in 2017 they'll make him part time there. But either way, he's clogging up the spot in the near future. Tex and McCann won't get many reps there which they need, especially the latter. Beltran would be a perfect fit there but he'll be in RF again.
The team won't be able to move any of these contracts. The productive players have no trade clauses and the others just make way too much and would likely be hard to replace. I guess there's an outside chance that Headley can be moved if a team was desperate for a 3B and the Yanks ate most of the contract. But even if that happened, they probably get very little in return and who do you replace him with? Nobody on the roster is ready to play there and there aren't many decent options available.
The best they can do to upgrade the team in the offseason is to sign David Price. He would instantly be huge for the rotation and the bullpen but I don't think they spend that much money. If you can't sign him, you look to how you can address the lineup. The only real noteworthy guys are Cespedes (not happening), Justin Upton and Jason Heyward. Those two could have a small chance at happening. Upton because he's a right handed bat. He'd give you everything that Beltran doesn't. He has pop, he can steal some bases, he can play both RF and LF. The question is how much will he cost and are they willing to sign Beltran's (or Gardner's if you think they'll move him) replacement one year early. Heyward is nice because of his age, plays good defense, has a decent bat that still has potential. But he's yet another left handed bat. I still think he would fit nicely into the lineup but he'll probably get a big offer from someone. Judge should be the RF in 2017 but you can't count on it like it's a sure thing. Injuries happen, players fall off sometimes. But if he pans out like we all hope, even if you sign a guy this offseason, it doesn't hurt to have four good OFs. Especially if a few of them can play multiple positions like Gardner.
So in my opinion, it just comes down to whether or not they want to spend anything this offseason. If not, you're in the same position next year that you were this season. But it's probably a worse situation than this year since ARod, Beltran and Teixeira will be a year older and who knows how Tanaka's arm will be. Plus Bird probably won't be an everyday player unless Teix gets hurt but the other young guys like Murphy and Refsnyder should get plenty of time. Heathcott should take Young's backup OF spot but they really need another RH bat out there. He's always hurt anyway.
+1 Does Cashman have total say on contracts? That seems to be where he is vulnerable to criticism.
Chill brah.
Where did I say anything about releasing him? Players with bad deals get traded a heck of a lot more often than you seem to think. Prince Fielder? Vernon Wells? A-Rod?
And the "too many home runs" meme. People have been saying that for years, on this forum and others as well as all over talk radio. Both Kay and Francesca have talked about it ad nauseum going back to about 2010 or so.
Everyone needs to chill about bunting and all this other dead ball ERA stuff. The game isn't played that way any more and hasn't been in a long time. Front offices and analytics don't support giving outs away. Welcome to the 21st century. I'd recommend the book Moneyball. It came out 12 years ago but it may help you. Just an example of at least how far you can trace back the fact I'm telling you that nobody plays that kind of game any more. Do you watch any games besides the Yankees? No one does it. That isn't how the game is played in 2015. Sorry Honus Wagner and The Cobb ain't coming back.
I wonder if there's some kind of power struggle going on. This is the second time Cashman has said there's no place for Bird. Maybe he's just trying to convince Hal to let him deal Bird. Refsynder is another case. Its clear that Girardi doesn't like him. Hal does and maybe Cashman does. Maybe the order to play Ref came from the top. When Ref did play he finally produced.
There are some other things: The Sabathia announcement coming on the eve of the playoffs. Last year Cashman publicly critisized Girardi after the Pineda pine tar incident. Someone should have known Pineda was not legal. Shouldn't somebody have known Sabathia had a problem ? It doesn't make a difference now but it would have been a lot better if Sabathia has gone through rehab earlier in the year and be ready for the playoffs.
One more thing: The totally inexplicable move of bringing in Capuano into the last regular season game. Maybe I'm reading to much into it but about a decade ago George publicly criticised Joe Torre for something. The next day in another inexplicable move he batted Todd Ziele cleanup. That was the equivelent in that time of batting Stephan Drew cleanup. He was telling George "fuck you" . I remember thinking at the time that Torre might be gone in 24 hours.
The David Price deal that I brought up last night was Acevedo, Mateo and Judge for Price...word is Cashman said no
87 wins and WC-play in Loss in 2015
That's more than we expected at the start of the year, but we looked like a 92-95 win contender in the middle of the year.
We knew that we were going to deal with a down period. These past 3 seasons have been just that.
85 wins in '13
84 wins in '14
87 wins in '15
We've somehow avoided a 75 or less win year, and I think Girardi deserves more credit than he's getting for not letting this team completely tank a season (although we certainly tanked the end of this year).
I unfortunately see another 75-85 win mediocre-good but not good enough season in 2016. But I think once we get out of some of these awful contracts the team will look more legitimate by 2018 and maybe 2017 if things go right. Cashman must handle these next 2 off-seasons wisely, no $130M+ contracts to 30+ year olds and injury prone guys.
Just deal with it for another year or two, hopefully a couple of the young guys develop during this time and then in Year 3 we can build a contender.
Ellsbury... ugh. More than any other player, he's the guy that needs to step up. What a joke of a season from him.
The David Price deal that I brought up last night was Acevedo, Mateo and Judge for Price...word is Cashman said no
I think declining was the right call. What difference would Price have made if they couldn't hit worth a damn?
I'm all for throwing money at him this winter though.
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Spring Training 2016 þ@Draft2Dynasty 1h1 hour ago Fort Lauderdale, FL
The David Price deal that I brought up last night was Acevedo, Mateo and Judge for Price...word is Cashman said no
I think declining was the right call. What difference would Price have made if they couldn't hit worth a damn?
I'm all for throwing money at him this winter though.
Very good pitcher but he's going to be 30 and cost a shit-ton. Pass.