Could he take #18 back from Jones?

In case you hadn't heard the Yankees and Mariners swapped Jesus Montero and Michael Pineada and while the biggest impact of this is improving the rotation, the Yankees gave up a young impact back who was going to be their primary DH next season. Now the Yankees have a need at the DH spot and it will be curious to see how they fill this hole.

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Well we have heard a variety of ideas about what the Yankees should do for the Rotation.

Some say the Yankees should target Texas Ace C.J Wilson who would undoubtedly need AJ Burnett money but that's nothing the Yankees cant handle. The worry  is that Wilson will break down having thrown more innings in the last two years than he had in his entire MLB career. It should be noted howeer that while Wilson has spent most of his MLB career in the bullpen he was a starter all threw the minors and is really going back to starting. Wilson has been poor in the post season going 1-5 with a 4.94 ERA in 9 post season starts.

Poll

Who should the Yankees target for their rotation?

14%

C.J Wilson

53 votes

44%

Yu Darvish

158 votes

21%

Trade for a starter

75 votes

19%

Freedy, Colon or one of the prospect

68 votes

354 votes | Poll has closed

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Let me first start off by saying that I wont do any wins or losses, so it will really just be bold predictions for Patriots Players.

10. Devin McCourty will be better but not nearly as good as last year

McCourty has been really really bad so far. I honestly could not tell you exactly why he is not covering receivers as well as he was last season, but hes not. We all could have accepted a year less than last years pro bowl season but McCourty has  been just awful and honestly I think part of the reason he is still playing this many snaps is that the Patriots really only have 3 usable CB's right now. McCourty will be better after the bye but that wont be hard as he really couldn't be any worse than he has been.

9. Kyle Arrington will lead the Patriots in Interceptions

I'd love to say that Arrington has picked up the slack for McCourty, but while Arrington has been playing well he hasnt made for McCourtys poor play. Arrington does currently lead the team with 4 INT's and I expect he will continue to get his hands on the ball and finish the year leading the team in Interceptions.

More after the jump

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The MVP Race is tight one and for the first time in a few years their is no runaway candidate for the award. Since 2003 when 10 different players received MVP votes only once have 5 candidates received any 1st place votes and that was in 2008 when Dustin Pedroia won his despite not being able to hit the high inside fastball.

Joey Bats has a 7.6 WAR and while he likely won't have another 50 HR season he is more than likely to get 40 HR this season and if starts hitting like he did in the first half he may still win the batting title. His numbers would actually be even better if their was anyone else in the Toronto lineup that scared opposing pitchers, which speaks to his 120 walks in 113 games. If Toronto had a better lineup then he would probably have a shot at the triple crown but its doubtful he will even get 100 RBI this year. Its really unfair that Bautisa is not running away with the MVP award  because he deserves it. Its very frustrating for Blue Jays Fans as some over a Blue Bird Banter wrote about. Its funny too because The Blue Jays have the capacity to turn into a true sustainable power house team, because don't forget Toronto is a big city with an ownership group with deep pockets. Mike Axis from River Ave Blues wrote more about the Blue Jays here.
I'm just going to lump Pedroia, Ellsbury and Gonzalez together because they are all the reason why they might not win the MVP. Pedria ranks #2 in WAR this year and according to ESPN talking heads he is the greatest player ever because he plays with his heart on his sleeve and has cured cancer with his smile. Honestly seeing how much the ESPN and FOX people fawn over him is disgusting, if you remember from the Yankees Red Sox series they would not shut up about how great Pedroia even after he got caught stealing. Pedroia is having a great year and despite Cano deserving it more he will probably win the 2nd Base Silver slugger. Pedroia's case is hurt by the fact that Jacoby Ellsbury is hitting the ball well, playing good defense and showing some uncharacteristic pop. Adrian Gonzalez is the guy that everybody thought would win the MVP and while he looks like he is going to win the batting title he has only hit two Home Runs since June 25th and both of those were in July, I mean this guy hit 40 HR in 2009 at Petco park, where is the power?  These three guys could draw MVP votes away from each other and make it that none of them win.
Curtis Granderson is the Yankees MVP Candidate and he is having a career year and is proving all those people who felt that the Yankees should have kept Austin Jackson dead wrong. He leads baseball in Runs Scored and tied with Ryan Howard for RBI's. He also has a good shot of going 40-40 and his average is creeping up and .300 is within reach. What is really weird is that he was intentionally walked 3 times last year and hasn't been intentionally walked once this year. Honestly the only thing that is not fantastic about his year is that he has grounded into 11 Double plays which while not a large amount is as many as he had the previous 3 years. He is really heating up to because after hitting .250 in July and June he has hit .369 in august and .359 over the last 28 days.

Right now Bautisa deserves the MVP but Pedroia would probably win his second undeserved MVP award if the voting happened today. however it should be noted that Pedroia, Gonzalez and Ellsbury have all been hitting .250 or lower the last week or two and while that's a small sample size Granderson and Bautisa have been hitting the cover off the ball the last two weeks with Granderson hitting 6 HR and batting .375 over his last 11 games. The MVP voting might see a very close winner with these five splitting the most MVP votes and possibly Zobrist and Miguel Cabrera stealing some top votes. We also still have a lot of baseball left to play.

Check out the full article and more at A True Yankee

Poll

Who should be the 2011 AL MVP?

74%

Curtis Granderson

108 votes

2%

Dustin Pedroia

3 votes

0%

Jacoby Ellsbury

0 votes

6%

Adrian Gonzalez

10 votes

12%

Jose Bautisa

18 votes

4%

Someone else (please specify)

6 votes

145 votes | Poll has closed

Obviously Stasburg will be back but what will the rotation look like after him. We can all agree that Zimm will be the number two but there is a lot of question marks after that. My guess is that the Rotation will look like this.

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At the beginning of the year I was sure it was Jesus Montero but its July and he is still not with the team. I wrote more about this here but i really just wanted to ask who people think will be the Yankees Catcher of the future. The Three options are Jesus Montero, Austin Romine and Gary Sanchez. They all have advantages and disadvantages with Sanchez still very raw and Romine not having the same bat as Sanchez or Montero. The only one who is MLB ready is Montero and that is with his bat, but his defense is probably going to be a bit worse than Posada. I feel like Romine is the best choice for catcher of the future but he will never compare to Sanchez or Montero with his bat. What do you all think?

This isnt much of an idea but would Carlos Beltran for David DeJesus make sense? The A's have a chance to win the AL West but they really need a bat. DeJesus is a Brooklyn native and before this year had the high OBP that the new Mets want and he's a good defender. However the Front office may feel that they can get more for Beltran and Dejesus is only slightly younger than Beltran and he's a free agent after this year. What do you think?

The Yankees broke camp with the backup outfield pair of Marcus Thames and Randy Winn. Winn was brought in as security in case Gardner failed to make it as the primary Left Fielder and Thames came in as the primary Lefty smasher. Leaving spring training Thames was crap and most fans thought he would be gone by June at the latest, Winn was very unmemorable, but many thought he would quickly become the Left fielder.

I think that face says it all

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Carlos Beltran signed his 7 year $119 million deal with the Mets back in 2005 and his deal expires after this season making $18.5 million this year and the cash strapped Mets want to deal him. Beltran had knee surgery last year, he was moved from Center field to Right field and has not played more than 81 games since 2008. His name has come up in trade rumors as he has been very good this year and most think that a move to the American League to DH would be great for Beltran, but his high price tag and injury history has made teams wary.

Poll

Should the Yankees trade for Carlos Beltran?

38%

Yes

793 votes

41%

No

867 votes

20%

The Mets play Baseball?

423 votes

2083 votes | Poll has closed

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Well the Yankees are getting set for game two against the Twins with CC taking the mound and Russell Martin behind the plate. In his limited action as a Yankee Martin has been pretty good offensively and defensively, but again the sample size is too small to make any real assessment of him overall. The question I really want to pose is, If Russell Martin is able to return to his old 2007 form and become a real offensive force as well as a very good defensive catcher would the Yankees decide that he will be their starting catcher of the future and what would that mean for Jesus Montero?
If Martin does return to his old form then then the Yankees have several options of what they could do with him
A) They could keep him as their starting catcher. After all he is only 28 and is much better defensively than Montero or Cervelli.
B) The Yankees could trade him midway through the season for a starting pitcher.
C) They could let him go after the year and if he gets class A free agency then they would get a draft pick.

More after the Jump

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The Yankees failed to sweep the tigers as Hughes and Colon both got roughed up by the Tigers 10-7. The two teams combined for 14 HR, with 7 of those coming in today's loss. Here are some notes on the Yankees:

Read my notes after the jump

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After a winter and spring full of courting the Yankees finally signed Kevin Millwood to a minor league contract. Millwood had been holding out for a major league contract but it became very obvious that nobody other than the Yankees was interested in his services. Millwood's deal is incentive laced and he could earn up to $5 million with base pay and incentives. He will have a base pay of  $1.5 million get half a million for every 5 starts and $1 million for 30 starts.  Unfortunately for Millwood he has been throwing 85 mph potato's and he hasn't thrown any real innings all spring; he also had a 4-16 record last year with a 5.10 ERA in 190.2 innings. Millwood deal is no risk for the Yankees and while some think he's going to battle for a rotation spot he will start the year in AAA, with an opt out date of May 1st. Millwood is a depth signing and he is only a year removed from a good year in 2009 when he went 13-10 with an ERA of 3.97 in 198.2 Innings for Texas. Millwood's stats are strange to see, in his last 4 seasons he had an ERA over 5 except in 2009. Brian Cashman made a smart move, he knows that Millwood is an experienced starting pitcher and this signing is a no risk with possible reward signing. I think that it's very unlikely that Millwood will ever be a true part of the rotation this year, but if Nova, Garcia or Colon falter early then he could be a useful depth pitcher to have until a better alternative can be found and that is what he was signed for. 

More after the jump!

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Today Jon Heyman from Sports illustrated tweeted that Austin Jackson is looking like a future superstar and is better than Granderson, the obvious implication being that the Yankees made a mistake in trading Jackson, Ian Kennedy and Phil Coke for Curtis Granderson(who happens to be turning 30 today). Others agree, including many Yankees fans who believe that the Yankees should have kept Jackson and the other pieces of that trade instead of trading them for a center fielder who in 2010 underperformed to say the least. Phil Coke is going to be starting for the Tigers this year and Ian Kennedy was recently named the opening day starter for Arizona and so Arizona and Detroit both seemed to have benefited from the deal. As all of you likely know Austin Jackson finished second last year in the Rookie of the year voting behind Neftali Feliz and his 40 saves and it would have been very cool to have a 2/3 home grown outfield, i think people are missing a big part of this deal.

Before 2010 Austin Jackson had never played a single game in the Majors and while he was hitting .300 in AAA in 2009 that's the minors and we have no idea if those numbers will be anywhere near what a player hits in the majors, so Austin Jackson was a big question mark for the Tigers and while it was very likely that Jackson would hit nobody knew how he would react to the big stage. Another key factor in this is that Austin Jackson is very similar to Brett Gardner in that he is a contact hitter with almost no power, will be good in the outfield and will steal bases.

 

Austin Jackson generated a 2.9 WAR rating in 2010 and put up the following stats:

 

Year	Age	Tm	Lg	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG
2010	23	DET	AL	151	675	618	103	181	34	10	4	41	27	6	47	170	.293	.345	.400

 

Brett Gardner in his sophomore year had a 4 WAR year in 2010 and put up these stats

If you dont feel like following the link the important ones are a BA of .277 an OBP of .383, 47 Stolen bases and 5 Home runs.

As you can see while Jackson hit better, Gardner had a better on Base percentage and stole more bases and while Jackson did hit for a better average that could be relate to Gardner's drop off after his wrist injury that he never fully recovered from. Also Jackson and Gardner and Granderson generated the EXACT same fielding stats and so the outfield likely would have been just as good defensively as last year. Gardner is also a better base stealer and while they both strike out a lot Gardner generates a lot of walks while Jackson does not and all of Jackson's stats are from leading off while Gardner generated his mostly in the 9th and 2nd spots.

However Jackson was traded for Granderson and Granderson had the worst year of his career last year with a 2.1 WAR and .247 BA, also he hit 24 HR which considering that he hit 30 in detroit last year is disappointing. However Granderson has refined his swing with Kevin Long and the Yankees will need him to hit like he did in the post season because he will be very important to the Yankees in 2011.

Another part of this trade which is often forgotten in Ian Kennedy one of the Big three pitching prospects of the Yankees with Joba and Hughes was traded for Granderson as well and while he went 9-10 he had a 3.80 ERA in 194 innings and had a 2.7 WAR with a whip of 1.2. However Kennedy did give up 26 Home runs and led the league in Wild Pitches. Coke had a negative WAR season with the Yankees in 2009 and while he improved for detroit I don't particularly miss Coke that much. If you look at in based on WAR then the Yankees gave up 2.1+ .6 + 2.9= 5.6 WAR for Curtis Granderson's 2.5 WAR for $4 million dollars more than Detroit and Arizona had to spend.

Hindsight is 20/20 and overall Arizona and Detroit got the better part of the deal than the Yankees, but both Kennedy and Jackson had break out years and quite frankly neither of these players would have likely fit in New York very well and the Yankees like Granderson especially after the tweaks to his swing. Also there have been a lot of players with great rookie seasons who faltered afterward, Jackson is a great player who is going to be a star, but in the MLB superstar outfielders are guys who hit no less than 20+ Home Runs or steal 40+ Bases and Austin Jackson is not going to do either one of those. Ian Kennedy is going to be a great  pitcher who will continue to give up a lot of Home runs, but he is in chase field which is ranked as the 3rd most hitter friendly park in the MLB and he likely would have been better than Javier Vazquez or he could have gotten shelled like he did in 2008. Some people believe that the Yankees lost out on Phil Coke now that he is going to be Starting in detroit, I know he is a lefty but he has only ever started 1 game in AAA and never pitched more than 65 innings in the majors. I don't know if Brian Cashman regrets trading for Granderson but Granderson was an established outfielder, while Jackson was an untested slower Brett Gardner who struck out a lot while Kennedy seemed to have no place with the Yankees in 2010 and he made the decision. Would Yankees fans have been ok with the only home run production in the outfield coming from Nick Swisher? If this trade could be done again I guarantee that the Yankees would not have given as much for Granderson, not because of a lack of production from him but because Jackson would be enough for the deal to happen.

Check out this article and more on my blog A True Yankee

Poll

Would you have done the Granderson trade?

59%

Yes

137 votes

40%

No

95 votes

232 votes | Poll has closed

Lets take a look at the rest of the American league East and how they did this off-season and how they hope to fair in 2011. Every team in the division made some big moves and signing this off-season and it looks like the east could become more and more competitive as time goes on.

 

Baltimore Orioles: Key additions- Derrek Lee, J.J. Hardy, Mark Reynolds, Vladimir Guerrero, Kevin Gregg, Jeremy Accardo, and resigned Koji Uehar.

Key Losses- Ty Wigginton, Kevin Millwood

 

With the late signing of Vlad Guerrero as well as the additions of Derrek Lee and Mark Reynolds the Orioles offense has made up for their loss of Ty Wigginton and added some real pop to the middle of their lineup. They have also improved their pitching with the addition of Kevin Gregg and Justin Duchscherer. Buck Showalter has really turned the Orioles around and while at best they will be contending for third place in the AL East, Showalter has been able to maximize production from the Orioles and he could do a great job developing the team  for the next few years until they are hopefully able to contend in the division. There are some negatives for the Orioles and the main one has to be that while the team improved its pitching and offense, they are still likely the worst team in the east in every category. Also by signing Vlad they take Luke scott out the DH role and so he will be competing with Pie and Winn for the left field spot and it seems to me that it should be more important for the young orioles to get as much playing time as possible than for them to sign Vlad, because the Orioles need to build a team that will compete in the future and signing Vlad for a year doesn't really seem to help them do that.

Tampa Bay Rays: Key additions- Manny Ramirez, Johnny Damon, Kyle Farnsworth and Joel Peralta and a lot of other small pieces

Key Losses- Grant Balfour, Jason Bartlett, Randy Choate, Joaquin Benoit, Carl Crawford, Matt Garza, Dioner Navarro, Chad Qualls, Carlos Pena, Dan Wheeler, Rafael Soriano

 

The Rays lost a lot of players and traded away Bartlett and Garza, but this team made some good pic ups and some very surprising ones by adding old superstars Manny Ramirez and Johnny Damon to go along with their current superstars Evan Longoria and David Price. Some have said that the Rays will be able to contend this year and that remains a remote possibility, but the signing of Manny and Damon should show people what the rays are trying to do. The Rays new coming into this year that it would be very hard for them to compete this year if they did well or awful, I actually remarked to my friend (a sox fan) that the Rays would likely lose all their free agents and trade a starting pitcher no matter how they finished the year. The Rays picked up Manny and Damon in order to keep people in the stands and let their prospects develop more in the Rays fantastic farm system. The Rays have showed in the past that when everything is clicking they are one of the best teams in baseball, but when one part of their team struggles the team runs into trouble as a whole, keep in mind this team has been no hit three times since July of 09 and two of those were perfect games. The Rays don't have the payroll to keep their big time free agents and unlike the Royals they know that when they are building they need to keep their fans interested and that is what the Rays are trying to do this year as you can note with incentives in Damons deal.

 

Toronto Blue Jays: Key Additions- Frank Francisco, Rajai Davis, Octavio Dotal, Jon Rauch

Key Losses- Vernon Wells, John Buck, Scott Downs, Kevin Gregg, Shaun Marcum

 

The biggest note from the Blue Jays was their dumping of Vernon Wells massive contract that had crippled them since 06. They got Juan Rivera and Mike Napoli from the angels and they promptly traded Napoli to the rangers and are looking to trade Rivera. They also traded last years opening day starter Shaun Marcum to the brewers for infield prospect Brett Lawrie. The Jays acquired Rajai Davis to take over in Center field and the rest of their additions are to try and keep their bullpen at the same level it was last year despite not having a true closer. Unfortunately they missed on Russel Martin and as a result lack an established starting Catcher, but they do poses J. P. Arencibia who is the top Cathcing prospect for the Jays and they failed to get a Starting 3rd Baseman so that they could move Jose Bautista to Right Field. With Vernon Wells Mega contract gone the Jays now have some financial flexibility and they showed that when they signed Bautista to a 5 year $65 million deal, which if he produces like last year will prove to be very team friendly. The Jays will be unlikely to be in the playoff race this year and at the trade deadline they could be looking to buy some cheap pieces to fill the holes. The first thing that the Jays are gonna want to do is get fans to the game which despite Bautista's 54 HR the average attendance actually fell by about 3,000 from 2009. Go to the game people of Toronto at the very least the Jays will hit a lot of Home Runs and its a lot more entertaing than watching the Maple Leafs suck year after year.

 

Boston Red Sox: Key Additions- Carl Crawford, Bobby Jenks, Adrian Gonzalez, Dan Wheeler

Key Loses- Mike Lowell, Victor Martinez, Adrian Beltre, Bill Hall

 

Many Red Sox fans still think that they are underdogs to the Yankees which is laughable and all you Connecticut Yankees/non-Sox fans know especially well that Sox fans will forever operate under this delusion that they they believe themselves the constant underdogs no matter their payroll. The Red Sox failed to make the post season and their ratings dropped 36%, so ownership knew that they need to win to keep current sox fans happy. My friend the Sox fan has been trying to justify to me how the Sox are still the underdogs despite their $142 million 7 year deal for Crawford. The Sox have put a lot of faith into Crawford being able to keep his speed until his mid 30's and only time will tell if that faith is justified. The other big deal that the Sox had was their Trade for Adrian Gonzalez, the Sox have put off signing Gonzalez to an extension to avoid more luxury tax, but they will have to and they will have to hope that he comes back 100% from his shoulder surgery and if he does he will be a monster in Fenway. The Sox also appear to have accepted that Papelbon will have another shaky year and so they acquired Dan wheeler and Bobby Jenks to assist Daniel Bard (who could have been a Yankee) in moving on from him. Despite the claims that this will be the best Red Sox team ever they have to hope that a lot of things go right. Last off-season the Sox signed Lackey for 5 years $86 million and extended  Becket for 4 years $68 million. Neither of these guys pitched well, Becket due to Injury and Lackey due to being overrated and sucking, but the Sox seem to think that both these guys will bounce back and be fine, but he never looked good after his May injury last year and face it Lackey was overrated. Dice K only had 153 inning pitched and posted an ERA worse than Ivan Nova's and he also has a history of Injury problems and so the Red Sox are looking at John Lester and Clay Buckholtz to repat their great 2010 seasons. I'm not saying that the Red Sox pitching staff is bad I'm just saying that Dice-K, Beckett and Lackey will sink the Red Sox but its a lot to say that they will just miraculously be better. The Red Sox offense also has a lot riding on speculation, Yes if Gonzalez comes back 100% he will be fantastic, but their is also the concern about Dustin Pedroia, Kevin Youkilis, Ellsbury all staying healthy and Ortiz being productive and Saltalamacchia and Ellsbury hitting above .200. If the Red Sox stay healthy then they could run away with the division but 162 games is a long time and if the injury bug strikes again they could find themselves playing golf again in October.

(Update 2/24: This seems to need clarification. I am NOT saying that Red Sox fans think that they aren't the best team this year, rather that they don't view themselves as a large market team with huge money to spend just like the Yankees. Sorry for any confusion)

To top it all off not a single spring training game has been played and anything can happen during a season let alone before it even beings.

 

Check out this article and more on my Blog A True Yankee

Heading into spring training there has been a lot of talk about the Yankees catching situation with the newly acquired former Dodger Russel Martin and Top Prospect Jesus Montero both looking at the starting job. The Yankees have already said that Martin will be the Starting catcher but Montero hopes to win the job in spring training, however most expect that he will start the year in AAA before making his debut later in the season. One person lost in the Montero/Martin talk is current backup Francisco Cervelli, who despite being the backup last year actually started more games than Jorge Posada. Cervelli will likely start the year as the backup behind Martin, but could still catch a fair number of games if Martin doesn't feel 100%.

Francisco Cervelli endeared himself to many Yankees fans when he was called up in 2009 after both Posada and Molina were injured and he did a great job behind the plate. Starting off the 2010 season Cervelli was great at and behind the plate and some even said that the Yankees should trade Montero and Romine because Cervelli was clearly the future starting catcher for the Yankees. Unfortunately Cervelli made a lot of errors in the second half of the season and as a result his defense rating plummeted and he finished  at the bottom of the league defensive ranking, but anyone who watched the games saw that a lot of these errors were not due to Cervelli making true defensive errors but were more bone headed than anything else. Also he was has statistically been good at throwing out runners until this year when he posted his lowest caught stealing percentage ever and again he was good at the beginning of the year before falling apart around the second half. He did post a .359OBP but his batting average took a nose dive after a very hot April & May and he has never had any power , but oddly enough did hit more triples this year than he hit in his entire minor league career.

Despite the criticism of Cervelli he has was a good backup and he hits well enough to be the starting catcher on most teams and in a recent interview he talked about working with Robinson Cano on hitting and on his desire to be a Starting catcher and win a Gold Glove. Cervelli has been apart of a lot of trade talks with many clubs asking the Yankees about him and he was almost dealt to the Dodgers for Russell Martin. Unfortunately for Cervelli I doubt that he will ever be the Starting catcher for the Yankees due to their great Catching prospects, but he could be a long term back-up or he could be traded at some point in the future as he is definitely capable of starting for a number of teams. Many could project that Cervelli could be dealt some time this season when the Yankees trade for a Starting pitcher but I expect that Romine will be the most likely trade chip this season if a catcher is involved.
I expect to see Cervelli about once a week and I expect that now that he will be playing in the backup role his defensive stats will improve.

 

Check out the original post on: http://ctyankeeblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/francisco-cervelli-2011.html

Well Friday 2/4/2011 is the day that Andy Pettitte officially announced his retirement and as much as I hoped he would come back I had a strong feeling he would retire this year. With the Yankees losing out on Cliff Lee and every other remotely desirable Free Agent Starter we have to wonder who will man the Yankees Rotation not just this year but for the next few years. If the Yankees had given Lee the rumored 7 year deal then he would have been pitching on the team until 2017 and he was 39. Right now the Yankees Rotation looks like:

Sabathia LHP, AJ Burnett RHP, Phil Hughes RHP, Ivan Nova RHP and one of the all RHP Sergio Mitre, Bartolo Colon, Mark Prior, Freddy Garcia and possible Andrew Brackman. Overall not something we hoped for especially with the Left handed heavy Sox. The Yankees will more than likely make a move for a 4th Starter who is hopefully a lefty and the Yankees have to hope that Burnett is better, Nova is a least decent and Hughes has a year like last year, the only player who I don't have any concerns about is Sabathia and he will continue to be a workhorse for the Yankees. The Yankees could try for a deal with any number of pitchers but they wont be King Felix, Josh Johnston, Johan Santana or anyone from the Red Sox or Phillies not named Joe Blanton. Unfortunately for the Yankees there are a lot of teams looking for starting pitching and the Yankees won't want to take any pitchers with long term deals due to some very good pitching prospects who are getting very close to being MLB ready. There is a good article about possible pitchers for the Yankees staff and the two I think are the most likely are Paul Maholm from the pirates who would likely take a scattered assortment of crap prospects for the 30 year old lefty, the other possibility is Edwin Jackson who could be trade bait for some decent relievers especially if the White Sox struggle. 

 

The 2012 rotation could still feature 4 of the 5 starters from the 2011 rotation, but the Yankees rotation could see the addition of Japanese ace Yu Darvish who has said that he will post himself in 2012 and at 26 is considered to be the best Starting pitcher in Japan right now. I seriously doubt anyone would outbid the Yankees for Darvish if the Yankees want him and unless they find gold in both a trade and Nova they will want him. The dominant RHP would turn the Yankees rotation around and leave the 5th starting job for Nova or one of the Yankees other top Pitching prospects. This is of course hoping that Sabathia won't opt out which i don't expect him to.

 

In 2013 the Yankees will enter a slight conundrum as AJ Burnett will enter the last year of his contract and i'm willing to bet that the all of the Killer B's will be at or near MLB ready, however unless he is extended David Price will also be entering the last year of his contract with Tampa and the rays may look to move him for prospects. The Yankees could trade for the Lefty who will be 28 but the Rays may ask for more than the Yankees will be willing to give, especially within the division. If the Yankees did trade for Price they could either trade Burnett or move him down in the rotation. A likely package for Price could be Brackman, Nova and another top prospect. The Yankees could also sign Price in the off-season but they might not want to fork over the draft pick especially if the Killer B's develop the way they want them to.

 

2014 has a number of possible Yankees rotations including:

Sabathia, Price, Darvish, Hughes, Banuelos/Betances or

Sabathia, Darvish, Hughes, Brackman, Banuelos/ Betances or

Sabathia, Hughes, Brackman, Banuelos, Betances/Nova or any other combination of back end pitchers

 

The future looks bright for the Yankees rotation but still we ended the 2010 season thinking we would have a rotation of:

Sabathia, Lee, Hughes, Pettitte and Burnett and instead we are looking at  Sanbathia, Hughes, Burnett, Nova, Colon/Garcia/Prior/Mitre. The one good thing is that the current rotation will change as the season progresses and possibly before opening day. The worst part is that the offense could be awesome this year, but we will need a rotation to back it up.

Check out the original post on my blog: A True Yankee

The Yankees agreed to a deal with Andruw Jones on Thursday for one-year and $2MM and he will be the Yankees 4th outfielder and primary lefty smasher. For more info about that signing you can check out my first post that talked about the signing. That still leaves the Fifth outfield spot open and there are several options for the Yankees at that spot. The Yankees will likely look internally for their fifth outfielder and they have 6 current options from players currently on the 40-man roster. Those are Kevin Russo, Brandon Laird, Colin Curtis, Greg Golson, Melky Mesa and Jordan Parraz. I will start with the least likely and work my way up.

 

#6 MELKY MESA

 

Melky Mesa is considered to be one of the Yankees best outfield prospects with absolutely fantastic defense and a lot of raw talent and athleticism. Unfortunately he strikes out a lot and he finished last year with the Advanced A Tampa Yankees and has not advanced beyond that point despite 5 years in the Yankees farm system. That being said the Yankees did put him on the 40-man so that he could not be taken in the Rule 5 draft so they must believe at least some of the hype around Melky and if he has a good spring training he could advance up the minors ladder but he is very unlikely to reach the Bronx this season.
 

#5 Brandon Laird

 Brandon Laird who is the brother of catcher Gerald Laird is a top prospect who has some serious power and last year he posted a slash line of  .291 .355 .523 .878 with 23 HR's in 454 PA before being bumped up to AAA. Unfortunately his stats dropped off significantly in AAA and his struggles continued in the Arizona fall league, he also has spent all of his minor league career at 1st and 3rd before the Yankees decided to see him play in the outfield in the Fall league and its uncertain if he will stay in the outfield. His recent struggles and the very recent move to the outfield will likely keep him off the opening day roster but we could see him later on in the year. He is also 23 and the Yankees will likely want him to prove himself in AAA before throwing him into the majors and possibly stunt his development. However if Spring training goes well for Laird he could make the opening day roster due to his power and ability to play the infield and outfield corners.

#4 Jordan Parrez

This is Jordan Parraz and if you don't recognize the name or face its because he was claimed off waivers from the Red Sox back in December after they had claimed him off waivers in November from the Royals. He hit .266 last year in AAA with 11 HR's and his defense is average, but i don't know if he will even be with the Yankees by spring training so we will likely stay unfamiliar with him. According to his Minor League stats his fielding is pretty average but he also is primarily a Right fielder and hasn't played Center since 2008 and has never played Left. Honestly I could be wrong about Jordan but I'm not very familiar with him as we haven't seen him and he could wow  in spring training, but i do not expect to see him on the opening day roster.

 

#3 Kevin Russo

I must confess I really like Kevin Russo and as a result I may be ranking him higher than I should, but he does have something that none of the three previous players do and that is experience in pinstripes. If you are unfamiliar with him Russo is a utility player who has played at almost every position, he is also originally from Long island and grew up a Yankees fan. Russo was a hero in the subway series and won the first game of that series by contributing the only two Yankee RBI's of the game with a great double, he also had another RBI and Run scored in the next days loss at Citi field. He then had another RBI in the Yankees 3-2 win in Minnesota on May 26th and was batting .294 at the time, unfortunately that was the last RBI for Russo and he was sent down to Scranton on July 17th with .184 BA. His AAA numbers for 2010 wern't very good at .259 .333 .328 .662 and 1 HR, but with exception of his OBP  those are all the worst numbers of his career so he could bounce back and the Yankees would love to have a good utility player as their fifth outfielder. Another negative against Russo is that his infield defense is pretty average and his range is good but his defense and range in the outfield are both below average and he doesn't have a lot of playing time in the outfield while in Scranton despite spending most of his time in the majors in Left Field. Despite his drawbacks Russo is extremely versatile and has MLB experience, which is why he still has a shot at making the Opening day roster.
 

 #2 Colin Curtis

Colin Curtis was drafted in the 4th Round of the 2006 draft by the Yankees and has spent his entire career in the Yankees system and made his Major League debut this season on June 21st 2010, exactly a month later he hit a Three Run Home Run against the angels in the Bronx when he was called upon to pinch hit after Brett Gardner was ejected from the game while batting with an 0-2 count. Curtis appeared in 31 games and had more plate appearances than any other AAA call-up with 64 PA's but he only had an .186 BA, an OBP of .250 and he struck out 15 times. Curtis lacks plate disciple and is not very perceptive at the plate or running the base paths, he has struck out and failed to run to 1st when the ball was dropped and another time he failed to notice that the ball had not been caught and began running back to 1st and took an extra base hit away from Juan Miranda. Curtis does have an inspiring story as he is a survivor of Testicular cancer and has been Cancer free for ten years. LiL CC has average defense and can play all 3 outfield positions and his minor league batting stats are good but he needs to improve his approach and because of that he will likely need to spend more time in AAA to do so, but if he displays better plate disciple in spring training he could start the season in the Bronx.
 

#1 Greg Golson

Greg Golson was acquired last off-season from the Texas Rangers and he was drafted by the Phillies back in 2004. Golson was called up several times to the Bronx, but he made  his biggest impact on the field in September and the ALDS with some fantastic defense and an unbelievable throwing out of Carl Crawford at third in September, the throw was so good he would have thrown out Rickey Henderson. Golson hit .261 in 23 PA's but it is best to go by his minor league stats due to his limited PA's in the majors. Golson strikes out a lot but he hit .263 with an OBP of .313 and had 10 HR, he also is a speedster and stole 17 bases last year in 21 attempts. Golson's great ability as a defensive replacement in the outfield and ability as a speedster make him the ideal 5th outfielder for the Yankees with the exception of Scott Posednick. The combination of Gardner, Granderson and Golson in the late innings will be a scary good outfield and he could have some potential power as he was 4th in Scranton in Home Runs. Unless Golson hits below .200 in Spring training then his only competition for 5th outfielder will be if the Yankees bring in a free agent. Have fun in the Bronx Golson, I look forward to seeing more of Gutty Gritty Greg Golson.

 

The Original article can be found on my blog: A True Yankee

We all know the story behind BenJarvus Green-Ellis. Came into the year at the bottom of the RB depth chart  and after the Maroney trade and injuries to Fred Taylor and Kevin Faulk he became the Starter. After today's game in Chicago he stands at 786 rushing yards with three games left to play, those being the Packers, Bills and the Dolphins. The Packers are roghly the same level as the patriots in terms of Run Defense, with an average of 111.3 rushing yards allowed per game (Patriots 114.1) and we will have to see how he does against them Sunday night. Buffallo ranks dead last in Run Defense with 170.9 yards allowed per game and in week 3 Green-Ellis gained 98 yards against Buffalo, with the Patriots having a total of 200  rushing yards. Also if anyone remembers Green-Ellis had 105 Rushing yards and a touchdown against Buffalo back in 2008, so we can hope to see around 100 yards for Green-Ellis in Buffalo. Miami is statistically the best of these teams in terms of Run Defense, ranking 9th in the league with an of average of 99.6 yards by opponents, however  the Patriots did put up 119 yards against the Dolphins back in week four and the law firm accounted for 76 of those rushing yards. The other factor in this is that the Patriots like using Woodhead and we could see more of Fred Taylor in the next three games.Now Benjarvus Green-Ellis currently needs 214 yards in three games to get to 1,000 rushing yards and many projections put him at around around 950 rushing yards for the season. But i don't think it is that unrealistic that he will get to the 1k mark and he would be the first Patriot to do so since Corey Dillon set a franchise record of 1,635 rushing yards in the 2004-2005 season.

My projection for the next three weeks is:

12/19  vs Green Bay- BJGE: 75 yards

Packers vs Patriots coverage

May be high but he just rushed 86 yards against the Bears #2 Rush Defense (84.9 yards per game)

Patriots vs Bears boxscore

12/26 @ Buffalo- BJGE: 95 yards

This total is lower than what some might expect,but i think the Pats will spread the ball around between their RB's

1/2 vs Miami- BJGE: 60 yards

The Patriots will only NOT rest their starters in the 2nd half/4th quarter if they lose the previous 2.

Total: 230 rushing yards for BJGE

(p.s before anyone leaves a comment I'm just rounding on the game totals obviously i don't expect him to finish this neatly in each game)

Season Total: 1,016 rushing yards for the law firm

Well that's my estimate, I say that BenJavus Green-Ellis makes it to 1,000 yards in Foxborough against the Dolphins. I also see him finishing with 15 Rushing TD's.

Even if the Law Firm reaches 1,000+ yards there is a possibility that the Patriots could draft Mark Ingram and he would either lose his starting job or be traded/sign with another team because he is a RFA in 2011. Granted he will most likely have the starting job if Ingram isn't drafted and that is dependent on how the raiders do the rest of the season.

What do you folks think? Please answer the poll and leave comments.

Poll

Will the Law firm make it to 1k?

79%

Rule in Favor

114 votes

7%

Rule Against

11 votes

13%

The Jury is out

19 votes

144 votes | Poll has closed

 

Jermaine Dye in Pinstripes. Brandon C. wrote about this back in June I had been thinking about the idea even before that and today i read an article talking about Jermaine Dye wanting to play in 2011, which some were wondering about. Now Dye is horrible in the outfield but he could serve the same role that Thames served this year as a bench outfielder who can be brought in to pinch hit against lefties, can DH once in awhile and whose fielding skills border on little league levels(although Dyes defensive stat's are slightly better than Thames). Now the chief problem I see in this is that the Yankees got Thames for cheap last year and while Dye has said money wont be an issue this year the guy did turn down $1.5 million from the Nationals and a $3 million offer from the Cubs. However Dye has said he wants to play for a contender and who better than the New York Yankees? The Problem with this is that even playing for a contender, Dye will still likely want more money than the Yankees will want to invest in an older outfielder who cant play defense and they already don't think they will retain Thames whom they signed to a minor league deal last February and will now hope to sign a much better contract after a great offensive year.Overall I find Dye in pinstripes as an unlikely future event unless he REALLY REALLY want to play for a serious contender and would accept around a one year- $1.5 million deal.

Hey everybody i did a google search Phil Hughes t-shirts and i found a funny one on this site called zazzle.com. They also have various other amusing Yankees T-shirts, including one for our very own Francisco Cervelli.

 

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Uploaded with ImageShack.us

 

I just thought People would like these t-shirts. This is the link to the Cervelli t-shirt:

http://www.zazzle.com/you_got_cervd_tshirt-235078564619924221

Zazzle.com has a couple other funny Yankee t-shirts and a couple good anti-sox ones.

 

I had an idea a while ago of making the playoffs in mlb more accessible to teams that typically find themselves left out of the playoffs despite good records. My idea was to do a 1 game or a 3 game playoff between the top 2 teams in the wild card hunt. The AL wild card has only gone to a non AL East team 4 times since it was implemented in 1995. Many teams are frustrated by the dominance of the AL East and this rule could increase their chances of making the playoffs. The rule would give the team with the best record home field advantage and would take place one day after the end of the regular season. If it was a 3 game playoff then they could do either a doubleheader followed by a night game the next day. The doubleheader could take place at either the #1 teams home field or at a neutral location and then the night game at either the #2 teams field or #1 teams field in the case of a neutral location doubleheader.  Please leave your feedback about my idea, especially whether you like the idea of a 1 game playoff or 3 game playoff better. Also please mention any ideas you have.

Poll

Do you like the idea of a Playoff for the Wild Card betwen the top two teams in the wild card race?

45%

Yes

9 votes

40%

No

8 votes

15%

Maybe

3 votes

20 votes | Poll has closed

New York Yankees

 

 

    Yankee management has been trying to figure out what to do with Kei Igawa since his $47 million dollar deal exploded in the New York Yankees faces. First there was the hope that he would improve to a level where the Yankees could still use him as a decent fifth starter or a mediocre fourth starter, but that dream died. It didnt take long before the Yankees began praying that they could trade Igawa away after his miserable first season. Sadly no team was stupid enough to take Igawa off their hands.

Now their is the hope that maybe he could be a good left handed relief pitcher; but lets face it even if he does emerge as a "Great" relief pitcher would it be worth the $47 million we paid. And lets face it if Igawa had the potential to be even a good reliever wouldnt the Yankees have jumped on this chance to get something out of Igawa.

In the end the Yankees should hope that they can convince some idiot team to take Igawa ( The Mets need another bad decision this offseason and the Tigers seem like they dont understand the concept of money anymore, so try them.) or we can hope that Toyota will issue a factory recall for Igawa and either fix him or give us a new pitcher. I think at this point the Yankees would accept a new Prius in exchange for Igawa.