jacksonianmarch

Now that the off-season is in its final stages for the Yankees, it is time to start looking at the position battles which will start in 6 weeks when pitchers and catchers report. Starting off with the 25 man roster. Going from C-Closer, here are the locks 1. Jorge Posada 2. Mark Teixeira 3. Robinson Cano 4. Derek Jeter 5. Alex Rodriguez 6. Brett Gardner 7. Nick Johnson 8. Curtis Granderson 9. Nick Swisher 10. CC Sabathia 11. Andy Pettitte 12. AJ Burnett 13. Javier Vazquez 14. Joba Chamberlain 15. Phil Hughes 16. Damaso Marte 17. David Robertson 18. Alfredo Aceves 19. Mariano Rivera That leaves 6 spots to fill. It is pretty likely that NY will enter 2010 with 12 pitchers, so that leaves 2 open spots in the pen. And there are plenty of options for those spots. Pitchers currently on the 40 man roster who are not on the above list include... A. Romulo Sanchez B. Edwar Ramirez C. Boone Logan D. Ivan Nova E. Mark Melancon F. Hector Noesi G. Chad Gaudin H. Sergio Mitre I. Christian Garcia J. Wilkin de la Rosa K. Andrew Brackman L. Jonathan Albaladejo Sanchez will need another yr in the minors, but could be an intriguing option in 2010 if he harnesses his breaking pitches. Ramirez is on his last legs and is probably the first guy cut should a roster crunch come about. Logan has the lead IMO since he's a lefty, but he does have one option left, so he could theoretically be sent down. Nova is a dark horse for a big league spot and could actually be a sleeper candidate for that #5 spot in the rotation, but he really is on the outside looking in. Melancon has to be near the top of this list, but I think he's the last guy sent down as of right now and will likely spend a ton of time in the bigs this yr. Noesi was only placed on the 40 man to avoid the rule V, he isnt ready. The same cane be said for Garcia, de la Rosa and Brackman. Albaladejo is right behind Melancon IMO. Gaudin and Mitre will battle it out for that last spot and the loser, IMO gets traded. So, my guess is that Gaudin and Logan break camp in pinstripes. 20. Chad Gaudin 21. Boone Logan So, the last 4 spots are all about building a bench. With the yankee offense getting a bit of an infusion of youth (2009, only 2 starters were under 32, now, only 3 starters are over it) they should expect to lean on the bench a little less as long as everything goes close to as planned. It starts with catcher. And with the passing on of Jose Molina, I think Francisco Cervelli is as much of a lock as anyone. He can hit a little, he can run better than most catcher and he is a whiz behind the dish. 22. Francisco Cervelli The next spot is going to an outfielder who hits right handed. Right now, that internal candidate is Jamie Hoffman. With Granderson struggling to hit lefties throughout his career and a lefty swinging Gardner the front runner to start in LF, Hoffman seems like a great fit in the OF. Granted, he could be the first guy gone should NY sign another LFer to supplant Gardner in ST. 23. Jamie Hoffman The next spot needs to go to a utility guy. That once again requires a look at the yankee 40 man roster. Here are the other guys capable of filling the utility role on the 40 man not on any above lists... a. Reegie Corona b. Eduardo Nunez c. Kevin Russo d. Ramiro Pena In terms of versatility, Russo has all of them, since he really has played every position aside from C and P in his minor league days. He also has all of them in the offensive category too and really profiles well as a supersub. But a lot of people think that defense is more important than offense out of this spot and Pena has all of them. Nunez is the current in house heir apparent to Jeter and he hasnt played in AAA yet, so I expect him to be in Scranton. And Corona struggled in AAA, so he will probably see a repeat for 2010 in SWB. But my choice would be Russo, but I think the Yankee choice will be Pena. Regardless, we could see both of them on the roster concurrently or in alternation to make sure both get regular at bats in AAA. 24. Ramiro Pena And the last spot. Well, when you have a park suited to a left handed hitter and a guy in your lineup who really is a singles hitter with a good eye, you need to have some pop off the bench. And that guy is Juan Miranda. He does have some competition though, from Jorge Vazquez. Vazquez was another older hispanic signee who had a monster season in the yankee farm system. But he is more of a pure hacker, finished at AA and was hurt to end the yr. Plus, he isnt on the 40 man yet. So, my guess is that Miranda cracks camp as a Yankee 25. Juan Miranda Now, that doesnt mean they are done. The Yankees cleared a lot of 40 man roster space with their deals. As it stands, right now, NY has 2 open 40 man roster spots with another spot hanging in the balance as it pertains to Edwar Ramirez. So, if there is a surprising spring story, NY wont have to waive someone to add them to the 40 man and bring them to the bigs. Another shrewd move from the GM.

Its kinda like comparing the height of two midgets. Kotchmann never developed like the Angels and Braves thought he would. His career line is .269/.337/.406 which is worse than Melky Cabrera's season in 2009. So, his defense better be worth it, cause he hits like Melky and plays at a position that demands major offensive production.

Exactly. We dont need him to be better than Lackey, though. We just need him to throw 200 innings and continue pitching above average. Anything more than that is gravy.

John Sickels agrees in part. http://www.minorleagueball.com/2009/12/31/1228281/new-york-yankees-top-20-prospects

He could be. But I would definitely say that the odds are on Lackey's side for this upcoming season.

I honestly think Montero kinda slogs between DH, backup 1B, emergency LFer and backup catcher until Tex is out of town, then he becomes a full time 1b. Think about it, Tex' contract is up after Montero's yr 26 season, so it isnt like he's blocked from ever taking the reigns in NY. Now, some people at BP think Montero has caught up to Romine, but I find that hard to believe. And PP says that certain aspects of Montero's defensive game have caught up with Romine's, but his overall game is still lacking. Then comes the splits he had in the FSL, where he hit over .400 as a DH and under .300 as a catcher. So maybe the defense is taking its toll. Regardless, Montero doesnt need to be a catcher long term, as a matter of fact, I would rather he not be a catcher long term. The Yankees have a ridiculous amount of catching depth in the minors, the best in the majors by far in fact. Cervelli, Montero, Romine, Higashioka, Murphy, Sanchez and then some other outliers with potential big league futures in Valera, Arcia and Taveras. And other teams are listening. The fact that Chase Weems was dealt for Hairston and he wasnt even on the prospect radar screen shows that these guys do have worth to other teams and to NY.

It is for the better. Lee is hitting the FA market and we'll have 23 million coming off the books in the rotation. Plus, you should read John Sickels rankings of the yankee farm system to see what he thinks of Montero. I dont want to trade him at all. A "Manny Ramirez" bat, I want that in pinstripes.

I'd also put on that list that the recovery after the barrage on injuries was big too. After Posada, ARod and Wang went down, we stayed pretty healthy.

Pitching is very important and becomes more important as the postseason looms. But the O is incredibly important over 162 games and I think NY's consistent offensive output was the biggest reason for winning the division.

The Ortiz-Manny 3-4 was one of the best of all time for a short period of time. And it made that entire lineup go. Theo put a bunch of tough outs in the lineup around those two and essentially funnelled baserunners into the 3-4 power machine and generated sick amounts of runs. Plus, those two guys reached base so much that the 5, 6, and 7 guys got a lot of easy ribbies because of the .400+ OBPs of 2 consecutive hitters. Losing that dynamic duo to trade and age is a big reason why the sox were less consistent offensively last yr. The numbers were solid, but they couldnt do anything against good pitching and really struggled for long stretches, then would massacre a couple teams to get their runs up. I showed the numbers in a previous post. Over the last 3 months, the sox had something like 6-8 more games than NYY where they scored 3 or less runs but had 4 more games of 7 or more runs. They were a big time hit or miss offense

http://www.overthemonster.com/2009/12/22/1212797/lets-talk-about-luxury-tax We're both wrong. If the sox break the lux tax in 2010, then they will be hit with a 30% tax. They exceeded in 2007 and were hit with a 40% tax. They were under the tax in 2008, so they dropped brackets to 30%. They would need to be under the lux tax for 2 yrs after that to drop down another bracket. So, if the sox stayed under the limit this yr, they would be at 22.5% next season. If they break this yr, they are at 40% for 2011. Also, the site below shows the sox current salary structure. Although this artice is actually wrong in how much the sox would need to pay based on the lux tax rules http://www.weei.com/sports/boston/baseball/red-sox/alex-speier/2009/12/15/breaking-bank-look-red-sox-payroll-2010 The sox are currently at $168 million with a lux tax for 2010 of $170 mil. If they can rekindle the deal for Lowell and save $3 million while taking on a $400K player in Ramirez, then they stay under the cap by $4.6 million. Lets just say for arguments sake that Beltre signs for $9 million AAV over 3 yrs. That means that the sox would exceed the lux tax by $4.4 million. That means that to sox would pay $1.3 million in lux tax. So, for 2010, Beltre will cost $10.3 million. Then, for 2011, the sox would be in the 40% tax bracket instead of the 22.5% tax bracket. And for 2012, they'd be in the 40% instead of the 30%. That means that Beltre not only is going to cost his contract plus lux tax, he will also cost 17.5% more for overall team lux tax in 2011 and 10% more in lux tax in 2012.

Yeah, that article makes no sense at all

Hoyer wont be deceived right now BS07, remember, he knows all of the internal communications about all of these minor leaguers

Not sure why Kelly is untouchable and Buchholz isnt. Regardless, one of the two or even both would be needed to get Gonzalez

Just dishing it back there Imperial. And really, you are one to talk.

that's a dominant, absolutely lights out argument. Are you 12 yrs old? I know you are but what am I?

When it comes to trade offers, these sources are about as reliable as you and I.

And I will focus on the point. Your point is that the sox let Damon walk because they were really concerned about Damon's ability to play CF. But, they let him walk after offering him a massive contract. And then they complained that Damon didnt give them a chance to counter. It was all spin after that. Actually, the spin afterwards that you obviously bought into is the strawman.

I really dont think you have a clue what strawman arguments are.

I would wait until you hear it from a more credible source. The truth is, until you hear it from the horses mouth, you dont actually know. Remember the rampant speculation over the Santana negotiation? Finally Cash comes out with the real s*** after the fact.

They offered 4yrs 44 million. Don't pretend like they didnt want him.

This is Cafardo's opinion vs questionable inside source. Hoyer never said this.

Damon played the field. He never had a problem taking the field. IMO, he wasnt that bad defensively until this past season.

if they dont get Beltre, then they still run into the same predicament with whomever they deal for. They need to believe that getting that player is worth paying 40% more in salary than what they currently make and then having the penalty continue through the next few seasons. We arent talking small money here. We're talking $5-10 million of extra money coming out of the sox pockets

They may have decided not to go after JD Drew if they had Damon and moved Manny back to RF. They had options. Regardless, the point is moot. The sox were wrong on that one. They were right on Pedro. It remains to be seen on Bay, but I dont think you can make the same assumption if he is hurt since the DH position isnt available to him in Flushing