jacksonianmarch

The sox always shoot the yogurt early in the yr. The thing is, though, this yankee team as well as the last 3 are built for regular season dominance. An insane lineup, a pitching staff that at the very least will give moderately effective innings, and a lights out pen. It may not be the best playoff scenario, but it has gotten them to the ALE championships for a long time now. That being said, the sox cannot just give up games and chalk them up to experimenting in the pen. You lose games you should have won by having a craptastic closing situation, and the yankees will use those to their advantage. The Yankees as constituted will win 100 or so games. If you want the east, you have better not give away any. And having an unfinished bullpen gives away games.

ARod loves his legacy too much to give the yankees that salary cap relief. This yr will be very telling though. If he actually steps up as a leader of the team and doesnt do his daily disappearing act after the 5th inning or so, then he would be stupid to leave. Contrary to popular belief, it doesnt take much to win over yankee fans. Hell, there were people who actually thought Bubba Crosby would have been a good starting yankee CFer after watching him have the month of his life in 05. But for ARod, he never got off to the good start. 04 was a poor yr for him, and something he will never escape. The fact that the yankees gave up the ultimate playoff ghost to the team they essentially cursed sits poorly in yankee minds. And ARod was billed as the savior that yr, and the absolute worst case scenario came true. THAT will be hard for him to overcome. But he loves himself WAY too much to give up this easily. Plus, he loves his cash flow way too much as well. If he opts out, he will be forver known as the guy who couldnt handle the pressure in NY. His lone failure in his career (that and not winning the big one to this point anyway). Your best chance of winning is going to a team that is in the playoffs perennially, the team with the biggest budget, and the team with the most attractive prestigious allure. The yankees have that. One thing ARod has never done is proven himself a liar. We can call him a pretty boy, gay loving, homo all we want. He may be fake, condecending, and nauseating prepared with everything he says, but he isnt a liar. He has stated from the beginning that he wants to win it all. That is numero uno. If that is truly the case, if he is truly not a liar, then he wont opt out, because the yankees may be the only team that could potentially drag his sorry ass in the playoffs to a ring. There arent many other teams that could afford that. And 2, its the money. He has something like 81 million coming to him in the last 3yrs of the contract. He turns 32 in July. He will be 34 when the current contract ends. At 34 and chasing the HR record, he'll make a pretty penny, and if he produces in NY, the yankees will compensate him dearly. I'd say Jeter money, in the range of 16-18 mil per until he's in his late 30s, lets say 39. If he opts out, he will likely get a Ramirez style contract right now, in the 20 mil per range for the next 6 or 7 yrs until he is 39. Look at the money until then. If he stays and signs on for 5 yrs 80-90mil after this contract, he will make a total of 161-171 million by the time he turns 39. If he opts out, he would get a 7 yr deal in the 140 mil range. Thats a 21-31 million dollar loss. He knows he's good. He knows he wont decline too poorly as he has a freakish body type and ability set. The best thing for him to do would be to stay in NY, start producing and acting like a leader and win a title.

50.) Jordan Craft, P 49.) Jose Capellan, P 48.) Kris Negron, IF 47.) Mike Jones, 1B 46.) Josh Papelbon, P 45.) Jon Still, C 44.) Zach Daegas, OF 43.) Dustin Richardson, P 42.) Felix Doubront, P 41.) Tim Cox, P 40.) Yahmed Yema, OF 39.) Mark Wagner, C 38.) Barry Hertzler, P 37.) Jeremy West, 1B/DH 36.) Mike Rozier, P 35.) Randy Beam, P 34.) Jonathan Egan, C 33.) Reid Engel, OF 32.) Christian Lara, SS 31.) Luis Soto, OF 30.) Mike James, P

Beckett had a closer last yr.

that was the case a few yrs back. Prior to the deals this winter, they had a damn good pitching farm with 2 high end position player talents (Tabata and Montero). Now they have too much pitching. I was debating this issue on another forum and there is a chance that guys with solid MLB potential will be stacked or be forced to the pen just because of the logjam. The yankees will have 5MLB ready prospects in AAA, a MLB ready 4-5 in Rasner in long relief, and at least 3 MLB ready pitchers forced to toil in AA for 07 just because of the logjam. And it isnt like it ends there. The A+ class is fantastic as is the class in A ball. Put that with 2 consecutive DSL championships with a few other high end pitching talents (most notably a kid named Francisco Gil who you will hear of before his time is done) and you have a system just flat out loaded with righty pitching talent. That being said, their bullpen talent is nearly as impressive. They have 2 high end position prospects if you dont count Melky. They have Duncan and his great power (20HR per 600AB in his minor league career for a HS draftee) at 1b in AAA. They have another OF prospect (Gardner) who could make some noise as a pest on the bases over the next yr or so, but after that, the position prospect well looks to be running dry until you get to the very strong DSL class. But it is just that, the dominican summer league. Half these kids will fizzle out before they get to AA ball, so relying on them for the long term is a bad proposition. I guess if you have to grade their farm. RHP- A+ - Hughes, Clippard, Sanchez, Ohlendorf, Karstens, White, Horne, Jackson, Betances, Kennedy, Chamberlain, Nova, Gil, McCallister, Marquez et al is one hell of a starting staff considering that I didnt even mention a top 10 prospect in Garcia who will be rehabbing from TJ all yr. Cox, Melancon, Whelan, Claggett is a pretty good relief corps even if Melancon is rehabbing all yr. LHP- D+ - Reyes is the best of the bunch, the only one with solid projection. Wright is being held onto with the 40 man spot, but he doesnt profile much higher than middle of the rotation and that is being generous. Position prospects- C+ - Duncan, Montero, Tabata and Gardner highlight this class. Underachievers A. Jackson, Nunez, Vechionacci really kept their rating from being higher. The solid DSL class will have to provide some hope or the position prospect class looks real top heavy without much depth.

Yes, I do. He will be the opposite of Nomo. He will start out better than Nomo finished during his prime, but will finish about as good as Nomo was in his prime. He'll be a good pitcher, I dont doubt that. But he doesnt have the "novelty" factor of the typical japanese pitcher. The crazy ass windup, the one pitch that moves in a funky ass way, something that is novel initially then gets adjusted to. Mind you, he isnt Pedro, nor will be ever be. I dont think another Pedro will occur. But he will be good.

HAHAHAHA

probably released an an expensive failed experiment. I still think this whole bullpen by committee thing will bow up again and by the time they right the ship, they'll be fighting for the WC. The Yankees team is built for the regular season, they will bash the s*** teams and play .500+ ball vs the good teams. If there is any slip in that pen, they will be too far behind to catch up.

Where have I said he is MLB average? I predicted an era in the 3.8-4.3 range. A 3.8ERA is much better than average. AND, I said he will improve over the yrs as he learns the league rather than the reverse because he isnt a novelty one trick pony like many of the japanese import pitchers are. He is a cerebral pitcher with multiple plus pitches. But he doesnt, contrary to popular belief, feature anything that isnt in a typical MLB arsenal. Once he learns the league, he'll be real tough.

you have got to be f***ing kidding me. Not only do they get a great commercial yanked, they are now trying to annul marriages of people who dont have kids in 3 yrs. Bastards.

from rotoworld.

that all star team was playing out of season.

you know, I was hoping to have a few yankee fans take a look at the list with some optimism, some sox fans rip at it and turn it into a nice argument/conversation. But now that Linda is banned, PARTY!!!!! THANKS YESZIR!

I have a sox top 50, might as well show the yankees top 50. BTW, the top 50 was compiled in October. This was before the signing of Miranda, and the deals for Sheff and RJ. 1. Hughes 2. Tabata 3. Betances 4. Montero 5. Clippard 6. Kennedy 7. Duncan 8. Garcia 9. Marquez 10. Gardner 11. Chamberlain 12. Cox 13. Melancon 14. Nunez 15. Vechionacci 16. Reyes 17. Jackson 18. McCallister 19. Beam 20. White 21. Battle 22. DeSalvo 23. Horne 24. Nova 25. Castillo 26. Karstens 27. Henn 28. Tejeda 29. Kontos 30. Norton 31. Patterson 32. Curtis 33. Hilligoss 34. Rodriguez 35. Kennard 36. Wright 37. Sardinha 38. Corona 39. Cervelli 40. Japa 41. Pena 42. Christian 43. Holmann 44. Ehlers 45. Calzado 46. Smith 47. Mesa 48. McCutchen 49. Fortenberry 50. Jones Miranda is considered to be anywhere from a mid teens to a mid 20s prospect because he may have a limited power potential. Sanchez is a top 5 guy, potentially at #3. Whelan was a top 10 guy in Detroit, and with Garcia and Melancon going down with injury, he likely would be #10. Claggett was #13 in Detroit, so he would likely be top 15 in this system. Ohlendorf was #13 in Arizona and would fit into the top 15 in this system. Jackson was anywhere from 13-23 in the zona system depending on who you believe. He'd like be near #20 in this system Gonzalez was ranked #20 by scout.com, but I have seen other sites rank him as the yankees #10. I would assume he would be in the teens, maybe late teens in this system. Not bad pickups to an already potent farm system. I'll update the sox ones when they update the site.

Brad Baker was NASTY in HS. He threw low 90s consistently with a sick curve. Asadoorian was damn good too. Who was that kid who threw away his life after being a first rounder recently. I think he was out of Peabody, was it Arnold? But nothing will compare to this one kid I faced when I was on a 12 yr old travel team (A LONG TIME AGO!). 6 foot 2 200+ lefty at 12 who could hit 88-90 on the gun. Facing him at 12 was almost unfair. I was just happy I got the bat on the ball. Later I heard the kid ended up in JuV and spent a bunch of time in jail. What a frickin waste.

I think we may have when we acquired Randy. Then again, it was Randy Johnson coming off one of his best career seasons.

We shall see guys. I am pulling for him. He'd be a fantastic example of what can be done to treat cancer. I just dont see him as the dominant force he was billed as, but he can prove me wrong. Time will tell.

His walk rate has never been very good in the minors. And to expect that his BAA will stay the same in the bigs is tough to say the least. He doesnt have the stuff of dominance if you know what I mean. He has a LONG way to go on that curveball, which he could not locate. And plus he is going to have a chore just to get back to the guy he was last yr after chemo. And the guy who took the mound last yr is not a successful pitcher. He will have to get back to last yrs level, go past that, then refine and retool his repertoire. It may take awhile if it happens at all. I am rooting for the kid, but he certainly did not look to be the ace that people were projecting him to be. He looked like a Ted Lilly clone.

I'll chalk his crappy MLB debut to the cancer. But his early season struggles in AAA are a big murky as far as this entire situation goes.

Nobody really knows when the cancer started to affect his ability. His 1.4WHIP in AAA was enough to throw up some serious red flags on his reasoning for callup. He'll have to show he can stave off baserunners before he can make an impact.

SS in Jr. High. SS/1B in high school as well as pitcher. 1B/LF and pitcher in college.

Buchholz and Bowden will likely start in A+ ball with a ceiling of AA in 07. AAA in 08 if everything goes well and it would be best if they dont see the bigs until 2009. Lester at this point is a HUGE ?. And even if he returns to health, his propensity to allow baserunners even at the lowest levels doesnt make it sound like he'll be a top level pitcher in the AL. His style is a lot more suited for the NL.

"nice". That is a Cy Young rookie yr. Lots of expectations on this kid.