jacksonianmarch

You don't think like me so you are WRONG!!!

25-26 mil for a guy with a proposed ceiling of a #3 starter. Sounds like Zito in stuff with better control. But there is a reason why there has been only one Barry Zito, because it takes an extraordinary pitcher to take one plus plus pitch and mediocre fastball and become a solid winning pitcher. BTW, Cashman has confirmed that the yankees now hold his rights.

Brian Cashman has confirmed that the yankees have won the rights to Kei Igawa. The bid was believed to be 25-26mil, which is 7 mil more than the mets bid.

Wang is not your typical pitcher. He has overpowering stuff. He can throw a plus plus sinker 95-98mph. That is flat out overpowering. But he is also a pitcher that does not shy away from contact. That means that he lasts longer. If you watch his games, you see what I mean. The guy routinely gets into the 7th inning with 70-80 pitches, which is unheard of in this game. But if you watch, when he needs a strikeout, he usually gets it. That is when he uses the sinker as a chase pitch and uses his slider as his out pitch. I think I'd take Wang over Beckett any day of the week and twice on Sunday. Both are young, but Wang is not afraid of bats and has one overpowering pitch that is unhittable even though you know it is coming. You really cannot beat that with a stick.

Abreu is a better player in every single aspect than Drew. And with the prices that are being talked about, Abreu is a frickin bargain now.

I see a lot of twisting there example. Many teams that are close can point to one thing that cost them a season. For the yankees, it was starting pitching. For the red sox, it was a whole lot of things. Some people say injuries, but anyone who watched this team knows that the injuries just gave a rather convenient excuse. Cowherd may be an idiot, and I agree with that sentiment. But he is not alone in calling Boston one of the most dysfunctional FO's in the game. Think about it. This is the team that had its GM walk out in a gorilla suit to "find himself". Then 2 kids who everyone knew werent in control were figure-headed in control. Then the gorilla comes roaring back and comes on as GM but doesnt even sign a contract for a yr. During this span, they make some trades that really look bad in hindsight (and you are judged by hindsight, not on how good things looked initially) and put an incomplete team on the field. They took a team that hadnt won a championship in 86 yrs, put a winner together then dismantled them before anyone uttered play ball again. Yeah, some of those moves look smart in retrospect over a long term range, but you honestly cannot tell me that a healthy Lowe and Martinez couldnt have sent the 05 sox to the world series. Unfortunately, the world series win bought time for the franchise to do what it wanted without the scrutiny and they completely f***ed it up. The heroes of 04 are gone. The new kids are in and the team is lacking direction. The biggest fallout will be when Manny is dealt and the murderers row in Boston is relegated to a 2ER in 7IP performance against the japanese kid igawa when he has a 6 era against the rest of the league. That is when s*** will hit the fan (and he will deny any link to him wanting manny dealt). That is when longshanks will be up in arms about why the sox traded manny without having an offensive plan. That is why the inpenetrable 2004 red sox are full of holes 2 yrs later. Now they have to fix it. Getting Matsuzaka (although overpaying) is a solid first step. But then again, there have been 5 or 6 bullpen guys who could have helped the sox put a pen together and they passed in lieu of this japanese lefty who certainly isnt what they needed the most, and that is a closer. If they deal Manny and replace him with Drew, they will severely destroy that offense. Put that with a promising yet unproven rotation and a putrid bullpen and theo is on his way to putting another incomplete team together. It is inexcuseable for a team so shortly removed from the mountaintop, with arguably the most loyal fans in baseball, and with a never ending pool of money to put such a swiss cheese-esque plan together. That is why they are dysfunctional, and until they can put a game plan together that they can sell to fans that has no holes in it, then they will remain so. So long as Beckett sucks and Hanley and Anibal rock, they will remain so. This will be a big yr to show that either the magic is back or that the team has further delved into dysfunctionality.

Wang's plus 80 was because he had an injury that claimed 2 months in his rookie season. He also had an extensive injury history in the minors, which essentially necessitated his changing from a heater/slider guy to a sinkerballer. This likely saved his career and made him the premier AL sinkerballer. He will remain durable so long as he does not fall in love with the slider again. As for a #2 making the yankees rotation the best, here is my logic. Wang is the second best pitcher in the ALE behind Halladay. Mussina was likely the third best pitcher in the ALE last season and Schilling was 4. With the struggling Becket and the uncertainties in Papelbon, Igawa and Matsuzaka, it would be very hard for me to place the red sox rotation or the back half of the yankee rotation over anyone right now. But if you put a guy in there who is better than Mussina, then you essentially give the yankees the 2,3,4 best pitcher in the ALE and so long as the 4 and 5 can eat innings (and both were over 200 innings last yr) then the rotation will be solid. If they do not get that 2, then Johnson or Igawa will be counted on to be the 3 and will essentially need to provide innings and be effective. I dont think at this stage that either can be pencilled in for #3 work this season. That makes their top 2 rather strong but the 3-5 the weakest in the division and drop them to #4 behind Baltimore as well. Of all of the rotations, Baltimore and Boston have the most potential as they will be loaded with young fireballers, but neither have proven enough to be given the crown of best rotation in the ALE. Toronto has a very solid top 2 and a good 3 guy in Chacin. Right now, they are one pitcher away from being the best rotation in the ALE in my opinion, simply because of how dominant their ace is. Everything is in a state of flux and 3 months into the season I would not be surprised if the sox have the best rotation in the ALE. But right now there are too many ??? and too many unprovens to hand them that title when the yankees have two of the top 3 pitchers in the ALE based on last yrs performance.

I dont see the yankees landing Carpenter or Zambrano this season, but I also do not see Zambrano signing on for long term in CHC when he is so close to FA. Especially when he knows he could get a 20mil a yr prize if he holds out.

I think this move is a harbinger of something big to come. Hear me out. The rotation now looks like Wang Mussina Johnson Igawa Pavano/Karstens/Rasner Assuming that Johnson's spot next yr will be filled by Hughes in 2008 and the 5 hole is filled by a guy like Zambrano or Carpenter in 2008 as well, that really leaves no room for Sanchez. So, I think the yankees are brewing something. They will not move Hughes, period. But I think Sanchez is certainly on the block as is JB Cox or any other solid yankee prospect. The one thing the yankees will have that will be very marketable is a young stable of pitchers. A top flight pitching prospect like Sanchez mixed with a medium tier pitching prospect like Whelan or Cox etc could be bait to get a close to arb eligible pitcher or a close to end of contract pitcher. Everyone knows that Cashman has his feelers out and I think he would be content with chasing the biggest FA pitcher next season, but he is certainly trying. We'll see. This move alone leaves the yankees with the third best rotation, maybe fourth in the ALE. But if they add a #2, then they jump to 1. We'll see how it works.

74 wins from your rotation while being 30 games over? Cmon now, you are better than that.

WFAN is reporting it. Yankees win bid at 25 mil. Poor investment. http://www.lohud.com/blogs/2006/11/yankees-get-rights-to-igawa.html

At this juncture, I agree.

maybe they will try the stupid idea of asking Hanshin to kick some of it back to fund the player's salary. Man I hate that. Overall, the guy has a lot of good things if you look at his stats, but stuff is important and having one plus pitch makes me wary of his ability to be a major leaguer. From his scouting report, he sounds a lot like Barry Zito. Slow fastball, loopy curve that is an out pitch and durability. He threw 200+IP 4 of the last 5 yrs and every yr for the past 7 yrs he surpassed 170 innings. The one promising thing that makes me believe he is a little better than a loogy reliever is that his K rate is so high. For his career, he has K'd 8.5 batters per 9 innings, which makes me think that either his fastball or his location have been mildly underrated. His walk totals a impressive for a guy who seems like more of a feel pitcher rather than a power guy, but that can also be a disadvantage. One thing I like about Zito over anybody is that he is not afraid to walk you because his stuff is not good enough to just throw it over and say hit it. If this guy continues his low walk rate, he either have excellent control or he will be getting shelled. His performance against the MLB all-stars had bright sides (2ER in 6IP) and low sides (6BB ). That makes me think that this kid can be unnerved, which is a horrible quality to have in NY, or he was avoiding the fat parts of the bat and the 2er in 6ip shows that he is smarter than given credit for. Either way, I think this is a well over market deal and is a poor signing right now. We'll see ow it turns out. This is obviously Cashman's low cost (believe it or not) replacement for Zito on the market, we'll see if he works out.

the white sox have one big prospect in Sweeney. But landing Ervin as well as signing Matsuzaka would make that rotation young and powerful for a long time.

who knows. He doesnt have the pure stuff of Papelbon but neither have pitched at length in the rotation in the MLB.

he is not a number 5 guy at best. He projects as a middle to back of the rotation guy. That is why I thought bidding so high on him is a poor investment. I have seen anything from a 84-92mph fastball and a plus plus curve with average to plus control. That sounds well and good as a potential #3 unless he works on his control, but if his velocity is on the low end, then 84mph and a loopy curve has him pegged for relief duty. If the yankees needed a #4/5 starter, then this would be an expensive, but worthwhile venture. But since they need a 2 and this guy does not project as one, then this is to be considered a poor signing at best (unless they concurrently land a top flight starter as well which seems unlikely).

Figgins is the CF the White Sox would center the deal around and the angels need a 3b. If you think either will end up in Boston, I think you would be wrong.

I think it would be a poor investment.

Loney is not a top tier prospect. Ethier and Kemp are as well as Billingsley and Broxton. I just think the latter two are a little too erratic to be effective in the ALE.

Theo nevers reveals his plans until late. This season, Cashman is following the same philosophy. It seems as if Cashman is content with letting what he has ride this season and make moves next yr. This may be the sox best chance, but if they target 08, then the jays may be the dark horse. Now wouldnt that be sickening.

thank you. Yes, him. ESPN reported that he is in final negotiations with the sox.

I have some analogies for you. Drew is grissel. Manny is filet minon Drew is a pinto. Manny is a bentley. Drew is the fat girl. Manny is the supermodel. Good luck replacing him in the lineup. First of all, signing JD is an awful idea at 15mil, but it will work in that lineup if he is there to "complement" Manny not to replace him. Here are some figures for you. Games played Manny 137, 152, 150, 150, 147, 118, 142, 120, 154, 152, 152, 130 Drew 104, 135, 109, 135, 100, 145, 72, 146 Every other season, Drew missed 60 or so games. Manny has been over 118 for his whole career and 130 10 or more times in the last 12 yrs. Drew has been over 130 4 times in 8 yrs. Durability is in Manny's corner BY FAR. AVG. Manny .308, .309, .328, .294, .333, .351, .306, .349, .325, .308, .292, .321 Drew .242, .295, .323, .252, .289, .305, .286, .283 Manny has been over .300 10 of the past 12 seasons with the other 2 being rather close to .300. Drew has cracked .300 twice in his career and one of those times was in a 109 game season. Drew is a career .286 hitter and it looks like he is regressing to his mean over the past 2 seasons. Manny is a career .314 hitter and he surpassed that in 2006. Manny BY FAR! HR Manny 31, 33, 26, 45, 44, 38, 41, 33, 37, 43, 45, 35 Drew 13, 18, 27, 18, 15, 31, 15, 20 Manny is the man offensively with at or above 30 HRs 11 times in the last 12 yrs. Drew surpassed 30 once and averages 20 HRs a season. Manny BY FAR RBI Manny 107, 112, 88, 145, 165, 122, 125, 107, 104, 130, 144, 102 Drew 39, 57, 73, 56, 42, 93, 36, 100 WOW. 57, 56, 93, and 100 are the totals when Drew plays over 130 games. And he is going to replace Manny? Dont get me wrong, the guy, if healthy and that is a HUGE if, would be a nice #5, but if you are counting on him to protect Ortiz, you will crumble that offense. Not only is Drew incapable of handling the huge load he will get by having Ortiz walked 250 times, both are left handed and would be a solid setup for any team with a lefty specialist to bring them in for 2 hitters with the lattitude of knowing that Ortiz doesnt need to be pitched to and Drew can be feasted upon. BTW, Drew hit .244 with a .716OPS against lefties last yr while Manny hit .326 with a 1.098 OPS against lefties last season. Drew as the 5 hitter, could be a good idea. Drew as the 4 protecting Manny, BAD idea.