jacksonianmarch

There are few big money, high publicity deals that pay enormous dividends in year 1, especially when a player is added to an expected playoff team. ARod has a good 2004 before being otherworldly for the next 5 years

So we got Hicks back today, but lose Loaisiga for the rest of the first half and Andujar, probably for the season. One step forward, two steps back

It wouldn’t work. It’s intentionally skirting the rules, which is expressly prohibited in the CBA. You’re stuck with his salary

Andujar out again with the shoulder. Surgery likely

I am looking at Holt as "cavalry". He will be the LH platoon mate for someone, be it Nunez or Chavis. If Pearce doesn't get it started soon, he will be jettisoned for someone with versatility or speed off the bench. Pearce used to have versatility, but he is mostly a 1b/DH type who isn't hitting and doesn't play a great 1b. If Pearce goes and Holt and Nunez come back, you have Chavis be the RH part of a platoon at 1b which gets him into 30% of the games. Then he rotates into 3b/2b/DH to get guys rest vs RHP. This would get him into maybe 50-60% of the games and will keep guys like JD and all the OFers fresh (Chavis goes to DH, JD to OF, one of the 3 OFers rests). When the next injury comes, he goes back to full time duties as does everyone else. Right now, he doesn't come out. You ride him til he misses. Once he cools off and guys return, then I assume he'd be used as above

If he is physically unable to play, they will likely DFA him and have him be a special instructor of sorts

Which is why I said “in retrospect”.

Calling him a second baseman is an affront to second basemen past and present. He is playing there because there’s no other place to put him and his offense warrants a spot in the lineup. Once the league adjusts to him and his huge swing, and once the cavalry returns, my guess is you’ll see him slot in as a stalwart vs lefty pitching and a PHer or random 2b/3b/1b for rest purposes. His presence makes the Steve Pearce singing look rather stupid in retrospect and his presence may cost Pearce a spot For 2020, it’s very simple. Chavis, right now, will be your starting 1b on opening day 2020. You can save the $13 mil and reinvest it elsewhere.

Tanaka was awesome today

Aaron Hicks will be activated tomorrow. This is significant since the Yankees currently have an OF with one top prospect in Frazier and a bunch of has beens or never were's. The interesting thing is, the replacements have outperformed the one long standing stalwart. Gardner has checked into play this mother's day with a 0.2WAR on the season. His offense and defense have been decidedly below average and his once blazing speed has been slowed to a campfire in the rain. His baserunning is his only plus attribute at this point. Now while he is the longest tenured Yankee, he has been outplayed by Tauchman. Now, offensively, they're pretty similar. They both have above average speed and can steal the occasional base. They both have some power, albeit not overwhelming. They both can walk. They also have had an issue making contact and both have BA's near the Mendoza line. Where they differ is in the defense, where Tauchman is grading out as a plus defender while Gardy has slipped into the minus category. Now, this is mostly a theoretical conversation since the Yanks aren't going to DFA a leader like Gardner in May, but Tauchman has outplayed Gardner. Maybin likely sticks as the Yanks RFer. Frazier is in a mini slump, but has killed the ball on the whole this season and is a fixture in the middle of the lineup. He isn't going anywhere. Things will get tighter should Stanton or Judge get close as we will have to make some tough decisions on some pretty good players

This was talked about in another thread, but best used here. Pedroia was scratched from his most recent game with renewed knee soreness. He has looked gimpy in his rehab starts and hasn't hit anywhere since 2017. He had a good run, but he is done.

I legitimately have no idea why you guys give a crap about a kid who failed physically then statistically in every chance he received beyond AA. He's a nobody

Knee soreness again. Might be time to call it a career. I had heard reports that he looked stiff and hurt during his rehab and now the pain is back. Smaller guys who have a reckless abandon about their bodies don't last into their late 30s. Most are done around 30 years of age. That Pedroia made it through 32 healthy is good and that he was reasonably productive as a 33 yr old was a bonus. He is done

CC has become a 5 inning pitcher. I’m okay with that move. Holder is a good reliever, so it doesn’t bother me that he came in. What bothers me is we treated a 2 run deficit vs the team we need to catch like an insurmountable deficit

Yanks battled back again, but Holder couldn’t maintain the tie then we go to Cortes who blows the whole thing open. With all the guys we have down there, why bring up this kid? He’s a nothing pitcher

We had been beating the bad teams, although we’re doing it with our super subs. You guys are largely healthy, especially if Price comes back next week. Your issues had been poor performance

You don’t know til the day after a bullpen. Price apparently is going to try one either this weekend or early next week. In the interim, these off days allows Cora to bid time til they’re ready

No timetable for Stanton or Judge, although Stanton is swinging and throwing, so that’s a good sign. Judge went down April 20, so he’s now missed 3 weeks. He has not resumed baseball activities, lending to the likelihood that he’s got a grade 2 strain. (Grade 3 is torn off the bone and in prime athletes is treated with surgery, so that didn’t happen). Grade 2 strains have a 6-8 week recovery time, so I don’t expect Judge back this month. In terms of Andujar, he’s back but he is pounding everything into the ground when he’s making contact, but he’s also striking out at an uncharacteristic rate. Not sure if it’s injury or rust, but he’s hurting the team. We should option him to AAA and let him start at 3b for a week or two to get his timing back or to determine definitive if he’s hurt worse than he lets on

The Sox are 9-2 in their last 11 after sinking to 11-17 after the Rays series. Those 11 games were played against the White Sox, A’s, Orioles and Mariners. Of those four squads, only the A’s were expected to contend but they’ve limped out of the gate and look nothing like the team that finished 2018. The Sox are finally doing what they’re supposed to do and that’s beat up on bad starting pitching. Doesn’t hurt that the Sox pitching has shut down some meager lineups. This is what the Sox were supposed to do. There are few top notch teams in the AL this year and I’m still not sure if the Rays are a paper tiger or not, but the Sox hot streak has gotten them squarely on the path to the playoffs. The question going forward is how healthy is the staff? You can only throw out so many starts by Smith and Velazquez before you get buried.

One rough inning from German nearly doomed us, but Urshela delivered again and the pen held on by the skin of their teeth. If we win tonight, we take over sole possession of 1st

Andujar looks so lost offensively that a option to AAA could help him

He’s 5 years younger than me. He’ll always be a kid

Andujar's injury allowed Gio Urshela to take over 3b full time and the kid hasn't let up. He has shown a unique combination of contact, clutch hitting and some power while also playing a dynamite 3b. He is interestingly following the same peripherals as his most successful minor league campaign. In 2014, Urshela played 20 games in AA and then got promoted to AAA. That season was his best high minor performance of his career posting a triple slash of .276/.331/.473. Right now, Urshela is hitting at an unreasonable .354/.416/.532 clip, but there are a lot of similarities between the two seasons. His Iso that year was .197, this year it is .177 yet skewed down by his abnormally high BA. His walk rate this season is up to 6.7% and his K rate is down to 12.4%. In the minors 5 years ago, his rates were 11.9% and 7%. In-between these seasons, he saw sparse playing time in the majors and his K rate rose and his walk rate dropped considerably. If he is finally comfortable, maybe this is hit ceiling. A .270-.280 hitter, 10-15HR and a near .800OPS? I would take that every day and twice on sunday with his glove. It is great he came around when he did, because the Andujar who has returned from injury looks nothing like the guy who hit the DL. He has shown no ability to drive the ball and has made 2 errors in the only games he played there since coming back. For now, Gio will be the starting 3b and Andujar the DH, but I wonder if we hear about surgery in Andujar's future. He doesn't look right

What a pick up to this point. He seems to be in the mix every time we score these days. The kid isn't hitting for much power, but he is a very destructive punch and judy hitter with his speed and his penchant to go to other way. He got into trouble everywhere he went when he started looking for the long ball. Maybe he has found something here

If I were Cashman, I would gut the training staff after the final pitch of the season is thrown. A few fluke injuries and you gotta chalk it up to s*** luck. When you lose 13 players from your big league club, you have to be worried about preparation. Let's break these down... Heller and Montgomery blew out their elbow's. That's not really on the training staff. Didi made an awkward throw and blew out his elbow, so be it. Andujar dove back into a base and tore his labrum. That's not on the training staff Judge blows out an oblique. This is the kind of injury that is preventable Stanton blows out a bicep. This is preventable Sanchez pulls a calf. This is preventable Tulo pulls a calf. I would like to put this on the training staff, but he is made of glass and the fact that he even saw the field is a minor miracle Hicks misses 6 weeks with a back issue. This is preventable Bird: see Tulo Severino pulls a lat muscle. This is preventable. Frazier sprains an ankle going back into the base. Not preventable A lot of this is dumb luck, but when you consider the loss of Judge, Sanchez, Hicks, Stanton and Severino (the core of our club) and all of them have preventable injuries, one must look at their preparation. Heck, they're all under 30 years old! It isn't like we are maintaining old bodies here. Dump the staff ASAP