jacksonianmarch

It will be obscene. We are gonna go for broke

You gave yourself an extra back. And are we talking playoff exits? That will come soon

Fred, the financial shackles will come off. We will be adding top notch veteran talent to this squad. Enjoy the edge while it lasts

I read the article and they are right. We need to be less boom and bust. We need to add players capable of making contact and hitting for a higher average. We have two budding guys like that in Torres and Andujar. For his part, Judge still hits for a good average. But Sanchez, Stanton, Hicks and to an extent Didi all were very streaky and homer reliant. I'd rather see some more hits than a record setting homerun pace. It is hard to hit homeruns off of elite pitching, which is inevitable to face in the playoffs. Need guys who can battle

And slav, the same could be said for the sox. Sale missed time and lost some effectiveness. Price had issues in crunch time. E-Rod has devolved into almost being unusable. Porcello was awful last year and nobody thought he would become this playoff ace. The thing you have that we don't is an unquestioned ace of the staff. Sale is a big mountain to climb when going into the playoffs. We need someone like that

I don't think Gray was sketchy at the time. He had been good in the playoffs for us and for Oakland and had a history of leading good rotations. Tanaka was coming off an absolutely dominating post season. Severino was what, #3 in the CY last year? Add in Montgomery who was solid in 2017 and CC as the 5, and our rotation should have been able to get through a few innings before handing the ball over to the pen in crunch time. Didn't work out that way. Gray s*** his pants in NY. Montgomery blew out his elbow. Sevy lost his nerve/command. CC faded as the season went along. The aggregate performance may have been predictable, but expecting failure from 4 of the 5 spots wasn't. The only guy who was solid all season and was solid in the playoffs was Tanaka.

Well, you must also remember that Gray was an ace in Oakland and wasn't terrible last year in limited time with us. We also had Montgomery in the original rotation this year. Our rotation coming into the season had CC as the #5, which he is more than capable of being, especially at his price and duration. With the shackles off, I expect more wheeling and dealing this year. Our rotation will look vastly different.

After seeing how Porcello and Eovaldi exposed our weakness, I am okay with Harper but am not in the camp of adding Machado. I would rather Brantley and then go for broke in the rotation. Our lineup got far too unbalanced in the wrong way. We should have lefties up and down this lineup for our park. Instead, we have righties galore and the only lefty worth his salt is only a power hitter because of the stadium (Didi). We need more lefty talent

I am not making that argument at all! I am just saying we lost some veteran leadership and our kids crapped their pants in the big moments

he should be

The difference this year was the Yankees were CLEARLY trying to stay below the limit. We had a cap on how good we could be because of that fact alone. The gloves come off this off-season.

Eovaldi was coming in as your 5th starter. By the time we got Happ, Tanaka had just gotten off the DL, CC had started his slide and Sevy had just started getting eviscerated while also having a big hole in the 5 spot with German falling off and Loaisiga getting hurt. Happ was our ace down the stretch. In terms of adding to the pen, Girardi would have been a better manager than Boone in the playoffs (hard to say that). There was one thing Girardi was not afraid of, and that was going to his pen. Boone went to his early, but not early enough in an elimination game. You don't let CC hang a 3 spot in the third. Girardi would have pulled him with 2 on and no outs with JD up. Maybe we get out of it, maybe we don't, but don't leave the season on the line with a pusballing, overweight and over the hill starter facing one of the best hitters in all of baseball. Use your advantage. Game 1 was out of hand from the jump, so I don't bemoan his managing there. Game 3, his use of Lynn was downright criminal. We likely don't win that game anyway, but don't allow it to be a laugher. Yesterday, he should have had the pen warming from the first inning on. When you have Green, Britton, Betances, Holder, Chapman and Robertson and your back is against the wall, you use them.

Clearly I’ll be rooting for the Astros and Dodgers. If the Sox get by Houston and get to face the Brewers, you’re gonna win the title

Yankee fans come and go on this site. I think anyone who looked at this club and thought they were gonna win a title was a bit off their rocker. I thought we could get by the Sox, but I was wrong. Take your lumps and move on. Hiding does nobody any good

Eovaldi made himself a ton of money in this series. You also have to remember that he hasn’t had a big contract yet. This is his chance to cash in and he will. He’s gonna get a lot of money on the open market. The Sox could use him as a Yankee killer, but he’s gonna get a big contract from someone who thinks he can lead a rotation

Castro wasn't a weak link offensively until the playoffs. Headley was awful until the Astros series and he ended up being our best hitter.

Lol, we definitely added veteran talent during the year, I agree there. We just didn't add enough of it. We still had 5 players in our lineup who were at or below 2 years of service time. We were built far too dependent on the longball. We had a pen for the ages, but they were handed a deficit three times in the series in 4 games. The sox were better. What they did was build equally through pitching and hitting and they added the one piece that was missing in JD. The Yankees were a good hitting team last year and they added to the offense and didn't add pitching in the off season. It led to a scramble for Happ and Lynn and it didn't work out. I think we will be taking an entirely different approach this year with the financial constraints off

What should they do when their ace and highest paid player take a dump on the field?

The media slobbered all over the Yankees because they showed moxie against a superior team last year and nearly knocked out the eventual world series champs. You have to remember, we replaced 3 veterans on that team with rookies come this post season. Bird, Headley and Castro were not on the playoff roster or the team anymore

No, you guys would say that in August. We are saying it after being eliminated in the playoffs

You should be fundamentally better. We have rookies and second year players all over our roster. Think about it. Voit, Torres and Andujar are rookies. Judge and Sanchez are second year guys. Sevy is technically a third year player. On your side, the only first or second year players playing significant time are Devers and Beni.

f***ups by Cashman? You mean the guy who rebuilt our squad in a 2 month period? I have no issues with Cash. Boone, I have some issues with.

My re-hash of the ALDS is the sox were better and Boone wasn't ready for the moment. The kids were not there yet and Stanton cowered in the bright lights. If you're gonna win a title, this is your year. We are going to be much better next year

It was a heck of a ride and it ended in NY against our rivals. You tip the cap and try to get better. Two things were clear in this series. The sox were better and the Yanks were too young and too vulnerable. Our pitching, led by a solid starter in Severino, didn't show much poise outside of Tanaka's typically brilliant post season start (he has been ridiculous in the playoffs). While Severino is the "ace" of the club, he has had two erratic post seasons with multiple solid starts and multiple utter flops. It is probably a bit of immaturity on his part and partly on the load he has shouldered the last two years. He is only 24 yrs old after all and will likely only get better, but the Yanks needed more from him and I am not sure if it is there when the lights get bright. He needs to take his stuff to the next level in the post season, not shrink down to a #3 or #4 starter. He will get that chance next year. Our vaunted offense was exposed in this one as well. We scored 4 runs in 24.1IP against right handers in this series before Kimbrel made the game interesting. Also, Kimbrel allowed one of those runs earlier as well. Our team is built far too right handed. And in our stadium, that is not conducive to winning. It wasn't meant to be that way. We were supposed to have Bird and Gardner with Hicks and Walker switching hitting. Well, Bird sucked, Gardy lost his job and Walker was a bench bat. We also had lineups that couldn't separate the same sized players. You cannot stack Judge with Stanton or Stanton with Voit. It is the same look, the same angle, the same rotation for the pitcher. With what we had on the squad, we couldn't do that. The kids didn't rise either, with Gleyber hitting mostly infield hits (.308 average but entirely empty) and Andujar going into the tank. I said it from the beginning and I will say it again, the Yanks team was disjointed from day 1. We won 100 games, but with our talent, we should have done more. We added Stanton who ended up being a good hitter, just not what we needed. Rather than a RH boom or bust guy, we need hitters. This is why I am wondering if we even jump into the Machado-Harper sweepstakes. Our lineup is good as it is. We led the majors in homeruns. But we don't have balance and we have too many guys who sit on mistakes and become easy outs for good RH pitchers. We kill lefties, but I am willing to sacrifice some of that for some consistency against right handed pitching. We battled vs Sale, killed Price and dominated ERod in this series. We couldn't hit Nathan Eovaldi or Rick Porcello, which is surprising to say the least. I wonder if a guy like Michael Brantley ends up making the most sense for us. Left handed bat that actually hits the ball. Has some power and can still steal bases. Not a great OFer, but should be a good balanced leadoff hitter who doesn't strike out often at all. He'd be cheaper than Machado or Harper as well, allowing us to plow finances into the rotation and pen. On the rotation front, we need some arms that don't wear down and have playoff experience. I like the idea of Keuchel and Corbin, but I am wondering if we go bigger. I am wondering if we use some of our financial might and still solid minor league system to get a true top of the rotation starter. Maybe make a play for a package of Brandon Belt and Bumgarner as Belt isn't hitting well enough in that park to justify the contract. Maybe we re-engage the Mets on one of their top 2 guys. If we don't go the trade route, we need to get Keuchel or Corbin. CC has to go. Happ is probably right behind him. I liked Happ, but a guy who will get a 3 yr deal at 35 isn't the guy we need, especially when our last memory of him was getting his brains beaten in at Fenway. He is a nice starter to have, not a guy to lead a rotation. If we add Sevy and Tanaka to a penciled in top 5, consider the 5 spot Sheffield's to lose, we will have 2 spots open at the starts of the season. Maybe we get both? Who knows, but additions to the rotation will be necessary and we can afford to use the 5th spot as a Sheffield position as Montgomery will be back after the ASB and could take the spot over again if he struggles. Going to the pen, there will be some turnover. Do the Yanks hold onto Kahnle and try him again? Do the Yankees try to re-up KRob? I don't think there's any chance they pony up for Britton, he is heading for a closers role somewhere. If all guys who are ticketed to depart leave, our pen becomes Chapman Betances Holder Green Tarpley Cole Kahnle Better than most Rivera years, but considerable downgrade from the jump. We do still have guys with fire in their arms in the minors, but have been reticent or unable to use them. This might be the chance Either way, our core is intact. Our rotation has lots of holes. Our pen needs probably a single addition. And the Yanks have tons of cash and prospect capital to play with. Our kids won't be kids next year and Stanton will be in year 2, a historically good season for big time pickups. I see bright things, but I also think it starts in November

Yeah, Kimbrel nearly spit the bit. But he didn’t. He’s also been the most consistent pen arm in the game the last two seasons. He can redeem himself vs Houston. I’m intrigued by this ALCS matchup. The Astros have arms for days and a good pen now after picking up the woman beater. Their offense had been dormant until the ALDS when they went off. They’re mostly right handed as well, making the Sale-Price beginning problematic. I did pick the Yanks to win the ALDS and lose to the Astros. I still think the Astros are the best in the AL. I’m picking Astros in 6.