jacksonianmarch

Hanley’s money isn’t bringing back Kimbrel and Kelly but coupled with other monies and a down performance from JbJ, it isn’t out of the realm. Kelly continues to dominate and elite stuff setup men are getting $8-$9 mil a year. If a team thinks Kelly will close, he might see $10-$11 mil a year. Kimbrel is the best closer there is and will likely try to beat Chapman’s $18 mil AAV. Hanley’s money means the Sox get to keep one of them while also being able to absorb the insane raises Betts and Bogaerts are looking at. Now if Bradley continues on in his funk, he may not see an arbitration raise which could allow the Sox to potentially replace Pom with a back end guy on the cheap or get a reliever who isn’t top tier to bridge to Kimbrel. If they do re-sign Kelly, that taps out your season and may even put you over the cap all things considered. Looking at the projected cash for 2019.... Losses Hanley $22 mil Pom $9 mil Kimbrel $12 mil Kelly $3 mil That’s a total of $46 mil saved. You re-sign Kimbrel at $20 mil AAV. Betts will be looking at a $7 mil raise. Bogaerts will be looking at the same. Vasquez makes $3 mil per annum after this year. Other guys in the pen are arb eligible as I think ERod is too

We know now

DD just got to keep the band going a little longer. Smart move.

Not expecting that. Wow

You aren't getting Machado on the FA market, period. There is no way to do so. If Hanley is out of the picture, you have about $22 mil or so to play with below the cap. Machado is staring at $30 mil a season. I doubt Henry allows you to blow past the upper limit

I am wondering if the rumblings of Hamels to NYY are going to get louder as he silenced our bats and the meager Texas lineup pounded the s*** out of our staff. I don't like the idea as I think we have enough pitching firepower to pitch well, but we just need to start showing it. The put up or shut up time is approaching. Hamels is in the final year of his deal and has an option/vesting option that wont be reached or exercised. Hamels had rebounded from a down 2017 with solid numbers, 3.38ERA, 9.8K/9IP, advanced metrics don't like him as much, most likely due to his ridiculous 1.69HR/9IP. The Yankees are well under the threshold and if they get him later in the year, can afford him while staying under the lux cap, especially if Texas adds money to the pot. In terms of cost, Hamels is the biggest starting pitching name out there and does have postseason credibility. But he is also 34, expensive, and has seen his HR rate balloon and his stuff drop this season. It will be interesting for sure to see if a deal is consummated. How Jordan Montgomery recovers will be a big test prior to pulling the trigger. JMont has been better than Hamels, but he is out with a "forearm strain" which half the time ends up with TJS.

He is the reason the Jays will allow Donaldson to walk. Ready made replacement right there

Sheffield returned and threw well in 4IP of work. They only let him go to 70 pitches after having a short DL stay for shoulder tightness. They'll work him back up over time, but they are gonna be careful with him. I have a sneaking suspicion that he ends up in NY by end of year

He has been out of shape his whole career and still has been solid this season

Absolutely, our starting pitching sucked in the series. But our starter was out and we still had a 3 run lead. Boone's lineup for our pen was as if we had a 3 run deficit.

A manager has limited input into a game. Lineups and bullpens. Without really bunting, stealing or hitting and running which we don’t do, that’s about it. His lineups are fine. His pen management has been awful.

I don’t get that at all. Boone needs to re-learn his guys. Green is the guy who can handle most any situation. KRob’s command has been off this year, so he should be starting clean innings. Betances has been nails in the first inning of performances, he needs to be a one inning shutdown reliever and no more. Holder has been unscored upon for 14 consecutive innings, he should be getting more run. If Boone watched anything from last year, Shreve should not be used in games we have a lead. He’s actually a very good mop up or trailing pitcher but for some reason, if he comes in with a small lead, he seems to choke. Boone needs to learn his guys quickly. We’re about to face another buzz saw with LAA and HOU coming to town. If he keeps f***ing up the pen, we could lose 4 or 5 of these games

Actually, I don’t get trying to get length out of CC. I forgot we are off today!

Where’s Chad Green? He wasn’t used in German’s debacle. Green might have made his way into the setup role, but that’s not his best role. Green’s best role is as a Swiss Army knife. He’s the guy who you can run out there for a couple innings and just demoralize an offense. CC got smoked in the 4th and shouldn’t have come out for the 5th, but with German killing the pen the day before, I can at least understand trying to get some length from CC. Holder gets you through 5 with a 3 run lead. He’d only thrown 14 pitches and didn’t pitch the day before. I don’t get pulling him there for Shreve at all. Shreve threw 22 pitches on Tuesday. Boone brings him in to face the lefty even though Shreve is a reverse split lefty whose change dominates righties and his lack of a quality breaking ball leaves him vulnerable to lefties. He allows a lead off hit and is allowed to put another runner on base before removing him. KRob is brought into a situation that is dicey from the start and blows it. Now, KRob has to be better, but that’s not his usual role. KRob is usually a clean inning kind of guy. Green should have been the go to guy there. Either way, I get going to KRob, but it didn’t work out. One other absolutely f***ing dumb thing I keep harping on was Betances for a 2nd inning. His ERA in the first inning of work this year is down around 2. His ERA in his second inning of work went down from 27.00 to 21.00 with the run allowed yesterday.

Terrible performance from all the pitching. KRob has to be better. Betances went 2IP today and shocker, he allowed a run in the second inning. Idiot Boone keeps trying, and he keeps losing it.

It’s stupid how they do the “half game” thing. It doesn’t matter in the long run, but the team with the highest win percentage should be considered to be in first place.

Austin can probably be a poor man’s full time starting 1b long term, but he’s an elite LHP masher. I think we can pair him with Bird and make one hell of a platoon. With us also having a viable OFer DH’ing, we can also platoon Austin and Gardner depending on how he rebounds. Either way, I don’t send down the AL rookie HR leader (Albies leads the majors) at this time. One thing I foresee happening this offseason is the Yanks bringing in a viable catching alternative to Sanchez. This will allow Gary to DH 40% of the time and have us with a good defender who can hit a little bit while bringing along the young kids. Veteran pitchers will do fine with Gary as they know his deficiencies in blocking and won’t be afraid, but the matchup of German and him yesterday was just bad. I know the Spanish speaking aspect helps, but a rookie hurler whose command is a bit suspect will have trouble with gary behind the dish. They’ll get gun shy about throwing anything in the dirt and that will leave them with pitches up.

It’s mechanics. Bradley just needs to be smart enough to realize it. A simple drop in the hands or slight delay in triggering will cause you to go from on time to late on good fastballs. It’s all mechanical. He just has shown a stubbornness to the media to adjust.

Even with no power last year, Pedroia was on base 37% of the time. He can hit and run, he can make contact, he works pitchers and he gets on base. That’s what you want in front of JD and not behind him

I think you guys need a lineup reshuffling anyway. Hanley cannot stay at the #3 slot. I’d assume you’d see a lineup as follows 1. Betts 2. Pedroia 3. Martinez 4. Benintendi 5. Bogaerts 6. Moreland 7. JBJ/Hanley 8. Devers 9. C black hole

If Kelly keeps pitching like this, he’s staring at a deal close to or at 8 figures annually. Kimbrel might end up the first reliever to see an AAV of $20 mil. If Hanley’s option doesn’t vest, then his $22 mil is up for grabs per se. Pom and Kimbrel are making $21 mil right now and I’m assuming that gets eaten with arb raises. If Hanley goes away, you can afford either Kelly or Kimbrel, but not both.

Swihart at his best is not an above average OFer. Swihart at his best with improved catching skills can be an above average C. In order to be an above average OFer, you need to be a damn good hitter. In order to be an above average catcher, you need to not suck at hitting, that's about it

I think even the staunchest Yankee critic needs to give the prospect machine some props over here. Over the last 3 seasons, we have graduated the following players... 1B Greg Bird SP Luis Severino RF Aaron Judge C Gary Sanchez 1B Tyler Austin 2B Gleyber Torres 3B Miguel Andujar SP Jordan Montgomery RP Jonathan Holder And if it weren't for our depth, Clint Frazier would be on that list. That's an incredible amount of talent. And when you figure we were able to deal for Giancarlo Stanton, Todd Frazier, Tommy Kahnle, David Robertson, and Sonny Gray with prospects as well, that says a ton about the system

I think what will happen is he will be DFA'd and a shitbox team will deal a bag of balls for him and stick him in as a starting catcher.

3 walks and 0K's? I am wondering about the stuff from Houck. I know he was billed as this horse with high velocity and a wipeout breaking ball, but I am wondering if they are working on something or if hitters are seeing the ball better than they should. A big hoss who cannot locate still K's a ton of hitters at that level. He's got 29 in 36IP, so it isn't like he doesn't K anyone, but half of his starts have been 3 or less K's and he's had 3 starts of 1 or less K's. That is concerning for a guy who is billed as a potential front line guy with 2 strikeout pitches. I notice his GB% is solid, maybe they are trying to turn him into a sinkerballer with early contact. Either way, he doesn't have the command to be a sinkerballer. Those guys give up a lot of singles and if you walk a ton of hitters, those singles become RBI's