jacksonianmarch

Bird reinjured his surgically repaired foot. I anticipate he will miss some time, albeit the amount he misses is not certain at this point. My anticipation is that Tyler Wade with platoon with Walker and Walker will also platoon with Austin at 1b. VS Righties 2B- Wade 1B- Walker VS Lefties 2B- Walker 1B- Austin

His grandfather, Dad and brother were all big leaguers. Find me someone with a better baseball pedigree

Bird’s foot is hurt again. CT and MRI today. Eval tomorrow. That depth might be tested early

Good. Things are much more lively and fun when both teams are good and there’s a good level of collegial animosity. Back a decade ago, the anger and vitriol was intense on here, but I think we can all have fun with this.

The Yanks had Girardi’s back after his gaffe in Cleveland, but numerous reports around the time they let him go showed a significant rift in the locker room with him. Apparently Girardi was just a grinder all the time and it wore on the young team. This is a new generation of players and having some fun is a big thing to these guys. Boone seems like more of a relaxed guy. It could be an unmitigated disaster. It could be just what the doctor ordered. We don’t know. Boone is a smart baseball guy, though, with a pedigree unmatched in terms of a baseball family/upbringing.

I was excited that he wasn’t 0 for spring. That being said, he could end up 0 for April. Johnson pitched well. He’s earned a spot for now

Well, it is ST and it does mean nothing, so there’s that

Exactly. Kimbrel can locate his heat and throw the slider where it cannot be hit. Knowing the slider is coming makes the heater even more powerful

The loss of Papi from the lineup was huge. The kids for the sox hadn’t had to carry the load on their own. The Yanks kids carried the load on their own last yr. We have only added to it

It’s the first stage of the cliff. Lack of minor league production or trades of high end minor leaguers leave you with limited depth.

So as I said in another thread, you better hope the guys stay healthy

Sophomore slump is a concern, except I think we’ve already seen a bit of adversity for both Judge and Sevy. Not worried about Sanchez at all except on the defensive side. Judge already sucked once. Sevy was terrible for an entire season.

That’s surprising. Kimbrel’s fastball is impressive, but his slider is just dirty. Most minor leaguers can hit heat.

Foster also didn’t have the nest egg Lackey does

I think you’ll improve by 2 games. You’re already starting with some poor health AND you got a great replacement season from Pom in Price’s stead. If your pitchers stay healthy you’ll be really good

That’s not what I’m saying. If you told me your rotation will be fully healthy by May 1 and stay healthy thereafter, I’d say your team has a legit shot to be the AL East champs. Your team will make the playoffs.

Lackey is done. It’d take him weeks to build up stamina and nobody knows if he has the desire or the health to pitch in the bigs anymore

You apparently haven’t been around the past few years. This is my first real optimistic season at the outset in years. If everyone stays healthy, I think the Yankees roster is built with a better offense, much better bullpen and a deeper rotation. If everyone doesn’t stay healthy, then we have both big league veteran depth and top prospect depth waiting. What’s your depth? Let’s look C- currently Vazquez is the starter. Leon the backup. Swihart might play in. 1B- Moreland and Hanley to platoon. Travis behind them 2B- Nunez to start. Pedroia should return soon. Behind them is a conglomerate of suck SS- Bogaerts to start. Nunez can play but only after Pedey returns and is a massive defensive minus. Marrero, Lin and Holt can play but offer nothing offensively 3B- Devers to start, but the same cavalcade of misfits behind him OF- JD can run out there yet he has been the worst OFer in baseball the past few seasons and gets hurt if you look at him cross eyed. If you choose to keep JD as is (very part time OFer) you’re looking at Holt covering LF and Beni moving to cover CF or RF. If Beni is hurt, Holt to LF. On the mound, you’re depth is already tested. Top 5 should be good Sale Price Pom Porcello ERod Beyond them, Wright hasn’t been good aside from a half season in 2016 Johnson has been AAAA level for awhile Velasquez is similar to Johnson but worse Beeks? Bleh! No real top prospects ready to step in. Retreads ready to pitch. One sided players backing up. Nunez helped your versatility but that’s assuming Pedey comes back strong. If injuries strike both sides, we’ve got far more depth to handle it.

He has .300 30/30 GG OF potential.

It's a double edges sword, though. A less patient approach also means you can be handled by an opposing pitcher and allow for long starts. The hallmark of the past 15 years of sox baseball has been a lineup that literally chews through pitchers. You rarely saw pitchers make it past the 6th, and most time you would see guys out after 5IP. A more aggressive approach may certainly help against pitchers who were taking advantage of a team philosophy and getting ahead due to too much patience. That's an easier adjustment. I think you've got your masher here, pitchers will be more cautious having to face or deal with JD with men on base, so the pitchers will be a bit more aggressive at the outset. But if the sox are coming out of their shoes, good pitchers will take advantage of that and get them out earlier in counts. It is a good thing for Xander, but for everyone, maybe not so much

Of course things can go wrong. The thing we have this year, like I said above, is another year of experience for the kids. Our best prospects are essentially big league ready, and we have a TON of them. When you have big league depth and then top prospect depth, you have the strength to cover for injury or poor performance. We didn't have that as much at the beginning of the yr. We had Torreyes starting every day at SS while Didi was out. We had Chris Carter as our 1b with no reliable backup until we dealt for Frazier, and then we moved Headley over there. I totally forgot to put Hicks on there as he missed half a season, and we had to rely on Smellsbury to cover half a season worth of ABs. Outside of catcher, we now have top prospect level coverage for all spots on the roster. We did not have that last yr. At catcher, we have Romine and Higashioka. Higashioka's ceiling offensively is higher, but he was overmatched last yr in his debut. Romine is a defensive guy who cant hit At 1b, we can start Tyler Austin there, who at the very least, destroys left handed pitching. If Bird misses significant time, Walker can move from 2b to 1b and platoon with Austin At 2b, we have Wade and Torres to back up should Walker suck, get hurt or move off position. Drury can also slide over to 2b At SS, we have Wade and Torres to back up Didi At 3b, we have Andujar, Torres, Wade or Walker who can backup Drury In LF, we have Stanton who can move out from the DH spot. In terms of minor league depth, we have Frazier and McKinney In CF, if Hicks goes down, we probably move Gardner to CF. Ellsbury can back up as well. Frazier can play CF, but he is not a true CFer In RF, Stanton can move out from DH to take RF. Also, Frazier and McKinney can cover At DH, should Stanton get hurt, I anticipate Andujar or Austin would step up there In the rotation, we have German, Cessa, Adams, Sheffield and Acevedo literally sitting in AAA waiting In the pen, Holder, Coshow, Heller and Feyereisen are ready with any of the above starters capable of slotting in Outside of catcher, we have top prospect level capability or true MLB capable veteran depth. This cannot last forever, clearly, but it is impressive to say the least

http://www.espn.com/blog/new-york/yankees/post/_/id/98058/sorry-haters-the-yankees-are-loaded-and-theres-more-talent-on-the-way

Yanks going with 13 pitchers out of the gate. I anticipate that to be temporary. I assume they’ll bring up Austin for the sox series. The first two turns through the rotation are usually limited in terms of their duration so having extra mop up duty on the team is a good idea. We also have a few guys we can rotate through that slot until the starters get to their usual workloads

Lynn had better offers but he wanted to win. I also think Lynn might make out better. With all the teams either tanking or trying to get under the cap in 2018, having a good season on a playoff caliber team and hitting the market again isn’t a bad thing for him

We lost Sanchez and Didi for a month, Bird for 5 months, Castro for a month, Holliday for a half season, Pineda to TJS, Betances to the yips and Chapman was dealing with shoulder issues for multiple months in between. Sevy, Montgomery and Judge reached their ceilings. It isn’t like they weren’t capable of the seasons they had. We’re healthy, have a full season lined up for Gray, Kahnle, Bird, Robertson and Stanton and our deep farm has another year of experience under their belt. Betting on a decline is a fools errand