jacksonianmarch

They say it takes a day for every houred time zone to adjust

CC dominated again. 89-91 tonight, so he is going to need to continue to be a good pitcher

Nava had one of the highest OBP's in the game last yr. He has earned his spot

I don't know how you can keep both Sizemore and JBJ on your roster. Think about it... 1. Pierzynski 2. Ross 3. Napoli 4. Ortiz 5. Carp 6. Pedroia 7. Bogaerts 8. Middlebrooks 9. Backup IF 10. Victorino 11. Nava 12. Gomes The above players are guaranteed spots. You don't start a season with 11 pitchers, mostly because no starter is off the leash. A lot of them are still at 90 pitch counts, maybe 100. And not all of them are sharp. That means a fair amount of 4-5 inning stints in the first 2 weeks of the season. You will need the relievers. If Sizemore looks like he's healthy enough to man the position, you option JBJ down and let him get regular reps. If Sizemore loses the battle, then he gets cut.

Jesus Montero hit .328 with a .996OPS in 61 at bats for NYY in 2011 and went 2 for 2 in his only postseason game. How has he done the last two seasons? Now, the kid is hitting the piss out of the ball in ST this yr, but the point is, even top talent can flop and even top talent can take time to mature into being MLB ready.

RSF, he was throwing hard with good break on his slider. That's what I'm looking at. Per SR's, his stuff is nearly all the way back. Now, we need to make sure the shoulder doesn't explode

Once again, you don't live in reality SS

Pineda threw a scoreless 2.2IP with 5K today. He's got his stuff back. Now the question is, will his shoulder explode or not? I think NY will actually option him to AAA for two month to try to cap his innings

Yep, he was dead for a minute or two

Rich Peverley collapsed during the Stars game and needed a "cardiac procedure" to regain consciousness. I wonder if he went into VTach or VFib and needed defibrillation. Needless to say, he isn't seeing the ice any time soon. Good luck to him

I don't think Middlebrooks is progressing the way you want him to, though. In order for him to succeed in the bigs, he either needs to make more contact, walk more, or hit more balls out of the park/more extra base hits. He had a "breakout" 2012 in 286PA's, but his BABIP was .335. We knew that wasn't sustainable. Hence, he'd need to show improvements in his plate discipline. Well, he didn't make the strides you had hoped. His walk percentage went up slightly by 0.8%, yet his K rate went up by nearly 2%. Had his BABIP plummeted but the K rate dropped or the walk rate rose significantly, then you can say he had back luck. What you are seeing here is more of a bad approach. My guess is the sox will give him a shot for now, but I wouldn't be surprised in the least to see him moved and Drew re-signed. I don't think the reviews have been all that rave about Bogaerts as a SS also.

At least Hochevar and Miller were lights out in the minors. That's the thing with Dellin. He had one lights out season in High A. Other than that, his walk totals were just absurd. When he converted fully to the role, his walk totals dropped to 3.9 per 9IP and his stuff shone through. The kid's K/9IP as a reliever in AAA last yr was 12.4 with a WHIP just under 1 and an ERA of 1.35. He was lights out. In the last 3 seasons, he walked 185 in 281IP as a starter.

Showing something in March is usually a fruitless endeavor. Remember, Enrique Wilson won a job in ST and then went on to suck goat testicles except for when facing Pedro. Good players will end up performing over a full season. Sizemore was a good player. We have no idea if he still is, especially after missing the last 2 seasons and having had his knee worked on tirelessly. We also don't know what JBJ can do at the big league level. If Sizemore is healthy to start the season, then I don't know how you could possibly carry JBJ. You have Nava and Gomes platooning in LF, Victorino in RF now batting exclusively RH, so having Carp around makes sense as well. I would say CF is between Grady and JBJ with the loser of that comp being off the team come April (JBJ in Pawtucket, Grady on the street). There continues to be talk of dealing Carp, but doing so will limit some of the flexibility your team has, as well as remove a guy who may have tapped some of his potential. That being said, carrying 5 outfielders especially when your 6th offers more defensively than the other ones makes little sense.

I have said for years on the scout.com site that he needed to be converted to relief. But every time I did, they'd talk about how amazing his stuff is and how you need to exhaust his starting potential, etc, etc etc. The kid has two dominant pitches and cannot repeat his delivery enough to go deep into games. In short stints, he's been dominant thus far in the minors. That will translate, IMO. He throws upper 90s with a true knockout curve. He will be a closer type and might end up as our setup man by seasons end

If Gardner isn't leadoff, he'll hit 9th. There is no point to stacking him at the 7 slot with guys behind him who are less likely to drive him in.

Also, I think this team sets up pretty well for a midseason trade for Chase Headley. That's assuming the likely scenario that either Johnson or Roberts aren't working out, be it injury or in effectiveness. I'd say the likelihood is that Roberts would be the one getting replaced with Johnson moving back to his natural 2b position

He may be. If that's the case, Gardner shifts to the 9 hole acting as second leadoff and Johnson and Roberts shift up a peg. Johnson has power and OPS'd a respectable .714 last yr while being jerked around the diamond. He's a lefty in our park. Assuming he doesn't age all at once, he might have a surprisingly productive yr.

I'd set up out lineup as follows. 1. Gardner LF 2. Jeter SS 3. Ellsbury CF 4. Teixeira 1B 5. McCann C 6. Beltran RF 7. Soriano DH 8. Johnson 3B 9. Roberts 2B That's a deep, deep lineup

You do know that you outWAR'd Mike Trout by 2 with your IF and that included a career yr from Napoli and a since departed Stephen Drew, right? You're pointing out our 8 and 9 hitters in our lineup. If we get anything out of them, it's a bonus.

I know we're a ways into ST by now, but better late than never. Thus far, it sounds like Tex and Jeter are healthy which is huge. It sounds like Pineda has gotten his stuff back. And it sounds like Tanaka has good stuff. I don't give a s*** about the puff pieces that bored beat writers dream up after months of inactivity. By this point last yr, Jeter was having setbacks, Granderson broke his arm the first time and Tex decimated his wrist. So at least we're doing better than that to this point

WTF are you talking about? I think I need to be considered an educator here, maybe I can get a tax break. In 2012, he posted the lowest WHIP of his Yankee career and had a near identical ERA to his 2009 campaign. In 2011, he posted a 3.00ERA, his lowest in the AL in his career. How the f*** is that a decline "for awhile now"?

I think Ellsbury is going to have a very good season. .300 20HR 50SB season. It's all about health for Sizemore.

He's topping out at 88 in his first start of the spring. Feliz is topping out at 90 in his first run through as well. Velocity early on is pretty useless. My guess is CC will be around the 90-91 he was at for most of 2013. His problem last yr was not the velocity. In his first two months, he posted a 3.71ERA with 71K's, 10BB in 80IP. And if you remember, his first 2 months last yr, he barely broke 90. By the end of the season, he was sitting 92 or so and topping out higher and he couldn't locate.

I agree. His innings load has been insane. That being said, the guy had been the balls up until last yr. Even with diminished velocity, his first half last yr was good. He started to get his velo back in the second half and he couldn't locate it. He has the stuff to handle diminished velocity, he just needs to locate. I have a feeling a lot of people on this site will be eating crow on the Sabathia topic come the end of 2014

Seriously, everyone who says CC is in some death spiral decline is making a fool out of themselves. He had one bad year coming off elbow surgery. How is that a decline? So Lester declined in 2012, but magically reappeared? It shows a general lack of baseball intellect. If he does it two yrs in a row, then you've got something. But one bad year does not a decline make