jacksonianmarch

Spring Training is always great to hear about and it signals hope while we're dealing with this s*** weather. Then I remember that from report date to opening days is 6-8 weeks. Regardless, its a beacon in the storm.

I think boras is being very shrewd. He couldn't pull a three yr deal out of the Mets initially, so he's asking for a 2 yr deal with an opt out after the first. The Mets have no interest, but from the sounds of it, may be willing to revisit the three yr deal option. Also, Drew is in limbo because of the Cuban SS Diaz who'll be available for teams in a week or so.

That makes no sense at all, IMO. You either ride with the kids or deal them. WMB may fail miserably this yr, but you can only hurt his worth if he is a situational player. Maybe Miami is willing to offer something serious in return for WMB

I think they are content with giving the closers job to Robertson and are only willing to pay setup money for a reliever. I have said it 1,000 times, they need one more veteran reliever. We have a cadre of kids with powerful arsenals who are MLB ready. But having a closer and setup man in place allows them to not be baptized by fire

3 teams will make the playoffs out of the AL East. BOS, TB, NYY. Hard to say who wins the pennant as I think all will have around 90-92 wins

Just to be clear, re-signing Kuroda and adding Tanaka made them more or less suspect? And do you really expect CC to throw up another clunker like last yr? Also, the OF has no depth? Dude, we have Gardner, Ellsbury, Soriano, Beltran and Ichiro. Our pen is suspect, but we have an elite reliever going into the closer's role and hopefully will be adding one more. That is our Achilles heel as of right now, that is for sure The Yankees finished 6 games back of the Rays for the final playoff spot. We lost Tex and Jeter for pretty much, the whole yr. We got a s*** year out of CC. We lost Granderson for the entire yr. Hell, we had to go to battle with our backup C, even though we went into the yr without a proven catcher. This yr, Tex and Jeter are healthy. We've added McCann, Beltran, and Ellsbury to the lineup as well. Soriano will be around for an entire year also. We'll have a platoon at 3b with Johnson and Sizemore and are relying on a fragile 2b to stay healthy. Those are the only two weaknesses in the lineup offensively. Our rotation will be solid, in all likelihood. I am not sure how you cannot fathom an underachieving and injured Yankee team rebounding after a disastrous season. It's not like the sox just did that or anything.

Reports saying the Yankees are interested in Rodney. That'd be great. I've said for awhile that they needed on more pen arm and they're ready for battle

Imagine the batters getting into the box. Here's a guy who can throw 100mph and has no f***ing clue where its going

Our OF will generate a significant amount of wins. Beltran in RF in the Stadium will be able to hide some of his defensive inconsistencies, but at his age and with his injury history, he is definitely a questionmark. Soriano will see little time in the OF, mostly against lefties. But Ells and Gardner should have 10 wins between them.

I'm commenting on the feel of my fellow Yankee fans. I liked Cano, I thought he was focused and played great for us. I'll miss him, but he was never embraced by my fellow fans as much as I thought he should be. He was perceived as being lazy, but it was pretty obvious that he wasn't based on his production

His lackadaisical play didn't endear him to NYers. I loved him, don't get me wrong, but most fans I know didn't see him as the face of the franchise. He seemed to be more about himself than anything else, and he just seemed to take plays off. He has the stats, but he doesn't have the heart like Jeter has shown. It's completely subjective. Cano doesn't have that diving into the stands moment. He doesn't have the singular event where he elevated his game and was otherworldly when it mattered. I have a hard time putting my finger on it. Maybe McCann becomes the new face of the franchise, from what I have heard, he's the leader type and could step up as Jeter steps away

Why show your hand? There is no benefit in showing your hand. If Cashman came out tonight and said, "Yeah, we want Stephen Drew", immediately those who were waiting for him to drop will open their wallets and the price rises. Cashman looks at the market, trumps the market and usually gives take it or leave it ultimatums. That way, they cannot take that offer and shop it around for a higher bidder. That is, if Cashman wants a player. What they did with Cano was go to a reasonable offer, and not go over, I think secretly wanting him to move on. Cano is a hell of a player, but he doesn't play like the face of a franchise. So why make him the face of the franchise until he's 41 if he doesn't display what you want to see on the field?

The injury gods decided we should have a losing season last yr. And we didn't.

The Yankees aren't having a losing season. The sox could repeat, but their chances have diminished since losing 3 players.

Of course it is UN. Why don't you tell me why.

Soxsport, you're funny. You had the perfect season. Everything broke right. Yes, you lost two closers, and out of the blue a 39 yr old injury prone reliever posted an incredibly durable season that likely is one of the top 3 seasons by a reliever in history. You had role players have unsustainable all star seasons. You had aging veterans return to their prime in both production and durability. Even when you had a serious injury (Pedroia), he shrugged it off like superman and posted akin to career norms. And, you've lost Salty, Ellsbury, and likely Drew. It ain't happening

The only way Ervin comes to NY is if he falls into our laps. He's a 31 yr old durable pitcher who has reached 200IP 3 of the last 4 yrs. Would have been 4 of 4 if he didn't suck so bad in 2012. He has a good walk rate and a mediocre K rate. His stuff is top notch. He's fallen victim to the longball, but his G/F ratio has been rising for a few yrs now. In the Bronx, he wouldn't be a 3.24ERA guy, probably more like a 4ERA guy due to increased talent in the division and the homer park factor. If he fell to us for a deal no longer than 3 yrs with an annual value of no more than $12 mil or so, then we have to take it. All we'd forfeit is a second rounder at this point and he'd be our #5.

Where have you heard about the Yankees being interested in Santana? It makes sense, but I haven't seen it anywhere. Surprisingly, after we got Tanaka, instead of Garza getting $20 mil a yr, he signed a pretty team friendly deal and he is the most seasoned and best performing pitcher on the US market. Santana has shown he can be bipolar in his production, but he was ace like last yr. The word going around on Santana has been a 3 yr deal with $12 mil a yr guaranteed. That is chump change, and if that's the money, go for it. But everything I have read says the Yankees are done

The Yankees trimmed payroll because they thought they could make the playoffs with the core they had going into last yr. So many things went wrong that they decided to scrap that plan

I think they are negotiating. Cashman never overplays his hand. Drew is probably begging for multi year offers. It'd be great to get him on a 2yr $16 mil deal

Calling them $pankees makes you sound immature and ignorant

Second lefty, always important. I don't know if you're stashing him, though. Lots of these MiLB contracts for big leaguer come with opt outs between March 31 and May 1

Direct quote,"As reported by Tim Keown of ESPN, here's a reason why Ozzie Guillen said this about Pierzynski: "If you play against him, you hate him. If you play with him, you hate him a little less."

C is not a mild downgrade from the 2013 production. Salty may never produce like that again, but you are replacing 2013 Salty with 2014 Pierzynski. Also, the guy is a clubhouse cancer 1B- Napoli had a career high BABIP in the .360s. That is not sustainable. BABIP is balls in play, as in when he doesn't K or hit it out. He will not get a hit on 36% of the balls he puts in play. It will not happen 2B- Pedroia is Pedroia. He might hit 5 more homers this yr. Regardless, I expect him to be a 5+ win player as he always seems to be 3B- WMB will likely improve a little. His BABIP of .263 was low, but his .335BABIP in 2012 was too high. He's probably a .250 hitter with power and no OBP skills. SS- Bogaerts has a high ceiling. But he's proven nothing to this point. If he flops, you're f***ed LF- It is a platoon. But you aren't having Nava hit to a .350BABIP again either. And when he returns to normal, so will his production as a fringe starter. Gomes will likely give you a repeat of 2013 CF- So you are hoping Bradley "burps" out a .370OBP? So lets just hope your rookie can be a top 25 OBP player in all of baseball by burping? Really? He showed no capability to do that in the bigs. He's another massive ??? RF- Victorino had a career high BABIP. Not outrageous, but career high. He likely will regress a little at the dish DH- Ortiz had a resurgent year at 37 yrs old. He will be 38, is he still a .300 30HR 100RBI guy with a mid .900s OPS? Or is he a mid .800s OPS guy who is still a viable threat but not a top 10 player in the game? That's the question. That and who supplied him

Lester is a fringe #1. Regular season production the past few yrs has been a 2-3, postseason production is ace-like. If he comes out and repeats 2013, he is gonna get a TON of money on the open market. Lester will get $20 mil per. I think the sox would behoove themselves to offer him an extension with strong money and short yrs. Maybe they offer a 4 yr $80 mil extension and see if he bites. If he hits the open market, Cliff Lee's deal will be the starting point