jacksonianmarch

So, just to show how much things are improved, here is the line for the 2013 Yankees and what we received 2013 Yankees C- .213/.289/.298. That's right, we had a .587OPS from our catchers position. We had a collective WAR of 0.7. Adding McCann as is adds 2 wins right there. Going by projections, though, he should be a 4WAR player in 2014. That's a 3.3 WAR gain Yankees 1B- .229/..292/.397- We had a sub .700OPS from our 1b's. Lyle Overbay played all but 20 games at 1b and he was the exact definition of a replacement player. He had a WAR of 0.0. Teixeira in his worst yr was a 2.7WAR player. Now healthy, he should at least be that. Let's just say this is a 3 WAR gain Yankees 2b- .318/.385/.521- This is a titanic loss. He was a 6WAR player and the best second baseman in baseball. We replaced him with Kelly Johnson. Last yr vs this yr is a hard thing to compare since he spent the majority of his time in the OF. As a 2B, he is an average player for his career. Offensively, he is an above average player for the position. He is probably a 1.5WAR player as a 2b, maybe more. But lets say this is a net loss of 5 wins. Yankees SS- .228/.286/.312- Yes, another position under .600OPS. Nunez was worth -1.4WAR. Brignac was -0.6. Jeter was -0.6. Ryan was -0.6. That's a -3.2 WAR from SS. Jeter is healthy and from all reports, having a normal offseason. I doube he ever gets back to the 6WAR player he once was, but even a 2WAR season sees a 5 win swing in production Yankees 3b- .231/.293/.340- We had the second worst OPS of any team when it came to 3b. We lose ARod. Right now, Ryan is projected to start here, although, I will believe that when I see it. For now, we'll call this a wash. If Ryan starts here or is flipped to 2b, it probably means the same thing. Net gain 0 wins Yankees LF- .236/.293/..399- We were 25th in baseball in OPS from the LF position. When you throw in Wells, Granderson, Almonte, and Soriano, our collective WAR was close to nothing. We move Gardner over here, and Gardy gets a big boost in defense. Believe it or not, Gardy was an average CFer last yr with a UZR/150 of -0.3. The last time Gardy was a LFer, he had a UZR/150 of 32, which is insane. I expect his value to rise from 4.2WAR to something closer to 5, especially in his walk yr. Net gain- 5 wins Yankees CF- .280/.349/.442- We were strong in CF last yr. We add Ellsbury who is a near 6WAR player. Moving to YS, his offensive power will improve. This is a 2 win increase on Gardner Yankees RF- .251/.296/.358- We were dead last in OPS from RF. Ichiro added defense and speed, though, to the tune of being a 1 win player. Beltran's defensive shortcomings can be covered by the YS short porch. If he staves off father time, he can be a 3 win player, but for the sake of argument, lets call him a 2 win player and a 1 win improvement. Yankees DH- .189/.276/.307- That is not a typo. That is the worst OPS of any AL team by 30 points and that closest team was Houston. Alfonso Soriano will take that mantle. Hafner cost us 0.4 wins last yr. Soriano is still a plus offensive player, his defense is what drags his WAR with him. This is a conservative 2 win improvement. Based on the numbers from 2013, mind you, we have a 16WAR gain offensively and that is a conservative measure and obviously barring injury. Regardless, this is a vastly improved offensive team compared to the one that took the field in 2013. The mound portion isn't even close to done yet. We added Kuroda back, which was a good signing. But we lost Pettitte who was a 3 win player last yr. CC, Kuroda, Nova, and Phelps/Warren are the 1,2,3, and 5. We need another guy. I am hoping that is Tanaka. Should it be someone like Garza or Ramirez, so be it. We need one more. In the pen, we lose Mariano, which is a definite loss. He was a 1.5WAR player as a closer, which is pretty good. We have a pretty good nucleus of young arms in AAA and just need two additions here. A reliable LH specialist and a closer/setup type.

The question is, are the sox willing to go past the LT? Abrahams latest iteration had the sox around $187 mil when including arb raises. That leaves them with $2 mil to play. Davis probably signs for that amount

I think Balfour becomes our closer with Robertson ready should he fall. I am not worried about our pen. That is one thing we aren't short on down on the farm is power armed middle relievers. We have lefties, righties, power guys, long men, etc. One thing Cash has excelled at is drafting guys who cannot close or start, LOL

BTW, Cano got $240 mil by himself. Beltran, McCann, and Ellsbury got $283 million in aggregate. Not bad

I'd trade them for a bag of balls. If someone took Ichiro's contract off our hands, it would be a good thing

The Phillies cannot give Paps away. He's got an ungodly AAV, has a bad attitude and has lost his velocity.

Fangraphs has Salty and AJ nearly identical defensively. Offensively, last season was Salty's best yr and was a below average year from AJ. Pierzynski had a 2.1% walk rate. Salty had a 9.1% walk rate. Pierzynski saw 1728 pitches in 529PA. Salty saw 1892 pitches in 470 PA. That's a difference of 0.8 pitches per PA, or about 4 pitches per game. Doesn't sound like much, but when you're replacing Ells and Drew with 2 rookies and figure to be giving a guy like Middlebrooks a long look, you're talking about decreasing the "grinding" nature of your team. The sox were a f***ing buzzsaw this past yr because each guy saw a ton of pitches. We can go down the line... Ells- 3.9P/PA Victorino- 3.8P/PA Pedroia- 4.1P/PA Ortiz- 3.9P/PA Drew- 4.1P/PA Salty- 4.0P/PA The list goes on. The sox had the highest position player WAR of any team by far (36.6 is 6.3 higher than the next team, the Rays). Ells (5.8), Drew (3.4), and Salty (3.6) account for 35% of your team's WAR from 2013. Thus far, you've replaced it with 1.6 WAR in Pierzynski. You are hoping Bogaerts, JBJ, and Middlebrooks can make up the difference. It may work, it may not.

Napoli was a good re-sign, especially for 2 yrs. I am shocked nobody went harder. That being said, that 3 yr $39 mil deal a year ago looks better and better, lol. Now, they have to shell out $45 mil for the same time span

Havent they always sponsored us? This team is always old

Yep, we don't pick until round 2 now. We effectively lose our first rounder as a net net

This has so many inaccuracies, I can only laugh. Ells is pretty much Gardner? Really? I made the comparison after 2010 when it actually was apt. Since that time, Gardner has been a .268/.346/.393 player with 75 steals in 1080ABs. Ells has been a .303/.356/.469 player with 105 steals in 1540 ABs. I have said Gardner is a poor man's Ellsbury of late, because that is what he is. A leadoff guy who can steal a lot of bases and reach base. But he isn't Ells and it hasn't been close since 2010. And lets say we remove Ells' 2011 season, you still have a guy who had a better OPS last season in a much less forgiving park for left handers. Put him in YS and the homer total will rise. Plus, this isn't a knock on Gardner. He was a 4.2 WAR player last yr. Ells was just better at 5.8. McCann is coming off an injury that saps your power? So why then did he hit 20HRs and have a nearly identical SLG to his career averages? What did drop was his batting average, and why is that pray tell? Because his BABIP dropped to the second lowest total of his career at .261. His career BABIP is .289. Should he see that again, expect his numbers to improve. And BTW, even if he repeats 2013 to a T, he'll be insanely valuable for a team that spent most of 2013 having a guy who was better off taking all pitches thrown his way in Chris Stewart. Fangraphs predictions of McCann have him with a WAR in the 4 range. Kuroda faded all of last yr? He posted a miserable September, that much is true. But then again, he was on a team going nowhere, it happens. What he did manage to do was have the second best season of his career last yr. And while older pitchers eventually break down, Kuroda seems to be getting better with age, not worse. His resigning on a 1 yr deal was an easy move. Beltran is a questionable move, I give you that. He's a guy who is on borrowed time who played horrendous defense in StL last yr. That being said, we have a DH in Soriano who can man RF as needed and RF in YS is easy as f*** to play. Anything over your head is a homerun and you typically play close enough to the 2b to shake his hand. Defensively it doesn't really matter. Offensively, he's been a revelation the last 3 seasons. Once again, the majority of his ABs will be from the left hand side which should see a boost in power as long as he can hold off father time.

Tickets most definitely is a motivator. But they are definitely in on Tanaka and with the new posting idea, they can easily outbid everyone and get it now that the bid wont be blind anymore. I have a feeling they are going to blow past the Dodgers for highest payroll in baseball. I bet the financial numbers from 2013 were so staggeringly bad that they will do what they need to do to win now. What I like about this deal is that it expires at the same time CC and Tex's contract ends. 3 yrs to me is much more palatable than the Ellsbury deal of 7, even though Ells is the better player.

I have a feeling we find a way to get Headley and extend him. We have some in house options for 2b namely David Adams and Corban Joseph, although both of them are more the AAAA variety.

This adds a clutch post season bat and a guy who is capable of playing both COF positions and CF in a pinch. The question is, where the f*** are they gonna put everyone? My guess is now Ichiro or Wells gets DFA'd, probably Wells, although we might need the RH bat. Lineup does get better, though 1. Gardner LF 2. Jeter SS 3. Ellsbury CF 4. Teixeira 1B 5. Beltran RF 6. McCann C 7. Soriano DH 8. Johnson 3B 9. Ryan 2B Now we just need to find a real solution at 2b and we could be set.

3 yrs $45 mil

I have to throw that in there, lol

Your offseason isn't over guys. You're losing a pretty damned good CFer. You'd better sign a right handed CFer capable of handling the job should JBJ completely melt under the pressure again

Cano got paid, can't fault him for that. The Yankees learned their lesson with ARod. 10 yr deals for 30+ yr olds is stupid. Save the cash for when Trout is a FA

I think it's pretty obvious Cano doesn't want to go to Seattle and he was playing them all along. Keep the offer as is, don't budge and we'll get him. Also, Yankees close to re-signing Kuroda

Ells is the better overall player. Ells had a 12.9UZR/150 as a CFer last yr. He stole 50+ bases as well. Choo is a year older, had a UZR/150 of -15.3 and cannot steal anywhere near as much as Ells can. Choo in Fenway may reach base at a .380 clip, but his power would be severely impacted in Boston. BTW, let's say Ells turns 5 outs into HRs in his 2013 season by moving to the Bronx. His slash line would be up to .307/.364/.461 for an .825OPS

If I were in charge of NY and had unlimited pockets, I'd kick the tires on Choo too. Adding a .400+OBP to our lineup would be sweet

Bingo, he would. And it would also make sense for us to then sign Headley when he's a FA after the season, or deal for him in season and lock him up to an extension. As we know, Drew isn't a sexy player, but he plays good defense, would succeed Jeter for the rest of his deal and would probably hit 20 homers in our bandbox for lefties.

I want to make sure we shore up both. Our rotation underperformed at the top last yr, that's about it. Nova was very good. Kuroda was great until our season was obviously over. CC was terrible after the ASB and needs to be better. We aren't throwing $150 mil at a pitcher this offseason, so CC has to be better, and I think he will be. I think we need to bring in Kuroda and then add in a guy who can eat some innings. We have pitching in the minor league system and have our best pitching prospect back after TJS at the end of 2012 (Banuelos). Preferably, I would like to see Kuroda and Tanaka. But I'd be alright with Garza or Jimenez, although both would have to be on show me deals. Jimenez needs to show me he can repeat his solid season after a couple down years and Garza would have to show me he is healthy. In terms of our lineup, you saw what happens when a Yankee lineup loses their best players. We MUST have guys who can work the count. The Yankees always worked good pitchers out of games by working pitch counts and getting to the soft underbelly in the pen. And last yr, we had lineups where AAAA rookies were filling out the middle of the order. We cannot come into the year with more than one black hole. If we don't get Cano and don't get another infielder, then we failed this offseason. We must move Ryan back to the UTIL role and not the starters role

Nah, I'm not. I love Cano, don't get me wrong. But we need to just avoid the black holes in the lineup and don't necessarily need the MVP types throughout the lineup. Look at how you guys did it in 2013. Ortiz was the only MVP worthy type bat and he was your DH. The rest of your lineup can hit for power, take pitches and grind. We lost that when Nunez, Stewart, Ichiro, Almonte et al s*** we threw out there last yr.

So at the possible midway point of the offseason, our lineup looks like this (I am assuming no f***stickRod) 1. Gardner LF 2. Jeter SS 3. Ellsbury CF 4. Teixeira 1B 5. McCann C 6. Soriano DH 7. Johnson 3B 8. Ichiro/Wells RF 9. Ryan 2B Obviously, we need one more infielder to make this work, but that is a serious improvement on the s*** we threw out there last yr seeing as Granderson and Tex combined for 76 games last yr. Also, Johnson can also play 2b if need be and thus opens up the possibility of a trade for a 3b and a DH type come the deadline. Cano would be f***ing awesome to add to this team. But if he gets a 9-10 yr deal, then we have to pass. He's 31 yrs old. I don't want to see him paid $25 mil per year for his age 38-40 seasons