jacksonianmarch

No terms yet. Big time move. Hope it isn't for too much

Badenhop is at most a solid relief prospect and at least a cheap risk. This was a move they had to make

Condolences to his family. Malignant brain tumors are one of the last frontiers in medicine that don't really have any good treatment. They suck

They are paying $4.28 mil every year for the next 7 years. That's how it works out. No businessman in their right mind would lump sum the payment if they could pay it off over 7 years

There is more money out there. But if they wanted to, the Yankees could outspend everyone in baseball, including LA. Eventually, they will once again

Vargas is a steady back end guy capable of giving you innings and production. If it wasn't for a blood clot, he'd have reached 200IP again in 2013. From 2010-2012, he threw an average of 203IP per year with ERA's ranging from 3.78 to 4.25. Last yr his WHIP was high, but his ERA, K rate, and walk rate were all similar to his good seasons. The guy is a good pickup, but KC had to give years over AAV. I bet Vargas could have gotten $10 mil per annum from someone, but probably on a 2 year deal

If the Yankees are dragged into December, a lot of FAs will be dragged into December as well. It always behooves the players to have the Yankees involved in negotations, even if said player has no interest in putting on pinstripes. The FA market will follow NY, you just watch

Regardless, this is a good deal for both teams. It fills big holes in their IF while allowing their top prospects to be unblocked. For the Rangers, they play in a bandbox with a short RF porch. That should shoot Fielder's HR total up. The guy is 29 and had one bad year. My guess is he has a few more years left in the tank. It also allows Jurickson Profar to assume a spot in the big league lineup as the starting 2b. For the Tigers, it allows them to move Cabrera back to his natural position, it replaces Infante with a better, more powerful player and it allows them to bring Castellanos up. It was surprising that the Rangers hadn't moved Kinsler sooner and the Tigers even went after Fielder in the first place.

Doritos and Nutella are vegetarian friendly. My guess is he went on a Dorito-Nutella diet

Ortiz tested positive for a banned substance before there was a punishment phase in testing. He wasn't punished, but he definitely broke the rules and cheated. He's just as much a cheater as Pettitte

I missed this gem. Brennan, how do you feel about Ortiz?

You do know Boras isn't his agent anymore, right? IIRC, the Yankees offered 7yrs and $175 mil or so. $25 mil a year is probably appropriate for him. I highly, highly doubt any team is going to beat that. If they do, they can have him. I think we have learned since signing Giambi and going for the big time, expensive, big name players that you don't win titles that way. We had a core team from 95-01 that didn't have one gigantic mercenary name on it sans Clemens. We go out and get Mussina and Giambi, and all of a sudden, we cannot win the big games. We only made it worse when we added ARod and Sheff, etc. We have won 1 title since 2000 and have bought umpteen big time players in the process, many of whom had HOF credentials. What Cashman has been trying to do is set a value for certain players and find the few that he thinks he needs to have regardless of cost. And he needs Hal to stay the f*** out of it. If he gets that, then I think we get Cano at a reasonable rate. If Hal steps in, we get another mega contract that we regret in 3 years time

2011 was a hit on all cylinders season. I hadn't seen one like it. It seemed like every player in the top 50 had a solid year. 2012 was an uneven year with a bunch of injuries and some ineffectiveness. 2013 was horrendous. I have a feeling luck played into it. But looking at the 2013 top 50 over on scout.com, out of the top 20, 14 either had career worst years or were significantly injured. That's not just underperformance, that is a combo of s*** luck and underperformance. I doubt we see a year like that again

Pal, you're overstating a little bit. We lost posada, but not the posada of years past. His final two years were abysmal. We lost swisher, but we got Soriano and at least can replace his power and then some. I am advocating for a bunch of mercenary pickups in McCann, Phillips, Tanaka, etc. I want to bring back Kuroda. I'd like to see Balfour here. There is no way in hell Gardner gets $15 mil AAV, he's Michael Bourne with a lesser hit tool. He'll be an $8-$10 mil AAV. With our depth in MiLB relief pitching, we can let KRob go after this yr. But part of what we need to see is minor league progress. Our farm had a legendary season in 2011. We had a below average year in 2012 and an abysmal and unlucky year in 2013. I have a feeling come 2015, we'll have some kids ready to step in, especially in the OF. Regardless, we need to bring in some talent this offseason, and we will

I get the feeling Cashman will spread the wealth. It worked for the sox and aside from CC, Cashman has been against the big money deals. Hal orchestrated Rafael Soriano, Teixeira, and ARods deals. If Yankee fans gave him a year and Hal took his hands off, then we might get back to our glory days. It just likely won't be in 2014

The other thing it does is allow us to snap up 2 comp level picks while losing a 1st rounder by signing McCann. It also allows us to give our minor leaguers another year to produce something more than a reliever. Banuelos would be missed, but then again, he is coming off TJS. I am not sure who we'd move for Freese, but I bet it wouldn't be too heart rending. Allow our 3 first rounders from this yr to blossom while adding 2 more in 2014 and we could restock a system that had a really bad year.

In terms of starters, the market sucks goat testicles. But I HIGHLY expect the Yankees to go after and get Masahiro Tanaka and throw him in as the #4 starter. The posting fee matters not for this discussion. He'd likely get a contract akin to Yu Darvish, 6yrs $60 mil. That leaves the needs for a #2 starter. And I think it will likely be the #2 we've had for 2 yrs now. Kuroda only wants NY, LA or Japan. LA says they aren't interested. Kuroda is cool with going year to year. The other #2s (Santana, Garza, Jimenez) all will require 5 yr deals fraught with risk. Go with the known commodity, even though he broke down late. Tanaka: $10 mil, Kuroda $16 mil That would leave us with a rotation of 1. Sabathia 2. Kuroda 3. Nova 4. Tanaka 5. Phelps, Pineda, Warren That rotation is good enough to win games in the AL East, especially if CC gets off the schneid. That leaves relievers. Javier Lopez wants to play in NY. NY needs a lefty reliever. Make it happen for a reasonable AAV of around $3 mil. In terms of closers, Nathan is the sexier name, but Balfour is the better bet. Not everyone can be as effective as Mo was into his 40s. We shouldn't test fate and replace him with another 40 something reliever. Go for Balfour, he will likely cost around $7 mil per year. Balfour $7 mil, Lopez $3 mil That leaves us with KRob and Balfour at the back end of the pen with Lopez as the loogy and Kelley, Claiborne, Betances, etc filling out the bridge. While not amazing, that pen could become something very, very stron So JM's "fixes" will cost the Yankees $82.1 mil. That puts us at $195.125 mil if ARod isn't suspended at all. If ARod loses 50 games, it will bring us to $187.1 mil. Should we lose ARod for the season, it brings us to about $170 mil. Plenty of wiggle room for us at the break should that happen. It will also field a competitive team in 2014. It might not be a Red Sox 2013 team, but if things break right, it could be a title contending team. And if things break poorly, it could be a 85+ win team in it long enough to appease the masses while biding time to take off the financial shackles in 2015

And with the 2013 autopsy complete and the body interred into the ground, all Yankee fans can focus on the promise of brighter days. I thought long and hard about the Yankees capability to contend without throwing big money out there, then I decided to actually look up the contract commitments for 2014. What I saw was pretty shocking. Including ARod, the Yankees have a mere $98.025 mil on the books. Without ARod and his $26 mil cap hit, we'd be at a lowly $72.025 mil. We have a few players in arb, but all together will likely commit another $15 mil to the total. So if we assume ARod will be around for the whole season, we have a cap number before any additions of $113.025 mil. Therefore, we have about $75.975 mil to play with to stay under the cap. That is a significant amount of money to throw at players. Now, let's look at the team we have under contract or arb C- Cervelli C- Romine C- Murphy 1B- Teixeira 2B- Ryan/Nunez SS- Jeter/Nunez/Ryan 3B- ARod (for now) LF- Soriano CF- Gardner RF- Ichiro/Wells DH- Ichiro/Wells/Jeter SP1- Sabathia SP2- Nova SP3- Phelps SP4- Warren SP5- Pineda/Banuelos CL- Robertson MR- Kelley MR- Claiborne MR- Betances Rotation We have some filling out to do, that is for sure. For starters, let's look at the starters. If we go into the season with that rotation, we will learn a whole lot about the depth of our farm and the depths to which we can sink with a $100+ mil payroll. There is no way on God's green earth we go into a season with this much money to burn and not fill out the rotation. Sabathia will be entrenched at the #1 spot because he couldn't possibly suck as bad as he did last yr. His stuff got better as the year went on, yet his production went down the shitter. I think a full offseason instead of one spent rehabbing a surgically repaired elbow will do him wonders. He may not come back as a low 3ERA guy, but he wont be the meatballing f***up we saw wearing his uniform at years end. Nova is a very solid #3 pitcher. His bipolar nature on the mound will limit his ceiling until he truly grasps his stuff and stops having mental f***ups. Stuffwise, you'll be hard pressed to find someone with a better arsenal. It's his makeup that limits him. Starting the yr as the #3 would be fine. Expecting an ace or #2 type performance is leaving a lot of s*** to chance. Phelps and Warren could both fill out the #5 spot. I am not sure either should be trusted as a #4. For me, a #4 starter on a large market club is a guy who can produce league average ERA with good stamina. A guy like Arroyo comes to mind as a good #4. We need one. So in total, we need a #2 and a #4 starter. Preferably, that #2 starter would be a #1a guy should CC turn into a gigantic shitstain again. Needs: #2, #4 starters Lineup We have some holes to fill, once again. Losing Cano and Granderson will be big. Hopefully we lose f***bag roidhead cheater at third as well. For this synopsis, though, I am going to anticipate f***bag isn't there as we will need to address a replacement at 3b should f***o lose his appeal. Starting at catcher. Cervelli was off to a solid start when he broke his hand then cheated his balls off. Romine looks overwhelmed. Murphy looks like he could be a good one eventually, but I doubt he turns into Russell Martin overnight. We could use a catcher. Maybe not a McCann, but someone who can come in and not be as bad as Stewart offensively or as bad as Salty defensively. We need at least one, preferably two middle infielders. Ryan and Nunez are not 2b's. Cano is a probability, but at his price, we could get 2 players who could replace his production at a fraction the cost. We also will need a 3b. I'd also like to add a corner OFer if there is room in the budget, although the OF as stated above isn't that bad. Needs: 2MIF, 3B, C Wants: COF Bullpen We need a closer, or at least someone who can take the mantle from Robertson should he choke. Maybe having Mo out of there will give KRob the gonadal fortitude to lock down the 9th, but his resume in the closers role isn't good. He was abysmal in 2012 when Mo went down and in his few chances in 2013, he wasn't good. We also need a LH specialist. We do not need much more. We have a s***-ton of MLB ready relievers in our minor league system. While the Sox have been churning out prospects capable of playing unneeded positions like SS, SP, CF, etc we have been focusing on the real bread and butter...Middle relief. (Hope you get the sarcasm there.) In all honesty, though, I am not sure a system has churned out so many prospects capable of filling a pen. We seem to find steals in the 5th-10th rounds. When other teams swing big for the HS power hitter, Cash is loading up on college closers. And it has been working to be honest. Whitley, Claiborne, Montgomery, Kahnle, etc are ready with a slew more maybe a half season away. This is the kind of year we can try to find the right connection since we have so many guys capable of handling the long and short relief slots. Needs: CL, LHRP So, when you look at needs you have a Closer, Lefty Specialist, #2 starter, #4 starter, C, 2B, SS, 3B. When you look at wants, you have a COF. That is a whole f***ing lot of holes on a team with a budget. Well here goes. I am going to start on the position player side of things. I want to deal for Brandon Phillips. The guy plays great defense and was a bit unlucky last yr. He'll be turning 33 midway through the season and is under contract until 2017, but it is a manageable cap hit of $12.1 mil per season. His big contract and his off season in 2013 will make him a little more expendable and as such, if we eat the whole contract, we could probably get him for one good prospect. We have a slew of prospects coming off down years, I am sure we could work something out. (Maybe Banuelos here). There have been tons of rumors as to the fact that Cincy wants to move him. Why not here. Phillips: $12.1 mil At catcher, I want to go for the gusto. Go get McCann. I think the guy can be signed for 5yrs $90 mil. He turns 30 in February, so he isn't exactly old. 5 yrs for a catcher should do the trick. Move his lefty power bat into the Bronx and he'll hit 30HR per annum and giving him some rest in the DH spot will be good. The more I look at this, the more I want it to happen, especially if we don't throw 2014. McCann: $18 mil As far as 3b goes, we are in a bit of a pickle. We can do what the Tigers did and go for offense over defense. We could move Tex back to 3b (his original position) and go for a 1b. Or we can just sift through the s*** that is out there. There are no 3bs on the FA market that look good. But David Freese looks like an option. The Yankees had been checking him out earlier, but that rumor was debunked. With the Cards flush with IF talent, though, it makes sense to revisit this as a possible buy low candidate. Just 2 short years ago, the guy was doing his best Scott Brosius impression while he destroyed the Rangers en route to a WS title. I'd really try to open that up again and make it happen. Freese will likely see a modest raise in arbitration, so a deal for him wouldn't hurt too badly. Freese: $5 mil The second middle infielder might already be in house with Brendan Ryan. We also could bring in Jhonny Peralta, although I don't like his resurgence in a PED year. One guy I wouldn't mind taking a look at, though, is Rafael Furcal. The downsides are that he just turned 36, he missed all of 2013 due to TJS and that he hasn't been the real Rafael Furcal since 2010. That being said, he could probably be had for a pillow contract ($1 mil with escalators) and if he sucks, cut bait. But if he finds himself again after rehabbing, then he could be a big time steal. Even if he provides a better offensive backup option at SS than Ryan, he could be worth it. We need options. We don't necessarily need a perennial 30HR hitter, but we need options. Furcal will help us with that. Furcal: $1 mil In terms of COF, that remains to be seen. I don't see it as a definite need. I would like to change the COF to a BAT. We need another bat. Be it as a DH or 1B/DH or 1B/RF/DH, so be it. Corey Hart fits that. As does Choo. I think Choo is going to get a deal that far outvalues his worth. But getting a guy like Hart on a pillow deal would be great. Only one problem, he seems to love beer country and is willing to take a discount to stay. Maybe if we are the only team to offer him a 1yr deal with a player option for a 2nd, then he might bite. If you produce, you can be a FA again. If you suck, feel free to leech off the teet one more year. I'd do a 1 yr $10 mil contract with a $10 mil player option for year 2. That would likely cause him to bite. Hart: $10 mil If we did all that, and AFraud loses his appeal, our lineup will look like so 1. Gardner CF 2. Jeter SS 3. Phillips 2B 4. Teixeira 1B 5. McCann C 6. Hart DH 7. Soriano LF 8. Freese 3B 9. Ichiro/Wells RF That lineup reminds me a lot of the ones from the mid 90s. No 40HR hitters or guys who will lead the league in batting. Just a solid 1-9 that will be hard to beat on a nightly basis.

He'd fit right in with Ortiz too. All kidding aside, it's good to see the Yankees pursuing SS options. 2014 is Jeters farewell year and he'll likely be our SS/DH with more emphasis on the latter than the former. We need someone who can handle the position on a day to day basis. I am glad they resigned Ryan, but getting a guy like Jhonny won't hurt

He's being a lawyer. When representing Ellsbury, he'll talk about how the HR's aren't important. When representing Choo, he'll talk about how good it is to hit 20HRs. The guy is great at what he does

Bautista is apparently available. He's 33 and still has monster power and insane patience. He just hasn't been healthy since 2011. It would be strange for the Jays to sell low on this one, but it might not be that bad of an idea. If you can get Bautista of 2011 back, you've got a middle of the order thumper on a pretty reasonable contract

I wont be envious in 2015. The Yankees trump card has always been their willingness to spend out of any s***** situation they are in. If they are pulling back the reigns for a season, then we're in trouble, especially since our farm needs another year

An extension before opening day would significantly impact payroll. Lester's option is for $13 mil. Let's say they extend him for 5 yrs and $120 mil. His AAV gets recalculated off of 6 yrs and $133 mil, which comes out to $22.2 mil, a jump of $9.2 mil. If they delay past opening day, then you are right

UN, I wouldn't be surprised if that's the way they go. I thought 2013 was part of a bridge to the future, but they f***ing won. You have replacements at all positions vacated by a FA, and they're all highly touted prospects sans Carp. This is the yr to gobble up the picks and see what the kids can do, theoretically. If the sox take a step back or the kids aren't as good as advertised, the 2014 FA class is strong and can be delved into at any time. The one thing you aren't accounting for, though, is a Lester extension. Something they must do or risk watching him go about 200 miles southwest and pitch in pinstripes

Guys, landing 3 supplemental picks allows the sox to spend on whomever they want. Think about it. They're going to have the #30 pick in the draft if they sign no QO guys. If they lose Ellsbury, they'll have the #32 pick as well. If they lose Napoli and Drew, they'll get two more in the 30-40 range. It makes too much sense for them to let Napoli, Ellsbury, and Drew walk, collect the picks and sign a bunch of protected players. They already have 3 picks replacing the ones they would otherwise lose