The thing about Kemp-and I'm certainly not the first to point this out-is that the types of injuries he has had are the types that have an increased likelihood of being recurring problems.
The scary number with Middlebrooks is his K to BB ratio. It's about 5 to 1. That is horrendous. Trumbo's is also terrible but it did improve somewhat in 2013.
The thing about Tanaka though, is that it's obvious they'd have to outbid the Yankees. How high do you go and at what point are you just trying to make the Yankees pay as much as possible?
If Duquette gets some of the credit for the 2004 and 2007 teams, shouldn't Epstein get some of the credit for the 2013 team? About half of the 25-man roster that won the World Series was carried over from Epstein's time.
If there's no Tanaka, the Yankees will pick up a couple of decent starters somehow - salary dumps, whatever. They are obviously going to continue to be busy beavers this offseason.
If Tanaka does get posted I won't be surprised if the Yankees offer him $20 million a year. The $20 million posting fee is a bargain for them - it'll be a lot less than the luxury tax they would pay if they signed a free agent pitcher for $20 million a year.
The last time this Dutchy guy was here, he did some good posting for a while, but then he completely lost it and started acting like an idiot. That's just odd behavior.
Consider this Fred. The Henry group has now owned the team for 12 years. In that time the Red Sox have gone to the ALCS 5 times and won it all 3 times. The 2011-12 meltdown is a small price to pay for this kind of beautiful success.
Yeah, that's what an anonymous source said, so it must be true. And I'm sure if the Yankees had offered to match the 240 million he would have said 'not unless you fire Girardi.'
The Yankees aren't done yet. They've clearly said f*** it to the 189 million. That means the sky's the limit on Tanaka. They'll probably also sign Balfour.
I agree with UN. I think it makes more sense to trade Dempster if we only have to eat 3-5 million. He is much more expendable. Getting a big return is not really the issue. The issue is clearing some payroll room without hurting the team very much.
I'll offer one answer to this. Unproven young bats who are struggling generally can't hurt you as quickly or as drastically as unproven young pitchers can. If a guy like Webster gets lit up 3 games in a row you're usually looking at 3 losses and him not getting another major league start for a long stretch.