Rumpel9

Your "hollow home run" analysis is laughably homerish. Just because they didn't tie or take the lead at the time does not mean that they weren't significant factors in games. If the team was down 5-1, Martin hit a home run and the team won 6-5, you're claiming the home run would have been hollow you dumbass. You can't simply ignore the fact that he hit 20 home runs last year and he's being replaced by a hitter with 5 career home runs. You're getting worse offensively, you're getting worse defensively and the game calling will suffer. That's a large decrease in production from the most important position on the field after the pitcher. I don't see any reason to project the Yankees as more than an 85 win team right now. You don't simply let your some of your most valuable players walk, replace them with nothing of value and do nothing to improve one of the oldest teams in the league and remain similarly competitive. Another significant injury or two and they're outside of the playoff race looking in. The Yankees don't have s*** for major league close depth.

LOL. Hilarious how you talk about how bad Martin's bad is and neglect to compare it at all to Cervelli's. Any way you try to spin it with your rose colored glasses, Cervelli is a downgrade across the board. Offensively, he has an OPS below .700 (Martin's been safely above .700 the last two years) at the major league level. His wOBA stats are also lower than Martin's the last two seasons. And that's in limited playing time, imagine how much his numbers will dive if he manages to stay healthy and endure the grind of catching all season. Cervelli was also a .650 OPS hitter in AAA and he barely managed to have a .700 OPS in AA. The stats prove he's an inferior hitter to Martin. Durability wise, Martin wins by a mile. Martin's been below 100 games once his career. Cervelli's managed to stay relatively healthy for two years in his professional career. Defensively, Cervelli's a headcase while Martin's been nothing but solid. Game calling and familiarity with the pitcher, Martin's received nothing but praise while Cervelli's relatively unfamiliar with the Yankees rotation. Catcher is a place where the Yankees will be losing a few wins worth of production. They may have finished a 95 win team last year, but that was with guys like Swisher, Martin, Chavez, A-Rod, etc. They aren't the same team entering this season and they're a year older.