I know I've referenced this plenty of times this year since the unveiling ofthe first AB4AR Top 30, but now the punishment for me ranking Tyler Austin 30th is really starting to get out of control. The latest installment came yesterday, when Austin was announced as the winner of the MiLBY Award for Breakout Prospect of the Year. It was a nation-wide fan vote, which should make the award a little less significant than one voted on by peers, coaches, or writers, but in this case I think it actually makes the award more impressive.
MiL baseball doesn't get even remotely close to the amount of national media coverage that MLB does, doesn't have nearly the fanbase size of MLB, and is basically one big group of young players ALL striving to break out. Austin had to make a helluva good impression on fans across the country who may have only gotten to see him play once or twice to win this award, and it's a perfect way to cap off a monster season that saw him rise from sleeper in the Yankee system to national recognition.
"The Yankees are considering an outfield switch that would see Brett Gardner in center, with Granderson moving to a corner spot, sources say. While they believe they have two capable center fielders, Gardner is clearly the better defensive player."
Seriously, whoever it is in the organization that's championing this idea up through the decision-making ranks is a hero of the highest order in my book and deserves a pregame video package, statue in Monument Park, and a standing ovation from the crowd on Opening Day next season if this move actually happens. And if it doesn't, whoever prevents it from happening should be fired on the spot.
Brett Gardner is faster than Curtis Granderson, gets better reads on balls than Curtis Granderson, takes better routes than Curtis Granderson, and is just an all-around better outfielder than Curtis Granderson. And now that better, faster outfielder could be moved to the position most requiring a player to be better and faster. What a plan! So inspired, so devious, yet so simple. If this happens, it might end up going down as the second greatest switch in human history.
("Gardner for Granderson. It's the perfect plan.")
(Might have to trim that hair, guy. Courtesy of Getty Images)
While we're on the topic of current/former Angels who may be a good fit for the Yankees, let's talk about Dan Haren. The Angels made some waves yesterday announcing that they were "interested" in trading both Ervin Santana and Haren, 2 members of their rotation with expensive 2013 contract options who both experienced some serious decline in their performance in 2012. Santana has already been shipped to Kansas City in a deal, which is just fine with me because he absolutely sucks, but Haren is a much more interesting case. And the more I've let the idea of Haren in pinstripes simmer in my head for the last day or so, the more I think the Yankees pursuing a trade for him makes sense.
It was nothing more than a basic report from the infamous unnamed source that the Yankees are interested in free agent to be Torii Hunter, but when it'scoming from Mark Feinsand you can put a little extra faith in it. The Yanks don't appear to be wasting any time in seeking out a replacement for Nick Swisher in right field, and if they aren't going to get seriously involved in any kind of trade discussion for Justin Upton, Hunter would be an ideal 1-year stopgap signing. Even at age 37, turning 38 next summer, Hunter brings a lot of things to the table that the Yankees need and a lot that meshes well with their team makeup and organizational culture.
With 2012 serving as the latest example of why you can never ever have too much starting pitching, and the current group of young starters bringing more questions than answers to the table right now, re-signing Hiroki Kuroda has to be near the top, if not at the top, of the Yankees' to-do list this offseason. He ended up being a bargain at $10 million for 219.2 IP of 3.32/3.86/3.67 ball, plus 16 stellar innings in 2 postseason starts, and was the most important pitcher on a staff that was beset by injury and performance issues from day 1.
Normally a season like the one Kuroda had would have teams with a need for pitching lining up to throw a ton of money at him for a 2 or possibly 3-year deal, Yankees included. But with teams continuing to shift their thinking away from high-dollar, multi-year deals for older players, and a report from Nick Cafardo stating that Kuroda is "content signing a one-year deal at this stage in his career," the chances of that happening are significantly reduced. Kuroda's declaration that he is only seeking a 1-year deal also turns whatever happens with him this offseason into a positive for the Yankees.
(It's not a World Series ring, but at least some Yankees are taking home some hardware this year)
If you're like me and were out of the Yankeeland loop for the last day and a half, here's what you missed:
- Joe reportedly called Alex Rodriguez last Friday to start the fence mending after A-Rod's postseason benching and discuss plans for 2013. The sneaky unnamed source that leaked the story indicated that the conversation went well.
- The Yankees officially exercised their 2013 team options on Curtis Granderson, Robinson Cano, and David Aardsma. C-Grand and Robbie will each make $15 million next season while Aardsma will make a paltry 500 thou. All expected moves and all smart moves by the club.
- Mark Teixeira and Robinson Cano were among the group of American League Gold Glove winners announced yesterday. It was Teix's 5th award and Robbie's 2nd, and with absolutely no favoritism towards them as Yankees I will say that both awards were well-deserved.
- Jon Heyman is reporting that Rafael Soriano will officially opt out of his contract today and become a free agent. That should help free up some cash to fill out the rest of the 2013 roster and ensure the Yankees get at least 1 compensatory draft pick after Soriano declines their qualifying offer.
I chalked the whole "Frankenstorm" thing up to typical media hype and really didn't expect things to be that bad when the hurricane hit over the past few days, but when I finally got the chance to check in and see what was going on yesterday afternoon was legitimately shocked. Sides of buildings blowing off, massive flooding, parts of the Jersey Shore pretty much getting wiped off the map; that's some pretty heavy shit. My friends and family that I've talked to back home are all safe and sound right now and just waiting for the power to come back on, and I hope that's the case for everybody else out there.
Looking at the site traffic from yesterday it certainly appears as though a lot of people out there have power and were using the internet as a way to pass the time. So if you do and you're using AB4AR as part of that time passing strategy while you wait for the rain to stop, the wind to die down, and the waters to recede, I thank you for that. I hope you're all safe and dry, I hope everybody has enough food and water, and I hope I can be a small part of getting things back to normal for everyone now that the storm has passed and I'm back to my regular writing routine.
With starting pitching always being the top priority every offseason, taking care of internal player contracts second, looking to address the lineup through trades or the free agent market third, and the bullpen fourth, the Yankee bench has been a bit of a forgotten element the last few years. Not forgotten in the sense that the Yankees don't focus on building a quality bench, but in the sense that the strategy to build has become very simple; see what money is left and see what older veteran players out there fit the Yankee hitting formula and need a job. It's a strategy that's served them well, but one that was questioned a bit more before this season, especially by me in my "Known/Unknown" bench preview, as Cash really looked towards some guys who were pretty long in the tooth at the expense of younger internal options.
The World Series ended last night, which means Tim Lincecum is probably smoking a lot of celebratory weed right now. It also means that the clock officially starts ticking on all the major offseason milestones, the first one being the deadline for teams to make qualifying offers to their pending free agents. If you aren't familiar with the new free agent system, here's a quick rundown of how it works now.
There are no more Type A or Type B free agents; there is now a level set every year based on the average value of the 125 biggest contracts in MLB that teams can offer to any pending free agent who spent the entire previous season on their roster. This year that value is $13.3 million. Teams have until 5 days after the World Series to offer a qualifying deal to any pending free agent on their team who fits the criteria and then that player has 7 days to accept or decline the offer. If they accept, they return to their team on a 1-year deal for the qualifying amount; if they decline, they are free to sign with any team and their former team is given a compensatory pick at the end of the first round of the next MLB draft. Whatever new team the player ends up with does not have to surrender a pick, just the money that they are signing the free agent to.
The Yankees have a fair share of pending free agents this season, but only a few who are really worthy of having a qualifying offer extended to them. As a helpful guide for the next 5 days, here is an all encompassing list of who should and should not receive an offer.
Kiley McDaniel has taken his prospect scouting gig from ESPN to FanGraphs, and he's come out firing with a boatload of scouting reports from the instructional leagues on many a Yankee farmhand. He's been releasing the reports in parts for a little over a week now, and he finally concluded them with Part IV earlier this week. In case you haven't already, you can check out all four parts of McDaniel's report right hereand I strongly suggest that you do. If you aren't familiar with McDaniel's work, get familiar. His reports are very detailed and insightful, but presented in a straightforward, easy-to-understand way that leaves you with a clear understanding of the strengths and weaknesses that McDaniel saw in a player. Highlights of McDaniel's reports and my personal takes after the jump.
(Anybody who says they wouldn't want this guy is a liar. Courtesy of Getty Images)
Yesterday Chad Jennings of LoHud brought up the possibility of the Yankees getting involved with the Kansas City Royals this offseason, expanding on a report from Buster Olney that said the Royals would be in the market for starting pitching and would be willing to trade from their nucleus of good young position players to add that pitching. Chad pointed out that the Yankees have a small cadre of young pitchers in Phil Hughes, Ivan Nova, and David Phelps that could get talks started, and that the Royals have players who could fill positions of need for the Yankees in Alex Gordon and Mike Moustakas, making a deal between the 2 teams a mutually beneficial possibility.
While the starting rotation has been an up-and-down affair recently, a strong bullpen has been a staple of this extended era of success for the Yankees, going all the way back to the '96 World Series. Mo has been the fixture at closer since then, and has had a cycle of solid setup guys in front of him each and every year. D-Rob and Sour Puss set that table heading into 2012, with a group of familiar faces from the season before surrounding them, so this season was expected to be another successful one for the Yankee 'pen. The depth was there, the roles were already known, and the future was being built during the present. But as was the case with the rest of the team this year, it was a season to expect the unexpected.
The big yearly trade show for my company's industry is next week, so I get to put on the monkey suit and go hobknob with customers next Monday and Tuesday. It's back in Chicago this year, so while there aren't quite as many weird entertainment options as there were in Vegas last year, like a completely strung out homeless dude following us down the sidewalk for 5 blocks going, "weed, coke, weed, coke, weed, coke" as his sales pitch to try to get us to buy drugs from him, it should still be a good time. One of my favorite things about trade shows is watching the number of people who will walk into my company's booth just to eat the food and drink the drinks at our hospitality area. Dudes don't care who we are, what we're selling, or what we can sell it to them for, they just need a free half a sandwich and they need it RIGHT NOW! It's these kinds of people that make other countries hate America. Now onto the links!
- Mike Jaggers-Radolf followed that up with an argument against trading Curtis Granderson this offseason. Curtis dropped a lot in my book this year, but Mike's right about trading 4-WAR players and Curtis is still that kind of talent.
For this Friday's jam, I'm going back to an old standby. I know I've used Mastodon here before, but I know it hasn't been this song and it really doesn't get much more badass of an under-3-minute song than "Where Strides The Behemoth." Even the name of the song is badass. If I was a closer, I would seriously consider using the 10-second guitar riff at the end of this song on constant loop as my entrance music.
("Whaddaya mean I'm the 7th starter? Don't you know who I am?" Courtesy of the AP)
Starting pitching has been a tricky thing for the New York Yankees over the last 5-10 years. Despite their best efforts, they haven't built rotations good enough to truly compete for World Series championships. In 2009 they had just enough to get by, but for the most part the constant theme has been that when push comes to shove, the quality of the Yankee starting pitching wasn't on the same level as the quality of their offense. Improving the rotation was right at the top of the priority list heading into this season, and great steps were taken to try to build up a better staff capable of being good over the long haul of a regular season and postseason.
In previewing what was known and unknown about this group, there was cause for optimism as it appeared the Yankees' plans to build depth and depth of talent were carried out successfully. But as we've all learned at various times in our own lives, sometimes even the best-laid plans don't work out.
"Cashman told ESPN New York that on Tuesday he and Rivera had a conversation in which Rivera said he does not know yet if he will return for a 19th season.
'He wasn't certain on what he is going to do,' Cashman said."
Alright, who changed the program on RoboMo to let it think it could actually retire? Not cool, guys. Not cool.
At first I thought this was just another classic exercise of Marchand pot stirring for pageviews, but the quote directly from Cash does make this a little more legitimate. That being said, I wouldn't get too concerned yet until we hear something directly from Mo's mouth. He's had this three-act offseason play after the last few seasons where he's up in the air on whether he wants to keep playing. Act 1 is the uncertainty and desire to stay home and spend more time with his family, act 2 is the actual spending of time with said family, and act 3 is Mo getting the itch to pitch again and coming back. Rinse, repeat.
Besides, what the hell is he really going to do at home with his family with all that extra free time? There's nobody at his home who he can teach the cutter to. Don't worry about the G.O.A.T. My money's still on him coming back.
As mentioned earlier today on the AB4AR Page, Joel Sherman reported that Ichiro Suzuki enjoyed his time as a Yankee after the trade this season and that Ichiro "strongly wants to stay" with New York next season. Without delving too deeply into this, allow me to make my case against this idea.
Average age of Yankee postseason roster- 33.08 years
Current Age of Ichiro- 39 years
It just doesn't make any sense to make an already old team with a ton of money tied up in its oldest players any older. Ichiro did exactly what the Yankees wanted him to do and exactly what a lot of people thought he would do after the Yankees traded for him. But that still doesn't change the fact that he has deteriorated significantly as a player himself in the past 2 seasons, and the odds of him replicating what he did in his short time with the Yankees over a full season next year are incredibly low. Let him be what he was and go out on a positive as a Yankee and focus efforts on finding a younger, more versatile outfield solution.
(Not pictured: Brett Gardner and his elbow. Courtesy of the AP)
The start of the AB4AR 2012 Season Review officially kicked off yesterday with the review of what we learned about the 2012 infield. It continues today with that same review for the outfield. The starting outfield for the 2012 New York Yankees was an interesting mix. 3 guys with very different but equally important skill sets who combined to be one of the most productive and underappreciated units in baseball in 2011, and 3 guys whose futures with the club were all potentially up in the air in the near future. As with the infield, it was a big up-and-down year for this crew, so let's dive right in and see what 2012 taught us about them.
(Hey! Nunez in the outfield was fun, huh? Courtesy of the AP)
Eduardo Nunez is a strange case. He reminds me of a joke that Patrice O'Neal told about Jeff Ross at one of the Comedy Central Roasts, where he called Ross a legend and then corrected himself by saying Ross was more like a myth because everybody had heard stories about how funny he is, "but nobody's ever really seen it." That's Eduardo Nunez to me; he's been talked about as the next big homegrown position player piece for the future for what seems like the last 3-4 years, and he always ends up not being that. I bring this up today because Cash and Joe each mentioned Nunez in their recent year-end addresses, but not in a way that makes his current or future standing within the organization any more clear than it's ever been. To me, it almost seems like the Yankees have no clue what to do with Nunez anymore, and if that's the case then it might be time to trade him.
For the second straight year I kicked off the official AB4AR Season Preview series with the "What We Know & What We Don't Know" sub-series. It's a nice little way to make some assessments and quasi-predictions about the season to come while everything is still unofficial and unannounced at the end of Spring Training. It only seems fitting to keep with that theme to start the official AB4AR Season Review series, and we'll start with the infield just like we did way back in late March.
After an up-and-down 2011 season, 2012 was expected to be a bounce-back year for the Yankee infield. Robinson Cano was at the top of his game, and there was hope that a healthy A-Rod and more balanced Teix would help re-establish the middle of the Yankee lineup as the most feared in baseball. The Captain was supposed to be the wild card of the group, but as it turned out he ended up being the most pleasant surprise of the bunch. All in all, it's hard to say 2012 was a successful one for this crew, but it's also difficult to call it a complete failure.
(Ain't no lineup changes that fix tired. Courtesy of the AP)
Yesterday I made a comment on our daily TYA email chain that it seemed like most of the blogopshere was caught in a no man's land when it came to Yankee coverage now that the season was over. The combination of such a one-sided postseason exit with what was otherwise a very strong season seems to have put everybody in a situation where they aren't quite ready to go back and fully review 2012 and also aren't quite ready to let it go and start looking towards this offseason and 2013. Well if that's the case then I'm just as guilty as everybody else, because I've had this idea jotted down for a couple weeks, even going back to the start of the postseason against Baltimore.
The general consensus was that playing hard through the end of the regular season would benefit the Yankees because they would still mentally locked in and would not lose any momentum by having guys sit and rest down the stretch like they would if the division was already locked up. But for an older team like the Yankees, a team that was even more banged up than the poor Fraud Sawx and Blue Jays, did having to go all out for all 162 actually end up hurting them?
(How's that ankle going to respond the first time Jeter has to make a similar play to his left next year? Courtesy of Getty Images)
The immediate impact of Derek Jeter’s ankle injury was major and painfully obvious to anybody who watched the ALCS. Without him in the lineup or on the field, the Yankees managed to score just 2 runs in the final 3 games while giving up more than that and committing 3 official defensive errors, 5 if you want to be a stickler like me and give Chavez and Teix Es for their stay-back botches in Game 4. Even deeper than the on-field results, the entire attitude and morale of the team seemed to drop without the presence of The Captain. Say what you want about his robotic repetition of nothing comments to the media, but the tired, lifeless nature of the Yankees’ play in the final 3 games should stand as an example of just what kind of behind-the-scenes leader Jeter is in the clubhouse and how important he still is to the Yankees’ success. Losing Jeter for this year’s ALCS was a big enough blow to the Yankees, but the impact this injury has on next season could be even greater.
Hey, remember that big trade the Yankees made in January? They sent their best prospect to Seattle for a couple of young pitchers. One of them was supposed to be this 22-year-old stud who the Yanks could pair up with CC Sabathia to form a top flight 1-2 punch for the next 4-5 years. I think his name was Pineda? Michael Pineda? That's him, right? Yeah, well if you remember him you probably also remember that he had surgery to repair a torn labrum in his pitching shoulder and missed the entire 2012 season. Reports from Brian Cashman this past weekend have Pineda missing at least the first couple months of next season as well, so don't expect to see him as an option for the 2013 rotation, at least not right off the bat.
(Talking big-money contract desires after a historically bad postseason. Interesting strategy. Courtes of the AP
While most of the Yankee-related news to come across the wire this past weekend was related to injuries and guys getting their options picked up or not picked up, a small bit that may have flown under the radar was Joel Sherman's Saturday piece in The Post about the upcoming Robinson Cano contract situation. In it, Sherman made reference to Cano's reported desire to seek a 10-year deal worth "top-of-the-market dollars," phrasing that sounds all too familiar when talking about premiere infielders in pinstripes. It's almost certain that this declaration is Scott Boras-driven, as Boras is notorious for never wanting his clients to negotiate before their deals are up and always seeking top dollar. But if Boras, or Cano for that matter, really think they are going to get that deal from the Yankees, or anybody, they might want to start drinking some of that reality potion that Cash wanted Jeter to sip on a few years ago.
It's been a while since we've had the opportunity to dissect the subtext of some Cash commentary, so I was pretty excited to see he had plenty to say on ESPN Radio this past weekend. Naturally, the topic was Alex Rodriguez, because that's all the guys at ESPN NY care about, and while he tried not to give in to their craving for cheap ratings and pageviews, Cash did set the stage pretty well for what the Yankees intend to do with Alex this offseason and what their mindset is when it comes to keeping or moving him. If there was still any doubt in anybody's mind about how this organization views A-Rod these days, that was certainly cleared up in this interview.
"It's not like I'm going to hang phones up on anybody who wants to make any overtures about anything. You're talking about realistic stuff and unrealistic stuff. I don't think it's realistic at all for us to be moving forward with anything but Alex Rodriguez at third base.
He's still an above-average third baseman. ... That means despite the contract that we had committed to him, that he's an asset at this stage still. I don't see us doing anything there. I don't anticipate it. If someone wants to make phone calls, we're more than willing to do all that stuff with any of our players, and that's fine. You can run into something that way."
(Best believe we're going to keep the Horse talk to a minimum this offseason)
The players may be well on their way to cleaning out their lockers, making their golf plans, and setting the rest of their offseason schedules. But at AB4AR, we aren't doing any of that, because...
/obvious sports cliche coming
THERE IS NO OFFSEASON AT AB4AR, MOTHERFUCKERS!!!! WE'RE COVERING YANKEE BASEBALL 25 HOURS A DAY, 8 DAYS A WEEK UP IN THIS PIECE!!!!
Now that we got that out of the way, let me expound upon that idea a bit. Yes, it's true, there won't be any big offseason breaks for me during the MLB offseason, at least none that I'm planning. The baseball may be done but there's plenty left to talk and write about over the next 5 months, and I don't plan on missing any of it (unless I end up going to another wedding and miss something really exciting).
We'll start out taking a week or 2 to look back on the 2012 season and all its participants, the good, the bad, and the ugly, before handing out some Major League and Minor League end-of-year awards and putting 2012 to bed. Then we'll really move the focus towards the offseason; free agent profiles, potential trade targets, payroll talk, building a lineup for 2013, etc.. There will be a few non-serious Offseason Space Filler posts sprinkled in for days when there really isn't anything of value to talk about, and there will be AB4AR Prospect Week and the unveiling of the 2012-2013 edition of the AB4AR Top 30 Prospects list sometime in late December-early January.
And believe me when I say that I'm going to cover the Alex Rodriguez saga only as much as I absolutely need to. There are some things that will be worth discussing, and if some serious trade possibilities come up those definitely fit the bill, but if you're looking for a place to drag A-Rod through the mud for the next 5 months I suggest you look elsewhere. There's plenty more to talk about than just how much A-Rod sucks and how the Yankees need to get rid of him, and I intend to make all of that stuff my primary focus this offseason.
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