Ummm, Pass

Big Sloppi to ESPN about joining the Yankees:

“That’s something I gotta think about,” Ortiz said. “I’ve been here on the Red Sox a long time, and I’ve seen how everything goes down between these two ballclubs.”

Ortiz stopped well short of saying he wanted to play for the Yankees, but did express respect for the organization.

“It’s great from what I hear,” Ortiz said of the Yankees. “It’s a good situation to be involved in. Who doesn’t want to be involved in a great situation where everything goes the right way?"

Yeah, thanks Dave.  Appreciate the love.  But no amount of Yankee dick sucking you could do is going to get you into pinstripes.  Part of the reason the situation is good here is because you're not here.  So sorry about the sinking ship up north and all, but don't think for one second that this lifeboat has any room in it for your fat fucking ass.  The only time I ever want to read "David Ortiz" and "the Yankees" in the same sentence is when that sentence is describing somebody from the Yankees drilling David Ortiz right in the ribs.

AB4AR 2011 Season Review: The Bullpen

(I'd be excited too if I was that badass.  Courtesy of The Star-Ledger)

The 2011 'pen was expected to be the team's biggest strength back when I previewed it in March.  It had incredible depth, incredible power, incredible experience, incredible flexibility, and it had Mariano Rivera.  Dave Robertson opened the season as the 6th-inning guy for crying out loud.  The thought was that the deep bullpen could help ease the burden of what was considered a patch-work rotation and that Joe would be able to rotate his top 4 guys (Mo, Soriano, D-Rob, Joba) around to use them in high-leverage situations as needed and still keep everybody fresh.

Well things didn't exactly work out as planned for the bullpen thanks to injuries, but it was still a very good year for the Yankee relief core.  Anchored by Mo and D-Rob, the Yankee bullpen was easlily one of the 5 best in baseball in 2011.  In 479 combined innings of work, the 'pen put up a 3.12 ERA (4th in baseball, 1st in the AL), a 3.65 FIP (9th MLB, 3rd AL), and 7.0 WAR (2nd).  Their success was due to a combination of killer stuff, evidenced by their 6th-ranked 8.65 K/9 (2nd in the AL) and their ability to shut down situations with runners on base (MLB-leading 78.8% LOB%).  So the Yankee relievers excelled at doing what they're paid to do, but it wasn't all done by the same crew that started the season.

Can Cash Capitalize On Theo's New Deal?

The thought just popped into my head this morning.  If you were Cash, why wouldn't you use Epstein's Cubs' deal as leverage in your negotiations with the Yankees?  Think about it.

Epstein is coming off 2 straight years of no playoffs and is one of the primary architects of the team that suffered the biggest September collapse in baseball history (still love saying that), and yet he turned that into a 5-year deal worth at least $15 mil.  Cash is coming off a WS title in '09, playoffs the last 3 years, division title this year, and he hasn't gotten nearly the credit he should have for this season's success after making the deals for Garcia, Colon, Jones, Chavez, Cory Wade etc.  If Epstein is worth $3+ mil a year for what he's done, what is Cash worth?

The talks and reports on Cash's negotiations are still in the early stages but I think the recent Epstein dealings could change Cash's approach a little, especially considering his last deal was 3 years/$6mil.  I certainly wouldn't blame the guy if he wanted the Yankees to at least match what Epstein got.