The Young Guys Most Likely To Contribute In 2014

(Jose could be closer to the show than you think. Courtesy of the AP)

The time for the unveiling of the 2013-2014 AB4AR Top 30 draws nearer.  As part of the prelude to that and to AB4AR Prospect Week in general, I'd like to revisit a post topic from last offseason and take a look at some of the organization's top prospects who are serious candidates to make the jump and contribute at the Major League level in 2014.  The Yankees haven't gotten any younger in their free agent spending spree and don't appear to be making that a priority as they fill out the rest of their remaining roster holes.  We saw this past season how that approach with an old core worked out, and the constant barrage of injuries created many opportunities for upper-level MiLers to break into the lineup and attempt to carve out roles for themselves.

Last season's version of this post came in late December, so I'm a little behind schedule on this post in comparison.  I hit the nail on the head with my first 2 picks, then whiffed on the next 4 and missed out on guys like Adam Warren and Preston Claiborne.  After the jump, my picks for the prospects most likely to follow in the footsteps of Austin Romine and David Adams and work their way into Major League game action in 2014.

Are The Yankees Overvaluing Their Own Relief Pitchers?

(Originally published at IIATMS/TYA)

Whatever the reason, be it the desire to wait for the A-Rod suspension verdict, Masahiro Tanaka taking top priority presently, a last gasp attempt to stay below the luxury tax threshold, or a combination of the 3, the slow pace with which the Yankees have gone about rebuilding their bullpen this offseason doesn't feel right to me.  For the most part, strong bullpens have been a staple of the last 15-20 years of Yankee teams.  The 2013 edition was hit or miss, burned by a group inability to keep the ball in the ballpark and a soft middle relief underbelly that took its share of beatings before some games could even get to D-Rob and Mo.  Mo is gone now, along with top lefty Boone Logan and Joba Chamberlain.  Chamberlain is a loss in man power only, and nobody needs to be reminded that a pitcher like Mo can't be replaced, but for a group that lost that many innings it seems like the Yanks would want to make an effort to replace more than just their LOOGY.

Ichiro For J.J. Putz? Maybe (But Probably Not)

I wouldn't go so far as to call it a rumor, but Ken Rosenthal mentioning Ichiro Suzuki as a potential return trade piece for Arizona reliever J.J. Putz at least made my ears prick up.  Rosenthal believes the D'backs might be looking to move Putz and his $7 million salary for 2014 after trading for Addison Reed and he brought Ichiro's name up as a player whose salary for this coming season matches that of Putz.

That close salary connection is really the only one there when it comes to a potential Putz-for-Ichiro trade though.  The D'backs are pretty well set in the outfield and would have little use for Ichiro's shrunken skill set.  Even if they are looking to move Putz's salary, they can do better than an old, spare part outfielder who doesn't hit for power and doesn't get on base.  For the Yankees, however, this would be an avenue worth traveling down if they're still interested in trading Ichiro (they should be) and interested in Putz as a reliever (they should be).

Right now it's nothing more than speculation, but pay attention to what happens with the D'backs and Putz in the next few days and weeks.  If they do put him out on the trade block, the Yankees should be in on him.

Projecting Michael Pineda As A Starter In 2014

(Courtesy of William Perlman/The Star-Ledger)

(Originally published at IIATMS/TYA)

After 1 failed trade and 2 lost seasons, it appears as though the Yankees will finally get to see what Michael Pineda can do in 2014.  Actually, it might not be what he can do so much as they'll at least get to see him throw a pitch in a regular season game.  The shoulder injury suffered in 2012 may have taken away enough of what Pineda had to prevent him from ever being the pitcher he was or becoming the pitcher he could have been.  The Yankees certainly treated him as carefully as possible in his rehab from the injury to increase the chances of him making a full recovery.  They placed him on strict pitch count limits last year in the Minors and shut him down early after he reportedly felt some stiffness and soreness in the surgically-repaired shoulder late in the summer.  Still, there's no way to know what type of pitcher he's going to be moving forward until he's back out competing on a Major League mound.

Monday Afternoon Food For Thought: Teix's Backup

The Yankees have built up a pretty solid cadre of platoon pieces for their various positional needs in 2014.  They have options at second and third base, though better and more permanent full-time ones are still desired, they have multiple guys capable of playing shortstop, and they have the outfield and catcher spots stacked with depth on the current 40-man roster.

One position of need they've yet to address is a backup for Mark Teixeira at first base.  According to him he's almost back to 100% physically, and he's still a very important part of the lineup, but he's not expected to be the everyday player he used to be a few years ago.  Because of the continued wrist problems and other health issues over the past 3 seasons, expectations were that Joe would start working in more regular rest and DH days for Teix in 2014.  With the way the roster is present constructed, that's going to be kind of hard to do.

Seriously, look at the 40-man and tell me who his current backup is.  Gun to head I'd have to say it's Brian McCann at the moment and he's never played 1 Major League inning at first.  Other options include everyone's favorite defense botchmaster Eduardo Nunez and possibly Vernon Wells, but those options aren't any more appealing than McCann.  While the rotation, 'pen, and third base remain the higher priorities, the Yankees can't forget about adding a viable option to back Teix up at first.  Mark Reynolds, perhaps...

On Don Mattingly's HOF Worthiness

(Courtesy of the AP)

One of the most interesting things I read over the weekend was Bryan Hoch's post on Yankees.com about Don Mattingly and his thoughts on his Hall Of Fame chances.  After 13 years of coming in way low on the voting percentages, Mattingly enters his 14th and second-to-last year of eligibility confident that he won't get enough votes to make it this year.  Coming off last year's vote, when he appeared on just 13.2% of the ballots, I'd say he has every reason to feel that way.

What really stood out to me in the post was how cool, calm and accepting Mattingly was of the fact that he almost certainly will never make the HOF.  Mattingly himself said, ""My first year of eligibility, I pretty much knew I wasn't going to make it or anything.  I don't pay that much attention to it, to be honest with you. It's to the point now where it comes up and you're like, 'Oh, it's over,' and you go on."  Mattingly understands that his injury problems and decision to retire at 34 cost him a chance at accumulating the stats he would have needed to get in and he's cool with that.

Homer Bailey Trade Winds Still Blowing

Early in December it was reported that the Yankees had checked in on the availability of Reds starter Homer Bailey.  At the time, Brett Gardner was the name thrown out most as a return trade piece and it was easy to see how that trade would benefit both clubs.  Nothing ever came of it, and the Reds aren't exactly flush with capable replacements, yet the trade talk surrounding Bailey continues.  Over the weekend, the latest rumor had the Reds moving him to free up payroll so they could sign another free agent hitter.

If this is the case, the Yankees should definitely call Cincy back and see what they're looking for.  I know they've said they aren't interested in trading Brett Gardner, but they're probably going to lose him anyway after this season and Bailey would be a better player to try to re-sign anyway.  Like I said in my December post on this, Bailey is young (27), proven, and improving in the right areas of his game.  A rotation that includes him and possibly Tanaka would go a longer way towards a better Yankee future than Gardner in the outfield, and this is coming from one of the biggest Gardner fans out there.

If for some reason the Reds aren't interested in Gardner, even better.  The Yanks should be willing to part with a prospect package for a pitcher like Bailey, within reason of course, and the possibility of Bailey, Tanaka, and Gardner all being on next year's roster would make the Yankees a serious playoff contender again.  Whatever the Reds are interested in, the Yankees should be interested in going after Bailey while he's available.

Yanks Planning To Go H.A.M. On The International Market

The original story is from earlier in the week but if you missed it, Kiley McDaniel of Scouts.com had a very detailed post on the Yankees' plans to spend like crazy on the international free agent market this summer and go way over the new international spending pool limits set by MLB.  The actual player spending figures are expected to be between $12-15 million, with another value close to that coming in the tax that the Yankees will have to pay for so grossly exceeding the limit.

As has been the case with some of the other new financial restrictions set by MLB, this is another example of the Yankees using their financial strength to their advantage while they still have the chance.  The international draft is coming soon, at which point they'll be on a level playing field with the rest of baseball when it comes to trying to bring in the top international talent.  They have the most money to spend on international free agents, the same as they do on the MLB market and in the now drastically altered Japanese posting system. If they're going to have that competitive advantage taken away as well it behooves them to take the small tax hit now and add the best international talent they can get.

The Yankees probably wouldn't be making this move if they weren't so unhappy with the quality of their farm system, and it's worth keeping in mind that most of the players they'll spend heavy on will be in the mid-to-late teens.  Still, talent is talent and you can never have too much of it.  If the Yanks follow through on this plan and throw more money at improving their farm system, they're bound to strike gold on a player or 2 and that's better than not spending and not getting those players.

Don't Think So, Vern

Vernon Wells was on MLB Network Radio on Thursday, talking about his future with the Yankees.  He said "hopefully I'll get one more year" with the team and that both he and his family "had so much fun" being a part of the Yankee organization in 2013.  Wells is still under contract with the team for the next season, albeit with none of his salary counting towards the payroll thanks to some nifty accounting when the Yanks traded for him last year.

I hate to break it to you, Vern, but I don't think you're getting that year and I don't think the team shares your enthusiasm about coming back.  You're the 6th outfielder on the Major League depth chart right now and contrary to your statement there is not "possibly one spot" up for grabs, at least not one that you have a realistic shot at.  You hit .233/.282/.349 this past season, .221/.294/.295 in the second half.  You didn't hit for any power after May, you can't play the outfield, and if it wasn't for Eduardo Nunez's existence you would have been the worst player on the team this year.

The Yankees still need to add Brian Roberts and Matt Thornton to the 40-man roster, and at some point they're going to add at least 1 more starting pitcher.  You're as good as gone, Vern, and to be honest that's for the best.  If you're getting any time in the Yankee outfield in 2014, something went terribly, horribly wrong.

Friday Afternoon Linkapalooza: 1/3/14

Do people still make New Year's resolutions?  Is that still a thing?  I haven't made one in years, mainly because I know I'm not going to keep it much past the time in January where the days start hitting double digits, but it kinda sorta feels like resolutions across the board aren't the big deal they used to be.  Instead of making a real resolution, I decided to set the bar low for myself and make the commitment to not be such a piece of shit this year.  I think that's a worthy goal, no?  Try to take myself from Vernon Wells circa 2013 levels of production to Lyle Overbay levels.  Now onto the links!

- On Tuesday, Jason Evans of Yanks Go Yard made 10 bold predictions for the 2014 season, and I have to say that some of them are prettay, prettay, prettay bold.

- SJK of NoMaas correctly called out the New York MSM for not taking Randy Levine and his idiotic Cano steroid comments to task like they would have if A-Rod would have made them.

- Mike Axisa of RAB mused on Ichiro's potential role next season and how effective he'll be if that role is greatly reduced.

- Daniel Burch of The Greedy Pinstripes expressed his lack of concern about Masahiro Tanaka's high pitch count in Japan and urged everyone to consider the difference between the Japanese leagues and MLB when referencing that 113-pitch figure.

- SG of RLYW attempted to translate Tanaka's Japan performance to an MLB equivalent to establish a baseline for expectations.  They're just projections, but I'd take that kind of production from Tanaka.

- William Juliano of The Captain's Blog pointed out the real problem in the Yankee front office that Randy Levine's emails with A-Rod exposed, besides just Levine being a dope.

- On Wednesday, Jason Cohen of Pinstripe Alley riffed on the idea of the Yankees following the A's model and building a team of flyball hitters.

- Derek Albin of Pinstripe Pundits reviewed Brian Cashman's history of signing free agent starting pitchers to see where he's succeeded the most and where he's failed the most.  Some of those names bring back bad memories.

- On Thursday, Chad Jennings of LoHud rattled off his list of New Year's resolutions for the 2014 Yankees.

- On Friday, el duque of It Is High... discussed the possibility of Brett Gardner leaving via free agency this offseason and why it would make sense to trade him before that happens.

- EJ Fagan of IIATMS/TYA examined the decrease in scoring in the AL this past season and what the causes of that decrease could be.

For the first Friday Jam of 2014 I'm going back to Lo-Pan.  I played them early in 2013 when I first stumbled across their stuff and that year went pretty well, so it can't hurt to go back to them again for the start of 2014.  "Dragline" has such a great intro, almost good enough to be a good closer entrance song.  Enjoy.



Enjoy your weekends, everybody.

Report: Gardner Still On Multiple Teams' Radars

(Courtesy of Getty Images)

The Yankees have been steadfast in their public commitment to not trade Brett Gardner since they signed Carlos Beltran last month.  Before the speculation could even get going they stated they had no intention of trading Gardner and they've stuck to that, most notably when they turned down the Cincinnati Reds' offer of a Garder-for-Brandon Phillips swap.

The lack of willingness on New York's part to actively shop Gardner hasn't stopped other teams from calling, however.  According to a report by Peter Gammons yesterday, "at least a half-dozen teams" have contacted the Yankees to "take a run" at Gardner.  Included in that list of teams are the Phillies and Tigers, 2 clubs who could match up with the Yankees as trade partners depending on what they're willing to give up to get Gardner.  Gammons wrote that Cash is looking for starting pitching in return for Gardner and both Philly and Detroit have that to offer.

Astros Sign Jesse Crain, Steal A Perfect Yankee Bullpen Candidate

I don't know how I missed this (yes I do, I was busy drinking and partying), but the Houston Astros made a nice little move for themselves by signing righty reliever Jesse Crain to a 1-year deal on Tuesday.  Crain, 32, is coming off a very good/injury-shortened 2013 season and to me he was a perfect match for the Yankees when it came to filling their void of lost late-game bullpen innings.

Crain's shoulder injury did present a major risk, but also made him easy to sign to a 1-year, low-dollar deal, perfect for what the Yankees are/were trying to do with their 2014 budget.  With Crain gone, the market for established late-inning relievers is drying up quickly.  Hopefully the Yankees don't let their pursuit of Tanaka prevent them from filling that still very glaring need.  Really sucks to lose Crain to the Astros too.  Bastards.



P.S.- If you're keeping score at home, that now makes me 0-5 in my Project 189 moves with Tanaka my only remaining hope for getting one right.  No Cano, no Choo, no Hart, no Kazmir, and now no Crain.  Boy do I know how to pick 'em or what?

Report: Yanks Not Signing Stephen Drew

Brian Cashman yesterday said Yanks are not signing Stephen Drew. How Sox do pillow contract that isn't shoved down his throat is delicate
— Peter Gammons (@pgammo) December 31, 2013

 He might still be waiting for the Yankees, but this latest report from Peter Gammons makes it sound like the waiting isn't mutual.  I never thought there was much to the idea of Drew joining the Yankees next season, not if meant switching positions.  The guy has been a shortstop his entire Major League career and a pretty good one at that.  He's coming off a 3.4 fWAR season in which he was above-average both offensively and defensively and he's still the best player available at his position in his prime.  That doesn't add up to somebody who should or would be willing to move to third base.

Drew's stalling seems to be more of a leverage-building tactic with anything.  He knows the Sawx need a SS next year and he knows he's their best option.  If he's looking to squeeze a few more bucks out of them, what better way than to get the hated Yankees and their bankroll in the discussion?  Smart business by him and not surprising business by the Yankees.

Happy New Year From AB4AR With A Look Back At The Best Play Of 2013

One last look back to 2013 before we officially move forward with 2014.  Hopefully your celebrations were fun and booze-filled.  Wouldn't expect much out of the site today, not with wall-to-wall hockey and BCS games.  But if something newsworthy does happen, I'll try to drag my carcass off the couch to cover it.

P.S.- Never forget.

AB4AR's 2013 "Best And Worst Of The Year": The Postseason/Offseason

(Still can't quite believe this happened.  Courtesy of Getty Images)

We've got 2 down and 1 to go on the 2013 AB4AR season recap.  Yesterday it was the regular season and today it wraps up with the best and worst of the postseason, or the offseason really since the Yankees failed to make it to the postseason this year.  Out of everything from the past 3 months, here are the choicest selections.

Concern Over Tanaka's Workload?

(Courtesy of Getty Images/AsiaPac)

There's not much that can slow down the Masahiro Tanaka train now that the 30-day negotiation window has been opened.  He's young, he's strong, he's very good, and he's generally regarded as the hands down best starting pitcher available on the FA market this offseason.  If anything could, however, it could be a growing sense of concern over the workload already accumulated on Tanaka's arm.  Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports posted a story on this very topic yesterday, quoting multiple unnamed MLB front office personnel who expressed varying levels of concern about Tanaka's arm and the stress that's already been put on it.

Alex And Randy, An Email Match Made In Heaven

Stop me if you've heard this one before.  Alex Rodriguez and/or Randy Levine said or did something stupid in the press that's now coming out and making them look bad.  It's been about a week or 2 since either of them fell into that familiar trap and this time it looks like they've fallen in together.

Yesterday Steve Fishman of New York Magazine published a story comprised almost entirely of a series of email exchanges between A-Rod and Levine dating back to the early part of the 2011 season.  Reading through it in chronological order, you'll see how the relationship between them and the relationship between Alex and the organization has deteriorated over the last 2+ years, especially after the latest round of steroid accusations and suspensions came down.  What starts with Levine saying "I'm worried about your health, u sure u r ok?" ends with Alex pleading for Levine and the Yankees to stop what he perceived as helping MLB's investigation against him and telling Levine "what you are doing is ruining the business of baseball."

It's truly bizarro world stuff from the 2 guys in the Yankee organization who are the best at providing such stuff.  The whole thing is a must-read and a must-re-read when you're done and another classic example of the 2 things we know most about these men: Alex thinks everybody is out to get him and has an over-inflated sense of ego and Levine is a complete moron.

AB4AR's 2013 "Best And Worst Of The Year": The Regular Season

(This never gets old.  Never.  Courtesy of MLB.com/ESPN)

Yesterday we took a look back at the best and worst blogs AB4AR had to offer from January 1st of this year to March 31st, and I have to say that I almost impressed myself going back over that early-year work.  It was decidedly more good than bad, even if my umpteenth post jumping the gun on Michael Pineda was completely ludicrous.  Time to see if that trend held when the regular season started.  Today we're reviewing the highs and lows of that long, often times boring, sometimes downright painful block of time from April 1st to the end of September.  Let's dive right in.

What Do The Yankees Still Need To Do This Offseason?

(Will we get another big introductory presser?  Hope so.  Courtesy of Getty Images)

(Originally published at IIATMS/TYA)

A week ago today we reached the official halfway point of the 2013-2014 offseason.  53 days had passed since the last out of the World Series was recorded and 53 days remained until pitchers and catchers were scheduled to report to spring camp.  The Yankees headed into the holiday break last week with a lot already accomplished.  They had retooled their outfield, improved their infield depth and bench for next season, replaced their primary lefty out of the bullpen, and brought back one half of the 400 innings Cash said he wanted to add.

Despite losing Robinson Cano to Seattle it's been a pretty productive offseason thus far.  If I were handing out offseason midterm grades, I'd have the Yankees in the B- to B range.  With the calendar close to turning to 2014 and with the start of next season now closer than the end of last season, there's still work to be done to improve that grade up to an A level.  The Yankees have a little under 7 weeks until pitchers and catchers report, and here's what they need to do before then to finish this offseason successfully.

Winter League Wrap-Up

Not sure how much any of it really means in the grand scheme of things, but most of the Winter leagues have wrapped up or are in the process of wrapping up this week and the Yankees had their fair share of notable prospects participating.  Here's a quick look at how some of those notable names performed.

• Zoilo Almonte: .316/.343/.454 w/ 4 HR and 20 RBI in 43 Dominican League games
• Gary Sanchez: .267/.330/.367 w/ 1 2B and 2 RBI in 12 Domincan League games
• Ronnier Mustelier: .270/.386/.360 w/ 2 HR, 27 RBI, and 28 BB in 53 Mexican Pacific League games
• Adonis Garcia: .325/.347/.502 w/ 15 2B, 8 HR, and 39 RBI in 53 Venezuelan League games
• Jose Pirela: .335/.419/.510 w/ 25 XBH, 41 RBI, and 33 BB in 61 Venezuelan League games

I touched on Almonte the other day, but very good performances from Garcia and Pirela as well.  They're fringe prospects at best, but they could find their way onto the 40-man if injuries allow it and could be useful bench pieces down the road.  Disappointing lack of power from Musty.  Sadly it looks like the ship carrying his roster spot chance may have passed.

For a full recap of the Yankee Winter League participants, check out Axisa's post from yesterday afternoon.

AB4AR's 2013 "Best And Worst Of The Year": The Preseason

(Joe, Randy, Lonn, and Hal at the Jorge retirement presser.  Courtesy of Getty Images)

The 2013 calendar year is winding down and there's little going on in the way of Yankee news right now, so let's take a look back at the year that was for AB4AR.  2013 was another record year for the site, more posts, comments, and pageviews than ever before.  A big thank you goes out to everyone who read regularly and commented to help make that happen.  I know I'm woefully behind the times when it comes to blog design, layout, social media tie-ins, and all that, and it really just comes down to the fact that I don't have or want to have the time for all those other things.  I'm just a Yankee fan who likes to write about the Yankees and do as much as I can in the time my day job and social life will allow me, and to have more people than ever recognize and follow that basic, rudimentary format this year means a lot to me.

As we did last year, we'll break the 2013 review down into 3 parts: preseason, regular season, and postseason/offseason.  Today we'll tackle the preseason, the block of time from January 1st through the end of March, when the hot stove season was winding down and Spring Training was ramping up.

Saturday Evening Food For Thought: Current Opening Day Starting Lineup

1) Jacoby Ellsbury- CF
2) Derek Jeter- SS
3) Carlos Beltran- RF
4) Mark Teixeira- 1B
5) Brian McCann- C
6) Alfonso Soriano- DH
7) Kelly Johnson- 3B
8) Brian Roberts- 2B
9) Brett Gardner- LF

If Opening Day was tomorrow, that's the lineup I'd write down if I were Joe.  Is it perfect?  No.  It still needs some right-handed pop, preferably at third base so that Johnson can be moved to the bench, but it's not horrible.  I've seen a lot of talk about Ellsbury and Gardner at the top but I don't see that happening.  In the same way I don't see Jeter getting taking out of the shortstop position, I don't see him getting moved out of the top of the order until he proves he can't hit anymore.  Same concept with Teix.  He may not be capable of being an effective cleanup hitter anymore, but that's where he's hit a lot since joining the Yankees and I think Joe is going to show him some loyalty before bumping him down to 5 or 6 behind McCann.

There is speed, there is balance thanks to the multiple switch hitters, and it is a better Opening Day lineup than 2013's was.  If the Tanaka posting pushes the Yankees over the LT threshold, it should get a little more help before spring camp starts.

2013 AB4AR Comment Of The Year

There were more comments this year than I've gotten since I started AB4AR in the summer of '09, but there was one that stood out head and shoulder above the rest.  It came from a post I did on the idea of trading Robbie Cano in February and it captures almost everything I want to see in my comments.  Here it is again, in its full glory:

"THAT'S IT!!!! I'VE HAD ENOUGH!!!! I've listened attentively to all your pessimistic bullshit all winter and now you've gone over the edge. Maybe you just don't have anything to write about and are wallowing in some kind of self-induced hysteria. But I am up to my neck with your gloomy outlook and all the dire, negative nonsense coming out of your blog this off-season and I've had enough. So, I'm casting off! All this negative energy is really really bad for the brain Brad - and it's no wonder nobody is responding anymore to your rantings. It's just poison. If you were a Cubs or Astros fan, I could see where you would be down and out, but these are the FUCKING NEW YORK YANKEES you're talking about! MY TEAM! GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF YOUR ASS!!!! So goodbye for now! There must be some people out there who are looking forward to an exciting season, but you are not one of them. Since October your blog has been bile! I'll check back in with you in a few months when your meds starts kicking in again."

Outstanding.  Just outstanding.  Don't get me wrong, I would prefer that the comments on this site be a little more analytical and I'm always down to engage in a little back-and-forth debate with anybody who takes the time to comment here.  But in terms of just sheer, unbridled emotion, it doesn't get any better than that.  It's got everything: all caps, multiple exclamation points, profanity, insults towards me as a writer and a person.  It's brilliant.  To know that something I wrote elicited an emotional fan response of that nature is absolutely terrific because that's exactly the type of fan and writer I used to be when I started this site.

Shout out to my man James for taking home the first ever AB4AR "Comment of the Year" award.  Your free non-existent AB4AR t-shirt is in the mail.  And everybody else take note, I want more of this next year.  If I'm pissing you off that much, feel free to let me know about it.  I probably won't respond to it as quickly as I would a more calm, rational comment, but I'll at least get a good laugh out of it.

Friday Afternoon Linkapalooza: 12/27/13

Well here we are, the last Linkapalooza of 2013.  I probably said this last year too, but I really can't believe how quickly this year has gone by.  It seems like just yesterday I was rolling my eyes at the signing of Travis Ishikawa and just 2 or 3 days ago I was trying to talk myself into the Kevin Youkilis signing.  In a bit of pseudo-full circleness, I'll be spending my day today at the casino, just like I was on a Friday in April some 18 months ago for my buddy's bachelor party.  I walked out of that weekend up $150 and I'm hoping to repeat that feat today.  We'll see how it goes.  Now onto the links!

- On Monday, Mike Axisa of RAB profiled Stephen Drew as a FA target now that he's reportedly waiting on the Yankees.

- Daniel Burch of The Greedy Pinstripes explained why A-Rod being acquitted of his steroid suspension and on the field to start 2014 is at the top of his Christmas list.

- Michael Eder of IIATMS/TYA commented on the hold up that the A-Rod decision is causing for a lot of the remaining free agent market.

- SJK of NoMaas analyzed the current state of the starting rotation, which could change for the better if the Yanks can win the competition for Masahiro Tanaka.

- On Tuesday, el duque of It Is High... expressed his displeasure with the idea of signing Mark Reynolds this offseason.  I don't think Reynolds would be as bad a signing as the comparison ED made, but he is admittedly far from a perfect fit.  And that's coming from somebody who wants the Yanks to sign Reynolds.

- Chad Jennings of LoHud looked at the big questions that still need to be answered during the holiday hot stove break.

- Jason Evans of Yanks Go Yard compared Ubaldo Jimenez and Matt Garza to see who would be a better fit in the 2014 rotation.  Just in case they don't end up landing Tanaka.

- On Thursday, Harlan Spence of Pinstripe Alley broke down the competition for Tanaka now that he's been posted.  It's going to be tough with the new rules, but I still think the Yanks are the easy favorite.

- Delia Enriquez of Bronx Baseball Daily examined the Yankees' Plan B options in the event they aren't the team to sign Tanaka.  We all know how much of a step down those plans would be, so I'd rather not even think about them now that Tanaka is out there.

- On Friday, Chris Mitchell of Pinstripe Pundits compared the projected platoon splits for the Yankees next year to get an idea of what they're lineups might look like against righties and lefties.

We're kicking it old school for the final Friday Jam of 2013 with some Styx.  I've heard this song 3 times in the last 5 days and it's reminded me how good a song this is.  Styx wasn't always the best, but when they got it right they had some good shit.



Enjoy your weekends, everybody.  See you in 2014.

Where Does Zoilo Fit In Now?

(Courtesy of Getty Images)

It was an up and down 2013 for Zoilo Almonte.  He hit .297/.369/.421 (.361 wOBA) in 293 Triple-A plate appearances in his first experience at the level, showing improved plate discipline and on-base skills that had yet to be part of his offensive repertoire.  When the barrage of injuries struck the Major League club, he got called up to the show in the summer and the results weren't nearly as good, .236/.274/.302 (.257 wOBA) in 113 PA.

A hamstring injury ended his season early, but he's picked it up back in the Dominican Winter League this offseason.  If you haven't been following the comings and goings of that league closely, and I don't blame you if you haven't, Zoilo has hit .316/.343/.454 out there and has seen time at all 3 outfield positions.  What does that mean as far as his Major League standing for 2014 goes?  Probably not much.  Almonte has hit in this league before, and with the new acquisitions made by the Yankees to upgrade their outfield it's not a stretch to say he's the 7th outfielder on the 40-man right now behind Ellsbury, Beltran, Gardner, Soriano, Ichiro, and Wells.