Igawa has no.... MARBLES!!

2 BB, 1 HBP, 1 Grand Slam.

Can Igawa and Pavano handle a rake perform YMCA?

The ol' warm up jacket full of oreos trick

Did you see that?! He hit him!!!

Latest breaking news of the ARod-Is-A-Dick persuasion: His relationship with Derek Jeter has soured to the point of physical abuse.

Tomorrow's Post headline: E-Fraud Beats Jetes (and probably touches kids)

The 2009 Free Agent Buffet

2009 Free Agents via MLBTradeRumors

There will be close to $75M coming off the books in '09 with Abreu/Moose/Pettitte/Giambi/Pavano/Farnsworth leaving.

We can finance the entire Tamba Bay organization three times over with just that money.

The timing is ripe to invest in some potent talent. I would very much like to see Sabathia, Texeira, and KRod in pinstripes. I'm sure they'll all want the moon and the stars.

Blogger Round Table: Who should play 1B?

One of the biggest decisions that has to be settled this spring is who will be playing first base.

via BP:

Jason Giambi is the best bet, even coming off a lousy .236/.356/.433 campaign, the second-worst year of his career. With his batting eye and some of his power intact, a .260/.375/.475 line is well within his reach, with below-average defense. That’s not good, but it’s also considerably better than anyone else in the mix will do. Note that PECOTA disagrees slightly: our projection system sees no bounceback for Giambi, projecting him for .235/.363/.453. Given that the difference between the two lines is a handful of singles, it’s not worth going crazy over.

via NYTimes:

“I’d like to see Jason be a very productive offensive and defensive player. Jason knows what’s at stake. There’s some interesting decisions to be made. Jason has done everything we’ve asked. He came in great shape. His mobility is better. His feet aren’t bothering him.” [Joe Girardi] But Giambi is only one name among a list of contenders to play first base that includes Shelley Duncan, Wilson Betemit, Morgan Ensberg, Juan Miranda, Eric Duncan and Jason Lane. Shelley Duncan, a right-handed batter, had 7 home runs and drove in 17 runs in 74 at-bats last season. “He’s not just going to concentrate on first base right now,” Girardi said of Duncan. “You see him mostly at first base. He is also going to take fly balls because it gives us some versatility. Everyone’s in the first base mix. That’s the bottom line.” Damon suggested earlier in the week that he, too, might play some games at first. But when asked whether Damon or Matsui might also play there, Girardi answered in the negative. “We have no plans of putting Hideki at first base in spring training,” he said. Of Damon at first base, Girardi said: “Right now I really don’t have a lot of plans to put him at first base."

But, more importantly, what do the Yankees bloggers think? I asked three of them and here's what they had to say:

Sensei John Kreese @ NoMaas.org:

I'd like to see Giambi at 1B as much as his health will allow. His bat is too lethal to keep him out of the lineup. It drove us nuts when Torre used him primarily as a pinch-hitter in the latter half of the season. Assuming Giambi's body breaks down at some point, I wouldn't mind seeing a Wilson Betemit / Morgan Ensberg platoon. Betemit has solid career numbers vs. RHP: .268 / .347 / .464 / .811 -- Ensberg has excellent career numbers vs. LHP: .284 / .406 / .530 / .936

Steve Lombardi @ WasWatching.com:

Wilson Betemit, with some help from a right-handed bat versus LHP, would not kill the Yankees at first base. Of course, this puts Jason Giambi on the bench with Damon in left and Matsui as the DH. In a perfect world, you could play Matsui in left, if his knees allowed, and play Damon at first and use Giambi as the DH. But, that will never happen in Yankeeland. So, I would settle for Betemit. Giambi playing first, full-time, is like counting on Carl Pavano or Kei Igawa, last year, to be a regular member of your rotation. It's just bad planning.

SG @ Replacement Level Yankee Blog:

My real preference would have been getting Hideki Matsui trained up to play first but I'll take the easy way out and say that three people should play first base. First choice should be Jason Giambi, in games against righties and in games where neither Wang or Pettitte start. I'd have Giambi on a fairly short leash. If he shows that he can't hit well enough to outweigh what I'd expect to be a bad glove, I'd start giving more of his playing time against righties to Wilson Betemit. Betemit should be able to field fairly well and is young enough to have offensive upside. Regardless of the Giambi/Betemit situation against righties, I'd like to see Morgan Ensberg as the primary 1B against lefties. He's got a career .284/.406/.530 line against lefties and as a decent 3B I'd think he can also handle 1B defensively.

I think the key is going to be being flexible and using the different strengths of each of the players to cobble together good offense and defense out of the position, and I think the Yankees have the potential pieces in place to do that.

I'm, personally, still a fan of Matsui at first. It makes more sense to me. You protect Giambi by putting him at DH but you still get to put both of their bats in the lineup every day. I'm assuming that 1B will be less stressful on Matsui's knee than LF and he has to be an improvement over Giambi defensively, right? But maybe it's too late to teach Matsui new tricks or maybe he's just reluctant to make the move to the infield and he told Girardi so. Who knows.

Thanks to everyone who participated. Hopefully, we can make this a regular feature.

The Bigelow Green Tea Bullpen Preview

2008:
I asked [Joe Girardi] what young pitchers have caught his eye beyond the Big Three and he mentioned Dan McCutchen, Mark Melancon and Steven White. (via LoHud)

2007:
"I don't even know what the kid looks like," Torre said after repeated questions about the ballyhooed 21-year-old right-handed prospect[, Joba Chamberlain]. "I've seen him on television.

"Just to hear all the things I've heard about him, yeah, I am curious. I don't know when that (call-up) is gonna happen, but I am curious. (via NY Post)

We've developed one of the best farm systems in baseball over the past few years. It's good to have a manager who knows who some of our prospects are.

McDonalds Run!!!

via newsday.com:

"I knew I was in bad shape last year," Abreu said.

Well, what the fuck?! That doesn't make it OK, asshole.

Did you spend your $16M on those breast implants?

Happy PreSeason Pictures Day!

via Getty:



Joba looks like a cartoon. Slimmer though!

AJax brings his glove

(No, I couldn't find a picture of him in the field.)

BP published an article today analyzing minor leaguers' defense and Austin Jackson is showing some impressive numbers.

They used Baseball America's Best Defensive OF rankings and assigned the actual stats to them. Interesting to see where AJax should actually rank.

SFR = Simple Fielding Runs -- The runs above average contributed by a defender. SFR is a defensive metric currently in a "beta" form based on Retrosheet-style play by play data. SFR for infielders is calculated differently than that for outfielders and for outfielders the metric is park-adjusted.

Player              Team       Balls     SFR    Rate
Gerardo Parra        ARI         540    11.8    14.2
Jordan Schafer       ATL         585    -4.0    -4.4
Matthew Angle        BAL         279     4.7    11.0
Jacoby Ellsbury      BOS         461     9.8    13.8
Ryan Sweeney         CHA         476    16.6    22.7
Sam Fuld             CHN         448     5.4     7.8
Drew Stubbs          CIN         548    13.4    15.9
Brad Snyder          CLE         330    -3.8    -7.4
Dexter Fowler        COL         285    12.5    28.5
Matthew Joyce        DET         438    -1.3    -2.0
Cameron Maybin       FLA         421   -15.4   -23.8
Yordany Ramirez      HOU         561    18.1    20.9
Jose Duarte          KCA         577     7.8     8.8
Peter Bourjos        LAA         268    12.0    29.2
Darren Ford          MIL         513     7.6     9.6
Jason Pridie         MIN         593    32.5    35.7
Austin Jackson       NYA         524    14.9    18.5
Carlos Gomez         NYN         218    -0.7    -2.0
Javier Herrera       OAK         292    -2.0    -4.4
Gregory Golson       PHI         597    19.1    20.8
Andrew McCutchen     PIT         609    18.0    19.2
Drew Macias          SDN         538   -20.3   -24.5
Michael Saunders     SEA         525    12.4    15.4
Antoan Richardson    SFN         409    -1.3    -2.0
Colby Rasmus         STL         535     9.1    11.1
Fernando Perez       TBA         485     9.3    12.5
Julio Borbon         TEX          26     3.4    86.1
Eric Eiland          TOR         240    -4.5   -12.3
Rogearvin Bernadina  WAS         535    -8.4   -10.3

And yet another reason to be underwhelmed by Ellsbury.

Damon wanted to retire before '07

via S.I.:

When Johnny Damon walked out of spring training early last year, he thought he was walking away from the game, SI.com has learned

"I was just exhausted .... Burnt out,'' Damon told SI.com Tuesday. "(Retirement) definitely crossed my mind.''

Damon just wasn't sure if he wanted to keep playing and was actually seriously considering walking away from the final three years of his $52-million, four-year contract. Nobody does that, but Damon almost did.

If it weren't for Matsui's injuries last year, I would have definitely let him walk. Damn. That's so much money off the books and a mulligan on a terrible contract. Fuck. Think he'll walk after this season?!

On the upside, his late start last season was only because he didn't even want to play fucking baseball so he didn't show up to camp in shape. Asshole!

Torre: Cry baby

from left to right: Joe Torre, Scott Proctor

via Philly Daily News:

Apparently Torre was unfairly made to feel uncomfortable as manager just because he made decisions that lost World Series bids.

You can take solace in the fact that he still considered the baseball part of his job "fun." As far as the "knowing his players' names" and "managing effectively", we're left to assuming that was un-fun and, as such, ignored.

Also, he complains that the clubhouse atmosphere became awkward after the '04 season. Wasn't Torre's whole thing that he was not a brilliant tactician but an effective clubhouse manager with the ability to check all the Yankees' huge egos? Why did we keep this guy around so long? Also, if he was so uncomfortable, why did he stick around for three more seasons?!

Austin Jackson: Another dude I gots a boner for

per LoHud:

Austin Jackson has “Jackson” tatooed across his back in Olde English letters.

Very few people could pull off a tatoo of their own name. I think AJ is one of them.

Red Sox: Masters of Zen

Sean McAdam: Unlike Yankees camp, everything is tranquil in Red Sox land

I didn't realize that Andy Pettitte had a sweaty brow. I concede this season.

Hey, didn't you guys lose an important starting pitcher recently? And show up to camp a collective ton overweight?

Brian Bruney is Burt Young circa Chinatown

Yu Darvish

If you haven't already, go check out the article on Yu Darvish over at Canyon of Heroes. Good read.

"Better than Daisuke"? You mean like Jon Garland?

Enough of this "team to beat" bullshit

Someone tell Papelbon to check out BP.

The Pot Calling the Kettle an Asshole

Maybe Pedro should shut the fuck up this offseason.

Poorly Worded Headline

Yankees' kid arms have daunting task of satisfying Hank Steinbrenner

At first, I thought it was just awkwardly worded. Then I realized it was gross.

Girardi Actually Managing

via Pete Abraham

It was interesting to watch Joe Girardi. He ran from place to place and clearly is more hands-on than Joe Torre was. Is that a good thing? We’ll know a few months into the season. If running made you a good manager, Alberto Salazar would have been hired.

If sleeping and doing as little as possible made you a good manager we'd have a few more rings to show off.

Mench signs with Rangers

via MLBTradeRumors

Fucky fuck fuck. The Yankees need someone who can do some damage against lefties. Especially someone who can take the place of one of Damon/Abreu/Cabrera because their splits are a giant fart-in-the-mouth. Hopefully Ensberg and Duncan can help out in that regard.

IPK for Blanton

To me, Blanton and Kennedy are probably going to equal out to be the same pitcher. But from what I saw from him last season, I'd like to stick with Kennedy (who is 23, compared to Blanton's 27) and see if we can luck out with him surpassing Blanton.

Lineups

Here are the lineups (with 2007 OPS platoon splits) I would love to see:

vs RHP:
Abreu-L (.857) RF
Jeter-R (.830) SS
Cano-L (.831) 2B
ARod-R (1.099) 3B
Posada-S (.981) C
Matsui-L (.872) 1B
Giambi-L (.789) DH
Melky-S (.732) CF
Damon-L (.762) LF

vs LHP:
Jeter-R (.876) SS
Mench-R (.901) LF
Cano-L (.864) 2B
ARod-R (.961) 3B
Posada-S (.942) C
Matsui-L (.814) 1B
Duncan-R (.984*) RF
Giambi-L (.782) DH
Melky-S (.641) CF

I'd hate to see Mench/Duncan butchering that outfield but our entire starting OF sucks out loud against LHP. Damon and Abreu make expensive bench decorations. This can't be right. Any suggestions?

*small sample size

Cheapy McBigHead

via TheHardballTimes

The Yankees were right not to trade Phil Hughes

Despite our forecast for Santana’s dominance, that doesn’t mean that the Yankees will be despairing too much when he pitches across town every fifth day. That’s because they’ll get to have a poor man’s Santana in Hughes, and at a much poorer salary.

We project a 4.12 ERA for Hughes in the much tougher American League, and more importantly, our three-year forecast sees that number dropping to 3.84 by 2010. If we put Santana on the Yankees, his forecast for 2010 would be a 3.76 ERA—pretty much equivalent to Hughes! While Santana is the better pitcher now, he probably won’t be any more valuable over the life of his contract than Hughes, if Hughes can stay healthy (or if Santana cannot, I suppose).

Now that’s a big if, but the Yankees have 137 million reasons to feel pretty good about taking that chance.

I have such a boner for Phil.

Red Light Red Lighted

via MLBTradeRumors



Schilling could be out for the season with a shoulder injury. Adjust your baseless 2008 season predictions accordingly.

I hope Lester can live up to the hype.

Fire Joe Morgan-ers Revealed

"Ken Tremendous (Michael Schur), Junior (Alan Yang), and dak (Dave King) are all TV writers. We live in Los Angeles, in places other than our mothers' basements."

Wanted: S.I. columnist - math skills not necessary

Tom Verducci has an article about 7 young pitchers who are in danger of injury due to being overpitched.

Ian Kennedy tops the list because he pitched 61 more innings than his 2006 total. But if we look at BP's new sabermetrics: addition and subtraction (corresponding with + and -, respectively) we see that he's actually fine at 30.2 innings over 2006.

I guess Verducci forgot to include the HWL innings and then tried to cover his ass by saying that those innings don't really count. Apparently, you have to throw with your off-hand in Hawaii to appease the lava gods.

Sweetness!

Phil Hughes announced on his blog today that he has asked Sean Henn for permission to take no. 34.

A proud heritage indeed.

Journalistic Integrity

For those of you who do not read UmpBump: they like neither the Yankees nor research.

via Sarah Green (who I believe also contributes Red Sox fluff to the Boston Metro)

Last year, the Yankees managed to bash their way into the postseason despite lackluster starting pitching and an average age of fifty-seven years and three months.

Comedy through straight-forward hyperbole. You do not mess with a formula like that.

I hate this. I think BP did this too. The Yankees are always singled out as having an aging roster. It's just not true. Well, I mean, it is true that they're aging. But I think all the teams are doing that.

Let's compare to, I don't know, the World Champion ScrapDog BabyFace Mulligans:

Average age for position player on NYY (2007): 31
Average age for position player on BOS (2007): 30.444
Average age for SP on NYY (2007): 33
Average age for SP on BOS (2007): 33.4
Average age for SP on NYY (2008 [assuming Pettite,Wang,Mussina,Kennedy,Hughes,Chamberlain]: 28.3
Average age for SP on BOS (2008 [assuming Beckett,Matsuzaka,Schilling,Wakefield,Bukholz,Lester]): 30.6

In the Northeast, where we’re all overachieving Alpha-people who walk fast, talk faster, and expect nothing less than perfection from our sports teams, this is unacceptable. It’s especially unacceptable when you’re the most expensive team in baseball year after year by a margin of about fifty million bucks, or roughly the payroll of the Arizona Diamondbacks.

A Red Sox fan crying poverty? I never thought I'd live to see the day.

Cano will be one of just two every day players still in his twenties. Can the Yankees really expect such a roster to stay healthy into October? On some level, the Injury Bug is a capricious insect that attacks at random, like when your catcher breaks his elbow going after a foul pop. But when your team consists of thirtysomethings, I think you have to expect a certain amount of oblique strains, groin pulls, and hamstring tweaks.

Everyday twentysomethings on NYY: 2
Everday twentysomethings on BOS: 3

One of those three is Coco Crisp who, by all rights, shouldn't be allowed to touch a bat. But if you don't have three twentysomethings then you may as well mummify your team.

The Yankees will hold tryouts of sorts for the 1B spot during Spring Training. The contenders: Morgan Ensberg (32 years old, .230 avg, 12 HR), Wilson Betemit (29 years old, .229 avg, 14 HR), Shelley Duncan (28 years old, .258 avg, 7 HR) and Jason Lane (31 years old, .175 avg, 8 HR). None of these guys is very inspiring. Lane and Ensberg have five games at first base between them. Shelley Duncan has nine. Wilson Betemit? The leader at fourteen. Not that first base is known for being a defensively challenging position, by any means. But that is some pretty slim pickings, and of the bunch, only Ensberg has a career OBP of more than .350.

"I'll just go ahead and cherry-pick some stats here... ok... set an arbitrary OBP mark... click Publish... and I'm a genius."

Morgan Ensberg's career line against LHP: .284/.406/.530

I'd be all for Ensberg platooning with Giambi or Matsui.

Ok, so if by Sarah's standards the Yankee's needed to get better starters and get younger this offseason then I expect that they did that. We're adding three very young pitching prospects who looked very good last season. Ok, cool. I expect a B+ or an A. I mean, the Red Sox got an A and they didn't fix the Lugo situation or trade Coco like they wanted to. Ok, we're set. Here comes the A.

Grade: C

Oh. Wow. Well maybe UmpBump just has really high standards. I'll check the other grades.

February 4 - Yankees, C
February 1 - A’s, B+
January 31 - White Sox, B-
January 30 - Rays, B
January 24 - Diamondbacks, A-
January 23 - San Diego Padres, C+
January 22 - Atlanta Braves, B
January 21 - Boston Red Sox, A

Oh. Well... what?

And just for good measure, she waaaaaaaahs the poverty siren again:

The Yankees have financial resources even other big market teams—the Red Sox, the Angels, the Mets, the White Sox, the Dodgers—can only dream of.

Matsui at 1B?

MLB.com's Bryan Hoch:

If manager Joe Girardi wants to put Matsui -- or, for that matter, Johnny Damon -- out at first base to take ground balls during Spring Training, there doesn't necessarily seem to be any harm with that.

I just wonder about Matsui's ability to make the transition to playing there full-time, especially since he's coming off arthroscopic right knee surgery. Would the Yankees be comfortable with seeing those players bang their bodies around on the infield flagging down ground balls? Then again, it's not like Matsui or Damon are especially shy about sliding or diving for plays in the outfield.

Do it. Do it. Do it!!

Three Offseason Answers for the Yankees

Tim Marchman - NY Sun

1. Is Steinbrenner going to make out the lineup card?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but i have yet to see Steinbrenner actually interfere with front-office procedure. He barks at the press all day and ends up sounding like an idiot but has he ever actually gotten in the way?

2. Remember Generation K?

Yes. We do. Now we have three lauded and coveted pitching prospects. Woe are we.

3. What if 95 games isn't enough?

I'm assuming he means 95 wins as I'm pretty sure 95 games isn't enough (I believe we're slotted to play around 162 this season.)

But semantics aside, yea, we play in a tough division and the wildcard slot is going to be super-competitive this year. I don't really see how that's an offseason question as the idea is to put together the best possible team you can, not a 95-win team.

Opening Day

Only 57 days until Opening Day and this is my best guess at depth:

C: Posada
1B: Giambi
2B: Cano
3B: Rodriguez
SS: Jeter
LF: Damon
CF: Cabrera
RF: Abreu
DH: Matsui

Bench: Betemit
Bench: Molina
Bench: Duncan
Bench: Ensberg

SP: Wang
SP: Pettite
SP: Kennedy
SP: Mussina
SP: Hughes/Chamberlain

Pen: Rivera, Farnsworth, Hughes/Chamberlain, Ramirez, Hawkins, Albaladejo, Karstens

Apprehensions

• Shoehorning guys into first base worries me. But in an ideal world Giambi would be the DH and Matsui would be at first base as his knee only leaks viscous goo instead of violently exploding. Ensberg provides a great off-the-bench option against LHP (career .936 OPS vs LHP) if he can return to fighting trim.
• Last season our outfield limped out of the gates with sprained everythings. April OPSs: Melky-.451 Damon-. 678 Abreu-.668. The last two promised to take care of themselves this offseason but, last I heard, neither has reported to the training facility.
• We may have to play a shell game with Hughes/Chamberlain as they're both under pretty tight innings caps. I'm guessing they'll both work as swing men. Chamberlain in the pen for the first part of the year and then trading Hughes for a rotation spot.
• Mussina.
• Brian Cashman being let go just in time to see one of the best home-grown rotations in full swing.

Things to be excited about

• Seeing Joba and Hughes on the mound.
• A peak at kids like Horne, Sanchez, Melancon.
• A manager who can name a player in his organization under the age of 30.
• One of the best benches in the game.
• Dustin Pedroia getting 25 XBH.