Hal Steinbrenner, grow a pair and sign David Price yourself.

Do the Yankees need a lefty starting pitcher to win it all? Tuesday, August 4, 2015

Tomorrow night Luis Severino makes his first big league appearance with a start against the Boston Red Sox.  I have two concerns about Severino:
1. only 61 innings in AAA (and only 50 SO)
2. he throws right handed...

... only two lefty pitchers have started games ...

I wonder how many teams, especially the Yankees with their skewed home park, have won the championship without a significant lefty starter...

I checked all 27 seasons in which the Yankees won the championship and 1947 was the the only one without a lefty starter.
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Here are the top free agent starting pitchers:

Rk	Name	Age	From Team	WAR3	W	L	W-L%	ERA	G	GS	GF	CG	SHO	SV	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	IBB	SO	HBP	BK	WP	BF
1	Zack Greinke	32	LAD	20.1	142	93	.604	3.35	364	323	8	14	4	1	2094.2	1972	841	779	195	508	17	1887	59	5	67	8612
2	David Price	30	TOR	13.1	104	56	.650	3.09	218	213	0	14	3	0	1441.2	1261	551	495	129	371	11	1372	35	4	29	5866
3	Jordan Zimmermann	30	WSN	12.0	70	50	.583	3.32	178	178	0	8	4	0	1094.0	1047	439	403	104	221	8	903	42	2	15	4489
4	Hisashi Iwakuma	35	SEA	11.8	47	25	.653	3.17	111	97	6	1	1	2	653.2	580	241	230	80	127	10	551	8	0	18	2610
5	Johnny Cueto	30	KCR	11.7	96	70	.578	3.30	226	226	0	12	6	0	1420.1	1268	570	520	145	410	15	1171	83	12	23	5877
6	John Lackey	37	STL	9.3	165	127	.565	3.92	388	387	0	18	8	0	2481.1	2551	1180	1080	260	709	28	1965	112	10	110	10551
7	Doug Fister	32	WSN	9.0	65	63	.508	3.42	180	167	3	7	2	1	1085.2	1101	462	413	96	213	10	732	56	4	26	4516

David Price is the only lefty.  Greinke was better in 2015 but he is two years older and would cost the Yankees a draft pick.  Price and Johnny Cueto were traded during the season and will NOT cost their signing team a draft pick.

In 2015 34 year old veteran lefty CC Sabathia started the most games (29) and pitched the most innings (167) for the Yankees.  Just before the Yankees wild card tournament game Sabathia checked himself into a rehab center suffering from alcoholism.  Sabathia was the only lefty in the 2015 starting rotation for the Yankees.

In that wild card tournament game the Yankees best starting pitcher, Masahiro Tanaka, pitched OK but not great and lost.  Tanaka is the best Yankee starting pitcher but I've concluded that the Yankees need at least one pitcher better than Tanaka for them to overcome all the problems with their every day non-pitchers.  Tanaka turned 27 Nov. 1 and he is due at least $22 million for each of the seasons through 2020 when Tanaka will be 31.  Tanaka has been on the disabled list in both of his Yankee seasons, pitching 136 and 154 innings.

Yankee general manager Brian Cashman put the Yankees in this hole and he cannot be trusted to dig them out.  Cashman showed up at the general managers meeting a few days ago with a beard, which is forbidden for the players to have during the season.  Cashman seems bent on demonstrating his intelligence and savvy by doing his job as if he worked for a small market team like Oakland.  Cashman wasted tons of money a couple of years ago.

Yankee signings of Jacoby Ellsbury, Brian McCann, Carlos Beltran were mistakes I opposed. Wednesday, October 7, 2015

Two off seasons ago, between 2013 and 2014, I clearly opposed the free agent signings of:
- Jacoby Ellsbury
- Brian McCann
- Carlos Beltran.
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Cashman was in a big hurry to sign the redundant 30 year old Ellsbury to a seven year contract at $21 million per year.  Now, because that contract is so onerous, Cashman had to trade for the redundant Aaron Hicks to replace Brett Gardner, whose contract can be moved.

Remember, the policy, no wait, it was just an objective according to chief Steinbrenner Kid Hal.  Anyway, the Yanks were trying to finally get under the salary cap of $189 million.  Those three signings put the Yanks on the cusp and then months later Cashman plunged the Yankees way over by signing Tanaka to be the ace.  Well, now, the Yankees need someone else to be their ace.  Enter 2012 Cy Young award winner David Price:

• June 7, 2004: Drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 19th round of the 2004 amateur draft, but did not sign.
• June 7, 2007: Drafted by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in the 1st round (1st pick) of the 2007 amateur draft. Player signed August 15, 2007.
• July 31, 2014: Traded as part of a 3-team trade by the Tampa Bay Rays to the Detroit Tigers. The Detroit Tigers sent Austin Jackson to the Seattle Mariners. The Detroit Tigers sent Willy Adames (minors) and Drew Smyly to the Tampa Bay Rays. The Seattle Mariners sent Nick Franklin to the Tampa Bay Rays.
• July 30, 2015: Traded by the Detroit Tigers to the Toronto Blue Jays for Jairo Labourt (minors), Matt Boyd and Daniel Norris.
• November 2, 2015: Granted Free Agency.

Dave Dombrowski (born July 27, 1956) is a professional baseball executive and currently the President of Baseball Operations for the Boston Red Sox ... Dombrowski has previously served as the general manager of theMontreal Expos, and the general manager and president of the Florida Marlins and Detroit Tigers...

Florida Marlins ... 1997 NL pennant and world championship—with a team composed of many high-salaried players signed as free agents ...

Detroit Tigers 2002 ... In 2003, the Tigers lost an American League-record 119 games ... the 2006 Tigers, led by manager Jim Leyland, won their first AL pennant since their championship season of 1984... In 2012, the Tigers reached their second World Series (under Dombrowski) ... On August 4, 2015, Dombrowski was released by the Tigers ... In fourteen years ... four consecutive American League Central division titles ... Prior to his hiring, the Tigers had missed the playoffs in fourteen consecutive seasons
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Note that Dombrowski acquired David Price July 31, 2014, traded Price July 30, 2015 and was fired, largely because of that, August 4, 2015.

Boston scooped him up almost immediately and both because of their background and because the Red Sox have as much need for Price as the Yankees I see a bidding war between the Red Sox and Yankees over Price, if only the Yankees can muster the common sense to do it.

Those two American Conference Eastern division rivals would each benefit by preventing Price from returning to the division champion Toronto Blue Jays and keeping Price from the other.  I fully expect Dombrowski to go after Price.

But what will the increasingly erratic Cashman do?  His pattern since his ill fated signings two years ago has been to "cleverly" wait until it's too late, then do nothing.

The Yankees have no base on which to build.  Their only chance to be relevant in the next year or two is to add at least one top notch starting pitcher.  Obviously it's much better for the Yankees if that pitcher is left handed.

Signing David Price is imperative for the Yankees and they should be going after him full force immediately.  Brian Cashman will not do that.  Principle owner Hal Steinbrenner must step into the breach and exercise some previously unused leadership.

Hal Steinbrenner needs to grow a pair of balls.

Then for good measure, fire Cashman's ass.

Steinbrenner Kids, fire Cashman! Monday, October 12, 2015

Come on, come on.  Just do it.
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