A.J. Burnett? Did I just write that? Consider bringing back A.J.? That shows just how much trouble the Yankees are in. For a Yankee fan to even think about a guy we couldn't get out of town fast enough.
Friday, September 20, 2013 Yankees need to clean house.
A fish rots from the head so the cleaning needs to start with the Steinbrenner Kids ... the Yankees need new owners. Easier said than done ...
some specific people who need to go.
1. Randy Levine, president ...
2. Brian Cashman, general manager. Cashman worked his way up from an intern, hired as a friend of the family. Cashman put up with the worst of George's behavior towards his employees, one humiliation after another. But Cashman learned and became a good GM. Unfortunately, Cashman is now too full of himself and too much at odds with Levine to evolve into a new type of executive. His thinking is stale and the Yankee farm system was unable to supply good players during this season of need.
3. Joe Girardi, field manager... Baseball must stop using former players as field managers.
4. Derek Jeter, shortstop... No reasonable baseball person would rely on him to play shortstop next season and Jeter does not hit with enough power to be a designated hitter (DH).
5. Ichiro Suzuki, outfield. I won't beat a dead horse but this guy was way overrated even at his peak, which is long gone. No amount of marketing benefit should keep him on the Yankees.
Rather than go through the entire roster let's just say that none of these players is indispensable, including Robinson Cano.
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Sunday, December 8, 2013 Musical chairs Yankee style.
The one position the Yankees did not need to fill was center field. However, incumbent Brett Gardner is being replaced with Jacoby Ellsbury...
Ellsbury is an upgrade but hardly one worth $153 million over seven years. That money could have been spent on new pitchers. The Yankees have lost starters Andy Pettitte and Phil Hughes and not added any pitching. They have resigned Hiroki Kuroda (born Feb 10, 1975) for one year. Gerald Ford was president when he was born.
With so many holes to fill, why fill a non-hole?
Letting Robinson Cano go was the smart move...
In right field the Yankees obviously could have brought back Curtis Granderson who signed with the Mets for $15 million for each of four years. Instead they signed Carlos Beltran for the same annual pay for three years.
Granderson born: March 16, 1981 OPS+ 117
Beltran born: April 24, 1977 OPS+ 122
Beltran will be 39 in his final Yankee season. Granderson will be 37 in his final Met season.
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Oh, and in addition to Andy Pettitte retiring, relief pitcher Mariano Rivera also retired. The Yanks saved money by letting lefty relief pitcher Boone Logan walk. Cashman also missed the boat on bringing back a low cost starter, Bartolo Colon, who signed a fairly reasonable two year deal with the cheap Mets.
Apparently, the Yankees are putting all their pitching eggs in one basket: Japanese free agent starter Masahiro Tanaka, 24-0 in 2013. Until a few days ago it seemed likely that his team would not even let Tanaka leave for the U.S. What the heck kind of planning are the Yankees doing?
With the Yankees so obviously in need of starting pitchers, even if they sign Tanaka, they will probably pay much more than needed and because of their foolish spending on Ellsbury and catcher Brian McCann, signing Tanaka may put the Yankees over the 2014 team salary cap of $189 million and trigger a 50% luxury tax, which will hamper their ability to sign future young star players like Mike Trout, Bryce Harper and Giancarlo Stanton.
Plus, I'm not nuts about Tanaka. Not for what the Yankees will have to pay. His SO/9 are trending down:
2011 9.6
2012 8.8
2013 7.8
Yu Darvish was the Japanese pitcher I wanted the Yankees to sign two years ago. Instead he went with Texas where he struck out 221 in 2012 and led the league with 277 in 2013. SO/9:
2012: 10.4
2013: 11.9
In his final three seasons in Japan at the same age as Tanaka, Darvish was trending up in SO/9:
2009 8.3
2010 9.9
2011 10.7
What the heck are the Yankees doing? About ten years ago they loaded up on star quality players:
Jason Giambi
Alex Rodriguez
Gary Sheffield
Hideki Matsui.
Ellsbury and McCann do not have star power. Nor does Carlos Beltran any more. Maybe the Yanks hope that Tanaka will provide that but he will pitch only every fifth game and it's very difficult for any pitcher do be a team leader. They just don't play enough.
It's obvious that Jeter and Suzuki are not on the team for their current playing ability but more for what the Yankees seem to perceive will be fan interest. Is their any Yankee fan left in this galaxy who wants a Derek Jeter shirt who does not already have one? How many Japanese fans will care about Ichiro Suzuki now that there are four outfielders ahead of him? And even mainstream media people may finally recognize just how colossally overrated Ichiro has been throughout his career, especially now.
Which brings us to Burnett and the infinitely more attractive practical possibility of Johan Santana. Both are old and probably can be signed for reasonable amounts, maybe even with incentive laden deals. Santana was headed to the Hall of Fame when injuries derailed him. If he is actually throwing well, what's the downside to signing him, even if he only starts pitching at mid-season? He could take over for Michael Pineda, acquired from Seattle following the 2011 season. Pineda has yet to throw a single pitch for the Yankees and if he starts the 2014 season with them will undoubtedly be on a rigid pitch count that will expire about when Santana could come to the rescue.
And what if Tanaka is a flop, you know, like Cashman's other big signing from Japan: Kei Igawa who pitched 71 innings in 2007-2008? That's 71 more than Pineda. Igawa's SO/9 prior to joining the Yankees:
2004: 10.2
2005: 7.6
2006: 8.4
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