Here’s my guess
RF-Swisher
CF-Gardner
LF-Holliday
4th OF-Melky
I’ll guess they let Nady, Damon and Matsui walk, they take the money they save (over 30 mil) and sign Holliday. I’ll also assume that A-Jax still isn’t quite ready yet and Gardner has a good enough year to stick around. I’d love to figure out a way to get Jeter into LF, but that’s another pipe dream of mine that no one on the Yanks seems to be considering yet.
I also feel pretty confident that most of this will be wrong.
Steve’s post this morning about the strong feelings that people have about A-Rod got me to thinking about Yankees that I have found it difficult to root for. As the team has met with failure over the last few years, more and more players enter that category of guys who force you to remind yourself that you root for the laundry, not the individual. So the discussion question that I pose today is, who is your least favorite Yankee player of all time? For me, the answer is easy. Randy Johnson came here with an awful attitude and continually came up small. He lost two playoff games that cost the Yankees postseason series, and never was comfortable here. He was glad to be traded, and I was glad to see him go. Who did you hate to love?
From ESPN:
“It just takes one guy to bring an entire team down, and that’s exactly what was happening,” Papelbon said, according to the magazine. “Once we saw that, we weren’t afraid to get rid of him. It’s like cancer. That’s what he was. Cancer. He had to go. It [stunk], but that was the only scenario that was going to work. That was it for us.”
The Red Sox dealt Ramirez to the Los Angeles Dodgers at last season’s trade deadline after a messy divorce, in which the Red Sox believed Ramirez — who had a pair of $20 million team options slated for 2009 and 2010 — was trying to play his way out of town so he and his agent, Scott Boras, could test free agency during the offseason.
Ramirez eventually signed a two-year, $45 million offer with the Dodgers — the only team known to have offered him a deal.
“He was on a different train!” Papelbon said of Ramirez, according to Esquire. “And you saw what happened with that. We got rid of him, and we moved on without him. That comes from the manager, and it comes from guys like Jason Varitek and Tim Wakefield and David Ortiz. Nobody is ever going to be allowed to do that.”
“So Manny was tough for us,” Papelbon added, according to the story. “You have somebody like him, you know at any point in the ball game, he can dictate the outcome of the game. And for him not to be on the same page as the rest of the team was a killer, man!”
But the atmosphere in the clubhouse changed after the trade, Papelbon said, according to Esquire.
“And after, you could feel it in the air in the clubhouse,” he said, according to the magazine. “We got Jason Bay — Johnny Ballgame, plays the game right, plays through broken knees, runs out every ground ball — and it was like a breath of fresh air, man! Awesome! No question.”
I hate Jonathan Papelbon so I’ll defend Manny Ramirez, even if there is nothing to defend. Sure, he dogged it while playing for the Red Sox, but — let’s face it — he has wanted to leave the Sox for years. This wasn’t an overnight issue, and I think Jonathan Papelbon sounds like an idiot for simplifying that which isn’t simple. The Manny-Boston pairing was a complicated relationship to say the least.
I admit to loving the wonderful and curious statistics that sabermetricians and other super statheads are gracious enough to enrich my existence with, but by no means would I consider myself a sabermetrician. Rather, I enjoy plucking random metrics from the sabermric ether and using them to lend credence or dispel some of my notions. I really have only a superficial understanding of the numbers, themselves, and am somewhat skeptical regarding the ability of statistics to accurately measure certain aspects of the game.
One of these aspects is “clutch hitting.” The widespread sabermetric stance is that it doesn’t exist, and this has always been at odds with my own observations. Here’s what David Grabiner, in his “Sabermetric Manifesto” says, “if there is an ability, players who hit well in the clutch in the past
will continue to do so. This can be tested, and has been; there is only
very weak evidence of an ability, and it is clear that whatever ability
there is does not mean much in baseball terms.”
I find it hard to believe that Manny Ramirez is not a better clutch hitter than A-Rod. Some players tense up in a big spot while others (like Manny) seem to stay loose and raise their level of focus. However, statheads pretty much across the board, seem to agree on this, so I’ll let it slide, but I can’t help wondering if we’re all approaching this from the wrong angle.
Maybe it’s not a “clutch” factor we’re looking for but simply the ability to hit better pitching. We’ve all seen minor leaguers who mash at one level, yet can’t hack it at the next. Isn’t it sensible to think that major leaguers are the same way? Isn’t a hitter’s ability to hit top pitching a better way to evaluate a player than looking at his numbers in “bases loaded” “scoring position, 2 out” “late and close” or “runners on” situations, particularly if you’re a team like the Yankees who is very interested in how a player will perform in playoff situations, where the pitching is much better?
According to Kat O’Brien, Joe Girardi told reporters that Jorge Posada will, indeed, catch on Sunday (against the Twins). It’ll be his first time behind the plate this spring and is a good sign for the team, as they will need all the offensive power they can muster without Alex Rodriguez’s bat in the lineup. The more Jorge catches, the less we see of Jose Molina (I’m obviously speaking from an offensive standpoint).
With the news being released that Mariano Rivera will likely make his Spring debut on Monday, I thought it would be a good time to assess the state of the Yankees bullpen depth chart. Trying to divine who might be one of the seven relievers to go north is difficult, being that there have been a number of strong performers and that the Yankees have not been clear as to what they want to do in terms of lefties and long relievers.
1) Mariano Rivera- Obviously, he is a lock when healthy.
2) Damaso Marte- Likely to be used as part of an 7th and 8th inning platoon with a righty, with Marte taking, but not limited to, the tough lefties.
3) Brian Bruney- Will get the first crack at splitting the 8th with Marte.
4) Jose Veras- Likely to be right behind Bruney for the late inning righty role.
5) Phil Coke- With Marte acting as a set-up man, Coke will be needed as the situational lefty who can also face righties.
6) David Robertson- He showed flashes of brilliance last season, and has looked strong thus far.
7) Jon Albaladejo- He can go multiple innings, as can the four relievers before him. This allows the Yankees to take their seven best relievers north rather than choosing any of the currently weak crop of long relievers.
————-
8 ) Edwar Ramirez- If Edwar shows himself to be healthy upon his return, he will make the team.
9) Brett Tomko- If the Yankees go with a long reliever, he has been the best.
10) Mark Melancon- He will be with the team by June, but the fact that he has not faced MLB caliber hitters yet suggests that the team is not going to rush him.
11 & 12) Al Aceves and Dan Giese- Were the favorites for long relief, but both have been bad.
13, 14, 15) Steven Jackson, Mike Dunn, Anthony Claggett- In previous seasons, they would be contenders for jobs. The Yankees have too many options ahead of them to make the club right out of camp.
16) Kei Igawa- His scary track record and lack of a spot on the 40 man roster means that he has no shot of making the roster, no matter how well he pitches.
————
Did I leave anyone out? Would you change the order?
In an inevitable response to CC Sabathia getting shelled in his second spring start, the Daily News’ John Harper brought up CC’s high number of innings pitched over the last two seasons:
Yes, if Yankee fans feel any need to worry about Sabathia, the numbers that matter aren’t the six hits and five runs he gave up in 1-2/3 innings here against the Tigers. Instead it’s the total of 512 innings, including postseason, that Sabathia pitched over the last two seasons, by far the most of any pitcher in baseball.
Add the stress of pitching on three days’ rest in September and October for the Brewers last season, and Sabathia has the potential for a hangover effect that at least some people in baseball believe is inevitable. In fact, according to one Yankee person, Sabathia’s workload was a source of some internal discussion before it was decided the combination of talent and toughness was worth investing huge money in him over seven years.
Harper’s concern is fair, although there is no reason to connect Sabathia’s performance yesterday to his high workload. However, this is an issue that we have tackled in the past, with the help of THT’s Josh Kalk. The quoted portion below contains part of Kalk’s article on using statistics to comprehend pitching injuries, as well as my comments at the time:
I want to close by looking at the pitcher who was ridden as hard as any in the game last year, C.C. Sabathia.
Sabathia gobbled up innings late in the year as the Brewers desperately attempted to make the playoffs. There was much talk about the Brewers’ right to use a rented player this way, and about then-manager Ned Yost in particular.
Near the end of the season, I looked at these effects and found that Sabathia didn’t seem to be having any issues. With this new metric, we can ask how close Sabathia came to the injury zone. The answer: not very. His highest value was a mere 0.13, ironically on the last day of the season against the Cubs, clinching the playoffs for the Brewers. This is very good news for Yankees fans who shouldn’t worry that the Brewers wore Sabathia out. And this probably means Sabathia will be able to handle a large load this season as well.
That is great news, as I am sure that this will be raised as an issue at some point during Spring Training. The Yankees need Sabathia to give them 200 ace quality innings, considering the injury concerns that plague the rest of the rotation. If Kalk is right, we do not have to worry about CC, and can busy ourselves with worrying about AJ and Joba. Kalk’s research is cutting edge, and could change the way that teams deal with pitchers should his results bear out in 2009. It should be an interesting sabermetric development to track over the next few seasons.
I do not have much to add at this point. All I can say is that it was in fact raised during the spring, and it is likely to be brought up after every poor start by CC. Although, as Kalk finds, it may not actually have any bearing on whether Sabathia stays healthy going forward, we may as well get used to it.
RLYW has released their latest projected standings, which they created with Alex Rodriguez’s injury in mind. They projected that he will miss 30 percent of the season, and they found that the Yankees still project to win the division. In their simulations, the Yankees win close to 98 games on average, with Boston at 96 and Tampa at 91.
While predictions are generally meaningless, this does show that statistically, the Yankees should be able to weather a month or two without A-Rod. Although his absence may have some sort of psychological impact on the rest of the roster, the numbers suggest that the Yankees have amassed enough talent to survive the loss of one of baseball’s premier talents.
Ken Davidoff has a new column up where he opens with this:
All right, world, you have your chance now.
For the next six to nine weeks, you’ll get to see what life is like without Alex Rodriguez. You’ll view the mighty, regal Yankees, rid of their “albatross.”
You’ll look at Mr. Perfect, Derek Jeter, liberated from the cumbersome task of playing alongside one of the greatest players in baseball history.
Based on what people have been saying out there, I’m betting the Yankees go 35-1 while A-Rod rehabilitates from arthroscopic surgery.
Not exactly attempting to persuade anyone on the other side of this debate, huh?
To be fair to Ken, he goes on to provide a more balanced view of A-Rod throughout the rest of the piece, but the opening makes it abundantly clear where he stands on Alex. Davidoff is one of the better sportswriters we have in this area, the fact that even he would resort to such hyperbole just illustrates what a polarizing figure A-Rod is. No one seems to have a balanced, nuanced view when it comes to Alex. People either support him 100% or blame him 100%. It’s either all his fault or nothing was ever his fault, the blame lay elsewhere. Of course, as usually is the case in these situations, the truth lay somewhere in the middle.
Here are some facts about Alex:
-Is he one of the best players in Baseball? Yes.
-Has he choked in the playoffs? Yes.
-Has he helped the Yanks win in the regular season? Yes.
-Have fans ever warmed up to him? No, and the reasons go beyond baseball.
-Are much of his PR problems his own doing? Absolutely.
If people can embrace all of the pros and cons about him, then we can have a worthwhile conversation about him. But until then, there’s really no point.
It’s been so long since we’ve heard from Alex Rodriguez – almost three whole days – but the Star Ledger broke the interminable silence Wednesday night when the Yankees GM relayed the third baseman’s morale.
Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez is in “good spirits,” according to general manager Brian Cashman, who spoke with the injured star on Tuesday night.
Cashman said the slugger continues to ride an exercise bike during his recovery from Monday’s arthroscopic surgery to repair a torn labrum in his hip.
Manager Joe Girardi said Rodriguez left him an upbeat message Tuesday night.
“He sounded good,” Girardi reported. “Said: ‘I’m doing well.’ Good to hear from him.”
He is expected to spend a few weeks rehabilitating in Colorado, then will return to the Yankees’ spring training complex in Florida when he is ready for baseball drills.
If anyone is going to come back early from having their hip scoped it’s A-Rod. However, in the meantime, hopefully somebody with him in Colorado is keeping Rodriguez on a leash and not allowing him to overexert a surgically repaired labrum.
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