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Is Jeter The Greatest YANKEE?

Posted by Moshe Mandel at 7:00 pm 26 Responses »
Feb 022010


Yes, the word Yankee is all caps on purpose. You see, this morning two brothers posted a guest article over at Lohud suggesting that Derek Jeter is the greatest Yankee of all time. They were soundly ripped in the comments, as most of the commenters rightly noted that Jeter really has no case for being a better player than Ruth, Gehrig, Mantle, or Dimaggio, and may come in behind Berra as well. However, their post also discussed the off-field scrutiny and issues that Jeter faces, and within that discussion I believe there is the seed for an interesting debate. The question is, although Jeter is not the greatest baseball player to ever play for the Yankees, is he the greatest Yankee? Is he the perfect embodiment of what a Yankee should be?

He is driven by an incredible will to win, appreciates the history and tradition that the pinstripes represent, and is always respectful of those around him. He rarely does anything that reflects a me-first attitude, is a philanthropist, and does not have his personal life plastered across the news. However, players such as Mariano Rivera and Lou Gehrig could likely say the same thing. What do you think? Is Jeter the greatest Yankee?

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Wang at least 3 months away

Posted by Chris H. at 5:00 pm 2 Responses »
Feb 022010

According to MLB.com’s Ken Gurnick, last week, the Dodgers observed the rehabbing Chien-Ming Wang as he threw off flat ground and, needless to say, they were not too impressed by the results. Gurnick says that Joe Torre’s club believes Wang is “three months or more away from pitching in a game,” meaning that he likely won’t be able to find a Major League deal until after the season has begun. In fact, Wang may have to wait until the summer in order to find a taker for his services. He and his agent, Alan Nero, could actually be better off with this midseason strategy as many organizations will be in search of added rotational depth once June rolls around, and clubs would likely be willing to spend more then, on a fully healthy Wang, rather than now, on a Wang whose future is still uncertain. Either way, regardless of his vague status, as stated by Keith Law, “Wang is worth a flier to see if he has something left… a sinkerballer can survive with a little less velocity, so he’s worth a look.” Thus, he will eventually land somewhere.

If you’re hoping to see the Yankees re-sign Wang, this might be good news for you in that he does not appear ready to sign with any other team, at least for several more weeks/months. However, a reunion is rather unlikely as there are many desperate teams out there willing to spend more on Wang – the Mets, for example – than the Yankees are.

Photo by Reuters

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Desperate Damon

Posted by Chris H. at 3:00 pm 13 Responses »
Feb 022010

Yesterday, the lovable Scott Boras took to the media in order to try and find his client, the 36-year old outfielder, Johnny Damon, a well furnished home. Speaking to Lynn Henning of the Detroit News, Boras connected Damon to the Tigers, who could presumably use a reliable left fielder. “Johnny believes the addition of him to Detroit’s lineup would make the Tigers a winner,” said the agent. “I can make the Detroit Tigers a winner,” Boras stated, quoting his still homeless outfielder. Strangely, though, while Boras often utilizes an assortment of media channels in order to talk up his customers, doing so to a geographically specific news outlet – one that is based in Detroit – was somewhat atypical. In this instance, Boras attempted to peddle Damon to one particular party rather than to a series of parties, and, when one asks why, exactly, this occurred, the reasoning seems fairly clear. While they would be loathe to admit it, Johnny Damon is currently desperate to find a new team for 2010 and Boras’ latest is representative of that.

As stated by ESPN’s Buster Olney, “The fact that Boras told the Detroit News how much Damon wants to play for the Tigers is being read, within the industry, as a sign that Damon isn’t exactly flush with options right now.” The Rays, Jays, Braves, and Tigers, in no particular order, are perceived as the only teams with any sort of interest in Damon, however, given Boras’ conversation with Lynn Henning, one wonders just how enthusiastic the cited parties really are about the 36-year old outfielder. The apparent lack of legitimate interest in Damon has sparked hope in those who still wish to see a Yankees-Damon reunion. Joe at River Ave Blues wrote about the idea yesterday while Joel Sherman of the NY Post contemplates the situation in his latest piece. While such a scenario is extremely unlikely, it is certainly not impossible (just improbable). The Yankees would presumably have to trade one of Randy Winn or Chad Gaudin, or perhaps both, in order to make such a deal happen, although this is easier said than done. In addition, Brian Cashman seems rather pleased with the flexibility provided to Joe Girardi by the team’s current roster, therefore, I think it is safe to say that such a remarriage is more than doubtful. After all, Damon is the desperate one, not the Yankees.

Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images

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Mike Lupica Just Can't Let Go

Posted by Matt Imbrogno at 1:00 pm 10 Responses »
Feb 022010

Just a few days ago, January 29th, our own Moshe Mandel pulled a Fire Joe Morgan on Mike Lupica due to Lupica’s hypocrisy regarding the Yankees and their spending. Well, Lupica threw out another silly piece on Sunday the 31st. The title? “New York Yankees and…Johnny Damon still have time to make a deal.” Before I get into the actual piece, I have some advice for Mr. Lupica: let it go. Seriously, man. Let. It. Go. We get it. You’re not going to be happy with the Yankees no matter what they do. Your act is, frankly, getting tired. When I was younger, I used to look up to your writing as something to behold. Something’s definitely changed. The question is: did I change or did you change, Mike? It’s probably both; but if it’s more of the former than the latter, that’s a good thing. So, let’s start the insanity.

There is still time for the Yankees to make a deal with Johnny Damon and for Damon to make a deal with them, just because there is no ticking clock here the way there is no real “budget” for the Yankees.

Okay, sure, the season hasn’t started and Johnny Damon hasn’t been signed so there is technically time to get a deal done. But, in reality, Damon isn’t coming back. He’s constantly said no and the Yankees are sticking to a budget, even if it is high.

Damon? He should make a deal for the best possible reason, because this is the best possible place for him to continue playing baseball. The Yankees make the deal for the only reason that is supposed to matter:

They are a better team with him than they are without him and they don’t have to lay off members of the grounds crew to get him.

I agree with Lupica: Damon’s best option is the Yankees and the Yankees’ best LF option is Damon. The fact of the matter is that they could not come to any sort of agreement. Johnny Damon may be a good player in many ways–he can hit, he can at least stand out in the field, and by all accounts, he’s a good clubhouse guy. Despite all that, Johnny Damon at this stage in his career, is not a guy you rip open the checkbook for, especially if there’s no one else willing to do the same.

It’s painfully obvious here, and later on, but I want to mention it here, that Lupica has no grasp of “context.” In the last two offseasons, we’ve seen the market for most older corner outfielders, even good ones like Damon and Bobby Abreu, completely bottom out. Why should the Yankees pay more for Damon just because Lupica thinks/acts like/wants to believe that they can, especially when no other team has made an offer for Damon? That’s just awful business and the Yankees would be bidding against themselves, like they (the Steinbrenners, not CashMoney) did with A-Rod in late 2007 and the Cardinals and Mets did with Matt Holliday and Jason Bay in this off-season. If the Yankees did that, I guarantee Lupica would be writing an angry article about the Yankees being too free-wheeling with their money in tough economic times and about the bad business practice about the team bidding against itself.

–snip–

They’re not being asked to break the bank here. It’s not like the gap between the two sides is as wide as CC Sabathia. But are we really supposed to believe that Hal Steinbrenner found $180 million under the bed for Mark Teixeira last winter and now can’t find whatever it will take to bring back a popular, winning ballplayer and stick him back in the No. 2 slot behind Jeter?

1. 2010 =/= 2009. The Yankees are clearly operating differently this off-season than they did in last year’s off-season. Isn’t this painfully obvious? How does Lupica not see this? He can’t be this thickheaded, can he? Is it possible he’s playing a Kaufman-like joke on us?
2. In just about every single way possible, Mark Teixeira is a better player than Johnny Damon. He was younger, entering his prime. He can field his position much better than Damon can feel his. He is a switch hitter. He is a better hitter than Johnny Damon…by a lot. Mark Teixeira is a perennial MVP candidate. Mark Teixeira is a team-changing player. Johnny Damon, at this point in his career, is not.
3. Stop placing all the blame on the Yankees, Mike. Damon rejected some offers, as I pointed out above via Moshe’s other article, and Scott Boras likely didn’t help things. It’s not as if Damon came to the hypothetical door with a smile and an “Anything goes, Bri-man!” attitude and Cashman kicked him to the hypothetical curb.

Come on. You know how many home runs Nick Johnson, Randy Winn and Brett Gardner hit among them last season? Thirteen.

Nick Johnson had a freakishly low HR/FB rate that is likely going to go up for multiple reasons. Brett Gardner and Randy Winn are not power hitters and bring other skills to the plate–they both are pretty good at getting on base and have good speed–and they’re also good fielders. It’s also worth noting that Johnson’s top-notch on base skills will play very nicely in the two hole. Another important thing that Lupica skips over is that Damon’s real offensive replacement–Curtis Granderson–hit 30 home runs in what was more or less a “down” year for him. That number should also go up, playing in a park that’s friendly to lefty power hitters. This brings to a point that a lot of people have glossed over: Randy Winn is not replacing Johnny Damon. Nick Johnson is replacing Hideki Matsui, but Randy Winn, who will be a bench player, is replacing Melky Cabrera.

–snip–

It’s in his best interests to get his client the best situation as well as the most money. And Damon’s best situation is left field, Yankee Stadium, batting second.

The Yankees found $300 million when they wanted Alex Rodriguez back. They found the money for Teixeira. They can still find the money for Johnny Damon. Can they win without him? Of course they can.

Alex Rodriguez, at the time, was the 2nd best player in baseball and the best player in his league. I’ve already been over the Teixeira thing, so I won’t bore you with a repeat. Those two guys–along with the coupling of Sabathia and Burnett last off-season–are team changing players. A mid-30′s Johnny Damon, playing a non-premium position, coming off a year he probably won’t be able to repeat, is not a team changing player.

Does it suck that the Yankees had to let two fan favorites walk this off-season? Yeah, it does. However, they had good baseball and business reasons, and I can’t fault them too much for it. I’ll miss Johnny and Hideki, but their production is likely to be replaced by Nick Johnson and Curtis Granderson. Despite what Mike Lupica would have you believe, Johnny Damon needs the Yankees more than the Yankees need Johnny Damon.

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Yanks Will Be Dealing With Rays For Foreseeable Future

Posted by Moshe Mandel at 11:00 am 5 Responses »
Feb 022010


When the Rays shockingly took the division in 2008, many Yankee fans dismissed it as an aberration, and suggested that the Rays would fall out of contention once their current crop of younger stars neared free agency. However, it seems that the Rays have a contingency plan in place to prevent that from happening. From Buster Olney:

But if they languish in the AL East race behind the Yankees and Red Sox, or if they got hit by a wave of injuries, then there would appear to be a chance that they would start looking to deal Crawford, Pena, Soriano and others.

Just like sailors in a lifeboat, the Rays must constantly bail payroll, whenever and wherever they can, which is why they must rely, always, on the young and cheap players whenever and however they can. “It’s what we have to do,” said Andrew Friedman, the Rays’ general manager. “It’s our lot in life. We have to have as many different options of talented players to mix and match and construct a 25-man roster as we can.”

The development of three rising prospects in particular will be crucial for the Rays, for this season, and for seasons to come…..

(Buster goes on to provide reports on Wade Davis, Desmond Jennings, and Jeremy Hellickson).

Recently, I had the opportunity to ask a MLB GM with a payroll similar to that of the Rays about the way in which teams operate under such constraints. He explained to me that teams like his and the Rays work in cycles, whereby they attempt to develop a crop of prospects, ride them to contention through their arbitration years, and then trade them for more prospects so as to start the cycle over. In this way, they hope to contend for 2-3 seasons, with each cycle lasting 6-7 years. This is how it works for most clubs, with the Marlins, Athletics, and Indians providing a fine example of this system.

However, the Rays have become so good at developing talent that, at least for now, they seem poised to bypass the downturn of their current cycle. As they shed players such as Crawford and Scott Kazmir, they are ready to replace them with mega-prospects such as the three discussed by Buster. With this base of talent available to them (they are a top 3 system by every ranking I have seen), they should remain a threat to the Yankees for a while yet.

Photo Credit: NY Daily News

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Sherman: Girardi Likely To Use Bench For Defense

Posted by Moshe Mandel at 9:11 am 14 Responses »
Feb 022010

From Joel Sherman:

Joe Girardi made a bunch of controversial decisions last year (such as three starters in the postseason, Derek Jeter at leadoff, the newest edition of the Joba Rules) and ended up a championship manager. I think this will embolden him further to go with his beliefs, and I think one of those will be to have a flexible outfield. I could see Winn, among others, being moved around the outfield and defense – especially in the late innings with a lead – emphasized……

The Yanks moved up to get the top pick in the Rule 5 draft to obtain Jamie Hoffman and recently traded for Greg Golson. They view both as above-average defenders. The think the same about Reid Gorecki, who they signed to a minor league deal. Barring injuries, Golson and Gorecki are expected to begin the year at Triple-A….

The Yankees have bought even further into the notion that we are entering a phase when defense will be more valued than in the recent juiced past. And because of that I can see times this season when the Yankees are, say, leading 3-2 in the ninth inning when Girardi boldly pulls Granderson and Nick Swisher off the field and goes with a defense of Winn in left, Gardner in center and Hoffman in right.

I do not believe that Joe would go so far as to pull both Swisher and Granderson from a game for defensive purposes, as the Yankees would then be in a bind should the game happen to go to extra innings. The marginal value that you get from one inning of improved defense may not be worth the loss of offense that you would have should the game extend, especially considering that both Swish and Grandy are solid defenders.

However, I do thing the general point holds true: the bench that the Yankees currently have is built around defense, with much of the current value of players like Hoffmann and Winn tied up in their defensive abilities. With 8 starters that you will rarely pinch hit for, this is an efficient use of roster spots for the Yankees. However, one power bat off the bench would be welcome, and I could see the Yankees extending a non-roster invite to a Johnny Gomes type of player. Other than that, the Yankee bench will likely be all about defense and speed.

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