Eric Chavez resigned with Arizona.
NY pretty much has no other option but to resign Mark Reynolds to play 3rd now.
NY pretty much has no other option but to resign Mark Reynolds to play 3rd now.
SemperFidelisSox said:NY pretty much has no other option but to resign Mark Reynolds to play 3rd now.
Sabathia no doubt is key and could go either way from ace to bust.Toe Nash said:I don't disagree with this, but a big wild card no one has really mentioned is Sabathia. He averaged 5.7 bWAR from 08-12 and then was worth just 0.3 last year even though he made 32 starts. I know his velocity is down and he seems cooked, but so did Jon Lester.
Maybe he'll end up needing TJ, but he was a perennial Cy candidate until very recently and isn't that old. A scenario where CC, Tanaka, PIneda and the bullpen carry an inconsistent but powerful offense to the playoffs doesn't seem insane to me.
MakMan44 said:So with Tanaka not being posted, where does that leave the Yankees?
If Tanaka is the next Darvish, he would have really helped the Yankees long term. He's only 26, right? I agree that he wouldn't have made much of a difference this year.jon abbey said:They could finish third, I don't think too much of BAL or TOR, but they weren't going to be a contender with or without Tanaka, as has been discussed.
jon abbey said:They could finish third, I don't think too much of BAL or TOR
Sampo Gida said:
You really think the Yankees were so strapped for cash they did not spend what they needed on the farm system? With a new stadium and revenues that have them in another universe? The problem with the Yankees farm system is partly bad luck, partly bad management, and scouts more interested in kickbacks. Its not money.
terrisus said:
Well, Baltimore did finish tied with New York last year, and had a better +/-, as it was.
Yanks offered Cole a $4M signing bonus as the 11th pick in first round. Definitely over slot. Cole and his family never negotiated with Yanks as they were committed to college at UCLA. If anything, Yanks should have vetted Cole and his family before drafting him. And drafted someone else. But you can't say they were cheap with cole.TomRicardo said:They never spent the money when they could. The Red Sox give bonuses over slot and get guys that would fall in the draft. Cecchini, Vasquez, Betts, and Britton are all guys in the system right now that they acquired in this way. You can even argue Ranuado as well.
Christ the Yankees failed to sign Gerrit Cole who was their first round pick in 2008 ten years after doing the same thing to Mark Prior. Cashman spends like a drunken sailor then gets cheap on the draft.
Wells just tweeted he's wearing No.19 this season. Called it "unimportant" news. At least he still has a sense of humor.jon abbey said:Beltran deal official, Brett Marshall DFAd.
No big loss there in Marshall, who I'd guess will clear waivers and come back to Scranton, but Vernon Wells still taking up a 40 man spot as the sixth OF is just ridiculous. Even if they end up trading Gardner or Ichiro (both unlikely IMO), some spring training cut would be preferable to Wells' corpse.
terrynever said:Yanks offered Cole a $4M signing bonus as the 11th pick in first round.
My miscue. Yanks haven't picked 11th in a long time.jon abbey said:He was actually the 28th pick, everyone knew he would be a very tough sign which is why he lasted so long.
terrynever said:Yanks offered Cole a $4M signing bonus as the 11th pick in first round. Definitely over slot. Cole and his family never negotiated with Yanks as they were committed to college at UCLA. If anything, Yanks should have vetted Cole and his family before drafting him. And drafted someone else. But you can't say they were cheap with cole.
Yanks drafted Mason Williams in fourth round of 2010, got him to sign with an $800,000 bonus, which was higher than their first-rounder Cito Culver got that year. Culver was a bust. Williams advancing slowly, should be in AA ball this year.
Yanks draft low in first round every year, or not at all. And they make stupid picks. Brackman, Culver, Justin Henry. It is a long list of low first-round blunders.
I keep finding stories that put the Yankees and $4M offer in the same sentence with Cole. Like this one. It's possible they never formally offered him, I guess.TomRicardo said:
The Yankees never made Cole an offer. They tried to wait Boras out and Cole despite being a massive Yankee fan decided he just wanted to go college. The family told to Yankees to not even bother with an offer.
Edit - The point was the Yankees had a massive advantage that they never used. The Red Sox consistently used the strategy and landed guys like Middlebrooks, Rizzo, and Papelbon.
You make it sound like spending money equates to more wins. Not always. Yanks could sign Tanaka and Shoo, go to $220M, and win 80 games if Tanaka is Dice-K and Choo gets the shakes in a big market. Hell, the Yankees won 85 games last year with a $220 payroll. The 2012 Red Sox were a .500 team in August with their biggest payroll ever.LeoCarrillo said:As much as it'd tweak the Steins to have A-Rod back for half of 2014 and passing Mays, his presence and the $$ they'd spend on guys like Ubaldo, Santana, Garza, Drew, etc. (having blown past 189 on A-Rod) would obviously make them a pain in the ass immediately.
I'd rather just lock in them stinking in '14. Let Hal and Hank bank their 10s of millions in tax savings and rebates. Starting in 2015, I'm sure they'll go right back up to $210M or so. Or a bit more. But the point being: I don't see where the savings in coming in once under the 189 means they're gonna pour all of those savings right into payroll and jack it to like an obscene $250 million or something.
Edit: Or, that is, maybe they do crank up payroll -- but they can do that regardless of the 10s of millions they'd get in a rebate. They're not targeting 189 to save money for spending in 2015 and beyond. They're targeting 189 because they're old, mediocre, and choking down that bone of non-contender for one more season is worth a lot of money. And it'd be insane business practice to blow the rebates just to win 87 games.
glennhoffmania said:That seems like a lot of unsupportable assumptions and rosy projections in my opinion. For example, you're assuming (I think) that Kuroda will repeat his almost 4 win performance. Last year Ellsbury was worth 2.6 more wins than Gardner yet you're saying his addition is worth 3.8 wins and then still counting Gardner's additional value in LF, even though Steamer only has him at 1.8 wins for the year. McCann wasn't worth 3.7 wins the last two years. Where do these two wins from Drew come from if you're giving Jeter a full year? And you seem to be assuming good health for everyone including Jeter, Beltran, Teixeira, and the rest of the old guys.
In my opinion, even if they add Drew and Tanaka they are not a playoff team.
crow216 said:Reading all the news on Tanaka and how the Yankees are basically relying in him, it kind of dawned on me that they made another huge mistake.
They should have traded Hughes, Joba, and even Cano last year. If they were going to half-ass their attempt to sign him, was the entire point of not trading him to save some face with fans? Really pisses me off. Same goes for Granderson.
Brickowski said:The latest reports say Tanaka will be posted. If so, you can likely kiss $189M goodbye. IMHO the Yankees can't afford to be outbid for his services.
billy ashley said:Forgive me for being late to the party, but do people really believe it was that big of a mistake drafting Cole 28th overall, out of high school?
Spacemans Bong said:So basically they fucked themselves for years and dug a huge hole for no reason?
ivanvamp said:
And if that's the case, why the heck not sign Cano?
Again, they did want Cano. Just not for years 8-10 when chances are he won't be playing 2B and may not be worth his paycheck.ivanvamp said:And if that's the case, why the heck not sign Cano?
jon abbey said:That report is literally second-hand Cafardo, it's hard to think of anything less reliable.
EvilEmpire said:Again, they did want Cano. Just not for years 8-10 when chances are he won't be playing 2B and may not be worth his paycheck.
Not half as odd as a Red Sox fan arguing that an expensive 10 year long contract for a 31 year old player is a good baseball move. The Yankees got burned by the stupid ARod contract and can look at other deals like Pujols' and didn't want to go so far down that path.glennhoffmania said:And again, it was still the wrong decision because he'll be worth so much more for the first half of the contract. An extra three years for Cano would've have zero impact on their ability to spend in 2021 through 2023.
It's still really odd that Cano is the guy the team and the fans chose to all of the sudden become fiscally responsible about.
Reverend said:
If you follow through on the final quotation, it's actually supported by third hand Cafardo, wrongfully referred to in the second hand source as "multiple sources." I wish I were kidding.
EvilEmpire said:Not half as odd as a Red Sox fan arguing that an expensive 10 year long contract for a 31 year old player is a good baseball move. The Yankees got burned by the stupid ARod contract and can look at other deals like Pujols' and didn't want to go so far down that path.
Who knows what the roster looks like in 2021-2023?
What does the $189 million threshold have to do with letting Cano walk? I think the 7 years they offered at a higher AAV than Seattle is a pretty good indicator that the luxury tax had nothing to do with the decision to not offer more. If the Yankees were good with that luxury tax hit for the next 7 years, then 3 more probably wouldn't be an issue...if they thought Cano would be one of the best players in the game in years 8-10. But they don't. The Yankees have said they are still willing to spend if it addresses an area of need, and they are. That still doesn't mean that they want to take on too much risk of having a lot of payroll tied up in unproductive players.ivanvamp said:I don't think a 10 year deal for Cano *is* a good baseball move. But since when has that ever stopped the Yankees from spending money? I think we all may have believed them when they let Cano walk and they said they were staying under $189 million. But with the Ubaldo story (if it's even half-true), if it's got legs, then it means that the Yankees may truly not care about blowing right by the $189 million mark, and if they're going to do that, then letting Cano walk seems to make very little sense. He was by FAR their best player, and would be moving forward for probably the next 4-5 years.