Dec
13
Fan Confidence Poll: December 13th, 2010
BySeason Record: 95-67 (859 RS, 693 RA, 98-64 Pythag. record), finished one game back in AL East, won Wild Card, lost in ALCS
Top stories from last week:
- The winter meetings brought plenty of news and rumors, but Cliff Lee was predictably the central figure of the week. The Yankees were ready to get serious after a slow moving negotiation, and they made the lefty a six-year offer. They eventually offered a seven-year contract that was one of several proposals. We’re still waiting to hear on his decision.
- Brian Cashman confirmed that Andy Pettitte is leaning towards retirement, but we still don’t know anything definitive.
- The Yankees are aggressively pursuing free agent catcher Russell Martin, making him a one year offer after reviewing his medicals. They’re not the only team that wants him, though.
- Cashman went to dinner with Carl Crawford, but it was just a bluff to drive up the price for whoever signed him. As it turned out, he ended up in Boston.
- Among the other players New York showing interest in this week: Francisco Liriano, Pedro Feliciano, Matt Diaz (he ended up with the Pirates), Mark Prior, Rich Harden, and old buddy Kerry Wood. The Yanks also want bring Al Aceves back on a minor league deal.
- The Yanks took two players in Rule 5 Draft, lefty Robert Fish and righty Daniel Turpen.
- A few former Yankees made news as well. Melky Cabrera signed with the Royals, Dustin Moseley with the Padres, Wilkin De La Rosa with the Dodgers, and Dave Eiland with the Rays in a front office capacity.
- CC Sabathia reiterated that he will not opt out of his contract, and Cashman reiterated that Jorge Posada is the team’s designated hitter.
- George Steinbrenner and Billy Martin were not elected to the Hall of Fame by the Expansion Era Committee.
Please take a second to answer the poll below and give us an idea of how confident you are in the team. You can view the Fan Confidence Graph anytime via the nav bar above, or by clicking here. Thanks in advance for voting.
Given the team's current roster construction, farm system, management, etc., how confident are you in the Yankees' overall future?
91 Comments»
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Yankees News from YESNetwork.com
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- Teixeira to play for Double-A Trenton Thunder on Wednesday and Thursday
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- Brian Cashman speaks to media about injured Yankees pitchers
- Alberto Gonzalez clears waivers, will report to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre
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7 until the starting rotation is sorted out, then back to 8.
7 right now. Will go to 8 after the pitching is improved.
“Good solid…. seven and a half.” There are two too big question marks in the rotation like Matt said.
My vote was apparently the 23rd this morning and no one has commented yet, so I’ll begin. I’ve moved up to an 8 (from 7) as I’ve had time to consider the Cliff Lee situation. Should he not sign, I am now convinced the Yankees have the minor league depth to trade for the necessary pitching, while retaining a top-tier offense. With the added payroll flexibility that $23-25M per year brings, I’m pretty sure the Yankees will continue to be contenders (probably not favorites) for the World Series Championship for many years into the future.
RL: concur with my most of your assessment of your 8 vote. I’m holding on 8 even if the Yanks loss on Lee because the financial flexibility that comes with the non signing offers the Yanks many options. It may cost more in the player development dept. but a prospect is there to be batered away for the most part.
Also, I believe the Yanks will have a solid plan B to restore their position on top of AL East. It may not be a marquee pitcher but one who gives the team the oportunity to win.
No one player makes a team and the Yanks can compete with every team in the league. So we cannot ask for more.
Nothing has really changed, so still at a 9, whether or not Cliff Lee signs.
The way our rotation is looking, and the way our players are aging, i’m at a 7.
Early returns has this week’s confidence at a Hot Stove low. At 6.96 after hovering around 7.5 for weeks
Lee wouldn’t give the rangers a what would you sign for reply. The only reason I see for that is he perfers the yankees. After all if he wanted to play for them why wouldn’t he just give the an answer of 7 years 170 million. He made them make a offer and why would he ask the yankees over the weekend to up the offer and not the Rangers if he was looking to play for them.
I would be happy if we can keep Manuel Banuelos and Jesus Montero and not sign Lee!
but I think both or one will go if we don’t sign Lee.
So I want Lee at all cost. I’m so looking foward to seeing them as yankees.
I don’t want Lee, But I want to keep Jesus Montero and Manuel Banuelos more then anything.
Manuel Banuelos is going to be better then Lee Mark my words.
40 years plus yankee fan.
even after a couple times reading, im still not sure where u stand. so… you DO want lee? right?
cuz you said “so i want lee at all cost” and the next sentence said “i dont want lee”… then you kept talking about banuelos both before and after randomly
i think maybe im being confused by the sequencing
He doesn’t want Lee initally but if it keeps Jesus and ManBan then he wants Lee at any cost.
then why does he say “I would be happy if we can keep Manuel Banuelos and Jesus Montero and not sign Lee!”
this is his optimal scenario
He doen’t like Lee but if signing Lee means keeping, Jesus and Banuelos he is all for it.
Not the easiest comment to decipher, but I think he wants Lee because he thinks if the Yanks don’t sign Lee they’ll trade Banuelos and Montero. He doesn’t necessarily want Lee just for Lee’s sake, but instead he wants Lee so they Yanks keep their top prospects.
… I think?
I want to keep Jesus Montero and Manuel Banuelos . Could careless if we get Lee !! unless not getting him cause the yankees to trade either of them
I’m marking your words, but in VERY light pencil.
invisible ink might be better
Let’s let him have his conviction. A man without conviction is a man without…
I’ve never even heard of Lee Mark.
That sounds like a reasonable expectation…
Very recent Olney tweet: “Heard this: Darek Braunecker, the agent for Cliff Lee, has been in touch with the Yankees today and said the process is on-going”
thats nice i guess. im just sick of all the speculation news on lee.
i have a lot of friends that still have the lee-saga stamina to refresh MLBTR every 30 seconds and hang on every word. unfortunately, i got burned out on friday.
i’m one of those people still (unfortunately). can’t wait for it to end
Prob making that last minute call to see if they want to up their offer because he’s going to sign with Rangers.
Don’t care about Lee. The Yanks are already stuck with Arod’s contract can you imagine his productivty when he is 40? Lee will probably be done in 3 yrs.
If Pettite can still be effective at age 39 then why can’t Lee? Same type of pitcher.
“Same type of pitcher.”
Only, much better.
Cliff Lee Career Numbers:
FIP: 3.77 xFIP: 4.16 K/9: 6.93 BB/9: 2.24
Mr. Pettite’s Career Numbers:
FIP:3.75 xFIP: 3.72 K/9: 6.63 BB/9: 2.83
I don’t see this as “much better.” Bear in mind, this includes Andy’s aging performance while Lee is still in his prime.
This also includes Lee’s poorer performance when he was younger. He’s a completely different pitcher now.
pettitte threw 129 innings this season.
just sayin
Those were Hank’s words. Andy was in the 92+ range at Lee’s present age. Lee has to be purrfect to get his results. I’m concerned about his ability to pinpoint his pitches over 7 year period.
“Lee has to be purrfect to get his results.”
Completely and utterly false.
Lee is in the 92-94 range right now
pettitte threw 92 at lee’s age… and lee throws 92-94… this proves what exactly?
Or maybe talking about when to schedule the press conference at YS
Or to ask for more money.
I’ll go 8, when we fill our final to SP spots I’ll bump it to 10.
I’ve been voting 9 since I joined the site, not going to change now. I’m kinda tired of the whole Lee situation, and as everyone else, I want it to end. I’ll still vote a 9 whether they sign him or not, but I guess it’ll be a better 9 if he signs with the Yankees.
7.
I will drop to a 6 if Lee re-ups with the Rangers. If Lee is in pinstripes by week’s end, i’ll give the outlook a solid 8.
I’m the same way, but on an 8 and will drop to 7 if Lee signs with Texas. I’m not convinced our Plan B will even work this off-season, if Lee isn’t a Yankee, leaving us with a weak rotation this season. The other downside to this is if we do go to plan B we are probably going to lose 2 player I look forward to seeing in the future.
9 if Lee signs somewhere else and 7 if he signs with the Yanks. Lee has had more mediocre seasons than brilliant seasons. His World Series performances, in totality, can also best be described as mediocre (admittedly his Division and Championship series performances have been consistently excellent). He’s a cortisone shot or 2 in the back away from turning into a Pavano. Yanks should stay away from this guy, have some faith in the Killer B’s and utilize the payroll flexibility this will give them at the trade deadline when they can better assess where they are going this year.
“Lee has had more mediocre seasons than brilliant seasons.”
not recently
He was excellent with Sea. but mediocre with Tex in 2010. He was good (but not brilliant) in 2009. He was brilliant in 2008 but terrible in 2007. So I would say that any way you’d like to define “recently” Lee fits the mediocre/terrible tag as much as the brilliant/good tag over the most recent 4 seasons.
Steve s- I agree 100% with your assessment. I was thinking exactly the same as you.
His ERA’s and FIP’s the last 3 years:
2010: 3.18 / 2.58
2009: 3.22 / 3.11
2008: 2.54 / 2.83
That’s brilliant over the last 3 seasons.
that.
I agree with you as to 2008 and the Sea 2010 performance but 2009 (231.2 innings pitched and 245 hits with a whip of 1.24) and his performance for Tex in 2010 was hardly brilliant.
…
I’m a 9, but it may actually pop down to an 8 if they sign Lee to that seven year deal.
I think we have a solid core of players and, while many are aging, many are also going to be Yankees for a good long while.
Cano, Montero, Hughes, Teix–they’re a bright and youngish future four. Toss in Swish, Granderson, and Gardner for a few more years at least and we’re looking good. Plus Robertson, Joba (maybe), and the kids down in the farm.
The problem is that once we sign Lee we’re stuck with one more albatross of a contract in a few years, and I don’t want to have the team forced into a situation in which it’s payroll is tied up in dead weight. CC was a lot younger than Lee and has a better track record for injury–and I’d still be terrified at the thought of signing him until 39.
just wait until he opts out next year
If you’re insinuating that we should pass on CC then its essentially leaving us in the same situaiton was not getting Lee in the first place.
not insinuating that all. just that he’s likely to opt out and ask for another 6+ year contract.
Oh got it. Sorry about that.
Yeah, but the Yankees may have Brackman and Banuelos ready for 2012 and hopefully Hughes takes another step forward.
Bingo. We’ve had enough of shelling out millions to aging superstars, yea?
We’re all aging. We can’t help that.
As long as the team is stagerring its support of the back ends of these contracts, I really don’t think it’s at a point yet where it will be detrimental to the team. By the end of the potential Lee deal, won’t it be only him and Alex on the roster from this group? Not exactly crippling, but that’s my opinion.
Look, there’s almost always going to be dead weight on the Yankee roster. Think of it like the deficit in the national budget – they (theoretically) make up for it with the growth of the economy the next year. Only difference is that the Yankees don’t have some insurmountable debt piling up.
Unfortunately, I must join in the “conditional vote” replies…..and here I thought I was being original by doing so….
8 if they sign Lee. About a 7.5 if they don’t and wind up trading prospects for a solid 2/3 type such as Nolasco. 6 if such a trade involves Jesus Montero and/or more than one of our top pitching prospects. That evened out to a vote of 7, counting the rounding off, chi-square, etc.
Hopefully, the “steady hand” Cashman of recent years wins out over the “panic mode” Tampa-controlled Cashman of the mid part of the last decade.
Rangers apparently making a strong move for Beltre. Maybe they know Lee’s signing elsewhere
9 with Lee due to supreme talent and keeping Montero (I can’t wait)
9 without Lee just because we will not be the favorites and can play with a chip on the shoulder/us against everybody attitude which we could use for a change..
2 if Montero is traded
As of 10:43 am on Monday, 6
and now?
Just heard Olney say on ESPN First Take that he “wouldn’t be surprised” to hear soon that the Yankees have an agreement with Russell Martin, pending a physical.
Should have traded Frankie for him when they could. That would have bumped me to an … wait for it … 8.2! (from an 8)
I think Martin will be a much better backup/co-catcher to go with Montero. Certainly hope Montero is give the time to mature and grows into a serviceable defensive catcher, while putting up MONSTER offensive numbers!
*that should b an 8, not an 8)
I think 8) is an excellent rating on the Yankees future. That’s where I stand as well.
The future is too bright! Gotta wear shades.
That would be nice if they signed Martin, I’m not gonna be confident about it till I see something online though.
“The Yankees have continued to be aggressive on C Russ Martin; would not be a surprise if we heard at any time of an agreement.”
That’s from Olneys twitter page.
Rangers are aggressively looking at Adrian Beltre, via MLBTR. Perhaps they got some bad news.
So tweets Karl Ravech on ESPN.
and Ravech is a Yankee hater!
Never gotten that impression. He’s always seemed down the middle to me, but, whatever.
Everybody at the WWL is a Yankee hater.
Dave Winfield isn’t.
He is professional and fair on the air but he is a Sox fan, born and raised.
Nah. He loves to tweak the Yanks. Last year when the Yanks defense was ranked very high, Ravech was on BB Tonight sounding off how the few number of errors the Yanks make was very misleading cause alot of the ground balls to Jeter and Arod were hit directly at them, that they very rarely had to range far for ground balls
His toupee really dislikes the Yankees.
The question is, assuming Lee signs with the Yankees, why would they pursue Beltre? Move him or Young to either 1B or DH? Seems like a waste of Beltre’s defense. Might they actually trade Young then? Not sure they’d get a whole lot for him.
We’ll see.
We really should have set up a pool to bet on the exact time we get the announcement on Lee’s choice. We could have set the official time as whenever it first appears on MLBTR.
I call 3:22 pm.
To clarify this is when MLBTR will first find out, Lee announcement will be later tonight or tomorrow.
I think we will find out at like Midnight.
Amazing, if true, that Cash wouldn’t throw in Nunez for Lee. Nunez! The same guy who we trash here regularly. Whether you can get the guy for money only or not…
This sounds like the whole thing where he wouldn’t throw in Marquez for Johan.
It’s not about the player, it’s about the principle. With Johan, the Twins told the Yankees if they did this this and this they’d have a deal. So they did. And then they wanted more.
Same exact thing with Lee. Cash was just tired of getting fucked around with at the point they asked for Nunez.
Same thing happened with Ynoa. They had a deal then his agent broke his word and Cash refused to renegotiate.
also had to drop to 7 because of the expected loss of andy. not sure I could go back to an 8 unless they sign lee or trade fro greinke. CC, Hughes, AJ + 2 guys like Buehrle or worse would keep me at a 7. at best
Yeah I understand what you mean about “2 guys like Buerhle”, I don’t think if Lee goes to TX and Andy retires that trading for the Nolsaco’s and Buerhle’s of the world is that great of an idea. I think they need one more difference maker at the top of the rotation, like a Greinke or someone at least close to his talent levels.
I really think this should be postponed a day or two.
2. There’s a realistic shot that Mitre is the 5th starter, the “sign this guy or bust” shit has to end. I still want to spend oodles of money on big FAs…but for fuck’s sake. A weak ass 2010 draft, losing Arodys for a replacement level pitcher, and the Joba debacle really biting them in the ass now. I’m not angry, just resigned to the fact that they’ll suck now.