Movin’ the mud
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Yesterday, this motley crew of late-1990s Yankees gathered to move some dirt and home plate from one stadium to the other. In town for the Joe Torre Safe at Home Foundation dinner honoring the 1998 team, Jeff Nelson, Scott Brosius, Paul O’Neill and David Cone were among the Yankee luminaries who took part in this ceremony.
The weather, as MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo wrote, wasn’t the most cooperative, and the ceremony turned into one involving more mud than dirt. But in the end, everyone seemed to offer up praise for the new stadium.
Check out MLB.com’s photogallery of the event here.
BA’s Top 10 Yankees’ Prospects
By · CommentsVia Steve, who apparently gets his print edition of the magazine a full week before I do:
- Austin Jackson,OF
- Jesus Montero, C
- Andrew Brackman, RHP
- Austin Romine, C
- Dellin Betances, RHP
- Zach McAllister, RHP
- Al Aceves, RHP
- Phil Coke, LHP
- Mark Melancon, RHP
- Bradley Suttle, 3B
Aceves and Coke? Really?
Sure both guys are big league ready, but they’re low ceiling, back-end starter types. Melancon has a much higher ceiling, and he’s just as big league ready as those two guys. Plus he’s about three years younger. Eh, whatever.
No qualms with the rest of the list, although I would have squeezed Jeremy Bleich into the 9 or 10 spot.
Kennedy debuts in Puerto Rico
By · CommentsUpdate (1:40pm): Phil Hughes is pitching for Peoria in a few hours. You can find the eventual Gameday link here.
Just a heads up, Baseball America will be posting their Yanks’ top 10 prospects list this Monday. I had stuff to do yesterday, so the regular Friday chat will be held Monday afternoon.
AzFL Peoria (13-4 loss to the other Peoria) season ends on Nov. 20th
Kevin Russo: 2 for 4, 1 CS – extends the hit streak to 16 games … that’s pretty impressive, it can’t be easy to maintain a hit streak like that when you’re not playing every day & hitting in a different spot in the order while playing a different position when you do play
Austin Jackson: 1 for 4, 1 R, 1 K – just 3 for his last 29 (.103)
Juan Miranda: 0 for 4, 4 K – wear that Golden Sombrero with pride, amigo
HWB Waikiki (2-0 win over Honolulu)
Damon Sublett: 0 for 3, 1 K
Jeremy Bleich: 5 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 9 K, 3-4 GB/FB – 51 of 65 pitches were strikes (78.5% !!!) … first action since Oct. 24th, so it looks like elbow surgery will have to wait another day … he’s rockin’ a 28-1 K/BB ratio in his last 24.2 IP (4 starts)
PRWL Mayaguez (8-2 win over Santurce)
Ian Kennedy: 4 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 5 K, 1 HB, 1-5 GB/FB – it’s a ~50 game season, so he should be able to get about 45-50 innings in, which would put him at ~165 IP on the year, meaning he’s good for close to 200 innings next season
Thursday’s Games
AzFL Peoria (7-0 win over Surprise)
Austin Jackson: 0 for 4, 1 R, 1 BB, 1 K
Juan Miranda: 1 for 4, 1 R, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 1 BB, 1 K – had been in an 0 for 14 slump coming into this game
Jeff Marquez: 5 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 3 K, 8-2 GB/FB – 44 of 69 pitches were strikes (63.8%) … picked a runner off second … he really needed a good outing just for his confidence, he’d allowed 20 baserunners & 8 ER in his previous 10 IP (4 appearances)
HWB Waikiki had a scheduled off day.
ByIt looks like the Yanks forgot to pay the rent. According to a rather boring and technical audit — aren’t they all like that? — by New York City Comptroller William Thompson (available here as a PDF), the Yankees misreported some attendance, revenue sharing and cable numbers. As a result, the team owes the city $11 million in Yankee Stadium back rent. The Yanks do not dispute these findings — which include some lofty numbers on concession sales — and have submitted $7 million to the city. The rest the team will fork over in March. It looks like in the midst of a financial crisis, New York City is going to crack down on delinquent bills. · (11) ·
If Moose retires, CC becomes a necessity
By · CommentsJoe Torre hosted his annual Safe at Home Foundation dinner last night. While the news out of the annual gathering of Yankee luminaries included much of what we already know, Joe Girardi dropped something of a Mike Mussina bombshell.
As far as the Yankee skipper knows, Mussina will be calling it quits some time soon. While this is information Moose passed onto Girardi at the end of the season, Joe had no reason to expect Moose to change his mind.
For the Yankees, this decision has immediate impact. Moose threw 200.1 innings last year to the tune of a 3.37 ERA. He won 20 games for the first time in his career and was 12th in the AL in VORP for pitchers, trailing James Shields by just a few tenths of a point. In other words, he was the Yankee ace, and while he probably wasn’t going to duplicate these numbers next year, his potential departure leaves a gaping hole in the front end of the Yankee rotation, Andy Pettitte or no Andy Pettitte.
Enter Derek Jeter. It seems that Mr. Jeter is fulfilling his role as captain. As NJ.com’s Ed Price reported a few hours ago, Derek and CC Sabathia had a chat about New York. Derek didn’t go into detail, but it sounds like the two players had a nice talk about coming to New York. Clearly, the recruiting effort is on.
If the Yanks land Sabathia — and that’s a big “if” right now with so many other teams involved — the deal will be fraught with risks. The Yankees will be committing a lot of money and a lot of years to a pitcher who has racked up 1659.1 innings and is just a few months past his 28th birthday. In fact, only 45 other players in the history of the game have thrown more innings by that age. As with any long-term deal, it’s a risk.
I believe that it’s a risk the Yankees have to take. Sabathia would immediately stabilize the Yankee rotation and give them a front-end trio with the potential to be as good as any other team in baseball. How many times would you imagine the Yanks losing three games in a row with Sabathia, Chien-Ming Wang and Joba Chamberlain throwing in back-to-back-to-back games?
Of course, the Yankees have a lot of competition for Sabathia. He likes the NL; he’s very good at pitching in the NL and seems to enjoy hitting too. He could end up back near his home in Southern California as well. But the Yankees are interested, and they’re going to put the full-court press on. With Mussina out of the pitcher, Sabathia is the ace the Yanks need. Here’s to hoping they can land him.
Friday evening Hot Stove open thread
By · CommentsIt’s a rather quiet day around baseball. The GMs are home; the awards come next week; and the rumors have slowed down. Of interest to Yankee fans are two MLBTR posts.
The first notes that the Brewers expect a counteroffer from CC Sabathia, but this counteroffer won’t come until after other teams can enter the bidding. This leaves the Yanks in a bit of a precarious position. If Sabathia goes back to the Brewers with a counterproposal, it basically means that he’s interested in staying in Milwaukee. The Yanks would have to overwhelm him with an offer to draw him to New York, and that means the team would be bidding against itself. Is it worth it? (My answer: Probably.)
The other post is a simple rundown of Yankee rumors. In a nutshell, it seems that since today is a day that ends in Y, The Post has yet another self-generated Robinson Cano rumor; nobody wants Kei Igawa; the Yanks could bring back both Mike Mussina and Andy Pettitte; and Mark Teixeira can probably handle the pressure of playing in New York. What a relief.
Unless anything major breaks, the three of us will be out enjoying our Friday evenings. Feel free to use this as a general open thread on the Hot Stove, Stephon Marbury or Justin Tuck’s ridiculous fine. In fact, if someone can convincingly explain to me how this hit managed to generate a $7500 levy, I’ll buy ‘em a beer.
2008 Minor League Free Agents
By · CommentsBaseball America put out the list of this year’s minor league free agents, 561 in all. The Yanks:
RHP: Oneli Perez (AAA), Scott Strickland (AAA), Jose Valdez (AA), Victor Zambrano (AAA)
LHP: Eric Milton (AAA), Edgar Soto (Hi A)
C: Ben Blumenthal (Lo A), Jason Brown (AAA), Chris Stewart (AAA)
1B: Ben Broussard (AAA), Josh Kreuzer (Hi A)
2B: Bernie Castro (AAA), Nick Green (AAA)
3B: Carlos Mendoza (AA)
SS: Chris Basak (AAA)
OF: Matt Carson (AAA), Edwar Gonzalez (AA), , C.J. Henry (Hi A)
No big losses, all filler types. Eric Hacker & Wilkins DeLaRosa would also have become free agents, but the Yanks added them to the 40-man roster to prevent that. Of course the fun part of this list is digging for sleepers, so here we go: 1B Scott Thorman (ATL), RHP Lee Gronkiewicz (BOS), LHP Carmen Pignatiello (CHC), RHP Zach McClellan (COL), RHP Yorman Bazardo (DET), SS Sergio Santos (MIN), 3B Mike Cervenak (PHI), CF Chris Duffy (PIT), RHP Kevin Cameron (SD), LHP Erick Threets (SF), and 3B Joel Guzman (TB). Couple of upside guys that might figure it out, and a ton of bullpen arms. Can’t have too many of those.
There’s also a couple interesting ex-Yanks’ prospects that I would mind seeing back in the organization, namely OF John-Ford Griffin (LAD), LHP Danny Borrell (OAK), LHP Matt Smith (PHI), and the immortal LHP Sean Henn (SD). Ah memories.
The Organizational Depth Chart has been updated.
Report: Cameron trade seems unlikely
By · CommentsWhile yesterday we recognized that the Yanks were still interested in Mike Cameron, today a trade with the Brewers seems less likely. Ken Davidoff and Kat O’Brien do not believe the Yanks will acquire the center fielder.
The Yankees have held talks with the Brewers about acquiring centerfielder Mike Cameron, but as the general managers’ meetings wrapped up Thursday in Dana Point, Calif., they were not optimistic about landing him…
Talks with the Brewers about Cameron began before this week’s meetings, although word leaked out only the past couple of days. Yankees centerfielder Melky Cabrera and righthanded pitcher Ian Kennedy have been discussed, although a source said the Yankees are not inclined to include Kennedy in such a trade.
I’m fairly amused that the Brewers are interested in Melky Cabrera and Ian Kennedy considering how many RAB commenters seem to believe that Melky and Kennedy can basically land us whatever we want. On the surface, I’m definitely not opposed to trading these two players and in tandem. However, I agree with the Yankees; I’m not inclined to include Kennedy in a deal for 36 year old with a career OBP of .340 due to make $10 million next year.
The Yanks don’t really need a center fielder next year. They’re happy to go into the season with some combination of Johnny Damon, Melky and Brett Gardner unless a good deal comes along. I’d rather see the Yanks use their resources — Kennedy, Melky, etc. — to acquire a first baseman of some pitching, and if that means missing out on Cameron, well, then I’m fine with it.
Yet another new commemorative logo for 2009
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That, folks, is the latest marketing ploy/commemorative logo that will soon decorate Yankee gear the world over. For the second year in a row, the Yanks will be able to offer up special merchandise decked out in stadium regalia.
This past year, the Yanks made a killing by selling items with the All Star logo and Yankee Stadium patch. Right now, memorabilia-obsessed nuts — such as, um, me — can buy hats, t-shirts and key chains with this latest design. See? This stuff is already on sale just in time for the holidays. You have to admire the marketing geniuses who came up with this commemorative patch craze. MLB has certainly exploited it through the World Series, Opening Day, the All Star Game and just about everything else.
Meanwhile, it’s certainly grating to see the new stadium referred to as Yankee Stadium here. Maybe one day, I’ll get used to that.
ByIt’s a quiet night in Yankee-land. The GMs are heading home, and the dealing won’t come down for a few more days. But for playoff-watchers, the General Managers are close to making a significant change. They want to do away with coin-flip tiebreaker scenarios. Right now, MLB determines home-field advantage for potential tiebreaker games based on a series of coin flips. The GMs would rather see the advantage awarded to the teams with the best records in head-to-head competition. Either way, it’s all kind of arbitrary, but this seems more fair than a bunch of coin tosses. · (15) ·
