River Avenue Blues

Cervelli & Mustelier keep hitting in winter ball

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The Arizona Fall League season ended a few weeks ago, so check out this post for the final statistics.

Australian Baseball League
RHP Zach Arneson: 8 G, 8 IP, 1 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 10 K, 1 HB, 1 WP (1.13 ERA, 0.50 WHIP)

Dominican Winter League (season ends on Friday)
OF Abe Almonte: 25 G, 16-73, 8 R, 1 2B, 2 3B, 5 RBI, 7 BB, 18 K, 7 SB, 2 CS (.219/.288/.288) — perhaps he would have been picked in the Rule 5 Draft with a bigger winter ball showing
OF Zoilo Almonte: 1 G, 0-1
OF Melky Mesa: 9 G, 11-35, 8 R, 4 2B, 2 HR, 8 RBI, 3 BB, 11 K, 1 SB (.314/.367/.600)
IF Eduardo Nunez: 8 G, 9-33, 2 R, 2 2B, 4 RBI, 4 K, 1 SB (.273/.273/.333)
C Gary Sanchez: 7 G, 5-21, 1 R, 1 2B, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 2 BB, 6 K (.238/.304/.429) — didn’t play last week
LHP Juan Cedeno: 22 G, 26.1 IP, 22 H, 12 R, 11 ER, 10 BB, 18 K, 2 HB, 5 WP (3.76 ERA, 1.22 WHIP) — up to 75 appearances and 90.1 IP this year
RHP Kelvin Perez: 17 G, 18 IP, 13 H, 8 R, 7 ER, 8 BB, 8 K, 3 HR, 1 WP (3.50 ERA, 1.17 WHIP)
RHP Jose Ramirez: 9 G, 2 GS, 19 IP, 14 H, 11 R, 9 ER, 12 BB, 23 K, 2 HR, 4 HB (4.26 ERA, 1.37 WHIP)
LHP Francisco Rondon: 9 G, 5.1 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 4 BB, 10 K, 1 HR, 1 WP (3.38 ERA, 2.06 WHIP)

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Rosenthal: Yankees, Angels talked Vernon Wells

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11:23am: Jon Heyman says the Angels would need the eat “almost all” of the $42M owed to Wells through next season for the Yankees to take him. They aren’t close to a deal or anything.

10:00am: Via Ken Rosenthal: The Yankees and Angels discussed Vernon Wells at the Winter Meetings. The Halos have a glut of outfielders after signing Josh Hamilton, though they prefer to move Wells or (non-outfielder) Kendrys Morales rather than Peter Bourjos or Mark Trumbo.

Wells, 34, has been abysmal during his two years with the Angels, hitting just .222/.258/.409 (82 wRC+) in 791 plate appearances. The Yankees were presumably looking at him for his right-handed bat, which he’s used to hit .266/.313/.481 (119 wRC+) against southpaws the last two seasons*. Wells is owed $21M in both 2013 and 2014, and Rosenthal says the Angels know they’ll have to eat most of that to facilitate a trade. If the Halos take a fringy prospect in return and eat enough salary to make him a ~$2M per year player, it would be merely bad instead of horrible.

* That’s better than I expected, but here are his wRC+’s by year from 2009-2012: 55, 67, 134, 88. One of those things is not like the other.

Saturday Night Open Thread

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Had myself a nice little Saturday and I hope you all did as well. Here’s the nightly open thread to unwind. The Knicks and Nets are both playing, but talk about whatever you like here. Enjoy.

Yankees sign Gil Velazquez to minor league deal

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Via Joel Sherman: The Yankees have signed infielder Gil Velazquez to a minor league contract. I assume he received an invitation to Spring Training, but who knows.

Velazquez, 33, has hit .236/.253/.250 (34 wRC+) in just 75 big league at-bats with the Red Sox, Angels, and Marlins over the years. He’s a career .267/.329/.366 hitter in over 2,400 Triple-A plate appearances, and he has a ton of experience at the three non-first base infield positions. Velazquez essentially takes the place of Ramiro Pena, that emergency infielder teams like to keep stashed in Triple-A.

Pena, meanwhile, recently landed a guaranteed one-year deal from the Braves according to Mark Bowman. Good for him.

Murti: Troy Glaus reached out to Yankees about a comeback

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Via Sweeny Murti: Retired third baseman Troy Glaus reached out to the Yankees about a potential comeback in the wake of Alex Rodriguez’s new hip injury. The team instead signed Kevin Youkilis to fill-in at third base. Cody Ransom, who filled in for A-Rod during his first hip surgery in 2009, reached out to the team as well.

Glaus, 36, hasn’t played since 2010 but is supposedly 100% physically after battling knee and shoulder problems late in his career. He had some monster years with the Angels in the early-aughts (including a league-leading 47 homers in 2000), though he finished his career by hitting .240/.344/.400 (104 wRC+) with the Braves in 2010 while playing first base because the shoulder problems prevented him from making the throw from third (also, Chipper Jones). The Yankees need a right-handed bat (preferably in the outfield) and if Glaus is willing to come to camp and compete for a spot as a non-roster player, I’d be all for it. There’s no way he should get a guaranteed contract though.

Friday Night Open Thread

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Happy Friday everyone. Please keep everyone up in Connecticut and at Sandy Hook Elementary School in your thoughts tonight, I know that’s very close to home for a lot of people here. Humans can be so horrible sometimes.

It’s official: Youk’s a Yank

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The Yankees have officially signed Kevin Youkilis to a one-year contract worth $12M, the team announced. “It was a little bit of a surprise … they just jumped out from out of nowhere,” said Youkilis during a conference call with reporters, an indication of how off-the-radar he was until Alex Rodriguez’s new hip injury was confirmed.

To make room on the 40-man roster, Josh Spence was designated for assignment. The Yankees claimed the left-handed reliever off waivers from the Padres last month. Spence, 24, has pitched to a 3.15 ERA (3.92 FIP) in 40 innings for San Diego over the last two seasons. He’s an extreme soft-tosser (mid-80s fastball, mid-70s curveball) with a funky arm angle cut right from the Clay Rapada cloth.