Yankees Offseason

After a pretty surprisingly good 2015 campaign the New York Yankees have a big offseason on their hands. After a predicted 3rd place spot in the AL East coming in to the season, the Yanks did a good job in the season while most of the year they were at the peak of the Division. There were some surprising names such as Alex Rodriguez and Mark Texeira (until an injury toward the end of the season), but in 2016, they will be older and unlikely to repeat they’re greatness. So that means that Brian Cashman and the Yankees have a pretty big winter ahead of them, like usual.

The GM started off already making two trades. The first sending second baseman Jose Pirela to the Padres for a Minor Leaguer. The more recent trade was acquiring Aaron Hicks, an outfielder from the Twins, for catcher John Ryan Murphy. The latter was obviously more significant, seeing two impact players being dealt one to the other. The Yanks gave away a catcher, a position they have depth in with Brian Mccan and young star Gary Sanchez. In return they received an outfielder, while they do have depth in, not as much as the catcher position. In addition Hicks is already an amazing defender and has very solid potential for the future.

The positions where the Yankees may look to improve in are: second base and starting pitcher for the most part. New York has apparently been shopping relief pitchers, but there bullpen should be strong enough with the best setup-closer duo in MLB in Andrew Miller and Dellin Betances. The Yankees are unlikely to resign Stephen Drew, but it’s possible. The Yanks may look at targets such as Ben Zobrist and Daniel Murphy, or might let the young Rob Refsnyder get a chance at being the full time guy at second.

For the starters, the need is clear as every year almost, but it’s not that strong. CC Sabathia may bounce back, Masahiro Tanaka will be awesome if not injured, Ivan Nova still has one more year, and then you have Michael Pineda, who will be good. So you can add a middle-to-top of the rotation guy and the Yankees can hopefully get deep in the 2016 playoffs.

Big games-short post

The Yankees won a huge game Friday night which put them only half a game behind the Toronto Blue Jays. The following day the Yankees lost a very tight game that should have been won, and moved back into a one a half game pit after Toronto’s win saturday. The tough loss is upsetting and gives the bombers a much smaller chance for the AL East title. The Yankees still have 30 games left and could certainly pull off taking the division lead.

Yankees and Coming Back!

I’m so sorry for my lack of writing for such a long time, but I am happy to announce that I am coming back to blogging and covering the Yankees!

So here we go…

The New York Yankees are currently 1 1/5 games behind the Toronto Blue Jays for the AL East Division lead, and 4 games ahead for the first AL Wild Card spot, and this is with 30 games left in the regular season. So when we look at the playoff chances, we are talking about almost a sure spot at the Wild Card, and a reasonable chance at the Division title. Baseball Prospectus has the Yankees at 98 percent chance of making the playoffs, and that’s with 30.2 percent for the division. The fact that the Yanks have been playing so well has contributed to these percentages. The Bombers have won 5 of their last 6 games, but haven’t been able to catch the Blue Jays after they have won 8 of their last 10 and been playing amazing since the Trade Deadline, where they made a few key acquisitions which should boost them strongly into the playoffs, with one of the best offenses in baseball. All the rest of the teams in the East aren’t realistically in the picture anymore with the best after the Yankees being the Tampa Bay Rays with a mere  7.7 percent for the playoffs, and the Orioles and Red Sox both at less than 1 percent.The very interesting thing about this race, other than the fact that its so neck and neck, is that the Blue Jays and Yankees have the top two offenses in runs scored in the majors!

Other than the offense, which has been carrying the Yankees all season long, a couple of young faces have appeared in the Yankees rotation, which have quietly helped the club greatly. Those names are Nathan Eovaldi and Luis Severino. Eovaldi currently has the best winning percentage for all MLB starters with .875 winning percentage. That has come partially because of the run support he gets, but he definitely has been a great surprise. Severino, or “Sevy”, the rookie who came up pretty recently, has had an outstanding 2.19 ERA, and a strikeout per inning. He is young and can carry a good, young Yankees rotation into the playoffs.

Titanium!

I know it’s not baseball, but I just wanted to say that I am happy to release my first ever cover song.

Here’s the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZOmX5Z7kSI Please watch, like, subscibe to my channel, and SHARE!

Yankees for the Wild Card

The New York Yankees currently stand “only” 3 games out of the American League Wild Card race. The are behind the Angels, Mariners, Kansas City, and Baltimore.  In the division, they are in third place, 2.5 games behind Baltimore and Toronto, who both have been having huge seasons.

 If you look what’s to blame the Yankees squad to pretty much fall apart in the past couple of weeks, you could come up with a lot of theories. The pitching, for the most part, has held up until then even after losing 3/5 of the rotation members, CC Sabathia, Ivan Nova and Michael Pineda, but it’s pretty hard for them to win all those games with a very inexperienced staff. 4/5 of the pitchers are rookies who never had a job as a starting pitcher. 

 As far as the offense, it hasn’t been terrible, but after losing big hitters such as Robinson Cano and Curtis Granderson, regular All-Stars, it isn’t so fun to have them replace by Brian Roberts and Jacoby Ellsbury. Also catcher Brian McCann, who was supposed to have a great season, is aging terribly. This has so far been his worst first half of a season. It didn’t either help to have Mark Teixeira and Carlos Beltran on the DL.

 

So after the Yankees have gone 3-7 in their last 10 and lost 3 straight games, I still definitely believe in them to make a strong run for the playoffs, and I think it will happen by the end of the season, which by then the Bombers should be able to pick up their playing level.  

Masahiro Tanaka: Yankees?

 Could it be that the best available free-agent will end up in The Bronx? Possibly. Chances are that he will sign with the Yanks or the Dodgers. 

Masahiro Tanaka, 25, is the highest touted free-agent. He comes from Japan. He just finished a season in the Nippon professional league with a 24-0 record, and an amazing 1.27 ERA. The Yankees, along with the Dodgers, are front runners to sign Tanaka. His suggested contract is at least 17MM and a deal reaching at least 5 years. The prices could and will probably go north of that as a possible 5-year 100MM. The Yankees are now in a big need of starting pitching, seeing as their staff is weak, only with CC Sabathia and Hiroki Kuroda with sure spots. Then their are the weak possibilities of Michael Pineda, Ivan Nova, and Andy Phelps among others.

The Bombers just cleared 27.5MM this year on their payroll, seeing that Alex Rodriguez just got a full season ban. That money should definitely give the Yankees the push and urge to sign the Japanese phenom. After A-Rod lost the arbitration in which saying that he was caught performance-enhancing drugs.

The Dodgers, on the other hand, have plenty of money,(even though they have the highest payroll in the Bigs) and they aren’t afraid to spend a ton of cash to win the sweepstakes. They also have a good pitching rotation, with Zack Greinke, Clayton Kershaw, and Chad Billingsly.

To finish, the Yankees should grab at this big chance to sign a big-time pitcher who can fix the Yankees final problem and stumbling block to the World Series in 2014.

Yankees expected to meet with Masahiro Tanaka

Yankees Needs

 After a long and spending start of the winter, the New York Yankees picked up 3 star players. Jacoby Ellsbury(7 years 153m), Brian Mccann(5 years 85m), and Carlos Beltran(3 years 45m). Ellsbury is a center fielder, while the previous one, Curtis Granderson, signed with the Mets. Beltran will be reportedly covering the right-field area, and Mccann will be the new catcher as Chris Stewart was traded to the Pirates. It all seems like good, big deals, but is it enough to fill the needs and the big loss of the franchise player, Robinson Cano?

 The Yankees recently picked up Kelly Johnson who might be able to fill in the second-base job. He is a solid player who was previously on the Rays. The Yankees, but, are shopping Omar Infante. They reportedly offered him a deal of 4 years 24m, but he refused saying he wants in the range of 4 years 40m. The Yankees also need to sign at least one starting pitcher and closer. Options for starting pitcher which the Yankees are interested in are: Justin Masterson, Ervin Santana, Matt Garza and Ubaldo Jimenez. The Yankees have monotonously said that they will surely pick up one of them. As for a closer they could use David Robertson, a very good, young reliever who pitched for the past few years under Mariano Rivera, or they can sign Grant Balfour, a big-time closer who played on the Athletics.

So if the Yanks can fill their needs will they or will they not make the playoffs next year?

(comment your opinion)

Yankees notes & quotes from the Winter Meetings

Yankees- Postseason Miracle?

Can the New York Yankees make a stunning comeback all the way to get to the postseason? Probably not, but it’s possible. Look, the Yankees are now only 3.5 games behind the Tampa Bay Rays for the second AL Wild Card with 27 games left to play.

The Yanks are currently 6-4 in their last 10 games with a 2 game winning streak, as apposed to the Rays, who are 3-7 in their last 10 contests with a 3 game losing streak.

 I like the fact that the Yankees are hotter and better lately, and this momentum might be able to carry them to the postseason.

Please post comments or questions on my thinking below if you wish.