Off Topic · Yankees Talk thread (page 462)

cc reportedly has lost 30lbs this offseason so far... not sure it matters but i guess any weight loss for him is a good idea health-wise lol

nyk4ever wrote:cc reportedly has lost 30lbs this offseason so far... not sure it matters but i guess any weight loss for him is a good idea health-wise lol

He needs to lose a lot more than that, but you're right. He's a horse, but that huge body isn't going to last forever and it's not going to last long if he stays like that.

nyk4ever wrote:cc reportedly has lost 30lbs this offseason so far... not sure it matters but i guess any weight loss for him is a good idea health-wise lol

Really? That's quite surprising since I thought he was at the same weight his whole career, including his Cy Young level seasons.

apparently Joba took half of the weight CC lost in the offseason & put it on himself

http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/yankees/j...

No pics? I want to see how fat he is?

LOL - he got really big!

New coach knows Yankees need better Burnett
Tw
3:23 PM, February 10, 2011 ι By BRIAN COSTELLO

TAMPA -- It's no secret what job one is for new Yankees pitching coach Larry Rothschild: Fix A.J. Burnett.

The Yankees starter had a disastrous 2010, going 10-15 with a 5.26 ERA. Rothschild replaced fired Dave Eiland in November, and met with Burnett for two days last month at Burnett's home in Maryland.

Rothschild, who had been the Cubs pitching coach for the past nine years, came away from his session convinced Burnett is ready to bounce back.

"He's a guy that's had success," Rothschild said Thursday afternoon. "He's a guy with good stuff. His arm is healthy, and his head's in a good spot. There's a lot of positives there. Where it goes from here? We'll see. But I think he's coming in with the right intention in mind and that's a good place to start."

Rothschild, 56, is getting used to his new job. He lives 12 minutes away from the Yankees minor-league complex, and has been there for much of the last month watching the team's young pitchers and the few major leaguers that have shown up.

All of the team's pitchers and catchers report Monday with their first spring training workout scheduled for Tuesday.

With Burnett, the problem has always been more mental than physical.

"I think that's an easy place to go when things aren't happening right," Rothschild said. "There's some validity with that with anybody whether it's A.J. or anybody else. I think to get him right mechanically and get him throwing the ball the way he can I think you'll see a different presence on the mound and I think you'll see a guy that's a little different."

Rothschild also touched on a few other pressing isssues:

His feelings on the back end of the starting rotation: "I don't know because I don't know what it is. I think when we get toward the end of spring I would hope that we all feel good about it. [Ivan] Nova's certainly a young kid with good enough stuff and there's some young guys that have good arms that maybe aren't quite ready but have some presence and we'll see with the guys coming in whether it's [Sergio] Mitre or [Bartolo] Colon, [Freddy] Garcia, that group of guys. Hopefully the decision is made tough because they've all pitched well enough that it looks like they can help us. We don't want it to be a tough decision because we don't know which way to go."

On Joba Chamberlain: "He came up and did so much, so early. It was a tough act to follow, I think. The stuff is there. From what he's telling me, his arm feels good and you can tell there's quickness to it. It's really with him settling in and more day-to-day as far as getting it done and getting him throwing the ball downhill. When he does, the ball comes out really well and being able to consistently do that I think the breaking ball will follow suit off that.

"There's guys that have gone through worse times than he has. It's just that he came up so quick and was such a rock star when he came up because of what he did. I saw it on TV and said, wow, that's pretty good stuff."

On the bullpen: "I think if you wipe out the eighth and ninth [innings] with guys, then you start wiping out the seventh. Back in '90 with Cincinnati [Rothschild was the bullpen coach] we wiped out games from the sixth inning on with [Rob] Dibble, [Norm] Charlton and [Randy] Myers. If you can get in those situations, it changes games pretty quickly when teams understand that you've got five-plus innings to score off these guys."

You never know about Joba - he could really flourish with a clearly defined role and no innings limitations. I'm also trying to think really positve about AJ. If AJ can have a stellar season and both CC and Hughes pitch well, we end up with a pretty good 1,2,3 pitching core and keep the games short with our RP's. I'm not super enthusiastic about the moves we've made this offseason (and am scared of the Sawx a bit), but TB is no longer a top team and we can easily win games with our offense.

Anyone thinking about going to opening day?

Now this makes me excited...

Tom Pelissero of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities hears that the Twins are indeed discussing the possibility of trading Francisco Liriano.
This confirms a story by Joe Christensen of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. Pelissero writes that the Twins are in no rush to deal Liriano, who is under team control through 2012, but they would be willing to part with him if the right offer came along. Not surprisingly, he names the Yankees and Rangers as two possibilities. A deal makes some sense if the organization feels they wouldn't be able to sign him to a long-term deal or if they simply aren't willing to gamble on his health, but a trade would be a tough sell for Twins fans.

jusnice wrote:Now this makes me excited...

Tom Pelissero of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities hears that the Twins are indeed discussing the possibility of trading Francisco Liriano.
This confirms a story by Joe Christensen of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. Pelissero writes that the Twins are in no rush to deal Liriano, who is under team control through 2012, but they would be willing to part with him if the right offer came along. Not surprisingly, he names the Yankees and Rangers as two possibilities. A deal makes some sense if the organization feels they wouldn't be able to sign him to a long-term deal or if they simply aren't willing to gamble on his health, but a trade would be a tough sell for Twins fans.

depends on what they'd want... if Montero is the goods like the Yankees say he is then i dunno if i wanna trade him for Liriano, he's been sorta up & down in his career & not very durable... if we could get him for any of our other prospects i'd be down to take the risk.

a few years ago Joba Chamberlain was an untouchable prospect, the top chip in our farm system... now Cashman is talking about him & saying he's not even guaranteed a roster spot... this kid has fallen off a cliff since then... the way this kid was handled has been a big hot mess... i just hope the weight gain isn't a result of a lack of work ethic but it's not looking good.

http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/yankees/c...

Yeah, I saw that article yesterday too. Thought about the movie Bronx Tale, where DeNiro tells his son (Calodijo sp?) that the worst thing in life is wasted potential or talent. Having said that, I'm cautiously optimistic that he can find a role on this team and flourish. I'm also cautiously optimistic about this team. Not willing to get down. We have a great offense and our rotation could end up to be very solid.

what's everyone think about this CC contract thing? I think it's awesome. If he wants to go out and pitch 250 innings at a 3.00 ERA... that's some serious help

any reason to add a little extra motivation is fine with me... just hope CC doesn't end up opting out cuz we passed on trading for Cliff Lee when we had the chance... could very well be looking at winning 3 straight championships if we had made that deal & gave up Eduardo Nunez.

TMS wrote:any reason to add a little extra motivation is fine with me... just hope CC doesn't end up opting out cuz we passed on trading for Cliff Lee when we had the chance... could very well be looking at winning 3 straight championships if we had made that deal & gave up Eduardo Nunez.

where was it reported that cashman refused to give up nunez? i thought a deal involving montero and another guy had been agreed upon, which was reported on ESPN, and then the mariners backed out to get smoak from the rangers. unless otherwise, i don't think the no-deal for lee can be pinned on cashman. a deal was in place! it was the M's that backed out. (unless reports to the contrary, i don't recall eddy nunez being the hold up.)

BigSm00th wrote:

TMS wrote:any reason to add a little extra motivation is fine with me... just hope CC doesn't end up opting out cuz we passed on trading for Cliff Lee when we had the chance... could very well be looking at winning 3 straight championships if we had made that deal & gave up Eduardo Nunez.

where was it reported that cashman refused to give up nunez? i thought a deal involving montero and another guy had been agreed upon, which was reported on ESPN, and then the mariners backed out to get smoak from the rangers. unless otherwise, i don't think the no-deal for lee can be pinned on cashman. a deal was in place! it was the M's that backed out. (unless reports to the contrary, i don't recall eddy nunez being the hold up.)

Joel Sherman reported it was the Yankees that refused to part with Eduardo Nunez & that's what nixed the deal... hard to believe if true but that's what i've read... here are some links:

http://riveraveblues.com/2010/07/on-edua...

The ties that bind Eduardo Nunez and Cliff Lee
By Benjamin Kabak

Meet Eduardo Nunez. The 23-year-old short stop out of the Dominican Republic signed with the Yankees in 2004. For AAA Scranton this year, Nunez is hitting .305/.354/.405, and his 107 hits are tops in the International League. He may also be the reason why the Yankees did not acquire Cliff Lee on Friday.

As the story goes, the Yankees and Mariners had a handshake agreement late Thursday night for a swap that would have sent Cliff Lee to the Yankees and Jesus Montero, David Adams and Zach McAllister to Seattle. When Seattle took a look at Adams’ medicals and determined that something in the reports about Adams’ ankle injuries were alarming, they balked on the deal. As Joel Sherman relates this morning, the Mariners went back to Yanks’ GM Brian Cashman and requested Nunez. Here’s how Sherman, clearly with some help from Yankee sources, tells the story:

However, the only way Seattle would have considered accepting a Yankee package once Smoak was included by Texas was if touted Triple-A shortstop Eduardo Nunez was included with Montero. That was the Mariners’ initial request earlier in the month and the Yankees had refused, and they refused again. They simply could not justify, in their mind, giving up their two best position prospects at Triple-A for this trade because they wanted Lee, but they did not absolutely need Lee.

Did the Yanks think Lee was a piece that greatly increased their chances to win a 28th championship? Yes. But at the time of the trade the Yanks had the best record in the majors and believed they could win the championship without Lee and, therefore, could not justify giving up two high-end talents that are nearly major-league ready for Lee, especially because Lee is a free agent after the year and besides the prospect the Yanks would have to pay top-of-the-market dollars to retain Lee.

http://captnsblog.wordpress.com/2010/12/...

Let’s journey back to July 8 (amusingly, the same day LeBron James made his infamous “Decision”) for a moment. According to numerous published reports, the Yankees had acquired Lee from the Mariners for Montero and a package of secondary prospects. The deal was so close to being consummated that Lee even reached out to Sabathia for advice on where to look for a house. The next morning, however, the nomadic lefty found himself headed not to New York, but to Texas. Why? Because the Mariners became concerned about an injury to minor league second baseman David Adams and Cashman refused to substitute Eduardo Nunez or Ivan Nova in the deal.

Although it was first reported that the Mariners backed out of the deal, later clarification revealed that it was actually Cashman who turned them away. Although no one could blame him for being shy about dealing Montero, the fact of the matter is he had already decided to part with the Yankees’ top prospect. In other words, it was really Nunez or Nova who held up the deal.

http://bronxbaseballdaily.com/?p=9102

Most people know this story. We covered it blow by blow that day (you can read our account here). But there are always people late to the party, so here is a pretty good rundown by Joel Sherman of the NY Post:

In actuality, once [Justin Smoak] was put into the offer by Texas, it is possible the Yankees never had a second chance on [Cliff Lee]. But for a few tantalizing hours as July 8 turned to July 9, the Yankees believed “we had him,” in Cashman’s words. “We had a deal in principle pending physicals.”

Lee was scheduled to face the Yankees on July 9 at Safeco Field, but it became obvious in the 48 hours beforehand that Seattle would not let that occur. Zduriencik said by phone that was because he wanted to maximize Lee’s value with extra starts to the obtaining team and minimize the injury risk before he could be dealt. But the speed to move Lee led to messiness, involving prospects in the packages and ultimately the Mariners’ tactics.

Around 9 p.m. Eastern Time on July 8, Seattle agreed with the Yankeees to accept [Jesus Montero], [David Adams] and righty Zach McAllister for Lee, and the sides swapped medical info. Around 3 a.m. Zduriencik called Cashman to say Seattle team doctors were concerned about Adams’ right ankle. This confused the Yankees. Adams had been out since injuring his ankle sliding May 23, yet the Mariners kept insisting he had to be included and the Yankees only relented that night.

Seattle’s concerns proved valid, as subsequent tests weeks later revealed a fracture and not a sprain for Adams.

Over the next several hours Seattle asked the Yankees to replace Adams. The Yankees offered touted righty Adam Warren. The Mariners said either [Ivan Nova] or [Eduardo Nunez] must be the replacement, which was their initial position a week earlier. Cashman refused, stating the Yankees would not yield significantly more to get Lee for half a season than Philadelphia had given Cleveland to obtain Lee for a season and a half or Seattle had given Philadelphia to get Lee for a season.

Also, the Yankees came to believe Seattle had not shut down conversations with Texas. There are no written rules, but general protocol is that once a deal in principle is reached, then the trading teams go silent with other clubs.

“A deal is not final until it is final. Besides that, I will not rehash private conversations from trade discussions,” Zduriencik said.

“They had a huge asset and a major decision,” Cashman said, “and I have no problems with what they did.”

With the Yankees’ pursuit public, Texas caved and finally included Smoak about 11 a.m. July 9. The switch-hitting first baseman was Seattle’s priority. So maybe a Montero/Nova or Nunez deal would not have sufficed anyway. But the Yankees will never know because Cashman refused to make that offer.

I heard on Boomer and Carton that Joba came to camp 10-15 lbs heavier. The guy needed to lose weight in the first place and now this. That's two bad offseasons in a row now. Great.

interesting TMS.

and how would you feel if the yanks gave up montero AND nunez and then lee signed with philly in the offseason.

why would lee have necessarily stayed in NY?

BigSm00th wrote:interesting TMS.

and how would you feel if the yanks gave up montero AND nunez and then lee signed with philly in the offseason.

why would lee have necessarily stayed in NY?

from all accounts it seems we were already committed to trading Montero, Adams & McAllister for him anyway... apparently from what i've been reading after the M's became concerned w/Adam's injury issues they approached the Yanks & asked for a replacement in the deal & the Yankees declined, so they went to the Rangers & asked for Smoak to be included & they could have Lee & they accepted the deal... this has been reported on by Ken Rosenthal too, so i'm assuming there's some truth to these reports & it's not just a figment of Joel Sherman's imagination.

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/texas...

anyway it's kinda hard to argue hypotheticals, all we can do is argue what actually happened, & if what Sherman & Rosenthal reported is true then we missed out on the top available pitcher who helped beat us in the playoffs last year because we were unwilling to give up Eduardo Nunez... that's a tough pill to swallow.

TMS wrote:

BigSm00th wrote:interesting TMS.

and how would you feel if the yanks gave up montero AND nunez and then lee signed with philly in the offseason.

why would lee have necessarily stayed in NY?

from all accounts it seems we were already committed to trading Montero, Adams & McAllister for him anyway... apparently from what i've been reading after the M's became concerned w/Adam's injury issues they approached the Yanks & asked for a replacement in the deal & the Yankees declined, so they went to the Rangers & asked for Smoak to be included & they could have Lee & they accepted the deal... this has been reported on by Ken Rosenthal too, so i'm assuming there's some truth to these reports & it's not just a figment of Joel Sherman's imagination.

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/texas...

anyway it's kinda hard to argue hypotheticals, all we can do is argue what actually happened, & if what Sherman & Rosenthal reported is true then we missed out on the top available pitcher who helped beat us in the playoffs last year because we were unwilling to give up Eduardo Nunez... that's a tough pill to swallow.

very true. and you're right, hindsight is 20/20.

but we can all agree that if cliff lee came here and then walked, we would be upset for having done the deal in the first place.