I don't think we will ever get a full season with Tex anymore and will probably see McCann playing first
Im telling you Steinbrenner is rolling in his grave. See the disgusting comments made by Lon Trost? Him and Randy Levine are running the Yankees like they are Goldman Sachs not a baseball team. They will keep losing fans until the Steinbrenner kids snap out of it. You can't keep missing the playoffs and then charge these absurd prices
Reading some glowing reports about James Kaprielian. Supposedly his fastball velocity was topping out around 96-97 since going pro (Staten Island Yankees, GCL Yankees, then in instructional league). That's definitely up from what the early draft scouting reports were saying. If that's true, with his off-speed stuff which is considered above average, he could be a factor sooner than we think. Realistically, you gotta think he's at least a year or two away but some believe he could get fast-tracked and we could see him as early as this year. I've heard the Ian Kennedy comparisons, Phil Hughes, Adam Warren.. Imagine he's even more high end than that--I mean imagine we had another Sonny Gray on our hands here? Very excited to see what he's all about.
Top 3 things I'm looking forward to finding out about as spring training's about to start: (1) Can Castro play 3rd and play it well enough to open up other possibilities (Refsnyder seeing some time at 2B)?, (2) how good James Kaprielian is, and (3) a decision by MLB on Chapman's suspension.
So Chapman got 30 games and he won't be appealing. Hey, about what we thought, right? Sweeny Murti on the MLB Network this morning with some clarifications: said he'll be missing every AL East team once and the Red Sox twice. Also said it's 30 games but if there are rainouts, it doesn't matter--won't get pushed back any further. And he gets to continue playing in spring training AND then continue working out in extended spring training pitching against minor leaguers etc.--that should keep him sharp so when he's ready to join the big club (May 9th?) he'll be ready to go. Harold Reynolds had a problem with that--thinks he should've been banished from the team entirely, no spring training/no extended spring--go think about what you did and get yourself ready w/o the benefit of pitching/working out at a Yankee facility, with their coaches, etc.. Not sure how to feel about that--maybe Harold has a point. I actually think he got off easy. Let's hope he learned his lesson and it goes quick for our sake.
3 key takeaways from today's first ST game:
1 - Severino lost the plate in that 2nd inning but the stuff looked good. He'll get there. They're saying no innings limit--he can go 200 innings+. We'll probably need that out of him...I'd like to see him come up with a slower breaking ball to complement his fastball/slider/power change mix. Like a hard curveball in the low-80s to show once in a while. Take a little off that slider of his--something like that. I think that would help him.
2 - Castro with 2 hits and solid defense. What a great trade by Cash. Dying to see him at 3rd and Refsnyder at 2nd (or vice versa). That's our best offensive infield right there--sorry Headley. Might wind up being our best defense infield alignment as well.
3 - Damn, was Johnny Barbato impressive or what?!? WOW. Another great trade by Cashman. This dude's already a better pitcher than Shawn Kelley. He's gotta be very much in the mix for a bullpen spot from the 5th inning on, right there with fellow power righties Pinder, Rumbelow and Mitchell. Looks like he's a cut above these other guys to be honest (although I'm still a big Bryan Mitchell fan). Mitchell's more suited for long relief/spot starting anyway--I'd like to see him stretched out. Nova too. Probably Nova in the 6th starter/long man role at the ML level; Mitchell performing the same role at AAA if I had to guess. Barbato looks like he could be a real effective short man, though. 95-96, awesome curveball and slider with good variation. Very impressive.
Eovaldi looking great against the Blue Jays so far--hit 99 MPH in the first inning, slider had good bite. What a great sign--looks like he's over the elbow issues. Fingers crossed on the guy. He's shown great improvement with that splitter and could be a real difference maker. Not many starters out there that can sustain mid to upper 90s consistently like this guy can. I bet you can count them on 1 hand. Dude's talking about being a workhorse this year and throwing 200 innings.
The Mets knocked Kaprielian around yesterday a little bit but you could tell the stuff's well above average and he has tremendous mound presence. Very excited about this kid. Definitely looks like a guy who could move up the ladder quickly...Once again, Johnny Barbato looked good yesterday. I think this guy's a lock to make the club. I could see him becoming the best right-handed reliever on the team before we get to Betances.
I see Baltimore got Pedro Alvarez on a 1-yr deal for less than $6mm. That's great value. Nice pickup -- he's got big-time pop and he can play 1B/3B as well as DH. With Bird out for the year, I know Cash had to have looked into this guy. Could've been one hell of an insurance policy for us. Probably came down to the Os guaranteeing more playing time.
Have you guys been watching Spring training? I've just looked at the stats a little bit. I don't have much Yankee optimism any more. I'm not even sure I'm going to spend the money on MLB Extra Innings. It seems pointless. I miss the 90s!
I've listened to a couple of games, just to try and build up my Susan Waldman tolerance.
They had Joe Girardi doing the commentary for about 2 innings during one of the games last week; very entertaining. Actually, anything that gets Susan to shut up is entertaining.
As Finestrg is pointing out, some of the kids have been impressive and the pitching (both starting and relief) looks promising.
I think you can go a notch above 'pointless'.
I know it's early but this is a good team. Better than last year's club and that was a playoff team (barely but still..). I think there are 3 big keys to this team being REALLY GOOD: (1) we need better/more consistent production from the top 2 guys, Ellsbury & Gardy (so far, so good); (2) gotta get something out of Headley (poor year last year and so far this year, everyone seems to be hitting except him -- by far and away my least fav. player on the team. Good guy, just not a standout player at all. I'm sick of carrying him -- DO SOMETHING GUY!!!) and we need to get better starting pitching (Tanaka was OK in the opener but Pineda and Eovaldi were both spotty the next 2 games). If we get even marginal improvements in those 3 areas to go along with the few improvements we made, look out -- i.e. Starlin Castro a VERY GOOD PLAYER--what an OUTSTANDING TRADE. WOW!! ROBBERY!; the improved bullpen: both middle relief AND the backend were greatly improved, if that was even possible because last year's pen was dominant
; we picked up a damn good 4th outfielder in Aaron Hicks; and we even had the luxury of holding off on guys like Refsnyder and Sanchez who I thought were locks to make the team going into spring training--our depth is so good that we now have time to further develop these guys and not rush them. Esp. with Refsnyder--he gets time to learn 3rd, play it everyday at AAA and get comfortable there. Meanwhile, Ronald Torreyes and Austin Romine are very capable. I'm actually very impressed with Torreyes--he earned his spot this spring all the way. Major step up from Brendan Ryan--a good glove all over the infield and he can hit. Can run a little too and he's young (actually younger than Refsnyder so he's essential still a prospect as well). Great pickup. Unlike when Ryan played, I'm actually gonna feel good about having Torreyes in there. If Headley continues to not hit, gimmie this kid Torreyes--we might actually be better off (elevate Castro in the order and with Torreyes hitting 9th, it'd be like having another leadoff hitter there. I actually wanna see this lineup the more I think about it. Just not feeling Headley at all)..
A lot of people are handing this division to the Blue Jays and the Red Sox already -- I say not so fast. Let's let this thing play out here...I love Cashman -- no idea how anyone's ever had a problem with him. The man just knows what he wants, knows what holes need to be plugged at any given time, knows when to hold onto the kids (knew the importance of building up the minor league system in the 1st place--now we're seeing the benefits), etc...The guy is just on point, knows exactly what he's doing. I love how everything's set up the next couple of years -- Tex and Beltran are set to come off the books at the end of the year, then A-Rod and CC the following year. We further integrate more of our own standout young talent coming up and then sit tight for 2018/19 free agency: Bryce Harper, Josh Donaldson, Andrew McCutchen, David Price, Jose Fernandez, Manny Machado, Jason Heyward, Dallas Keuchel, Clayton Kershaw, Matt Harvey...I mean those are all HUGE difference makers and I fully expect us to be in on all of those guys. We're set up to be HUGE players in FA that offseason. In the meantime though, yeah, better team than last year without question. Very well put together. Not cobbled together like the Knicks are continually year after year. And unlike the Knicks, there's actually a gameplan here, A GOOD ONE!! Very bright future on several fronts.
Obviously now everything looks a bit worse! I think most of the projection systems had them winning about 85. So that's probably still a reasonable estimate. To this point, I still haven't bought MLB Extra Innings and haven't watched the games. If the team plays well, I probably will. If I lived in NY and had this on my cable, I'd watch. It's hard for me to get excited enough to spend extra money to watch a bunch of overpaid veterans on a .500 team, though.
I knew that the hitting was going to be putrid, but I thought the pitching was going to be better than this....
Oh well, at least we got a gun of an arm in the outfield...thank you Hicks.
Anybody keeping track if Judge is doing okay in the minors? Reyfsnyder?
Maybe this year will be bad enough that they get rid of Cashman and get someone who can actually use our financial advantage better.
Anyone actually watching the games?
I'm not even bothering to listen to the games anymore. "...so it's 5-0 Tampa in the bottom of the first..."
I'll be watching the Red Sox game this Friday. Only because free food is involved. 
Wonder if Arod will make it to 700 HR this season...
The steinbrenners would probably be making so much more money with a good team. I think they'll have to make major changes after this year unless the team somehow has a shocking turn around.
Regarding your comment, if A-Rod plays most of the season, I assume he'll get to 700 and well beyond.
Wow, when have you seen Dellin Betances get beat like that in two consecutive games? We either get decent enough pitching and don't hit and then on those rarer occasions, we actually hit enough but then don't get the pitching. This team has lost it's way big-time. Thank God it's still early--about the only good thing you can say right now. There are some good signs. For one thing, there's talent here and we're obviously not this bad. Castro's been productive (I'd think about hitting him 3rd and pushing everyone else down a spot), A-Rod has bounced back nicely the last couple of games after Joe gave him a game off and throughout the whole team, pitching and the regulars, you know just about every guy is capable of doing more. Hopefully it starts clicking soon.
Finestrg wrote:Wow, when have you seen Dellin Betances get beat like that in two consecutive games? We either get decent enough pitching and don't hit and then on those rarer occasions, we actually hit enough but then don't get the pitching. This team has lost it's way big-time. Thank God it's still early--about the only good thing you can say right now. There are some good signs. For one thing, there's talent here and we're obviously not this bad. Castro's been productive (I'd think about hitting him 3rd and pushing everyone else down a spot), A-Rod has bounced back nicely the last couple of games after Joe gave him a game off and throughout the whole team, pitching and the regulars, you know just about every guy is capable of doing more. Hopefully it starts clicking soon.
Thank god it's early? I've already given up on the team. I can't imagine they'll accomplish anything meaningful. I just want the season to be over and serious changes to be made.
Finestrg wrote:Wow, when have you seen Dellin Betances get beat like that in two consecutive games? We either get decent enough pitching and don't hit and then on those rarer occasions, we actually hit enough but then don't get the pitching. This team has lost it's way big-time. Thank God it's still early--about the only good thing you can say right now. There are some good signs. For one thing, there's talent here and we're obviously not this bad. Castro's been productive (I'd think about hitting him 3rd and pushing everyone else down a spot), A-Rod has bounced back nicely the last couple of games after Joe gave him a game off and throughout the whole team, pitching and the regulars, you know just about every guy is capable of doing more. Hopefully it starts clicking soon.
Maybe Chapman pushes Betances a bit when he comes on board...?
I watched the whole game Friday night. The hitting, except for Arod, is absolutely atrocious. So many callers into WFAN keep asking Francessa when Girardi is going to concede the season. 23 games in, 6 games back and the season's over already for some... SMH
This team has got to turn it around.
jrodmc wrote:Finestrg wrote:Wow, when have you seen Dellin Betances get beat like that in two consecutive games? We either get decent enough pitching and don't hit and then on those rarer occasions, we actually hit enough but then don't get the pitching. This team has lost it's way big-time. Thank God it's still early--about the only good thing you can say right now. There are some good signs. For one thing, there's talent here and we're obviously not this bad. Castro's been productive (I'd think about hitting him 3rd and pushing everyone else down a spot), A-Rod has bounced back nicely the last couple of games after Joe gave him a game off and throughout the whole team, pitching and the regulars, you know just about every guy is capable of doing more. Hopefully it starts clicking soon.
Maybe Chapman pushes Betances a bit when he comes on board...?
I watched the whole game Friday night. The hitting, except for Arod, is absolutely atrocious. So many callers into WFAN keep asking Francessa when Girardi is going to concede the season. 23 games in, 6 games back and the season's over already for some... SMH
This team has got to turn it around.
No, it was over zero games in (at least if the goal is contending). Look at the roster.
Bonn1997 wrote:jrodmc wrote:Finestrg wrote:Wow, when have you seen Dellin Betances get beat like that in two consecutive games? We either get decent enough pitching and don't hit and then on those rarer occasions, we actually hit enough but then don't get the pitching. This team has lost it's way big-time. Thank God it's still early--about the only good thing you can say right now. There are some good signs. For one thing, there's talent here and we're obviously not this bad. Castro's been productive (I'd think about hitting him 3rd and pushing everyone else down a spot), A-Rod has bounced back nicely the last couple of games after Joe gave him a game off and throughout the whole team, pitching and the regulars, you know just about every guy is capable of doing more. Hopefully it starts clicking soon.
Maybe Chapman pushes Betances a bit when he comes on board...?
I watched the whole game Friday night. The hitting, except for Arod, is absolutely atrocious. So many callers into WFAN keep asking Francessa when Girardi is going to concede the season. 23 games in, 6 games back and the season's over already for some... SMH
This team has got to turn it around.
No, it was over zero games in (at least if the goal is contending). Look at the roster.
Do you really believe that? I don't. Last year's team was a playoff team. We lost the WC game but still technically made the playoffs, right? I feel this team is better than last year's club--maybe not championship caliber but still, on paper anyway, better. Things just aren't going right for some reason. Everything seems to be going wrong at once here in fact. Better to struggle now ironing out the kinks than to stumble at the end though, right? I still think there's plenty to like and be optimistic about with this team. Look at the roster top to bottom -- you don't think it's better than last year's club? And we did it smartly without any wild overspending (maybe except for Headley but we reupped him last year I think, right?). I don't even think we signed 1 FA. I think the plan was to continue tapping our youth, make some smart trades and clear a ton of salary space over the next 2 years. I like that plan. We've got Severino full-time this year--he's struggled but I feel he's too good an arm not to turn it around soon. Bird going down hurts our depth but so far, so good with Tex---keeping my fingers crossed and I like the move for Swisher for 1B depth btw. He's been good at AAA so far...Johnny Barbato has been very good until just recently (excellent trade--younger with better stuff and upside than Shawn Kelley). We stole Chapman away from the Reds whether you like him as a person or not and I think we stole Starlin Castro away from the Cubs too (this dude is a huge upgrade for us at 2B--I think he's had more total hits and more extra base hits than Derek Jeter and Joe DiMaggio at the same point in their careers thus far--think about how crazy that is. Very bright future. I think he should be hitting 3rd), and we actually picked up a real solid utility infielder in Ron Torreyes (I think you can make a legit case that this dude needs to see more time at either SS or 3B). Tanaka looks healthy and his velocity has returned, CC hasn't really killed us--looks like he's still capable of chewing up innings, looks like A-Rod's out of his funk and is starting to drive the ball again. Over the long haul, I think Ellsbury will be better than last year. Gardner will produce too and play a good LF. Aaron Hicks was a nice pickup--younger than Chris Young, better fielder with more upside. I actually liked what we did this offseason and like the whole approach to things. I think within 2-3 years, the plan will be to pump a lot of money back into the team (Bryce Harper, Jose Fernandez?). Until then, they're biding their time yet still looking to improve and I think they've done that.. Like Jrod says, only 23 games into a 162 marathon season. Nobody's more bummed out about the way we've been playing than me, trust me. I'm not ready to throw the towel in yet, though. No way.
Finestrg wrote:Bonn1997 wrote:jrodmc wrote:Finestrg wrote:Wow, when have you seen Dellin Betances get beat like that in two consecutive games? We either get decent enough pitching and don't hit and then on those rarer occasions, we actually hit enough but then don't get the pitching. This team has lost it's way big-time. Thank God it's still early--about the only good thing you can say right now. There are some good signs. For one thing, there's talent here and we're obviously not this bad. Castro's been productive (I'd think about hitting him 3rd and pushing everyone else down a spot), A-Rod has bounced back nicely the last couple of games after Joe gave him a game off and throughout the whole team, pitching and the regulars, you know just about every guy is capable of doing more. Hopefully it starts clicking soon.
Maybe Chapman pushes Betances a bit when he comes on board...?
I watched the whole game Friday night. The hitting, except for Arod, is absolutely atrocious. So many callers into WFAN keep asking Francessa when Girardi is going to concede the season. 23 games in, 6 games back and the season's over already for some... SMH
This team has got to turn it around.
No, it was over zero games in (at least if the goal is contending). Look at the roster.
Do you really believe that? I don't. Last year's team was a playoff team. We lost the WC game but still technically made the playoffs, right? I feel this team is better than last year's club--maybe not championship caliber but still, on paper anyway, better. Things just aren't going right for some reason. Everything seems to be going wrong at once here in fact. Better to struggle now ironing out the kinks than to stumble at the end though, right? I still think there's plenty to like and be optimistic about with this team. Look at the roster top to bottom -- you don't think it's better than last year's club? And we did it smartly without any wild overspending (maybe except for Headley but we reupped him last year I think, right?). I don't even think we signed 1 FA. I think the plan was to continue tapping our youth, make some smart trades and clear a ton of salary space over the next 2 years. I like that plan. We've got Severino full-time this year--he's struggled but I feel he's too good an arm not to turn it around soon. Bird going down hurts our depth but so far, so good with Tex---keeping my fingers crossed and I like the move for Swisher for 1B depth btw. He's been good at AAA so far...Johnny Barbato has been very good until just recently (excellent trade--younger with better stuff and upside than Shawn Kelley). We stole Chapman away from the Reds whether you like him as a person or not and I think we stole Starlin Castro away from the Cubs too (this dude is a huge upgrade for us at 2B--I think he's had more total hits and more extra base hits than Derek Jeter and Joe DiMaggio at the same point in their careers thus far--think about how crazy that is. Very bright future. I think he should be hitting 3rd), and we actually picked up a real solid utility infielder in Ron Torreyes (I think you can make a legit case that this dude needs to see more time at either SS or 3B). Tanaka looks healthy and his velocity has returned, CC hasn't really killed us--looks like he's still capable of chewing up innings, looks like A-Rod's out of his funk and is starting to drive the ball again. Over the long haul, I think Ellsbury will be better than last year. Gardner will produce too and play a good LF. Aaron Hicks was a nice pickup--younger than Chris Young, better fielder with more upside. I actually liked what we did this offseason and like the whole approach to things. I think within 2-3 years, the plan will be to pump a lot of money back into the team (Bryce Harper, Jose Fernandez?). Until then, they're biding their time yet still looking to improve and I think they've done that.. Like Jrod says, only 23 games into a 162 marathon season. Nobody's more bummed out about the way we've been playing than me, trust me. I'm not ready to throw the towel in yet, though. No way.
Statistically, this team is projected to be worse than last years by a few games, although last year's team didn't contend anyway. A .537 winning % and wild card loss basically means you're an average mlb team (16 out 30 make the playoffs). I think for many years, they've needed to start all over (from the GM job down).
Sometimes a team plays better or worse than its record. However, after looking at the advanced stats, I think the Yankees are legitimately playing sub .400 ball right now. The run differential, simple rating system, team WAR, and team WAA are all bad. The one silver lining is that almost all the pitchers' fielding independent stats are much better than their ERAs. So that means they may be having bad luck with balls dropping, or we have really bad fielding, or both. It does indicate that the pitchers have thrown a lot better than their ERAs indicate, though. The team's DWAR is -1.7, which means our fielders as a whole are doing a lot worse than a replacement level team (high minor league players) would do.
