Yanks: Big Mike Rules
Ellsbury and Gardner continue to grind. ARod and Tex continue to slug a bit. They need more. Great start by Pineda.
posted by Kalel9 @ 7:08 PM
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Tuesday, May 05, 2015
Ellsbury and Gardner continue to grind. ARod and Tex continue to slug a bit. They need more. Great start by Pineda.
44 Comments:
Lindgren will have a role very soon.
Thank goodness Pineda went deep. Hate that Carpenter couldn't get an out.
Pineda is really growing up and is starting to develop Ace Presence.
Pineda and Eovaldi can anchor this staff for years to come.
Great move by Cashman and his advisors for giving up little to get both players.
Let's hope so, and if they do succeed, there are probably people who deserve credit for helping them mature into real pitchers. Who are those people, and let's hope they stay around.
It was a lucky move the guy hasn't even pitched a full season yet and he's been here for what is now his fourth season
Anon, Montero was hardly "little" when they gave him up. I still for the life of me can't figure out what happened to him after he was traded. (Billy, if you're around, you worked for the Yankees for a time, so if you have any insight on what might have led to Montero's decline, I'd love to hear it.)
Heathcott and Judge are really lighting it up. Probably too soon to expect Judge up this year, but I really hope Heathcott gets a shot if he stays healthy and Beltran continues to falter.
How is it lucky? Every time the guy has pitched, he's been absolutely dominant.
Health is a variable that is completely unpredictable but I guess the trade was "lucky" in the sense that Montero has flamed out. Right?
As to why Montero has faltered, it's impossible to pinpoint one thing.
To the Yanks, he was expandable due to the fact that he was never going to catch, 1b was locked up for years with Teix and the DH spot was going to be occupied by Arod/Jeter in the coming years.
Getting a front end starter who had all the qualities you look for in an ACE -- Great size, great fastball, filthy slider and PLUS command....For a player that was limited to DH, was a no-brainer at the time.
As to Montero downfall, his work ethic was never top of the line but he was also very young. That's why they are called prospects, a player can dominate the entire minor leagues and just never make the necessary adjustments to succeed in the MLB for various reasons. Look at players like Justin Smoak or Brandon Belt.
Yeah, it was no secret by the end of his time with the Yankees that Montero was never going to catch. If it was a case of the Yankees self-scouting and deciding to cash in while his value was high, credit to them for doing so. Like Lawyer, I'd have preferred moving him for a bat, but Pineda is a legitimate top-of-the-rotation starter.
For two reasons:
1) He had perhaps the most valuable young offensive asset (the value at the time of the trade is what counts), with an aging/declining offense, and he traded him for a pitcher whose velo had declined in the second half of 2011.
2) Given the nature of his injury, recovery was far from certain, as we have seen with how many innings he has pitched since 2011. We still don't know if he can stay on the mound.
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On the larger note, for the sake of argument, let's give him credit for these two acquisitions (you may recall the Eovaldi trade is the only offseason move I liked), the position player part of this roster is laughable given their payroll and how much time they had to prepare for the Core exiting.
I posted the OPS+ of the key contributors; everyone of them is over performing their recent career norms.
I really, really hope that continues because the Yankees are providing a TV diversion from a stressful workday, but come on, they can't just rely on the "old guys coming together" way of doing things that Cashman talked about this offseason.
If they are going to become true WS contenders (rather than pretending at the margins as they for the last couple of season), they NEED to integrate young position players on the roster.
That starts with an extended regular chance for Pirela, and a young OF needs to follow that soon.
Sorry to break it to you LINJ, but Montero value was not nearly as high as you think it was.
No teams thought he could catch and some were even skeptical a move to 1B was possible given his limited athleticism. He was looked at as a Full time DH, part time 1b - which removed any value to NL teams and diminished a large portion of his value to AL teams.
A lot of teams don't like to utilize a full time DH, as it reduces their ability to give regulars days off but keep their bat in the lineup.
We can talk all we want about trading him for a bat but prospect for prospect trades are rare as it is. You all need to stop assuming you know what his "value" was because you don't and this skews your opinion on certain topics.
Billy is 100% correct on the Pineda-Montero trade. It was not a case of "luck" only a "hater" of Cashman and/or the Yankee FO would continue to label it as such 4 years later.
Sorry Lawyer, but you are wrong with your comments here on this issue. A very solid positive move by Cashman.
Personally, I recall reading many sources at the time, that many teams felt Montero would have top move off of Catcher real soon, and it was questionable if he would be able to handle 1B. It seemed only the Yankees felt (publically, at least) that he would remain a Catcher. Most others seemed to feel he would be a DH. And there was no value with Montero as a DH on the Yankees, like it was noted above, with Arod/Jeter/Tex, etc.
Best young offensive weapon or not, he had to be moved ASAP to get the
Right, because it was foreseeable at the time of the trade that:
1) a pitcher whose velo had declined in the second half of 2011,
2) threw across his body,
3) had a significant arm injury in the minor leagues,
4) then came into to ST with greatly diminished velo,
5) yet was forced to compete for a rotation spot even after initial shoulder pain only to need very serious shoulder surgery,
6) would then miss two full seasons and part of a third before this season, and would then,
7) magically become a very good pitcher again
Yeah, that was all part of a master plan.
If I am hater for seeing the facts as they are, then I wear it proudly.
That's a lottery ticket, not a plan.
As for Montero, he had already demonstrated what he could do in Yankee Stadium.
He was at the top of every rater's prospect list.
And he had a very credible rookie season to further prove he was for real.
What goes on between his ears, I have no idea.
OT, Brady knew about deflating footballs. Given the stakes, how is he any less of a cheater than A-Rod or Ortiz or many other cheaters?
There was a "luck" aspect to the Pineda deal — the fact that they got him instead of a three-month rental of Cliff Lee.
Regardless of your views on the Pineda-Montero trade, LINJ is absolutely right about one thing: Cashman had plenty of time to plan for the inevitable exit of the core + the decline of A-Rod and Teix and still didn't address it. A major step in the right direction would have been securing Cano for long-term before those final two option years on his previous contract kicked in. Personally, I blame the team's ill-advised policy of "no new contracts until the current one is up" that they thankfully reneged on in Gardner's case.
Cano and Robertson should have been locked up earlier.
And it was Hal's kebosh on draft spending and IFA spending before the new rules that really screwed things up.
We can't talk about the development problems, but better players tend to develop - better.
Sano is just one example.
With the benefit of hindsight, it's obvious the front office was willing to let Robertson walk for a draft pick + not losing one for signing Miller. With the bullpen arms at the front office's disposal thanks to the farm system, I can't really say it was a mistake. One thing I give Cashman a lot of credit for is his understand that a pen should be mostly built on the cheap with homegrown talent, supplemented by the occasional smart signings, such as Miller.
Sano is on the "no excuse for not getting him" list along with Chapman, Soler, Puig, Darvish and Moncada.
My problem is that pitchers are fragile, so the smart way to build a team is with position players, integrating a young one on to the roster every year.
They have sucked at developing any for about 18 years, with two exceptions, Cano and Gardner, and that's why they always overspend, hoping and praying that aging players decline slowly.
That's suboptimal.
Either these guys are really drunk or they have some other cognitive impairment:
http://nypost.com/2015/05/06/ex-phillies-dykstra-williams-get-into-pathetic-public-feud/?utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=NYPTwitter&utm_medium=SocialFlow
Pirela returns to start at second base
Gregorio Petit is on the disabled list with a right hand contusion. That’s the move to activate Jose Pirela.
Jacoby Ellsbury CF
Chris Young LF
Alex Rodriguez DH
Mark Teixeira 1B
Brian McCann C
Carlos Beltran RF
Chase Headley 3B
Stephen Drew SS
Jose Pirela 2B
LHP CC Sabathia
I have often wondered whether the Yankees believed that there were some "character" or "personality" issues with Montero and that the Yankees wanted to trade him before he went south. There have been other players that for some reason one just had a sense that the Yankees were not intent on keeping. This is just a surmise, but I've felt the same thing about Wang, Melky, Russell Martin, and at least in his last year, Cano. Somebody up there didn't seem to like these guys . . . .
If true, it's pretty scary to think Mantle could have been one of those guys.
And of course, Cashman's off the office behavior speaks to character issues as well.
So if that's true, they should be consistent.
I would hope and pray the FO understands that not everyone is going to be as mature as Jeter was when they come up.
It certainly happened to Billy Martin.
Pirela:
"He's gonna play against lefties," Joe Girardi said. "We'll just see how it goes. I didn't make any promises to anyone. We'll just see how it goes and how he is doing."
...
If Pirela hits, he could see even more time against righties too. The start of his season was slowed after he suffered a concussion in spring training, but Pirela thinks he is ready to go now after an eight-game rehab stint in which he hit .364.
...
As for Pirela, Girardi believes he has the makings of a major-league hitter.
"I think he is a guy who hits hard line drives," Girardi said. "I don't consider him a power hitter because he doesn't hit fly balls, he hits hard line drives and hard groundballs that turn into doubles and triples. From what we have seen he has a pretty good idea of what he wants to do at the plate. He hasn't been a huge chase guy at the plate, from what we have seen. He's also aggressive. I think he knows what he wants to hit and he is also aggressive."
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Anon Troll thinks he's a UI.
A UI doesn't hit. That is how you could describe every middle infielder on the roster except for Pirela, because we don't know what he will do yet.
We do know that his ability to hit for AVG has been improving throughout his minor league career, and that is what you want from most middle infielders.
Another multi-hit game for Slade Heathcott, who also drew a walk. Just bring him up and stick him in right already. At the very least, he'd be a defensive upgrade.
Oh look, Pirela is 2-for-2. If Headley continues to not hit, can he play third?
Headley's contract ensures PT. He is ok at times, but yet another instance of financial mismanagement.
Frankly, I'm at the point where I don't care about contracts. You should perform or be sat for someone with upside. That means Beltran, McCann, Headley and Drew need to show me something now.
They can start with CC it's early but if he's not one of the five or six best starters, what's the point? you're paying him anyway. So why pay him to lose more?
Actually as I keep saying the offense is worse than the pitching so maybe they should start with Beltran
Andrew Marchand @AndrewMarchand
Yankees are 1-5 when Sabathia starts and 16-6 when anyone else does
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Martin, who hasn't had a great season to this point (although he had heated up a bit), killed the Yankees this series.
I still don't think he is particuarly good, but he is now way better than McCann.
Speaking of utility infielders, I'm hoping Cito Culver gets a chance to make the big-league roster as one in the near future. They should give him some games at second and third to prepare him.
Looking at individual OPS+ again, the main contributors remain the same with Young declining, Tex increasing, and A-Rod declining, but all still high, and Ellsbury and Gardner remaining about the same.
But beyond them:
McCann 92
Headley 89
Beltran52
Drew 69
Grego 47
Two of the first three need to get over 100 within the next month, because it's hard to see all of the key contributors remaining at their current level.
Barring that, they need offense, not pitching.
They need both is Tanaka is down for any extended period of time, but I'd rather give Mitchell an extended shot than trade for a starter unless it's a no-brainer move.
They'd better hope A-Rod and Teix don't fall back down to earth, or things will get ugly.
Yes, but they have quality pitching options (Mitchell and Nova as starters and Lindgren and others for the pen). In-house offensive help is less certain, although something that should be tried, and Pirela is a start.
To think that they wasted $10m on Drew and Capuano, when it was obvious that neither was a necessity, sums up what's wrong with the current decision-making process.
There were many other obvious ways to supplement the roster, let along Moncada.
Back to the stellar middle infield:
Jacoby Ellsbury CF
Brett Gardner LF
Alex Rodriguez DH
Mark Teixeira 1B
Brian McCann C
Carlos Beltran RF
Chase Headley 3B
Stephen Drew 2B
Didi Gregorius SS
RHP Nathan Eovaldi
This was my fear: Pirela getting only limited at-bats because of loyalty to the veterans.
Of course, the solution here is not to sign the veterans in the first place, but we all know this team can't help itself with over-the-hill has-beens.
They should change the rules so we can just have a top for the batting order but over and over
A-Rod like the other three at the top of the order are the entire offense of this team
I get why they don't want to pay the HR bonus even though I think they don't have a legal leg to stand on.
I don't, however, understand why they have the GM out there talking about it. He is a baseball guy; that's business.
I don't blame him; he will do whatever he's told for the big check.
I blame the suits; they are assholes.
If ARod and Teix can keep producing and Tanaka comes back, this team has a fighting chance despite the dumb contracts. Still needs a youth movement and another bat.
Cashman reiterated that he signed Crapuano for the rotation. Jeez, go away and give someone else a chance, and that applies to both of them.
http://nypost.com/2015/05/08/stephen-drew-finally-starting-to-reward-joe-girardis-faith/
Looks like he is turning the corner.
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