This Week on the Blog
Yanks: Pitchers and catchers are due in Tampa tomorrow, though it seems like most of them are already there. The Chris Carter signing was curious, but the price was right. Having said that, it's almost certain that Girardi will give him too many ab's, and that could stymie the needed youth movement. Cashman also intimated that the Yanks believe the trouble with Aaron Hill last year was that he didn't play enough... yeesh. Let's hope the kids are undeniable and remove the Carter and Hill questions from the equation.
Rangers: The Rangers go for their 6th straight win today against Columbus. Now that they have most of this forwards back, the Rangers can be overwhelming. Having said that, the defense is capable of giving up a goal at any time. The deadline is approaching and they Rangers will probably end up having to overpay for D. I can easily see this group of F's making them feel like going "all in."
Knicks: Dolan is nuts. Phil Jackson may have also gone nuts. But, when the Knicks finally started Willy and KP at the same time yesterday, they beat the Spurs and held them to 90 points. As long as Melo and Rose are on the team it will slow the kids' and O'Quinn's development. We'll see what happens at the deadline.
Giants: The Giants wisely extended Spags, who proved last year that the game had not passed him by. The Giants still have a lot of needs for a playoff team, so they have to really figure out their cap and make sure they can keep the strong DL, fix the OL (6 years!), improve the LB's and offensive skill positions. A lot will have to go right for the Giants to do everything they need to this offseason.
Have a great week, guys!
posted by Kalel9 @ 8:54 AM
21 Comments:
Thanks for everything Cruz.
Never liked Jennings at all. He acted as if he was a star.
http://www.businessinsider.com/michael-jordan-and-adam-silver-met-with-james-dolan-and-charles-oakley-and-they-hugged-it-out-2017-2
The Knicks need to trade Rose/Anthony/Jennings for draft picks, after decades of trying quick fixes it's time for an actual rebuild! Make Oakley an assistant coach/defense!
Did you mean Aaron Hicks, not Aaron Hill?
Has anybody ever explained to him that you can't have a championship caliber team every year ( pretending to do so is counterproductive) and that they haven't had one in years?
“What hasn’t changed is that we’re always going to field a championship-caliber team, and that’s what we’re going to do. When money comes off the payroll, we’re going to do our best to put it back in the team,’’ Steinbrenner said. “As we did this year and next year, there’s a lot of money coming off the payroll.’’
LINJ-I think for the sake of continuing to justify having fans pay high ticket prices the Yankees will always purport that they will field a championship team. The truth is they are playing both sides, they have built a dynamite farm system and maintained signing free agents to make it appear we'll have a "competitive" team. They are gearing up on the upcoming free agent classes which could include young superstars that could lead the young super prospects to future championships.
But does it actually do that? In other words, fans can see what the product is, right? Now, I agree that it's more important to watch what they do rather than what they say, but the last really big contract they give out was to Ellsbury, and that's been a disaster. Headley's McCann's were not that much better. So spending in and of itself can be a negative, especially since now they have all these young players and don't need to look outside, except in special circumstances, like Harper.
I think the real test will be what they do with their pitching. Development of starters has been a disaster in the Cashman. Now is his last best chance to turn that around.
On the Knicks, Phil Jackson is rightly receiving a lot of criticism, but the primary way to rebuild a franchise is through first round picks, and he has only had one of three through no fault of his own
Disregard what I said about Carter, Austin broke his foot.
Off a ball hitting his foot in BP — hate that. Just unlucky.
It's never the veteran you want to sit, although off the top my head I don't know who that would be on this roster at least until Frazier is ready.
It is said that health is a skill; the older I get the more that seems to be true.
LINJ, you'd be surprised at some fans and their obsession with Big NAMES. The Yankees are a brand upon itself and it needs stars with name recognition. I'm not saying I agree with this, actually would love a full rebuild. So the Yankees still have a payroll near/over $200 million that includes the stars(former), some are still near their prime. They don't have to sign new minted big name free agents every year but having some recognizable names for the corporate paid seats seems important.
Because of our deficient farm system from 2000 - 2012/3 we had to go the route of signing free agents to keep us competitive. Unfortunately that includes signing players to years beyond their paid performance and we are now trying to purge the contracts and free up salary. Lately Cashman has been smart to stay away from giving up our #1 pick for signing free agents and the scouts and developmental people have done a tremendous job getting talent.
I guess it depends on how many low information fans there are.
Beating Betances at arbitration could be costly in the long run, and given how they regularly piss away money, I can understand his antipathy.
The Yankees badly need to put a muzzle on Levine for good. Let him do whatever it is financially that they like so much, and otherwise keep him away from the media or the baseball decision-making process. I understand the arbitration process is ugly — it was the same when Chien-Ming Wang went to arbitration — but to publicly belittle a homegrown guy (from the Bronx!) to the media afterward and call him a victim of his agent is, to quote Donald Trump, "Very sad!"
Yup, Levine pushes fake stats.
From Betances's agent:
“We have a great working relationship with Brian [GM Brian Cashman] and Jean [assistant GM Jean Afterman] and have nothing but respect for both of them. Knowing where this thing was heading, I approached Brian and Jean in December to try to amicably work out an agreement. We talked again earlier in the week and we even made an attempt to settle before we sat down at the hearing. I understand that two sides can see the same thing differently. We were willing to accept that and move through this process amicably – that is, until today’s press conference.
“The only person overreaching in this entire situation is Randy. He might as well be an astronaut because nobody on earth would agree with what he is saying. Even the others in the room would disagree with him."
Apparently Levine kept referring to Betances with the wrong first name, too.
I hope Hal enjoys being sedated.
Seriously, this makes me angry. What an overrated, hideous scumbag Levine is.
Levine is a spokesman for Hal. Whatever you think of Levine, he's ultimately a reflection of ownership.
I think there is a stylistic difference, but o can't disagree.
There is a pernicious attitude taking hold in the country that disrespects people by using distortions of reality. Levine willfully and knowingly lied about the relevance of saves for a reliever used in his role. That is a flat out smear.
Levine is a pos
Hal needs to sell
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