Yanks Trade for Hechavarria

Now this is downright odd, the Yanks have traded a PTBNL for SS Adeiny Hechavarria.  They got him from the Pirates, though he's been on both Florida teams as well.  He's 29 and can't hit a lick: his career OPS+ is 76.  He's a pretty good fielder.  And though he hits some triples, he's not a good base steaker. They DFA'd Ryan Bollinger to make room.  I thought they were going for more pitching at the Waiver Deadline.

Yanks Trade for Andrew McCutchen

The Yanks have traded Abiatal Avelino and another asset, as yet unrevealed to the Giants for former NL MVP Andrew McCutchen.  As long as the other piece isn't a player from HC17 or later, this could really work out for the Yanks. Cutch has traditional murdered LHP's and he's been a litle off this year.  So a move like this could really rejuvenate him. We've seen it happen so many times before with other teams.

UPDATE: The other player is RHP Juan DePaula, and they are splitting the remaining 2.4M McCutchen is owed.

Giants Tonight

The Giants play their final preseason game, ahead of final cuts later today.  In all fairness. Kyle Lauletta should ge the start, since he's had no game work with the ones and just a fraction of attempts that Webb has gotten. We don't nee a pretermined result here.  We need a level playing field.  Beyond that guys should be going all out as they aren't just trying to make the initial 53, but are hoping to attract the interest of other teams.  It would be nice to see the all three versions of the OL keep improving and it would be really nice to see the DB's step up and make some plays. The big show starts after the game, when all the teams start cutting and the Giants have the #2 waiver claim.

Giants Lock Up OBJ: 5YR/95M/65G

The Giants just paid Odell.  As expressed above, the Giants future Hall of Famer gets a 20M bonus to sign, then 75M over the next 5 years with 45M more of it guaranteed. It's great that the Odell could prove health with no decline in explosiveness, and that the Giants didn't diddle around with this -- and that Odell wanted to stay. Can't wait to see how the Shurmur playbook looks with OBJ and Saquon taking part.

Giants Trade Brett Jones

The Giants just traded C Brett Jones for a 2019 7th rounder.  That doesn't seem like a good deal, but they gained 3M in cap room, so they could have something else cooking.  I doubt it's to make room for Odell, because Kevin Abrams has a history of lowering the first year cap hit. We'll see what's up.  The C, RG, and RT have not looked good.

This Week on the Blog

Alright, Yanks and Giants both won last night and Vitali Kravstov went off in his first U20 Game. Not bad.  Now let's take a look at this week.

Yankees: JA Happ is outpitching all of the Yankee mid-season starters since David Cone.  That's a frequency of 23 years. Something to think about. Short season teams end their seasons over the next few days, and a few of them might move up for the last ten days of the short season teams. The rest will either head to Tampa for instructs or head to the DR for Dominican Instructs. Boone has been problematic, particularly with his lineups and his feel for the pitching staff.  But there have been big injuries to crucial players and he'll probably get a new pitching coach and perhaps some other new coaches next season,

Giants: The Giants have to start making cuts this week, and will play their final game, against the Pats, on August 30th. That game could feature the final battle between Davis Webb and Kyle Lauletta.  In fact, in fairness, Lualetta should get a chance to run with the ones early in the game. All that said, and perhaps even more importantly, other teams will start making their cuts, too, and the Giants have the #2 pick in the waiver order - so should really be able to swap out some talent between now and the regular season.  In last night's game Evan Engram was concussed and Rhett Ellison got poked in the eye. Those are both scary as you can recall what a poke in the eye did to our old C Brian Williams. Rings of harmony around those two.

Knicks: The Knicks are up in Westchester with their super psyched Coach. Hopefully, the culture is conforming to winning expectations and demands.  Courtney Lee's name came up as a trade piece in the past few days and it's unknown if that's real or just his agent trying to market him. Maybe they can get something done there.

Rangers: Vitali Kravstov continues to crush.  Yesterday, against Sweden and Ranger a couple of other Ranger kids, Kravstov had a goal, and primary asssist on another goal, and scored again in the shoootout. Impressive.  In other news the Rangers still haven't made a trade since the draft. It's been a pretty slow trade season all around the NHL. Perhaps it will pick up as camps open next month,

So there we are.  The Yanks need to keep winning, the Giants need to stay healthy and make good roster/waiver decisions.  The Knicks need to keep doing what they're doing and the Rangers can stand pat as long as the kids like Kravstov keep improving.   Have a great week.

Giants Today

Alright the Giants play the Jets in about 90 minutes in their penultimate preseason game. Game 3 usually features the ones playing into the 3rd quarter, and we'll see if that's what Shurmur does.  The big thing is no injuries.  I don't need to bring up the history, but this has been a franchise altering game for both sides over the years and that's been needless.  Odell and Saquon won't play, so we'd like to see plays made by others.  As well as better cohesive OL today. On D, keep up the run stopping, add to the passrush and defend some fricking passes. But the key remains no injuries.  Go Giants.

Justus Sheffield to the Pen?

Right around game time last night, the news broke that Justus Sheffield was being moved to the pen, so the Yanks could call him up in September for the same purpose. Anyone who remember the Joba rules will be sickened by this plan. Sheffield was cruising lately, until his last start, then gave up one run in two innings in his first relief appearance. With CC out the move to make would have been to add Justus to the 40 (they had and still have an open spot) and given him 2 starts while CC was out and see what was there.  Meanwhile, the plan is to start Cessa again, and totally distrupt the 22 year old's routine. Justus, Chance Adams and Michael King are all better bets than Cessa at this point, and this is what they come up with?  I know King doesn't have to be added to the 40 till after next season, but the point of prospects isn't to keep them in the minors beyond their need to be there. It's to get them ready and get them in there.

In good news, Gary Sanchez is starting rehab tomorrow, Clint Frazier has started baseball activities again and Johnny Lasagna is starting for Trenton tonight.

This Week on the Blog

Alright, the Giants looked better, the Yanks ended the week on a high note, the Knicks and Rangers were organizationally quiet.  Now let's take a look at this week.

Yankees: Sevy was better, if not terribly efficient yesterday, and that's a big positive. Happ goes today and he's been rock solid. Quality starts have still been the bedrock of the Yanks success this year, though they blew one earlier last week, when they just couldn't score. They have to keep hitting.  Not sure why the offense has been so inconsistent lately, sure Judge, Sanchez and Frazier have been missing, but they still have Stanton, Hicks, Bird, Torres and Andujar, and that's a lot.  Bird and Torres have looked a little better lately, and the Yanks need them to get hot.

Giants: The Giants looked much better Friday. Almost as if they'd been coached up. Davis Webb got the start and lead a long mach down the field for a TD to Wayne Gallman. Gallman scored again later and looks very much like this year's number 2 back.  Martin also looked good, but Simmons got hit in the head and is in the concussion protocol. The D looked good again, though Ogletree once again got burned for a big play in coverage.  This time; however, he did run it down before the Lions could score. Lauletta only got about 5 throws,  but he did manage to score on a QB keeper where he juked the last two defenders to get into the end zone. Funny, yesterday's articles said Kyle wasn't known for running, yet Shurmur absolutely said that about him when they drafted him, and if you watch enough fim, you see him score on keepers. We'll see how much and who plays in game 3.

Rangers: The Rangers still haven't made a trade since the draft, but Vitali Kravstov, their first first rounder has been going on the KHL preseason.  Gordie said he as more of a playmaker, but he's been scoring goals like a sniper in the early going.  Could put up a huge teen year.

Knicks: the Knicks have reconvened up in Westchester for more practice. It's great that the NBA allows this and it's a shame KP still can't take part. We'll have to see what they do to get the roster down to 15.

So there it is, the Yanks need to keep playing like they can.  The Giants need to keep getting better, and the Rangers and Knicks need to keep doing what they're doing.  Have a great one.

Giants Tonight

Looks like the Giants 2 best playmakers, OBJ and Saquon will be out tonight.  That leaves things to Engram and Sterling Shepard to make things happen. It will also be interesting to see if last week's RB flashers: Martin and Simmons, get any repst with the first teamers.  Also, seems like a big night for Davis Webb.  He was awaful last week, in his first game action in about a year, while Lauletta was impressive.  No one should forget that Shurmur wanted Lauletta and will probably allow him to beat out Webb, if he actually beats out Webb. So it would behoove Davis to "find completions" tonight.

On D, we'll hopefully see more ball awareness by the CB's.  They were in good position most of the time last week, but didn't know where the ball was.  And the Safeties need to take proper angles.

In all, it won't be as much fun without the playmakers, but maybe some of the kids will step up.

CC to the DL

CC has been DL'd for 10 days and Kontos is up.  No idea what move they used to get Kontos on the 40, and sad it wasn't used to call up McBroom, or Zehner.  Anyway, I assume it a skipped start for his knee and no worries. I suspect the next pitching move will be Justus, who seems ready.

UPDATE: Ronald Toreyes is coming back, too. Not sure of that move, but I'd rather DFA him.  Tyler Wade is just better but they never let him gain traction.

FURTHER UPDATE: They finally moved Jordan Montgomery to the 60 Day DL to create space for Kontos on their 40.

This Week on the Blog

Alright, this week we saw the Giants for the first time in months, we also saw the Yanks sort of recover from last weekend's no show. Until last night, anyway.  And neither the Knicks or Rangers did anything stupid. Let's take a look at this week.

Yankees: The Yanks just won, and Stanton, Andujar and Walker are starting to really pick up some of the offensive slack we've witnessed without El Gary and Judge. Yanks haven't made a waiver trade yet, it seems like other contenders are, so hopefully the Yanks are just holding out for a real difference maker. JA Happ and Lance Lynn have been godsends for the rotation so far, so let's hope they can keep it up, and Sevy turns back into an ace, and Tanaka turns back into playoff Tanaka.  These are the dog days but they have to grab some momentum.

Giants: I expect the Giants to extend OBJ this week. Conditions just seem to be there. I think the next game is Detroit, with some joint practices. Let's hope the practices are useful and not ridiculous like the old Jets joint practices were.  We want to see growth during these preseason games, so let's hope we see some in game 2.

Knicks: the Knicks might stretch Noah next month, or they might not. There was a lot of sweat on keyboards this week as people tried to understand what this would do to the prospect of giving out 2 max contracts in 2019.  I look at it a little differently. I don't want free agents, I want lottery luck and the guys we have, and I don't want Noah around. He was bad in the locker room last year and I have no idea what kind of self-analysis he's done in the meantime.

Rangers: Some of the kids are still playing in tournaments, everyone is signed. And though we've been expecting trades, they don't have to make one now. Barring trades, the next big event is Travers City next month.  No news is neither good nor bad in this instance.

Alight, there's the reset.  Have a great week!

The Giants Last Night

After the first play from scrimmage, where but for a missed straight arm, Saquon would have taken it to the house, the Giants were awful last night.  Of course, OBJ didn't play a down,  Saquon only played a few and Cleveland was blitzing well into the 4th quarters against 4th stringers. Cleveland also drew 2 taunting penalties in the first 5 minutes and were playing with and instensity they never match in the regular season. Eli wasn't sharp, and looked particularly bad on a screen attempt, which is too bad since this years O should feature a lot of them. Btw, Jonathan Stewart looked absolutely cooked. Not good.

The new OL looked effenctive on play 1, but got jammed on both sides thereafter.  In general, all three versions of the line kept the QB's clean, but the Browns kept blitzing  and the backs and protections weren't always ready.

Davis Webb had the yips or something and was missing high all over the place. Lucky it didn't turn into picks. He did throw one nice ball that would have been a TD, had Kalif Raymond been able to locate it. Kyle Lauletta looked a hell of a lot smoother and more accurate, and though I won't overrate this first appearance, I think, and have thought, he's the next QB. We also have to remember Davis hadn't seen live game action since last year's preseason, and since then Kyle has played a full season and a memorable Senior Bowl.  We'll see what happens next.

WR's wer awful.  they dumped a few to Sterling Shepard, but OBJ didn't play and none of the 3rd receiver candidates had a good night or could muster a big play.

Galman was deent. but Jalen Simmons and Robert Martin both looked good. Again, that was against 2's and 3's.  Simmons scored our only TD.

The D was pretty decent, particularly against the run.  However; the DB's didn't seem to know when the ball was coming at all, so communication was severly lacking.  The DL looks deep, but the back seven needs to tighten up both coverage and ball awareness. But that should come with reps.

In general, the best play was the first play, and it's a really good thing that the Giants will have second dibs on all waived players until game 4 of the regular season.

Deivi Garcia Throws 7 Perfect Innings in Spot Start for Tampa

Nineteen year old Deivi Garcia, who's been impressing in Charleston this season, came up for a spot start with Tampa tonight and threw 7 innings of 12K(!) perfect ball.  Guys like this are reasons we should never get too down on the Yanks during an injury abetted cold streak. They're coming, they're all coming and the Yanks are set for years to come.

UPDATE: Lance Lynn was just about as good, going 7.1 with just two hits, 9 K's 0 runs and 1 walk.   Could still give up a run in the pen fails...  But boy was this a huge performance.

This Week on the Blog

Sort of a blah week, with the Yanks losing, the Rangers and Knicks handling house keeping and the Giants conitnued taking care of business as they get ready to start their preseason games. Let's take a look at what's coming up.

Yankees: For the Yankees, it's another wildcard game. Their pitching has failed and their inability to get a better catcher and or an impact bat at the deadline, is punishing them. They badly miss Judge and Sanchez and so far, the no one has shown up on the waiver wire who could help.  Today's game looks like it could be rained out, which would make tomorrow a double header.  The big picture is still rosey, though.  They will get Judge, Sanchez and Happ back, and Severino is too talented to be washed up at 24. They do have to swap at their PC and HC, but will probably wait till after the season.  George would have fired them many times over already.  And they have or are close to completing another great IFA class.  Now that the deadline is passed, we should see a bunch of promotions, too. So, just get through this weekend, then regroup.

Giants: The Giants continue to constantly reshape the bottom of their roster as they get ready for their first preseason game which, I think, comes on Thursday. So far the gamp seems happy and productive with no major injuries to key players - if you don't count Sam Beal's season ending surgery.  Having the second pick in waivers will really, really help. As of the first game, it will be really interesting to see if Shurmur keeps it vanilla or decides to do some fancy playcalling.  It's getting closer.

Knicks: Coach Fiz should be back from Latvia now and will probably be reconvening or rejoining the Knicks at the facility in Westchester. They are currently two players over the limit, so we'll have to see how and when they solve that.  But we're in a rare period of smooth sailing, so enjoy it.

Rangers: The Rangers signed Ryan Spooner to a new two year deal, thereby completing their RFA class, and all is quite on the trade front, Meahwhile, K'Andre Miller and Joey Keene are playing for different team USA squads in international play, and I think some of our Russsians and Swedes are allos playing.  Not sure about our other international kids. Traverse City is still 4 or 5 weeks off. We'll see if they make any moves.

So there it is, the Yanks need to stop their free fall and the other teams need to avoid injuries.  Have a great week!

Yanks System Ranked 10th?

So the latest MLB rankings have bumped the Yankee System down to #10.  We should not for one second believe that. There are a couple of different ways to look at a farm system.  First as an aggregation of talent, as far as that goes, the Yanks are still loaded, especially at A ball and below. One could posit that the teenagers are all lottery tickets, but the new markers have really taken chance out of the equation. To wit, the Yanks measure your exit velo or spin rate and they don't take you if it's not indicative of future functionality.  In the old days, scouts would eye ball you and the great ones were great at it. Now they have tools that can easily validate or negate what the eyes believe they see.

Coinicidentally, another measure of a farm system's efficacy is how it serves the major league team.  Recently the Yankee farm has produced 4 rookie of the year types, a Cy Young type, and a couple of future MVP's. The Farm also allowed the Yanks to acquire a reigning MVP and and a current All-Star starter. Over the past two years they have also been able to turn spare parts into additional IFA pool money that has allowed their DR scout team to really clean up and, along with, terrific draft strategies, made it easy for the Yanks to continuously replenish any depletion created by trades.

What's more, the Yanks never did make that "big trade" for Machado or an ace type starter.  They still haven't lopped off the top of their farm and don't seem eager to. The tax resets this offseason so the Yanks can once again go free agent shopping while their farm keeps developing stars like, Sanchez, Judge, Sevy, Miggy and Gleyber.

No way are there 9 other farms with a bigger collection or a bigger ability to be flipped for star help.

Happ Headed to the DL

So, JA Happ is heading to the DL with his ancient virus, and Luis Cessa will start in Boston. Meanwhile, Sheffield's up 2-1 in the fourth, so his winning streak could continue today.  More and more it's looking like he could get some starts down the stretch.  There are a few easy DFA's on the 40, and adding Justus is just a matter of time.  He's basically as good as his slider is on any given day, at this point. Has been good, but not super dominant, as we might have expected after his work in the AFL last year. Chance Adams pitched a one hit, 8 inning start the other day, and may have learned how to pitch, while he was waiting for his fastball to come back post surgery.

Giants Begin Talks on OBJ's new Deal

Word around this AM is that the Giants and their star wide receiver are finally sitting down to talk about his new deal. Now the Giants haven't had cap trouble as long as Kevin Abrams has been on board. Let's hope they don't break that streak now.

In other Giant news, they pressed a brief advantage they have yesterday. Y'see until week 4 the regual season the Giants have the #2 waiver claim. Yesterday, they used it to grab OL Victor Salako on waivers from Cleveland. He doesn't seem like a plug and play for us, but who know who teams will try to sneak onto their psquads or who might get numbers crunched from other teams - so it's a good thing to have the #2 waiver pick.