What a day for outfielders. Johnny Damon and Manny Ramirez went to the Rays, Vernon Wells went to the Angels, Vladimir Guerrero could be going to the Orioles and maybe the greatest outfielder of all time went to a New York City public school.
Some news items on a busy Friday in the majors…
- Yankee fans, be warned: SI's Tom Verducci looks at how Mark Teixeira could be headed for a decline.
- The Yankees could probably afford to sign Albert Pujols as a free agent next winter, but Mike Axisa of the River Avenue Blues blog points to Teixeira's presence and the albatross of Alex Rodriguez's giant contract as reasons why Pujols just doesn't fit in the Bronx.
- Geoff Baker and Larry Stone of the Seattle Times agree that a split between Milton Bradley and the Mariners would be beneficial to both the player and the team.
- Jed Hoyer and Bud Black predict the Padres' offense won't suffer much of a dropoff without Adrian Gonzalez, reports MLB.com's Corey Brock. "I think our offense has the potential to be as good as last year," Hoyer said. "We lost our clear best player [Gonzalez], but we have better balance. The positions we were weak last year, we're better at now."
- MLB.com's Mark Bowman profiles Julio Teheran, a 19-year-old right-hander and non-roster invitee to the Braves' Spring Training camp who has drawn comparisons to Pedro Martinez.
- The Reds wanted to bring back Arthur Rhodes, but the Rangers' willingness to give Rhodes a vesting option for 2012 was an offer Cincinnati just couldn't match, says MLB.com's Mark Sheldon as part of a reader mailbag.
“The Yankees could probably afford to sign Albert Pujols as a free agent next winter, but Mike Axisa of the River Avenue Blues blog points to Teixeira’s presence and the albatross of Alex Rodriguez’s giant contract as reasons why Pujols just doesn’t fit in the Bronx.”
That’s about as equal to the chance of seeing Babe Ruth playing again next year in the Bronx.
I dont put anything passed the Yankees brass anymore. Pujols back to left?
Seriously!!! Don’t put the idea of Pujols to the Yankees in anyone’s head!!!
Too late. Can’t wait for next year’s free agency!!1!u =P
pUt Him AT catchur! Montero for (absurd trade demand)!!!1!! Make t happn Cas$!
Dipped into the eggnog I see..
Eggnog…
No thanks.
He’s not leaving St Louis, don’t even worry about that.
The Cleveland Cavalier fans say hi.
already there. Its nice to dream.
Personally I wish we didnt have Tex or ARod. Or Jeter for that matter.
i suppose you dont want any of those rings either
Padres management = delusional
They won’t make up the 30 home runs (not in that ball park), but the 101 runs could be made up for with a more balanced line up. Whether or not they’ll actually have one, we’ll have to see. With that pitching they really don’t need 10 runs a game.
They do still have to score runs to win. Just ask the Mariners.
Since when do you have to outscore the other team to win? sheesh baseball’s changed….
..
I don’t see it right now, but the Red Sox put a serious number of wins in the W column that the Yankees can’t keep up with, I could Hal getting there really fast to match Crawford/A-Gon/Youk.
The Red Sox also don’t have anyone in their starting rotation that you could say is a lock to shut down the Yankees lineup on a regular basis (I don’t think anyone does for that matter unless a team had five Colby Lewis’, that POS). And just to put out the fire before it starts, I’m completely aware that the same Red Sox rotation is better than the current Yankees rotation. My point wasn’t whos rotation is better.
But, as in typical generic baseball fan form, the Yankees somehow magically got worse this year and are no longer in contention for a title because the Sawx and their “five aces!!!!!!” added players. How conveinient.
Where to start?? Lester could most def lock the yanks up as well as buch. Not being biased but they are legit aces!
Now i dont think the yanks are going to be worse bc of the offseason, if they are worse this year it will be due to age and every other team improving in the east this year other than the rays. The left side of the infield is terrible and there are major questions in the rotation, catcher, and if the guys in their late 30’s and 40’s can stay healthy. If i was a big time yanks fan i would be worried about the next few years and i want them to be good…its better for the game
And Buchholz, I only see him getting better as his K/9 goes up and his BB/9 goes down. Honestly as a Sox fan, I don’t think the Yankees are going to be too much worse than last year. Their age make them questionable, but if they can stay healthy, they’ll still make a push.
Agreed! I believe the Sox are the better team but if age and injuries can hold out for another year, the yanks will be as dangerous as ever! Plus you know they’re gonna get a Derek Lowe type to fill in a spot sooner or later! It’s inevitable!
i just hope it is not derek blow
Aside from four players (Mo, Jeter, A-Rod, Posada), age isn’t that much of a factor as it was, say, for most of the decade. The Yankees roster is filled guys in they’re late 20s early 30s in their primes. The Yanks aren’t trotting out Damon, Sheffield, Matsui and Randy Johnson anymore.
Thank god.
You know what the Sox should do when they face the Yankees? Start some young kid the Yankees “haven’t seen before” every game and you’ll be a lock to win every game.
Ha! Works against the Red Sox, too.
Oddly enough, the Yanks make rookie pitchers look like Cy Young candidates. My theory is they think too much. K.I.S.S (keep it simple stupid). See the ball, hit the ball. That was one of the great things about Manny.
Isn’t a little early to say Buchhs is an ace? His FIP was around 3.69 last year.
Buch has the make up to be an ace! Two more years of these numers and yes he will be an ace. Plus arent you the guy that made an argument that the only thing going for him was that he was a lefty? your points are not valid bc of that statement…ever!!! kidding man…but i do think buch will be an ace and is very close to one now.
Ahh Make up. Such a pretty term. Joba Chamberlain had the “make up” to be an ace. Where exactly is he now? Every ten years there are about 200 guys they say that about. Maybe 3 or 4 pan out.
Clay will never be an ace. Maybe a serviceable 2 or 3, but not a shutdown ace. Unless he moves to Kansas City…….Sorry to burst your bubble.
Joba was handled poorly…everyone knows that. And yes buch has the make up to be an ace. just look at his stats last year. If he can replicate them then i would consider him an ace.
17-7 2.33 ERA in the AL EAST!!!! looks like an ace and unlike joba…he isnt going back to the pen! sorry to burst your bubble.
Don’t recall refering to him as a lefty dude. I’m just saying, 2010 he had huge differential between his ERA and FIP. Let’s see what he does this year before we call him an ace.
i meant to say referred to blanton as a lefty therefore i cant take any of your comments serious! but im just giving you a hard time….your actually one of the yanks fans i respect.
Now i never called him as ace and yes he could be. i think you would be saying he could be if he were in pin stripes.
I’m not sure how you define “ace,” but I think a good definition would be “could be the #1 pitcher for another team.” To make it somewhat simple and to eliminate things like budget and just isolate performance, I called that “one of the top 30 starting pitchers in baseball.”
Heading over to Fangraphs, it was close — but he made it. Among qualified starting pitchers last year, his 3.69 FIP was good for #29. Again, it depends on how you choose to define it and even what time period you’re looking at it over, but I wouldn’t say it’s too early to say he’s an ace. One could definitely make a case for him.
Wasn’t meant as a knock against them. Tecnically, he could be the Royals ace right now. But that wouldn’t say much for the rotation does it?
you do know that the left side if their infield are both hall of famers. jeter is a top 5 shortstop of all time, and we all know arods stats. last time i looked there was more to being a good player than uzr. what was babe ruth’s conversion rate or uzr?
i thought by saying left side of the infield it would be understood i was talking about defense. of course they are great hitters and sure fire HOFs.
however being a hof doesnt mean they will produce the numbers they usually do. griffey will be hof and he didnt look very well in his last few years! Im just saying they are going to decline and they arent the best defenders as it is
Lester can “lock the yanks” up. He can also get knocked around by them. Both have happened before. We’ll see who makes the better adjustments this year I suppose.
I also have to disagree with your comment on the left side of the infield. If you had said that it’s terrible defensively I would have agreed with you. I’ll assume Jeter will still be above average offensively at SS, while A-Rod still rakes a ton. However, going forward I’ll agree with you.
i was talking about their defense. they both are still very good hitters. thats why i said left side of infield instead of their names so it wouldnt get confused with their offensive numbers. Their range or lack there of will be a problem this year.
Lester.
Lester did not face the Yankees more than once or twice a season until 2009. Over his career, he has eight quality starts out of 12 against the Bronx Bombers with a 6-1 overall record. 3.28 ERA, 1.257 WHIP, 80 SO compared to 25 BB. He has a solid success rate against the Yanks over the last two seasons (75% of his starts are quite good while 25% are pretty bad). Is that enough to consider him a “lock” against the Yankees? I’d argue that no, it’s not.
If you’re going in that direction then how many pitchers are a “lock” against a team that perpetually plays over .500 ball.
My point is Lester is not guaranteed to “handle” the Yankees on a regular basis. Any one pitcher can get blown up at any time. There is hardly ever a “lock” in baseball, no matter the situation.
Then CC’s no lock against Boston and our lineup is better! What’s your biased point anyways?
You’re right, being a Cubs fan from Chicago (now in Tulsa, Oklahoma), I’m completely biased in a discussion about calling any hitter or pitcher a “lock” to do this or that. Sabathia wasn’t even mentioned in this argument. With his 6-5 lifetime record against the franchise and only one win out of four starts in 2010, that point is obvious regardless of fanhood. I’m more interested in stats and the bottom line than anything else.
And, in case you didn’t pick it up from the plain English the first time around (or earlier in this post), my overall point is no one in baseball is a lock to do anything.
I fail to see how your comment is a reply to rob’s. I think you’re overreacting.
“but the Red Sox put a serious number of wins in the W column that the Yankees CAN’T keep up with”
And I’m the one overreacting…
His grammar was obviously flawed. I think he meant “but IF the Red Sox put a serious number of wins in the W Column …”
On another note: I like the Teixeira turning into Giambi theory.
Well it did also compare him to JD Drew you know. Fortunately for you guys, most likely, 2011 is his last year in a Sawx uniform.
I don’t see how the Sox keep Drew next season, everyone’s kinda expecting Kalish to take over in 2012. Maybe Reddick if he breaks out in AAA this year.
That’s what I was expecting too, unless Drew has some kind of breakout year.
I think he will retire after the season. His son probably still has health problems.
Fortunately for us, we got one of the best hitting coaches in Kevin Long. He’s the Dave Duncan of hitting coaches. I have faith in him, and Tex, to turn it back around.
Don’t have faith in Tex having a good April though heh
Every year it seems the Braves have some young stud coming along, i love it! Take notes PHI and NYY, you dont always have to buy a competitive team.
1. I love that people are putting Philly and Red Sox in the “buying championships” category with the Yanks now.
2. However, Yankees have brought up Cano, Gardner, Joba, Hughes in recent years. Granted it’s not as many prospects as the Braves, and yeah, it does seem like every year there’s some big time prospect coming out of the Braves system, but we do all right. Got Montero and the other catchers to look forward to…
3. I’ll let Philly fans defend themselves.
Yankees had WAY more homegrown talent on their roster than the Braves last year. In fact, I think the only team with more was the Rockies. The modern Yankees are a double dose of barrels of money and smart farming. They’ll be contenders for a long time at this pace, despite a lot of people saying they’ll fall off a cliff with aging players. Their farm system should be in the top 6 this year on baseball america, so expect some more homegrown talent.
I crunched the numbers and the Yankees had 54% homegrown players and the Braves had 44% homegrown.
way more? count em…
ATL – Prado, Hanson, McCann, Chipper, Freeman, Heyward, Venters, Kimbrel, Minor, Beachy, Medlen, Hicks, Hernandez
All 13 drafted by the Braves and appeared on the 2010 roster and most of them are high caliber players
Yankees had 10% more in 2010. In 2009 it was closer to 20%.
The Yankees did have alot of home grown talent this year. Around the horn you had Posada, Cervelli, Cano, Jeter, Nunez, Pena, Gardner, Lesser pieces like Juan Miranda, Colin Curtis and Kevin Russo, who along with Pena and Nunez gave them almost a completely home grown bench. The rotation had Hughes, Pettite(who did come through their system and played most of his career there) and later Nova. The bullpen had Robertson, Chamberlain, Aceves and Rivera. At one point their roster was comprised of almost 70% of players who came through their system.
In 2009 you had Posada, Cervelli, Cano, Jeter, Pena, Gardner, Cabrera, Chamberlain, Hughes, Pettite, Rivera and Aceves.
As you said they are double barrelled and have a very deep system which has supplied many bench players and replacements for injuries over the past two years. The Yankees do add high priced players like the Redsox, Phillies, Braves, Angels, Rangers, Mariners Cardinals and almost every other team in baseball but when you look at the Yankees they field more players from their own system than almost any team.
(facepalm)
Domonic Brown and Jesus Montero say hello.
and those guys are productive major leaguers? ohhh wait, no
Cano is better than any position player the Braves have right now. Of the two young starting center fielders, Gardner had a better year than Heyward last year, despite a wrist injury for half the season. Oh and Jeter is still better than Chipper. Tommy Hanson is better than Hughes right now, but I don’t think it will be like that for long.
Gardner had a better year than Heyward? I hope you’ve had a chance to sleep on it by now, because I completely disagree, as does the rest of the baseball world not living in the Bronx.
Jason Heyward should have a much better career than Gardner, but Gardner was a better fielder and base runner. Heyward might have power, but that doesn’t make Gardner useless. Gardner beat Heyward in WAR in 2010. Going forward I would rather have Heyward, but suck it up Gardner was better.
LMFAO… Gardner had a better year than JHey? GTFO the only thing that Gardner beat JHey in was SB and runs. JHey also battled injuries throughout the year, his rookie year to boot, and he still posted numbers like that. JHey is going to be as good as Cano this year, probably more valuable as well. Don’t get all butt-hurt, I’m not saying Cano isn’t a great player, because he is. I’m just saying that JHey is going to get better and better every year. Last year was his first year in the league as a 21 year old and he posts a 393 OBP. Yeah, I’ll take that.
Heyward will be a better player, but Gardner beat him in WAR in 2010. Gardner also got hurt and ended up having surgery on his wrist. Up until that day he was hitting .321/.403. I think you’re right that Heyward projects to be like Cano in the future, but I looked at 2010. Sorry if you got offended that Heyward, the apparent second son of God for Atlanta fans, was not the best outfielder last year.
I’m sorry, but NO. Gardner did not have a better year than Heyward.
5.0 WAR for Heyward.
5.4 WAR for Gardner.
Might wanna check out the Yankees farm…
People are in for a shock when the top farm system lists come out in a few months.
John Sickles already has them around #6
When is the last time the Braves won a WS or the NL East again?
how about that offseason where you guys signed no one?
Wow great argument. I can’t think of one offseason the Yankees didn’t sign anyone… I also can’t think of an offseason where any team didn’t sign anyone. Who did the Yankees sign last year that gave them an unfair advantage? Thames? Nick Johnson? Chan Ho Park?
and they totally turned that “unfair advantage” into YET ANOTHER World Series victory huh? OH wait, they didn’t buy every player and then win the WS last year… that was the YEAR BEFORE!
I’m pretty sure it was Frankie Cervelli. He is, after all, the league leader in fist pumps and smiles.
Lol, the Phillies wn the world series with just about all homegrown players. Right now they have Utley, Hamels, Howard, Chooch, Rollins, Victorino (rule 5), Basardo, Madson, Brown, Kendrick, and Worley. When they won the series they also had Myers, Burrell, And Happ.
The only players the Phillies bought are Lee and Ibanez really. Halladay was traded here by using their young prospects, as was Oswalt. And can u blame the Phillies for signing Lee. He wanted to be back in Philly and no one in the right mind is going to turn that down.
You let me know when players to the caliber of CC, Halladay, Oswalt, Lee, AGonz, Crawford, Tex, and ARod start lining up to go to the Braves.
The bvuying theory for the phils come from their bloated payroll. Yes they traded for oswalt and halladay, but that could kind of go both ways because their paying 16mil (i think) to oswalt this year, and they had to extend halladay which wasn’t cheap. I guess the arguement for the phils buying a championship is on correct, but they sure are trying too nowadays. As far as payroll goes, yes they have joined the likes of the yanks and sox…
Hilarious! I don’t see where the Phillies have “bought” a competitive team. Assuming Blanton is traded by Opening Day, 2/5th’s of their rotation will be home grown (Hamels and Worley/Kendrick). Braves rotation also has 2 of 5 starters from their own system.
Of their everyday eight, four starters are home grown (Rollins, Utley, Howard, and Ruiz) and I’m not even including Dominic Brown, who will be a part of a platoon in RF. Of their everyday players that aren’t home grown, only Ibanez and Polanco were signed as free agents. If anything, signing Ibanez has hindered more than helped (he’s the biggest reason why Jayson Werth is in Washington). Victorino was a Rule 5 pick (I wouldn’t exactly call him “bought”).
I’ll grant you that Atlanta has more home-grown products playing major roles than the Phillies, or most other teams for that matter, but I grew up watching Atlanta win division title after division title doing exactly what the Phillies are doing right now. They developed a core of young players (Chipper and Andruw Jones, David Justice, Glavine, etc) and then brought in talent to compliment those players.
Is stealing Fred McGriff from the Padres any different than the way the Phillies acquired Roy Halladay? Is stealing a guy like Marquis Grissom from the Expos any different than the way Roy Oswalt was acquired? How about Greg Maddox? Is signing him (off a year in which he won a CY Young with Chicago) any different than the Phillies signing Cliff Lee?
My point is that teams that go on a successful runs start with their home-grown talent and fill holes in via free agency. That’s the way the Braves did it during their run, that’s the way the Yankees and Red Sox have done it, and that’s the way the Phillies are doing it now.
Take a look at the Phillies payroll. Howard, Rollins, Utley, Hamels, Ruiz, Kendrick and Madson (all drafted and developed in Philly) make up about $65M of the Phillies 2011 payroll. That’s about 40% of their payroll tied up in keeping their own players…..and that’s not including non-arb eligble guys like Dom Brown, Bastardo, Vance Worley, etc.
Pittsburgh and KC fans can complain about the system, Braves fans cannot.
Phils haven’t bought a championship, yet. As far as payroll goes, yes they are right up there with the yanks and red sox. The halladay and oswalt deals were actually trades, but with an aterisk. The phils will be paying oswalt 16 mil (i think) this year. They had to work out an extension for halladay as well, which wasn’t cheap. The point is, the only other teams in baseball who could afford the contracts you guys have are yanks and sox.
So what if the Yankees and Red Sox go “buy” talent every off season. Isn’t that what fans want? Isn’t that why the fans go to games to see top major leaguers? Both teams have good owners they’re doing it for the fans they want to put out competitive major league teams and I see nothing wrong with that. Ask a Royals or Pirates fan if they wouldn’t mind a owner like the Yanks or Red Sox have.
cano, arod , tex is better than crawford , agon , youk
Oooo look, someone’s trying to start a flame war.
Oh jeez. Well I’m about to hit the sack, but I expect this thread to probably have more comments on it than the Vernon Wells trade by the morning/noon lol
Usually tends to happen after the first person drops their drawers and brings out a ruler.
Sleep well.
“Usually tends to happen after the first person drops their drawers and brings out a ruler.”
I’m sure Alex Anthopoulos had that happen to him tonight after that trade haha.
Take care.
You’re only mad because HE’S RIGHT!! bwahahaha
I see the “like” and “reply” buttons, but I just can’t seem to find the “laughed my a$$ off at this lame comment” button.
Sox lineup-Best in baseball and only going to get better!
Yankees Lineup- Very good but rapidly regressing with age!
its comparable at least. and anyone who has ever watched baseball knows that jeter (even at this stage of his career) is far and away better than marco scutaro or any other guy the redsox trot out there. and when that kid inglasis comes up, jeter will be better than him too.
Iglasias is already far better in the field. It remains to be seen how far Jeter will have regressed at the plate by the time the kid comes up.
money and rooting interest aside who would you rather have, jeter or scutaro/lowrie/iglasias? right now not in three years
I would 100% rather have Scutero/Lowrie/Iglasias. Thats not even close to comparing.
If you’re asking if I would trade all three for Jeter – no chance. If you mean is Jeter better than any of them today – yes. Next year – maybe not.
its halarious how reactive a society we are to the moves that are made. the yankees have the best lineup in the game and now the best bullpen. plus 2 really good starters in hughes and cc, aj has one outlier of a year and my guess is he bounces back. so basically the red sox have a better #4 and #5 starter which will be adressed by the yankees with pettitte or someone else in the near future.
Actually the Red Sox have the best lineup in baseball and a better, deeper pen than the anyone else,plus 2 young aces and the best 3-5 starters in baseball! See what I just did!
you may be right but the stories of the yanks demise are a bit premature
B-b-but the Yankees have two really good relievers. That makes them the BEST!!!11!
lester and buchholtz are good. but josh beckett is not only injury prone but the last 2 years for him have not been good. daisuke is aj burnett version 2 and lackey while a solid pitcher is learning the differnce between the al east and al west.
You must really be bored.
A 5.4 WAR is not “good”?
Not only is Lackey adjusting by all accounts his elbow is thought to possibly blow at any given time. Its why the Angels let him go and why the Yankees were not in play to sign him. He was a Yankee killer and put up great numbers and he was as solid as you can be for the Angels yet he was basically told to leave if he wanted a big contract. I think because of this he is a huge question mark.
Beckett has not been good for two years and your on the mark about Dice K. Buchholtz was great last year though and you have to give him proper credit for that.
How was Beckett’s 2009 not good?
Hypothetically the Yankees could move Derel Jeter to left or right, I dont think he hurts them at either position. Arod can shift to shortstop with Nunez playing 3rd or Arod stays at third with Nunez playing short. First base and DH could be split between Pujols and Tex or Tex can shift over to third. Hypothetically Pujols can move to right as the Yankees let Swisher go with Tex staying at first because he is better defensively. Tex could move to right or learn to play third. If the Yankees want to spend the money there are many ways they could make room for him. I think he will sign an extension with the Cardinals but if the Yankees really wanted Pujols there are many ways to make room for him.
There may be reasons to worry about Tex. He is still young so it may be premature but one thing that is certain is the Yankees do need him to hit better than .256.
I do not think Drew is a good comparison to use however. When you look at the numbers Giambi put up in his prime with Oakland and his first year with the Yankees .312 41 homeruns 120 rbi’s- Drew was never that type of player and never put up numbers like that in one year let alone a string of years. The same holds true for Tex, at no point in his career was Drew ever close to being as good as either player.
As I noted above, Giambi remained an effective hitter after the age of 30, posting a 143 OPS+. He was a problem because he was a horrible fielder. Not an issue with Teixeria. Even as he declines, he’ll still remain productive as a hitter and a fielder.
I don’t like the “move Jeter to the corner outfield spots” at all. Why would you ever want a player who’s most likely going to to hit under .300, have limited power and play AT BEST, and this is being very generous, average defense at a position he may not have played since little league, if ever?
Also take into account who your taking out of the lineup/who Jeter is replacing in the field. Let him fake it at SS for as long as he wants if he can still hit. When he can’t, pray he retires. (But… he won’t).
I know you’re being all hypothetical and stuff, but I just wanna add the following:
A-Pu will never be a Yankee.
A-Rod will never play shortstop again for the rest of his life unless Jeter decides to make more Yankees Classics and dive into stands (even then, they’d throw Ramiro Pena out there. Or Enrique Wilson’s ghost).
Eduardo Nunez will never win a starting job at any postion on the Yankees. Ever.
You make a good point about Nunez and I tend to agree which is why I do not understand their unwillingness to part with him in a trade. Some other teams have shown a great deal of interest including the Mariners and Braves. Atlanta is stocked with young arms- Cashman was against signing Soriano, the ownership stated they did not like the in house options why not deal Nunez to Atlanta for a good bullpen arm or two? Atlanta also has a few young left handers who put up great numbers last so why not deal Soriano for one of them in place of Feliciano who is getting up there and threw a million innings with the Mets? When you look at the state of the rotation why not deal Nunez for Lowe? Granted its a big chance but they have always liked him, their is only one year left on his deal and I dont think he represents any greater risk than a Millwood or Bonderman, I think his upside is greater having not thrown as many innings as a normal guy his age and he represents an upgrade over Mitre.
The whole Jeter to the outfield situation comes up because they will have him 3 more years and if they can improve in one area and there is a net gain moving him to the outfield its something that could be considered. Swisher will be a free agent so while it is not the best idea in the world it just represents an option they have based on the state of the team right now. No he is not a the best option but its something that can be considered.
That would be nice if the Yankees could get something for him. I just don’t see it though, unless it were part of a package deal.
Pujols gave up other non-first positions because of his elbow several years back. If he was a pitcher, he’d probably have had TJ surgery by now, but he’s been able to deal with it fine as a hitter, as long as he’s playing first and not making throws from the OF. I don’t see him moving to right or left.
As for A-Rod, the last time he started a season as a SS, he was all of 27 and playing for the Rangers. That was eight years ago for A-Rod, who turns 36 mid-season, has bulked up more with weights over the years since moving to third, and had hip surgery last year, greatly limiting his movements. He was a better defensive SS than Jeter years ago, but I’m afraid if he ever went back to short, he’d make Derek Jeter look like Ozzie Smith with the glove.
I like how Verducci uses RANDY CHOATE, a lefty specialist who had a damn fine season in that roll, as a comparison for set up men.
“4.23 ERA? Randy Choate? Set up men? STORY WRITTEN.” -T.M.
tehren is going to be more beast than Hanson, Medlen and Minor and Beachy COMBINED. 😀
As it was written, so it shall be done.
Hehe, Padres. I agree with Jed Hoyer. Your offense can’t suffer much of a ‘drop off’ when it scored the fewest runs in the NL West last year.
Uh, so Geoff Baker and Larry Stone came to the conclusion that a split between Bradley and the M’s would be good for both parties? Calling Capitan Obvious, come in Capitan Obvious! When wouldn’t a split with Bradley be better for Bradley and the team?
From what I can tell it looks like the M’s have treated him fairly and given him chance after chance in the short time he’s been there. He keeps screwing up and he really needs to continue getting help. At this point however maybe MLB needs to step in. What they would do when they stepped in I don’t know but Bradley’s situation reminds me of lazy parents standing by and watching while their bratty kid terrorizes the babysitter. No matter where Bradley goes it’s going to end badly, MLB needs to force the guy to get some serious professional help, if he’s not getting enough already, and do everything within reason to counsel him and keep him out of trouble. He’s a black eye on the sport, they shouldn’t just sit and watch his antics any longer. And while they’re helping him they need to make clear that he’s already at strike two. Any more blow-ups, run in’s with the police, going after fans or broadcasters etc… is going to mean the end of his career.
Unless someone has a better idea of how to keep this guy out of trouble then this is the path I would take with him. I don’t blame MLB for this situation and they shouldn’t have to treat an adult with kid gloves but unless they do he’s going to keep embarrassing the sport, himself, his team, the commissioner etc etc… Do something to get the situation under control.
It being better for the TEAM to part ways with Bradley is obvious. I wouldn’t say it being better for Bradley is. In fact I’m not sure I’d even call that a good thing much less obvious, considering after all this with the Cubs and Mariners, his lackluster performance the last few years and his past history there’s a fair chance he doesn’t get another job in baseball.
Difference between Giambi and Teix is that Teix probably didn’t take steroids and his glove is worth a lot.
They are very different players. Giambi was a classic slugger where Tex is a better pure hitter. Giambi played first because that was where he could do the least amount of damage with his glove where Tex is a gold glove first baseman who makes infield defense a strength. Tex is a better player all around and the risk in signing him to a long term deal was much less than Giambi. I would compare Giambi to Cecil Fielder where I would compare Tex to Fred McGriff. I can still see Tex being a productive hitter playing the field in the last year of his deal where with Giambi they pretty much new that by the end of the contract they were going to have the player that they did have.
Verducci is a hack.
I meant deal Nunez to Atlanta for a left hander.
A few points. Verducci is spot on with Texeria. This next season is a make or break year for him. If he continues to pound into the shift and his batting average hovers in the .250-.260 range, he’ll be the worst free agent contract the Yankees have signed in recent years. They did not sign up for Giambi the sequel. They thought they were getting a near .300 hitting force, but last season he was a streaky player whose final numbers did not match up with his contract.
If he has another season like last and Pujols hits the market, take it to the bank that the Yankees will go after Pujols and attemtp to force Tex into waiving his no trade clause and moving on somewhere else (with the Yankees picking up significant dollars).
Pujols to the Yankees isn’t crazy to suggest. If he makes it to free agency I expect the Yankees there with their checkbook wide open. If he didn’t replace Tex at first, they would sign him to DH. They do not realistically look at Jeter as a future DH. Arod, on the other hand, should be the future DH but they may get Pujols to cover DH until Arod can no longer play the field.
Next season is a big season in that if Tex regresses or stays the same as last year and Arod proves he can still play the field, Pujols will be on the table.
The Yankees went through watching Giambi pound balls into the shift for 20 million a year and they despised it. They will not settle for a below average Texiera who has lost the ability to hit to all fields in his early 30’s.
After next season Tex will have 5 years guaranteed left on his deal. I think another team would take a chance on him in a trade if the Yankees provided some dollars. St. Louis, Milwaukee, Texas, the Mets, the Nats, the Cubs, the Braves all will be looking for a 1b and I’m certain they’d be in on Tex if he was available in a deal.
Make or break? Dude I think you are completely overreacting. He had a MVP caliber season in 2009. He had his usual bad start in April and he played thru an assortment of injuries in Sept/Oct. Remover those two months and he hit .289 for the rest of the season. To top it off he had a extremely low BaBIP of .268 last year. He still had close to 70 xtra base hits and over 90 walks. Still a productive season. Even if the Yanks wanted to too, he’s not waving the no trade clause and the Yanks aren’t eating his salary just to try and sign Pujols.
Dear Yankees and Phillies fans,
Try not to get upset at baseless comments from Braves fans. We were spoiled with 14 consecutive division titles and now the bulk of us are pretty bitter, and now that they’re fielding a competitive team with a damn good farm backing them, we tend to get a little too optimistic. The Phillies, nor the Yankees have done nothing wrong in my eyes. Both championships are deserved….
Teheran excites me to no end, seen him start a few games and could barely believe what I seen from the 19-year-old. Throw him in the mix with Hanson, Hudson, Lowe, Jurrjens, Minor, Medlen, Beachy, Delgado, and Vizcaino and it’s hard not to get overly excited. Not a big fan of Jurrjens(or Lowe for that matter), and Beachy’s stuff isn’t exactly dominant……but the rest of that pack can flat out pitch. More than likely not all of these guys will pan out and one or two will no doubt be traded for a positional player at some point.
The Phillies obviously have what it takes to win the division for the next 2-3 years, but the Braves should keep seeing improvement with their club. They’re about to have a good chunk of money coming off the books, so they can go out and get a couple of pieces to put them over the top.
As intimidated as I am regarding the Phillies rotation, I still can’t wait to see the Braves face them. Good luck to all clubs involved….
And dickey, the Braves aren’t gonna be in on any 1st baseman for at least a couple of years. Freeman’s gonna get his shot to produce.
giambi was never the hitter at the stadium for just that reason; he abandoned the tactic of going with pitches that made him a consummate threat as an oakland star; his and teix’s skills aren’t all that similar, in the same way verducci’s and solid reporting aren’t; a guy hits points under his lifetime, shoot him? go write another torre expose, crutch seeker
Seriously. I’m not worried in the least about him. He had 1 down year. Kevin Long is a great hitting coach and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Texieira hit the .290 mark next year.
Yeah. The article itself is nowhere near as negative as the headline. He’s basically saying with a few adjustments Tex could really improve. Otherwise he could decline.
Verducci and numbers don’t mix. Of course Teixeira’s numbers are going to go down in his 30s compared to his 20s. Every ball players (well, except Bonds) goes down. He also meant to use the Giambi comparison as a negative, yet he doesn’t seem to realize the Giambi had an OPS+ of 143 after the age of the 30 for the remainder of his Yankee career. The Yankees will be more than happy if Teixeria does that too, especially considering he’s a good glove man, unlike Giambi.
Apparently, no one has broken the story that any player at any age can decline. Oh, and get this, for a variety of reasons. After the initial shock wears off, I think there’s a story here.
I don’t see how he can compare Tex to Giambi and ignore the humongus pink elephant in the room with the siringe still stuck in his @ss. How about steroids being a major reason why Giambi fell off from his Oakland numbers?
Even still, the problem wasn’t so much his performance as much as it was his ability to stay healthy, his inability to play defense at a passable level and his contract having two ballon payments at the end of it. Overall, he hit 36 hrs and drew an avg of over 100 walks and avg’d an OBP over .400 as a Yankee.
I don’t see it being a good comparison. I do agree that Tex needs to stop trying to pull everything seeing as how defense puts a serious shift on him.
There’s only 1 possible way that could work, and that’s to make A-Rod the full time DH, and move Tex or Pujols to 3B.
I still say he gets his extension.
Yankees would be better off going after Chris Carpenter at the deadline. He’s got an option for next year that they’re not going to be able to exercise because they’ll be paying Pujols $27-30mm. Carpenter will be on the block and he would make a great #2 for the Yankees. Then if Pettitte came back, that would be a fantastic rotation and bullpen, assuming Pettitte comes back and is effective, which is a big assumption considering his age.
It wasn’t so much a bad year as a bad month. Tex was ice cold in April and one of baseball’s hottest hitters in July. All players have ebbs and flows… except Pujols, he’s just psychotically good.
Why would that be more likely than A-Rod staying at 3rd and moving Tex to DH?
Pujols is the best player in baseball but I would only sign him to a 3 or 4 year deal which won’t happen. 8 years which is what he will want is a no if I’m the Yankees front office. 4 or 5 years ago it would have been a completely different story but then again if he hits free agency and say the Red Sox win the World Series anything could happen especially since Hank and Hal spend like their father.
Pujols has a torn tendin in his throwing arm. no way he moves to 3B. but i can see the Yankees signing him next year and making him the full-time DH. Yes I can!
That would be stupid for the Yankees to keep A-Rod at 3rd. Although Pujols and Tex have not played 3B in years so who knows how they’ll do, but can they be as poor as A-Rod is? Who knows.
Let’s not even talk about it, since we know it isn’t happening lol.
Because A-Rod’s hip is a problem for the future, and Tex plays gold glove caliber defense at first. If they get Pujols, he would be strictly a DH, and nobody is going to take Pujols’ glove off the field. Or pay their DH $30mm a year.
Kind of like leaving Jeter at SS instead of moving him to LF or RF which truthfully, I think he’d be okay at.
I was about to write a reply to why ARod is the better option at 3rd than Tex, but you already did.
Just because they haven’t played there in years doesn’t necessarily mean they’d be worse than A-Rod is right now.
The above average offense both A-Rod and Jeter bring at their positions are worth a lot more in terms of wins than any defensive liabilities they do have. Of course when their offense declines, then the poor defense becomes an issue. (Captain obvious’d)
I also think it’s unfair to call them bad defenders in saying that they completely suck. Yes, they have no range and that’s a very big part of defense making them “bad defenders”, but their glovework and other fielding skills are still excellent when they can, ya know, actually get to a ball. A-Rod still has a crazy good arm too. It’s amazing to see some of the throws he can still make..
Much less Jeter find the most competitive deal on the market.. In the 5-6m range.. This past off season, rather than once again bid against themselves @3/45m like the Yankees have the tendency to do.
If NY would cease this policy (Rodriquez, Jeter) they would have plenty of cash to offer guys like Pujols to come to Yankee stadium instead of useless PR.
Have you even seen A-Rod play? His range might be limited, mainly due to the surgery last year, but the guy’s got a monster arm and has great baseball iq. So, yeah, while it is possible that Tex may be better, it is also VERY unlikely. I’d put the percentage at around 1.5, certainly not enough to base an argument off of, even a hypothetical one as this because the Yankees are not getting Pujols.
When they did try third, they were pretty bad at it. Arod would be best at third. Tex and Pujols would alternate 1st and dh… This is the ideal situation in my fantasy world.
“by a few measures, they’re okay. by several other measures, they completely, completely suck. unfortunately, the latter measures happen to be the more important ones”
I think I just said that?
That’s a funny way of looking at things and a buit deceptive.
With regards to Arod. He IS one of the worst 3B since 2004 in comparison to all others as he’s tied w/ Wright as th 3rd worst ahead of Reynolds and Braun (who hasn’t played there for a while). But, break it down by year, and assuming that 0 is league average (is that a fair assumption) then he’s had 2 years where he’s been waaayyyyyy below average (2006 @ -14 UZR and 2009 @ -6 UZR), 1 year where he was great (2004 @ 8.2 UZR) and a the rest of the 4 years he was no less than -2.3 UZR. In terms of rank, in most years Arod ranks middle of the pack with their usually being 2 or 3 3B thatreally skew the rankings w/ great UZR’s. If anything, Arod is passable.
Jeter on the other hand has only had 4 years where his UZR was above -3.0.
The machine!
The funny thing is last year was a “down” year for Pujols (second lowest WAR of his career and worst since ’02) and he finished second in MVP voting.
Wow. For some reason I thought Tex had a bad April and May last year, but you’re right, he hit .280 in May. I guess he just started so slowly that I didn’t realize he picked it back up.
From May 1 – End of Season, he hit .275. That’s about where I’d put him next year. I don’t think he’ll regress down to a .240 hitter or whatever Verducci is claiming.
Having said that – I do think that Gonzo has a better offensive year than Tex next year, but that’s as far as I’ll go in making predictions against Tex, and really, that’s not even “against Tex” as much as it is “for Gonzo”
Out of curiosity, what defensive measures are you referring to aside from the obvious UZR, etc. etc.
Odometer FTW!