Looks like the Yankees will not be players

The Yankees continue to let the best of the free agents slip thru their grasp. It’s not that they can’t afford them .It’s either that they don’t feel its a good fit or they feel the price is to high for what you get in return. These are the Pitchers who are already gone:

CJ Wilson: Signed with the Angels , Mark Buehrle signed with the Marlins, Eric Bedard signed with the Pirates,Chris Capuano is now with the Dodgers and Yu Darvish will either be with the Rangers or back in Japan. So lets take a look at the best of whats left.

Bartolo Colon: Colon was with the Yankees last season and had a great first half but after a hamstring injury wasnt as effective in the second half. All in all he is certainly worth consideration for a minor league deal with a spring training invite. However I’m guessing someone will take a chance and give him a major league deal.

Arron Cook: I don’t see the Yankees being interested in a 32-year-old who hasn’t been effective since 2009 but if nobody offers him a deal a non contract invite to spring training wouldn’t hurt.

Jon Garland: Missed most of last season with an oblique injury for the Dodgers. After finishing the season on the DL and only making nine starts the Dodgers failed to exercise their team option they held on the 32-year-old hurler. Garland is an interesting pitcher to me. Prior to last year he hadn’t been on the DL since 2000 and has been a great innings eater pitching more than 2oo innings every year since 2004. He has had success in the American league and in his last full season was 14-12 with an ERA of 3.47 over 33 games. Granted that’s lower than his career average. I think he is definitely worth a look. If his medicals are clean I would love to see him at spring training expecting to win a spot in the rotation.

Edwin Jackson: Probably the best of whats left Jackson is coming off a career year with the Cards that some him go 12-9 with an ERA under four. He pitched 199 innings and had 148 K’s. He did give up a lot of hits but with the Yankees run support I feel that he would instantly become a number three in the rotation behind Ivan Nova. If the Yankees want Jackson they are going to have to pay though. He will be looking for a multi-year deal but I’ll be he would sign a two-year deal with an option for around 14 million.

Hiroki Kudora: We have already beat this horse to death. I hear conflicting reports every day on the Yankees level of interest. I will say that they Yankees almost traded for him last year but he would not waive his no trade clause. Now it seems he is willing to come east. All I can say is we will have to wait and see.

Roy Oswalt.: Another Horse we have already beaten to death. His big question mark comes down to this formula  His age+ His Back Problems+ His never pitching in the AL – His willingness to take a one year deal =?

There are also a few other names out there that could become relevent in an attempt to make spring training a sideshow such as Kevin Millwood, Brad Penny, Joel Pineiro ,Brandon Webb, Livan Hernandez and Micah Owings.

Owings  is an interesting guy. He has done it all , Long man, starter, or pinch hitter. Thats right he is one of those pitchers who is a career .286 hitter. Whatever the Yankees do or don’t do it seems that they are out of the big money loop. Of course we have heard that before havent we?

Will the Yankees make a move

The Rangers have won the bidding for Yu Darvish with a ridiculous bid of 51.7 million dollars, so what’s next for the bombers?

Could this really be the year that the Yankees stand pat and don’t do anything? Don’t give up on it yet there are still some potential moves out there that the Yankees could make

1. Gio Gonzalez: A young talented lefty from Oakland who would immediately become the number two guy behind Sabathia. But the A’s are asking for Montero, Mason and one of the killer B’s, so unless the price comes down that’s not happening.

2. John Danks: A 26 year old south paw from Chi town who had an off season yesterday on a horrible White Sox team. Again they are asking for the moon but I see this price dropping before Gonzalez’s does. He’s a free agent next year and the Sox will be looking to get something back.

3. Roy Oswalt: Unless he is willing to come down from wanting a three year contract at 34 years old with a bad back I don’t see the Yankees showing a lot of interest.

4. Hiroki Kuroda: This would be a surprisingly nice fit for the Bombers but the price tag for this free agent would be north of 10 million a year and it seems the Yankees are keeping their wallet in their pocket this year.

There are a few others out there that will warrant a look like Garza and Jair Jurrjens and of course it wouldn’t be an offseason without everyone talking about trading the farm for Felix Hernandez. I think with Montero seeing more time at the MLB level his value will only increase and there are enough internal candidates to fill out a formidable rotation.

The Bombers seem to really like Hector Noesi, David Phelps, Adam Warren and D.J. Mitchell, These guys should all get a shot at the Rotation out of spring training if the Yankees don’t make a move.

My bold prediction is going to be that Manny Banualos blows everyone away this spring and makes the team out of the gate. I’m not at all worried about a rotation that looks like this

!. Sabathia

2. Nova

3. Burnett

4. Garcia

5. Hughes/Banualos

All it will really take for the rotation to be truly feared is for Phil Hughes to return to the guy who won 18 games two years ago. With Montero filling the DH/back up catcher role I really don’t see the need for the Yankees to make a big splash at all. That being said I’m sure Danks or Gonzalez will be in pinstripes for the new year.

 

 

UPDATE: It is being reported that Roy Oswalt may be interested in a one year contract. Will the Yankees be interested???

Yankees fans, Vivid Seats has New York Yankees tickets for all regular season games, and Yankees playoff tickets for the post season.

Arbitration hearings up next!

For those of you who do not understand the arbitration process allow me to give you a quick lesson:

A player and club who cannot agree on a contract may agree to salary arbitration, provided that the player has enough service time in the majors. The following players are eligible for arbitration:

(1) Players with at least 3 but less than 6 years of service in Major League Baseball;

(2) The top 17 percent of players with at least 2 but less than 3 years of Major League service. These are known as “Super 2” players. To qualify as a Super 2, a player must have accumulated at least 86 days of service in the previous year. Historically, the cutoff point for Super 2 status is 2 years, 128 days of service, though the requirement has been as high as 2 years, 140 days in years past.

A hearing can be avoided if the players and ownership can agree on a salary number prior to the deadline, Which in this case is tomorrow. The biggest name out there that is yet to settle is Tim Lincecum. The Giants have offered him 8 million dollars and he has requested 13 million dollars. The biggest dollar amount ever awarded to a first year eligible player was 10 million collected by Ryan Howard.

I have to admit that I didn’t expect Tim to go balls out. I figured they would settle for like nine million. But what does he have to lose he only made 690,000 last year so even if he loses the hearing he still wins eight million dollars. His big payday will come at the end of his contract. I don’t think the Giants will have the resources to lock him up on a long term deal where he will demand somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 million a year or more.

If the Giants are smart they will try and sign him to a long term deal now effectively buying out his remaining arbitration years. Somewhere in the neighborhood of  4 years 55 million would probably get it done with a breakdown similar to this :

2010  9 million

2011  12 million

2012 15 million

2013 19 million

and they might even throw in the lucrative 22 million dollar team option for 2014 which they know they cant afford. So here’s to wondering how Tim will look in pinstripes in 2014. Funny how that’s the year that AJ Burnett’s contract is up. Just sayin