byardis

With Bartolo Colon, Freddie Garcia and Ivan Nova manning 60% of the Yanks' starting rotation, Phil Hughes destined for the knife, and the likes of Kevin Millwood and Carlos Silva the current plan B, I must say I fear for Brian Cashman's mortal soul. Before pulling the trigger on any trades Cash should make an appointment in Hell to speak with the last person to cast out a savior named Jesus... Read Full Story

With 2 days remaining until the open of the 2011 season, it's time for my annual predictions post. Last year didn't exactly show me to be a master prognosticator (AJ winning Cy Young? Ugh!), but this year I have my Nostradamus hat on and will undoubtedly fare much better! AL East- 1. Red Sox 2. Yanks 3. Rays 4. O's 5. Blue Jays While it is true the Sox picked up 2 very good players this off season, they also lost 2 substantial pieces from last year's team. Replacing Beltre with Gonzalez and... Read Full Story

While we spend a lot of attention debating the merits of retreads like Garcias and Colon the real issue is the inability of Brain Cashman to build a complete starting 5. I know there was some excitement last year over adding Vasquez to an already good rotation but we know how that turned out. The Vasquez move was widely applauded but a GM must be scored on his results NOT how a move appeared to the public and MSM at the time. Take a look at some of the staffs the Yankees have had since 2005... Read Full Story

Ivan Nova forced his way into the Number 4 spot of the Yankee rotation by doing his best Chien -Ming Wang impressive this spring. Which got me thinking - How similar are Nova and Wang at this point of their career? First both players have gone basically unnoticed by Baseball America. Want cracked the Yankee top ten once in 2005. Nova on the other hand has never cracked the Yankee top ten. Wang struggled in AA but blossomed at bit at AAA AA - 4.36 era, 1.355 WHIP, 9.9 h/9, 6.8 k/9 AAA - 2.58... Read Full Story

News came down yesterday that Gustavo Molina would most likely break camp as the Yankee starting catcher. There is no reason for a player with a career .643 OPS in the minors to be on the roster of the Yankees. Cervelli is going to be back in about a month so why not just break camp with Montero or Romine and let them experience New York? Worse case they sit and/or struglle in which case they go down in May m issing only 3 weeks of games. Best case you have your catcher of the future. Yankees... Read Full Story

This week's SI has an article about the prodigy for the Braves, Jason Heyward , and to sum it up the kid is the chosen one. As a Yankee fan I tend to read every baseball story and relate it back to my Yankees in some way. My first thought was why didn't we get this kid! My second, how does Jesus Montero compare? I know Jesus is not the athlete that Heyward is but what about as a hitter? Heyward is 2 months older then Jeses and already in the bigs but check out the two as minor leaguers... Read Full Story

With opening day tomorrow it's time to make our predictions for the upcoming year: AL East 1. Yanks 2. Rays 3. Sox 4. O's 5. Blue Jays Losing Matsui and Damon would hurt, except that Granderson will more than make up for the loss of Damon, and a full year of Arod + Nick Johnson should help mitigate the loss of HMat. Add Javy Vazquez to an already potent staff that includes my Cy Young winner in AJ Burnett, and the Yanks are the clear favorites. The Sox have a formidable starting staff, and as... Read Full Story

Today is the last day of the offseason and everyone has now published their 2010 predictions. I thought it would be a good time to take a look back at the experts 2009 predictions to help put things in perspective. ESPN ESPN has the advantage of the sheer volume of analysts so you figure someone would have nailed at least the world series match up. Wrong. How about AL MVP? Well in the AL not a single expert picked Mauer . AL Cy Young? 0 for again, 3 ESPN staffers actually chose Liriano and... Read Full Story

After the 2007 season Alex Rodriguez signed a 10 year $275 million contract. For a player with a single team bidding entering his age 32 season this was quite the player friendly contract. Before Arod signed with the Yankees the lack of interest around baseball was significant enough that the MLB player association discussed filing a grievance . So while the Yankees might have overpaid how much have they overpaid? First lets get an idea of the production you can expect from Arod for the... Read Full Story

Let's ignore the fact that they have had to update their projections at least twice due to some kind of issue (Yanks 3rd? Yeah, better re-do!) - but a projected 836 runs scored for the '10 Yanks? The Yanks scored 915 runs last year and allowed 753. While Vazquez should help the runs allowed number I doubt it gets as low as the 707 they project. A drop of 79 runs scored, though, would be a big number. Yes, we lost Damon and Matsui, but Granderson's production will cancel out Damon, and a whole... Read Full Story