Top 5 things the Yankees need to do this offseason

A big part of the Yankees offseason

The baseball season is just about over and unfortunately it is not ending with a New York Yankees World Series win. In fact the Yankees blew their best chance to win the series since 2009 by having their bats disappear in the postseason and now they need to retool for next season. Here are the top 5 things the Yankees need to do for next season .

1. Resign Hiroki Kuroda
This is by far the most critical part of the offseason and if the Yankees want to bounce back from their poor performance they will need to resign Hiroki Kuroda. He transitioned to the AL by having the best season of his career and that's in Yankee stadium. Kuroda was the number two pitcher the Yankees have been looking for, for a long time and if they need to give him a two year deal they absolutely should in order to bring back Hiroki.

2. Right Field
The Yankees have any number of possibilities for Right Field next season and while Nick Swisher is by far the best solution, it seems unlikely that the Yankees will bring him back next season due to his price tag. For all the complaints about Swishers struggles in the postseason the Yankees really need his switch hitting bat and it will be a lot cheaper to give Swisher 3-4 years than try and sign Curtis Granderson after he hits free agency. If the Yankees let Swisher and Granderson walk then they may need to fill two Outfield spots after next season  and we do not even know if they will be able to fill one spot internally. To me the most likely scenario is that the Yankees bring back Ichiro Suzuki or they trade for an Outfielder as there are not many free agent options for the Yankees who want to stay in their budget for 2014. Bringing Ichiro wouldn't be the worst scenario, but he would be 39 and while he may be able to flash a little more power he will be 39. The Yankees would also need to count on Ichiro's resurgence into next year and hope the hot month he had with the Yankees wasn't a fluke.

3. Catcher
This one is very straight forward. The Yankees are going to need to bring back Russel Martin because the free agent and trade market for catchers is pretty barren. Napoli isn't really a catcher, AJ Piezynski is a jerk/old and Olivio is terrible. Martin is the best option and if they don't bring him back then they will need to platoon Cervelli and Stewart and they don't want to do that. Its pretty much Martin or bust for the Yankees.

4. Resign Andy Pettitte
Some may balk that this is 4th, but really this may be a little high for Pettitte. I did initially ponder putting this with Kuroda, but really its much less important for Pettitte to return as it is for Kuroda. Pettitte surprised everybody with his comeback and made a big impact, we just don't know what he will be able to contribute next season. That being said the Yankees want him back, Pettitte just needs to decide if he wants to come back.

5. Bench
The bench doesn't seem like a huge thing but it is going to be very important next season as well in the foreseeable future because of the age of the Yankees roster. The Yankees do not know how many how many games Jeter or ARod will be able to play in the field next season so a good bench is critical. Recently Brian Cashman said that they want Eduardo Nunez to play everyday at short stop and he could potentially play short 60-70 games next season and possibly even more next season depending on Jeters recovery from his surgery. If they don't want Nunez to do that then they will need to acquire somebody who can play short stop frequently as Jeter is defiantly going to need to have a lot of rest, especially at the beginning of the season. Despite his abysmal postseason ARod is going to be okay and is going to be the primary 3rd baseman, but he and Jeter will probably be the primary DH's so somebody will need to be able to step in as the 3rd baseman frequently. If Eric Chavez returns I expect that he will fill that role, but that is in no way a certainty and he has frequently said that his previous injuries have made playing very painful for him. If Chavez does not return then there is a good chance that the bench spot would be filled internally by Corban Jospeh or David Adams both of whom are probably major league ready. The backup catcher will probably be Chris Stewart again  but after that their bench will depend on what their answer in Right Field will be.

I was initially going to include signing both Hughes and Cano to extensions and while I do believe that these are important they do not affect 2013. In Cano's case I feel that he will wait until he hits free agency as he will want a big deal and there is a very real chance that the Los Angeles Dodgers will outbid the Yankees for Cano. In Hughes's case the Yankees should sign him to an extension but it is not critical to the 2013 team. That being said I will have a post up about Phil Hughes and extension possibilities.

The End of the 2012 Yankees

Jeter after suffering his ankle injury

Well the Yankees wasted their best opportunity to win the World series since 2009 and lost in four games to the Detroit Tigers in the ALCS. Normally a team would probably be happy with advancing to the second round of the playoffs, but these are the New York Yankees and its World Series or bust every year. The thing that made this so hard was, as we talked about in the podcast, the Yankees were clearly better than the Tigers but the offense mailed it in for the first series against the Orioles and completely didn't show up for the Tigers series. I mean they managed six runs in four games and when you eliminate the 9th inning of game one they scored two runs in games 2-4. Of course what makes this all worse is that Derek Jeter fractured his ankle is game one and we don't know how he will come back next season as a 38 year old Shortstop.
Playoffs make people crazy and so the ARod, Nick Swisher and Curtis Granderson hate trains were overflowing all playoffs long. Its not that they did not deserve to be criticized for their poor performance, its just that people start thinking that a player is worthless all together if he struggles in the postseason. Curtis Granderson hit 43 Home Runs, the idea that they should turn down his option is ridiculous. Some people try and say that the Yankees should never have acquired Nick Swisher because of his struggles in the post season and criticizing the ARod contract is valid but also having the benefit of hindsight.
The Yankees season ended in a way none of us would have liked but the only thing that we can do now is wait until next season as the Yankees retool for a World series run in 2013.

Jeter will likely need Ankle Surgery

Following his fractured ankle in game one, The Yankees have confirmed that Derek Jeter will need Ankle surgery.Via Wally Matthews: Derek Jeter will “likely” need surgery to repair ligament damage in his fractured left ankle. The Cap’n underwent a battery of tests to confirm the break yesterday, and now he’ll head to North Carolina to see Dr. Robert Anderson, a foot and ankle specialist. Its unclear if this will increase his recovery time, but obviously we hope he can be ready for spring training.

A True Yankee Podcast 10/13

Sorry about the bad quality in the last one but the sound quality is perfect in this one. We talk about the Playoffs so far around baseball. Obviously we talk about the Yankees vs. Orioles ALDS and preview the Yankees/Tigers ALCS.

Yankees advance to the ALCS after CC goes into Beast Mode

(Elsa/Getty)

CC Sabathia threw a complete game to defeat the Baltimore Orioles and the only hiccup was the 8th inning when CC allowed a run and had the bases loaded with one out but he struck out McLouth on four pitches, the slider that McLouth struck out on was nasty all night and the Orioles were flailing at it all night. Yankees escaped the jam one batter later as J.J. Hardy hit a soft hopper to Jeter that Hardy was unable to beat out and just like that the Inning was over. I was a little surprised that Girardi elected to stick with Sabathia for another inning, and he fired off a perfect ninth inning for the complete game, the first of his postseason career. The final line — 9 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 9 K —  doesn't do CC justice since he labored in exactly one inning. Outside of that eighth inning, the Orioles had two baserunners. Two. Sabathia buried hitters with his offspeed stuff, throwing just 62 four-seam fastballs out of 121 pitches, but that is how he has pitched lately. It was the first postseason complete game by a Yankee since Rodger Clemens in 2000. I fully expect that he will pitch in game three on short rest against Verlander, but that also will require Kuroda to pitch on short rest in Game Two. CC also set an ALDS record with 17.2 innings pitched beating the previous record of 16 innings, the previous record was 16, held by Justin Verlander (2012) and Cliff Lee (2010). The previous Yankees record was 15.2 by David Cone in the 1995 ALDS, Cone just so happend to throw out the ceremonial first pitch before the game.

The Play of this Series was Raul Ibanez's Home Run in game three, I really don't know which one I would call bigger but one of them. After that it has to be Mark Teixeira stealing second in the fifth, nobody thought that was gonna happen not with Weiters behind the plate. Granted the Orioles helped out as they weren't holding Tex on because they assumed the guy who doesn't have great speed wouldn't try and steal with a bad calf. They were wrong and it really cost them as Raul singled in Tex to give the Yankees a lead that they would never give up. The Yankees added two more runs on Granderson's solo home run and Ichiro's double off the wall that let Jeter score from first.

Now the Yankees face off against the Tigers in the ALCS and because of the stupid scheduling by the MLB that means Today. The Yankees who are the #1 seed get no break between the ALDS and the ALCS, but the Tigers who are the #3 get one that doesn't make much sense and now David Phelps might need to start game two because the Yankees need to play five in a row.  Tonight's match up will be Andy Pettitte and Doug Fister. Also the Yankees dropped Eduardo Nunez from the playoff roster in favor of Cody Epply. The Yankees won't likely need Nunez because of how right handed heavy the Tigers are and they probably wanted the extra pitcher because they do not know what will happen in game two.

Raul Ibanez is A True Yankee

True Yankee

 I wrote a post back in mid-September I wrote a post about how the Yankees needed to stop playing Raul Ibanez and play Chris Dickerson instead and at the time it wasn't without reason as Ibanez was doing nothing at the plate. Then of course Ibanez saved the Yankee stadium the first time by homering to tie the game in the 13th against Oakland. If you recall it was pretty huge as the Yankees had been down four runs thanks to Freddy Garcia and Justin Thomas. Then the Yankees were down to the corpse that was the 2012 Boston Red Sox in the 9th and he hit a two run home run to tie the game at three before hitting the walk off single in the 12th inning. If the Yankees had lost either of these games they would have fallen into second place behind the Orioles but Raul stepped up and clobbered the Yankees to wins in both of those games.
Then last night all seemed lost as the Yankees were down by one to the Orioles with only two more outs to go and Raul Ibanez pinch hit for Alex Rodriguez and on the second pitch hit a game tying home run off Jim Johnson, who should be noted has now given up two home runs in this series after giving up three all season. But the Yankees failed to score a run and the game was over because it went into extra innings and the Orioles can't lose in extra innings just like they don't lose close games....oh wait but they did. In the 12th inning Raul Ibanez took the first pitch into the second deck on a trademark Ibanez Moonshot. The best part for that was the fact that it was off Brian Matusz who just so happens to pitch left handed and Raul hasn't hit lefties all season but right now the only way to retire Raul is if you have destroyed all the Horcruxes and clearly the Orioles missed a few (because he looks like Voldermort). I don't know if anybody has had a bigger two at bats in one game in Yankee history. I mean the Game tying and game winning home run after pinch hitting in the 9th? I think this night may have bought Raul Ibanez a new contract in 2012, maybe not from the Yankees but from somebody.

Sabathia, Martin defeat the Orioles in the 9th.

Everyone knew it was gone (Rob Carr/Getty)

Despite the final score of 7-2 this was a nail bitter for 8 innings and I don't think anybody thought that the Yankees were gonna hang 5 runs on Jim Johnson, but they did. If it had gone to extras you know they never would have shut up about the Orioles record in extra innings.
CC Sabathia was ridiculous last night and was so close to a Complete game but it probably was responsible of Girardi to take him out after Ford's hit because he was at 120 pitches. Either way CC pitched a fantastic game, got the win and preserved the bullpen. His stuff was nasty all night with the exception of the bad slider he threw to Nate McClouth that scored two runs. After last nights game CC owns a 3.36 ERA in 69.2 innings in the postseason as a Yankee. The Yankees have also won nine of his eleven playoff starts now, with the two exceptions being Game One of the 2009 World Series (offense got Cliff Lee’d) and Game Three of the 2011 ALDS, in which he left in a tie game. As good as he was he does owe alot to his Catcher, Russel Martin who not only hit the go ahead home run but had a great game behind the plate in terms of blocking pitches and pitch framing. He made a great play in the fifth to get the out at first on Lew Ford and look at how good he was at pitch framing last night:

Speaking of Russel Martin, how subdued were the TBS announcing crew on Russel Martins home run? I knew it was going out, so did McClouth and everybody in that park and they act like there is nothing interesting about the flyball whatsoever. I know the crew featured Cal Ripken jr, but seriously at least try to pretend your not rooting for the Orioles.

The Yankees did not have the best four innings on the base paths as Ichiro for some reason decided to try and steal third and got gunned down by Matt Wieters. Then Mark Teixeira got thrown out trying to stretch a single into a double against Chris Davis, you shouldn't do that he has a cannon. But despite missing some great opportunities the offense made up for it by saving the best for last and sucking the life out of Camden Yards in the 9th. Now the Yankees need to win the game tonight as they send out Andy Pettitte to take on the gassed Wei-Yin Chen before heading to the Bronx.

Yankees will face the Orioles in the ALDS

This happened in 1996, apparently nobody in Baltimore has had anything better to think about

Baseball is an amazing thing as that bizarre Cardinals v. Braves game happened Well the Texas Rangers officially choked away their season on Friday and lost to the Baltimore Orioles. Now the Yankees will face off against the Orioles in games one and two in Baltimore and stop this "miracle team" in its tracks. Game One will start 6:15pm ET on Sunday while Game Two will begin at 8:07pm ET on Monday. Games Three though Five (in necessary) will be played Wednesday through Friday of next week with start times yet to be announced. The number of times that Jeffery Maier is going to be mentioned is absurd as is the number of times they mention the Orioles record in one run games and extra inning games. Also infield fly rule, its gonna happen.

not the infield

The six-man umpiring crew will include Brian Gorman, Mark Carlson, Fieldin Culbreth, Mike Everitt, Angel Hernandez, and Tony Randazzo. Games Three though Five (in necessary) will be played Wednesday through Friday of next week with start times yet to be announced. 
Today enjoy the A's-Tigers match up as it is  Parker vs Verlander and Cueto vs Cain in the Reds-Giants game.

10/4 A True Yankee Podcast

Playoffs baby! Yankees are in the playoffs and Chris and I say who is going to win each series and the regular season awards. We also talk about the Yankees vs Red Sox series and the return of Brett Gardner and Mark Teixeira

Yankees win the AL East

The Yankees have won the AL East by sweeping the Boston Red Sox in three games and defeating them 9-2 behind a great start from Hiroki Kuroda and an amazing offensive game from Robinson Cano. In fact Cano and Granderson's four home runs broke the franchise record for home runs with 245 Home runs. It ended up not mattering because the Orioles lost to the Tampa bay Rays whose offense showed once again that is extremely dependent on Evan Longoria, who had a three home run game. Despite all their injuries and all the hate from the media in late August and early September they won the AL East by two games while the Texas Rangers choked on the last day of the season and lost to CCSU Alumni Evan Scribner and the Oakland Athletics. We were all a little freaked out after the Yankees blew that 10 game lead but they were never out of first place at any point since June.  Its time for the Playoffs, but we will have to wait for Sunday to see the Yankees face the winner of Fridays wild card game.

Evan Scribner wins the AL West for the Oakland A's

While some may say credit is due to the Oakland Athletics offense who put up 12 runs on Texas pitching, but i'm going to give it to CCSU alumni and Connecticut native Evan Scribner who took over for AJ Griffin, after he had given up five runs in 2.2 innings, and shut down the best offense in baseball for three innings to earn his second career win. He also struck out Josh Hamilton and Mike Napoli and left to a standing ovation after his three innings.
I wrote about Scribner here and in fact this blog sponsors his Baseball refrence page which you can view here. After today the Blue Davil alumni finishes his season with 35.1 innings pitched and a 2.55 ERA and nice bounce back year in Oakland after his last few outings for San Diego tarnished what had been a decent season last year. Check out Evan Scribner's twitter page or Facebook fan group and give him your congratulations.

Banuelos will undergo Tommy John surgery

Via Josh Norris, left-hander and top pitching prospect Manny Banuelos will have Tommy John surgery on Thursday. Brian Cashman confirmed the news and said it’s a new injury. “If we knew he’d needed (surgery) a year ago, he’d have had it done a year ago,” said the GM.

Banuelos, 21, missed essentially all of 2012 with what the team called a “bone bruise” in his elbow, so this news is crummy but not completely unexpected. The worst part is that between this year and next, he’ll have lost two consecutive years of development due to injury. Billy Connors recently firing suddenly starts to make sense given this news. He was working with the team’s rehabbing pitchers this year. On the bright side Banuelos is still very young and can come back from this.