Trade Targets: Erik Bedard

The former Baltimore Orioles Ace had his 2011 option turned down by the Mariners but he was resigned to a 1 year $1 million deal after making only three appearances in the minors in 2010. This year Bedard has posted a 3.00 ERA in 15 starts and a 1.82 ERA in the 10 starts after April, unfortunately he has been on the DL with a sprained left knee since the end of June and his start against the Red Sox will likely be pushed back, which means he will likely only get one start before the trade deadline. He may however be the Yankees best option in acquiring a starting pitcher.

Despite his injury risk Bedard might be the most affordable potential front line starter because Ubaldo would be extremely expensive and apparently the Rockies are not serious about moving him. Also Kuroda does not want to move to the east coast and Wandy has been bad against the AL and would not likely be anything but a back of the rotation starter in the AL East. While Bedard's stuff may not be as good in the less pitcher friendly Yankee stadium but he pitched 658 innings with the Orioles and his strikeout numbers have always been high. Bedard isn't an ace but he could fit the Yankees as a number three in  the rotation as he could easily take either Freddy Garcia's spot in the rotation and due to only making one start before the trade he could be had for cheap from the Mariners. Bedard could also be resigned after this season since he is only 32, left handed and is not a back of the rotation starter. The Yankees may pass on Bedard but he may be their best option in this pitching thin market and they will not want him to be grabbed by the Red Sox who also need a starter.

Not backing up Good A.J

A.J Burnett has had 20 starts this year and in classic A.J Burnett fashion the Yankees have won ten of the games Burnett has started including last nights game and he has recorded ten quality starts or at least had a positive WPA. After this the stats of his starts this year become a little strange. Predictably in his 4 worst starts of the year he has registered a loss in each and his record overall in his 10 non-quality starts has been 2-5 with the Yankees going 4-6 in those ten starts overall. In Burnett's 10 quality starts he has gone 6-2 and the Yankees have gone 6-4 in his quality starts. Whats really strange is that in Burnett's 3 best starts of the Year against the Royals, White Sox and Indians all at home and he is 0-2 in those starts with the Yankees going 0-3. In those three starts the Yankees have generated just 3 runs in those three starts all three of them in the start against the Royals and one of those runs came in the 10th inning of the game. In fact in his eight best starts the Yankees have 3.25 runs per game and every one of those wins has required Mo to come in. We all know that Burnett is inconsistent and that it is important to win his good starts when we have them which the Yankees have failed to do because of a lack of run support. In the third year of his five year deal it is very obvious that Burnett is not the number two that they hoped he would be. His last three starts have been poor, but with his next two starts coming against the offensively inept A's and the overall inept Orioles and he needs to get wins in both of those starts and hopefully lower his ERA as right now it is higher than Ivan Nova's was before he was sent down. Burnett may not be as good as we thought he might be but he is not getting the run support he needs and with the Red Sox as good as they are this year we need to win every start from Good A.J.

Who is the Yankees Future at Catcher?

Jesus Montero came into the year supposedly as the Starting Catcher and then the Yankees signed Russel Martin and that idea was scrapped. After Cervelli broke his leg in Spring Training it seemed that the backup catching job was Montero's to lose which he did. Montero's offense has never been the question as even with his slow start this year he is besting every and all AAA pitching. The biggest issue is and always has been his defense. If the Yankees had not signed Mark Teixeira then I almost guarantee that Montero would have been moved to 1st base, but since he is locked up until 2016 that's not an option for at least several years. The thing about Montero is that he is only 21 and even though he is probably too tall to be a catcher for the rest of his career the Yankees need an influx of young talent and Catcher is where they are stocked with the most talent.
The Yankees Top Catching prospects are:
Jesus Montero: As I said Montero is an offensive Catcher and is the most ready, the concern is whether or not he can be a competent starting catcher in the MLB in terms of game calling and defense. He has a great arm which is why many people feel he is best served as a Right Fielder. The Yankees apparently do think that he can catch in the MLB.


Austin Romine: Romine projects to be a goof overall catcher with good defense and a decent bat but not the raw power and potential for huge offense that Montero has. I saw catch Phil Hughes at Hughes rehab game in New Britain and I was really impressed with his defense especially his blocking of balls in the dirt. Romine is a good all around catching prospect and the only thing keeping him for AAA is Montero. He is also very young at 22 and he was great today at the Futures game.

Gary Sanchez: Sanchez has been called Montero with a better glove and many have said that he is the true future at catcher. His bat is impressive but probably not as good as Montero and he has had 24 Passed balls so far this year but has caught 35% of base stealers. That being said he has had some issues at low-A Charleston and was briefly demoted due to behavior issues. He is only 18 and is years away from MLB ready.

J.R Murphey: Most people assumed that the Yankees would move Murphey to a corner spot either this year or next as they liked his bat but his defense was considered to be suspect. Then Murphey decided to drastically improve behind the plate and offensively over last year. Muphey earned himself a promotion to the Tampa Yankees and they are still mixing him between Catcher and 3rd base. Murphey is the only one of the 4 who has no real chance of being the starting Catcher but the Yankees could keep mixing him between catcher and corners spots and try to make him into a sort of super utility role. If he sticks at catcher he will be a backup at best.

Going into this season it seemed obvious that Montero was the future at catcher but at this point I don't even know if he will be traded or make his Yankees debut in 2012. The Yankees are obviously unhappy about his defense and probably unhappy about his lack of power. Cashman has said that he wants Montero to play everyday but honestly I think that is just an excuse to keep him in AAA because they were willing to bring him up at the beginning of the year as the backup and if he was doing better he would probably be platooning with Martin at Catcher. At this point I don't know what to expect because I don't see any front end starter that the Yankees can trade for but every sign seems to suggest that they want to trade him. I just feel that if they thought that Montero was the catcher of the Future then he would be with the team right now. If he is not traded by the deadline then I expect that he will start the year splitting time with Martin, but he could traded over the winter. Ideally I think the Yankees would like Montero to be the starting catcher until Sanchez develops and then they can move Montero to Right Field or 1st Base but projecting something like that is impossible.

Derek Jeter's 3,000th hit

It happened and it happened in the possibly the best way it possibly could have. With no men on Derek Jeter hit his first Home Run at Yankee stadium of the year for his 3,000 hit to tie the game against the Rays on a full count against one of the best pitchers in the game David Price of the Tampa Bay Rays. Jeter followed that up with 3 more hits and went 5-5 in the 3rd career 5 hit game. Christian Lopez caught Jeters 3,000 hit and he received a package of Champion seats for tomorrows game, Legendary suit tickets for every game for the rest of the season and a package of autographed memorabilia and of course he met Jeter after the game. I think what was even better was the fact that Jeter later hit the go ahead hit in the 8th and just overall had a game that even if he had not been close to 3,000 we would have all said how great a game Jeter had. Now we all want to see how far Jeter will go in his definite hall of fame career, I doubt he will surpass Pete Rose or Ty Cobb but I think that getting around 3,500 hits is within his reach and that would mean moving into the top 5 all time hits leaders. I am very happy that I got to see this event live and it made me think of all the milestones that we have gotten to see in the last few years; A-Rod's 600th, Jeter's become the Yankees all time hits leader and of course him getting 3,000. Then we have to look forward to A-Rod getting to 700 Home Runs, getting 3,000 hits and Mariano Rivera becoming the all time saves leader. We are getting to see a great period in individual Yankee accomplishments and we still have some to look forward to. Congratulations  Derek Jeter, I hope that you have many more games like this one. For all of you who missed the hit here it is.

Price's reaction is dare i say it....Priceless