The bullpen takes shape

Matt Thornton

 The Yankees signed Matt Thornton yesterday to a two year $7 million deal and he is expected to be a LOOGY for next seasons Yankee bullpen. With him in the fold the Yankees bullpen now is David Robertson, Shawn Kelley, Matt Thornton, Preston Claiborne and a lot of question marks. To be honest I only put Claiborne on the list because Girardi mentioned him specifically when talking about sure things in the bullpen. That still leaves three spots in the pen open and while they can technically fill those spots internally it would probbaly be a good idea if they did not have to do so, however a lot of it depends on how they finish their rotation. If they sign another starting pitcher, whether it be Tanaka or anyone else that will leave Adam Warren, David Phelps, Michael Pineda, Vidal Nuno and any guy they happen to invite to spring training to compete for the 5th spot in the rotation and the long relief spot in the pen; however if they do not sign another pitcher then they will need to use their starting depth right away and the bullpen will suffer for it. The Yankees do have several players who will be competing for bullpen spots but they are very thin on veteran relief pitchers and while I have full confidence in David Robertson being the closer I am more concerned with handing Shawn Kelley the setup job, not that I have any issues with him being able to handle the 8th innings simply that I am not sure that he can be as good as he was for most of last season. Kelley was terrible in April and even worse in September so we are essentially basing his success on 30 innings and while I know he was injured in September its still a limited sample size to make this guy a key feature of the bullpen and if he stinks up.; Cody Eppley was effective for a longer period of time in 2012 and he was so bad in 2013 that he would up playing independent league baseball. All I am really saying is that while I know the Yankees could fill out their bullpen with internal candidates I think it would be really good for them to bring in some veterans to balance out the risk, they could decide to go after someone with a track record Fernando Rodney or go after a guy like Jesse Crain who is coming off a solid season but one in which he was injured for the entire second half. Personally I would like them to go after the Jesse Crain or Ryan Madson types, specifically Jesse Crain as he will likely be cheaper than someone like Rodney and stands a good chance of being more effective too. Thornton made a ton of sense for the Yankees because he is great against left handed batters and while he is no longer the great setup man that he once was the White Sox he will fill a need for the Yankees at a much cheaper cost than Boone Logan, but the Yankees still need to add a dependable arm so that they do not need to rely on Preston Claiborne or Dellin Betances in the 7th inning from the start of the season. The Yankees have had good bullpens with Girardi but they just lost the greatest relief pitcher of all time and there is probably going to be some drop off but they can help mitigate that by adding a veteran to this relatively inexperienced bullpen.

Robinson Cano signs with the Mariners

Well there is a sentence I never thought I would have to type ever, or speak or even really think. But yes Robinson Cano signed a ten year $240 million deal with the Seattle Mariners and I am really expecting that there will not be any Jay-Z concerts at Yankee stadium anytime soon. The Yankees offered Cano a 7 year $175 million deal which has a higher per year pay but obviously not the years or total money and Cano took it. I never blame players for leaving in free agency and I do not blame Cano for taking the money, really I see it simply as Cano wanted money more than he wanted to be a Yankee. I am not bashing Cano with that statement or making any kind of slash at his character but it is simply that he wanted to maximize his earning potential and who are we to judge him for that? Anyways I hope that Cano is happy in Seattle and that he never gets a hit against the Yankees. Also it is really weird to be outbid by the Mariners for an elite homegrown Yankee player, I don't know the last time the Yankees were outbid trying to retain one of their own or if its really ever happened.

On another note the Mets signed Curtis Granderson to a 4-year $60 million deal and I wish Granderson all the luck in Queens. I have to bring up that I think I may have preferred Granderson 4/60 to Ellsbury 7/153 but they are different players and we will have to see what happens. The Yankees also resigned Hiroki Kuroda to a one year deal and are very likely to make several more moves as they have all of there Cano money left to use. We will have to wait and see what happens here on out and I know personally I hope the Yankees go hard after Tanaka if he is indeed posted.

Woe but for an infield

Can Gladus here play shortstop?

Via Ken Rosenthal the Yankees signed Brendan Ryan to a 2-year deal worthy around $5 million with an odd option that basically adds another year. On top of that they are still pursuing Stephen Drew and were pursuing Jhonny Peralta until he signed with the Cardinals, via Jon Morosi. This is all with Derek Jeter being under contract for this coming season, but as the Yankees have already noted they will be looking for a new starting shortstop so Jeter may be viewed as more of a DH. At this point right now the Yankees infield is putrid, especially because we do not know what will happen with Robinson Cano, as after him there is only Mark Teixeira in the infield. Obviously there are tiers of free agents and someone like Brendan Ryan ranks toward the bottom,which makes giving him two years very odd, but unfortunately players like David Adams, Corban Joseph and Eduardo Nunez rank lower than him as Ryan is an amazing fielder but a very poor hitter while Eduardo Nunez is a below average to an average hitter and a poor fielder even if he isn't throwing the ball into the stands anymore. I don't expect that Ryan will be the starting shortstop but it does remain a possibility and a strong one at that. As of right now though we have no starting second baseman or third baseman (well technically A-rod is still on the roster) and yes the Yankees are likely to resign Robinson Cano but that still leaves them with a gaping hole at third and everybody else in the infield is over 30 which does not bode well for the health of that infield and there are not any young guys looking to steal somebodies job and not many good free agent targets so we are looking at another stopgap 1-year veteran at third and hoping that Tex does not get injured again. There are no prospects at any of the infield positions that are anywhere close to the majors and so the Yankees are going to be stuck with a lot of one year contract veterans because their big money infielders are getting old, hurt and ineffective; all the while still being owed a ridiculous amount of money. The Yankees have always been good at finding talent on 1-year veteran deals, but we saw last year how that as your entire off season strategy can go very badly and with no solution on the left side of the infield that is exactly what they Yankees will need to do for the foreseeable future.

Chris Stewart traded to the Pirates

Chris Stewart has been dealt to the Pirates for cash or a player to be named later, a move like this was expected as he had trade interest and they would have had to non-tender him if they didn't deal him. Stewart is a veteran backup who is adequate in that role but was just atrocious in the starting role in just about every facet for the Yankees. The Yankees inexplicably went with Stewart and Cervelli over signing Russel Martin last off season and it very predictably failed. We here at A True Yankee gave Stewart a lot of flack and I have written extensively about how they should bench him really all season, seriously every catcher that has been on the active roster outplayed Stewart and should have been starting over him; I view it as a real failure on the Yankees that they refused to play Romine or Murphy over Stewart throughout September for the incredibly obvious reason that Stewart stunk. Stewart will now likely backup Russel Martin as the Pirates have DFA their other backup Michael McKenry, however Stewart will have to compete with Tony Sanchez for the job. I'd wish Stewart the best of luck but he struck out on two pitches this season, so don't let teh door hit you on the way out Stewie.

A True Yankee Podcast Offseason!

A off season podcast! We talk about how everything about the Yankees off season sucks because their farm system is bad and they don't want to spend money on free agents. We also look at how the Yankees will fill their many holes and who we would like the Yankees to target, also my dogs started wrestling at the end of the podcast so there is some background noise at the end.

Least Valuable Yankee: Ichiro Suzuki

D'oh

The Yankees traded for Ichiro Suzuki last July and while he only came in to platoon with Andruw Jones he played well enough to get a starting job and was a great pickup for the playoff run. In the off season it began to look like th Yankees would re-sign Ichiro, but we were all a little shocked when it was announced that it was for a two year deal worth $6.5 million per year. Apparently the Phillies had offered Ichiro a similar deal and so the Yankees offered him this in response, Phillies are a terribly run organization that that deal should have sent up enormous red flags, but they ignored those and signed the 38 year old former superstar to a two year deal.
At the time I wrote how Ichiro's new deal was ridiculous and was made even worse by the fact that the Yankees were trying to reign in their spending and so this deal made no sense whatsoever. basically the Yankees were betting $13 million on the magic pinstripes keeping Ichiros revival going for two years so that Ichiro could get 3,000 MLB hits and the Yankees could make lots of money on marketing it. Considering that he just posted his worst offensive season of his career and that he would need to have one of his best to get the 258 hits he needs to get 3000, thee is really no chance he will get there next season.
I wrote before about how Ichiro's popularity leads many to ignore his struggles and they want him to do well so much that they will completely ignore his wRC+ of 71 and say how he hit .305 in July or that his .285 BABIP is way under his .344 career BABIP. The Ichiro of old is not going to show up, he can't beat out grounders like he used to and he can't make contact on everything like he used to because his bat speed isn't there anymore. Ichiro is a 4th outfielder at this point, he has defense and still has some speed so he's a decent 4th outfielder, but that's really it and the Yankees are paying $6.5 million dollars next season for a 4th outfielder.  Unfortunately even Ichiro's defense started to suffer down the stretch for whatever reason, maybe hes hurt, he had better hope that it does not continue to decline as almost all of his value comes out of his defensive WAR and if its not there next season then Ichiro is done as a MLB player. Like CC Sabathia in Chris's piece, Ichiro actually registers a positive WAR but almost all of it comes from his defense and I'd bet that if the Yankees had given Zoilo Almonte 500+ PA like they gave Ichiro, he would have outperformed him but instead the Yankees stuck with the struggling former superstar because he's Ichiro and his struggles along with the $13 million the Yankees are paying him is why he is my choice for Least Valuable Yankee.

Yankees make qualifying offer to Cano, Kuroda and Granderson

The Yankees have officially extended qualifying offers to Robinson Cano, Hiroki Kuroda, and Curtis Granderson, the team announced. Qualifying offers are worth $14.1M this offseason. If they reject and sign with another team, the Yankees will receive a supplemental first round pick as compensation regardless of whether their new team has a protected first rounder.Players have until next Monday to accept or decline and I expect all three to decline the offers.Apparently the Yankees were worried about offering one to Granderson because they thought he might accept, which seems like an odd worry.

Jeter resigned to a one-year deal

Instead of exercising his $9.5 million player option, the Yankees re-signed  Derek Jeter to a one-year deal 
worth $12MM. Somehow this has actually saved them money. According to MLBtrade rumors by agreeing to a new deal, Jeter is no longer on his old contract, the average annual value (AAV) of which counted against the luxury tax. Had he exercised his player option, Jeter would've added $6.5MM to the AAV of his three-year, $51MM contract ($3MM of the option was guaranteed in the form of a buyout). Doing so would have raised his AAV to $14.375MM. Instead, his $12MM contract will be the number that counts against the luxury tax, thereby actually saving the Yankees $2.375MM relative to the luxury tax. If you feel confused don’t worry everybody does, either way Jeter is definitely in the fold for next season and we will just have to wait and see if it will be as a shortstop, a DH or an injured former star who plays less than 40 games. The Yankees off-season will dictate the role for Jeter next season so we will just have to wait and see.

Winter is upon us

So the Baseball season is officially over and now the off season officially begins. As of 9am today Joba Chamberlain, Phil Hughes, Hiroki Kuroda, Boone Logan, Andy Pettitte, Mariano Rivera, Robinson Cano, Lyle Overbay, Mark Reynolds, Brendan Ryan, Kevin Youkilis, Curtis Granderson and Travis Hafner are all free agents and no longer members of the New York Yankees. There is a very real possibility that none of these players will be on the Yankees next year which is a very odd thought to consider. The off season is an interesting time as every time can feel like they can be contenders in the following season, but just remember that the only winner of the off-season to win it all in recent memory is the 2009 New York Yankees, the Marlins, Blue Jays, Red Sox, Angels have all been declared the winners of one off-season or another and failed to even make the playoffs, let alone win the World Series (obviously I mean in the year they were the off-season winner). Overall the Yankees do not look very good for next year as they are dealing with the A-Rod saga, an unproductive farm system, the Robinson Cano watch and the fact that their Hated rival just won the World series. Here are a few dates to watch in the next 10 days.

Today
As I said all eligible players become free agents.

Monday (November 4th)
Its the last day to make qualifying offers and all players have to come off the 60 day D.L. Cano, Granderson and Kuroda will get qualifying offers and I guess there is an outside chance that Phil Hughes gets one, but that seems unlikely. They also will need to hear if Derek Jeter plans to pick up his $9.5 million player option

Tuesday (November 5th)
This is the day free agency really begins as its when the exclusive negotiating period ends and teams can sign with anybody. The Yankees could make a push, but it seems like Cano will test free agency and I don't know if there is anyone else the Yankees will try and I don't know if there is anyone else the Yankees will go after before the 5th.

November 11th
This is the last day for a player to accept a qualifying offer, but I expect that Cano and Kuroda will both decline. Granderson is an interesting case as there is interest from teams to give him a multi-year deal but if he thinks he can have a great season and rebuild his value then he could set himself up for a much bigger payday if he accepts the offer.

November 20th
Deadline to add players before the rule 5 draft, which takes place on December 12th. Prospects Slade Heathcott and  Gary Sanchez are the most notable players who have to be added to the 40-man roster. The Yankees will undoubtedly add more and I usually do a 40 man crunch post during the off-season.

December 2nd
This is the non-tender deadline, in which teams can choose to not offer a player who is arbitration eligible a contract. Jayson Nix, Francisco Cervelli and Chris Stewart are all non-tender candidates. I would hope they would non-tender Stewart but he will probably wind up being their starting catcher again next year.

After this you have the winter meeting from December 9th-12th and then arbitration hearings start in February but the Yankees haven't gone to one since 2008. They do have seven arbitration eligible players whom MLB trade rumors has projections for.

So now it begins, hopefully everything goes amazing for the Yankees and we wind up having a team that will knock off the Red Sox. Who knows maybe seeing the Red Sox win will lead the Yankees to make some serous changes to the team or there front office.

The Yankees LVP: CC Sabathia

The Yankees LVP

 

To determine who on the Yankees deserves the Least Valuable Player for 2013 you have to look at who had the worst bang for the Yankees buck. The easy choice would be to say A-Rod but I don't think it is fair to say any Yankees player that missed a lot of time for injuries was the LVP. That would also rule out Jeter, Granderson, Youkilis , and Teixeira. That rules out 5 of the top 10 highest paid Yankees. Leaving Sabathia ($23 mil), Cano ($15 mil), Kuroda ($15 mil), Pettitte ($12 mil) and Rivera ($10 mil) as the highest paid Yankees. Cano, Kuroda, and Rivera all performed well in the 2013 season, leaving Pettitte and Sabathia as the only real contenders for the award.

So now let’s compare Andy Pettitte and C.C Sabathia's stats. Andy Pettitte ended the season with an 11-11 record, a 3.74 ERA, and a 1.327 WHIP over 185.1 innings pitched. CC Sabathia on the other hand ended the season with a 14-13 record, a 4.78 ERA, and a 1.370 WHIP over 211 innings pitched. If we look at this, it appears that Pettitte had a little bit of a better season, but if you take into account that Sabathia made eleven million more in 2013, then it’s clear who should win the LVP: CC Sabathia. He had performed so well the previous season, dominating in the playoffs. He went 15-6, had an ERA of 3.38, and a WHIP of 1.140, much better than this season. Many people say that the reason he has declined so much is because Sabathia lost so much weight over the off-season. When the season started Sabathia seemed to be off, and the entire time people were saying that he would work it out, that his velocity would go up, and so would his control, but it never did. So the Yankees spent $23 million on a pitcher who did not preform in 2013. I am actually a big Sabathia fan, and am hoping that he can bounce back in the 2014 season, if not, then that is a lot of Yankee money down the drain.

Tanaka over Kuroda

(Koji Watanabe/Getty)

Hiroki Kuroda was the Yankees best starter this year and he would have been an all-star this year if Jim Lelyland had the sense to see that win-loss isn't important but I guess neither is bringing in a lefty to face David Ortiz. The fact of the matter though is that Kuroda is winding down his career and may in fact retire, so he doesn't really hep the rotation long term. However Kuroda is proven in the MLB while Tanaka isnt and everyone fears the Japanese player coming over and busting like Kei Igawa or underperformed like Dice-K or Hideki Irabu and so Japanese players become untouchable to them. In fact the Yankees subscribed to this logic after getting burned by Igawa and so they did not want to pursue Yu Darvish, but with their plan to get under the $189 million budget Tanaka is someone they should definitely go after. The Yankees have a definite interest in him as they have sent their top evaluators to watch him pitch, which is definitely a step up from their scouting of Igawa which as essentially none, but with Tanaka they reportedly have been to almost all of his starts. First off Tanaka would need to be posted and that posting fee would not apply against the luxury tax and while the posting system may change this off season as the MLB and NPB renegotiate the system, I doubt very much that the posting fee will apply to the Luxury tax after the negotiations.
 Secondly Tanaka has been fantastic in Japan, posting a 1.24 ERA with a WHIP of 0.934 and his career numbers are all excellent, especially considering he made his debut in 2007 when he was 18 and it wasn't a cup of coffee either he pitched 28 starts and threw 186 innings that season. Via Ben Badler Tanaka reportedly sits in the low-90s with a fastball that touches 96, with a low-80s slider and a mid-80s splitter, the splitter is apparently very common is the Asia Leagues. Badler says scouts have some concern because he doesn’t get good plane on the pitch and it’s more hittable than the velocity suggests, which is why he is profiled as a number 2 and solid contributor rather than a Cy Young contender. Kuroda isnt a Cy Young contender but that doesn't somehow invalidate him as a pitcher, the Yankees need solid pitchers and while Kuroda has already proven that he can be a solid contributor, Tanaka could be one for years to come and could do so at a much lower cost than signing Matt Garza. There are so many people out there who say that the Yankees shouldn't do it because he might be the next Igawa, but you know what so might Matt Garza or Tim Lincecum and the Yankees (and their fans) should not refuse to acknowledged this guy because they are afraid of what happened before. There have been some very successful Korean and Japanese imports outside of the notable failures of others as Iwakuma, Ryu and Darvish all had great seasons. This is the simple fact of the matter the Yankees farm system has failed to develop one impact player outside of Brett Gardner or the bullpen since Robinson Cano and they need to catch up, signing Tanaka would be a huge way to catch up, he rotation could suddenly become a plus. The title of this article is honestly a bit misleading as I don't even think the Yankees should really spurn Kuroda for Tanaka its just that if it comes down to it I would much rather have Tanaka for the next several years than to hold on to Kuroda for one more year.

A True Yankee award picks

Pretty straight forward here, at the end of the season an MVP, Cy Young and Rookie of the year award are all given out to someone in each league who is selected by eligible baseball writers. I say someone because the winner is many times not the best but simply whomever the writers decide is the best, which is true in all sports I guess, but its more subjective in the MLB.  Many writers disqualify players from teams who don't make the playoffs and will occasionally decide that Pitchers qualify or don't qualify for the award, somebody actually gave Michael Young a first place MVP vote in 2011 and Ryan Howard came in tenth in the NL vote that year with his 1 win above replacement. Its a very odd process but unfortunately baseball writers like to make this more about themselves than anything else, which comes as no surprise because they do the same thing with everything else. Anyways though here are Nick, Brooke and Chris's picks for who should win the hardware.


Nick
AL Cy Young: Chris Sale
I know the sexy pick is Max Scherzer, and Scherzer does lead the AL in pitcher WAR but despite Sale's 11-13 record I think he has had a better year than Scherzer. Sale plays in a big time hitters park, he has walked fewer batters and pitched more innings despite pitching in two fewer starts than Scherzern because Sale has four complete games and Scherzer has none. Sale leads Scherzer in ERA and xFIP, and honestly if Sale wasn't on such a terrible team or Scherzer didn't have twenty wins then Sale would be the favorite.

AL MVP: Mike Trout
I know Mike Trout isn't going to win the MVP but he absolutely should and you cant even make the argument that his 10 WAR is all coming from his defense this season as he has rated much lower defensively this season than it did in last year, in terms of dWAR. With how much injuries have hurt Miguel Cabrera in the last month he should probably should be behind Josh Donaldson, but this is all because of him needing to play third everyday, I know he can make the throws but he just doesn't have the body for it anymore.

AL ROY: Will Myers
The AL Rookies are a mess as Myers and Iglesias are the only names you have ever heard of and those two along with David Lough are the only three rookies in the AL with a WAR above 2, and Lough is 27. Its really Myers or Iglesias and honestly it could easily be either of them but I will go with Myers for the Power he has shown.

NL Cy Young: Clayton Kershaw
If Matt Harvey was healthy I might pitch for him to get the Cy Young, but Kershaw's season has been extremely impressive, Not just for the ERA or strikeouts but the guy has a WHIP of 0.928 which is just insane. He will win his second CY Young in 3 years. I re-watched the Kersahw v Pettitte game from 2010, the one where the Yankees came back against Broxton and the announcers were talking about how Kersahw might be almost as good as Strasburg, funny in retrospect.

NL MVP: Andrew McCutchen
The NL MVP race doesn't have a great candidate much like the 2011 AL MVP race didn't, so don't be surprised if Kershaw gets the MVP. McCutchen has had another great year and ranks behind only Mike Trout in WAR. For whatever reason a lot of his Home Runs from last year have turned into doubles this year, but he still has 20 HR on the year.

NL  ROY: Jose Fernandez
The favorite pick is Puig, but I think people are starting to appreciate just how great a season Fernandez had and he is only 21. Remember Fernandez came out of High A to start in the majors and everyone thought this was an insane idea but it worked out brilliantly for the Marlins.


Chris
AL Cy Young: Max Scherzer
You could make an argument for others but his K rate is insane and ERA and Whip are off the charts good.

AL MVP: Miguel Cabrera
Best hitter in baseball. End of story.

AL ROY: Will Myers
Who the hell else is there? Seriously I wish they could just give this to the field.

NL Cy Young: Clayton Kershaw
Do I even need to explain this?

NL MVP: Paul Goldschmidt
Top of all offensive category and a good defender too. Really made the Diamondbacks relevant in the NL wildcard push.

NL  ROY: Jose Fernandez
2.19 ERA, a sub 1 WHIP, and was able to get a 12-6 record on a dreadful team, honestly if he was in the AL I would give him the Cy young.

Brooke
AL Cy Young: Max Scherzer
I would love to say Mariano Rivera, but Max Scherzer's stats are in another galaxy.

AL MVP: Mike Trout
I believe he has closed the gap with Miguel Cabrera.

AL ROY: Will Myers
Is there anyone other than Will Myers? A disembodied hand? That guy who ran on the field in a body suit (that took grit)? The field? Anyone? Bueller?

NL Cy Young: Clayton Kershaw
Clayton Kershaw, enough said.

NL MVP: Freddy Freeman
Paul Goldschmidt is the obvious choice, but I'd prefer to see it go to Freddy Freeman and if not him then Andrew McCutcheon.

NL  ROY: José Fernandez
Out of this world good and potential Cy Young material if he were in the AL or not up against Kershaw. He will get CY votes though.

So surprisingly Puig mania has worn off already and none of us picked him for NL Rookie of the Year, all three of us picking Fernandez over Puig. How about the fact that there are 11 NL rookies with an equal or higher WAR than Will Myers AL leading 2.1 WAR. How about three different NL MVP's or two of us going with Trout over Miggy. We shall see what happens.

Zoilo Almonte and chances for Young Players

You have no idea who this is

This season the Yankees set a team record by having 56 total players play for them over the course of the season, 12 of them were rookies and 9 made their debut this season. Some of these guys got decent looks because the Yankees needed them to fill holes, Zoilo Almonte, David Adams, Preston Claiborne and Austin Romine all got a good amount of playing time at some point this season. Inevitably problems rose up for each one of these players, Zoilo sprained his ankle in July and when he returned in September the Outfield situation had moved on without him. Austin Romine came up and really struggled after Cervelli's injury but after he started to pick it up in the second half the Yankees still played Chris Stewart over him and then Romine went down with a concussion that has still prevented him from playing. Preston Claiborne started off great for the Yankees out of the bullpen but struggled in August and September with an ERA over five in that time. Adams had a nice start to his Yankee career with two Home runs in his first seven games, but he struggled after that and hasn't really gotten much playing time in September.
Part of the reason for the lack of use of these guys is that they struggled so the Yankees went with other players because they felt that they gave them the better chance of winning. However this doesn't work for Romine or Almonte and is part of the issue that the Yankees have with developing players, the Yankees don't really like rookies and will almost always go with the veteran over a rookie every time. This season Ichiro has had a few nice stretch's but overall he looks like a declining player, because that's what he is and no two week period where he hits .280 will change that or the fact that the Yankees need to pay him $6.5 million next season. Ichiro needs to be benched but the Yankees have kept playing him despite the fact that he has hit around .200 over his last 22 games. Zoilo should be starting right now and he should be looking at making the team out of spring training next season and instead he hasn't gotten any playing time in September and will likely have to go back to Triple A because Vernon Wells and Ichiro are going to be ahead of him despite the fact that he may give the Yankees a better chance to win than either of them. Before the team didn't have a spot for him but after Gardner's injury there is really no excuse to not play him and now that the team is all but eliminated they should really be playing him but they wont. Adams, Romine and JR Murphey should also be playing, obviously Romine can't but he should have been before he got hurt, seriously the Yankees look pathetic right now and we all know that they needed to play their best to make the playoffs and instead they have laid stinker after stinker and look to have essentially given up on making the postseason so why not trot David Adams out there at third everyday and have Murphy start at catcher a few days in a row? Its not going to hurt anything at this point, are you really telling me that Dellin Betances doesn't deserve a shot over Joba, who has been awful all year? I'm not saying that the Yankees need to hand the keys over to the kids all next year but at this point there are only nine games left and the Yankees are 3.5 games out and would need to jump three teams, start Adams, Almonte and Murphy in at least some of those nine games. Giving the kids is something that the Yankees need to do if they want to develop some young talent.

The Predictable failure of the Catching tandem

Nobody listens

Russel Martin signed a two year deal with the Pittsburgh Pirates this off season and despite the fact that the Yankees could have matched the offer or signed him to a 1 year $10 million deal but the Yankees declined that in favor of having Chris Stewart as their starting catcher. As you may remember Stewart was supplanted by Francisco Cervelli but after only 17 games Cervelli was hurt and Stewart became the starter again. In the first half Stewart didn't play well but he hit .241 with three homers so some people were able to pretend that he did well. In the second half he nosedived offensively and at this point in the year he is basically a replacement level player. This could be attributed to either him wearing down or the fact that he got exposed in more playing time. Martin on the other hand put up similar numbers to his two years in pinstripes and has been praised for his handling of the pitching staff in Pittsburgh.
The sad fact is that GM Brian Cashman knew this would happen and wanted to sign Martin but ownership overrode him and let Martin walk, instead they spend $13 million on Ichiro who if he wasn't a name and didn't have another year on his deal would likely have been cut by now.  I wish I could say that the Yankees will fix this problem in the off season with free agent Brian McCann, but I do not honestly expect them to. The Yankees could have tried to see if Austin Romine could handle the starting job but instead they stuck with alternating the two so we never got an extended look at Romine and now he is out with a concussion. Unfortunately I feel resigned to the fact that we are going to have to see the Yankees trot out Chris Stewart as the starter again next season which is just insane for the New York Yankees to do two years in a row.
The worst part is how everyone saw this coming, nobody thought oh gee Stewart as the starting catcher that will work wonderfully and yet the Yankees did it and Cervelli as the backup who could have seen that coming unless we look at the fact that he has been injury prone for his entire career. Austin Romine wasn't ready for the big league when he got called up because everyone knew he wasn't going to be ready as he had only had 17 games at Triple A last year and his year before had also been shortened due to injury. I don't know what convinced the Yankees that Stewart starting would work but clearly they were wrong, but rather than admit this they have just kept going with it and very possibly will keep going with it into next season.

Derek Jeter: How I was right all along

RAY STUBBLEBINE/REUTERS

In May I wrote The End of Derek Jeter? I wrote about how expecting him to come back and really play shortstop at all was just wrong. I said that at 39 and coming off a broken ankle he just would not be able to do it and unfortunately I was right. Derek Jeters season ended yesterday and he managed 17 games, 12 hits and had four stints on the DL if you include this one and the one he had coming into the season. I was at both of the first two Jeter returns to Yankee stadium games and in those I managed to see a quarter of his hits on the season, including his only Homerus which just so happened to be four rows in front of where I was sitting. Both those games were fun but even in those games he looked like such a shell of himself and the only time a ball with any authority was when he had his Home run and it was a Yankee stadium dinger. Jeter didn't officially miss the season but really he did and now going into this off season the Yankees are going to have to look at a plan for Shortstop that isn't Derek Jeter. I said before that I though Jeter would be a 100 game DH if they wanted to play him for a full season and now the idea of Jeter playing 50 games in the field seems like wishful thinking. This is on top of the idea that Jeter might very well not play for the Yankees ever again, imagine if Jeter comes into the off season and wants a new contract? The Yankees and Yankees fans love Derek Jeter but if he thinks that the Steinbrenners will open their checkbooks and give him a big new deal then he is nuts.Remember Jeter was overpaid in his last contract and Jeter was upset that he did not get more money. In terms of career accomplishments Jeters resume is littered with them and he currently ranks 10th all time in total hits with 3,316, that's a huge accomplishment and nothing else needs to be said about it. If  Jeter played next year at anything resembling a major league hitter he would probably move above Cap Anson at 6th overall with 3,445 career hits and I guess it really comes down to if he views moving higher and higher on the all time hit list as reason enough to come back next year.
This season really isn't something you can truly blame Jeter for, but his drive to get back on the field as soon as possible likely hurt him more than anything else. He wanted to be ready for opening day, but at 39 he just wasn't physically capable of it and pushing to get back as soon as possible only served to aggravate his injury further which is why he never looked like he was really ready to be back at any point in his brief 17 game season. That push though is who Jeter is and without it you don't really know if he ever could have accomplished what he did in his career. I said it in May and I will say it again you can shut the book on Jeter as an everyday Shortstop and now what it really comes down to is does Jeter want to continue on in his Major League career if he is no longer a star caliber player? Can he accept being a mostly Full time DH? Can he accept having a bench role and getting paid a lot less money to do so? We have seen some players whose desire to play, no matter what, is so strong that former super stars will play in the minors or go oversees to keep playing, but is that what Jeter wants to do? Its not a criticism of his either way or any kind of judgment on him as a player or person but that is what the outlook for the rest of his career is. Either way Derek Jeter is one of the all time greatest Yankees and if his career is over tomorrow then it was an amazing experience for all of us as fans and if not then we all get more Derek Jeter.

The time of Romine should be here already

Seriously play this guy

Romine time should be upon us right now. The Yankees have a young catching prospect who has heated up after a poor start and is playing very well and a veteran who seems to be struggling in every facet of his game.On a team that is looking to save money and build this would be a very good time to see if Romine can be the starting catcher or if they need to try and sign one this off season. Personally I think they should try and sign Brian McCann anyway but if the Yankees want to stick to the $189 million plan then seeing if Romine can grab the job would seem ideal. Instead the Yankees have given more majority of starts to Chris Stewart who has looked really gassed down the stretch for the Yankees, which makes sense since he has played in more games than he ever has in his career. Here are his stats for the first and second half:

As you can see his first half isn't bad, not good but not awful either and then he just nosedives after the all star break. Defense is another matter, the stats seem to indicate that he is a good defender but I just have trouble accepting that given that I actually watch him play. Stewart seems to get crossed up a lot and therefore allows a lot of passed balls and wild pitches and he does rank 5th in passed balls and Yankees pitchers have thrown 25 wild pitches with him catching. Remember in Toronto he turned a third strike right down the middle into two runs as he had to run back to the backstop and overthrew first base. Stewart does reportedly come with a very good framing ability which admittedly is very hard to track but I will accept it. Personally I want to absolutely destroy Chris Stewart and say that recently called up Catching prospect JR Murphy should be the backup over him but Chris Stewart really isn't the worst backup, he definitely isn't the best or really very good but he is passable. That still does not change the fact that Romine should be the starter over Stewart and right now they are sort of splitting the time with Stewart having fifteen starts in the last month to Romine's ten.

Have the Yankees forgotten that Romine was a top 10 prospect for the Yankees  and a top 100 overall prospect by Baseball America before last year when a back injury really limited him to only 17 games on the year. Scouts thought that Romine could be a .270 hitter with 10 HR's a year and good defense which while it isn't star level production is decent starter material. We all know that Romine started off the season dreadfully and really the Yankees should have taken a flier on one of the many catchers who were on waivers at some point this season but they didn't and now Romine has really turned it around:

BABIP would say that Romine has been getting lucky while Stewart has been unlucky in the second half, but honestly the Yankees should ride that momentum and go with Romine, Stewart will still get plenty of chances to play but Stewart isn't the catcher of the future while Romine very well might be. Romine just needs to be given the chance and this seems like it should be the perfect time for him to be given the reins but alas the Yankees are likely to keep giving the nod to Stewart more times than not.

September call ups

Its September and the rosters have expanded so the Yankees called up five players Infielder David Adams, RHP Dellin Betances, LHP Cesar Cabral, RHP Brett Marshall, and C J.R. Murphy. The Yankees will probably call up RHP Preston Claiborne tomorrow and we will have to see if  Zoilo Almonte, Kevin Youkillis or Travis Hafner can return before the end of the year. Betances, Adams and Marshall were already on the 40 man roster but Jayson Nix was moved to the 60 day DL and Melky Mesa was released to make room for Murphy and Cabral. Mesa could have been a call up as a Defensive replacement/pinch runner but he hurt his hamstring and it is apparently serious enough that he would not have been able to help the team in September. Mesa would have likely been Designated for assignment this winter anyways as he would have been out of options, Mesa had great tools but very poor contact ability.

Adams and Betances provide infield and bullpen depth respectively, while Marshall will be a long man which allows Huff to be used as a lefty specialist or for either Huff or Warren to start in case Hughes continues to struggle. None of these guys are going to see any high profile time as long as the Yankees remain in the playoff hunt. If you didn't realize all these guys have been with the big league team at some point this season, in fact Marshall and Adams actually debuted in the same game which I happened to be at.
Cesar Cabral was the Yankees rule 5 draft pick last season from the Red Sox and would have made the team out of spring training over Clay Rapada but he fractured his elbow. He stayed with the organization this season and had overall poor numbers but he has been decent against left handed batters so he gets to be the third lefty in the bullpen.
Murphy is a 22-year old catching prospect who hit very well between Double A and Triple A and has some good reviews about his defense as well. He was going to be added to the 40 man in the off season anyway and they wanted a third catcher for September so this move made a lot of sense. He's a good prospect but don't expect him to get much playing time behind Austin Romine and Chris Stewart.

The very not good, bad, not at all pleasant Ichiro season that nobody is acknowledging

Let me first start off with stating that Ichiro Suzuki is one of the greatest baseball players ever and if wasn't for the fact that he started off in Japan we would likely be looking at him becoming the all time hits leader. I mean over his first 10 years in the MLB he had an average of .331 and had over 200 hits every season, that's absolutely amazing. That being said Ichiro is not that guy anymore, he just isn't we see flashes of it but he hasn't been that player in three years and he wont be coming back, you know why? Because he is 39 and he just isn't as good at anything that used to be able to do, that's not a personal criticism of him as a player its just that players age and when you age your ability diminishes. Over the last three seasons Ichiro has hit .276/.308/.361 and has looked like a declining player for that entire time except if you look at the 67 games that he played with the Yankees last season and don't get me wrong he looked really good in pinstripes last season and people were talking about how he'd been revived and maybe the playoff race did bring back some of that Ichiro of old but the fact of the matter is that this season has been pretty bad, when Ichiro was traded to New York he hit .322/.340/.454 with 19 XBH, including Five Home Runs and 14 stolen bases and that earned him a two year contract worth $13 million, I wrote about how this was ridiculous especially because the Yankees are trying to reign in spending and the Yankees decided to ignore an obvious trend in his statistics. Before the season people were talking about how Ichiro was going to continue his Bronx revival and hit 15-20 home runs and steal a bunch of bases all while hitting for a solid average and frankly he has done none of those things. In 200 more Plate appearances that last season with the Yankees he has two more extra base hits and three more stolen bases, pretty much he has had the exact same season he had in Seattle in 2011 and while those stats are absolutely atrocious they are not what a starting Right Fielder on a contending team needs to produce.You can't even claim BABIP correction on this one he has a .272 average and .292 Batting average on balls in play, he just doesn't have the speed to beat out all those hits that he used to. I will say that he has produced 2.1 WAR according to baseball reference and 1.4 according to fangraphs, the big discrepancy is because its basically all defense and base running, Ichiro has a wRC+ of 78, remember an average wRC+ is 100. You know what you call a guy who doesn't hit well or get on base much and all most all his value comes from defense? A fourth Outfielder and that's what Ichiro is at this point in his career a 4th outfielder for a contending team and maybe a starter for a bad team but instead he will start for the Yankees next year too. When Ichiro was butchering his way through April and May people did start to say that he was washed up but then he went on a hot streak through June and July and everybody forgot, but now he has a .237/.260./.247 slash line since the all-star which is about on par with Chris Stewart and nobody seems to have acknowledged this. The reason for this is more than likely just that Ichiro is a star and there are just too many other problems with the Yankees for people to worry about  Ichiro. I really will just conclude this by saying that I would have much rather had Russel Martin and Nate Schierholtz than give a declining star $13 million.

A True Yankee Podcast 7/31 Trade deadline

We take a look at the surprisingly quiet trade deadline. We also talk about the Bio-genesis stuff with Arod, Cervelli and the other people indicated. We also talk about the Jeter return and the Soriano Trade.Apparently the Yankees tried to trade for Carlos Ruiz and Michael Young and the Phillies decided against trading them because of reasons that I have no idea why. Apparently the Yankees offered to pay $5 million of Young's salary and a prospect and the Phillies said no and they also said no to trading Ruiz.

Godzilla!

Well today was a good day for me, I don't normally blog about individual games but today really was a fun day. I went to today's game because Hideki Matsui was going to retire as a Yankee on his bobble head day and that he did. The Yankees had a nice ceremony for Matsui showing highlights from his Career as a Yankee, especially the stuff from the 2009 World Series and then he came out and signed his retirement papers and was presented with a Jersey, after which he changed into Pinstripes and threw out the first pitch with the whole team on the field.

Brad Penner/USA TODAY Sports

 Hideki Matsui is without a doubt the greatest Japanese slugger in Major League history. He has 175 Home Runs in his MLB career and has the five highest single-season home run totals of any Japanese player in the MLB. More than that though Matsui was a constant sight in the Yankees lineup player 519 straight games to begin his Yankee Career and was my absolute favorite Yankee growing up, I still have my Matsui shirt and Jersey which you can bet I was wearing today. Having this sendoff was absolutely fantastic for me and I know it was for everyone else at the stadium and the buzz in the stadium was amazing. Oh and the Yankees had a walk off so that was nice too.

Yankees acquire Alfonso Soriano

He's back

 After several days of rumors the Yankees acquired Alfonso Soriano from the Cubs for prospect RHP Corey Black. The deal was essentially confirmed last night when Soriano took a red eye flight to New york and real issue was just the Cubs deciding on Corey Black or Tommy Kahnle. I know I kept checking twitter to see if the deal had gone through and Corey Black even tweeted about it.

Well I've gotten about 100 new followers
— Corey Black (@CblackNYY) July 26, 2013

Soriano, 37, had full no-trade protection through his ten-and-five rights and had to agree to return to the Bronx. Nick Cafardo says the only team he was willing to accept a trade to was the Yankees. According to Buster Olney, the Bombers will pay $6.8M of the roughly $24.5M owed to Soriano through next season. They will pay $5M of that $6.8M in 2014. I'm not sure how it works with the luxury tax stuff, but needless to say the Yankees $189 million plan takes a hit with having to acquire Wells and Soriano.
Soriano has hit .254/.287/.467 (100 wRC+) with 17 homers and ten stolen bases. That includes a .273/.310/.496 (112 wRC+) line against left-handers. Over the last 30 days of this season, he’s put up a .286/.330/.714 (178 wRC+) line with ten homers, which as many people have pointed out means that Soriano has out homered the Yankees 8-7 in July. Soriano will provide a much needed bat and Right handed bat at that as the Yankees have not had a right handed home run since Jayson Nix took Yu Darvish deep o June 25th. The Yankees have been dreadful against left handed pitchers and Soriano should help that, but also he is likely going to step in and be the cleanup hitter simply because he will be the second best hitter on the team. Soriano is going to play everyday and while he does not walk like Hafner, Pronk has been atrocious since May hitting 174/.255/.299 but he is not likely to go anywhere with the acquisition of Soriano. I assume that Thomas Neal or Melky Mesa will be sent down for now and more moves will happen when Jeter and/if Arod return.
Soriano will likely be in todays lineup so we will get to see him impact soon.

Derek Jeter activated today

Derek Jeter will be activated for today's game according to Ken Rosenthal and is expected to be in the lineup. Jeter has been rehabbing for less than a week and many expected that he would be activated on friday, but no he has been activated today. During his rehab assignment, the Captain went 1 for 9 with a single and four walks. He also committed an throwing error while playing shortstop. The Yankees will obviously ease him back into this but I expect he will DH a lot as Nunez has played well and Travis Hafner has not.

Nunez activated off 60 day DL, Phelps to DL.

The Yankees have activated Eduardo Nunez off the 60-day DL. He is playing short and batting 8th behind Luis Cruz. In a corresponding move it appears that the Yankees have placed  David Phelps on the 15 day DL with a forearm strain and it appears that Ivan Nova will stick around for at least one more start before the all star break. Nova's complete game 3 hitter last night was arguably the best start by a Yankees starter all year and so the Yankees will give him another start at least. Nunez will help the Yankees if he can hit at all as they have gotten no production from Shortstop this year.

The Wrongness of Selling

So lately I have seen some people advocate that the Yankees should basically blow it up so that they can get younger and basically start the next dynasty in 2-3 seasons.We talked about this on the podcast so give a listen if you haven't already or just hate reading. I understand the sentiment but there are several very serious flaws with this idea and I will go over them.

No Value: Okay this is really the most obvious one but what pieces are the Yankees going to be able to move for value? The Pieces that the Yankees have that other teams would be looking to acquire are Hiroki Kuroda, Curtis Granderson, Robinson Cano, Phil Hughes, Brett Gardner, Dave Robertson and Mariano Rivera. I guess you can rule out Mo because duh, but really that's it and except for Robertson and Gardner they are all free agents at the end of the year. I know Beltran netted the Mets Zach Wheeler but that is not happening and at the time Wheeler was in A ball at the time.In the end moving these pieces would not improve the team in the near future and would honestly only really serve to make this years team worse. The Yankees wont be able to acquire MLB ready prospects for any of these players and so there really isn't a point to trading away all these guys for some moderate prospects.

Age: There seems to be this idea that Young players are better and I am here to say that its not the case. Everybody wants to have a Mike Trout but look at Will Middlebrooks, he has totally bombed this season after a good 2012. Young players fail a lot and while its good to have some they go through growing pains look at Jesus Montero. Age is not the end all be all that some people think it is so get used to these old guys being around a while longer.

Winning: Despite what some people act like the Yankees are in the thick of it, they stand at 46-39 as of today and are 1.5 games out of the wild card. If they win this home series against the O's then they will be in the second wild card spot. However as we said on the podcast some fans basically treat this as a losing season saying that this team wont win a World Series so they should just sell because that's the end game for the Yankees. I'm just here to tell you that it is much harder to win the World Series if you don't make the playoffs and its only going to get harder to make the playoffs in the next few years as Tex, CC and Arod get older.

Sucking isn't a slam dunk: This isn't basketball or football people one top pick doesn't change your franchise. If the Yankees suck for 2-3 years they are not suddenly going to have these amazing pieces and start a new dynasty. The Yankees got really lucky in the late 90's they developed five legitimate homegrown all-stars, that's not supposed to happen and its not going to happen with a few years of rebuild. Look at home many years the Royals or Mariners have stunk and they have been rebuilding for a decade or more, rebuilding almost never works which is why the same franchises always seem to be rebuilding.

In the end this is kind of a moot point as the Yankees arent going to sell, espechially not when they have a winning record, if they wind up 5 games under .500 on July 31st then its an idea but I would still bet against it.

A True Yankee podcast 7/3/2013

An Everything sucks but the twins suck more episode. Looking at the various Yankee injuries, the very poor June and surprises from the Yankees and in the MLB and what we feel needs to happen at the trade deadline.Also soon after we did this Jayson Nix was placed on the 15 day DL with a hamstring strain and the Yankees signed Luis Cruz.

A-Rod cleared to begin rehab

Alex Rodriguez will begin his rehab tomorrow July 2nd for the Low-A Charleston Riverdogs. He is scheduled to play 3rd for a minimum of 3 innings and I expect that they will use all of his rehab time because he missed spring training. The Yankees really need Alex's bat despite what some fans and media might think. The 20-day rehab time will expire right after the series in Boston that follows the all-star break so his first home game back will likely be on July 26th against the Rays. The Yankees still need to acquire another bat and soon because they cannot rely on Jeter, Granderson and A-Rod especially considering what happened with Youkilis and Teixeira. Also this makes all the stuff that happened with Cashman telling Alex to STFU even dumber as he was right about when his rehab would begin.

Trade Target: Michael Young

Well I was not sure how to approach the issue of trade candidates because basically everybody that is available is one for the Yankees. They need an upgrade at 1st, SS, 3rd, C, and an OF spot so trying to talk about all the players would be very tough. So instead of writing about all the options I am simply going to write about my perceived best option at every position. So first off we have Michael Young

Future Yankee?

Michael Young is 36 and is in first year of playing with a team that isn't the Texas rangers. If you recall he mostly played 1st and DH since 2011 but this season the Phillie's installed him as their everyday 3rd baseman. Defensively he has been pretty bad especially considering he wasn't very good in the field back in 2010 when he last played 3rd full time. Offensively though Young has been much better this year than last, he already has five Home runs on the year after hitting eight all last season an his slash line is .287/.345/.408 with an wRC+ 108 which would far and away beat the Yankee third base accumulation of wRC+ 58. That is not a typo Yankees third baseman have combined for a slash line of .220/.283/.299 and a wRC+ of 58, Young would be a Major upgrade over that. Some of you might say that we should just wait for ARod and while the Yankees need him back they need to add more than just ARod and Granderson and Young really should be one of those bats. Young could play 3rd until ARod is ready and then he can shift to 1st base and either platoon with Overbay or the Yankees can simply cut Overbay as Young is hitting RHP at .300/.338/.399 which is currently better than Overbay's .259/.305/.482.
This is easier aid than done though, the Phillies are currently hovering around .500 and may not want to move Young and even if they do, Young has a full No-trade clause and while he did waive it to go to the Phillies we don't know if he would to go to the Yankees or any other team for that matter. I also do not know what kind of package the Phillies would want for Young but due to the dearth of quality options at 3rd they could probably get a lot more than you would expect. Remember Zach Wheeler was traded for half a season of Carlos Beltran two years ago.

A True Yankee Podcast June 2013

Chris and Nick discuss the Biogenesis case, the Yankees record since the last podcast and where they need to add offense. We also talk about the Yankees draft picks in the recent MLB draft and some returning players.

Trout or Harper? How about Machado

Unless you have been living under a rock for the last year and a half, you have heard of Mike Trout, the outfielder for the Angels, and Bryce Harper the outfielder for the Nationals.  Both are great young players, and everyone has an opinion of who is better, but have you heard of Manny Machado?  Manny is the  20 year old who plays third baseman for the Baltimore Orioles, he is batting .317 and sits as a 3.5 Wins Above Replacement Player in his second year and first full season in the majors. On the other hand, Mike Trout is hitting .305 with a 1.8 WAR, and Bryce Harper is hitting .287 with a 1.9 WAR, both in their second years as well.  To be fair, Machado has 5 Homeruns while Trout has 10 and Harper has 12, but you would think you'd hear of a guy playing on the same level as Trout and Harper, in the same age group, and with the same number of years in the MLB, but most likely you haven't. 

            To give you a better idea of how each player is doing this year, Trout is hitting .305, with 10 HRs, an OBP of .375, with 40 RBIs.  Harper is hitting .287, with 12 HRs, an OBP of .386, with 23 RBIs.  Machado is hitting .317, with 5 HRs, an OBP of .353, with 33 RBIs.  Part of the reason you have not heard of Machado is because he was not in the debate last year, he had a great season, but he was not on the level of Trout or Harper.  He hit .262 with 7 HRs, and OBP of .294, with 26 RBIs.  Trout blows both Harper and Machado away with 14 stolen bases this season, while Harper has 2 and Machado has 5, albeit Harper has done this in 100 fewer at bats due to his decision to run into a wall full steam.

            The reason why you have not heard of Manny Machado?  Well let's look at Machado before he got called up.  In High School, Machado hit .639, 12 home runs, and 68 RBIs in 29 games!  WOW! That's a reason why you should have heard of him.  This led to Machado being selected 3rd overall in the MLB draft in 2012, unfortunately it was the same draft where Bryce Harper went first overall.  His average in 2012 while playing in Double A was .266 which is partly why you have not heard of him, Trout and Harper put up monster numbers in the minors and so all the focus was on them.  The conclusion I have come to is that you would have heard of Manny Machado, if he had not been eclipsed in his Rookie year by Bryce Harper and Mike Trout.

            There are two things one can use as an argument to why Machado is better than either Trout of Harper.  First, he has a better average than either one, second, and in my opinion, the most important, he can play shortstop.  Not to downplay outfielders, but right now the league is missing out on shortstops, the reason he is not playing the position is because the Orioles already have a great shortstop in J.J Hardy.  I'm not here to argue what position Machado should play, but the fact that he can play shortstop well is a huge plus.

            So we looked at all three player's offense, and they are pretty close.  Now let's look at their defense.  Everyone knows how great Trout's fielding is, everyone has seen videos of Trout "stealing" homeruns from people with his great defense.  He has a fielding percentage of .987 with a range of 2.48 per nine innings, but has a defensive WAR of -1.2, and Harper has a fielding percentage of .964 with a range of 1.98 per nine innings with a defensive WAR of 0.1.  Comparing these statistics, it is not clear which outfielder is better, although only one has a habit of running into walls.  For comparison, Adam Jones who won a Gold Glove for center field in 2012 had a fielding percentage of .982 with a range of 2.75 with a defensive WAR of -1.3.  Though Harper has a disadvantage, he is not a natural outfielder, he came up as a catcher and the Nationals switched him to Outfield.  Machado has a similar disadvantage, he started off as a shortstop and in 2012, they switched him to third base, only playing the position twice before being called up to the majors.  Though switching from shortstop to third base is easier than switching from catcher to center field.

            It is hard to compare Machado to Trout and Harper because he plays third base, which is why I have chosen fielding percentage, range, and defensive Wins Above Replacement as the best stats to compare them.  Machado has a fielding percentage of .984 with a range of 3.03 per nine innings and a defensive WAR of 1.8.  He is currently ranked 3rd for fielding percentage at third base, and his range is the best in the American League.  To compare that, Adrian Beltre who won a Gold Glove in 2012 for third base, had a fielding percentage of .974 and a range of 2.43 and a defensive WAR of 1.4.  In conclusion, both Harper and Trout are great defensive players, but Machado is on his way to winning a Gold Glove for his performance at third base.

            It is difficult to use stats to compare player's defense, but using these three stats, fielding percentage, dWAR, and range, Manny Machado is in the top 3 to play his position while Bryce Harper and Mike Trout are not even in the top ten for their position. It is still too early to tell which of the three are having a better year, but it is clear that you while everyone is talking about Mike Trout and Bryce Harper, that you should keep an eye out for Manny Machado.