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.