Yankees Opening day Roster

Well tonight is officially opening night for Baseball and the Texas Rangers will take on the Houston Astros. I mean seriously of all the good pitching match ups that they could have put on, the MLB wanted to feature Matt Harrison versus Bud Norris. Tomorrow though there are a number of interesting games including CC Sabathia facing Jon Lester as the Red Sox take on the Yankees in the Bronx. Obviously the Yankees roster had a lot of turnover after the off season and then even more after all of the injuries so the opening day roster looks very different then it will likely look after the Disabled List clears up a little bit.

Rotation:
CC Sabathia, Hiroki Kuroda, Andy Pettitte, Ivan Nova and David Phelps
one of the only places that isn't terribly different than we expected as Hughes got off to a late start and will miss his first start or two.The Yankees are going to need the top of this rotation to be outstanding if they want to survive until the wounded come back. Don't forget Pineada waits in the wings too.

Bullpen:
Mariano Rivera, David Robetson, Joba Chamberlain, Boone Logan, Cody Eppley, Adam Warren and Shawn Kelley.
Its was a surprise when the Yankees DFA David Aardsma especially because of how bad Eppley has been this spring. It was an even bigger surprise when the Yankees DFA Clay Rapada and it likely means that his shoulder bursitis was very bad. Warren will get sent down when Hughes gets back and Phelps will move back to the bullpen. Eppley and Kelley both have options so either could get sent down when Rapada gets back and I would bet that if Mark Montgomery is lights out in Scranton he will be up with the big league club before too long. Girardi typically puts together great bullpens and I have no reason to suspect that this year will be any different.

Catchers:
Francisco Cervelli, Chris Stewart.
There was really no chance of not these two guys, there was some ideas that Romine could make the club but Brian Cashman said that he was going to take these two. Stewart will catch CC on opening day but I expect that Cervelli will be the primary catcher. It wont make much of a difference, the Yankees will not be getting much production out of the catching spot.

Outfielders:
Vernon Wells, Brett Gardner, Ichiro Suzuki, Ben Francisco and Brennan Boesch.
Wells, Gardner and Ichiro will be the starters until Granderson comes back, with Francisco and Boesch being the backups. If I had to take a guess I would bet that Francisco will get some time at DH against lefties so he very well might be the opening day DH with Lester on the mound. Neither Francisco or Boesch were on the roster at the start of Spring training and its doubtful that they will last the whole year as the Yankees don't typically carry five outfielders and when Granderson comes back there likely wont be any space for either of them. Yankees are banking a lot on Francisco, Boesch, Wells and Ichiro boucing backfrom bad 2012s. I know Ichiro was good with the Yankees but his last two years in Seattle were awful.

Infielders:
Lyle Overbay, Robinson Cano, Eduardo Nunez, Kevin Youkillis, Jayson Nix, Travis Hafner.
It looked like Juan Rivera would be the everyday 1st baseman until Tex came back but the Yankees picked up Overbay just a few days ago and cut Rivera. Because Overbay is a left handed batter I expect that Nix will start at third and Youkillis at first base against lefties, but its possible Overbay will need to play against lefties. Nunez was going to need to play for Jeter quite a bit anyway, but now he will need to be the starting Shortstop until Jeter returns and we have no idea when that will be. Hafner is the DH and will not play the field at all, but even then we have to hope he will stay healthy because they are really screwed if he goes down early.

Well there you have it the Yankees opening day roster and as I said in my earlier post there will be a lot of fluidity in this roster for probably the entire season. Lets see what a new Yankee season has in store!

Andy Pettitte will pitch for Team USA in WBC

Update 1/17 So in the end Pettitte was not on the roster, leaving just Texeira as the only Yankee on Team USA's WBC roster.

Andy Pettitte will be part of the Team USA pitching staff during the World Baseball Classic in March. He will be joined in the rotation by R.A Dickey and Ryan Vogelsong. He will be joined by fellow Yankee Mark Teixeira, as well as numerous other MLB stars. Jon a list of the Heyman has a list of the current roster, but I have to figure its not final as there is no current short stop. I'm not sure when Joe Torre will announce the final roster.
Its a little surprising that the Yankees are willing to let Pettitte pitch considering his age, but they must trust him to be able to handle the workload. Robinson Cano will play for Team Domincan Republic, but past that no their Yankees have announced their participation.

Update 1/14
Apparently Francisco Cervelli will play for Team Italy, he played for them in 2009. Also full rosters will be submitted on Thursday.

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.

A True Yankee Podcast 9/25

I posted this later today than I wanted to but here it is.Sorry about the delay between this one and the last one but we had some issues, but we will make it up to you by having another episode next Thursday after the season is over. Anyway Chris guest appears for Brooke and we talk about the Yankees recent winning ways including the two walk offs against the A's. We also talk about Andy Pettitte, Ichiro, Raul Ibanez and the Yankees remaining schedule.

Andy Pettitte will start Tuesday

Well in addition to Ivan Nova taking Freddy Garcia's spot on Saturday, Andy Pettitte will take David Phelps spot on Tuesday when the Yankees take on the Toronto Blue Jays. Obviously David Phelps will move to the bullpen, but if Nova struggles then Phelps could take his spot after his good start against the Sox. Pettitte declared himself “ready” following his latest simulated game yesterday, though he’s going to be held to a 75-pitch count in his first start back. The Yankees will have to make a 40-man roster move to activate Andy off the 60-day DL and I expect Derek Lowe will be kicked to the curb.

Looking at Pettitte's return

Via Joel Sherman, left-hander Andy Pettitte (fractured left leg) threw three innings and 46 pitches during his latest simulated game this afternoon. Pitching coach Larry Rothschild said it went “good, very good, super.”

 Pettitte will getting checked out by the team doctors on Monday, and if all goes well he will start ramping up his workouts in advance of rejoining the team later this month. Pitching coach Larry Rothschild said that Pettite will have no minor league rehab games and will instead have more simulated games. Joel Sherman believes that in the next 7-10 days Pettitte will throw another simulated game, going about 4 innings. The hope here is that after that rehab start Pettitte could rejoin the rotation.

A True Yankee Inagural Podcast

Contributing writer Brooke and myself decided to start a podcast of which we hope to do on a bi-weekly basis. In our first show we talked about the injuries to Andy Pettitte and CC Sabathia, as well as minor league promotions, the trade deadline, Nick Swisher and the Yankees bullpen. Give it a listen and tell your friends.





download the episode from podOmatic here

Andy Pettitte out at least six weeks with a fractured Ankle

In todays game against Cleveland Pettitte took a hard one-hop ground ball in the left ankle off the bat of Casey Kotchman and after testing it out he came out of the game. We all hoped it would be nothing but he fractured his ankle and will be out six weeks. This really stinks as Pettitte had been so good this year and now he will be out until August assuming everything goes well. He will however not need surgery which is good to hear. It will be intresting now to see how the Yankees ajust their rotation but Garcia is likely to make Pettitte's next start and Warren will probably spot start for CC on Friday. I will have a post in the future about the Yankees rotation options.

The return of Andy Pettitte and the Yankees rotation

The Yankee rotation was originally supposed to be Sabathia, Nova, Hughes, Garcia and Burnett and we all were hoping that the rotation would be better than the mediocre rotation that it appeared to be. Then the Yankees shocked everybody and traded Jesus Montero for Michael Pineda and signed Hiroki Kuroda and now that rotation had too much depth as there were seven arms for five rotation spots. Then Burnett was traded to the Pirates and it seemed that the rotation was set. Then Andy Pettitte blew everyone's mind and decided that he would come back to the Yankees. Once we all got over the collective shock we were in, some people started criticizing the move and thought that bringing back Pettitte would be bad for the Yankees young pitchers. Then of course Pineda got hurt in Spring training and the rotation issue solved itself as Garcia proved to be ineffective in his starts in April and May. Andy Pettitte went from being a nice story to a necessity for the Yankees and now the Yankees are bringing him back before he is really ready. I'm not saying that Pettitte will be bad, but I think he needed one or two more starts in the minors and now he will struggle more than he needs to as he shakes rust off that could have come off in the minors. With the addition of Pettitte we will probably see little chnage in the Yankees rotation barring any injuries as it looks like most of the rotation has started to settle in. One of the great things about the Yankees right now is that they have insane pitching depth and even if Pettitte bombs, which is a possibility that fans need to accept, they have three immediate and decent rotation options in Mitchell, Phelps and Garcia. You wanna see how no depth pitching depth can screw you, look at the Red Sox.
On the note of the depth, I do hope that the Yankees send Phelps to the minors because if they wanna keep their payroll down then they will try and fill a spot internally and that's with the hope that Pineda is back at the beginning of the season. I'm excited about Pettitte coming back but I seriously doubt that he is coming back next season and the Yankees have five guys in AAA who could be in the majors and Phelps, Warren and Mitchell need to have something happen for them soon as they are repeating AAA this year.

Andy Pettitte is back

Yeah those are words that I never thought anybody would write in anything ever. I saw it when I was teaching and I thought it was a prank, but I decided to double check before the kids came back from lunch and when I saw that it was real I practically leaped out of my chair. I unfortunately had to wait the rest of the day before I could talk to anybody about it and I was met with several unbelivably supised responses. I mean honestly who saw this coming? From what I heard from Brian Cashman not even the Yankees players knew about this. Cashman apparently offered Pettitte a $10-12 million contract over the winter after Andy let him know he was thinking about returning. After Cashman added Kuroda and Pineda he told Andy that he did not have room for him, but Pettitte kept working out and the Yankees offered him a $2.5 million minor league deal which he accepted.The Pettitte signing is very exciting but Pettitte will not be ready for opening day and it looks like the Yankees will looking for him to contribute around mid-May to early-June, if he will be able to contribute at all. If Pettitte can be as good as he was in 2010 then his contribution will be huge, but the Yankees did have 6 starters for 5 spots already and a 7th will make that rotation hard to figure out if everyone is healthy. Rotations and situations change all the time and if Andy Pettitte is able to make his succesful comeback then there is a chance a spot won't need to open for him because one will have been created already. You can hear Andy Pettitte do a phone interview with the YES Network guys here if you haven't heard it, he called in during the game against Washington and he said he feels good but he needs to get his legs ready. I really hope that we can see Andy in one way or another, even if it is just a handful of starts but at the very least as of right now Pettitte is BACK!

He's back!

The Future of the Yankees Rotation

Well Friday 2/4/2011 is the day that Andy Pettitte officially announced his retirement and as much as I hoped he would come back I had a strong feeling he would retire this year. With the Yankees losing out on Cliff Lee and every other remotely desirable Free Agent Starter we have to wonder who will man the Yankees Rotation not just this year but for the next few years. If the Yankees had given Lee the rumored 7 year deal then he would have been pitching on the team until 2017 and he was 39. Right now the Yankees Rotation looks like:
Sabathia LHP, AJ Burnett RHP, Phil Hughes RHP, Ivan Nova RHP and one of the all RHP Sergio Mitre, Bartolo Colon, Mark Prior, Freddy Garcia and possible Andrew Brackman. Overall not something we hoped for especially with the Left handed heavy Sox. The Yankees will more than likely make a move for a 4th Starter who is hopefully a lefty and the Yankees have to hope that Burnett is better, Nova is a least decent and Hughes has a year like last year, the only player who I don't have any concerns about is Sabathia and he will continue to be a workhorse for the Yankees. The Yankees could try for a deal with any number of pitchers but they wont be King Felix, Josh Johnston, Johan Santana or anyone from the Red Sox or Phillies not named Joe Blanton. Unfortunately for the Yankees there are a lot of teams looking for starting pitching and the Yankees won't want to take any pitchers with long term deals due to some very good pitching prospects who are getting very close to being MLB ready. There is a good article about possible pitchers for the Yankees staff and the two I think are the most likely are Paul Maholm from the pirates who would likely take a scattered assortment of crap prospects for the 30 year old lefty, the other possibility is Edwin Jackson who could be trade bait for some decent relievers especially if the White Sox struggle.

The 2012 rotation could still feature 4 of the 5 starters from the 2011 rotation, but the Yankees rotation could see the addition of Japanese ace Yu Darvish who has said that he will post himself in 2012 and at 26 is considered to be the best Starting pitcher in Japan right now. I seriously doubt anyone would outbid the Yankees for Darvish if the Yankees want him and unless they find gold in both a trade and Nova they will want him. The dominant RHP would turn the Yankees rotation around and leave the 5th starting job for Nova or one of the Yankees other top Pitching prospects. This is of course hoping that Sabathia won't opt out which i don't expect him to.

In 2013 the Yankees will enter a slight conundrum as AJ Burnett will enter the last year of his contract and i'm willing to bet that the all of the Killer B's will be at or near MLB ready, however unless he is extended David Price will also be entering the last year of his contract with Tampa and the rays may look to move him for prospects. The Yankees could trade for the Lefty who will be 28 but the Rays may ask for more than the Yankees will be willing to give, especially within the division. If the Yankees did trade for Price they could either trade Burnett or move him down in the rotation. A likely package for Price could be Brackman, Nova and another top prospect. The Yankees could also sign Price in the off-season but they might not want to fork over the draft pick especially if the Killer B's develop the way they want them to.

2014 has a number of possible Yankees rotations including:
Sabathia, Price, Darvish, Hughes, Banuelos/Betances or
Sabathia, Darvish, Hughes, Brackman, Banuelos/ Betances or
Sabathia, Hughes, Brackman, Banuelos, Betances/Nova or any other combination of back end pitchers

The future looks bright for the Yankees rotation but still we ended the 2010 season thinking we would have a rotation of:
Sabathia, Lee, Hughes, Pettitte and Burnett and instead we are looking at  Sanbathia, Hughes, Burnett, Nova, Colon/Garcia/Prior/Mitre. The one good thing is that the current rotation will change as the season progresses and possibly before opening day. The worst part is that the offense could be awesome this year, but we will need a rotation to back it up.

Remaining Free Agents

Of MLB Trade rumors 2011 top 50 free agents only 11 remained by January 10th, including the number 7 overall Rafael Soriano and in the 11 days since 5 of them have signed and those were:

Soriano:Yankees
Pavano: Twins
Thome: Twins
Balfour: A's
Fuentes: Angels

MLBTR remaining top 50 free agents are Vlad Guerrero, Manny Ramirez, Andy Pettitte, Scott Podsednik, Kevin Millwood and Johnny Damon. I will also include Orlando Cabrera and Russel Branyon who were both featured in other top 50 free agent lists and then to make it interesting why don't we add in the Yankee free agents of Nick Johnson and Chad Moeller just for fun. Obviously Pettitte will either retire or play for the Yankees so he is not much of a free agent, but the rest are all interesting cases especially Guerrero who found himself out of what seemed like a sure thing in Texas.

Ramirez, Guerrero and Damon are all looking to DH next year, so they are limited to the American league but many clubs, including the Yankees, still view Damon as a possible 4th outfielder, but I haven't heard of any National league teams expressing interest in him. Damon and Ramirez both have the huge advantage of Scott Boras as an agent and he did pull that starting job in Detroit for $8 million out of thin air last year, but Vlad had more HR's and RBI's than both of them put together last year. MLBTR reports that Vlad is close to a deal with the Orioles but that the Angels remain another possibility, the article also says that Manny is likely to sign by next week. The Angels, Rays, Rangers and Blue Jays have all shown interest in Manny, but i think that the Rangers are the best option for Manny as the Rangers have stated that they want a veteran bat and Manny could easily become the primary DH if Mitch Moreland starts off bad and Michael Young moves to first. The Rays remain a possibility and they could use another bat that can hit above .250, but they probably won't see eye to eye on money. Damon and Scott Podsednik have both been discussed as lead-off options for the Blue Jays and the Angels and while Podsednick is the better lead-off option both players would fit with either team.

There has not been a lot of talk about Orlando Cabrera, but the Pirates and the Giants seem the most likely possibilities and he would have to compete for a starting job in spring training but could definitely win the job with either teams. Kevin Millwood is another interesting piece as he went 4-16 in 31 starts and had a 5.10 ERA, but he is reportedly being pursued by the Indians, Orioles and even the Yankees. I doubt that the Yankees would match what the Indians and Orioles would offer as both those teams would likely insert him into the rotation immediately, while the Yankees would make him compete for a rotation spot . Millwood has expressed interest in returning to the Orioles, but Progressive Field is more pitcher friendly and he did play for the Indians back in 05. Russel Branyon has a number of options and could catch on with a number of teams, including the Rays, Rockies and several other clubs, but he will likely have to accept an incentive based contract similar to his deal from last year with Cleveland.

As for our former Yankees; Nick Johnson and Chad Moeller, both will likely receive minor league deals and they both could very well start the year in AAA. Moeller will get another minor league contract where he will provide depth and as a result he could end up in a number of clubs, his off-season does weigh party on  if Bengie Molina signs, because Moeller is only real option left after that and some club could bring him to compete for the backup job if a trade changes things. There has been almost Zero talk about Nick Johnson this off-season and that has everything to do with his injury back in May, he will probably get a minor league deal, spend the beginning of the year on the disable list and hope to get called up to the bigs, to think we gave him $5.5 million for 98 PA.