I believe in Zoilo

The man with the name Zoilo Almonte, the switch hitting outfielder made his debut last year as did so many Yankee rookies and he played very well before a high ankle sprain landed him on the DL and some wisdom teeth kept him there for most of the year. In the end Zoilo played 34 games games for the Yankees and his first 17 games were great, he batted .309/.339/.436 in 59  Plate appearances and it really looked like he could be a contributor to the team but he started to slide in July and then he landed on the DL. When he came back he just wasn't the same when he came back in September managing just 2 hits and both of those came in the last game of the year. However I believe in Zoilo, I believe that he can contribute to the Yankees and I believe he can contribute better than Ichiro Suzuki, can he be a starter for the team? I really don't know but you know how we can find out, by giving him a limited bench role to see how he handle's the majors over a full season because struggling at a new level is something that players do, Brett Gardner's stats when he first came up in 2008 were bad .228/.283/.299 bad, but he turned it around and became a good major leaguer. This is how a team develops young talent that can help the major league club and its what the Yankees don't do, they always side with the veteran over a young player and that's mostly good for a team that is always winning but now the Yankees have gone years without developing a single contributor to their team and Zoilo just might be one of the guys who can help stop that trend. Zoilo is by no means a godsend of a prospect and more than likely he is a 4th outfielder long term but there is a chance that he can become a decent starter and keeping him in AAA behind Ichiro is not the way to have him show what he can do.
Mike Axisa wrote about Zoilo Almonte before last season and said that he might be the Yankees best shot at a home grown outfielder and I think he still might be right. Almonte is a guy who walked at a very good rate in the minors, can be a decent base stealer and play solid defense in the corners. There are a few warts on Zoilo as he did not hit left handed pitching well last season but I expect that to adjust as he is a natural right handed hitter. It is possible that the Yankee brass agrees with me as Brian Cashman said last season that the club has “future everyday right fielder scouting grades”on Almonte and keeping Almonte as a 4th outfielder would be very similar to how the Yankees broke Brett Gardner into the major leagues in 2009 and it is really what they should do for Zoilo in 2014. Spring training is only a short time away so hopefully for Zoilo's sake he can have a good spring training and make the club, I just fear that they will keep Ichiro on the roster over him.

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.

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.

The Steinbrenners problem with $189 million

The problem for many people who have a lot of fame and money is that sometimes they can convince themselves of anything and they have the resources to ignore reality and believe these things. It doesn't matter if everyone thinks the idea is insane or wrong, they have people who will tell them that they are right and I think that Hank and Hal Steinbrenner are in this situation, obviously not to the extent that the boss was, they want to be more frugal but I honestly think that they have not wrapped their heads around what that will mean. $189 million would still be one of the top payrolls in the MLB, but it would also require the Yankees to be smarter about how they spend their money and I do not think that this is something they know how to do. In the offseason fans can convince themselves that a team or a player will do something or be something that they are not based on a hot streak which most of the time amounts to nothing. Owners who are dumb, see something like this and respond with an underseved contract or lets key players walk because some other player hit well over 100 PA. This is what Royals owner David Glass did with Bruce Chen and Jeff Francoeur and unfortunately what the Steinbrenners did with Ichiro Suzuki.
According to Joel Sherman the new two year deal $13 million for Ichiro came from "top of the Yankees hierarchy" following "a strong Division Series and adoration from the fans." As you all remember Ichiro had a great two months with the Yankees but had been disappointing most of the last two seasons. At the time I did not understand the deal as it did not seem to be a move that made sense with the austerity plan and frankly it doesn't make sense, Ichiro could hit well this season but he hasn't so far and when Granderson comes back he could wind up spending a lot of time on the bench and he is still under contract for next season. This could be an issue in the future as the Steinbrenners have always insisted that they will put a championship caliber club on the field, but if they want to they cannot do stupid things like this, it doesn't work. I also need to see the Yankees abandon this policy of not extending players as free agency is starting to dry up as more and more teams are holding onto their talent and I for one do not want to risk losing Cano to some team that wants to give 10 years to Robbie. Its also going to effect their negotiations with Derek Jeter, Jeter has not made any indication that he feels as though he is winding down and what do the Steinbrenners do if he want a new deal? Would they really be able to let Derek walk to keep the budget after not being able to let Ichiro go after 2 months? We will have to see what happens as decision time will come this off season.

A True Yankee Podcast 2/12

A New Podcast for pitchers and catchers reporting! Brooke returns from her hiatus and we talk about the World Baseball classic, the A-Rod PED accusations and the Yankees offseason. Focusing on the Youkillis signing, the Ichiro deal, the catching situation and a potential new deal for Cano. We also examine the competition in the AL East and what to watch for in Yankee spring training.

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.

Ichiro turns back the clock and Dominates

Ichiro is pleased

Well Ichiro Suzuki turned back the clock and went 9 for 12 with three doubles a home run and four stole bases. He was the key cog in the Yankees sweep of the Jays, especially the second game of the double header in which he stole all four of his stolen bases and hit the go ahead run in the 8th. Perhaps the most impressive part of the series is how well he hit left-handers, he went 7 for in the series with all his extra base hits coming against lefties. Even better one of those doubles would have been an easy triple and very likely an inside the park home run, but it bounced into the stands.The Yankees acquired Ichiro to essentially be a platoon left fielder, but Andruw Jones has been so brutally ineffective in the second half that Suzuki will be pressed into full-time duty going forward and so far it looks like it will be well deserved. Also the speed element that Ichiro showed the last two days has been great as only he and Eduardo Nunez are true stolen base threats with Brett Gardner out and Ichiro wasn't even close to being out on any of his four steals. It cannot be overstated of how good Ichiro looked in this series and how pivotal he was to the sweep of the Blue Jays.

Its been said on this blog that everyone has just been waiting for Ichiro to be a Yankee and this series is exactly what everyone had in mind when they thought about Ichiro in Pinstripes. This series has also sparked many people to ponder the idea of the Yankees retaining Ichiro next season and it does remain a possibility, however if the Yankees retain Nick Swisher then there is no chance. Ichiro just had a great series, but don't forget he is 38 and entering the twilight of his career but these flashes of his former greatness should be great to see for all fans.

The Yankees after the Trade deadline

Well the trade deadline passed and several players have changed teams. The Dodgers were busy as they picked up Hanley Ramirez from the Marlins, Brandon League from the Mariners and Shane Victorino from the Phillies, all mostly for Salary relief. In response the Giants traded for Hunter Pence, this is the Kind of arms race we used to see in the AL East and its great because the Dodgers/Giants rivalry is probably the best in baseball right now.
The Yankees made their biggest moves before the deadline acquiring Ichiro Suzuki for DJ Mitchell after Gardner was ruled out for the year, It was a great pickup and I talked about it earlier. When ARod went down with a broken hand the Yankees were said to be looking for a third baseman to platoon with Eric Chavez and they did that at the deadline when they traded Chad Qualls to the Pirates for Casey McGehee. The Pirates had been platooning McGehee with Garret Jones at first and after they traded for Gaby Sanchez they did not need him anymore. Its a good pickup and I wonder if Nix or Pena will go down as they do not need Nix to play third anymore and his defense at shortstop isn't very good. Granted the Yankees could also decide to call up Eduardo Nunez to be the backup middle infielder, but we will have to wait and see. The Yankees were also connected to Ryan Dempster for Angelo Gumbs or Dante Bichette Jr, but he ended up going to the Rangers who needed him a lot more.

Yankees acquire Ichiro Suzuki

Ichiro in photoshopped pinstripes

Ichiro Suzuki has been traded to the Yankees for minor league pitchers DJ Mitchell and Well there is a set of words I do not think I ever thought I would write, but the Yankees have been full of these types of moves the last several years. Nobody thought Pineda would be acquired, or Javier Vazquez would be acquired or that A.J Burnett would actually be moved and that is just what Brian Cashman did. Ichiro has been declining for the last few years and the Yankees are hopeing that he can bounce back, but on top of that Ichiro provides his still solid defnse and ability to play everyday in the field which will be great since the alternative would have been a combination of Wise, Jones and Ibanez. Suzuki also provides some speed that the Yankees really needed since losing both Nunez and Gardner and Granderson suddenly unable to steal bases its a definate lift for the Yankees.
This is a definate good move for the Yankees as they gave up pitching prospects D.J. Mitchell and Danny Farquhar both of whom are very minimal impact players. Its going to be intresting to see how Ichiro plays out the rest of the year as he is apparently done with the Mariners as he requested the trade from the Mariners ownership and this is a very intresting storyline for the Yankees and baseball.