Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Mitchell: Pedroia, Cano and Magical Thinking
(www.huffingtonpost.com)
Pedroiadolia: The psychological phenomenon of seeing wacko images on dirty uniforms.
Read More...The narratives around the two players, however, could not be different. Pedroia is almost the prototype of the over-achieving “scrappy” player. He is a 5’8” middle infielder who does the little things well. This ignores that he was also a second round draft choice who played baseball at a top baseball school. Cano, on the other hand is bigger, more athletic and does not project scrappiness at all. Throughout ...
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1. SG posted on December 14, 2012 at 10:10 AM # hit 0 | hit 0It's hard for me to say that Ichiro is really part of the problem, though. He could be, but overall you're going to need more Ichiros, not fewer, to make that roster work.
What's the defensive lineup? Ichiro RF, Gardner CF, Granderson LF? Or do you want Ichiro playing LF, at least at home?
Building off of MCoA, 50M has to cover a lot next season and that could include names like Jeter, Rivera, and Pettitte that won't want to take pay cuts. I have a feeling it's very plausible to say that this year is the actual last run of those three in Pinstripes. The Yankees simply won't allow themselves the resources to bring them back, even if Jeter et. al, want to come back for another run.
But I think Rivera and Pettitte retire.
I'm pretty sure they will still have a 3Bman next year. But they'll need a strong caddy.
Building off of MCoA, 50M has to cover a lot next season and that could include names like Jeter, Rivera, and Pettitte that won't want to take pay cuts. I have a feeling it's very plausible to say that this year is the actual last run of those three in Pinstripes. The Yankees simply won't allow themselves the resources to bring them back, even if Jeter et. al, want to come back for another run.
They have more plausible options for C in 2013, and especially 2014, than they do for OF.
If Rivera and Pettitte want to come back, they'll have to work cheap. I think that's the bottom line. I doubt either wants to play elsewhere at this point, so the choice will be play cheap, or retire.
Fair enough.
I think they roll the dice with some prospects for SP in 2014. Cheap guys for LF and DH. Probably drop down for a year. Question is if they bother to really reload in 2015.
They won't do that; at least I've seen no evidence of them doing it in the past. They didn't try and smear Jeter last time.
They'll just make a fair, somewhat below market offer based on their 2013 performance, and let the chips fall.
I mean, if Pettitte throws 200 IP of 120 ERA+, and Rivera goes 65 IP with a 1.80 ERA, the Yankees will offer them healthy deals. They need some players for 2014.
Funny thing about Pettitte. He's got a career 117 ERA+, but he's never had a season, even a truncated one, particularly close to that. And he's never had a season within 8 points of 120.
So, you're saying he's due?
That could be rough if Mo and Andy still want to play, and are still good, but so be it. They Yankees won't be shooting for 88 wins in '14. They're shooting to get under the luxury threshold, and hope to acquire as many wins as possible AFTER doing that.
If they really wanted to get cute, they could offer 1 year contracts to some players in '14 with a handshake agreement to resign them to sweetened deals the next year. And since the Yankees aren't the Marlins, it might work. Hmm, if Andy said "i want to pitch in '14, but retire after that", could the Yankees offer him a 5 year for 20 million deal, making him a 4 million per year, and then buy out the rest of the years after '14 comes off the books?
I meant to say closer than 8 points. 7 seasons between 110 and 112, then his next highest is 129.
What decent RF are they getting for $6.5M p.a.?
They had the "corner" forced on them suddenly with the new CBA and are trying their best to work around that. How do you see this move as not part of that but rather the opposite? More succinctly; What?
How are options handled as far as the luxury tax works...as I understand it its by AAV...so a 2 year deal with salaries of 1 M and 13 M each season would be counted as $7 M as far as luxury tax is concerned, right? But how does it work if that $13 M is a player options, or a vesting option (with say the requirement being 1 IP or 5 AB's or something like that?)
These deals would violate some rules and probably be discovered.
Well, I don't think I'd say it's been forced on them. They are choosing to do this to increase their profit margins. They could simply pay the penalties and not receive any revenue sharing rebates for being over the payroll limit if they wanted to field the best team they could. But I'm not sure they fully understand how spoiled their fanbase is(myself included). If they lose enough season ticket holders and ratings they may be forced to drop this plan.
I wonder if the Yankees are watching the Red Sox closely this year on the business front. If the Sox retain a reasonable percentage of attendance/ratings/misc. revenue the Yankees may feel a level of confidence in going through a bit of a rebuild. Conversely, if the Sox get crushed in those areas (and there is a real chance of that) the Yankees may decide it's not worth it and be a bit more aggressive next winter than currently appears likely.
The amount of money that the Yankees will save by dipping down for one year in '14 seems huge. I obviously have no idea what I'm talking about, but I can't fathom that decreased demand in one season of tickets (and tv ratings, etc) could offset that.
The league has to approve all contracts, so it may interpret the latter as a 2 year/$14 mil guaranteed, or they may not approve it at all, or something else. Bud's a lot of things, but he's not stupid. If he doesn't want to, he won't fall for an obvious ploy to game the system.
Source
That deal would not violate any rules, BUT there certainly would be a retroactive recalculation of the AAV after the buyout. So, IOW, it wouldn't help.
Again, I think the fixes for this kind of thing are already built in to the system. Lux tax is calculated at the end of the season, and earned incentives get added in. I'd assume that if a vesting option vests, the AAV gets recalculated. Not sure about player options, but my guess would be that they get figured in as guaranteed money up front, and then you adjust if the player doesn't exercise.
Now there's still a trio of wild and crazy free agent outfielders left in Nick Swisher, Cody Ross and Delmon Young, all with similar stat lines. One guy's funny, another is intense and the last is just plain psycho. I hope Swish winds up withe the Red Sox just to make things interesting.
I'm not sure about that. This article explains a lot about revenue sharing and tax rebates as it pertains to the Yankees and this is mentioned in the comments.
"They would get from the rebate program: 11.35mm in 2014, 17.03mm in 2015, & 22.72mm in 2016. That is 51.1mm total for all three years.. "
If a marginal win is worth $6M for the Yankees, it's not hard to see that putting an 85 win team on the field could cost them a lot more than the $11.35M they'd get back for being under the cap.
This is a money grab, plain and simple. It's their right, but it's also their fans' right to not like it and perhaps reciprocate by not supporting the product as intensely.
Free C-Dick! Seriously, every time he gets in a game, it turns out well.
This is a money grab, plain and simple. It's their right, but it's also their fans' right to not like it and perhaps reciprocate by not supporting the product as intensely.
Man, where is Yankee Redneck when you need him?
Where's Sixto Sanchez and Yorvit Molina?
Or Vladimir Guerrero?
In the first Front Office Football, I drafted a QB named Chili Mac Beethoven. I #### you not.
This may be true, but if he plays 2 full seasons, he's good for another, what 350 hits? Two years of 175 would be career lows, but get him to 2,950.
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