2017-18 MLB Hot Stove League!

[ghost of miles]

No surprise here, but still nice to see it happen, and by unanimous vote as well:

Aaron Judge named AL Rookie of the Year

Cody Bellinger won NL Rookie of the Year, also by unanimous vote. Has that ever happened before, both picks coming on unanimous vote? Bellinger broke the NL record for most homers by a rookie; Judge broke the MLB record. A good year for rookies! 

Cy Young winner will be announced Wednesday night, followed by MVP on Thursday. My money's on Altuve for AL MVP.  Any thoughts on potential NL recipients?

Edited November 14, 2017 by ghost of miles

[soulpope]

5 hours ago, ghost of miles said:

No surprise here, but still nice to see it happen, and by unanimous vote as well:

Aaron Judge named AL Rookie of the Year

Cody Bellinger won NL Rookie of the Year, also by unanimous vote. Has that ever happened before, both picks coming on unanimous vote? Bellinger broke the NL record for most homers by a rookie; Judge broke the MLB record. A good year for rookies! 

Cy Young winner will be announced Wednesday night, followed by MVP on Thursday. My money's on Altuve for AL MVP.  Any thoughts on potential NL recipients?

This or another way, Aaron Judge had a terrific season and in case he should miss out on the MVP this could prove in the end being a lesser burden to confirm (or even better) his performance in 2017 ....

[Soulstation1]

Francona should of been AL Manager of the Year 

[ghost of miles]

Kluber wins the AL Cy Young, with Chris Sale coming in second and Luis Severino in third:

AL Cy Young

Max Scherzer takes it in the NL, with Clayton Kershaw and Stephen Strasburg in second and third behind him:

NL Cy Young

Edited November 15, 2017 by ghost of miles

[ghost of miles]

Shohei Otani set to join MLB as tentative agreement is reached for new posting system

[ghost of miles]

Grant Brisbee predicts that Shohei Otani will sign with the Seattle Mariners.  It's just speculation, but interesting speculation (and Brisbee's always fun to read).

He's also got an amusing but apt column up about Otani, the way the system works against younger players, and Scott Boras

Edited November 30, 2017 by ghost of miles

[JSngry]

2 hours ago, ghost of miles said:

 (and Brisbee's always fun to read).

 

This!

[Dan Gould]

Aaron Bleeping Boone?

Not that I needed another reason to hate the Yankees, but, um, OK.

I know there's a tendency toward managers with minimum or zero experience but this one seems like a real reach. Of course any incompetence or growing pains can be easily covered up with the fairly decent roster he inherits.

[ghost of miles]

12 hours ago, Dan Gould said:

Aaron Bleeping Boone?

Not that I needed another reason to hate the Yankees, but, um, OK.

I know there's a tendency toward managers with minimum or zero experience but this one seems like a real reach. Of course any incompetence or growing pains can be easily covered up with the fairly decent roster he inherits.

Hey Dan, I'm actually pretty bummed about this myself, hoping to be proven wrong.  I would have much, much preferred Meulens, who was said to be the other strong contender for the job.  I could care less about the 2003 ALCS home run when it comes to hiring a manager, and though I know that's not the reason Cashman and company chose him, he must have given one hell of an interview to be chosen over Meulens.  I wasn't in favor of canning Girardi in the first place, though.  Again, hoping to be proven wrong, but if I were among those who despise the Yankees, I wouldn't be displeased with this news.  I have to wonder if Cashman wasn't simply looking for a friendly, "good communicator" who will basically do what the upper office tells him to do vis-a-vis lineups and such.  If that's the case, then Meulens might have said, "I'm not your guy" (not wanting to surrender traditional managerial autonomy) and Boone might have said, "I'm your guy!"  As far as clubhouse communications goes, Meulens speaks five languages, including Spanish and Japanese, so there's a good basic start right there!  From what I've seen so far today in a couple of online Yankee communities, a fair amount of dissent and divide about this decision.

A Yankee blogger who shares my and many other NY fans' misgivings

[paul secor]

Fire Cashman. The manager is secondary.

[Dan Gould]

14 hours ago, paul secor said:

Fire Cashman. The manager is secondary.

 

Paul you've wanted Cashman fired since at least annual visits to the WS stopped. You wanted him fired when the roster was old. Now in the relative blink of an eye, the roster is mostly young (and talented) and you want him fired.  Does he get any credit?

Or is it now all about Andrew Miller?

Or do you just hate the freaking guy and none of the rest matters?

[soulpope]

14 hours ago, ghost of miles said:

Hey Dan, I'm actually pretty bummed about this myself, hoping to be proven wrong.  I would have much, much preferred Meulens, who was said to be the other strong contender for the job.  I could care less about the 2003 ALCS home run when it comes to hiring a manager, and though I know that's not the reason Cashman and company chose him, he must have given one hell of an interview to be chosen over Meulens.  I wasn't in favor of canning Girardi in the first place, though.  Again, hoping to be proven wrong, but if I were among those who despise the Yankees, I wouldn't be displeased with this news.  I have to wonder if Cashman wasn't simply looking for a friendly, "good communicator" who will basically do what the upper office tells him to do vis-a-vis lineups and such.  If that's the case, then Meulens might have said, "I'm not your guy" (not wanting to surrender traditional managerial autonomy) and Boone might have said, "I'm your guy!"  As far as clubhouse communications goes, Meulens speaks five languages, including Spanish and Japanese, so there's a good basic start right there!  From what I've seen so far today in a couple of online Yankee communities, a fair amount of dissent and divide about this decision.

A Yankee blogger who shares my and many other NY fans' misgivings

Same here .... this somehow reminds me of the trend in business overall to hire managers without even basic clue of managing the business but aptly marketing themselves as "good communicators" (means the ability to simply cascade unaltered their assignments received to the employees top bottom) .... but probably I`m wrong and this "situation" will bring the best out of the high quality roster ....

[paul secor]

2 hours ago, Dan Gould said:

 

Paul you've wanted Cashman fired since at least annual visits to the WS stopped. You wanted him fired when the roster was old. Now in the relative blink of an eye, the roster is mostly young (and talented) and you want him fired.  Does he get any credit?

Or is it now all about Andrew Miller?

Or do you just hate the freaking guy and none of the rest matters?

He's made a bunch of terrible big $ signings over the past years - A-Rod, Sabathia, Ellsbury, Chapman, A.J. Burnett, and others which haven't been as bad, but weren't all that good Texeira, Damon, McCann, Pavano, Giambi, to name a handful - which helped to turn the Yankees into a crippled old team which had to be rebuilt. I won't even bring up Andrew Miller.
All of a sudden, the Yankees have some good young players on their roster, and Cashman is a genius. Girardi's out - either he obviously had nothing to do with holding a mediocre team together over the past seasons, or Cashman wants all of the credit for any current success and doesn't want to share it. I don't buy the idea that Girardi couldn't relate to the younger players. I'm sure a lot of that comes back to the fact that he benched Sanchez for a few games after h\is defense was terrible, or the fact that he started Romine for one game of the postseason. Now Cashman's hired a guy who will probably cater to his wishes with no questions asked.

I don't hate Cashman. I just think that he's a terrible GM who's had a lot of money at his disposal and little success to show for it. And for those who bring up the Yankees "dynasty years" of the mid-90s to early 2000s, Gene Michael was the architect of those teams.

Just my opinion, which counts for nothing in the real world. Cashman won't be fired.

[ghost of miles]

Shohei Otani has narrowed his list of possible teams to seven: The Angels, Cubs, Dodgers, Giants, Mariners, Padres, and Rangers. Word is he prefers a West Coast team (better proximity to Japan), which is borne out for the most part by that list, Cubs and Rangers as notable exceptions.  

Shohei Otani narrows down his list to seven teams

Bummer for us Yankee fans!  I thought we had a pretty good shot at signing him.  Maybe Grant Brisbee's Mariners speculation will be proven right.  He's a steal, whoever lands him, hardly any fiscal risk whatsoever if he doesn't pan out.

[soulpope]

1 hour ago, ghost of miles said:

Bummer for us Yankee fans!  I thought we had a pretty good shot at signing him.  Maybe Grant Brisbee's Mariners speculation will be proven right.  He's a steal, whoever lands him, hardly any fiscal risk whatsoever if he doesn't pan out.

Probably even better for the Yankees - so the new "management" will not loose energy via nursing a new star ;-) .... but jokes aside, I believe the Yankees will be fine without Otani and the MLB will gain a new attraction independently for which Otani ends up playing ....

[ghost of miles]

1 hour ago, soulpope said:

Probably even better for the Yankees - so the new "management" will not loose energy via nursing a new star ;-) .... but jokes aside, I believe the Yankees will be fine without Otani and the MLB will gain a new attraction independently for which Otani ends up playing ....

No doubt about it!  Look out if the Dodgers land him.  From a NY perspective, I guess this makes a cut-rate CC resigning more likely, but I also hope that Chance Adams gets a shot at MLB time this coming season.  

[catesta]

On ‎12‎/‎2‎/‎2017 at 3:34 AM, Dan Gould said:

Aaron Bleeping Boone?

Not that I needed another reason to hate the Yankees, but, um, OK.

I know there's a tendency toward managers with minimum or zero experience but this one seems like a real reach. Of course any incompetence or growing pains can be easily covered up with the fairly decent roster he inherits.

Yeah, so many better choices. I do believe Cashman was looking for a "yes man" and that is what he will get.

[soulpope]

2 hours ago, ghost of miles said:

No doubt about it!  Look out if the Dodgers land him.  From a NY perspective, I guess this makes a cut-rate CC resigning more likely, but I also hope that Chance Adams gets a shot at MLB time this coming season.  

Looks like a low risk - high potential approach to me .....

[Dan Gould]

My question to my Yankee fan friends is, did I miss something or did Girardi and Cashman have deep disagreements about roster or lineup construction? Does Cashman plan to manage the team remotely too?  I'd think Aaron Boone doesn't need the money so badly that he'd agree to put his testicles in Cashman's purse, just for the gig.

[ghost of miles]

3 hours ago, Dan Gould said:

My question to my Yankee fan friends is, did I miss something or did Girardi and Cashman have deep disagreements about roster or lineup construction? 

I've read intimations to that effect, yes--that there was growing tension between Girardi and Cashman in that regard.  Evidently there was also a feeling that Girardi wasn't connecting well enough with the younger players or as geared towards analytics as the front office wanted him to be... which is ironic, since Yankee fans regularly groaned about "the binder" when they felt Girardi was making decisions based too much on pure statistics without allowing for particular in-game circumstances.  

Cashman has made some excellent trades over the years, and some of the high-profile signings that didn't pan out were at the best of either Steinbrenner paterfamilias or his sons.  (Although I'd say that Tex and CC generally worked out, overall.)  But he really does own what this team does now.  Hopefully Boone works out... could definitely happen.  I just wish he had at least a season of minor-league coaching or some equivalent under his belt first.  (I was also hoping the Yankees would give their triple-A manager Al Pedrique an interview.  Why that didn't happen, I have no idea.)  

[paul secor]

Don't want to get into an argument, David, but 4 years - 2013 - 2016 - with a record of 32 wins and 39 losses when he was being paid $!00 million, doesn't generally work out for me. Of course, this year, when his contract is ending, he goes 14 and 5. Any surprise there? Not to me.

[ghost of miles]

6 hours ago, paul secor said:

Don't want to get into an argument, David, but 4 years - 2013 - 2016 - with a record of 32 wins and 39 losses when he was being paid $!00 million, doesn't generally work out for me. Of course, this year, when his contract is ending, he goes 14 and 5. Any surprise there? Not to me.

Yes, but 2009-2012 he was 74-29 with a 3.22 ERA.  Unfortunately that's often the case with the way the system's structured these days, as Grant Brisbee observed in his column the other day--younger star players get screwed financially (relatively speaking) and end up signing long-term contracts in their late 20s that give the signing team prime value for the first few years and declining value in the latter years of the deal.  I understand your point, and I think the Yankees have gotten rightfully more wary of such contracts (giving A-Rod a 10-year contract when he was 32, for example, was absolutely insane, but I don't think that was Cashman's doing), which is one reason why they let Cano walk (though they nullified it, didn't they, by signing Jacobi Ellsbury?).  Anyway, I guess we just have different takes on whether or not the CC signing was worth it.  Mark Teixera's a similar case, where he gave the Yankees four pretty good years from 2009-12--putting aside his not-insignificant fielding skills, he averaged 34 HR/106 RBI/.263 BA during that period.  His latter four years were injury-prone and his production dropped significantly, with the exception of 2015, when he came close to his average numbers for 2009-12.  All in all, I don't think that was a bad signing for NY either.  Both players, however, were 28 when they signed with NY.  Ellsbury, otoh, was 30 when he came to NY and has produced disappointing numbers (to put it mildly) in his subsequent four seasons in pinstripes:  10 HR/50 RBI/.264 BA/26 SB per season (throwing that stat in since it's one of his assets).  I don't know if signing him was Hal's idea or Cashman's, but yeah, that one hasn't worked out well, and I don't see how they can move him without eating most of his salary.  

[paul secor]

I guess we have different views. To me, if a guy pitched as badly as Sabathia did from 2013 to 2016, he should have been ashamed to collect his $25 mil. a year paycheck and, if he had any class, would have retired when he went into alcohol rehab.

[Dan Gould]

Even if they were only on the hook for the major league minimum, who would want to put Ellsbury on their roster? Those stats are replacement-level. By the end of the contract they may be AAA level.

[BERIGAN]

glad to see a plucky lil team like the Yankees have a change to get someone like Stanton

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2017/12/yankees-marlins-reach-deal-for-stanton-still-awaiting-his-approval.html

Maris and Mantle , 2.0

 

Ryan Gorman‏Verified account @GormoExJourno 5h5 hours ago

 

 

Derek Jeter bought an entire team just to trade Giancarlo Stanton to the Yankees #RE2PECT

 

https://twitter.com/GormoExJourno/status/939468455228649473

Edited December 9, 2017 by BERIGAN