A Look at the (Kinda) New Line-up


Not too much has changed from last years lineup that produced 869 runs, the second most in baseball only bested by the rival Red Sox.  Let's preview the line-up and see how Girardi might be inclined to move some bats around.  The Yanks have embraced the platoon DH split, but with premiere to above average bats at every position most Yankees will be in the line up 155+ games this year.  Let's see how the lineup will shape up against right handed and left handed pitching.

Projected Line up vs. RHP (2011 wOBA vs. RHP)

Jeter, R (.298)
Granderson, L (.388)
Cano, L (.373)
Rodriguez, R (.369)
Teixeira, S (.337)
Swisher, S (.335)
Ibanez, L (.322)
Martin, R (.330)
Gardner, L (.328)

Not too shabby.  This lineup will be in use roughly 70% of the time, and it's a good one.  The Yankees are one of the few teams who can trot out 8/9 .320+ wOBA guys, and this is primarily where they do their damage.  Of course we would all love to see Gardner and Jeter switch places against righties, but its an afterthought as Girardi respects Jeter too much to pencil him in at the bottom of the lineup on four of six days of the week. Even with Jeter stinking it up at the top and doing anything but setting the table for the rest of the order, this lineup actually could improve against RHP's in 2012.  Jeter looked better down the stretch and began to finally get the ball airborne against RHP's, while his career .344 wOBA against RHP's may be a thing of the past, hopefully the Captain can rebound to the .310/.320 range and provide some on base skills for the mashers behind him.  Granderson and Cano are pretty self explanatory as they will surely continue to rake against RHP's.  A Rod is an interesting case as he hit righties far better than lefties (.369 vs. .333), with health hopefully on his side he can replicate these numbers.  Teixeira is the real wild card in this lineup as last year his .337 wOBA was flat out not good enough to justify his contract.  Tex has already admitted his deficiency against RHP's and has vowed to work with Kevin Long to lessen the uppercut designed to send balls into the short 3rd deck in right, and instead begin to spray the ball circa 2007.  With just a .222 BABIP vs. RHP's, we can expect some serious improvement to the mean of about .300, this should boost his numbers and make the Yankees even more dominant vs. RHP's in 2012.  While Swisher can been better hitting left handed throughout his career (.377 vs. .350), I expect his .335 figure to improve to his career average of .350 once again due to an unusually low BABIP of .259.  Ibanez was brought in solely to hit RHP's as the left handed hitting portion of the DH platoon.  I've covered his expectations more in depth for 2012 in an earlier article so feel free to check that out.  Martin figures to produce about the same as his 2011 numbers are right in line with his career figures.  Gardner, while in a perfect world would be getting on base at a .360+ clip atop the line up will unfortunately hit 9th even against RHP's unless Girardi wants to slide everyone down one spot (don't hold your breath).  It really is a shame that one of the Yankee biggest assets of on base skills and speed is wasted at the bottom of the order, but life isn't fair and neither is baseball.  With Eric Chavez as a PH option off the bench, (2011 wOBA of .298) we have some insurance against a tight spot late in games.  With a solid L/R/S mix, the Yanks figure to mash righties once again in 2012.


Projected Line up vs. LHP (2011 wOBA vs. LHP)

Jeter, R (.413)
Granderson, L (.400)
Cano, L (.373)
Rodriguez, R (.333)
Teixeira, S (.410)
Swisher, S (.412)
Jones, R (.400)
Martin, R (.305)
Gardner, L (.290)

Those are some good looking wOBA's against LHP's.  Unfortunately for the Yankees they will only see a lefty on the hill about 30% of the time, maybe slightly more with the bevy of left handed pitching in the AL East.  Jeter shined against LHP's in 2011 posting a .400+ wOBA, certainly his skills match up with a typical leadoff hitter here as he got on base at a .423 clip.  Granderson had a revival against LHP's in 2011.  A career .301 wOBA hitter against LHP's his number soared, and it wasn't a BABIP function (.301) or seemingly any other peripheral stat.  Instead it seems to be his swing as he looked far more comfortable and kept both hands on the bat longer through the zone allowing him to pull the ball with much better power as he slugged .200 points better than his career average in 2011.  Cano will most likely put up similar numbers as his game is rock solid and peaking going into his age 29 season.  A Rod seems poised for a bounce back against LHP's in 2012 as his 2011 numbers were simply not good enough.  A healthy hip should allow him to get his bat through the zone better and hit for more power than in 2011, just a .383 SLG against LHP's.  I'm thinking more homers into the left field seats and more doubles into death valley in 2012.  Teixeira need not work on his right handed stroke as he mashed lefties in 2011 and will surely continue to do so in 2012.  Same goes for Swish as he has always hit lefties better, while .412 might be tough to replicate (.377 career), I still expect similar production going forward as he loves the short RF porch.  Andruw Jones was a monster down the stretch, saving the Yanks from letting Posada hit lefties, and posting a .400 wOBA.  While this will be tough to replicate, he has posted .400+ in back to back seasons against LHP, once in 2010 with a miniscule .237 BABIP, and once in 2011 with an enormous .356 BABIP.  Jones should find a happy medium and look to contribute a .375+ wOBA in about 150-200 PA's.  Martin surprisingly hit righties better than lefties in 2011.  Look for his numbers to jump up, ideally to his career figure of .361.  Gardner is in the lineup vs. lefties solely for his glove/speed, which is more than fine with me, but he belongs at the bottom, creating the often talked about "circular lineup".  Eduardo Nunez is also a capable PH option late in games as well, posting a .321 wOBA agaist LHP's.

Overall I expect the Yanks to put up huge offensive numbers in 2012.  Maybe approach the 900 run plateau with some bouncebacks vs. RHP's.  While the lineup Girardi will pencil in every day isn't ideal, the only changes I would make is Gardner lead off vs. RHP's with Jeter at the bottom of the order, and let Tex hit 4th against LHP's and bump A Rod to 5th.  While this seems unlikely to happen, by mid season things could change based on production.  The Yankees look to top MLB in runs scored in 2012, and I think it could very well happen.

- Alex Bardani

References: Fangraphs

Previewing the Red Sox: Part One

 

Wednesday, September 28, 2011 was one of the greatest days in baseball history, as two thrilling playoff races came to their conclusions.  Unless, like me, you’re a Red Sox fan.  That night finished off a nine-game collapse in three and a half weeks, the worst in baseball history.  The fallout from the collapse included the team moving on from Terry Francona and Theo Epstein taking his talents to the north side of Chicago.  What do Bobby Valentine and company have to look forward to in 2012?  I’ll take a look at the position players in this article.

Jarrod Saltalamacchia was decent in his first full season behind the dish, hitting .235/.288/.450.  He did make too many outs though, and will have to improve on a pathetic 24/119 BB/K ratio if he’s going to get better in that regard.  Saltalamacchia was much better against right-handers (and has been over his entire career), hitting .247/.304/.481 vs. them compared to .209/.252/.383 vs. southpaws.  However, due to Josh Beckett and Tim Wakefield needing personal catchers, he had too many at bats against lefties at the expense of those against righties.  Wakefield has retired, and hopefully Beckett will be able to work with Saltalamacchia so the team does not have to sacrifice offense when he’s on the mound.  The team brought in Kelly Shoppach to back up, and he has crushed LHP in his career (.274/.373/.536).  If Valentine can execute a strict platoon, that would be ideal.

The expectations were sky-high for Adrian Gonzalez after coming over from San Diego, and he delivered, albeit in an unconventional way.  Expected to pepper the Green Monster at will, Gonzalez did not produce as much power as anticipated, instead trading fly balls for ground balls.  The swap produced more hits, but it also may be unreasonable to expect a repeat of a .380 BABIP.  However, he was also coming off shoulder surgery which likely hindered his power.  A return to the old Gonzalez should be expected in 2012.

Yankees fans and unnamed baseball scouts and executives will take Robinson Cano, but Dustin Pedroia is the best player at the position in baseball.  Only Chase Utley has produced more WAR among second basemen since Pedroia entered the league as a fulltime player in 2007, and Utley is now clearly on the back nine with mounting injury concerns.  Nothing about Pedroia’s physical tools is particularly impressive, but the combination of decent power, excellent plate discipline and contact ability and outstanding defense make him an elite player.  Pedroia is definitely aided by Fenway Park (.323/.387/.506 at home in his career compared to .287/.360/.421 outside Boston), but his overall line is still very good.  And although defensive ratings can be dubious, Pedroia rates excellently by every metric.

Kevin Youkilis’ age and increasing injury history make him a concern, but he should still be a very good player when he’s in the lineup.  The AL’s best hitter per plate appearance from 2008-10, Youkilis’ bat declined to merely above-average last year.  However, there are hopes for a rebound in that regard.  Youkilis’ underlying components (BB%, K%, GB/FB/LD rates) remained at the same level from the prior three years, but his BABIP dropped 31 points.  Although he probably won’t fully return to his 2008-10 days, he’s still a very good hitter.  His defense is slightly below average at the hot corner, but the bat makes up for it.  Valentine will need to give Youkilis a day or two off a week to keep him healthy for the duration of the season.

The Red Sox raised some eyebrows when they shipped Marco Scutaro to the Rockies in a salary dump (usually the Red Sox are on the other end of those deals), as they’re leaving themselves with Mike Aviles and Nick Punto at shortstop.  Aviles burst on the scene in Kansas City in 2008; however, he hasn’t done much since.  He’s still a good hitter against LHP (.299/.344/.470 career), but sees over a 100-point drop in OPS vs. RHP and is a below average defender.  Punto had a career year last year in St. Louis, but it was in only 166 PA and 13 of his 25 walks were either intentional or batting eighth in front of the pitcher.  Punto has been a very good defender around the infield; unfortunately, his lack of bat prevents him from being a starter.  He should see some starts vs. RHP when the Red Sox have a groundball pitcher going.

Simply put, Carl Crawford was awful in his first season with the Red Sox last year.  Although committing seven years to a 29-year old who wasn’t a good fit for Fenway Park was questioned from the get-go, no one could have predicted that he would be a replacement-level player in year one.  There are signs of hope in year two, as Crawford was decent after an awful start (.209/.243/.277 through May 22, .280/.313/.474 for the rest of the season).  Crawford will likely miss the start of the season recovering from wrist surgery, which could have longer-term implications.  He’ll likely never repeat his 2010 season, but should end up being a solid (although very overpaid) player for the next couple of seasons if the wrist doesn’t hinder him.

With apologies to Justin Verlander, Jacoby Ellsbury was clearly the 2011 AL MVP.  I guess it was his fault that the Red Sox threw out a rotation in September that the Orioles laughed at.  Ellsbury even hit .364/.388/.700 with eight home runs during the 24 games of the collapse; apparently he should have hit 80.  While it’s unreasonable to expect an encore, Ellsbury should still produce a decent amount of power.  Only five of his 32 home runs (15.6%) were labeled “just enough” (including one inside-the-parker) by ESPN HitTracker Online compared to the league average of 27%, while eight were marked “no doubt”, seven percent above league average.  Combine that with outstanding speed and excellent defense in centerfield, and Ellsbury should be a very good player for a long time.

One of the biggest reasons why the Red Sox weren’t as good as they could’ve been in 2011 was the complete lack of production in right field.  J.D. Drew’s age caught up to him very fast; Josh Reddick replaced him and did a decent job, but the team got a .233/.299/.353 aggregate line from the position, which is completely unacceptable especially for one that envisions itself as a contender.  Drew has retired and Reddick was dealt to Oakland in the deal that brought Ryan Sweeney to Boston.  Sweeney doesn’t have much power and is inept against southpaws, but gets on base against right-handers and is a plus defender in the corner outfield spots.  The Red Sox signed Cody Ross with some of the money they saved from dealing Scutaro.  Ross should provide an excellent complement to Sweeney, as he owns a career .282/.349/.563 line against LHP.  He can also hold his own against righties, and will face a decent amount of them as he will likely fill in for Crawford at the beginning of the season.  Darnell McDonald is the opposite of Sweeney - solid against LHP and useless against RHP.  He should platoon with Sweeney while Crawford is out, and then could be on the chopping block when Crawford returns.

While he’s now 36 years old and slightly overpaid on a one-year deal, David Ortiz should still be a very good hitter in 2012.  Ortiz looked to be in decline after 2009, but bounced back with excellent campaigns the last two years.  He completely reversed his rising strikeout rate last year while maintaining his power and hitting more line drives, a very good sign for 2012.  He also turned around the inability to hit left-handed pitching, crushing them at a .329/.423/.566 clip last year.  That shouldn’t be expected to repeat, but Ortiz should at least not be a liability in that area again.

The Red Sox had the best offense in baseball last year, and offense was not the reason that they collapsed down the stretch.  Some regression should be expected from Ellsbury and Ortiz and Scutaro’s production is unlikely to be replicated, but there should be large improvements in both the corner outfield spots as well as modest ones behind the plate and at the hot corner.  The Red Sox will be neck-and-neck with the Yankees for the league’s best offense in 2012.

-Dan Katz

Home Run Regress? Granderson Edition


I love Curtis Granderson.  From the moment the Yanks traded the raw and limited Austin Jackson, for the already polished and well rounded Granderson, I knew it was a match made it heaven.  Between speed, defense, patience, and LH power, Curtis was going to excel as a Yankee.  The short right field porch was also seemingly going to boost his power and homer total.  


Before 2011, Granderson was never a huge homer threat, evidenced by hitting 102 bombs in about 2,900 PA's as a Tiger, about a 3.5% clip.  However, as a Yankee his power has exploded, slugging 65 homers in just over 1,200 PA's, a 5.3% clip.  While Yankee Stadium has a lot to do with this increase in homers, there are some worrying trends that might suggest 2011 was Grandy's peak power year.  Let's look at Curtis' 2011 numbers to see if he can slug another 40 in 2012.  


41 Home runs is a boatload on today's post-steroid game, Granderson's 41 ranked 2nd in all of MLB behind just Jose Batista's 43. Often when players hit an inordinate amount of homers in a year (Granderon's 41 is 11 more than his previous career high), there is often an element of luck that factored into the total.  We can look at some batted ball data, and hittrackeronline.com to see what kind of homers he hit and if they are repeatable. The first number that jumps off the charts is Granderson's HR/FB%.  Last year he put up a 20.5% figure, 6.6%, or about a 33% increase from his career average of 13.9%.  League average is about 10.6%, so to almost double that figure raises some red flags.  As we know regression to the mean is an ever present factor in the game, so almost certainly we would expect his 2012 HR/FB% to mirror his career number of 13.9% going forward.  Yankee Stadium has obviously had some effect so lets use his Yankee career HR/FB% of 17.5% as a better measure.  I'm not wishing regression on Curtis, but it seems inevitable, a 3% regression means more outs and less home runs.  Also, the fact that his Flyball % stayed right around his career average, we can assume many of the fly balls he hit last year will turn into outs.  Adjusting for regression in this area can account for a 3-4 HR decrease in 2012.  


Next we need to look at what type of homers Granderson hit last year.  Of course all home runs are scored equally, but not all are hit the same, or will leave each ballpark in different circumstances.  Hittrackeronline.com measures HR distance, trajectory, speed, apex, etc.  It is definitely the best source out there for tracking homers.  HTO groups home runs into categories:


"Just Enough"- Means the ball cleared the fence by less than 10 vertical feet, OR that it landed less than one fence height past the fence. These are the ones that barely made it over the fence.


"No Doubt"- Means the ball cleared the fence by at least 20 vertical feet AND landed at least 50 feet past the fence. These are the really deep blasts.


"Plenty"- Everything else, except for the 2 above Home run types


"Lucky"- A home run that would not have cleared the fence if it has been struck on a 70-degree, calm day.


It goes without saying that the best and most consistent HR hitters hit lots of no doubters and plenty's.  The more just enough and lucky homers, the more likely those home runs are going to become outs the following year.  Let's see how Curtis measured up in each category.  


Just Enough- 8, No Doubt- 11, Plenty- 17, Lucky- 5


While Granderson lead the Yankees in each category due to his total HR output, the number of Lucky HR's is scary.  Granderson lead all of MLB with 5, which screams regress.  Only 4 players total hit more than 3 lucky HR's, so it is rarefied but not pleasant company.  While luck is an inherent factor, and an ever present one, we can't assume he won't hit some lucky HR's in 2012.  However, we can almost guarantee it will not be 5+.  If we estimate a more realistic figure of 2-3 lucky homers, which would still place Granderson near the top of that not-so-distinctive list, that's still a 2-3 HR decrease from 2011.  If we combine that 2-3 HR difference due to luck with the 3-4 HR difference due to his inflated HR/FB%, we're looking at a HR total of around 34-36.  I think this is a much more realistic figure given his career numbers, improvement in his swing due to Kevin Long, and his move from spacious Comerica to cozy Yankee Stadium. 


So while many people expect Curtis to belt another 40 home runs and be one of the biggest power threats in the game once again, I see room for regression to a more realistic homer total of about 35 in 2012.  While this seems marginal, the value of a HR is so great that a six homer difference could change a few games for the Yanks in 2012.  


- Alex Bardani


References: Fangraphs, Hittrackeronline.com

Who is the next Mo?

Here is something that we all know, replacing Mariano Rivera is impossible. Rivera has been the most
dominant closer in the league over the past 17 years, and it isn’t particularly close. Mo is 42 now and is
apparently leaning towards retirement after this season (contract is up after 2012) in a major way.

To see just how dominant Rivera is, consider his pitch repertoire. He throws a combination of a fastball and
cutter, leaning towards the cutter almost 84% of the time. According to PitchFx pitch values /100, Rivera’s
Fastball and Cutter measured at 1.13 and 2.13 respectively. The weighted average value of these pitches,
because Rivera uses his cutter far more frequently, is 1.97. As a disclaimer, these statistics were only kept
since 2007, so we are missing out on many of Rivera’s prime years.

I took all of the relievers that were eligible since 2007 and looked at their two most frequently used pitches,
and no one comes close to Rivera. Rivera’s weighted average value of his two pitches is 2.56 standard
deviations above the mean; the next closest is Heath Bell with 1.54 standard deviations above the mean. In
layman’s terms, Mariano Rivera is beyond a stud. His cutter, with a value of 2.13, is the third highest rated
pitch amongst the eligible relievers. Ryan Madson’s change-up (2.46) and Francisco Rodriguez’s change-
up (2.91) were both higher, but both have a usage rate under 28%. Rivera uses his cutter almost 84% of the
time, and hitters still can’t do anything against it.

In case anyone was wondering, Nick Masset is the most useless reliever on the list, with a combination of a
crappy fastball and very crappy curveball.

So who replaces Rivera? As Alex pointed out, Cashman prefers to keep his bullpen cheap, so I don’t expect to see another Soriano signing any time soon. Not to mention, I hope the “closer” role becomes extinct fairly soon.

Internally, for the time being, the Yankees are looking at Rafael Soriano, David Robertson, Joba
Chamberlain, Cory Wade, Boone Logan and recently signed, but currently injured, David Aardsma.

In looking at the top two pitches for everyone, Soriano is the only one close with a good fastball-slider
combination. Robertson has a good fastball, but still has to develop his curveball. He is only 26, so that is
not outside of the realm of possibility. Joba and Logan both have weak fastballs with good sliders, but are
26 and 27 respectively, so they have some time to develop as well.

Not only does Rivera have two nasty pitches, but his command within the zone is un-paralleled by the other
Yankee pitchers. Mo’s K/BB is 4.04; Soriano is next with 3.37, Chamberlain and Robertson both with
about 2.55 and Logan with 2.05.

At this point, Soriano, 32, seems like the candidate for a poor man’s Mariano, but he slips when it comes
to keeping the ball in the ball park and on the ground. Rivera’s HR/9 is .48, Soriano is at .89. Mo’s gets
ground balls 53.2% of the time, while Soriano is at 31.4%, and as Alex said in the last article, those
numbers do not cut it in Yankee Stadium.

As much as Mike Francesa will fight it, Rivera’s replacement, at least internally, is going to be David
Robertson. His GB% is 41.4, which is low, but his HR/9 throughout his career is .58. As a 26 year old, he
has time to develop his curveball and work on his walk rate.

Joba and Logan both have slightly better GB rates, but they allow too many home runs with similar, if not
worse command.

Robertson strikes out a ton of people and keeps the ball in the park. No one will equal Rivera and it isn’t
worth it to try. Robertson is a relatively cheap option that can continue to develop while already performing
at an above average level.

- Ian Boehme

Fantasy Baseball


Anyone interested in joining a fantasy baseball league this year needs to look no further than our Yahoo League.  To get in is $40, we plan to set up a paypal account to pay the winner and assure payment from all parties.  The league settings are as followed:


C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, LF, CF, RF, UTIL
SP, SP, SP, SP, SP, RP, RP, RP, RP, RP
4 Bench, 5 DL


We work on a variation of wOBA for hitters and FIP for pitchers, point values are awarded for each outcome...

At Bats (AB)	-.232
Hits (H)	.735
Doubles (2B)	.31
Triples (3B)	.6
Home Runs (HR)	.93
Sacrifice Flys (SF)	-.232
Stolen Bases (SB)	.172
Caught Stealing (CS)	-.478
Walks (BB)	.353
Intentional Walks (IBB)	-.135
Hit By Pitch (HBP)	.383

Innings Pitched (IP)	.151
Home Runs (HR)	-1.4
Walks (BB)	-.32
Intentional Walks (IBB)	.135
Hit Batters (HBP)	-.35
Strikeouts (K)	.265

All in All it's a real fun league with some very competitive and knowledgable players, 
please email Alexander.Bardani@gmail.com for more information.  Thanks and please join!


- Alex Bardani

Rafael Soriano- Do We Get a Mulligan?


Few signings have come under more scrutiny over the past few years than Rafael Soriano's 3 year $35 million dollar deal before the 2011 season.  Brought on to be the infamous "8th inning guy" (because we know Girardi loves to assign relief pitchers to innings instead of use based on leverage), Soriano has sorely disappointed, and just is not the pitcher the Yankees thought he was.

This signing was perplexing at the time as Cashman recently said, “I used to sign (Paul) Quantrill, (Steve) Karsay, Gabe White, all these veteran relievers,”said Brian Cashman earlier this week. “Now, our bullpen, for the most part, is homegrown or low-risk guys like Cory Wade who we popped off the waiver wire. The bullpen has become a cheap thing for me.”  


Clearly Cashman has realized a very important aspect of building a team, relief pitchers are unpredictable and unreliable and therefore unworthy of multi-year 7 figure deals.  Of course with pushy upper management such as Levine and Steinbrenner, Cashman isn't the final decision maker.  That is why the GM is the GM and the owner is the owner, but its not something that can be/will be changed anytime soon.


Soriano has vastly underperformed as a Yankee, but what did he do to get this huge deal? For one the Rays have had an affinity for producing one year wonder relief pitchers, probably as a result of pitching coach Jim Hickey.  Soriano had a great 2010, not even I can deny that, but there were red flags everywhere as his peripheral stats were in for some serious regression.  His 45 saves (blah) and 1.73 ERA looked great, so did the 4/1 K/BB ratio, but other than that Yankee ownership should have thought more of what he will provide from here on instead of paying for a career year.  Soriano had a .199 BABIP, extraordinarily low and as we know a guarantee to bounce back to the normal .300 range.  That has a huge impact on a pitcher's value and surely Cashman saw this and wanted to stay as far away as possible.  Also Soriano had just a 35.2% GB rate, something that can fly in Tropicana, but not at Yankee Stadium.  To go along with being a fly ball pitcher he posted just a 4.8% FB/HR rate, almost 3% below his career average, and also a number that can easily be inflated in years to come at a smaller ballpark.  His FIP (2.81) and xFIP (3.62) were also clear indicators of his true performance rather than the tiny ERA he posted.  As we know ERA and saves are terrible measures to use in evaluating and signing a player, Cashman knew of this and smartly avoided this, but Randy Levine just could not restrain himself from making at least one big free agent signing in the off season.  


Even after being a very useful pitcher in 2010, 62 IP and a sub 2 ERA lead to just 1.5 WAR.  Relief pitchers have marginal value in comparison to starters/position players, and their salaries should be reflective of that value.  Even in a year such as Soriano's 2010, he was worth only $7.5-8 million.  To pay roughly $12 million for just .3 WAR last year is sickening, and a waste of precious funds.  $12 Million even for 1.5 WAR is still asinine.  Surely many of us would do anything to take the way-back machine and kidnap Randy Levine to avoid this signing, but we'e stuck.


In my rough estimation Soriano should produce about 1-1.5 wins in the final two years of his contract, which is fine, just not for the astronomical price of $24 Mil.  On top of that, we have already found our "8th inning guy" in the studly David Robertson.  We also have the useful (and more valuable in 2011) Cory Wade, not to mention Joba and newly acquired David Aardsma coming back mid summer.  I'm also going to go out on a limb and say Hughes will lose the battle for 5th starter and join the bullpen.  Needless to say we still have the GOAT in Mariano to close out games.  So why do we need Soriano?

The lesson to learn here is that it is simply a waste of funds to give a relief pitcher multiple years and ridiculous dollars because they pitch in an "important inning".  Aren't all innings equally important?  Cashman knows this, Randy Levine doesn't, that's why Cashman should make the personnel decisions and Levine can figure out whether to charge $10.50 or $11 for a Coors Light.  So while we can't reverse the past, we can hope to be optimistic for the future.  Hopefully Soriano can rebound, but I don't think any pitcher could replicate his funky 2010 numbers, justifying that massive and unnecessary contract.  Lets pray that this is a learning experience, even if it is a very frustrating and expensive one.

-Alex Bardani

References: Fangraphs

Good Riddance: See Ya AJ

So much to say about AJ Burnett's NYY tenure.  I for one disliked the signing from the get-go and not surprisingly AJ's performance in pinstripes was less than stellar.  For just 3 years, he was paid $70 Mil and worth about $28.2 Mil total. With an average annual value of $23 Mil (Same as CC's AAV) we got 6 wins of production, paying a staggering $11.67 Mil/Win. CC last year alone was worth over 7 wins at the same price.  Just a complete albatross of a contract and allocation of funds to a truly awful pitcher.  And for all those "what about game 2 of the world series!?!?!" argument here are AJ's Yankee postseason #'s:

2-2, 39 IP, 5.08 ERA, 1.41 WHIP, 1.35 K/BB

I could go on for days but I'll spare Yankee fans from remembering AJ any further.  So AJ all I can say is good riddance and godspeed.

- Alex Bardani