Via ESPN -

The Vernon Wells contract will actually help the Yankees’ goal of being below $189 million in payroll for 2014, a source confirmed to ESPNNewYork.com on Monday.

The Daily News first reported the finances.

All the particulars of the money for the deal with the Angels have not yet been finalized, but the Yankees will end up paying somewhere between $12 million and $14 million of the $42 million owed to Wells in the final two years of his contract.

The Yankees will likely end up doling out $10 million or $11 million for 2013 and $2 million or $3 million for 2014.

It is a complicated formula, but, in the end, Wells’ money will either have no impact on the $189 million goal for 2014 or the Yankees will receive a credit. Since Wells’ contract has been traded once before, the Yankees may receive as much as a $2 million savings toward their ’14 luxury tax figure.

O.K., so, Wells will cost the Yankees about eleven mill this year. And, if Mark Teixeira is out for 12 weeks, that means that Vernon Wells is basically playing this season for free, right?  (The logic here is that the Yankees will get about $11 million from the WBC to cover Tex’s salary if he is out for 12 weeks.)

Yet, it still doesn’t mean that Wells will help the Yankees on the field this year. It just means that the Yankees got lucky that Tex blew out his wrist while wearing the USA jersey and not when he was down in Tampa.

Thank @toppscards for using a close up of me right after my elbow blew out! Card will be around forever as areminder! twitter.com/DHuddy41/statu…

— Daniel Hudson (@DHuddy41) March 24, 2013

Ouch.

Anyone else wondering if the Yankees are considering the notion of asking Derek Jeter to play third base this season?

Classic.

We know that Phil Hughes will be a free agent after this season. But, the question is: Should the Yankees make him a qualifying offer when he opts out? If they do, then, most likely, they will get a draft pick in compensation for him going to another team. But, with that, you run the risk of him taking the offer – and maybe that doesn’t work with the Yankees plan to get payroll down? It’s going to be interesting to see how they handle this – especially if Hughes has an “average” season in 2013.

Sources: Yankees in talks with Angels for outfielder Vernon Wells. Lots of money would go back to New York. Deal could be done today.

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) March 24, 2013

I guess Ben Francisco was not the answer? And, all the calls to Raul Mondesi to see if he could come out of retirement were probably not returned…

Great stuff on the Yankees G.M. today via Andy McCullough:

As this woeful camp winds down, with Opening Day eight days away, [Brian] Cashman remains the club’s diminutive symbol of defiance in an era when George Steinbrenner’s scions lack the bluster associated with their surname. He refuses to acknowledge the possibility the Yankees could fall from their perch as one of baseball’s elite despite an aged and battered roster. Cashman considers himself a product of his environment, and even among these kinder, gentler Yankees he can’t shake the history that forged him.

He started as an intern in 1986. He weathered the tempests of George Steinbrenner after his 1998 promotion to general manager. He emerged from the constant power struggles battle-scarred but wiser, buttressed by a diverse group of assistants in baseball operations, who have helped chart the organization’s revamped course toward fiscal responsibility.

During the winter, the Dodgers usurped the Yankees as the game’s premier spenders. Cashman appears more than willing to cede that title. The Yankees will never feel like underdogs, he said. But they can adopt their rhetoric.

“Look at Vietnam,” he said. “The biggest payroll didn’t win there, either.”

This is his 16th year in charge, which makes him the longest-tenured Yankees general manager since World War II. His résumé includes four World Series titles, 12 American League East titles — and endless disquietude.

“Working here, you don’t ever feel secure,” he said. “The demands are high. The demands are high.”

Once Cashman’s ride arrives each morning, he slips into the backseat and keeps his cumbersome cast elevated. At the ballpark, he rides a golf cart along the dark hallway toward the trainers’ room. There waits his black, four-wheeled scooter, the same one utilized by shortstop Derek Jeter while convalescing from a broken ankle last winter. He rides the scooter throughout the complex, and crutches back toward the parking lot each night.

As Cashman developed his post-injury routine this past month, a sense of gloom pervaded the atmosphere. A losing record appears possible for the first time since 1992. The roster is baseball’s oldest. Jeter could miss Opening Day. Outfielder Curtis Granderson will miss the season’s first month. First baseman Mark Teixeira might miss the entire season. And the viability of their highest-paid player, Alex Rodriguez, is a mystery as he recovers from hip surgery.

The injury pile-up revealed a dearth of depth on the major-league roster, which critics assert is a result of managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner’s insistence on reducing the 2014 payroll below the $189 million luxury tax threshold. Cashman countered that their 2013 payroll remains robust, more than $200 million for the sixth consecutive year. He cited the team’s “significant” but rejected offer this spring to impending free agent Robinson Cano.

So for Cashman, nothing changes, even as big-league sharks circle the Yankees and outside observers predict their downfall. The concept of a bridge year, a euphemism for rebuilding, is “just not part of our DNA,” he said. “There’ll be no such thing. Not intentionally, anyway.”

A perception of weakness materialized this winter. The Yankees exhibited caution. They ignored high-profile free agents Zack Greinke and Josh Hamilton, while less-pricey options Eric Chavez, Scott Hairston and Nate Schierholtz signed elsewhere.

Like Hal Steinnbrenner, Cashman chafes at the idea his team has become cheap. He framed their behavior as a product of prudence, not poverty, and of making “good, efficient, sound, baseball decisions.” Both Cashman and Steinbrenner have referenced the high prices paid on one-year deals for players like Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte, Hiroki Kuroda and Kevin Youkilis.

“I would not have participated in the Greinke or Hamilton signings,” Cashman said. “Whether that ($189 million) restriction was in place, or not.”

In turn, Cashman laughed off the notion that the Yankees needed to reclaim their spending crown from the Dodgers.

“My job,” he said, “is to put a team out there that wins for the least amount of money possible.”

Yet, of course, there is the specter of The Boss.

“But I said ‘win’ first.”

Cashman mentioned the idea of “tread(ing) water until the guys come back.” He has learned from his failures, from trades for aging pitchers (Kevin Brown, Randy Johnson) to misguided free-agent acquisitions (Carl Pavano, A.J. Burnett) to expensive Japanese imports (Kei Igawa). He credited his assistants for their guidance in recent years as he’s become “more choosy.”

“I’m not gun-shy,” he said. “But we are definitely more educated.”

Sixteen years of Cashman. That’s a fact. The question is: When will it end? If you ask me, he’s now almost five years past his due date on being fired. But, at least there is a building swell within the Yankees fan base who want him gone. And, hopefully, someday, the Stein Brothers will get on board with it as well.

More on him via Bryan Hoch -

Vidal Nuno “has opened everyone’s eyes” and is making a run at breaking camp with the Yankees, according to general manager Brian Cashman.

A 25-year-old left-hander who was originally property of the Indians and signed with the Yankees after pitching in independent ball, Nuno has compiled an 0.68 ERA in 13 1/3 Grapefruit League innings and may wind up being rewarded with a spot in New York’s bullpen.

“I just go day by day, wake up in the morning, brush my teeth, look in the mirror and say, ‘You’ve got to work hard,’” Nuno said. “I don’t play the GM, I don’t think like that. It’s just having another day on the baseball field and putting on the uniform.”

Nuno’s statistics do not include what he has also done against the Yankees this spring; with the Dominican Republic short on pitching for a March 6 exhibition at George M. Steinbrenner Field, Nuno was borrowed by manager Tony Pena’s club and spun four hitless innings in a spot start.

For his participation, Nuno — who grew up near San Diego and is of Mexican descent — was rewarded with a souvenir Dominican Republic T-shirt and cap. It was a neat footnote in what has been a breakout spring for the hurler, who pitched last year at Class A Tampa and Double-A Trenton.

“I don’t think or overthrow, and I hit my spots,” Nuno said. “That’s one key I preach to myself, just hit location and make the ball dance, and you’ll get people out.”

A 48th-round pick of the Indians in the 2009 First-Year Player Draft who received a non-roster invitation to camp this spring, Nuno could make the club because left-hander Clay Rapada will start the year on the disabled list while he builds back up from a bout with left shoulder bursitis. Nuno said that he has expanded his repertoire to include two fastballs, a curveball, slider, changeup and cutter.

“I don’t throw hard, so I need to make the ball dance a little bit,” Nuno said.

After being cut loose by Cleveland after two seasons in its farm system, Nuno made six starts for the Washington Wild Things in 2011 before having his contract purchased by the Yankees.

I saw Nuno pitch in person last summer. I like him and wish him well. And, I have to say, if he makes it, sticks, and has success, you have to give the Yankees credit for seeing something that many others didn’t…

More on this via the Times -

The mysterious apparatus sits high above the home plate seats at Tradition Field, the spring training home of the Mets. Dark, glossy and rectangular, it resembles an expensive flat-screen television.

The first indication of its significance might be how unwilling the Mets are to speak about it. Beyond acknowledging that it exists, the team will not say much about the object.

So what is it? An extra TV that the Mets did not know where to put? A spy device on the lookout for errant Yankee fans? Actually, neither. The device is a three-dimensional Doppler radar and represents the Mets’ latest effort to keep pace with baseball’s feverish technological arms race.

“You’re always on the lookout for various tools that can help enhance what you do,” said John Ricco, the Mets’ assistant general manager, who, like other team staffers, would speak only vaguely about the technology the device offers. “It’s something that we’ve just started, and it’s just one of many different things we are using.”

The Mets use about a half-dozen information services — some for data, others for analysis — picking from a crowded field of vendors that continue to raise baseball’s standards for objective evaluation.

But the provider of the Mets’ newest tool, a Danish company called TrackMan, which first adapted its technology for baseball five years ago, claims it offers something no one else can. Using technology borrowed from missile-tracking radars, the TrackMan radar unit can measure the exact spatial location and rotation of the baseball once it leaves a pitcher’s hand.

This allows teams, for example, to study new metrics like extension, which quantifies how far from the pitching rubber a pitcher releases the ball. More extension correlates to more swinging strikes.

“A guy could be throwing 90 miles per hour with 7 feet of extension, and he gets the ball to home plate quicker than a guy throwing harder that doesn’t release the ball as close to home plate, essentially redefining velocity,” said Josh Orenstein, the company’s director of baseball operations and analysis.

Beyond tracking exact release points — which can be used to evaluate a player’s ability to mask different pitches — the radar also detects spin rate, or the speed at which a ball rotates while airborne. Faster spin means a nastier pitch.

And the company also tracks the speed, angle of flight and exact location of batted balls relative to various fixed positions on the field. This data can be used to evaluate hitters and also to form more objective defensive metrics, which remains one of baseball’s elusive goals.

Whether any of this, or all of it, can actually help the Mets get back over .500 at some point remains to be seen.

“We don’t really know exactly what the teams do with it,” John Olshan, general manager of the company’s baseball division, said of the data. “We give the rubber. They make the tires.”

TrackMan, which started in 2003, has already become accepted as a valuable coaching tool for elite golfers. Since opening its baseball division three years ago, TrackMan has seen its Major League Baseball client list grow to 17 teams. The company said it could not comment specifically on any of those clients, but the Yankees this week acknowledged that they use the technology, too.

The Mets signed up for TrackMan this past winter, and though they would not reveal how many radar devices they have purchased, two have been visible this year at the spring training facility — one inside the stadium and one by the practice bullpen.

Dan Warthen, the team’s pitching coach, has already showed some of the team’s pitchers their TrackMan data. Warthen said he had embraced all of the team’s information sources, such as Inside Edge, a pitch charting service; and B.A.T.S., a video database.

Warthen said he was only beginning to explore the possibilities of TrackMan, but he predicted it would be just as useful for game-day planning as it was for scouting and development.

“Guys that are doing this sort of analysis are getting more credibility within their organizations,” Olshan said. “It’s a way for teams to be more efficient with how they evaluate players and at the same time maybe save money by finding diamonds in the rough.”

All TrackMan clients join the company’s data-sharing network, which is dictated by a basic set of access rules.

While each team can choose whether to share the information collected at their stadiums — from their major league park to each of their minor league homes — there exists a clear incentive to do so. However many stadiums a team shares, it is entitled to receive data from an equivalent number of ballparks from every other participating team.

“The concept is, the more you put in, the more you get out,” Orenstein said. “And by and large, teams always want more data.”

I would swear that I saw this at Yankee Stadium last year. I recall seeing something that looked like it, and wondering what the heck it was, when I saw it. Interesting that no one wrote about the Yankees using it – and now we hear about the Mets doing it.

Jeffrey Michael Trout

Bats: Both, Throws: Right
Height: 5′ 9″, Weight: 175 lb.

Born: January 7, 1961
High School: Millville Senior HS (Millville, NJ)
School: University of Delaware (Newark, DE)

Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 5th round of the 1983 MLB June Amateur Draft from University of Delaware (Newark, DE).

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He was a second and third baseman with less than great fielding stats. But, he had a knack for reaching base. Too bad he was before Moneyball.

Via Bob Nightengale -

He wakes up every morning in his palatial home, with spring-training baseball games going on all around him, but has no place to go.

He has no job. No impending contract. No team.

Kyle Lohse, with the 2013 season opening on March 31, remains standing in baseball’s unemployment line.

Lohse could step from his 8,700-square foot dwelling onto any baseball field in the Valley and immediately be better than virtually any pitcher that’s appeared in the Cactus League this spring.

Instead, he will open his car Friday morning, stuff his baseball equipment bag in the trunk, and drive 20 minutes to a local community college. He’s scheduled to throw 90 pitches in a simulated game against a group of teenagers. There will be no fanfare, let alone a fan, in sight.

“I’m in an awkward spot,” Lohse tells USA TODAY Sports, in what may be the greatest understatement of the spring.

Lohse, 34, is coming off the greatest season of his career, dominating the National League Central for the second consecutive year. He went 16-3 with a 2.86 ERA, and had the Cardinals within one game of the World Series. He finished seventh in the National League Cy Young balloting.

Yet, with only 10 days before opening day, as he mixes in workouts at state-of-the-art Fischer Sports and his golf game at private and picturesque Whisper Rock, he’s still awaiting a phone call telling him he has a job.

Agent Scott Boras, just as he has the last five months, tells Lohse to be patient. He says Lohse will still get paid handsomely. Teams will panic once they realize their young pitchers can’t cut it, Boras predicts.

“I don’t understand why people think his value will drop,” Boras says. “His value only rises because there’s a greater need now. The demand for him is created by attrition when teams learn that their younger pitching can’t meet their need.

“We’ve got plenty of teams interested.”

Lohse, and Boras, still probably want something around two years and $26 million at this stage. But, for what it’s worth, last year was a fluke. And, at best, Lohse is just a league average pitcher. Think “Jason Marquis.” So, if it were me, I’m talking one year at $10 million, and, if he doesn’t want it, then he can continue to stay home and work on his golf game.

Via the Daily News -

Cousin Yuri can’t even sell his Alex Rodriguez World Series ring without stepping into a pile of controversy.

A South Florida trustee says in court papers filed on Tuesday that the diamond-studded ring belongs to Yuri Sucart’s bankruptcy estate, not the collector who consigned it to Goldin Auctions.

“We hope the case will be a home run for the creditors,” said Eric Silver, an attorney for trustee Soneet R. Kapila.

Sucart, of course, is best known as the man Rodriguez claimed persuaded him to use steroids during his tenure with the Texas Rangers. The Daily News reported earlier this month that Sucart, who worked as Rodriguez’s driver and go-fer for several years, has become estranged from his famous relative and has even talked about suing Rodriguez, although it’s not clear if he has a legal basis for a claim.

Sources have told the News that Sucart sold the ring because he is tired of the notoriety that comes with being associated with Rodriguez – and because Sucart, who filed for bankruptcy in April 2011, needs the money.

Court papers filed that South Florida collector John Battaglia paid Sucart $10,000 on Dec. 29 for the 2009 World Series ring, a replica of the jewelry issued to players on the Yankees most recent championship team. A spokesman for Rodriguez said the Yankees’ star made numerous replica rings after winning his only World Series title in 2009 and distributed them to friends and family members, including Sucart.

Battaglia then consigned the ring to Goldin Auctions of New Jersey.

Bidding for the ring has already surpassed $33,000, and auction house founder Ken Goldin has said it could surpass $40,000 or more by the time the auction closes on April 5.

Kapila and his attorneys learned that the size-16 ring – which is made of 14-karat white gold and has “Rodriguez” on one side above the Yankee logo, and “World Champions 2009 Unity” on the other — was for sale through media reports. Sucart – erroneously identified in the trustee’s court papers as “Sucrat” – did not include the ring in his list of assets when he filed for bankruptcy two years ago.

Kapila says in court papers that any proceeds from the sale of the ring should go to the trustee.

“The Ring is a valuable asset Trustee Kapila can liquidate for the benefit for the benefit of creditors as part of the administration of the bankruptcy estate of Sucrat (sic),” the filing says.

Battaglia’s attorney Robert Stok said his client had no idea the Sucart had filed for bankruptcy. He said the trustee has violated Battaglia’s due process rights by insisting the proceeds from the sale of the ring go to the Sucart estate.

“The trustee wants to commandeer my client’s contract (with Sucart),” Stok said. “They want to treat this contract as if my client does not exist.”

Stok said it’s not clear when Sucart received the ring. Sucart would have clear ownership of the ring if he received it after he filed for bankruptcy, Stok added. “The trustee saw this in the paper and acted reflexively,” Stok said. He assumed this must be the property of the estate.”

Yuri Sucart is a Howie Spira in the making, no?

Well, it’s the line-up the team is running out there today:

Brett Gardner CF
Ichiro Suzuki LF
Robinson Cano 2B
Kevin Youkilis 1B
Travis Hafner DH
Brennan Boesch RF
Eduardo Nunez SS
Jayson Nix 3B
Francisco Cervelli C

彼らは糞だ！

The story.

See, it just doesn’t happen to Yankees.

Via Ken Rosenthal -

The New York Yankees act like they’re in jail. They’re not.

They could sign free-agent right-hander Kyle Lohse and then trade either right-hander Ivan Nova or right-hander for the offense they so desperately need.

General manager Brian Cashman, however, wants no part of Lohse.

“I don’t think it would make any sense whatsoever,” Cashman said. “We have all of our pitching intact. Our problem is not our pitching. Pitching is our strength.”

The Yankees have six starters: Lefties CC Sabathia and Andy Pettitte and righties Hiroki Kuroda, Phil Hughes, Nova and Phelps. A seventh possibility, righty Michael Pineda, is recovering well from shoulder surgery, Cashman said.

“Pitching is our strength.”

Every time I hear this, albeit from Cashman or a Yankees fan, I want to scream.

I like David Phelps. He’s young and a fine pitcher for the back-end of your rotation.

Hiroki Kuroda is usually good for a quality 30 starts and 200 innings. But, he will be 38-years old this season and nearing the end of his career. So, there’s some risk there. Also, for what it’s worth – and I know many don’t care about this type of stuff – for most of his career he’s been a hard luck pitcher. When that happens, over and over, there’s usually a reason for it.

CC Sabathia has thrown 1,399 innings over the last 6 seasons – an average of 233 IP per season – and is coming off elbow surgery. And, while he’s slimmer this spring, he’s still not a well conditioned player – in terms of carrying too much body fat. Sooner or later, and more likely sooner, his pitching arm is going to cry out “Uncle!”

Andy Pettitte, who is one of my all-time favorite baseball players (ever!) will be 41-years old this June. The last time he had more than 21 starts in a major league season was four years ago. The last time he won more than 14 games in a season was six years ago. So, why should we expect him to make 30 starts and win 15+ games this season at his age?

Last season, Ivan Nova faced 748 major league batters and they had a collective .511 Slugging Percentage against him. Forget what he’s doing in Spring Training. You can never trust Spring Training stats. When the bell rings, he won’t be fooling anyone – he didn’t last year.

Phil Hughes should make 30 starts, win 15+ games, and pitch close to 200 innings this year. He’s done that two of the last three years. Plus, he’s pitching for his free agency – so, there’s a carrot on the stick for him this year. But, he’s not a staff leader. He’s more a middle-to-the-back-end starting pitcher at this point in his career.

Don’t even get me started about the Dominican John Blutarsky, Michael Pineda.

“Pitching is our strength.”

Tell me that in August and September. When I see it then, I will believe it. Right now, it’s just a promise and a wish from Brian Cashman.

Other clubs say #Astros still telling teams they’ll listen on anyone if they get 2 or more players back. Lots of scouts eyeing Lucas Harrell

— Jayson Stark (@jaysonst) March 20, 2013

Chris Carter, anyone?

Good read: If Anyone Knows Storm Clouds, It’s Hal Steinbrenner.

Buster Olney tweets:

Podcast, Crasnick, Glanville talk about a prospect who is being compared to everyone from Vlad to Sizemore to Bonds. espn.go.com/espnradio/play…

— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) March 19, 2013

And, the player? It’s Christian Yelich on Sizemore and Oscar Taveras on Bonds/Guerrero.

For what it’s worth, and it is just March stats, but, they are both swinging well this Spring.

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It will be interesting to see if they can keep this up once the calendar turns to April…

I asked this question three years ago.

Matthew Kory asks it today and shares the following:

Instead, I’m more curious as to where Cano came from. If what you’re thinking starts with his mommy and daddy had some wine then no. I mean in a prospect sense. Cano emerged an All-Star from what was widely thought to be a depleted farm system. He began his minor-league career at the age of 18 in 2001. He didn’t make the majors until 2005 so he had ample time to make a few top prospects lists on the way to the Show, but he never did. Well, that’s not entirely true. He was not listed on any of the Baseball America’s Top 100 prospects lists during his time in the minors, and never ranked first overall on the annual Yankees Top 10 list, like you might expect from a future franchise player. He was ranked second once, but given the general state of the Yankees system, nobody took him too seriously.

That’s the bio we always hear about. The moral of the story is scouting is hard. Guessing at a player’s future is very difficult and sometimes, for a variety of reasons, we all miss badly on a guy. I was thinking about this and how odd it is that Cano, this utterly unheralded prospect, this guy who the Yankees essentially traded as a throw-in*, has come to represent the future of the franchise.

*We can add two major league franchises to the list of those that underestimated Cano. In February of 2004 the Yankees stole Alex Rodriguez from the Texas Rangers. In return for the best player in baseball at the time Texas received Alfonso Soriano and a player to be named later. The player to be named later came from a list of five players the Yankees submitted to Texas. According to Baseball America, that list featured outfielder Rudy Guillen, shortstop Joaquin Arias, Robinson Cano, and pitcher Ramon Ramirez. The Rangers picked Arias. See? We weren’t the only ones to goof on Cano. The Yankees and Rangers did too.

I decided to go back into the Baseball Prospectus archives and see what we said about Cano way back when.

Cano wasn’t listed on the Baseball Prospectus Top 40 Prospects in either 2002 or 2003. The first mention of Cano that I can find comes in an article dated July 11, 2003 by David Cameron. The article was a preview of the MLB Futures game that was to be played later that week and it lays out an argument for watching the game and then places the players into four categories by talent. Cano pops up under the last category, titled “The Fringe Prospects.” At the time Cano was coming off a .276/.321/.445 showing in Single-A as a 19-year-old and in the midst of a season that would see him post a sub-.700 OPS split between High-A and Double-A.

In general, “non-prospects” don’t become $200 million players, do they?

He would look pretty good on the Yankees now, no?

Ah, but, never mind…

The Yankees don’t have anything that would interest St. Louis, or, most teams, for that matter…

What in the name of Irving Falu is going on here?

Via Joel Sherman today –

The website predictionmachine.com ran 50,000 simulations of the 2013 season, and in just 40 percent did the Yankees even make the playoffs (just 20 percent as the AL East champs). Their average season had the Yankees finishing third behind Toronto and Tampa Bay at 85-77. The Yankees’ lowest winning percentage in the past 20 seasons is .540, which equates to 87½ victories.

The site gives the Yankees just a 4-percent likelihood of winning the World Series, which ranks 12th of the 30 teams.

Professional oddsmakers also see the Yankees in the 86-87-win range. Jay Kornegay, the bookmaker at the Las Vegas Hilton, had the Yankees over/under at 86. Wynn’s oddsmaker Johnny Avello said he took the Yankees’ over-under from 86½ to 86 in the last week, and “we’re still not getting any money on the over.”

The view is the same for winning it all. With their injury spate, the Yankees have fallen to the 15-1 to 18-1 range to win the World Series. Of the three casinos I contacted, none could remember the Yankees being anywhere close to that high in the past 20 years.

“With the Yankees entering the season at 18-1, this is the longest odds they have been as far as my records go back, which is to the beginning of the millennium,” said Kevin Bradley, the sports book manager at the offshore casino Bovada, said. “Even at those odds, we cannot write a bet on them.”

Kornegay at the Hilton also had the Yankees at 18-1, which put 10 teams in front of them with better odds.

It is not going to be uncommon to see the Yankees picked fourth or fifth this year. That reflects the top-to-bottom strength of the AL East. But it also speaks to an imperfect storm: Age. Injury. Lack of impact from the farm. Less big spending. And, yes, the quality of divisional foes.

I sense even the Yankees’ front office is uneasy, that the executives are worried about the possibility of the team’s record and attendance both taking a plummet. You wonder if this leads to the kind of finger pointing and infighting that turned the Red Sox’s situation from bad to intolerable last year.

For now, the Yankees want to believe their winning culture buoys them in times of doubt. Last year, they also suffered a slew of key injuries and never seemed to play particularly well for a sustained period, yet won more games than any other AL team. However, the Phillies and Red Sox also thought they had a winning culture going into last year, and both fell apart — Boston all the way down to 69 wins.

The Yankees also hope to weather positional injuries and a general downgrade in talent with a strong pitching staff. And pitching is their strength. But the 1-to-12 staff is not discernibly better than those of their AL East competitors.

I just wonder: At what point this season do the Pinstripe-Pollyanna throng, despite their Yankees-blinders, raise the white flag on this season? Will it be at the end of May? Or, do they wait until the end of July?

Good report on travel baseball via the Sun Sentinel -

The nation’s newest elite baseball players are courted like free agents, flown cross-country for big games and featured on TV. Bidding wars break out over the most coveted stars, who resemble Major Leaguers in many ways.

Except for their age.

At the highest levels of 8- to 14-year-old travel baseball, schoolboy superstars are plied with privileges and showcased at pricey events while less-gifted players and their families try to keep pace by spending a fortune — as much as $24,000 annually — on tournaments, equipment and lessons.

Big League dreams, ambitious coaches and massive tournament profits have fueled a youth sports phenomenon that bears little resemblance to the local Little League.

This big-money version of the youth game is thriving in South Florida, home to hundreds of travel teams.

“Kids 9 years old … are professional athletes right now, because this stuff is so unregulated,” said Ron Filipkowski, a former federal and state prosecutor in Sarasota who was a travel ball father, coach and director. “Travel ball at the elite level is the Wild, Wild West of sports. There are no rules, no laws.”

Scant regulation combined with an endless stream of money-making tournaments have created a high-pressure world of non-stop, year-round baseball, where youngsters driven by coaches, tournament organizers or their parents may play in more games than some adult pros. Some will end up on operating tables before they are out of high school, or get burned out and quit, medical experts and others told the Sun Sentinel.

“Some parents feel if they miss a tournament, their [child] is falling behind,” said Alex Fernandez, a former Florida Marlins pitching great who coaches the Pembroke Lakes Bulldogs 14-and-under travel ball team. “A lot of people live through their kids. That’s where the trouble comes.”

Advocates counter that travel ball instills expert skills in America’s pastime at a younger age than ever before, and offers children and their families extraordinary competitive opportunities — such as at a mid-February tournament at Pembroke Shores Park in Broward County.

The four-day event drew top-ranked teams from California, Texas and Florida — and aired to a national audience on ESPN3.

“Travel ball is as close as you can get to real Major League Baseball,” said Anthony Russo, coach of the Lantana-based South Florida Stealth. “By 12 years old, we know everyone who is [any]one.”

Gotta say, I have seen the mercenary side of this one. And, it is scary…but happens all the time.

Via Wally Matthews –

The injury that will keep New York Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira out of the lineup until May at the earliest is not a wrist strain, as originally reported, but a partially torn tendon sheath that could potentially require season-ending surgery.

As of now, the Yankees are still expecting Teixeira to heal without needing an operation and to rejoin the club after about 8-10 weeks of healing time.

But Teixeira, who arrived at spring camp Sunday morning with his right wrist in a cast-like splint and will rehab there for the rest of the spring, raised the possibility that his absence could be longer than that.

“This is one of those things I can’t come back too early,” he said. “We saw last season when I tried to play too early [with a calf injury] what happened. If I try to play too early from this we could miss the whole season, and we don’t want that. I don’t know if it’s the beginning of May, the end of May, the beginning of June, I don’t know when it is but we got a whole bunch of season left and the time that really matters is the playoffs.”

Yankees general manager Brian Cashman was surprised to hear Teixeira say the injury was to the tendon sheath, a covering that keeps the wrist tendon in place, rather than to the tendon itself. He called Yankees team doctor Chris Ahmad, who told him the injury was a partially torn tendon sheath but a stable tendon, an injury that generally heals without surgery.

“Ahmad told me if he had a fully torn sheath, it’s automatic surgery, and if he had a partially torn sheath with an unstable tendon, it’s automatic surgery,” Cashman said. “This is a best-case scenario injury, the only one that can heal without surgery.”

Jose Bautista of the Toronto Blue Jays suffered a partially torn wrist tendon sheath tendon last July, and originally thought he could return after a 15-day stay on the disabled list. But he was discovered to have an unstable tendon as well and ultimately underwent season-ending surgery. Bautista attempted to play after coming off the DL, which resulted in his needing surgery.

“It’s not fun,” said Teixeira, who has been doing cardiovascular workouts and hopes to start one-handed baseball drills in a week or so. “I had a very similar wrist thing in 2009, and I missed three games. I had a cortisone shot and I wound up having a great 2009. If this is just a little bit worse than what I had, then I have full confidence that I’ll be back 100 percent. It’s just a matter of letting it heal.”

But Teixeira acknowledged he had no real idea of how long the healing process would be.

“Everyone’s body heals differently,” he said. “I’d love to be back before 8-10 weeks but we won’t know until I start swinging. It’s different from a broken bone, because you have a pretty good idea how long a bone takes to heal.”

“This is more like a pitcher with an elbow or a shoulder injury,” he said. “If you come back early from Tommy John surgery or a labrum tear, you’re going to hurt yourself. If I come back too early, I’m not going to be very good, and I could blow it out and risk surgery and then I’m out the whole year.”

Get on those ledges, Yankees fans.

Joe Torre still hasn’t won the big one without Don Zimmer at his side…

Seriously, USA had their chances in the 7th and 8th today.

If a tie is like kissing your sister, is losing to a commonwealth like getting your fudge packed?

Strong words from Steve Goldman today –

One of a general manager’s chief responsibilities is creating value where none exists. That is, “One of a general manager’s chief responsibilities, at least where 29 major league teams are concerned, is creating value where none exists.” If you want to know why the Yankees are willing to let Brian Cashman do a Batman impression down the side of buildings and go plummeting out of airplanes, it’s for this reason — the way he approaches his job, the way they insist on him approaching his job, means he’s entirely dispensable.

In largely relying on other team’s veteran products, the Yankees have a longstanding tradition of foregoing doing their own player analysis in favor of that of other organizations. Why gamble on your own prospects when the Detroit Tigers have scouted, signed, developed, and played Curtis Granderson to the point that he is incontrovertibly a major-league player? Why pray that your own unrefined hurler can add a changeup to his fastball/curveball arsenal when the Dodgers have shown that Hiroki Kuroda is a more-than finished product? The Yankees are in the business of certainty, hence the big disbursements to veteran free agents and, from time to time, Carl Pavano-sized disappointments, because putting your faith in an old man isn’t any more of a sure thing than putting it in a kid, just more expensive. If the Yankees had an executive and a baseball operations department whose judgment mattered, it might be different.

That the team has no faith in its own valuations is demonstrated by the team’s pathetic outreach to the retired All-Star Derrek Lee. Lee has officially told the Yankees he’s staying home. The Yankees should consider themselves lucky to have been spared this particular flight of fancy given that Lee had been idle since September 28, 2011 and hadn’t played well since 2009.

…entirely dispensable…

Well said.

Via Bryan Hoch-

Joe Girardi wants to clarify that he has not officially decided who his Opening Day catcher will be, but the Yankees are locked into the idea that Francisco Cervelli and Chris Stewart will be handling their pitching staff this season.

Girardi said on Thursday that he has been pleased by what he has seen from the catching tandem, and even though the Yankees still want to figure out how to divvy up the innings behind the plate, the manager is happy that his catchers are putting defense first.

“I think these guys have played pretty well in camp. They’ve done a nice job with our staff,” Girardi said. “Coming into camp, I think there were some questions about Cervy a little bit about throwing, because he had struggled in the past, but we had seen him really good when he first came up. I think he’s back to that level again.”

Cervelli and Stewart had something of an advantage this spring over other catchers, like prospect Austin Romine and veteran non-roster invitee Bobby Wilson, because they are both out of Minor League options.

Girardi said that he might wait until the season begins to figure out exactly how much Cervelli and Stewart will play, but he said from personal experience that situations where a starting catcher plays in three of every five games can be option, as well as assigning personal catchers to certain pitchers.

“It can work out pretty well, actually,” Girardi said. “You can do it that way, keep them fresh, they know when they’re playing. I think that’s the big thing if you can sort it out as soon as you can, so they have a plan of when they’re playing. I think that’s important.”

Shades of Don Slaught and Bob Geren in 1989.

Via Tom Maloney -

When Canada begins play in the World Baseball Classic on Friday, it will field a roster featuring 13 players who throw right-handed and bat left-handed.

That number compares with two Americans, one Mexican and three Italians who throw right and bat left – and among the last, pitcher John Mariotti grew up in Woodbridge, Ont.
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And the anomaly isn’t limited to the WBC: Last year, Baseball Canada showed 11 Canadian position players on Major League rosters and, of those, six hit left-handed and one was a switch-hitter.

What gives?

The answer, experts believe, is that most quintessentially Canadian pastime – hockey.

“Most of the conversation revolves around the dominant hand and its position on the bat and/or hockey stick,” says Gord Ash, former general manager of the Blue Jays and now assistant GM with the Milwaukee Brewers.

“There is constant debate on the role of the top hand or bottom hand as it relates to power.”

Most naturally right-handed tykes starting out in hockey will hold the stick with the left arm extended down the shaft and with the right hand at the top, under the tape. The majority of sticks sold in Canada are left-handed. When youngsters pick up a baseball bat, it feels natural to keep the left hand on top of the right hand and, thus, hit left-handed. The right hand goes to the nob.

“There are more left-handed shooters,” says Canadian slugger Justin Morneau. “Your dominant hand is on the top end of your stick, so you shoot that way and you hit that way.”

When I was a little kid, and didn’t know much, I always thought it made sense for right-handed throwers to bat left, like Roger Maris and Graig Nettles, if they wanted to be a power hitter, thinking that it made sense to have your stronger arm on the bottom of the bat.

But, as I got older, rather than arm strength, I now believe it’s all about eye dominance in terms of picking the best side of the plate to hit from…

…and hockey has nothing to do with it.