Mesa back in center vs. DR
Posted by: Chad Jennings - Posted in Misc on Mar 06, 2013 
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Eduardo Nunez SS
Jayson Nix 2B
Travis Hafner DH
Kevin Youkilis 3B
Juan Rivera RF
Francisco Cervelli C
Matt Diaz LF
Melky Mesa CF
Luke Murton 1B
RHP Hiroki Kuroda
I do not like our chances in this game
Time to walk the Mopsters.
Maybe Mick is right and Hal will turn out to be a Visionary ?
Color me skeptical though.
Later.
repost:
randy, I have to agree with Doreen’s thoughts on how the Yankees are going about business. But beyond that, I can’t disagree with your post. We are going to see the fruits of Hal’s plan as early as this year. And we will also get to see what comes first – the Yankees surviving Hal, or Hal surviving the Yankees.
It’s hard to plan for every eventuality, I think you would agree. Once again, Tex has a problem. Tex also has a hefty contract. That’s hardly Hal’s fault. I have my own thoughts about what’s going on with Tex. But I admit that these days I’m probably overly sensitive to certain things and so I try to temper those thoughts.
It’s easier for me to blame Bud Selig for all of the woes in the world. At least it gives me somewhere to direct the steam coming out of my head.
Today’s game is televised.
I have the sads about Tex.
We can all see the future in our own ways. I believe realism reveals many problems. The only way out is for the prospects to be very good. A bunch of them.
blake March 6th, 2013 at 9:13 am
I do not like our chances in this game
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How weird is it we’re playing against Cano? I hope they don’t get used to it.
I might need to take my lunch break when the game starts.
“There’s a recession out there and a lot of cows would be happy to be treated the way you are.”
trisha-
the stock market is at a record high. corporate profits are also at a record level. do you think hal is having financial problems ?
on a small business level, my business hit an all time high last year. many of the small businesses in my town have done the same. 10% up was what most business owners were saying. we’re expecting another good year this year.
as jerkface has pointed out, this CBA is really a smoke screen that hal is using as an excuse to cut back on the quality of the product the yankees put on the field.
are you really taking the position that times are tough and hal has to cut back on the quality of the players the yankees put on the field?
i think as owner of the yankees, it’s hal’s responsibility to his customers to give them the highest possible quality product that he can.
… and that’s the way to maximize profits too because they’ll buy more of what hal is selling.
To go back to the Tex situation, I like the idea of Youk at 1B and either Nix or Nunez at 3B. I know they haven’t used Nunez there at all and it might be a stretch but I think Youk gives you more at 1B anyway.
“as jerkface has pointed out, this CBA is really a smoke screen that hal is using as an excuse to cut back on the quality of the product the yankees put on the field.”
I think it is too but he’s crazy if he thinks Yankee fans will tolerate that…..
Randy,
It’s not an austerity plan. It’s an effort to get away from the long term contract that have not worked out (Alex, Tex).
They gave money to Andy, gave money to Kuroda, gave money to CC, gave money to Youk and gave money to Mo.
Who did they let go? A 40 year old DH who hit a couple of big home runs late but had an OBP of .308. A catcher who we were all trying to run out of town right up until the day he was gone (at which point nearly everyone switched sides) and a back up corner infielder who I liked, but wasn’t a matter of money, it was a matter of him wanting to play in Arizona where his family is.
Swisher was the only value player they lost and, quite frankly, he’s overrated.
When Yankee fans stay away from Yankee Stadium in droves due to diminished team performance then we’ll see how Hal reacts to that situation.
I thought if they kept the payroll static they’d still save money based on the benchmark for where the tax begins…?
randy, maybe I’m sensitive to the fact that my state once again has the highest unemployment rate in the country and businesses are leaving at a record pace and so I don’t see the land of milk and honey everywhere I look.
I don’t think of the CBA as an excuse. I think of it as a reason.
Maybe the big question is this: whose definition of “the highest possible quality product” takes the day. George Steinbrenner opened the coffers for many years and he went most of those years without winning a WS.
I think the Yankees are trying to work out a balance where they can have a winning team without breaking the bank. I don’t see that as unreasonable.
JMO of course.
GO YANKEES!!!
Catch you all later.
Chip March 6th, 2013 at 9:27 am
Randy,
It’s not an austerity plan. It’s an effort to get away from the long term contract that have not worked out (Alex, Tex).
They gave money to Andy, gave money to Kuroda, gave money to CC, gave money to Youk and gave money to Mo.
Who did they let go? A 40 year old DH who hit a couple of big home runs late but had an OBP of .308. A catcher who we were all trying to run out of town right up until the day he was gone (at which point nearly everyone switched sides) and a back up corner infielder who I liked, but wasn’t a matter of money, it was a matter of him wanting to play in Arizona where his family is.
Swisher was the only value player they lost and, quite frankly, he’s overrated.
****
I agree with the above. Randy, we don’t know that the Yankees will “suck” yet. And it’s not so much as I’m optimistic about the present, but I’m willing to let it play out, and I don’t think it was unreasonable to try and do this. Something had to give. They had the largest payroll and only one WS victory between 2001 and 2012 to show for it, and as much as I am proud that they’ve been in the playoffs all those years but one, there were a couple of years there where there was no way they should have been out in round one and yet they were. So throwing more money does not necessarily fix anything.
The baseball business centers around human beings. Directly. And human beings are subject to not doing exactly what you’d want them to do all the time, sometimes through no fault of their own, sometimes by their own fault. You can try and do all the math (money & player stats), but you can’t ignore the human-ness of the product you’re selling.
Can Joba play first base…?
That’d give Youk a chance to throw at him..
Gotta run, but this has been a fun morning. Almost like old times…
@beckjason
Prince Fielder said he has not received a call from Team USA since Teixeira injury. Said he probably wouldn’t be interested if he did.
Most common result for hearing a “popping” sound in your wrist: torn ligament.
“randy, maybe I’m sensitive to the fact that my state once again has the highest unemployment rate in the country and businesses are leaving at a record pace and so I don’t see the land of milk and honey everywhere I look.”
trisha-
the financial disparity is because we’ve become a country of winners and losers.
i happen to be doing business in a resort town where the winners come. i know things are tough for a lot of people. i don’t just stay here. i see things from maine to miami. every where i go there are two economies.
i’m simply saying that hal is from the winners side of things. hal is doing quite well in life right now. he;s in fat city. there is no reason at all to cut back on the quality of the yankees except it’s a whim of his.
he’s doing it because he can. now if he was thinking about all the yankee fans that aren’t so fortunate as him in inherit a few billion dollar business maybe he’d give that unemployed yankee fan something to be cheer about while they are busting their ass trying to find a job by putting out a team that can win a championship.
hal is cutting back. he’s not really trying. hal’s got his. why should he worry?
blake March 6th, 2013 at 9:25 am
“as jerkface has pointed out, this CBA is really a smoke screen that hal is using as an excuse to cut back on the quality of the product the yankees put on the field.”
I think it is too but he’s crazy if he thinks Yankee fans will tolerate that…..
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Again, I don’t know that’s true. I don’t think Hal wants to cut back on the quality of the product. I think he looks at the deals the team cut Alex and Tex and says to himself (and Cashman) that long term big money deals for position players haven’t worked out well for the team.
I think he has a GM who has complained for years (pre Hal’s take over) that he wanted to build more from within and not be so reliant on the big free agent and is saying, “ok. Go ahead.”
The problem is they picked the wrong time to do it. They picked a period where none of their top position player prospects are ready to play at this level. Of course, if it wasn’t for someone finally saying, “we’re not doing long term deals anymore” then they probably wouldn’t have ever started developing guys like Austin, Williams etc..
Chip March 6th, 2013 at 9:40 am
Most common result for hearing a “popping” sound in your wrist: torn ligament.
—————
That was my first thought too.. it happened to my brother during a hockey game.
I agree with GLove completely – the last thing we need is a lingering issue. We’re better off if he’s either completely healthy or if he needs surgery. The in-between will kill us because Tex already has trouble getting his timing going and going through a full year not feeling comfortable at the plate will be…. bad. So, so bad.
Here’s the real problem. Hal has said that if this new tactic doesn’t work out, they’ll raise payroll again. Let’s assume that the team misses the playoffs this year. Does Hal advocate trading these prospects like Austin, Sanchez, etc…for established players?
Again, more than anything else right now, I’m hoping that the Yankees improve their self scouting
Said it on the last thread – if this is a significant injury to Tex; my two targets are Garrett Jones and Justin Morneau.
“I agree with the above. Randy, we don’t know that the Yankees will “suck” yet. And it’s not so much as I’m optimistic about the present, but I’m willing to let it play out, and I don’t think it was unreasonable to try and do this. Something had to give.”
doreen-
i agree good discussion, almost like old times, but i disagree something had to give.
the yankees are so flush with cash they probably don’t know what to do with it. this would be a good time for CB to show up or someone form the corporate world who has that perspective.
the yankees are in zero financial trouble. they could go on indefinitely spending 220 million a year.
as jerkface wrote in detail many times, the yankees do not have to get below the 189 figure.
it’s just a personal whim of hal’s. it’s an indulgence he can do. so he is.
unemployed fans? retired 90 year old fans like my father who take it one summer at a time who’d like to see another word series? hal doesn’t care. he’s a donald trump palm beach kind of guy. he simply doesn’t give a crap.
now that doesn’t make him an evil human being, but as i said before i find him and the way he’s running the yankees extremely annoying .
and surely doreen, you wouldn’t object if hal decided to go for it and compete with teams like the dodgers and spend what it took would you?
i mean wouldn’t hal spending all that money trickle down some money to us plebeians ?
why take the position that whatever the yankees do is the right way to go?
and it’s not really the “yankees”;it’s hal deciding to cut back.
one guy.
Morneau would be an interesting get… I also saw some talk of Smoak lol.
Man, Napoli might have been a nice guy to have about now. Although I gotta tell you, I really think our 1B should be Youk and we should find a 3B instead.
the yankees are in zero financial trouble. they could go on indefinitely spending 220 million a year.
as jerkface wrote in detail many times, the yankees do not have to get below the 189 figure.
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I thought JF explained the new CBA would actually save them money no matter what. I think the taxes that were on the old CBA started for all dollars above $179 or something and this one raises that to all dollars over $189.
“if this is a significant injury to Tex; my two targets are Garrett Jones and Justin Morneau.”
chip-
i’ll second that on garret jones.
way back 5-6 years ago my buddy stan cliburn was managing the rochester red wings and i was visiting him and leaning against the batting cage watching his players hit with him. no one stood out except one guy who made that different sound when the ball hit the bat. it was garret jones. jones was struggling then hitting about .220 but you could tell he was a very good hitter.
he was a nice guy too. he’d fit in fine with the yankees.
I just don’t see them trading for a 1B. I think they’ll go in-house (so Tex can try to rehab it only to find he needs surgery in like July).
shame-
teixeira might not be out for long. the threat of him being out just shows how thin this team is in talent.
Even if Teixeira is going to miss significant time, I wouldn’t count on a significant trade to replace him anytime soon.
Very rare to see major trades this early. Teams usually don’t start parting with assets until they begin falling out of their respective races.
Any moves at all will almost assuredly be the among scrap heap variety.
randy l. March 6th, 2013 at 10:08 am
shame-
teixeira might not be out for long. the threat of him being out just shows how thin this team is in talent.
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He’s just such a timing guy… he’s already a pretty streaky hitter and I’m real worried if he’s only 70-80% this season with that wrist bothering him we’re screwed.
If we have as many injuries this year as we had last year we need to hope the Rays and Jays suffer the same.
I presume we will know more about Teixiera today, but unless something obvious is revealed in the testing, they will wait and hope for a resolution of the pain. Gardner, Bautista and a host of other players do give cause for legimate concern. The initial thought was their injuries were two week ones as well.
My biggest gripe is not passing on this year’s free agent crop as most had some questions surrounding them. That will likely be true for most free agents going forward. Even if they want to fill holes with other teams’ free agents in the future, the pickings will be slim. That certainly is a good reason to build your farm system. That is why they shouldn’t have gone cheap(and they did) with sure signers in Culver and Bichette.
The largest mistakes were passing on all of Darvish, Cespedes, Chapman and Soler. That was simply about profit. In my personal opinion, that is inexcusable for the owners of the most successful and income producing baseball team in the world.
Giuseppe Franco March 6th, 2013 at 10:08 am
Even if Teixeira is going to miss significant time, I wouldn’t count on a significant trade to replace him anytime soon.
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Agreed. They’ll just go with Youk.
Maybe if Tex is out for a large chunk of time we can start petitioning for Headley again
I wanna give everyone snaps for not talking about Justin Upton last night.
I think Chase Headley will be available sometime this summer….how badly the Yanks need him may depend on how the kids do and how healthy they stay…..Giancarlo may be as well…..
I’d be ok with a transition year if I knew they had a good plan in place and they’d actually let some kids have a chance when they are ready…..I don’t want to watch a bunch of old guys slog around the bases all summer though and finish in 4th place. It’ll be a shame if the Jeter/Rivera era goes out like that.
@YankeesPR
@RobinsonCano wearing enemy colors today pic.twitter.com/KilRhAO7yA
What a weird picture.
If Teix is out for any length of time, my guess is we make a move outside the system. I would doubt with our new NL type lineup, that we would accept a long term situation in which Youk would play 1st and Adams (who doesn’t have the pop for 3B) would play third. I would guess Cash would go after a “hairy monster” vet type (sigh) to play 1st (Harder to get a viable 3B, I’d think). If we went Youk at 1B, Adams at 3B (assuming Adams can stay healthy), we really would lack pop in this lineup. As for Nunez playing 3B, no way that happens. Or rushing Austin to play 3rd, straight from A+-AA ball. Austin is a bad third baseman, and needs to get his reps in RF. Here’s hoping Teix misses minimal time.
As for our general new CBA situation, the problem is our not planning for the decline and our overrating of the offense/acceptance of that offense’s one-dimensionality. Going back to last year, you have to be concerned about a team who for example had to play Ibanez in the field when a regular goes down. That says it all. That said, I am happy to see one of the OF kids have a role this season if they choose to go that route, until Grandy gets back. And I await the infusion of the kids eventually (fingers crossed), BUT it is the lack of insight into our own team/and the doctrinaire approach going back to 2010 that is disturbing. I not only want but expect the Yankees to be at the forefront of baseball forward-thinking. Instead, they cling to a bunch of biases that shoot them in the foot regarding the types of players they pursue, their trading off of their cost controlled young players, and their rhetoric about not signing IFA’s when they could have. Heck, did they really want to re-sign Javy for a 3rd time? SMH.
“If Teix is out for any length of time, my guess is we make a move outside the system. I would doubt with our new NL type lineup, that we would accept a long term situation in which Youk would play 1st and Adams (who doesn’t have the pop for 3B) would play third. ”
I’d take Morneu if they’d do a salary dump type deal…..
Is there a falafel stand at NYS? There should be one.
Shame, no falafel, that I know of, and they got rid of the great fish tacos.
Blake, salary dump, yes; prospect dump, no. We have no one in the system available/ready at first.
@CST_soxvan
Left-handed hitting Eric Hosmer, not #whitesox first baseman Paul Konerko, will replace Mark Teixeira on Team USA roster for WBC.