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As I sat down to my computer this morning, I was kicking around a few ideas for my weekend post. One was a piece where I was going to do a follow up to our very own Michael Eder’s piece on Jon Heyman where I was going to defend Heyman’s reporting, arguing that agents are every bit as good a source as GMs are. Both play the media like a fiddle, both certainly have agendas, yet fans only seem to recognize them when they’re coming from the player/agent side. No one ever accuses Buster Olney of ‘carrying Brian Cashman’s water’ when he reports something verbatim that comes from him. I was also considering doing a piece on how pivotal 2012 could be for both Phil Hughes and Joba Chamberlain. It’s put up or shut up time for the two former highly touted Yankee prospects. I think both will need to put up good seasons this year to ensure they stay in pinstripes for 2013. Joba is coming off TJ and Hughes is coming off a disastrous 2011 season. Joba is already a middle reliever (the most fungible asset in baseball) and Phil could wind up as a setup man if he pitches poorly this spring as a starter. As 2nd year arb guys they’re no longer cheap, so if Brian Cashman is looking at paying these guys 5-7M next winter coming off bad seasons in 2012, he may very well decide to cut bait with one or both of them.
But I just can’t get into any of those topics. Today is a special date on the calendar, the day when pitchers and catchers report to camp. It’s the first sign of baseball’s return, the end of winter and the beginning of what we all hope will be another glorious season for the boys in pinstripes. Regardless of whether the 2012 season ends with flying another American League pennant or with a World Series trophy, every season has its share of memorable moments. Will you ever forget the 3 grand slam game on August 25th against the A’s? Must see TV with Bartolo Colon? “History, with an exclamation point” for DJ3K? Mariano’s record breaking save #602? The incredible final day of the season where the Red Sox and Braves missed the playoffs and the Rays and Cards got in? I certainly won’t, and look forward to the journey the 2012 edition of the New York Yankees is about to embark upon and the memories to be made.
We have some milestones to look forward to this year. If he can stay healthy, Alex Rodriguez (629) should pass Willie Mays (660) on the all time HR list. Derek Jeter should pass the likes of Cal Ripken, Tony Gwynn and George Brett this year on the all time hit list. Last and perhaps most importantly, this may be the final season we get to watch the greatest closer in the history of baseball work his craft. Conversely, we won’t have to watch Allan James Burnett take the ball every 5th day, which I’m sure few (if any) Yankee fans wanted to endure. Will Michael Pineda live up to the hype and form a deadly 1-2 punch with CC Sabathia? Which prospect will have a breakout season in the minors and become the next big thing? Will we get to see Manny Banuelos make his MLB debut? Only time will tell. Around baseball, we will get to see if international stars Yu Darvish and Yeonis Cespedes were really worth the money and the hype or not.This year has somewhat of a different feel to it, a very mild winter here in New York makes the thirst for this day a bit less than it would be if it was 18 degrees outside and there was 6 inches of snow on the ground. But whatever the context, today is still one of the days that we all cherish as baseball fans. PLAY BALL!
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Yup, 2011 was memorable. And don’t forget the last day of the season, trying to flip back and forth between the Red Sox, Braves, and Yankee games as midnight hit.
A non-rhetorical question about Buster Olney: Does he regularly push Cashman’s agenda or viewpoint without telling us that he’s quoting Cashman? I think that’s what bugs people about Heyman, reporting “mystery teams” made up by Boras without telling us that Boras is the source, or writing opinion pieces that are designed to get better contracts for Boras’s clients. I haven’t heard those charges against Olney, but I’d definitely be interested if people out there think that he’s done that.
Great point on the incredible last day of the year, I’m going to add that to the piece.
On Olney, he’s far more professional and less opinionated than Heyman, who blurs the line between editorializing and reporting far too often. Buster also steers clear of what could be construed as personal attacks, whereas Heyman doesn’t seem to know the difference. As reporters, they’re night and day.
My point was our own bias as fans. We automatically dismiss the ‘mystery team’ stuff as market manipulations by Boras. But GMs do everything they can to manipulate the market downward, feigning interest in other players to get the one they really want to lower his price, pretending to not be interested in a player so as to not set a market, all of which we praise as “patience” and “smart signings”. We as fans tend to be very biased for the teams and against the interests of the players, so when we see Boras playing the same game the GMs do we react negatively. If we were to be fair about it, we really shouldn’t take sides.
I have to agree with you on that. No question fans are biased towards their team, including their GM; I certainly am. I try to account for it in my own head, but certainly I’m not always successful.
Erik Boland @eboland11
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Hiroki Kuroda in the ST clubhouse locker previously used by AJ Burnett
Couldn’t we just leave it empty for a year or two? Just to make sure?
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha…
Another interesting piece from Sherman in the Post today…….he writes that the Yankees merely hope Hughes does well so that he can up his trade value. They ideally want a 2013 rotation to be CC, Pineda, Nova, Betances and Banuelos.
2 things: 1) it’s pretty asinine to want 2 rookies to be in your rotation unless you are a bad team trying to develop kids (and not in NY – where the imperative to win is extremely strong) and 2) if this is true, then I think it was lousy of the Yankees to sign Freddy and promise him he wouldn’t have to compete for a spot when he could have signed a multi-year deal elsewhere. I still find it lousy regardless.
I find it also hard to root overly hard for Hughes to be a starter since he’s apparently not in the team’s plans.
I think what they’re getting at with that is Betances and Banuelos are thought to have a much higher ceiling than Hughes does at this point. They’d like for him to up his value as a starter before doing the Joba Chamberlain routine on him and banishing him to the bullpen, which destroys his trade value. I don’t think Hughes will ever have long term success as a starter pitching at YS3. Unless they view him as a successor to Mo, their best move is to get his value up and deal him. As I wrote this morning, he could be a non-tender candidate is he’s a middle reliever and scheduled for a big arb raise.
Steve, I agree, though neither had great years last year and Betances in particular has control problems. Phil showing up overweight last year didn’t curry him any favors with the front office – and I don’t blame them for being annoyed. I’d rather see Freddy in the rotation at this point instead of using the spot just to show off Phil. I doubt him a great deal as well at this point mostly because of his lack of secondary pitches, but if he has developed them and he’s good, why trade him?
On another note:
I’m really tired of Cashman making these types of comments. Since the day of the trade he’s not said one positive thing about Pineda. All his comments end up doing is inflaming fans who are already upset about the deal. Mostly, though, I’m annoyed because Cashman should say this stuff in private to Pineda. In public, at least praise the kid – just once.
eboland11 Cashman said regardless of speculation, Pineda not likely to be slotted as No. 2 starter. has only two pitches; needs to work on changeup
He traded Jesus Montero for him, I think that speaks volumes about how much he likes Pineda.
He shouldn’t be the number 2 pitcher going into the season. Placing him that high in the rotation will only put more pressure on the kid to be Cy Young from the start of the year, he needs to be eased into New York spot light. If anything I think Cashman is just trying to hold back expectations for Pineda and this is his way of doing so. If he came out and said he expected a CC Sabathia type year out of the kid it wouldn’t be fair.