NY Spring Training Discussion

jon abbey

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Pitchers and catchers report today, whoo hoo! Aaron Boone addresses the media at 1:30 PM EST.

Also today is the day NY can put Hicks and/or Paxton onto the 60 day IL to open up 40 man spots if they want, fingers still crossed for a Hicks to the IL/Maybin signing combo (this has not been rumored anywhere, but it makes so much sense).
 

jon abbey

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The conventional wisdom everywhere seems to have Andujar as DH, Stanton in LF, Tauchman on the bench, but I believe it will be Stanton as DH, Tauchman in LF, Andujar in AAA (one month down there gives NY an extra year of control, not sure why more beat guys don't know this).

Also a lot of people seem to think Clint Frazier will make the team over Mike Ford (bench bat) which again makes no sense to me, Clint could use the everyday defensive reps in AAA and Ford was fantastic last year, both in AAA and MLB. Again, despite being a lefty hitter, Ford had literally the best OPS against LHP of any hitter in baseball.
 

jon abbey

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Dammit, Maybin close to signing with the Tigers. Ah well.
 

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The conventional wisdom everywhere seems to have Andujar as DH, Stanton in LF, Tauchman on the bench, but I believe it will be Stanton as DH, Tauchman in LF, Andujar in AAA (one month down there gives NY an extra year of control, not sure why more beat guys don't know this).

Also a lot of people seem to think Clint Frazier will make the team over Mike Ford (bench bat) which again makes no sense to me, Clint could use the everyday defensive reps in AAA and Ford was fantastic last year, both in AAA and MLB. Again, despite being a lefty hitter, Ford had literally the best OPS against LHP of any hitter in baseball.
Sounds reasonable. Do you know Ford's service time status off the top of your head? Any reason to keep him down for a little while?

It would be nice to get an extra year of control for Andujar, and they probably will. I wouldn't mind if Frazier made the team and spent a month raking and convincing everyone that his defense has improved. And maybe then they can trade him for something more useful.
 

jon abbey

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Sounds reasonable. Do you know Ford's service time status off the top of your head? Any reason to keep him down for a little while?
He was only up part of last season, the reason Andujar can be manipulated like that is that he spent all of 2018 in the bigs. Also Andujar is 3 years younger than Ford, Ford turns 28 this summer and is already controlled through 2024 or 2025.

If Frazier makes the team, it would be as the 5th outfielder (4th if Stanton only DHs but he will play the OF some presumably), so I don't know how much he can show barring another injury, that's why I think it makes more sense for him to play every day in AAA and try to get back into a groove. Eric Longenhagen just said in his chat that he would still put a 50 prospect grade on Clint, which would make him a top 120 MLB prospect if he was still eligible, so that's promising.
 

jon abbey

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I know I'm too excited about all of this, but kind of interesting that Rosell Herrera was assigned #12, that seems to imply that NY thinks he has a chance to make the team, even though he's not on the 40 man.
 

terrynever

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We need your enthusiasm to fire the rest of us up, Jon. I am more involved in hoops right now. But 2020 looks like an exciting season for the pinstripes.
 

jon abbey

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We need your enthusiasm to fire the rest of us up, Jon. I am more involved in hoops right now. But 2020 looks like an exciting season for the pinstripes.
The NBA was my favorite sport for decades but I just can't bring myself to care about an almost totally meaningless regular season anymore. I'd certainly be more into it if I was a Sixers (or Celtics) fan though, and I'll watch most of the playoffs like always.
 

terrynever

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The NBA was my favorite sport for decades but I just can't bring myself to care about an almost totally meaningless regular season anymore. I'd certainly be more into it if I was a Sixers (or Celtics) fan though, and I'll watch most of the playoffs like always.
I’m a one-team guy in the NBA. The Yankees have an advantage because they were the team of my youth.

Seinfeld recently tweeted that his bucket list for retirement leads with watching baseball. The sport has changed over the years but it is deep in our soul.

Aaron Boone presser live on Twitter. Gotta go.
 

jon abbey

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NY signs former SEA reliever Tony Zych to a minor league deal. He had good numbers for SEA through 2017 but had thoracic outlet surgery and hasn't pitched in the minors or majors since then, so probably not worth noting, except that he is alphabetically last of all 19,682 players to ever make the bigs. Former Yankee David Aardsma is first (and one of the rare ones who'd be ahead of me).
 

jon abbey

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It's probably a non-event, but NY signed Chad Bettis, former Rockies SP, to a minor league deal. He was a consensus top 100 prospect entering 2012 (a long long time ago admittedly) and will turn 31 in April. His career has been sidetracked by testicular cancer in 2017 and then a hip impingement last year, but he started 20 games as recently as 2018 so he has to be considered a (very) outside contender for the rotation, similarly to Nick Tropeano.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2020/02/yankees-reportedly-sign-chad-bettis.html
 

jon abbey

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Actually Bettis had a two month stretch last year where he was quite good out of the bullpen, maybe he’s a more legit option than I initially thought.

“Between April 22 and June 15, Bettis had a 1.71 ERA in 17 games, holding opponents to a .204 ERA and allowing one homer in 26 1/3 innings. His velocity rose, and Bettis hit 94-95 mph with his fastball, even reaching 96 mph.”
 

terrynever

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I want to see Loaisiga coming out of the pen this season. His big league outings the past two years showed off a scary bullpen potential. Long relievers may become more important with the new rules in place.
 

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I'd like to see Loaisiga come out of the pen this season too. That said, the words "extreme ground ball rate" are like baseball ASMR to me.
 

BaseballJones

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Pitchers and catchers report today, whoo hoo! Aaron Boone addresses the media at 1:30 PM EST.

Also today is the day NY can put Hicks and/or Paxton onto the 60 day IL to open up 40 man spots if they want, fingers still crossed for a Hicks to the IL/Maybin signing combo (this has not been rumored anywhere, but it makes so much sense).
I know the Sox may be crap this year, which stands especially in contrast to the Yankee juggernaut...but damn...I love baseball season anyway.
 

jon abbey

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Unbelievable. So if Severino can't start the season (we will know a lot more in the next few days), now the rotation is Cole/Tanaka/Happ/Montgomery/King, depth sure disappears quickly with 3 SPs out.
 

21st Century Sox

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So Seve has elbow soreness after the last HOU playoff start.....and what, they sent him home for the off season? Seems incredible that they would not have done full MRI stuff in November.
 

terrynever

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From the AP story:

Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said Severino had two MRIs -- the most recent one in January -- and a CT scan after complaining of discomfort, and all tests have been negative.
 

BaseballJones

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Honestly, what the Yankees did last year in light of the unbelievable rash of injuries they suffered was nothing short of incredible. If they have the same degree of injury problems, that would seem to defy the odds, but so would overcoming them again.
 

terrynever

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Honestly, what the Yankees did last year in light of the unbelievable rash of injuries they suffered was nothing short of incredible. If they have the same degree of injury problems, that would seem to defy the odds, but so would overcoming them again.
Injuries sometimes open the door for the backups. Stanton’s season-long issues gave Mike Tauchman his chance. Urshela excelled when Andujar went down. It was fun to watch. Just hoping the volume of injuries does not approach last year. With pitchers, I think we come to expect injuries to always play a role. To me, Seve’s problems open the door for Deivy Garcia and Clarke Schmidt to get an early look. I love rooting for kid pitchers.

https://yanksgoyard.com/2020/02/18/yankees-will-clarke-schmidt-debut-season/
 

jon abbey

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Yeah, the pitching staff is deep, you just hope not too many injuries are major and guys come back midseason. I agree that it's exciting to see the kids waiting their turns getting chances, although NY will run into 40 man issues since they are protecting a handful of prospects who are not going to be ready to help in 2020 (Gil, Medina, Yajure, Florial).
 

jon abbey

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He dislocated his shoulder in his final appearance last year, hard to believe he could return even if he wanted to. It supposedly took him hours of preparation for each appearance last year because of his bad knee.
 

jon abbey

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Injuries in the rotation make it more likely Happ hits his incentives for the vesting option.
This is logical, but I think the way it may play out could almost be the reverse of this, because if Happ, Montgomery and King (or Bettis/Deivi/Schmidt or whoever) all start the season in the rotation, Happ will need to outpitch both of the others to not be traded when Paxton/German are both back by June.
 

jon abbey

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NY's team building exercise today was a 64 man ping pong tournament, which was won by my man Kyle Holder. Holder, Chris Gittens, Zack Granite, Rosell Herrera, excited to see some of these dudes step up this season.

 

jon abbey

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Also amusingly Sweeny Murti asked Aaron Boone before it started to predict a winner, and he nailed it with Holder, same as the Super Bowl.

3 #1 seeds in the final four and the 4th made the top eight, these dudes must play a lot to seed that accurately.
 

DeadlySplitter

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Significant hit but still clear favorites sounds about right. I do question what the rotation looks like for October, a lot is now in Paxton’s hands (or back).
 

jon abbey

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Significant hit but still clear favorites sounds about right. I do question what the rotation looks like for October, a lot is now in Paxton’s hands (or back).
Postseason rotation last year was Paxton/Tanaka/Severino and then a bullpen game when they needed a 4th guy.

This year, as of now anyway, it would be Cole/Paxton/Tanaka/German, with Happ/Montgomery/King next up. Only three of those seven were on NY and healthy/unsuspended last October (Paxton/Tanaka/Happ). It's also quite possible that one of the many kids who is getting close will make a leap over the course of the season, Deivi or Schmidt but there are others behind them too.
 

terrynever

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Lot of good news today. Happ goes 3 innings, one run, followed by two scoreless from both King and Schmidt. Wade and Frazier homered in the first inning.

I take my good news where I can find it.