Following Former Yankees 2021

jon abbey

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New thread for the new year:

Curtis Granderson, one of my favorite Yankees ever, announced today he is retiring. Would love to get him into the NY front office in some capacity...

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MLB players with a 40-homer season and a 20-triple season in their careers:

Rogers Hornsby
Lou Gehrig
Willie Mays
Curtis Granderson
 

Mugsy's Jock

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I was so upset when the Yankees acquired Granderson, what with my liking Granderson and hating the MFY so much. Aside from Rivera, he may have been the first of the more recent wave of Yankees for whom I find it takes a little effort to work up some contempt (Judge, Gleyber, David Robertson, Gregorius, Paxton, McCutcheon, Severino...)

Don't worry, I manage, but I'd rather not have to try.

Back to the topic at hand, Granderson annually donated a ton of bats to New York City public school baseball teams once he hit the Yankees and Mets. Good dude.

Awesome article here: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/28/sports/baseball/most-valuable-person-the-title-belongs-to-curtis-granderson.html
 

bquine

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I had a perhaps irrational love for Granderson, lol. He was always the coolest guy in the room, and he was on the same team with Ichiro and Jeter.
 

jon abbey

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Greg Bird signs minor league deal with Texas.
From the Dept. of How Far The Mighty Have Fallen:

The following ex-Yankees made this week's Rangers opening day roster:

Todd Frazier
Nick Solak (2nd round draft pick by NY who was moved in the Brandon Drury deal)
Rob Refsnyder

Who didn't make the team? Yep, the artist formerly known as Greg Bird, who hit just .152 in 46 intrasquad ABs. Bird is still just 27.
 

jon abbey

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Lowest ERA in MLB since this time last year...

Jack Flaherty 1.30
Jacob deGrom 1.44
Gerrit Cole 1.67
SONNY GRAY 1.91
 

cromulence

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I forgot how much I disliked Ozzie. Worked out well for the Yankees and for Swisher, so thanks Ozzie!
 

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make hers mark
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Moving the Line
Always a fun time to recount the lore of Swisher in franchise transactional history, which naturally has to do a ton with former Yankees, with an amazing end result:

11/21/90: Ruben Rivera signs with the Yankees as an amateur free agent.

5/29/97: Yankees trade in addition to other pieces, Ruben Rivera to San Diego for Hideki Irabu.

12/22/99: Yankees trade Irabu as part of a larger deal to the Montreal Expos for Jake Westbrook.

6/29/00: Yankees trade Jake Westbrook and others to the Cleveland Indians for David Justice.

12/7/01: Yankees trade David Justice to the New York Mets for Robin Ventura.

7/31/03: Yankees trade Robin Ventura to the Los Angeles Dodgers for Bubba Crosby and Scott Proctor.

7/31/07: Yankees trade Scott Proctor to the Los Angeles Dodgers for Wilson Betemit.

11/13/08: Yankees trade Wilson Betemit and a pair of minor league pitchers for Nick Swisher and Kanekoa Texeira.

12/23/12 or 1/3/13: Nick Swisher signs a four year deal with the Cleveland Indians in free agency.

For signing Swisher, Yankees received a compensation pick, #32 overall in the 2013 MLB Draft. That selection? Aaron Judge.
 

jon abbey

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It's genuinely amazing he is not part of the Trump administration, I guess there's still a few months.
 

terrynever

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Horace Clark died Friday at age 82, Mike Francesa's entire tweet in recognition:

"Horace Clarke was the symbol of the Yankees' fall from grace post 1964. He was mediocre just like the Bombers '65 through '74. RIP."
Horace had the second-most hits in the AL from 1967-73 behind only Yaz.
Yanks finished a distant second in 1970 and contended in 1972, IIRC.
 
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The_Powa_of_Seiji_Ozawa

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make hers mark
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DanoooME

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Always a fun time to recount the lore of Swisher in franchise transactional history, which naturally has to do a ton with former Yankees, with an amazing end result:

11/21/90: Ruben Rivera signs with the Yankees as an amateur free agent.

5/29/97: Yankees trade in addition to other pieces, Ruben Rivera to San Diego for Hideki Irabu.

12/22/99: Yankees trade Irabu as part of a larger deal to the Montreal Expos for Jake Westbrook.

6/29/00: Yankees trade Jake Westbrook and others to the Cleveland Indians for David Justice.

12/7/01: Yankees trade David Justice to the New York Mets for Robin Ventura.

7/31/03: Yankees trade Robin Ventura to the Los Angeles Dodgers for Bubba Crosby and Scott Proctor.

7/31/07: Yankees trade Scott Proctor to the Los Angeles Dodgers for Wilson Betemit.

11/13/08: Yankees trade Wilson Betemit and a pair of minor league pitchers for Nick Swisher and Kanekoa Texeira.

12/23/12 or 1/3/13: Nick Swisher signs a four year deal with the Cleveland Indians in free agency.

For signing Swisher, Yankees received a compensation pick, #32 overall in the 2013 MLB Draft. That selection? Aaron Judge.
And to top off his career, he was a panelist on Match Game a few weeks ago!
 

jon abbey

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Second consecutive lost year for our old buddy Dellin Betances:

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The Mets have been without reliever Dellin Betances since he went on the injured list Aug. 30 with right lat tightness, and it doesn’t appear a return is imminent. Manager Luis Rojas said Wednesday that Betances’ “timeline is uncertain,” Tim Britton of The Athleticrelays.

With little time left in the regular season and the 21-27 Mets looking unlikely to make the playoffs, it’s possible Betances has thrown his last pitch of 2020. Either way, this will go down as the second straight injury-shortened year for Betances, a former Yankee who missed almost all of 2019 with shoulder and Achilles problems. The four-time All-Star then signed for a guaranteed $10.5MM with the Mets last winter, but thanks largely to a couple of rough outings, Betances hasn’t put up his usual numbers.

Before going on the IL, the 32-year-old Betances pitched to a 6.10 ERA/4.27 FIP with by far a career-worst 6.97 (he owns a lifetime 14.44 K/9) and 6.1 BB/9 in 10 1/3 innings. Along the way, Betances averaged 93.3 mph on his fastball – well below his personal mean of 97.2.

The deal Betances inked with the Mets includes options for 2021 and ’22. For next season, he’ll be able to return to the club on a $6MM player option. Considering how this year has gone for him, it seems unlikely Betances will reject that sum in favor of a $3MM buyout.
 

terrynever

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Justus Sheffield is growing up in Seattle. Three straight quality starts this month covering 20 innings. 4-3 on the season in 50 innings. 9 starts. 47 hits, 47 Ks. He’s cut down on his walks. Lefties always take a bit longer to develop. I would still choose Montgomery over Sheffield if you could only keep one.
 

jon abbey

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2/5.25, he will probably not pitch until 2022 after TJS in August.
 

jon abbey

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I was surprised to see that, I thought he had retired a while ago, he hadn't pitched since 2018. He never recovered from thoracic outlet syndrome in 2016, his last year with a positive bWAR was 2015. He had a few good years as a starter and a great year as a setup guy for NY's 2009 title team, but he never really lived up to his prospect hype.
 

jon abbey

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After PHI signed Didi today (2/28), they traded rule 5 pick Kyle Holder to the Reds, where he currently looks like the frontrunner to be their opening day SS (!!!).
 

jon abbey

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It seems like there are a ton of recent Yankee pitching prospects in MLB now, I might be missing some but this is a good start on a list:

Whitlock (BOS)
Stephan (CLE)
Sheffield (SEA)
Feyereisen (MIL)
Tate (BAL)
Widener (ARI)
Gallegos (STL)
Diehl (COL)
Holder (CHC)
Garcia (DET)
Adams (KC)

Surprised Miguel Yajure didn't make the Pirates, but I'm sure he'll be up soon. A few of those guys are hurt (Chance Adams had TJS in November) but all are on ML teams currently.
 

normstalls

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It's obviously VERY early, but i like this Whitlock kid. Looked good in ST and has looked great so far this season.
5.1 IP, 8 k's, 0 bb's
 

jon abbey

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It's obviously VERY early, but i like this Whitlock kid. Looked good in ST and has looked great so far this season.
5.1 IP, 8 k's, 0 bb's
Chaim is smart to pick off any Yankee prospect pitchers he can at this point, he got another in exchange for taking on Ottavino's contract (Frank German).
 

jon abbey

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Mike Tauchman doubled his hit total for the season in his first game with SF with a 3-4, 3-14 before that.
 

jon abbey

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Billy McKinney and Mason Williams combined for three HRs tonight against the Orioles…

for the Mets, who shelled their old buddy Matt Harvey 14-1.