Yankees likely to sign Brian Roberts

[Rough Carrigan]

Even that much of a time frame is beyond what most beat writers seem to analyze in an article.  And they don't always even try to look at things in a team wide focus.  One piece might look at how team's dealing with their setup men or with their third basemen.  But even just 14 months seems longer than the typical focus for a piece by beat writers.  Their stuff is so oriented to the moment, what is the team gonna do today and next week.  The kind of thing you're looking for gets done on the internet now by Fangraphs or Baseball Prospectus or one of the other serious baseball fan sites.  One of the other factors involved is that if a beat writer wrote a detailed take down of the yankees personnel decisions for the last 14 months that utterly eviscerated them, there's a good chance it affects how much help he gets in writing articles from management and perhaps players, too.  "Hi, Brian?  It's me, Joel Sherman.  Look, I hope you're not still upset over that Bronx Bumblers piece.  I was wondering if <CLICK> <dial tone>"

 

[jon abbey]

Yeah, of course. I would do it myself if it wasn't too depressing, but maybe I'll do it anyway once NY finishes whatever the hell it is they're doing, in spring training sometime. 

 

[mwonow]

Roberts admitted to using steroids once in 2003.

 
So he's been sharing tips with Pettite, not Arod

 

[TomRicardo]

 
Hehe, thanks. It's a good thing my actual life is going pretty well, because if I had to rely on my sports teams for my happiness, I'd have probably gone on a killing spree already. 
 
But seriously, where is the beat writer to call NY out on this disastrous series of moves over the past 14 months? 

 
 
The game changed on the Yankees.  The new CBA was not kind to them.  It behooved teams to extend their good players and took away their financial advantage with amateurs.

 

[jon abbey]

 
 
The game changed on the Yankees.  The new CBA was not kind to them.  It behooved teams to extend their good players and took away their financial advantage with amateurs.

 
That is definitely true, but the CBA was in place before the 2012/2013 offseason, so there's no excuse for the collective series of seemingly disastrous big league moves since then. I don't even think they've put them in better position to get to $189M, the only thing in their slight defense is they did not know during last offseason that there was a good chance A-Rod would be off the books for 2014. 

 

[Sampo Gida]

I do think their plan for 2014 assumed they would make the playoffs in 2013.  In their defense, they could not foresee the injuries to Teixeira, Granderson and the delay in Jeters recovery.  They also likely did not imagine CC turning into a pumpkin.   When the injuries happened, they threw some money at Wells and then Soriano,  working it so much of the costs were shifted to 2013 in the hope of making the playoffs and being free to pursue 189 in 2014.
 
I think they were prepared to tank 2014, believing they could have a bad year following a playoff year without significant revenue losses.  However, they lost over 50 million in revenues last year by not making the playoffs, and they probably anticipate much worse with a repeat of last year.
 
Plans are never etched in stone, you adjust plans to changing circumstances.  Not making the playoffs in 2013 caused the plan to change, maybe.  Don't know for sure as their decisions this offseason border on the schizophrenic.    One minute they appear to be run by the Ghost of the Evil Empire with an infinite supply of money to spend, the next by Scrooge.  It may very well be that Sherman has it right and the 189'ers will rule if Arod gets the boot for the whole season, and that if he gets much less than that and they will end up over 189 anyways, they will go way over in a way that would make Daddy Steinbrenner proud.

 

[terrynever]

Since this is a thread on Brian Roberts, I'd like to mention that Roberts is a player I have always admired. Buck Showalter likes him, too, and thinks he may help the Yankees this year. Roberts may end up playing 50 games this season but it's going to be cool seeing him in a Yankee uniform. Of course, I felt the same way about Youk last season.

 

[TheYaz67]

Well yeah, but the Brian Roberts you admired was the still healthy, younger above-average second baseman he was.  He is not that anymore, but will agree he may still have some of the tools to be somewhat productive, albeit using the usual caveat of "if he can stay healthy"....
 
2010
 
Played first 4 games, injured, misses next 91 games
 
2011
 
Played first 40 games, injured, misses rest of season
 
2012
 
Stars season injured, misses first 60 games
Returns and starts 17 games in June, injured and misses rest of season
 
2013
 
Played first 3 games, injured, misses next 79 games
 
Has made a habit of getting hurt right out of the gate, so blink and you might miss him!

 

[terrynever]

But he stayed healthy for July, August and September. That's the good news. The bad news is his range in the field has decreased (fits right in with Yankees), his OPS for those final three months was right around .700 for 280 ABs, and his slugging is under .400.
 
Still, I think it's a reasonable move on the Yankees' part to see what Roberts has left. It's not like they gave him $12M, as they did for Youk.

 

[Average Reds]

Since this is a thread on Brian Roberts, I'd like to mention that Roberts is a player I have always admired. Buck Showalter likes him, too, and thinks he may help the Yankees this year. Roberts may end up playing 50 games this season but it's going to be cool seeing him in a Yankee uniform. Of course, I felt the same way about Youk last season.

 
Not trying to pick on you, but this would be the kiss of death if I were a Yankee fan.
 
Showalter is a pompous jackass who expresses admiration for people based on important factors like whether they wear their hat at a crisp, proper angle and are careful not to step on the chalk while walking on or off the field.

 

[Rough Carrigan]

Buck Showalter's an uptight jerk but he can judge talent.  The 50 doubles hitting version of Brian Roberts was essentially the beta testing version of Dustin Pedroia.

 

[terrynever]

I'm coming down with a case of optimism that hits baseball fans in the middle of winter. Whether your team is the defending champs or middle of the road, now is the time to dream of optimum production from unlikely sources. I read where the Orioles wanted to re-sign Roberts but he cleaned out his locker on the last day of the season, a hint to management that he was going elsewhere. Must have been tough for him to watch the Orioles become respectable again while he sat on the bench with various injuries. If he has anything left, the Yankees are going to get it, because the guy has been battling for four years to get healthy again.

 

[rembrat]

Guys don't clean out their lockers on the last day of work?

 

[terrynever]

Guys don't clean out their lockers on the last day of work?

He took down his pinup poster of Derek Jeter, a certain indication he was leaving town.

 

[jon abbey]

Joel Sherman elaborated on that a bit in today's paper:

"Roberts cleaned out his locker after the Orioles’ final game, and Baltimore officials took that as a sign he might want a change of scenery, might want to join a team with a richer history of recent contention. Baltimore executives still believed they would have some chance to counter offers, but Roberts took the Yankees’ $2 million bid without notifying the Orioles, who probably would have gone to that amount — maybe a drop more — to keep a player long viewed as a favorite of owner Peter Angelos."
 
http://nypost.com/2013/12/19/showalter-brian-roberts-will-be-good-fit-for-yankees/

 

[billy ashley]

Optimism is good. I would not bet on Roberts being healthy and not terrible.

Brian Roberts has not been able to both play 100 games in a season and be valuable at the same time since 2009. Additionally, while he was very useful for Baltimore in 2010 (over 59 games); he's been terrible ever since. I'm kind of surprised he was able to secure a major league offer, let alone the fact that Baltimore may have been willing to fight to keep him.

He's had a good career, but injuries and age have basically rendered him useless.

 

[Mike F]

He took down his pinup poster of Derek Jeter, a certain indication he was leaving town.

 

[Soxfan in Fla]

I'm going on record now that this is a total waste of $2M, they might as well have lit it on fire.

May 3, 2014 they plan to light Brian Roberts on fire. Is that basically the same thing?

 

[EvilEmpire]

I saw this thread get bumped and thought he was injured already.

 

[luckiestman]

I remember watching the game where he got his arm busted covering first against the Yankees. I always liked this guy, he's easy to root for if healthy.