Tag Archives: baseball

Prince Fielder Paid Like Royalty in Nine-Year $214 Million Deal With Detroit Tigers

Posted on by Ryan Kantor

In one of the biggest surprise splashes of the off-season, the Detroit Tigers came to agreement with one of the best power hitters in baseball. Largely as a response to C/DH Victor Martinez’s potentially season-ending knee injury, the Detroit Tigers ponied up and gave former Milwaukee Brewers first baseman, Prince Fielder, a $200+ million dollar contract. It will make Prince Fielder just one of three players in baseball history to receive a contract in excess of $200 million, the other two being Alex Rodriguez and Albert Pujols.

There’s certainly an element of nostalgia with the signing of Prince Fielder, as his father, Cecil, made his hay with the Detroit Tigers in the early 90s. In fact, Cecil Fielder hit 245 home runs for the Tigers, and Prince spent his youth in Detroit.

The thought of facing Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder in the same lineup is downright scary. The duo will certainly make the best 3-4 combo in the league, assuming Jim Leyland sets it up that way. Let’s not get carried away though. They didn’t just add Prince Fielder, they replaced Victor Martinez with Prince Fielder. No doubt that’s an upgrade, but it’s still not quite the same. Alex Avila has thrived as the Tiger’s primary catcher so when Victor Martinez returns from injury he’ll retake his DH spot with Miguel Cabrera moving over to third base to accommodate Fielder. His return will round out a great Tigers lineup, but until then, it’s not really a murder’s row.

Delmon Young was a key piece to re-sign, and Austin Jackson very well may bounce back, but after that the lineup consists of: Brandon Inge, Jhonny Peralta, Ramon Santiago, Alex Avila, Ryan Raburn, and Brennan Boesch. So you see why they splurged on Prince Fielder?

Now, all us fans of other AL team’s should not get too frightened right away. Justin Verlander is the best pitcher in baseball, but he can’t possibly repeat last year’s MVP season. I’d also expect Peralta to regress. The Tigers are prohibitive AL Central favorites, but I’m not quite ready to call them the World Series favorites. For now, they’ll have to share that distinction with the Texas Rangers, Los Angeles Angels, and New York Yankees. I may include the Phillies in that list as well.

As for the contract itself…it’s really long and Prince Fielder isn’t exactly built like Alex Rodriguez or Albert Pujols. If Andruw Jones had signed a nine-year contract after his age 27 season he’d still have two year’s remaining. Imagine the position the Braves would be mired in if they were stuck paying Andruw Jones some $20 million annually. Jones hit 250 home runs through his age 27 season (Fielder has hit 230), and is a power hitter built more like Fielder than either Rodriguez or Pujols so the comparison is pretty fair. I think we’ll see Prince be very effective for the first half his contract, and then likely decline hard. That’s the price you pay to sign a superstar these days. The Tigers are just hoping they can win their first World Series since 1984 in the next couple years while they have Fielder, Cabrera, and Martinez in their primes.

As always, please subscribe to this blog by clicking the “Follow” button at the top of the right sidebar. If you don’t have a WordPress account, you’ll have to enter your email address. You can share your opinions in the comment section below or by tweeting to @Ryan_Kantor. Thanks for reading! 

Why Yu Darvish Will Be The Best Japanese Pitcher Yet

Posted on by Ryan Kantor

We’ve seen quite a few pitchers make the move from the Japanese league to the MLB with varying success. Kei Igawa, the total flop for the Yankees comes to mind. Hiroki Kuroda, a solid success now joining the Yankees is another. This offseason the Texas Rangers compensated for losing starting pitcher CJ Wilson (and Cliff Lee last year), by bringing over maybe the most promising Japanese pitcher yet, Yu Darvish.

Now don’t mistake me for an overexcited Rangers fan ready to jump on the Darvish bandwagon. This is a considerably risky move. The Rangers, a franchise at their very pinnacle, will be devastated if Darvish is a bust and his contract prevents them from re-signing key pieces like Ian Kinsler. The Rangers paid $51.7 million as a posting fee and another $60 million for the actual contract. Here’s the year-by-year breakdown. His contract is back-loaded.

Here’s why he could be a resounding success. Unlike Daisuke Matsuzaka, who was supposed to be the greatest thing since fried rice, Darvish works off a fastball. Just about every pitcher in baseball (save knuckleballers) uses a fastball as their primary pitch and then uses breaking and off-speed pitches to vary off of that. Many felt Matsuzaka could be dominant because he was so different, but what many others feared ended up being the case. He nibbled too much, threw too many pitches, and walked too many hitters. Darvish worked on being more aggressive last season. He only walked 36 batters. Darvish has played five seasons in Japan, and only once posted an WHIP over 1.00. He’s never posted and ERA over 2.00. In those five seasons he allowed 39 home runs. By contrast, AJ Burnett allowed 31 home runs last season.

Darvish has been totally dominant in the Japanese league, and while we may want to stick our nose up at their league, let’s not forget who the defending World Baseball Classic Champions are and who closed out that championship for them (if you didn’t guess, it was Japan and Yu Darvish). Here is a great article by Yahoo Sports on Yu Darvish. It explains that each of his five seasons in Japan was better than Matsuzaka’s very best season. He’s got a nasty fork ball (basically a strong sinker), he’s consistent, he eats innings… Sure, playing in Texas will be a tough billing with the summer heat and the hitter friendly ballpark, but a schedule heavy on Oakland, Seattle, and Houston should make it more manageable than it sounds. The overexcitement about previous Japanese pitchers and their subsequent failures has made everyone (except those in the Texas Ranger front office) skeptical about another hot-shot Japanese pitcher, but the opportunity to watch Darvish is just another reason I can’t wait until baseball season.

As always, please subscribe to this blog by clicking the “Follow” button at the top of the right sidebar. If you don’t have a WordPress account, you’ll have to enter your email address. You can share your opinions in the comment section below or by tweeting to @Ryan_Kantor. Thanks for reading! 

Hiroki Kuroda and Michael Pineda To Don Pinstripes

Posted on by Ryan Kantor

It appears that Yankee GM, Brian Cashman, was just taking his time. Yankee fans watched the Angels sign Albert Pujols and CJ Wilson. They watched Mark Buehrle sign with the revamped Miami Marlins and the Rangers win exclusive rights to negotiate with Japanese pitcher, Yu Darvish. Rumors surfaced that the Yankees would add Jair Jurrjens to their shaky, pinstriped rotation in exchange for young shortstop Eduardo Nunez, but nothing came to fruition.

After resigning to the fact that the Yankees may not make a major move this off-season, Yankee fans were hit with two huge moves that may transform a lousy rotation into a deep, World Series caliber group. One that could even be called the strength of the team.

After months of hearing that Hiroki Kuroda was uncomfortable moving to New York and would either remain in Los Angeles or head back to his native Japan, the AP has reported that the two parties have struck a 1-year, $10 million pact. Kuroda is 36 years of age, but his age is not a concern to me and evidently not too big of a concern to Brian Cashman. Last season Kuroda posted MLB career bests in wins, innings pitched, strikeouts, and ERA–finishing the year with 13 wins, 202 IP, 161 Ks, and a 3.07 ERA. Barring unforeseen injury I don’t think a 17 win, 3.60 ERA season is an unreasonable expectation.

In the same day that Yankee fans heard Kuroda would don pinstripes, they also learned that star prospect, Jesus Montero, was traded. The reaction went something like this, “Oh no, they gave away another star prospect. We always do this! This is terrible… Wow, we got Michael Pineda. Hmmm, he’s pretty young, huh (22)? Wow, with Kuroda AND Pineda our rotation is pretty good now. I think I like this deal. Wow, we may win the World Series!”

Moving catcher Jesus Montero stings, but I’m not totally heart-broken for a few reasons. First, The Yankees already re-signed Russell Martin, meaning Montero wouldn’t have played much behind the plate this year. It also hinted at the possibility that the Yankees didn’t feel comfortable with Montero’s defense behind the plate. He’s much less impressive as a DH prospect than a catching prospect.
Second, the Yankees are loaded with good catching prospects. Austin Romine is lauded as a well-rounded catching prospect that can hit (although not as well as Montero) and field. The younger Gary Sanchez gives the Yankees minor league depth at the catcher position, as a top 30 overall prospect according to Baseball America. Trading from a position of depth (likely the most minor league catching depth in baseball) to solve an immediate problem without getting older makes sense.
Prior to Transactions
  1. CC Sabathia
  2. Ivan Nova
  3. Freddy Garcia
  4. Phil Hughes
  5. AJ Burnett
After Transactions
  1. CC Sabathia
  2. Michael Pineda
  3. Hiroki Kuroda
  4. Ivan Nova
  5. Garcia/Hughes

With Posada retiring and Montero now on his way to the Pacific Northwest, the Yankees may have created a hole at the DH slot. This may have been intentional though, as they now can give Eduardo Nunez plenty of playing time on the left side of the infield while keeping Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter well rested. The rotation looks fantastic, with two potentially dominant pitchers at the top of the rotation and an incredible amount of depth. The Yankees still need to add a lefty in the bullpen to help Boone Logan, but suddenly baseball season can’t start soon enough. The Mariners and Yankees, after failing to consummate a Cliff Lee deal, reunited to strike a seemingly win-win trade. The Evil Empire is back.

As always, please subscribe to this blog by clicking the “Follow” button at the top of the right sidebar. If you don’t have a WordPress account, you’ll have to enter your email address. You can share your opinions in the comment section below or by tweeting to @Ryan_Kantor. Thanks for reading! 

With Sabathia Staying In Pinstripes, What’s In Store For The New York Yankees?

Posted on by Ryan Kantor

With the recent news that Sabathia will remain in pinstripes for at least the next five seasons, Brian Cashman who also just signed an extension (for three years) can turn his attention to other offseason priorities, but those priorities will continue to revolve around the starting rotation (you like that pun there?).

With Nova, Hughes, and Burnett lined up behind Sabathia there is still a lot of uncertainty. Will Burnett be effective in 2012? Will he even return to the Yankees or will they be able to move him over the offseason? Who fills out the fifth spot–Garcia, Betances, Colon, or someone new? Will Hughes bounce back? Will Nova build on a great rookie campaign? The questions are bountiful. Signing Sabathia isn’t a final solution, it merely avoids total disaster.

CJ Wilson will command the top dollar out of this offseason’s crop of pitchers, but is he the best bet? He posted an ERA under three with 16 wins last year, some very impressive numbers. He’s been great in his two seasons in the starting rotation, but before that he was in the bullpen, never exceeding 73 2/3 IP. There are questions about how the IP increase will impact him moving forward. He’s also 31, despite seeming much younger, and is asking for a $100 million contract. The Yankees are not expected to pony up, which is probably the prudent move.

We’ve also learned that Roy Oswalt, probably the biggest name on the market is also unlikely to play for New York, due to back problems that have progressively gotten worse with age (he’s now 34).

Edwin Jackson will definitely get a look, but after the Yankees experience with a highly talented, inconsistent right-hander with shoddy control (AJ Burnett), I can’t imagine they’d take another similar risk. The bleacher report points out his high ERA in his years pitching in the AL East for the Rays. In the same vein, Yu Darvish, the 25 year old Japanese phenom may skip over the pond and play in the big leagues next season. He’s expected to command at least $100 million including posting fee, but I would be extremely surprised to see the Yankees make another large commitment to a Japanese pitcher after the Kei Igawa failure. Evidently they have scouted Darvish though.

I’d love to see Kuroda don pinstripes. He posted ERAs of 3.76, 3.39, and 3.07 over the last three years (a attractive decline). Unfortunately for New York, it seems he is intent on staying in Los Angeles and is likely an unrealistic target.

That leads us to Mark Buehrle. He just won his third straight gold glove, with just one error in 2011. Since 2001, Buehrle has the most pickoffs in baseball (81)– second on the list is Andy Pettitte (50). He made $14 million last year, so he won’t come cheap, but despite being just 32 years old, he only plans on pitching for two or three more seasons so the Yankees should get a good deal regarding contract length (Pettitte also had no plans on sticking around for a long tail end to his career). In the last 11 seasons, Buehrle has only had one poor season (2006) when he went 12-13 with an ERA of 4.99 (career stats). He’s been extremely durable over that period of time, in fact he’s never had fewer than 30 starts in any of his full major league seasons! He’s a former world series champ, and quite the playoff performer. He’s not a sexy high strikeout guy, but he goes out posts solid numbers and with the Yankees offense behind him would likely post 16 wins with ease. He’s consistent and reliable unlike Burnett, Hughes, or any of our youngsters. Even the bleacher report agrees.

I’d like to see the Yanks lure the trust lefty from the White Sox, where he’s spent his entire career. The Yankees don’t need someone with an ERA below 3, they just need someone who can consistently keep them in games and let their offense do work. Mark Buerhle is the man for the Yankees. Who do you think the Yankees should target?

SURPRISING NOTE: RHP Andrew Brackman has been released by the New York Yankees, four years after signing a contract for a $3.35 million bonus. He walked 7 per 9 IP coming out of the bullpen in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

As always, please subscribe to this blog by clicking the “Follow” button at the top portion of the right sidebar. If you don’t have a WordPress account, you’ll have to enter your email address. Thanks for reading!

A First Look at The Hot Stove Season Ahead for The New York Yankees

Posted on by Ryan Kantor

Beloved Yankee Jorge Posada has likely played his last game in pinstripes. They simply can’t afford to block the DH slot with him and his defense has regressed beyond the point where he can play catcher. Sadly, they’ll have to let the great Yankee walk. As hard to swallow as that might be (made a bit easier by a lousy season), it’s objectively the the right call for the Yankees. Not as sad, Demaso Marte, the lefty who played a large role in the 2009 World Series run, is on the way out and a more effective lefty is likely (hopefully) on the way in. Boone Logan, had almost identical BBA and OBPA vs lefties and righties in 2011, and the Yanks could use a true lefty out of the bullpen like Mike Gonzalez (.214 BAA vs lefties compared to Boone Logan’s .260 BAA vs. lefties).

All the buzz I’ve heard makes me think CC Sabathia may opt out of his contract and look for more years than the four years he has remaining. Four more years take him until he’s 35 years old. Are you ready to pay him top dollar until the hefty pitcher is 37? I don’t know how good I feel about that.

The rotation still has question marks and if CC leaves it could get ugly. Sure, Cashman could hit another home run with genius signings in 2012 like Freddy Garcia and Bartolo Colon of last year (Mark Buehrle and Jon Garland come to mind), but at some point it’s going to come down to Phillip Hughes stepping up, Nova building on a strong campaign, and another youngster like Dellin Betances making a name for himself.

The Phillies hold an option on Roy Oswalt, and based on the strength of their rotation and Oswalt’s mounting injuries I don’t think it’s unreasonable to think they could pass on the option. Roy would look damn good in pinstripes, although he would have a little mending to with Alex Rodriguez who he bashed pretty hard when A-Rod came clean about not playing clean. That would certainly make for an interesting story.

Speaking of A-Rod, is he going to be able to stay healthy for a full season and hit 30 home runs? I’m not so sure the Yankees can handle another down year from A-Rod. I don’t see Curtis Granderson being quite as exceptional next year, especially with his late season swoon (I use that word lightly), and they’ll really need a strong performance from their clean up hitter. They’ll likely DH him and use Nunez at 3B on occassion.

Russell Martin may be back, meaning Jesus Montero will probably DH the majority of the time, but I really hope he gets some time behind the plate so he can be ready to take the position over full time when Martin leaves.

Nick Swisher is credited for changing the stodgy culture of the team for the better when he was first brought in, and for intagible reasons you really hate to see him leave, but it’s hard to justify paying a .260 hitter with slightly above average power (23 HR) $10.5 million. That said, I think the Yankees will either pay up and take the option or work something out to keep him.  There aren’t a ton of better outfielders on the market. Rutgers product, David DeJesus, will be on the market and the Yanks have expressed interest in him in the past. Josh Willingham, Grady Sizemore, Carlos Beltran, Jason Bay, Jason Kubel, and Michael Cuddyer are also hitting the market. The soft market may be enough to justify bringing Swisher back for one more year.

Rafael Soriano has an opt-out clause, but he is being over-paid so vastly he’d be foolish to opt out. All that said, here’s the bottom line for New York.

Key Offseason Points

  • Will CC Sabathia opt out? If he does, how many years are we willing to give him? Do we exceed 5 years for the 31 year old? I vote no. (See Alex Rodriguez)
  • Who plays the Bartolo Colon role in 2012? Can Colon and Garcia do it again? Does someone like Jon Garland come in or do we rely on youngsters Nova, Hughes, and Betances for a full year?
  • Who will the Yankees bring in to fill the role Pedro Feliciano was supposed to fill as the lefty specialist out of the bullpen?
  • Does Nick Swisher return, or do the Yankees bring in a cheaper free agent like Cuddyer/DeJesus/Kubel to fill the short term void.
  • Is Montero or Romine ready for a full season behind the plate? If so, do we need to bring back Martin? If not, we better bring back Martin!

For further analysis, here’s a great breakdown of the Yankees offseason I found.

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99 Yankee Wins Not Enough For A Trip To The ALCS

Posted on by Ryan Kantor

Dating back to 2001, the Yankees were 0-5 in playoff elimination games on the road. Of course, this streak came to an end in Detroit when the Yankees beat the Tigers 10-1 on Tuesday, but it was all for not, as the team with the best record in the AL lost game 5 at home 2-3, sending the Tigers to Texas for the ALCS.

Consistent with Yankee tradition, one no name, middle-of-the-road player killed the Yankees in the ALDS. Howie Kendrick played this role beautifully back in the days of the Angels consistently killing the Yankees. In the this year’s ALDS Don Kelly fit into that slot hitting first inning home run in game 5, and generally playing out of his mind at the plate and in the field.

After giving up two solo home runs in the first two innings Ivan Nova departed with forearm tightness leaving Joe Girardi to try to keep the game within reach with a patch work effort from the bullpen. Despite succeeding in that effort, allowing just one more run, they mustered only two runs the whole game as the offense disappeared, especially with runners in scoring position. It always seems that offense disappears in the postseason. Maybe we’ll invest in some pitching instead of spending $31 on a 36 year old 3B and another 17 on a SS with warning track power. Then again, it wasn’t really pitching that was our problem.

This is a tough one to swallow. Luckily I have a great Clemson football team to hang my hat on. That, and the Red Sox collapse. Nonetheless, this hurts.

Yankees are a veteran team, and I wonder if they can bounce back. I wonder if we’ve seen the last of Posada and Swisher in pinstripes. What will our rotation look like next year? CC-AJ-Hughes-Nova-Betances? Will a big free agent be in the mix?

I will say this. With all the talk of adding an extra wild card to each league, can we instead consider simply make the first round best of seven instead of five? It’s more than silly that a 162 games season ends with just three losses.

What do you think of making the league division series best of seven? What does this offseason have in store for New York?

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Why The Yankees Shouldn’t Sign Cliff Lee

Posted on by Ryan Kantor

This offseason the Yankees will most likely lose 2/5 of their starting rotation. Javier Vazquez has an expiring contract and is unlikely to be resigned while Pettitte will probably retire. The void will have to be filled somehow, and most Yankee fans want to sign the ace they missed at the trade deadline, Cliff Lee.

Lee, will headline a relatively thin free agent class for starting pitchers. Other notable free agent starting pitchers include Jon Garland, Ted Lilly, Jeff Suppan, Jake Westbrook, and Todd Wellemeyer.

Two offseasons ago, the Yankees signed Sabathia, Burnett, and Teixeira and each played a key role in winning the Yankees’ 27th World Series title. The Yankees gave a 31-year-old AJ Burnett $82,500,000 over 5 years. AJ was coming off a 18-win season, but nobody was blind enough to think he was a #1 starter. In a free agent market without another ace, 32-year-old Cliff Lee will demand a lot more than AJ Burnett’s 82.5 million.

Cliff Lee will be 32 this offseason, but to bring a true ace to your team, GM’s know they have to pay up. A 5-6 year $100,000,000 contract is probably a conservative estimate considering Sabathia signed with New York for 7 years $161,000,000.

A contract over 5 years to a 32 starting pitcher means that we’ll be paying a 37-year-old Cliff Lee around 20 million dollars. Sabathia, Burnett, and Lee would be more expensive than a lot of teams and by 2014 wouldn’t even be a spectacular tandem.

A wiser strategy would be to rely on the farm and more reasonable free agents. Minor league prospects Ivan Nova, Dellin Betances, and Manny Banuelos could be worth a look.  The Yankees could sign Jake Westbrook, Jon Garland, and Ted Lilly and still save money. Would these three really contribute less than Cliff Lee alone?

A deep rotation of Sabathia, Hughes, Westbrook, Garland, Lilly, and Burnett sounds pretty good and avoiding a long contract that is almost a sure thing to be a bad deal come year 4 of the contract sounds even better.

The bottom line is, whatever teams signs Cliff Lee will likely over pay and it shouldn’t be the Yankees.

Tommy, I know you love Cliff Lee, but c’mon!