The Official 2014 AL East Thread

A fun debate for after the season will be if the Wil Myers & Jake Odorizzi and plus for James Shields & Wade Davis was a good trade for the Rays, Royals or both.

 

Amazing end to Jeter as a Yankee. Tip my cap. Classic Jeter. Class person and player. Going to miss him.

 

Well I think it's clear it's at least a good trade for the Royals. If Odorizzi continues to pitch well and continue to develop I would say both.

Not that I'm giving up on Myers. But his mechanics are awful right now. He's not the player we thought we were getting.

 

I was a big baseball/yankees fan when I was younger, late 90s-mid 00s. Haven't watched much since then but definitely watched tonight, glad to see that. And did go to a game this year.

He's been a yankee since I was like 6 or 7! That's like another ending to a part of childhood.

 

End of my childhood right there. So many great memories being a Yankee fan, more when I was younger but being a Yankee fan have kept my sanity with sports, especially dealing with the Dolphins each year. Bernie Williams, Tino, Scott Brosios, Paul O'Neil, Jeter, the list goes on. It's an end of an era for the yanks for sure and it couldn't end any more perfect, I mean it could have If that was game 7 im the world series, but what a great Yankee moment!

 

To be fair it's probably too early to say who "won" the trade. Of course for the Royals to finally get to the playoffs it's probably a big win for them. But that doesn't mean it can't end up being a win/win for both teams kind of like the Beckett/Lowell for Hanley/Anibal trade in 2005.

 

Yup fantastic moment last night, that's what baseball is all about. Good to see a great player get a great moment like that.

 

I'm not surprised he was emotional, I can't see how anyone wouldn't be in that situation.

 

I would have pitched for that extra 500k, haha.

 

You mean comeback player of the year? Who knows. That award is mostly a joke anyway. Jeter will probably win it.

 

Good article on the Sox offseason plans:

http://www.weei.com/sports/boston/b...ts-going-get-crazy-red-sox-position-position-

Bottom line: They need to find a 3B, two or three SPers and some bullpen depth. They have a lot of money and prospects they could deal, as well as a lot of OFers available for trades. Should be an extremely busy winter for them.

 

The issue with Yaz isn't that he doesn't show up, it's that he's already on his way home by the time the first pitch is thrown. I suspect that happened again yesterday.

I thought the whole Jeter thing was good except the silly "Respect" song. I was a little surprised that the Sox didn't bring Nomar back for the game, although he does do pre/post game stuff for the Dodgers so maybe he couldn't go.

 

This is kind of interesting, maybe, Ichiro says there were some issues in the clubhouse this year:

http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2...ut-alludes-to-some-problems-with-the-yankees/

Hard to blame this one on Arod though huh?

I wonder what the issues were. They had a veteran team and were in the playoff race almost all year. Girardi wasn't happy with the team this year and went off on them this past week. Maybe things were a little to relaxed? Girardi apparently wasn't happy that the team was overweight, so maybe too much beer and chicken? Of course maybe it was just Ichiro being unhappy with playing time. Who knows right now.

 

Could be more of a conditioning/training thing, not necessarily a "Player A gained 15 pounds over the summer". Maybe guys stopped working out during the year or didn't put enough effort in? Although I did read an article saying both Beltran and McCann looked a little chubbier this year.

But yeah too little too late. I actually think the whole "Jeter Farewell Tour" season hurt the team a bit as it changed the way Girardi should have managed the team and I'm sure it was probably a little bit of a distraction too.

 

Jeter was one of the worst offensive hitters in baseball this year. Jeter had 24(!) extra base hits all year, had a OBP of .304 and slugged .313 yet somehow got over 600 plate appearances this year. If he was anyone else he would have been released or in the very least moved down in the order. Girardi hurt the team by keeping him in the 2 hole all year and at SS all year.

 

I understand that the whole team wasn't hitting but my point is that if Jeter was anyone else he would have been moved to the bottom of the line up, benched or released. But Girardi and the organization did everything to protect his legacy, especially at the SS position. Not saying they would have made the playoffs if they moved Jeter down in the order or took him off SS but it definitely cost them some wins.

 

Who could they have dealt though? They have/had a team full of old players with bad contracts. The only players they could have dealt and got a good package back for would have been Brett Gardner, Robertson, Kuroda and Dellin Betances. And there was no way Gardner and Betances would have been dealt and to be honest with you I would have hung on to Robertson as well.

Plus on July 31st they were only 5 games out in the AL East and 3.5 in the wild card. There's no way the Yankees could have dealt any of those guys, especially after missing the playoffs in the previous year. They were really stuck and truth be told some of the moves Cashman made in getting Prado, Headley and McCarthy were pretty good deals.

 

Looks like Cashman will be back next year and beyond:

http://espn.go.com/new-york/mlb/sto...rk-yankees-working-new-contract-brian-cashman

Honestly not sure if that's good thing or bad thing for Yankee fans. I don't think he's done a good job of building the MLB club team and/or the organization as a whole. Really think he's done a poor job getting roster depth the past 4 years too.

 

Since Lester was traded mid-season any team that signs him would not lose a draft pick since the A's can't give him a QO.

 

Good article on just how much money the Sox can spend this offseason without going over the luxury tax budget:

http://www.weei.com/sports/boston/b...eady-go-market-look-red-sox-2015-payroll-and-

Basically the article says the team can spend anywhere from 50 to 55 million this offseason and still have 5 to 10 million available for any mid-season pick ups. Basically another big thank you to the Dodgers for that.

 

i actually think he's done an pretty good job. He's developed pitchers, he has some decent major league talent position players (maybe better than just decent). He's been completely hamstrung by beevis and butthead or is that twiddle dee and twiddle dum (Hal and Hank). He went to the winter meetings two years in a row without and authority to make deals. He's a puppet, at this point in time. If I were him, i would go someplace else. But, i think his mid season acquisitions were actually pretty good. He's also shown his discontent with the yankees signing Beltran ( who by the way was off to an awesome start, till he hit that wall in TB). I dont think he's the problem. I'm hoping, just hoping Kevin Long is fired, they need a change there, badly.

 

Outside of Brett Gardner, the Yankees haven't developed an everyday position player since Robinson Cano and maybe Melky if you want to count him. So we're talking 10 years and 3 everyday players. That's a terrible track record. Granted it's probably more of the farm director than Cashman but it's still under his watch. In terms of pitchers yes he did have a better track record with them no question.

I will give you that Cashman was handcuffed in 2013 being able to sign any big free agents but last year the Yankees handed out big contracts to Ellsbury, Tanaka, Beltran and McCann and spend over 432 million alone. Whether Cashman agreed with signing certain players is kind of a moot point because we, as fans, don't know what moves are simply pushed by ownership or by the GM so right or wrong he's the face of the team and thus is front and center for any moves, that's the same with any team really.

Really I don't think it's white and black about whether Cashman should stay or go. I'm not sure he's the problem or solution really. On one hand he's being given the biggest payroll in baseball year after year and the results have been mixed. It would be interesting to see what he'd be able to do with a limited payroll. But on the other the team has been made the playoffs everyday year but 3 under his watch. I do think he needs to do a much better job with the farm system, whether that's hiring a new staff or what but the position player track record is extremely poor.

 

Yankees absolutely should and will QO Robertson. The Red Sox would be completely foolish to give Koji a QO because why in the world would he turn that down and the way he pitched in the 2nd half wasn't good enough for 14k, let alone 14 million.

 

I meant major league talent that should be hitting the big leagus really soon. I think the reluctance to be patient with minor leaguers is a company policy driven by the fans. I'd personally rather struggle with going talent then watch over aged over payed players struggle. they want us to believe spending money means they're making an effort to win, but that's for the casual fan. Not me or you. I really think if cash had his way, the.Yankees would look very different.

 

I tend to agree. If Cashman had 100% control of the organization things would probably be different. Like I said its a catch 22 being a part of a franchise like the Yankees.

 

Heard the Sox offered him a contract extension after last year but he declined. Most people didn't think he'd be back after the 2014 season because of that.

EDIT: According to this article he's not sure if he wants to come back in 2015 but if he does wants it to be closer to his home in CA.

http://fullcount.weei.com/sports/bo...ting-coach-greg-colbrunn-wont-return-in-2015/

 

Second straight year the Tigers' pen is killing their WS title chances, unreal.

Although I doubt the Tigers go after Robertson as they have Nathan signed for at least 1 more year and also have Soria next year with a team option if they wanted and he would be both cheaper than Robertson in terms of money and wouldn't give up a pick for him.

 

Been a very solid start to the post season. Really enjoying it.