The deadline to offer arbitration to eligible players is December 12th. The Yankees have 5 important eligible players, and all of them see likely to be offered arbitration, except for maybe one of them. The five players I am talking about are Melky Cabrera, Sergio Mitre, Brian Bruney, Chad Gaudin, and Chien-Ming Wang. Obviously, Wang is the big question here. As you know, Wang is coming off an awful season scarred by a shoulder injury. Wang underwent surgery on his shoulder back in July, and he is not expected to be ready to pitch until mid-season 2010, at the earliest. This is not Wang’s first shoulder injury, if you remember he has had two shoulder injuries before this most recent one.
So the first question is, “Do you offer Chien-Ming Wang arbitration?” The general opinion among the NY Media is that the Yankees will not offer him arbitration. I don’t know hoe much to put into that opinion, you can take it however you wish. But for the sake of argument, let’s say the Yankees don’t offer Wang arbitration, and he becomes a free agent. Do they try to sign to an incentive based contract with a low base salary, or do they just let him go. If they let him go there will definitely be other teams interested, and the Los Angeles Dogders may be one of them. According to MLBTR, Chien-Ming Wang told Taiwanese reporters that he wishes to stay with the Yankees, but when asked about the Dodgers he said he would be open to the idea. That really doesn’t mean much because a)Wang would probably be open to all 30 teams and b)Who knows if the Dodgers are even interested in Wang?
My opinion is that the Yankees can not let Wang go. The best route would probably be to decline arbitration, and then try to sign him to an incentive based contract in which he could earn much more than he would via arbitration, but only if he meets the requirements of the incentives. This way if Wang doesn’t pitch well in 2010, the Yankees wouldn’t have spent too much money on him, but if he does pitch well, he would earn a nice paycheck that the Yankees would gladly pay him for his performance. This way it works out both ways for the Yankees, and there is still something in it for Wang. I just think Chien-Ming Wang is too valuable to let get away, let’s remember when he is right, he is a number one starter and he’d only have to be a number three with CC and Burnett. What’s your opinion on this?
If you remember, I've used this picture before. And I like it!
Remember, this a not a topic about the rest of the rotation, and not a discussion on Chamberlain or Hughes. Also take into account Wang will not be ready at the start of the season.
Congratulations to Zack Greinke for winning the AL Cy Young Award. In case you are wondering CC finished 4th in the voting.
Congratulations to New York (Staten Island, to be precise) native, Andrew Bailey, for winning the AL Rookie of the Year award.
Congratulations to Chris Coghlan for winning the NL ROY.
Notes
The Yankees declined Sergio Mitre’s 2010 $1.25 million option, but he is still eligible for arbitration with the Yankees.
Recently there have been a lot of rumors linking the Yankees with Curtis Granderson of the Tigers. Personally, I think he would be a good fit, but only for a good price, which probably won’t happen. River Avenue Blues has a good read about the subject. What do you guys think?
After winning the World Championship just last week, Mark Teixeira and Derek Jeter won the 2009 Gold Glove award for their respective positions. This is Jeter’s 4th time winning the award, and Teixeira’s 3rd time. We all know that Derek Jeter is often criticized for his defense, but he did improve this year. I’m not sure he completely earned the award, but there really wasn’t any other shortstop who you could argue was a much better fielder than Jeter. So, I believe Jeter was worthy of this award. I also believe Teixeira was definitely worthy of the award, but there were other first baseman who may have been better than Teix. In the end, these days gold gloves don’t mean much, but it is still nice to see a pair of Yankees win the award since the Yankees are always criticized for their defense.
The Yankees are back in New York after dropping game 5 in Philidelphia to play game 6. Old Andy Pettitte will be going for the Yankees, and who else but Pedro Martinez will be going for the Phillies. Will the World Series end tonight? We”ll have to wait and see…
With last night’s nail biting victory, the Yankees lead the World Series 3 games to 1. They only need to win 1 out of the next 3 games to be World Champions. Will it happen tonight with A.J. Burnett going on 3 days rest? There’s only 27 outs standing between World Championship and the Yankees.
Alex Rodriguez was the hero last night, who will be the hero tonight?
Melky Cabrera update : Last night Melky strained his hamstring, and according to Mark Feinsand, Ramiro Pena has replaced Melky on the playoff roster. It’s too bad the Yankees won’t have Melky to play center for the rest of the World Series, but they do have Brett Gardner and Jerry Hairston Jr. I can’t help but feel bad for Melky though…
Last night the Yankees took game 2 of the World Series by the score of 3-1. The Yankees were opposed by Pedro Martinez, and while he pitched well, he did not pitch as well as Burnett did for the Yankees. A.J. went 7 strong innings allowing only 1 run, while striking out 9 and only walking 2 batters. A.J. really showed his worth last night, and depending on the situations the Yankees may consider starting him on short rest for game 5. On the offensive side Mark Teixeira got the Yankees on the board by hitting a solo homer in the 4th inning, then in the 6th Hideki Matsui hit another solo homer to give the Yankees 2 runs, and that’s all they would need. However, the Yankees picked up an insurance run in the 7th when Jorge Posada (pinch hitting for Jose Molina) singled to score Brett Gardner (pinch running for Jerry Hairston Jr.). Mariano Rivera came in for the 8th and 9th, and shut the down, albeit with some difficulty. Still, the Yankees won, and evened out the series 1-1 going into Philadelphia for 2 games.
Side Note
As you already know, Joe Girardi opted to put Jerry Hairston Jr. in right field last night in place for the slumping Nick Swisher (4-35 this postseason, a .114 average). I don’t disagree with the move to sit Swisher, but I’m not sure I think Hairston was the best replacement. I understand Jerry had good numbers against Pedro (1o-27), but Eric Hinske is 8-30 against Pedro, and Hinske is generally considered the better hitter out of the duo of Hairston and Hinkse. And if Girardi didn’t want to play Hinske, Gardner was an option as well, but I too probably would have chose Hairston over Gardner. What’s your take?
According to Sam Borden, game 6 of the ALCS has been postponed to Sunday at 8 pm. I’m disappointed, you all are probably disappointed. Oh well, it will probably be a boring night tonight. Oh, and if you are wondering, Pettitte is still scheduled to pitch tomorrow.
As you already know, the Yankees swept the Twins in the ALDS and now are preparing to play the Angels (who swept to Red Sox in the ALDS) in the ALCS. Game 1 doesn’t start until Friday so here are a few questions you can look at and discuss until Friday comes along:
Are the Yankees going to use 3 or 4 starters in the ALCS? Well it looks like they are strongly leaning to going with 3 starters, which would put CC Sabathia on short rest for game 4 and a possible game 7, but it would also allow the Yankees to keep Joba and Gaudin in the bullpen. More from Sam Borden…
Will the Yankees make any roster adjustments? Well, there hasn’t been much said about the subject but if the decision was mine to make, I think I would take Damaso Marte off the roster in favor of Brian Bruney or Freddy Guzman.
Will the Yankees use Joba for the 8th and Hughes for the 7th? I personally don’t understand how this has been brought up. Joba has pitched in a grand total of 2.2 innings coming out of the bullpen in all of 2009. Should he really be considered higher up in the pecking order than someone who has been there for over half a season? I don’t think so. When asked about Hughes, Girardi responded, “I’m not concerned about Hughsie.”
