Here's a quick rundown of free agent rumblings.

George King:


I'd take a pass on Foulke, but I'm interested in bringing Dotal back in a low risk/high reward situation. 1 year deal, most likely, in other words.

Dan Graziano:


Tyler Kepner:


George King:


I'd welcome Andy back. Rather him than Lilly or Meche or something like that.

Anthony McCarron:


Via Pro Sports Daily.

From the New York Post:


lol.

Via Pro Sports Daily.

If you accept the proposition that the (yet to be sealed) Igawa deal will end NYY's foray into the starting pitching market, then the rotation could be something like:

1) Wang
2) Mussina
3) Johnson
4) Igawa
5) Sanchez, Karstens or Rasner

Johnson immediately emerges as the key to the rotation next year. Given his oscillating performances (the early season Toronto bashing vs. the dominant June outing vs. DET) we are left to wonder:

Did Cashman know about the back issue before the end of '06? If so, is he confident that RJ can recapture his '04 form now that the back has been repaired?

Don't get super comfortable in Scranton, Phil.

ESPN is reporting that the Yankees have sent in the top bid for Japanese pitcher Kei Igawa for around $25 million. The Yankees have until December 28 to reach a deal with the pitcher.

That's about as high as I would've made the bid for Matsuzaka. Now we're going to pay $25 million just for the right to a guy who will probably put up similar numbers to a pitcher we could get under contract for that much for about three years. But hey, when the Red Sox are about to pay $75 million for J.D. Drew for five years, maybe this isn't TOO bad.

From SI.com:


The announcement on who got him is expected tonight. Would we really pay that much for Igawa with what we put forward for Matsuzaka in mind? Then again, I don't know much about Igawa.

Via Jim Baumbach.

It's finally official. Mussina is back for 2 years.

David Pinto over at Baseball Musings broke out his Probabilistic Model of Range (link eventually leads to a video on the stat) for Second Basemen yesterday. Of the 37 second basemen profiled, Yankees second baseman Robbie Cano came in 12th, which isn't too shabby for a player that was initially profiled as an below-average to average fielder. Pinto's system predicted that with the same amount of chances, Cano should be able to convert 373 outs; Cano was able to get 385.

Now before you point it out, yes, I realize that defensive metrics are still more or less in their first/second iterations. Still, it still makes me feel good to know that Cano is getting better and that Pinto's PMR isn't the only one that shows Cano being an above average defender. Baseball Prospectus' Rate2 statistic pegged Cano at 113 (100 being average) for 2006 after a 2005 season at a Rate2 of 100. Let's hope Robbie can keep this up.

Update: First Basemen are also profiled (Giambi is DEAD LAST - big surprise there), as are Left Fielders (way to go Melky...and wow on Manny Ramirez), Center Fielders (Damon doesn't do too badly), Right Fielders (Abreu is right smack at average) and Shortstops (Jeter is 5th to last).

With the hitters done, here are our 2006 regular season grades for the pitchers.

SP - Chien-Ming Wang: A
Patrick: In a rotation full of veterans, it was the second year Wang who stood out the most. His 19 wins led the team and the AL (tied with Cy Young winner, Johan Santana). He pitched in 34 games (he pitched one in relief, giving him a save), had 2 complete games, 1 shutout, threw 218 innings (5th best in the AL) and allowed just 12 home runs with an ERA of 3.63 (T7th AL), a WHIP of 1.31 and a BAA of .277. Statistically, Wang was the ace of this staff.

SP - Randy Johnson: B-
Seamus: The Big Unit struggled a bit as his age seemed to be catching up with him. His fastball isn't what it used to be and he was a bit more wild than in the past (most likely a result of him throwing too hard to compensate for what he's lost in his arm). He did start to show some signs, though, towards the second half of the season and he did seem to be adapting better to becoming a pitcher rather than a thrower as the season went on. However, although he's still (in my opinion, anyway) better than the average pitcher, this season was the first season that Johnson has had an ERA of 5 or higher since his 6.67 mark in 1989 when he pitched only 29 and 2/3 innings.

» Read More

As a follow up to the hitters, here are the pitcher results from our community projections.

Randy Johnson

            G GS    IP  W  L BB   K  ERA
Projected: 33 33 223.2 19  7 45 228 3.36
Actual:    33 33 205.0 17 11 60 172 5.00

Our projection for Randy was pretty aggressive. We were hopeful that he'd return to form. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. Even so, we nailed games and games started and were only off on wins by 2.

Individuals Dead On: James for games. Seamus and James for games started.

Mike Mussina

            G GS    IP  W L BB   K  ERA
Projected: 29 29 185.0 14 9 47 145 4.40
Actual:    32 32 197.1 15 7 35 172 3.51

While we hoped The Unit would return to form, we didn't give Moose much of a chance. We got close in some areas, but on the whole, he proved us wrong, big time. He performed better than every single one of our projections.

Individuals Dead On: Mike and Richard A. Holland for wins. Me for losses.

» Read More

Scout.com has an interview with new Yankee Kevin Whelan:

From the San Francisco Chronicle:


Not going to make an assumptions or pass down a guilty verdict because I don't think that's fair, but it is a little odd.

Via Steve.

From Newsday.com:


Via Pro Sports Daily.

From MLB.com:


Dobson was traded to the Yankees on June 7, 1973 in exchange for Frank Tepedino, Wayne Nordhagen, Dave Cheadle and Al Closter. In his 2 and 1/2 plus seasons in New York, he was 39-37 with a 3.65 ERA. On November 22, 1975, he was traded to Cleveland for Oscar Gamble.

The 2006 is well over now and we've had some time to think and reflect back on the individual performances of the season. And so, here are our individual player grades for the 2006 regular season. First, we have the hitters. We'll cover the pitchers in a future entry.

C - Jorge Posada: A
Patrick: 2006 was a nice bounce back year for Jorge, from the down year that 2005 was. He hit .277 with a .374 OBA, .492 SLG, 27 doubles, 23 home runs and 93 runs batted in. His .492 SLG was the 3rd best mark he's put up in his career while the 143 games he played ties with 2002 for the second most in a single season. Somehow, he managed to steal 3 bases, more than he's ever stolen in a single season, while not being caught once.

C - Sal Fasano: C
Jason O.: How can you not love Sal? The sweet facial hair, the cannoli-fueled physique - this guy is 100% old school. He fulfilled his expected role admirably (very little offense, above average defense) as a back-up catcher after the release of Kelly Stinnett.

» Read More

From Bloomberg.com:

I just wanted to mention that some other Yankees showed up on ballots, as well.

A-Rod received 1 5th place vote, 2 8th place votes and 1 10th place vote. Jason Giambi received 1 6th place vote and 2 9th place votes. Johnny Damon received 1 5th (?) place vote and 1 10th place vote. Robinson Cano received 1 8th place vote. Mo received 1 9th place vote. Finally, Chien-Ming Wang received 1 9th place vote.

Before I mention the link, I just wanted to remind everyone that this is just baseball and is just a matter of opinion. It's very, very easy to criticize when you aren't the one voting. And no matter what the case is, again, it's just a game - personal attacks and namecalling have no place. Do I think Jeter should have won? Yes. Am I disappointed he didn't? Yes. Yes, yes, yes. But, it should be kept in perspective. So, if you want to contact these individuals and give your opinion, very well. But, keep it classy and respectful, please. Respresent us well.

Anyway, here is the link. For those curious, the person who voted Jeter 4th was Danny Knobler of Booth Newspapers in Detroit. The person who voted him 6th was Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun Times.

Via Fabian.

First, I knew something was afoot when Ryan Howard won the NL MVP over the deserving Pujols.

Also, don't expect me to start this with the pro forma "all due respect to Morneau" concession. As has been mentioned 37 times elsewhere, Morneau was not even the MVP of his own team. He did not deserve this award, period.

I'll review the extensive damage that the sacred BBWAA has done to the MVP award by drawing appropriate analogies:

1) The Heisman Trophy: In 1989, Raghib "Rocket" Ismail was without question the best player in college football. Notre Dame's coaching staff actually INVENTED a play for the Rocket, the flanker screen. Who wins the Heisman? Ty Detmer, of course, who threw for 200,000 yards in the defensively challenged (to be kind) Western Athletic Conference.

2) The Oscars, 1999: Steven Spielberg crafts one of the 15 greatest movies in 100 years of Hollywood, Saving Private Ryan. The film succeeds on so many levels that it almost defies description.

Best Picture? Shakespeare in Love.

Reflect on that for a moment. A movie memorable now to me only in the absurdity of Ben Affleck cast as an original Shakespearean actor.

Recall the 7th inning of the 2nd game of the doubleheader in the defining Boston series this year. Bases loaded. #2 clears the bases with an opposite field double. Yankees win en route to a sweep.

Morneau over Jeter. I am baffled...and like the oscars and the Heisman, I'll never look at the award the same way again.

According to Peter A. over at the LoHud Yankees Blog, Minnesota's Justin Morneau won the American League MVP over Derek Jeter.

Morneau had 320 points and 15 first-place votes. Jeter had 306 points and 12 first-place votes. Pete A. found the link to the official BBWAA release, includes the voting breakdown. Morneau hit .321/.375/.559 with 34 homers, 130 RBIs and 3 steals while Jeter batted .343/.417/.483 with 14 homers, 97 RBIs and 34 SBs.

Much like Alex Bleth over at Bronx Banter, I could have lived with Jeter losing to Mauer and Santana but losing to Morneau is just plain annoying. He was CLEARLY the THIRD most valuable player on that Minnesota team behind Mauer and Santana and yet he beats out Derek Jeter for the MVP. I might sound like a fanboy here but to me, that's just ridiculous.

Update: Say what you will about Derek Jeter, he was all class in his remarks about his getting hosed, I mean, losing, the MVP award. For those of you who side with me, I'd check out Mike A.'s thoughts as well as what NoMaas has to say. The comments over at David Pinto's Baseball Musings are also definitely worth a look.

The AL MVP will be announced today. If it goes to Jeter, that will be an acceptable birthday gift.

From the New York Post:


Via Steve.

If you saw the $51.1 million posting for Matzuka and thought it was just a blip, get ready to be amazed. A Chicago-based radio station is reporting that the Cubs just signed Alfonso Soriano to an 8 year deal worth $136 million. That's $17 million per season for those playing along at home. $17 million for converted infielder who happens to turn 31 years old in a month. Yes, I know he went 40/40 last year but Soriano scares me on many levels. I mean, he was playing for a new contract last year, a good part of his game built on his speed and even in his best year (last year), his OBP was just .351. Honestly, if you look at his career stats, last year certainly looks like a outlier, doesn't it? Well, the Cubs will certainly find out over the next 8 years.

What does this mean for the Yankees? Well, remember a couple of years ago when a ton of teams were just throwing around money (and the Yanks picked up Pavano & Wright) - yeah, it looks like it's going to be one of those free-agent hauls this year. If you want to pick someone up, be prepared to pay through the nose for him because a lot of teams seem to have cash just burning a hole in their pocket. For example, look at Mark DeRosa. He's a utility infielder that I liked at the beginning of the offseason to fill Miggy Cairo's spot on the Yankees bench. He plays a lot of positions (all of them pretty well actually) and I figured he wouldn't command more than a couple million on the open market. I mean, DeRosa will turn 32 before the beginning of next year and prior to last year, really hadn't done too much. So what happened? Well, he was signed to a 3 year, 13 million dollar deal by (who else?) the Cubs. Wow. I can't wait to see what Boras is drumming up for Mr. Zito.

In hindsight, it looks like Detroit really did get a bargain on Sheffield at just $13 million. Who knew?

Update: Justin Speier, who Patrick had mentioned earlier as a player that the Yanks were looking at, just signed with LAnaheim to a 4 year, $18 million dollar deal. $4.5 million a year for a reliever who is pretty good and has been consistent the last few years but is also turning 33 before the start of next season. Interesting. Even with the minimal amount of actual talent out on the free agent market, it looks like big dollars and long-terms are back in vogue.

Ted Lilly:


Lilly will be 31 on opening day. For his career, he is 59-58 with a 4.60 ERA. During his time in New York, he was 8-12 in 205.1 IP over 49 games wth a 4.65 ERA. Last season with Toronto, he was 15-13 with a 4.31 ERA. He threw 181.7 innings in 32 games, meaning he pitched about 5 and 2/3 a start.

Rich Aurilla:


Aurilla is 35 years old. Last year, he played in 122 games for Cincinnati, getting 440 ABs. He hit .300 with a .349 OBA, 23 home runs and 70 RBI.

Justin Speier:


Speier is 33 years old. After a number of up and down/iffy years, he has been excellent in the past two seasons, posting ERAs of 2.56 and 2.98 in 65 and 58 games, respectively.

Via Pro Sports Daily.