Yanks sign Colon, could offer Pettitte $12M

When you don’t have enough pitching, just sign Bartolo Colon. That’s been the case, it seems, for the past few years and, today, the Yankees took on that meme, signing Colon to a minor-league deal worth 900k. Colon, a former Cy Young winner in 2005, also has the right to be released if he doesn’t [...]

Brian Cashman visiting Cliff Lee in Arkansas

Via the AP: Yankees general manager Brian Cashman has traveled to Arkansas to meet with free-agent pitcher Cliff Lee. Cashman was invited Tuesday by Lee’s agent, Darek Brauneker, to meet with the 32-year-old left-hander and his wife, a person familiar with the arrangements told The Associated Press yesterday. The person spoke on condition of anonymity [...]

Cliff Lee wants CC money

Via Jon Heyman of SI: Before Halladay took a $60-million, three-year extension with Philly, Lee turned down a similar offer, believed to be for three years and somewhere in the mid-$50-millions from Philadelphia, who eventually traded him to Seattle. Word was, he was thinking about more than double that, maybe something close to Johan Santana‘s $138-million, [...]

GOTD: CC’s BB/9 on the rise

Here’s today’s graph of the day–an interesting bit on CC Sabathia’s walk rate via FanGraphs: Despite his great season, CC’s BB/9 sits at 2.93, which is the highest figure from CC since a 3.45 mark in 2004.

Dave Eiland to return on Tuesday

Earlier today, Chad Jennings of LoHud informed us that Dave Eiland, the Yankees’ pitching coach, will return to the team on Tuesday. Eiland has been away for most of the month so as to deal with an undisclosed personal matter. One man, in particular, who will undoubtedly benefit from Eiland’s return is A.J. Burnett, as [...]

A.J. Burnett not worth $16.5M per year

Though I have discussed this at length in a number of previous posts, after last night’s brutal start, I have to say it once more–A.J. Burnett is not and and was not going to be worth $16.5M, which is what he currently collects from the Yankees each season. Brian Cashman simply overpaid him when he [...]

Heyman: Yanks favorite to sign Cliff Lee

Hey, how about a piece on Seattle’s Cliff Lee? Via Jon Heyman of Sports Illustrated: The Yankees look like a favorite to sign Lee in the winter considering: 1) their vast wealth, 2) the potential loss of free agent Javier Vazquez and possibly Pettitte from the rotation, 3) their general admiration for Lee and 4) the [...]

Yanks not discussing Lee

Via Marc Carig of the Star-Ledger: The Yankees have yet to hold internal discussions about acquiring players at the trade deadline, including Mariners ace Cliff Lee, according to two baseball officials informed of the team’s thinking. Though teams are beginning to deploy scouts to identify potential trade targets, one official said on Thursday that prep [...]

Trying to explain a rough patch

Over their last 15 games, the Yankees are 5-10. Obviously, the team has hit a rough stretch offensively, one that can be connected, in part, to the team’s bevy of injuries. However, with that said, though much of the collective slump is predicated upon a wide-sweeping offensive malaise, the Yankees’ starting pitching, which was so [...]

Hughes maturing with each start

Here’s an interesting bit regarding last night’s game via Marc Carig (Star-Ledger): But Hughes, the losing pitcher in the Yankees’ 5-4 defeat to the Orioles, still managed to allow only one run in 5 2/3 innings. So how did he do it, despite walking four and admitting he had no feel for his stuff? Part [...]

My interview with Bucky Dent, Sparky Lyle, and Fritz Peterson

For Yankee fans, the club’s history is something that we should often revisit, for it is important to appreciate and take note of those who “came before.” Recently, thanks to the kind folks over at Steiner Sports, I was given an opportunity to relive some of that history by interviewing three former Yankees about their [...]

STG29: Yankees VS Orioles

Here are the lineups for today’s game, via LoHud: YANKEES Derek Jeter SS Nick Johnson DH Mark Teixeira 1B Alex Rodriguez 3B Robinson Cano 2B Nick Swisher RF Curtis Granderson CF Brett Gardner LF Mike Rivera C LHP Andy Pettitte ORIOLES Brian Roberts 2B Nolan Reimold RF Adam ones CF Miguel Tejada 3B Garrett Atkins [...]

Jorge Posada and “game-calling”

From the charts above, one can see that the Yankees’ top three starters in 2009 – CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett, Andy Pettitte – when paired with Jorge Posada, often struck out fewer batters and, in fact, walked more batters when compared to their career averages, and to the work done with backup catcher, Jose Molina. [...]

Morning Bits: Recap, Burnett, Granderson, SWB

Here are a few quick news items on the morning: The Yankees defeated the Blue Jays yesterday, 5-2, in what was their final spring road game. The victory can be tied to A.J. Burnett, who threw 4 2/3 innings, allowing 2 ER on 5 hits (2 BB, 2 K). Just in case you missed it, [...]

The obvious problem with paying for pitching

Pictured above is one of several pie charts Jeff Zimmerman posted today over at Beyond the Box Score. Now, the chart certainly isn’t perfect, as there are a number of relevant contextual factors that simply go unstated (e.g., the number of pitchers versus the number of hitters, etc.), but central to the illustration is the [...]

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