jusnice wrote:No more Joba rules - its official.

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/yankees/2010/02/10/2010-02-10_joba_rules_written_off.html

Who wins the #5 spot - Joba or Phil?

Does this apply to Hughes too? If that's true, then halleluhia.

TMS wrote:i think Joba will start off as the starter unless he just has a bad ST... Phil didn't pitch as many inninngs last year so i think he starts off the season as the setup guy

You may be right, although like most of us, I'd rather see the reverse (Joba in the pen being groomed as Mo's successor and Phil starting). I agree with Jeff Nelson's quick assessment here (gotten off the Yankees' web site):

http://newyork.yankees.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20100209&content_id=8043096&vkey=news_nyy&fext=.jsp&c_id=nyy

And I love the Thames signing btw. Power option either in the starting lineup lower in the order or off the bench, decent defense, leftfield depth... Can't go wrong here. Dude's a nice player. From what I gather, a big early knock on our offense from some experts is that we may struggle against left-handed pitching. Not sure I agree but Thames definitely could only help in this area. Nice pickup -- he's great value for what they got him for (a minor league contract with a spring invite). A very pleasant surprise. Good work Cash!

SupremeCommander wrote:I'd like Gaudin to be the fifth starter and Joba and Hughes to be in the pen. I think having access to both pitchers if AJ or Andy only goes 5 or 6 has greater value to the team than being a super-duper 5th

yanks are in a tough spot b/c they want to win and they also want to develop.

what's more important at this point - a 5th starter or 2 quality arms in the pen. i think everyone would say the 2 arms in the pen.

but 5th starter would hopefully just be the beginning for hughes/joba and they could become a 2nd or 3rd (or possibly 1st) down the road...but until they get the shot at the 5th starter spot, we'll never know.

need to think a little long term with one of them and would rather them start developing as a starter now.

Yankees prospect Jesus Montero's a big hit with bat, but 20-year-old working hard on his defense

by Anthony Mccarron
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Originally Published:Saturday, February 13th 2010, 6:29 PM

TAMPA - Under a slate-gray sky, the Yankees' best prospect steps in front of home plate, prepared to block it. About 10 yards away, a coach with a thin fungo bat swats a ball at him, simulating the unpredictable nature of throws from the outfield, as rain drops fall. The young catcher's mitt flashes out to snare the ball and he applies a mock tag, then he jogs to the side as another catcher takes a turn in the drill.

Most of Jesus Montero's days are made up of moments like this, working at the craft of catching. He flops side to side in the bullpen, honing his skills at blocking errant pitches. He pores over the rudiments of receiving, learning how to handle different pitches and the myriad ways they can break, and he works to shorten his throwing motion to take better advantage of a powerful arm.

To Montero - and the Yankees - this is all vital work, even though Montero's catching skills are not what most believe will eventually get him to the major leagues. Montero, rated as the fifth-best prospect in the game by Baseball America, might be the best hitter in the minor leagues, a player who swings his way to Yankee Stadium before his defense can catch up.

"His bat may not be too far from the big leagues," says a rival baseball executive, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was evaluating a player in another organization. "But they'll have to decide his position. Jesus has a chance to be a very, very big hitter. He reminds me of Carlos Delgado at that age.

"When you have a guy who hits that well, you may want to get him out of there even if he can't catch."

Then the executive invokes the name of a player who comes up often when discussing Montero - Minnesota's Joe Mauer, the reigning AL MVP. Mauer is big like Montero - Mauer is 6-5 and 220 pounds, Montero 6-4, 235 - and an amazing hitter. He is also a terrific defensive catcher.

As the executive says, "There are not very many Joe Mauers."

Still, the Yankees use Mauer's success as a response to the argument that Montero is too big to be a catcher.

And they are determined to see if Montero can be the eventual replacement for 38-yea-old Jorge Posada. Montero is likely to be the starting catcher at Triple-A Scranton this season, but Joe Girardi will get a look at him when Montero reports with pitchers and catchers Wednesday for his third big-league camp.

Most teams don't get huge offense from catchers because the position is so physically punishing, defense so vital. So if Montero becomes the hitter the Yanks believe he can be while catching, "that elevates the whole club's offense," says Mark Newman, the Yankees' VP of baseball operations.

"We are fortunate. We have a catcher (Posada) who is one of the top offensive catchers in the game, so we're getting offense from a position a lot of clubs don't and we want to continue that with Jesus. If he's a catcher, his value is enhanced and we think he'll be a catcher."

Still, Montero also has begun work at first base, if for no other reason than to be more versatile.

Montero's future position is not the only arena for debate about him. Who knows if he'll play his whole career with the Yankees? Other teams often ask for him in trade discussions. The Blue Jays wanted him in any potential Roy Halladay deal. While nothing is certain, the Yankees seem as committed to keeping the 20-year-old as they are to seeing if he can catch longterm.

"He's one of the best (offensive prospects) we've had and he's as good as anybody we've had with the exception of Derek (Jeter)," Newman says. "He can do the things Robbie Cano could do when he was young and has more power."

Montero signed as an international free agent at 16 and two years later was demolishing the low Class A South Atlantic League, hitting .326 with 17 homers in 132 games at Charleston. Last season, he hit .337 with a .389 on-base percentage and a .562 slugging percentage in 92 games between Class A Tampa and Double-A Trenton before his season ended because of a broken finger.

With the way his career is rising, it's no wonder Montero seems like a happy fellow, a big, grinning kid who people often forget is so young because of his preternatural talent for whaling a baseball.

"He's an outgoing guy," says the Yanks' minor-league catching coordinator Julio Mosquera, who works daily with Montero. "I call him fresh - fresh in a good way. Not timid, going to go after it. If you have fun, you're going to develop faster."

Sitting on a picnic table behind the clubhouse at the Yankee's minor-league complex last week, Montero laughs easily, his huge hands slung together in his lap as he talks about catching and starting out in the game in Guacara, Venezuela, the same area as his pal Francisco Cervelli, a fellow Yankee catcher.

Montero's eyes light up when he talks about his hobby - building race cars, his love of engines forged in his father's body shop growing up.

"Big machines, lots of speed," Montero says. "I get crazy with that. There are a lot of little things you have to do and it's got to be perfect. All the time, I'd help my dad in his shop. He'd give me a little bit of money to play video games."

Montero is quick to say he does not drive the cars, sending waves of relief through the corridors of power in Yankeeland. "No, no, no," he says, smiling. "Just the machine part."

But his real love is baseball, which he started playing when he was five with his father, also named Jesus. By the time he was a teenager, major league organizations were watching and he was the most sought-after international free agent when he could sign at 16.

Montero always wanted to sign with the Yankees. Asked what other teams got close to inking him, he says, "Second was the Mets. Boston, the Indians. But I liked the Yankees. I hope they don't trade me because I want to be with them the rest of my life."

Montero signed for $1.6 million, what he called "life-changing" money that has given his family comfort. He has two brothers - one, Jesus Rafael, is a catcher in the Cardinals' system - and his mother and father are devoted to the catchers' careers.

When Montero hit his first pro home run in a Rookie League game at the same complex where he practiced last week, his father sprinted from the stands to the parking lot to retrieve the ball. When Montero played in the Futures Game, a showcase for baseball's best prospects, at the original Yankee Stadium in 2008, his father burst into tears.

But before he ascended to the Futures Game - he's played in the last two - Montero had a lot of learning to do. "He was very raw," says Pat Roessler, the Yanks' director of player development.

And he had to learn to cope with a new culture and a new language - at the Futures Game in the Bronx, he did interviews through an interpreter because he had not mastered English; last week, he did an entire 20-minute interview in English, asking an interpreter for help only twice.

Montero had not practiced blocking balls much before turning pro and early in one camp his arms and hands were covered with purpling bruises, many of which could have been avoided with better technique, Mosquera says. "You beat me up, are you mad at me?" Montero asked Mosquera.

"I said, 'The beauty of this, we gotta block again today,'" Mosquera says. "He did it the right way and he said, 'Alright.' Sometimes, you've got to let them try to figure it out. He's doing a really good job of it."

So much so that Montero is already thinking about making the majors some time this season. "That's my goal," he says.

While the Yankees may prefer that he play the whole season in Scranton, even GM Brian Cashman admits, "So far, he's got one very impressive resume that makes you dream big.

"But he has more work to do, more things to prove. He's got the two most difficult steps to take and that usually separates the men and boys."

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/yankees/2010/02/13/2010-02-13_yankees_catcher_is_a_rising_star.html?page=2#ixzz0fkhFFNgt

I love that. How many teams inspire that, especially in this day and age?

djsunyc wrote:ca$h money to boras: STFU AND GFTO BITCH

UPDATE, 12:29 p.m.: In a nice bit of timing, I just spoke to Brian Cashman on the phone and he touched a little more on the Damon process. He says the notion that the Yankees didn’t “engage” with Damon is just plain false and that, despite media reports that Damon might sign for $7 million a year, he fully expects Damon to get the Bobby Abreu-type money of at least $9 million a year.

“I mean, that’s what they said when they turned down our last offer,” Cashman told me. “I told them I was at the level of two years, $13 million and they said ‘no bleeping way’ and then we even floated the one year, $6 million with deferred money and they pointed to the Bobby Abreu deal. So I fully expect him to get Abreu money, unless they were playing us the entire winter. That would be like playing poker without any hand at all and, you know, maybe they did that.”

I asked Cashman if ever had regrets about how he handled a particular negotiation.

“I’m sure in the past, I have, I’ve put some things away but in this case, we did what we could,” he said. “We absolutely did what we could. The information we got from them was loud and clear. We followed Johnny’s guidelines, Johnny’s path. What’s happening now is a lot of spin doctoring by the agent. It didn’t work out. Don’t try to make us look bad or the Yankees look bad. That’s not right.”

—–

(Original post)

Looking out my window right now, it’s hard to imagine anyone being interested in playing catch or taking batting practice, but I guess that’s why spring training is in Florida – Chad’s on his way to Tampa today and a slew of Yankees are already into informal workouts at the minor-league complex. Baseball is here.

While I was doing some reading today, I stumbled across a story from a few days ago that had some interesting quotes from Brian Cashman. Cash spoke at the University of New Haven and when asked by a local reporter beforehand about the Yankees policy of not negotiating extensions on expiring contracts, said this:

“The industry the last two free agent markets seems to be going downward and the player’s ages are going upward. It makes more sense to be patient. My attitude is if this is the place you want to be, you will make it happen. Johnny Damon professed his love for the Yankees, wanted to be here and was given every chance to be here. He’s not here anymore and I don’t feel that is the Yankees’ fault. They have to reconcile why they are not here, not me. If people want to be here and be a part of something, then find a way to work it out. Of course we want (Jeter, Rivera and Girardi) back, but we choose to delay that until the end of the year.”

The story also mentions that Cashman extended two contracts earlier in his career – Paul O’Neill’s and Chad Curtis’s – and none since. So there’s some random trivia for you. Cashman also said the Damon negotiations basically ended after the Yankees had two offers (a two-year, $14 million deal and a one-year, $6 million deal) turned down. Cashman has no regrets.

“I told (Damon and Boras), ‘I don’t know if Hal (Steinbrenner, the team’s part owner) would approve it, but I’m not going to fight for it unless we know you will do it,’” Cashman said. “Scott Boras said, ‘Bobby Abreu’s (new) contract is $9 million a year right now on the table so why would we do that? So I expect to see a Bobby Abreu contract.’ … I hope he does not sign for something less than our offer. That means he should have been a Yankee and that’s not our fault.”

boras is a detriment. the guys that he represent that get big money, could have gotten big money from almost any agent since he only represents the superstars in most cases. in addition, he's usually more of a hindrance than a help - look at the arod situation with the yankees, the yankees plain stopped negotiating with boras and arod took over. you can look at the damon situation, he's going to get the same money the yankees offered, but now on a lesser team. theres been various players he's had sign on crap teams just to take the most money and then you got a guy like felipe lopez who had a career year last year and he just recently fired boras.... the guy is a joke.