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I was going to do another 25 man roster prediction but I noticed i did one on the 19th and not much has changed besides the Pettitte signing. I am still not sure if the Yankees will carry 11 or 12 pitchers right out of spring training. I also wonder what happens if Hughes looks unhittable in spring training, do they move Joba to the pen? I think Joba needs to be a setup guy. Having Joba and Mo in the 8th and 9th could be unstoppable. With AJ, CC, Wang and Pettitte there are 4 solid starters. Someone can fill the number 5 guy, especially if Hughes finally figures it all out. I know Joba wants to start but the more I think about it the more I rather have him pitching 1 inning and setting up Mo. It will be an interesting spring training.

Check out yankees.scout.com if you enjoy following the Yankees minor league system. It is a pais subscription site but worth it. The Yankees have some good arms stocked in the minors. It will be interesting to see who develops, who gets traded and who fizzles out. I am hoping Betances becomes a monster in 2010.

Andy signed a 1 year deal today. $5.5 million base deal with incentives up to $12 million. Good signing by the Yankees.

Pitching depth is huge for any team. There is no chance CC, AJ, Joba, Wang and Hughes were going to give the team 34 starts in 2009.

With Andy, the team has a durable starter. Now Hughes, Kennedy, Aceves, Coke can develop in AAA and be ready to contribute or contribute on opening day if a pitcher is hurt in spring training.

The Andy signing is bad news for pitchers in the minors because the AAA staff is going to be pretty crowded. The benefit will be guys can develop at AAA and AA. Hughes, Joba, Kennedy were a little rushed. Now guys like Brackman, Betances, McCallister (sp?), Kontos and others can get innings in before the big show.

Looks like talks with Andy are still ongoing. I think it is a no-brainer to bring him back for a one year deal. Will he win 20 games like Moose did last year? Probably not. But he does have a good chance to win 15 games, throw 200 innings and make 34-35 starts. The rotation needs durability. AJ has a history of arm issues. CC has thrown A LOT of innings the last few years. Joba will only be able to throw 150 or so innings. Wang did not pitch a full season last year. What happens if Hughes wins the number 5 spot but AJ goes down for a long period of time? Who is the #5 starter then? Kennedy? Aceves? Jason Johnson????? The Yankees can not get stuck using guys like Rasner and Ponson for long periods of time like they did last year. They need to give Andy a one year deal.

Of course a deal is a two way street and if Andy does not want 10 million for 2009, the Yankees cannot do much more. The market is way down, big names are still on the market, so he should be happy just to get an offer.

On a lighter note, a new Torre book rips into the Yankees. Supposedly teammates referred to A-rod as A-Fraud. Go figure. They guy is a fraud. Makes 30 million a year but plays like a guy that should get 15 million a year. The guy is a very good player but is NOT a great baseball player. He may look great with his shirt off but baseball is more than physique. One only need to look at John Kruk, David Wells, Sid Fernandez and many others.

Cots baseball contracts is a great place for team payroll data. Click Here to see the information on Yankee contracts.
I have not done the math, I have seen some other blogs do the math and it looks like the Yankees will have an opening day payroll of about 200 million. A little less than the 208 million from 2008 but not much. The positive thing is the team did get younger and more talented. Matsui, Molina, Nady and Damon are free agents after 2009 so another roughly 34 million will be off the books and there does not seem to be any big free agents for 2009 besides maybe Holliday. Hopefully Tex settles in nicely, Cano bounces back, A-rod and Jeter have good seasons. Gardner or Melky establishes themselves in CF. CC, Wang, AJ and Joba stay healthy and develop into a good rotation. Hughes, Kennedy or some young pitcher establishes the 5th spot. The Yankees will not need to sign a lot of free agents after 2009. Probably just a LF and RF although Swisher could develop into a good corner outfielder in 2009.

With 1 month to go to spring training I am going to take a stab at the opening day roster. This will be a roster as of today. Of course it may change if Pettitte signs or a trade is made. I am going to assume the Yankees are done making moves.

Position players

Catcher:
Posada
Molina

First Base:
Texeira

Second Base:
Cano

Shortstop:
Jeter

Third Base:
A-rod

Utility Guy:
Ransom
Berroa

Left field:
Damon

Centerfield:
Gardner
Cabrera

Right Field:
Nady

Reserve Outfielder:
Swisher

Starting rotation:
CC
Burnett
Wang
Joba
Hughes

Bullpen:
Mo
Marte
Veras
Bruney
Ramirez
Robertson
Albaladejo

Swishers can play first or an outfield position. Gardner will be the starting centerfielder with Melky as the 4th outfielder who can play all 3 outfield positions.

Ransom can play SS so he will win one infield utility spot. I believe he also can play some third base. Berroa will be the other infield reserve guy.

I think the Yankees will open with a 12 man pitching staff. With off days early, they may go with 11 pitchers although if they have to skip Joba early to keep his innings down they may go with a 6 man rotation the first couple months.

I think the Yankees will have a lot of competition for the bullpen spots. Guys like Coke, Sanchez, Melancon, Wright and others will be fighting hard for bullpen spots.

This is not hot news but it was released this past week. The Yankees have invited 20 to spring training. Click Here to see the list.

Of course they proved me wrong and invited a small amount of pitchers and much more position players. I guess they feel the guys on the 40 man roster will be healthy, ready and will win spots on the pitching staff. Small market teams are the ones that have much open competition for pitching staff spots.

Not much other Yankee news to report. There is still a stalemate with Pettitte. No trade of Nady or Swisher. Guys are probably getting ready for spring training. Hopefully Posada and Matsui will be rearing to go in a month.

Lowe signed a deal with the Braves. Not many other big signings and still a lot of guys out there looking for work. The smart ones are trying to get deals now. The longer players wait, the longer the teams have leverage. Lowe got lucky that the Braves swooped in and gave him a good deal. Sheets, Garland, Pettitte will probably not be as lucky.

Maybe Manny will retire? He is definitely not getting a full 4 year, 100 million dollar deal. He is a quitter and deserves to be out of baseball.

With most of the country in a deep freeze I decided to meditate on spring training.

The Yankees should be announcing their spring invites soon. Last year they did it on January 15th. Spring training invites are usually young guys or organizational fillers looking to possibly make the team. They are guys that are not on the 40 man roster. If you are on the 40 man roster, you will be at spring training. Most teams announce maybe 15-20 or so spring invites. They are mostly pitchers because every team is looking for pitching depth. With the Yankees full of all-stars, not too many spring invites make the team. Usually they are hoping to impress so when an injury occurs during the season they maybe will get the call. Or for the young kids, maybe they will get a quicker promotion or start at AAA instead of AA.

Spring training will be different this year because of the WBC. I am neither a huge fan of the WBC or a strong critic. I guess for MLB it is good because it definitely markets the sport outside of the US and Canada. How can A-rod play for I think it is the Dominican Republic? It is stupid how loosely they allow guys to play for other countries. I think his grand mother is Dominican. I guess my own criticism of the WBC is you have to be strongly related to country you play for. No mt grandmother, or my greast aunt, or my cousins former roommate was from Japan so I will play for Japan.

I m ay be going down to Florida this March and hopefully will catch a spring game. Is it warmer than 5 degrees yet???? Ugh.

Congratulations to Ricky Henderson for making the Hall of Fame today. He was the best leadoff hitter I ever saw and deserves to be enshrined.

The Hall has been watered down for years so it does not matter that Rice made it in. There has been a lot of debate if he deserved it or not. The Hall needs publicity so they will elect more guys than need be. When guys like Gaylord Perry, Red Sheondinst (sp?), Phil Rizzuto, Robin Roberts, and the such started to make it in, you knew the bar was not too high.

Go to the hall of fame website and research each years voting going back to the 50’s and 60’s. You will be amazed the low vote totals some guys received.

It will be interesting in 2010 because there are not really any big names. I am sure the Hall will find someone to induct just to have the event.

I have to wonder about Big Mac not getting a lot of votes. Do you think pitchers were not juiced when he was playing? Cobb gambled, Jenkins did cocaine. These guys are not saints. It should be decided what they did on the ballfield that gets them in the hall. That is why I still think Shoeless Joe and Eddie Cicotte from the Black Sox deserve to be enshrined.

1 month until spring time.

January 10th and still not much going on in the hot stove league. Things have somewhat picked up this week with 1 year deals and the Sawx signing a bunch of players coming off injuries. Baldelli, Siato, Penny.

Both sides are still waiting for one side to blink in the Pettitte negotiations. I think the Yanks are ready to go onto spring training with the #5 spot open unless Pettitte takes the 10 million deal which may be lower these days.

Just over a month till pitchers and catchers. Cannot wait until the 2009 baseball season to start.

Big Eagles/Giants football game tomorrow. Prediction: Giants 24 Eagles 17.

Is it me or are there a lot of 1 year deals this year? Or shorter deals? Besides the Yankees and a few deals there have not been too many long term deals.

Giambi, Smoltz, Penny, Baldelli, Hoffman, etc. I think it is really a sign of the tough economic times. Players are hoping a 2009 offseason will bring better deals.

I am anxiously awaiting Yankee tickets to go on sale to see if they will have any ticket deals like Fugi film $5.00 nights.