The Mets played their first game in franchise history on this date 50 years ago. The 1962 team was so bad they’ve since become the standard against which other poor teams are measured. To their credit, however, they turned things around before long and won their first World Series seven years later. Here are the latest links from New York…
- Joel Sherman of the New York Post compares Ian Kinsler to Robinson Cano and wonders if Cano is really worth $5-10MM per year more than his counterpart in Texas. Sherman won’t be surprised if some teams are willing to pay Cano more than $20MM per year on a deal that could approach $200MM.
- The second baseman will hit free agency following the 2013 season, assuming the Yankees exercise his option this coming offseason. Sherman gets the sense that Cano would prefer to spend his entire career with the Yankees and GM Brian Cashman has said he views the 29-year-old as a possible Hall of Famer.
- Mike Axisa looked ahead to a possible Cano extension last night.
- The Mets believe Daniel Murphy’s best position is third base, Sherman writes. Since David Wright won’t necessarily be in New York long-term, the Mets may want to see Murphy at the hot corner while Wright’s broken finger heals.
- ESPN.com's Buster Olney points out that David Phelps may be emerging as an electric reliever for the Yankees.
ESPN’s Buster Olney points oints out that David Phelps may be emerging as an electric reliever for the Yankees.
I think a lot of us noticed this last night, not just Buster Olney.
Phelps did a great job last night as did all the Yankee relief pitchers.
Pedro Strop was looking awfully good as well with a great fastball (hitting 96 and 97). Problem was he tried to sneak an off speed pitch by Raul Ibanez. It didn’t work out. Now our bullpen (O’s) is burned up for the time being. So unless Jake Arrieta pitches a CG tonight, it looks pretty darn bleak for an O’s victory tonight.
PS There’s not too many hitters in the O’s starting line-up that has a clue about situational hitting! None whatsoever!
it was ironic how old bucky boy int.walked granderson…lets flashback to last year at this time….
game was tied, Martin was hot all series already had 2 HR’s and was looking very good at the plate, showalter then int. walked martin to get to a struggling gardner and gardner takes a hanging breaking ball over the RF wall for a two run HR to give the yankees a 2 run lead…..
now back to last nights game…
Granderson who has showed he could provide alot of pop off his bat and loves the fastball, Buc Int.walks him to get to lbanez who was only hitting (could be alittle off on the avg) .175 and lbanez takes a hanging breaking ball over the Right Fielders head for a RBI ground Rule double that would eventually be the game winning run.
and as far as phelps went, the kid dominated he struck out 4 in a row and all 4 were looking at the 3rd strike. i felt they should have left him into pitch until he got into some trouble. would have saved the bullpen and the stress of knowing only soriano and mo were left in the pen would not have been there. i also felt in the 6th or 7th inning when swish got hit in the ankle and cano came back back with that double down the 3rd baseline that swish should not have been sent home, or should have been replaced with a pinch runner. the game would have been over in 9 innings and the pen would not have been used all up. some poor coaching mistakes last night. thank god its only the first two weeks of the season. cant play like this against detroit and toronto is starting to look alittle scary although may only last until june lol.
Soriano wasnt available in lastnights game..might not not be tonight either..he cracked a fingernail warming up
oh did he? I didnt hear that lol. and the way they were talking on tv was he was available to pitch. either way their pen was thin. and mainly due to the fact they used their long reliever for 2 innings. they should have let phelps pitch until either A. he got into some trouble or B. the yankees took the lead.
I watched the O’s game last night and was wondering about him because looked pretty good. And after looking up his minor league stats I was surprised I’d never heard of him before. Somehow the New York prospect hype machine must have overlooked him or he’d be the next big thing (or perhaps he had a couple of above average outings and that’s happening now).
I’m a yankees fan so i knew about him. He hasn’t been a top prospect, and him and adam warren are often grouped together. He has had decent minor league stats, but most scouts project him as 4/5 starter which is obviously why many have not heard of him.
O’s should have intentionally walked Ibanez too and went after the new catcher, who shouldn’t be allowed near home plate with a bat. He is horrible offensively! Did you see him swinging? It was comical!
I think Yogi Berra today could have taken better swings
Arietta is pitching today for the O’s. It might be a litttllle bit harder today. he was dominant in his opening day start and had total command of his pitches and was not wild at all as he was last year on some occasions.
Yankees view Phelps as a starter long term, not a reliever, Olney has no clue what hes talking about
Who knows, but it depends if he ever gets his shot. CC, Nova, Pineda, Hughes, Banuelos, Betances, will all not make it easy for him.
Here’s where I think the Yankees’ financial advantage really lies. They can afford to keep the great players they cultivate.
they can afford to keep the great players they cultivate because:
1. they don’t have to choose between Cano & Sabbathia
2. they don’t have to trade Cano for Sabbathia
substitute any number of homegrown players & super stars if those examples don’t work for you.
Yes, Much of the roster is made up of players that were aquired via trade or were actually prospects, more than many realize. Cano, Jeter, Arod, Granderson, Swisher, Gardner were not signed as free agents.
Mets had Casey Stengal on the field as a manager and he was known to make totally useless sayings and nobody took them to heart as he said them with a smile, then everyone just shook them off and considered the source.
With some other current managers, like Guillen, those same comments that words here will be banned that are best used to describe are 4 letter word laced and totally useless, plus the manager has never shown he can manage a team period. That 1 decent Chisox team from ’05 was an aberration.
I’d love for Cano to stay a Yankee, but, at anything 160 M+, I’d let him walk. Cano is so good offensively because he has tremendous bat speed. Once that starts to slow down and his defense inevitably starts to decline(not that great to begin with), he’ll be a huge liability. He doesn’t walk much either so we can’t even expect him to make up for the loss of bat speed by getting on base.
As injury prone as he is, I’d give David Adams a chance at 2B when Cano’s contract runs out.
$160 million? No way. Max I’d offer is $125-$130 million. And not even for 6 years in that total amount, that’s more so 7 years
You are insane if you would let Cano walk because Adams was in the system. I’m a BIG Adams fan and felt he had the potential to be a Pedroia like player but he is nowhere a lock to be an all-star caliber 2b right now.
I think a far deal would be 8/140 although 8/160 would be awful if it was structured to give him more in the next 3-4 years and taper off dramatically towards the last 4 years.
22-22-22-20-20-18-16-14 + option w/ $6 mil buyout.
That 8 year contract you are proposing is maybe even another option Boras is mulling over.. Is it possible Boras could just let him get to FA and see if he could land some k9ind of 10 year deal and even if he could.. Who would be in the bidding for such a thing?
Granted, Cano is a superb 2b and will likely be one for another 5-6 years, but could the back end of such a deal turn into another Soriano (as in Alfonso) type deal where he turns into a liability?
I really was only thinking that Phillips deal would have boras looking to push the 2b bar for contracts to 7 years, but Boras thinks big, as in outrageous sometimes and he has not done that yet for second basemen.. Cano I hope not, could be his man for this job of his.
It would be nice if Cano would just tell Boras he is willing to settle for 6Y and 17-18m AAV, but having Boras as an agent probably shelves that idea right away.
how is his defense not that great? he had the second highest fielding percentage for a 2B last year (.987) and not far behind pedroia who was at .990. canos range factor is 5.15 compared to pedroias 4.62 and had 16 more double plays, 19 more assists and 33 more putouts despite touching the ball 52 fewer times then pedroia. Cano also has prob the strongest and most accurate arm among 2B in the majors. the guy makes accurate throws that most 2B would throw into the stands.
but i do agree 160+ million is alittle crazy for a guy whos going to be 30 when his option is up. really dont need another ARod contract. and i doubt the yankees will offer him that. they will keep it around kinslers and phillips contracts. 6 years for 80 million would be fine. maybe throw in a couple bonus deals like if he wins MVP or the HR title or what not and All Star games.
Fielding percentage is useless. And Ranger Factor does not say much because the more balls hit your way, routine or not, the higher your Range Factor is going to be.
Adrian Gonazlez for instance last year, had the 2nd lowest Range Factor in the AL, but he and I think without argument, was the best defensive 1B in the AL and still is today.
As far as arm strength goes, well you may be right about that. Accuracy, not too sure.
Most will rate Cano and Pedey 1-2 as the best all around 2b and best defensive. Cano has the range, but pedey is the most sure handed. Cano will make the faster turn around on pDP, but also will drop relays on occasion while attempting to use those super quick hands of his as he tries to hurry. Not that he should really try and change or anything as he still is so lightning fast on the turn.
Agreed
The way i see it is that cano is not the greatest fielder at 2b, but he makes up for it with his arm strength, being able to get the ball there faster and turning more double plays helps you.
That play last night was excellent.
I think Cano is worth more than Kinsler due to the fact Cano overall is a much better hitter and IMO is the best hitting 2B in baseball, however certainly not $5-$10 million more. Cano is about average defensively whereas Kinsler is one of the best defensive 2B in the game and also can hit well, however he is not a great hitter on the road, where as Cano actually hits better on the road than at Yankee Stadium
Cano
Home – .303/.342/.495
Away – .312/.352/.496
Kinsler
Home- .309/.396/.529
Kinsler – 242/.315/.412
Sure I know it’s not always best to go Home/Road splits, but Kinsler’s Home and Away stats have a Huge difference. And for those interest, the only Road ballpark in the AL West where Kinsler has Lower numbers in all 3 categories is at Oakland. His numbers at Angel Stadium are even better than his career Home stats. And his numbers at Safeco are just about where they are for his normal away stats
With Kinsler getting $15 million a year, I’d say Cano should get about $18 mil a year. Anything over $20 mil I’d say is a bit too much.
Another thing that Cano has on Kinsler is health, as Ian has only eclipsed 140 games played twice in his career.
Good point.
Has a homegrown Yankee ever left via free-agency for a bigger contract than the Death Star was willing to give them?
How often does a homegrown Yankee ever leave for free agency to begin with if the Yankees were interested in bringing him back? And how often does a team outbid the Yankees in free agency in one of their homegrown players?
You’re asking something that almost never happens.
Mariano Rivera 2 years ago was offered more money (total wise, not AAV) by the Red Sox and I believe it was the Angels but he choose the Yankees.
Not to mention Andy Pettitte in 2004 but he choose less money to play for Houston, however I believe Boston offered him more than the Yankees did.
None of those answer your question though considering Rivera choose NY for less $ and Pettitte choose Houston who did not offer the most money.
Boston also offered Bernie Williams more money before signing Manny Ramirez. Remember was upset at the time they didn’t get him and had to settle for problem child Ramirez.. How glad am that one didn’t end up that way as though Williams played well early on in that deal, he was finished pretty much by ’02 and was still making 12m until 2005.. A very high salary at that time.
Originally I wrote about Bernie Williams but I took that part away. Reason I did, is because I think the Yankees offered more money once they heard Boston’s offer. Yankees set an offer, Boston had a higher offer, and then the Yankees increased their new offer.
In 2003 and 2004 he wasn’t bad, but certainly not worth the money. I feel like they shouldn’t have paid him that much, but he was and still is my favorite ballplayer of all time so I’m glad he didn’t go to Boston.
It also still didn’t fix any of the holes Boston had in the OF. Only Trot Nixon in RF was even remotely capable with the glove until they finally signed Johnny Damon in 2002 as the CF.. They had O’Leary and Carl Everett manning LF/CF for several years and anything hit in that direction was iffy at best. Williams glove would have been a blessing in CF if they could have gotten him at the time and his bat a pure bonus.
Now that you mention it?? Recall Williams was going back and forth with offers and NY increased the offer to retain him.. Thanks for jogging me mind there. 🙂
10/200 sounds good to me.
– Magic
haha magic isnt going to make the money decisions for the dodgers lol.
What are you smoking Sherman? Approach 200MM? Methinks it will be much closer to 100MM, maybe something like 6/115MM – 7/130MM (which still blows Utley’s deal out of the water).
i posted this in another thread somewhere, but Cano & Kinsler have been worth almost identical WAR in the past four seasons – within 1 game, and Kinsler was actually worth more WAR last season than Cano was.
They are essentially equals, with Cano likely to get a much bigger deal out of his accomplishments for having done it in Pinstripes.
Pinstripes have nothing to do with it, other than more people are aware of his accomplishments. Cano has more range than any2b presently playing and for anyone who has ever watched him on more than a casual basis?? His hands are nearly a blur transferring the ball and on pivots around the bag.
Cano is rated as one of the best defensive 2b for a reason, not because he plays in NY and didn’t get his GG a couple years back not deservedly like one other.. He earned it.
ok. i never said Cano was bad. i said that he is equal with Kinsler, but will make more money because he has done it on the Yankees….which means more people are aware of his accomplishments…which means he’ll make more money.
and yeah – i live in NY and have probably watched 350 Yankee games since Cano has been playing. he’s a talented second basemen, but don’t let Michael Kaye’s homerism get the best of you.
“don’t let Michael Kaye’s homerism get the best of you”
Oh certainly not from the reigning king of hometown homerism.. Then he learned it from the best at it in NY.. Phil Rhizzuto his predecessor…
Trust me as many on these boards know. I am not a NYY fan by any means, but recognize talent when any team has it and Cano is one truly gifted glove guy.
I agree Kay is a homer, but no one is worse than Hawk Harrellson.
Hawk is bad, Rays Dewayne Staats is bad also. O’s old mid 80’s announcer Mel Proctor might have given Scooter a run for his money though as the worst homer ever heard.
Staats is horrible. Another bad one is one of the Rangers’ announcers.
Have caught that Rangers announcer a few times skimming threw MLB.com and can’t recall his name either, but know who you mean. Hawk is really, really a die hard Chisox fan and he was the EXACT same way when he broadcast for Boston in the early-late 70’s.
He really is/was a cool guy and talked to him several times in ST back then. Wore that old cowboy hat he still does on occasion.
Back to Chisox and Hawk’s broadcasting though.. I do like to catch the Chisox version when am watching one of their games, if for nothing else to hear another of his old Yaz stories yet again he likes to tell.
As for announcers that is not a homer and is just flat out awful and needs to retire? Scully for the LAD.. Have named him “monologue man” for his absolute can’t pay attention to broadcasts the way he announces the last half dozen + years. He just can’t do games anymore. Shame cause 20 years ago he was an outstanding announcer.
While am rambling onto favorites and not so favorite announcers.. I always loved the radio tandem of Jim Woods and Ned Martin on radio for Boston. Martin was a really good announcer before he went onto TV and had the Scully problem of just too old for the job later on.
Cano’s UZR/150 in runs the last 3 years -2.9/-.9/-2.7. For his career he averages -5.7 as he was pretty bad the 1st couple of years. He is a slightly below average fielder. No offense, but I take an objective measurement over taken over 7 years on 2252 plays on the ball over your eye.
No matter. Reasons for his low UZR have been posted by me and others here on this topic and dozens of other times on others.. He gets into a hurry with his movements once he has the ball and usually? Drops it. There is nobody in the league with more range than Cano and UZR is flawed.. Many will say that, one reason I pretty much flat out ignore it, though some here (not saying you) swear by that stat line.
I went and dug up a few real dog defenders (no range, but few errors) couple years back and posted them here with really slick UZR’s, but old NASCAR rule of thumb.. Trophy ain’t worth the chase to go and do it again.
UZR values range over anything. An error is counted the same as not getting to a ball all elase being equal.
How does UZR determine how much credit, positive or negative, to award a fielder on each batted ball? First it goes through 6 years of batted ball data and determines how often each type and location of batted ball is fielded by each defensive position, making adjustments for the speed of the ball, and the handedness, speed, and power of the batter. Later on, further adjustments are made, such as the outs and base runners, and various park adjustments, like the size and configuration of the OF, the speed of the infield, and the speed of batted balls in general, as influenced by temperature, altitude, and the ground ball percentage of the pitcher (e.g. ground ball pitchers allow easier to field ground balls and harder to field air balls). For example, UZR might find that from 2004-2009, of all hard-hit line drives hit by a LH batter with above-average power to a certain location in an average OF, 15% are fielded by the CF’er, 10% by the LF, and 75% fall for a hit. Remember, those would be average numbers across all MLB parks.
Its because of defense. Kinsler is outstanding. Cano is average.