Kuroda is back and a couple of minor moves

The New York Yankees announced on Tuesday night that they had resigned starting pitcher Hiroki Kuroda.  He is their number two pitcher and for most of last year was their best pitcher.  He signed after plaing for the Dodgers for four years after coming over from Japan.  A lot of people doubted how he would transition to the AL and especially the Yankees and the AL East.  Kuroda was great for the Yankees and now they are happy to have him back for at least one more year. 

The Yankees signed him for one year and 15 million.  You may say wow that is a lot of money for one year.  They probably did overpay for him but they will do that for one year.  The Yankees are trying to get under the 189 million cap in 2014 so one year deals work well for them and it doesn't affect that.  I wouldn't be suprised to see them do some more deals like this with Andy Pettitte, maybe Russell Martin, Ichiro Suzuki and maybe a couple of bench players and a veteran starting pitcher. 

The Yankees now have CC Sabathia and Kuroda.  If Andy Pettitte comes back which most expect they will have a solid top three with Ivan Nova, Phil Hughes and David Phelps battling it out for the back two spots of the rotation. 

The Yankees claimed reliever Mickey Storey off of waivers.  He is 26 and made his major league debut in August of last year with the Astros.  He was 0-1 with a 3.86 ERA in 26 relief appearances.  The Yankees also added six players to their 40 man roster.  Manny Banuelos one of their top prospects who will miss all of next season due to Tommy John surgery.  They also added OF Ramon Flores, RHP Brett Marshall, RHP Jose Ramirez, LHP Francisco Rondon and LHP Nick Turley.  Dave Herndon elected free agency instead of being sent to AAA Scranton Wilkes Barre. 

The Yankees also sold a 49 percent stake in the YES network to News Corp which is a subsidiary of FOX.  I don't really know what to make of this but we will see if anything develops out of this. 

The New York Jets end their losing streak in St. Louis

The New York Jets defeated the St. Louis Rams by the score of 27-13 on Sunday afternoon. The game took place in St. Louis. The Jets are now 4-6 on the season and have a game on Thanksgiving against their rivals the New England Patriots. I wouldn’t say the offense was great but Mark Sanchez did a good job managing it, no turnovers from their offense. The Jets defense was really good and they ended their three game losing streak.

Sanchez was 15-20 for 178 yards with one touchdown and Tim Tebow was 1-1. Shonn Greene had 18 rushing attempts for 64 yards, Bilal Powell had 11 rushes for 42 yards and two touchdowns. Joe McKnight rushed four times for 14 yards. Chaz Schilens led the receivers with four catches for 48 yards with one touchdown. Jeremy Kerley had three catches for 43 yards, Powell had two catches for 18 yards and McKnight had a catch for 18 yards. Konrad Reuland had one catch for 18 yards.

Nick Folk was 2-4 in field goals with his long coming from 51 yards. He had three extra points made. Laron Landry led their defense with eight tackles. Muhammed Wilerson had a sack and Eric Smith had an interception.

Sam Bradford was 23-44 for 170 yards and two touchdowns with an interception. Steven Jackson led the Rams rushing attack with 81 yards on 13 carries, Daryl Richardson had six carries for 26 yards and Bradford had one attempt for seven yards.

Austin Pettis had two catches for 46 yards, Danny Amendola had seven catches for 41 yards and Brandon Gibson had three catches for nine yards and two touchdowns. Chris Givens had four catches for 19 yards, Richardson had one catch for 18 yards and Lance Kendricks had two catches for 14 yards.

Greg Zuerlein had one extra point made and no field goal attempts. James Laurinaitis had ten tackles and an assist to lead the Rams defense. Quintin Mikell had a sack, Chris Long had two sacks.

The Jets will play the Patriots on Thanksgiving in their next game before having 11 days off. The Jets will need a big win if they want to get some momentum and have a chance at the playoffs. The Jets are at 4-6 right now and have to make their move.

Baseball Offseason notes

Here are some baseball notes on a fairly quiet offseason so far.  The New York Mets and New York Yankees haven't done anything although the Toronto Blue Jays have been busy the past few days.  In the next couple of weeks when the winter meetings begin I would expect things to pick up. 

The Blue Jays made a big trade with the Miami Marlins the other day to aquire Jose Reyes, Mark Buehrle and Josh Johnson, John Buck was also part of the trade.  The Blue Jays gave up some top prospects and they gave up Yunel Escobar and Adeiny Hechavarria.  It was a big trade, I wonder why the Marlins are able to operate like this.  In the long run it may benefit them but how can they sign all these players and then break up their team within a year.  I think this is just embarrassing and shouldn't be allowed to happen.  The Marlins got a  new stadium which the tax payers mostly paid for and now they barely even have a team. 

The Blue Jays on Friday signed Melky Cabrera to a two year 16 million dollar deal. 

The Detroit Tigers signed Torii Hunter to a two year deal, they have some offense on paper.  The Padres and Oakland Athletics made a trade on Friday.  Oakland sent righty pitcher Tyson Ross to the Padres for infielder Andy Perrino and lefty Andrew Werner.  The A's also sent minor leaguer A.J. Kirby-Jones in the deal.  The Athletics found a player in Perrino who can play shortstop for them.  Ross had a very good season in AAA last year. 

The AL MVP was one of the most contested in recent years with Miguel Cabrera and Mike Trout.  Cabrera won to complete a wonderful season winning the Triple Crown and the MVP.  It was and is still a war between the sabremetrics community and the old school baseball community.  The Old School won out for now but it really got heated and contentious between the two sides.  I personally would of voted for Cabrera myself if I had a vote because the Tigers did win the division and the Angels didn't even make the playoffs.  I know you don't have to do that but I give that more weight. 

I don't think there were really any suprises in the awards.  R.A. Dickey won the NL Cy Young which wasn't a shock although he was the first knuckle ball pitcher to ever win the award.  I guess for the AL manager of the year you could of picked Buck Showalter but Bob Melvin won it with the Oakland Athletics who also had a great and very suprising season. 

Justin Verlander lost out on his second straight Cy Young but David Price won it, he also had a great season and Verlander didn't have as great of a season as the year before. 

The Giants put up a stinker in Cincinnati

The New York Giants lost to the Cincinnati Bengals by the score of 31-13 on Sunday afternoon in Cincinnati. The Giants have not played that well in the last couple of weeks and it continued in this game. This was probably rock bottom as they didn’t play well in any facet of the game. 
Eli Manning was 29-46 for 215 yards, no touchdowns and he threw two interceptions. Andre Brown led the Giants rushing attack with 65 yards on seven carries and a touchdown. Ahmad Bradshaw had 10 carries for 57 yards. Henry Hynoski the fullback had a carry for five yards, Manning and David Wilson each had one carry for one yard. Hakeem Nicks led the receivers with nine catches for 75 yards, Martellus Bennett had four carries for 37 yards, Brown had five catches for 29 yards and Victor Cruz had three catches for 26 yards. Ramses Barden had two catches for 22 yards, Bradshaw had three catches for 14 yards and Domenick Hixon had one catch for eight yards. Rueben Randle had two catches for four yards. Lawrence Tynes was 2-2 on field goals with his long being 31 yards and he made one extra point. Wilson had six kick returns for average of 17.8 yards. Steve Weatherford had four punts for an average of 53.3 average with a long of 68 yards.

Prince Amukamara led the defense with seven tackles and three assists. The Giants did not have a sack or an interception. Chase Blackburn did have a forced fumble.

Andy Dalton was 21-30 for 199 yards and four touchdowns. BenJarvus Green-Ellis had 15 rushes for 50 yards, Cedric Peerman had six rushes for 21 yards and Brian Leonard had four rushes for four yards. Mohamed Sanu had one carry for three yards. A.J. Green led the Bengals receivers with seven catches for 85 yards and one touchdown. Sanu had four catches for 47 yards and a touchdown and Andrew Hawkins had three catches for 16 yards and a touchdown. Orson Charles had a catch for 19 yards, Peerman had a catch for nine yards and Green-Ellis had two catches for eight yards. Mike Nugent was 1-1 on field goals and had four extra points. Brandon Tate had two kickoff returns for an average of 12 yards. Kevin Huber had four punts for an average of 48.3 yards.

The Bengals had two interceptions, Terence Newman had six tackles and one assist to lead the defense. Carlos Dunlap had 1.5 sacks and four tackles and an assist. Wallace Gilberry had a sack, Robert Geathers had a sack and Domata Peko had ½ a sack.

The Giants are now 6-4 and the Bengals are 4-5. The Giants remain in first place in the NFC East but now only a game ahead of the Dallas Cowboys. The Giants were behind 14-0 after five minutes of the game and never got it together. They were losing 17-6 at the half and it just got worse from there.

Yankees Notes from the GM Meetings

Here is some notes from the GM meetings courtesy of the Lohud Yankees Blog.  I put my own thoughts mixed in there.  It really is laying the groundwork because no real trades or anything get done but this will set up the Winter meetings where most of the action takes place. 

Surrounded by media standing four or five deep, Scott Boras just spoke in the hotel lobby and left little doubt that his client, Rafael Soriano, will decline the Yankees qualifying offer.

“Most qualifying offers are really for players of the highest value,” Boras said. “When teams make them, they’re acknowledging the value and other teams know that, as well. I don’t anticipate many players accepting single-year contracts that are in that arena.”
  I would agree that for the most part they won't take the offer.  I don't think the Yankees want him too take it though, they just wanted to protect themselves from him leaving. 
As for current value, Boras made the case that Soriano might have been the difference in some teams making or missing the playoffs this season, and he played up the idea that the Yankees shouldn’t easily let go of such late-inning comfort.

“If you look at the Angels, Dodgers, White Sox, Milwaukee; those teams would have been in the playoffs if they had a closer that had the efficiency rating of Soriano,” Boras said. “The Yankees took advantage of that. If that was a really good business decision for the Yankees two years ago, and it proved to be so valued today, it certainly would be a wiser decision when (Mariano) Rivera is older and coming off an injury.”  It sounds wise but the Yankees are trying to get under the cap and also Soriano wants to close and he won't be a closer with the Yankees unless Rivera gets hurt. 

Brian Cashman said he hasn’t heard and hasn’t asked whether Soriano, Nick Swisher or Hiroki Kuroda will accept or decline their qualifying offers — “We’d be very happy (if they accept), let’s put it that way,” Cashman said — but it’s becoming clear that the Yankees are setting priorities this offseason. One-year deals are one thing, but with $189 million in mind for next year, the Yankees have to pick and choose where they allocate funds.  It sounds like tonight that Swisher and Soriano will definitely decline, Kuroda is still up in the air. 

That alone might be enough to keep the Yankees out of the Soriano bidding should he hit the open market.

“It would be great if we had them both (Soriano and Rivera),” Cashman said. “The only bad side to having them both — and I don’t have Mo, and I don’t have Soriano (right now) — but obviously it would affect dollars to be spent elsewhere. But bullpens are big time, so do I have to replace him? I think it’s relative to how that would impact the other side of it.”

Boras certainly sounded as if he’s not expecting to come to terms on a contract extension for Robinson Cano any time soon. “He’s there for another year,” Boras said. “I talked to Randy (Levine) a few times this week. I talked to Cash. These are things that, I’m sure as time goes forward, we’ll continue to talk about. But nothing current.”

Just to be clear, Cashman said that if Soriano does happen to accept the qualifying offer, he has no problem with paying both Soriano and Rivera closer money next season. “That would happen,” Cashman said. “If he accepts, yeah, absolutely. We made that decision when we tendered the offer.”

Because Tino Martinez was serving as a senior advisor in the Yankees organization, he had to receive permission to interview for the Marlins hitting coach job. “You combine the great player with that type of experience in seeing how things get done, and I think he’s got a tremendous amount to offer,” Cashman said.  I am sure they are happy he went to Miami and not Boston. 

The Yankees never talked about making Martinez their hitting coach. “We didn’t have any vacancies,” Cashman said. “The Yankees, we’ve been blessed to have some tremendous hitting coaches, from Don Mattingly to Kevin Long, so it’s not an area that’s needed to be addressed at all.”

Although he hasn’t asked whether Kuroda will accept a qualifying offer, Cashman said he has spoken to Kuroda’s agent. “Yes,” Cashman said. “I wouldn’t say, and I couldn’t say (what exactly the conversation was about).”  I have a feeling Kuroda will come back but if he gets a two year offer somewhere and it is pretty significant money you never know he could go there. 

Just something to keep in mind: Ken Davidoff brought up that the $189 million luxury tax threshold includes more than player salary. There’s a certain amount of money — something around $10-12 million, Cashman said — that’s automatically factored in for things like travel expenses. So in terms of player contracts, the Yankees have to get closer to $177 million to stay below the luxury tax.

Cashman dismissed the idea that the Yankees can’t get better while also working to control spending. “Didn’t we get better this year?” he said. “Ninety-five wins. Won the American League East. Went farther in the playoffs (than the year before). Got older, probably. … Improved flexibility. Kept financial costs in check. Lined ourselves up for the long term going that route in certain areas, and we’re better.”  I agree with him, pitching is the most important, they still have a lot of good players and if they get good bench players and have good pitching they will be fine.