Jacoby Ellsbury to the Yankees!

[Chamillitary Click]

Seven years! Nice!

[Halu Sination]

Supposedly it was a 7 year 153 million contract. What in the fuck. Ellsbury is dope, but considering the plan Yanks have pitched to stay under 189 mill a year AND Ells' injury history, this makes me say come the fuck on now. I wonder if this is just one giant fuck you to Robinson Cano and to Seattle, who was pursuing both Ellsbury and Cano.

Either way I expect way more positives than negatives to come out of this deal. I hope he's worth it for Yanks man

[Chamillitary Click]

This team is still in trouble if we lose Cano too. Especially with A-Rod probably missing most of this season.

[MistaNova]

Oh great another overpaid injury prone outfielder.

On a sidenote this pretty much marks the end of Mason Williams's Yankees career. He'll probably be dangled as trade-bait for a third baseman (if A-Rod's suspended) or a second baseman (if Cano leaves).

Edit: We also just gave up a draft pick to the Red Sox. Fuck.

[Chamillitary Click]

Sadly enough, he's the most stable thing we have right now lol.

[Halu Sination]

Sadly enough, he's the most stable thing we have right now lol.

That is true lol. The only other stable player is now demanding a 300 million dollar contract just for being the sole stable player.

You guys are both right though, Yanks are still in trouble. IMO they really should have been doing what Twins were doing and going balls out on fixing their starting rotation, but Yanks much like the Angels have always been obsessed with giving these position players franchise crippling contracts and leaving all the pitchers on the market alone. It's always frustrating to watch even as a spectator who's not really much a fan of those teams lol.

And from what I am hearing about the most recent update in the Japan posting rules (I hope it's wrong), Tanaka is now going to go to whoever the lowest win-record team is out of any franchise willing to post the maximum bid of around 20 mill, which pretty much any big market can afford. So goodbye to the hopes of Yanks, Angels, Dodgers, Rangers... he'll probably end up in either Chicago team now. Or Toronto if both Chicago teams get too cheap.

Yankees are going to have to go after a Ubaldo or Matt Garza now, unless they want to trade their farm system for pitchers. I hear they're going after Brett Anderson from Oakland too, which would be an okay pickup as Anderson was once a decent player, even if he was one of the worst starting pitchers in the league last season.

[Chamillitary Click]

That's a joke with Tanaka. Fucking Japanese faggots.

The way I look at the Yankees is yeah, getting any combination of Ubaldo, Garza or Anderson would be huge. Because realistically if you peep at the "potential" opening day look of things you'd have...

Ellsbury - CF
Jeter - SS
Cano - 2nd (GOD WILLING)
A-Rod - 3B
Tex - 1B
McCann - C
Soriano - LF
Ichiro - RF
Wells/Nunez/Gardner - DH/rotation in the field

I mean, there is a lot of strikeouts & .260 averages in that lineup...but full strength, all playing...that lineup is still one of the better ones in the sport. Not to mention, none of us can REALLY put it past the Yankees to throw Carlos Beltran or Sin-Soo Choo or something ridiculous before the end of the offseason lol.

Pitching is rough mostly because the bullpen is going to be awful. But if they could land two of those names above...

CC
Garza
Ubaldo
Nova
Pineda

That's not dominant, but that's a good rotation. Not to mention Pineda is a wild card. Meaning he could be awful, he could go right back to the DL or he could be that guy we thought he could be when traded, which is more like a dominating #2 to CC. But if we get nobody in the staff it doesn't matter because we'll be awful.

Yankees need all the right things to come together this year. But I'll keep the faith. WE NEED CANO though.

[MistaNova]

I kind of doubt that the Japanese are going to go with that. I mean if they don't allow the big market teams into the picture then they'll lose a ton of profit and then the Japanese will go back to the pre-Nomo days and not allow any of their players to go the states at all if they don't get their $50 million. It'll be a lose-lose for everybody involved. Besides, with most Japanese players the reason they want to come play in the states is because they want to play for famous brand name teams like the Yankees, Red Sox, Cubs or Dodgers. Not some shitty low market team in Miami or Colorado. Especially the bigger superstars.

Anyway back to the Yankees though. I don't see Pineda returning until the All-Star break (unless he wows me/everybody in ST) at the earliest and I want to see Phelps be the 5th starter for the Yanks. Although it doesn't really matter if the Yankees get Garza or Jimenez or Santana since that rotation will still be shit compared to the rotations the Red Sox and the Rays have. We'll be wishing that we had our rotation in 2012 that only allowed two runs (except when Hughes was pitching) during the season I'm sure.

Personally I think the bullpen will be just fine if the Yanks can get a closer and keep Robertson in the set-up role. Shawn Kelley, David Huff and Preston Claiborne impressed me a lot in 2013 and I'd like to keep Adam Warren in the long-man role and they've got loads of other talented cheap inhouse options in Betances, Turley, Cabral, Marshall and Michell. I just wish that Mark Montgomery had been able to take a step forward in 2013 and take the throne. Although I guess he'll get his shot when Robertson fucks it up and ultimately triggers the revolving door effect where we try a total of 20 different closers and they all fail.
The loss of Rivera and Logan will be tough to stomach though.

[Remedy360]

Oh great another overpaid injury prone outfielder.

He has gotten hurt a lot, but from what I remember he seems to mostly have freak injuries like collisions rather than recurring stuff.

[MistaNova]

Regarding Tanaka appearently he might get to choose where he wants to go.

"Under the proposal, if multiple teams bid the capped amount, the player would get to choose the team with which he would negotiate."

[Chamillitary Click]

But with finding pitching, resigning Cano, the two signings we already made & then the possibility of giving A-Rod his due can the Yankees afford to give him the cap? lol.

[MistaNova]

Can they afford him after Cano, McCann and Ellsbury? Yes, they are the Yankees after all.
Plus it's not like the Yankees are going to use that money to, oh I don't know, really focus on developing talent down in the minors or send scouts overseas to find potential bargains in other countries or something.

The only problem (or rather the only notable problem) is whether or not the Yankees will be able to stay under the $189 luxury tax threshold, not just this year but for the duration of basically the entire A-Rod contract. And at this point they'd better go batshit crazy and go over it. I've seen the projected lineups and potential rotations (several included many of the free agent pitchers) and the team still looks mediocre and like one that's poised for a 3rd place finish, at best, in 2014 and beyond.

[Halu Sination]

Regarding Tanaka appearently he might get to choose where he wants to go.

"Under the proposal, if multiple teams bid the capped amount, the player would get to choose the team with which he would negotiate."

Yeah that was the most recent update, now they just need to get Tanaka's league to agree. Apparently they're pissed that the max bid is only 20 million. Greedy bastards.

Tanaka is ending up in NY, Boston, Texas, or LA/Anaheim now. For damn sure.

[Halu Sination]

Can they afford him after Cano, McCann and Ellsbury? Yes, they are the Yankees after all.
Plus it's not like the Yankees are going to use that money to, oh I don't know, really focus on developing talent down in the minors or send scouts overseas to find potential bargains in other countries or something.

The only problem (or rather the only notable problem) is whether or not the Yankees will be able to stay under the $189 luxury tax threshold, not just this year but for the duration of basically the entire A-Rod contract. And at this point they'd better go batshit crazy and go over it. I've seen the projected lineups and potential rotations (several included many of the free agent pitchers) and the team still looks mediocre and like one that's poised for a 3rd place finish, at best, in 2014 and beyond.

Yeah with these most recent signings, there's no point in trying to become frugal and get under the $189 luxury tax now (if it's even possible at this point). Like I said, this money should have went to pitching to begin with, but it's not too late if they ditch the $189 mill plan. Why give these guys ridiculous contracts and then try to find weak ass pitching in the bargain bin and end up missing the playoffs for the next 5 years?

[MistaNova]

Yeah that was the most recent update, now they just need to get Tanaka's league to agree. Apparently they're pissed that the max bid is only 20 million. Greedy bastards.

Tanaka is ending up in NY, Boston, Texas, or LA/Anaheim now. For damn sure.

This is probably the Japanese side of me talking but, you can't really blame them for wanting more. I mean the Eagles were expecting to get at least $50 million like the Fighters when they allowed Darvish to sign with the Rangers. Plus the NPB is basically giving up their best pitcher and probably best player in the country and want something in return to offset the loss of revenue after he leaves.

Although the American side of me also knows that the Japanese are making things more difficult than they have to be with their indecisiveness and boneheaded rules that were established nearly a century ago.