What Should Curtis Granderson Do and a word on Phil Hughes

I had a customer last night tell me that I was "Out of my mind" in talking about what Curtis Granderson should do during the upcoming offseason. I find that telling that to someone who you are having a conversation with is simply a form of dismissing their point of view without giving them a real chance to express their opinion. Its really not the way to have a discussion. I felt that history worked in my favor in what I felt Granderson should do.

As we know, Granderson has had an injury plagued campaign in his 2013 season. First a broken hand and then a broken pinky has caused him to miss a significant amount of time during his walk season. Where Granderson could have seen himself signing a multi-year deal at over $15 million a year, his limited play this year could have limited the bonanza he could have gained in a non-injured season. Consider that Granderson made $15 million this season and keeping in mind the free agency rules dictate that if a team wants to receive a compensation pick for losing a potential free agent, they must offer a qualifying offer to their free agent to be.

To clarify what I mean about a qualifying offer I'm going to post an explanation from the article As expected, new rules impact free-agent market by Matthew Leach dated February 12, 2013 from MLB.com:

Under the terms of the new Collective Bargaining Agreement, the structure has changed. The old Type A and Type B designations are gone. When a player reaches free agency, his former team may make him what is known as a qualifying offer, worth the average amount of the previous season's top 125 salaries -- $13.3 million this offseason.

If the player accepts the offer, again he is considered to be signed to a contract for the next season. If he declines, the team that signs him gives up a Draft pick, while the team losing the player gains one -- though not the same pick.

The signing team gives up a first-round selection, unless it possesses one of the first 10 selections. In that case, the team gives up its next selection after that. The team losing the player, meanwhile, gains a sandwich pick at the end of the first round. This applies as long as the player signs before the start of the next Draft.

I would believe that the amount for the qualifying offer for this year's free agents is higher than last season's $13.3 million dollars, probably even closer to the $15 million dollar mark that Granderson made this season. Given that, here is what I suggested that I was told I was "out of my mind" about.

I said that Curtis Granderson should take the qualifying offer the Yankees are sure to make. In doing so, he would be signed to a one year deal for 2014 near or around the $15 million mark and gives himself an opportunity to have the kind of offensive season that he would like to have going into a walk season than the one he is having now.  While the customer stated that he didn't believe that Granderson would be offered anything more than $10 million a year and that he would be stupid to not take a secure deal in the range of three years $30 million dollars. My point was (though I wasn't able to present it since I did have other customers to serve drinks to) you only needed to look at the example of Granderson's teammate Alfonso Soriano.

When Soriano's contract with the Rangers expired after the 2005 season the offers for a long term deal that Soriano wanted just weren't there for the taking. He signed a one year deal with the Washington Nationals and put up a slash line of .277/.351/.560 with 46 homers and 95 RBI which was an improvement from .268/.309/.512 with 36 homers and 104 RBI the season before. The next offseason, Soriano signed an eight year $161-million deal with the Chicago Cubs.

The only difference between Soriano and Granderson is that Granderson is only one year older than where Soriano was when he decided to sign with the Nationals. My point is why settle for a lesser long term deal when Granderson can redeem himself in one season and bang out a bigger deal afterwards since he will be 32 years old.

On a side note, we also spoke about Yankees starter Phil Hughes. The customer places the full blame on his season squarely on Hughes' shoulders. I felt somewhat differently. Hughes has not helped his cause with his performance this season but my point to him was that a pitcher doesn't do it all alone (I guess the sabermetricians are rubbing off on me after all). The offense is to somewhat to blame since the team has not backed him up with runs in games where he pitched.

Consider this, the Yankees have been shutout twice in starts by Hughes. They lost 6-0 to the Dodgers where Hughes gave up five runs in six innings and 2-0 to the Rangers where he gave up two runs in eight innings. They have also been held to one run four times (2-1 1 run allowed, 11-1 5 runs allowed, 5-1 2 runs allowed, 4-1 4 runs allowed) and two runs four times (12-2 7 runs allowed, 3-2 2 runs allowed, 5-2 3 runs allowed). That's 10 of 22 starts of two runs scored or less in his behalf. The team has only scored five or more runs in five starts made by Hughes which were all games won by the Yankees (3 wins for Hughes).

The run support has not been there whether he had a mediocre or a great game. Granted, Hughes didn't pitch like Mike Harvey or Clayton Kershaw in those starts but the offense didn't back him up either.

I believe that Phil Hughes would greatly benefit from a new start with another team like San Diego, Houston or even Pittsburgh maybe even becoming a number two pitcher on those staffs to which I was also told that I was wrong and out of my mind for thinking that. So goes the life of a bartender in NYC. Oh well.

Any suggestions? Agree? Disagree?

Sisco Kid

For Further Reading
- Click Here for Curtis Granderson's career statistics from Baseball Reference.com
- Click Here for Alfonso Soriano's career statistics from Baseball Reference.com
- Click Here for Phil Hughes's career statistics from Baseball Reference.com

What Should The Yankees Do About Phil Hughes

After sitting through the 6-0 loss by the Yankees to the Los Angeles Dodgers and reading some of the remarks about losing pitcher Phil Hughes it got me to thinking: What Should The Yankees Do About Phil Hughes. Now Hughes had nothing in his tank from the first batter on. The Dodgers got off to a quick 2-0 lead in the top of the first and never looked back. While I think Hughes should take his fair share of blame for this loss I also believe the offense took the night off. In doing so, they made Dodger starter Chris Capuano look (as John Sterling described him on the air) fabulous. In six innings pitched, Capuano gave up only 3-hits while walking none and striking out 4. The Yankees got a runner to third only once and were 0-3 with Runners in Scoring Position. So the offense tonight was just as bad as their starting pitching. But back to Hughes.

This loss leaves Hughes with a 3-6 record and a large 5.09 ERA. Do they send him to the bullpen?  Who replaces him in the rotation. Looking at the Scranton/Willks Barre roster, do they give Ivan Nova yet another chance? Vidal Nuno? Bring up Dellin Betances? Do they wait out Michael Pineda's rehab and leave Hughes in the rotation.

I think for the moment, the decision not to bring up Chien Ming Wang and releasing him (Wang signed a Major League contract with division rival Toronto Blue Jays) will loom large. The Yankees just don't have an experienced arm to plug into Hughes' spot in the rotation. I think they have no choice but to keep putting Hughes out there every five days. Unless Hughes has a major turn around in the second half, I believe his days in pinstripes are numbered. I can even see Yankees General Manager packaging him in a trade near the deadline. But I am getting ahead of myself. We'll have to see what happens in five days.

What do you all think. Let me know.

Sisco Kid

This Weekend's Pitching Performances

The impressive year of the pitcher 2010 keeps getting better with some real good performances this weekend.

Ubaldo Jimenez
Colorado pitcher Ubaldo Jimenez beat the Minnesota Twins to improve to 13-1 which is the best start by a pitcher since Roger Clemens started 14-0 in 1986. In doing so, Jimenez lowered his ERA to 1.15.

Jimenez became only the second pitcher in the last 80 years to win at least 13 of his first 14 starts. Besides Clemens, Lefty Gomez went 13-1 for the Yankees in 1932

Stephen Strasburg
Stephen Straburg pitched 7 innings giving up 4 hits, 1 ER striking out 10 with no walks in a no decision against the Chicago White Sox. Strasburg lowered his ERA to 1.86 for the season in a much more impressive performance against a much more potent lineup than the Pirates and the Indians.

Cliff Lee
Cliff Lee beat the Cincinnati Reds on a complete game 1-0 shutout. In doing so, Lee earned his fifth career shutout and his 16th career complete game. Lee struck out seven in a six-hitter hurling just 110 pitches while lowering his ERA to 2.55. Lee has pitched at least seven innings in 10 of his 11 starts this season.

Phil Hughes/Mike Pelfrey
When Hughes and Pelfrey faced each other Saturday, they each had nine wins and a winning percentage of .900 or better. The only time in baseball history, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, that two starters entered with better credentials was in 1900. Philadelphia's Bill Bernhard played host to Brooklyn's Joe McGinnity at the Baker Bowl. Both starters were 12-1.

Both pitchers played well with Hughes beating Pelfrey 5-3. Hughes held the Mets to three runs in seven innings Saturday to improve to 10-1 this season.

This victory leaves Hughes tied with David Price of the Tampa Bay Rays for most wins in the AL (David Price after Sunday's loss to the Florida Marlins is 10-3).

Jake Peavy
CG 2H. 2BB 7K's 1-0 against the Nationals

Colby Lewis
CG, 2H, 0 BB, 9K's 5-1 against the Astros

Jered Weaver
7.0IP, 2H, 0R, 0ER, 0BB, 11K's against the Cubs

Hisanori Takahashi
6.0IP, 4H, 0R, 0ER, 2BB, 3K's Yanks (12 shutout innings against the Yankees in two starts)

Felix Hernandez
CG, 5H, 1R, 1ER, 1BB, 9K's against the Reds.

Josh Johnson
8.0IP, 6H, 1R, 1ER, 0BB, 9K's against David Price and the Rays. This was Johnson's 8th straight start where he allowed 1 run or less. During that time, Johnson has allowed 5 runs, 4 earned in 57 innings for an ERA of 0.63. Overall, his ERA for the season is 1.80.

C.C. Sabathia
8.0IP, 4 H, 0R, 2 BB, 6K's against Johan Santana and the Mets

Carl Pavano
CG, 4H, 1R, 1ER, 0BB, 2K's against Roy Halladay and the Phillies

Talk about an impressive weekend for the pitchers. Wow.
FH

Finally Yankee-land Makes the Right Decision

It was announced today that The New York Yankees will have Phil Hughes as the 5th starter while Joba Chamberlain will start the season in the bullpen. I've been saying for the last few years now that Joba should not have been in the rotation. To me, his strength lies is the bullpen, especially in the 8th inning role that Hughes occupied last season.


Unless Joba's 0.38 ERA in 19 games with 24.1 innings pitched with a WHIP of 0.750 (34 strikeouts to 6 walks with 12 hits) during the 2007 was a fluke or a product of the league seeing him for the first time, it just seems to me that he should be in the bullpen. His velocity and movement works for the first two times through a lineup but he seemed to lose it within the third time around. Joba went 9-6 with a 4.75 ERA with 32 appearances (31 starts and 1 relief appearance) while struggling during last two months of the season. In addition to that, the fist-pumping and emotional Joba seemed to have that emotion quenched as a starter. On the other hand, Hughes' range of pitches plus his spot on command are better utilized in the rotation instead of the bullpen, though he excelled in the 8th inning role. In that capacity, Hughes made 44 of his 51 appearances in relief, going 8-3 with a 3.03 ERA and 3 saves. His 1.40 ERA in relief was the lowest in the majors.

We'll see how things play out. Maybe Hughes flounders and Joba steps back into the rotation though I believe that they way it is set up now is the ideal scenario. I really wish baseball would go back to the 4-man rotation of old. It seems as if it is a more useful set up, especially in April when the need for a fifth starter is diminished due to off days and days affected by weather. Time will tell. In the end, the Yankees success depends on how these homegrown pitchers fare this upcoming season. Will the hype be fulfilled or will it be just that: Hype.

FH

For further reading:
- Click here for the article on Yankees.com announcing the 5th starter victor.
- Click here for Phil Hughes' stats from Baseball-reference.com
- Click here for an interesting article on Phil Hughes from The Hardball Times website by John Beamer
- Here is another interesting article on Phil Hughes from The Hardball Times website by Josh Kalik
- Click here for Joba Chamberlain's stats from Baseball-Reference.com
- Click here for an interesting article on Joba Chamberlain from The Hardball Times website by David Gassko
- Click here for an article from The Hardball Times comparing Hughes' and Joba's mechanics by Carlos Gomez