MLB: Yankees Get Ichiro
- Thread starter CrossCyed
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That doesn't mean jack in the playoffs, where the only team they regularly can pitch against is the Twins.
I'm assuming they didn't get good prospects in return because they were trading away a nearly 40 year old making $17 million this season (plus deferred portions to be paid post-retirement) who has a .288 OBP.
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No chance he gets there. Just not a useful player anymore, and getting worse. Still a quite impressive hit total for a guy who didn't start accumulating hits until his late 20s.
Do the people who think this is a huge get for the Yankees pay attention to much baseball? Ichiro's got a .261/.288/.353 line this year. He had a .645 OPS last year. Sure, they'll get a nice PR bump for a while and probably sell some more t-shirts and jerseys. But this is far from a slam dunk move that improves their team.
Don't get me wrong, I can see why the Yankees made the move. The 2 guys the Yankees gave up aren't anything special & they are getting a ton of cash from Seattle to cover a chunk of Ichiro's salary. They might as well roll the dice and see if Ichiro can get hot for a couple of months, but if he continues to play like he has the last year and a half he's really not going to help all that much.
Don't get me wrong, I can see why the Yankees made the move. The 2 guys the Yankees gave up aren't anything special & they are getting a ton of cash from Seattle to cover a chunk of Ichiro's salary. They might as well roll the dice and see if Ichiro can get hot for a couple of months, but if he continues to play like he has the last year and a half he's really not going to help all that much.
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DistrictCyclone
Guest
Pettite's a post-season stud (not that they should base decisions solely on how a player pitches according to a very small sample size in the post-season) if they get him back. And with their lineup, they should be able to handle a little slack in the pitching.
They could still pick up somebody (Liriano, maybe) since the deadline's still a week away.
Pettite was a post-season stud 5 years ago. Now he's as broken down as a U-HAUL truck. And if they want to go the Liriano route, god help them.
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DistrictCyclone
Guest
Wherever Liriano ends up, I'll be excited to see how he fares under a new pitching coach. I really wonder if Rick Anderson's "pitch to contact" philosophy has been holding Liriano back.
It’s not early May anymore and the Yankee starters have been quite good since some early season struggles. Hughes is now looking like 2010 Hughes not 2011 Hughes, Kuroda has been solid along with Nova who is really competative even when he is not with his best stuff.Too bad Pettitte got hurt since he was pitching way beyond what could reasonably be expected. Been a Yank fans since back in Mickey Mantle days and I have no real complaints about the starting pitching.
Yankee concern for post season is not starting pitching, it is the reliance on the home run without someone like Gardner (out for the year) to add some speed and stolen bases. You are going to see better consistent pitching in the playoffs and some speculate that the Yanks could get shutdown on the homeruns and not have the averages or other scoring options (speed) to manufacture runs to compensate. Guessing here that the Ichiro deal is hoping to address that at not much cost in prospects.
I hope not. Liriano needs to go somewhere but not NY. He might have a golden arm but can't handle pressure and would be another Burnett if he went to NY. It would be great to have a strong lefty for that stadium but not in the form of a seeming head case like him. He should go somewhere like the Cubbies.
I have to respectfully disagree. I think Ichiro gets there easily. The size of his contract all but guarantees he will continue to start on a daily basis, and I can easily see him rebounding with a team where he will actually have protection in the lineup. Also, he will likely be moved down in the order in New York given that they have Granderson so he may have some pressure taken away. I'd be very surprised if he doesn't get to 3,000 hits.
I don't think he gets to 3,000 either. Assuming he gets to 2,600 by the end of this season (which would mean he needs about 70 hits over the rest of the season) he'd still have some serious work to do. He's a free agent at the end of the year, he turns 39 in October, and he's going to have to find a team that will be willing to play him everyday for at least 3 more seasons.
His numbers really have fallen off a cliff the last couple of seasons. He's not racking up 200+ hits a season anymore & I'm just not sure that there is a GM out there that's going to watch a RF put up a .645 OPS for 2 1/2 seasons (other than Dayton Moore but he's already got Jeff Francoeur under contract next season).
His numbers really have fallen off a cliff the last couple of seasons. He's not racking up 200+ hits a season anymore & I'm just not sure that there is a GM out there that's going to watch a RF put up a .645 OPS for 2 1/2 seasons (other than Dayton Moore but he's already got Jeff Francoeur under contract next season).
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