Thursday, January 7, 2010

Yankee Notes RJG Style

It was reported yesterday that Sergio Mitre was signed by the Yankees for $850,000 with some performance incentives. The Yankees seem to be big believers in Mitre who pitched terribly last season but was coming off of Tommy John surgery. He did throw one quality start on August 29th against the White Sox, and it appears the Yanks saw enough in that one start to be avid beleivers.

Cashman said that he is looking for a right handed hitter for left field, so it sounds like the Yankees plan on platooning with Gardner. It also sounds like rule 5 pick Jamie Hoffman is not the solution despite his being a very affordable right handed batter. In some vaguely related news, right handed corner outfielder Eric Hinske just signed with the Braves. He may have been a good option for left considering his extremely average defense, but decent off-the-bench power. He's also right handed which would seemingly meet all of Cashman's criteria, but it wasn't meant to be.

Former Yankee, Randy Johnson officially retired a couple days back. We're late on reporting the news, but in fairness, his time here was largely forgettable. Despite this, Randy Johnson was a phenomenal pitcher, and his reaching 300 wins is evidence of that.

In other news, the hall votes were cast, and Andre Dawson was the only one who got in. Yes, Roberto Alomar, arguably the best second baseman of his era did not make the hall. Raines only got about 50% of the votes too. I really do not know what the hall voters are thinking.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Did you know the Yankees never won a playoff game in which Randy Johnson appeared, either against them or for them? Gross. I really do/did not like that guy, he's like our bad luck charm.

Also, the World Series will be Yankees/Braves because the Yankees will obviously be there and Hinske went to the Braves. Thankfully, it's an even year, so Hinske won't win the World Series, he'll just get there.

Fernando Alejandro said...

Hinske does have quite the track record for playing for contenders. Won championships with the Sox and Yankees, and made it to the world series with Tampa bay. But you're right, he's on an off year in terms of winning.

Rich Mahogany said...

The HOF vote was a travesty. I expected it to be bad (no Blyleven or Raines, McGwire largely ignored, but some borderline guy like Dawson gets in), but Alomar surprised me.

Roberto E. Alejandro said...

I was blown away by the lack of Robbie Alomar. I'm still pissed and it's largely the reason I've yet to write anything about it. The parents visiting me in England doesn't help. Lohud just put up a review of the LF options. Personally, I like Reed Johnson and J-Hair.

Anonymous said...

they just had a guy on MLBN explaining why he didn't vote for Alomar... he basically said that the spitting incident and his terrible play when he was with the Mets means he wasn't a first-ballot guy to him and he will probably vote for him next year when there's a very weak class again.

Rich Mahogany said...

Alomar will get in next year at least.

Fernando Alejandro said...

He'll definitely get in next year, but its still dumb. I don't understand why a couple bad years near the end of your career is enough to merit a no-vote. We really are talking about the best second baseman of that generation.

Rich Mahogany said...

The bad years (combined with a sudden decline) surely cost him, but The Spit must have been what really sealed it. The voters are so self-righteous, I wouldn't be surprised if many of them voted no to "punish" Alomar by making him wait another year for induction. That way Alomar wouldn't be among the saintly group of first-balloters who never did anything wrong, like Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb.

Anonymous said...

Blyleven was robbed.