Top 10 New York Fantasy Baseball Targets for 2010

As the snow melts and spring inches closer, it’s hard not to imagine the beautiful green grass at the new Yankee Stadium, the brand new championship banner being hung, and hopes of a repeat in the minds’ of all the fans. Across town, the old saying, “hope springs eternal” comes into play at Citifield, home of the New York Mets, a team looking to rebound from an injury plagued 2009 season and unseat the defending National League Champion Phillies from atop the NL East. There are some great team storylines. However, though they say there is no “I” in team, fantasy baseball is all about the “I”. Will Jose Reyes bounce back? Will knee surgery affect Carlos Beltran’s bottom line? How will Curtis Granderson fare in The Bronx? I’ll answer these questions and more in my Top 5 Mets and Yankees to target in fantasy baseball for 2010.

Continue Reading…

Yankees Sign Randy Winn, Damon’s Days with Yankees are Over

The Yankees have signed free agent outfielder Randy Winn to a one-year, $2 million deal. The signing officially ends Johnny Damon’s run as a Yankee. Winn will be the team’s fourth outfielder and will be able to spell either Gardner or Granderson at left field.

Versatility is key for the Yankees in the outfield. Gardner and Granderson can each play left or center. This gives the Yankees options. When Winn plays in left, either Gardner or Granderson can play center field.

Most people will yawn at this signing, but the Yankees brought in Winn as a veteran insurance policy if one of their outfielders gets injured and he will be an experienced player to use to give Gardner and Granderson days off.

I would have liked to see the Yankees go with a young player as their fourth outfielder, but I understand their need for a veteran outfielder. This means youngsters like rule 5 draft pick Jamie Hoffman and recently acquired Greg Golson won’t make the 25-man roster.

Granderson, Johnson Replace Damon, Matsui

The Yankees’ offseason moves coincide with their bid to make the team younger. The Yankees have parted ways with Johnny Damon, 36, and Matsui, 35 (turns 36 midseason), in favor of Curtis Grandereson, who will be 29 by the start of the season and Nick Johnson, 31. The Yankees did, however, want Damon back, but not at the price and length of contract he demanded. 

The Yankees will be losing some power, but they hope the jet stream to right field will help Nick Johnson hit more home runs. What Johnson lacks in power he makes up with patience at the plate. He has a .400+ career OBP and he’ll be given a lot of fastballs to feast on which should drive his average up. Pitchers will be less inclined to walk him knowing Teixeira and A-Rod loom on deck. It would be quite a feat if Johnson walked more than 90 times this season. He walked 99 times last year. 

Granderson, who hit 30 home runs last year, will hover around the same mark in 2010. He’ll fill some of the power void left by Matsui. Although he doesn’t hit well against lefties, he should improve with some tutelage from hitting coach Kevin Long. 

The Yankees lose veteran and post season experience but they get younger and by not giving in to Damon’s demands, they save some money which can be spent on a pitcher to help solidify their rotation.

Yankees Introduce Curtis Granderson at Press Conference

Photo courtesy of REUTERS/Ray Stubblebine

The Yankees introduced their newest acquisition, center fielder Curtis Granderson, today in a press conference from Yankee Stadium. Granderson will don number 14 since Joe Girardi is taking number 28 in reference to the team’s goal of a 28th title. The Yankees hope Granderson will be the next great player that fits into the team’s lineage of exceptional center fielders.

“I’m excited to get a chance to be here with the defending world champions,” Granderson said at the press conference. “Hopefully we can look to repeat and add titles throughout the course of my career and be in the great city of New York.”

Granderson’s character will fit well in the Yankees’ clubhouse and his bat will fit well in Yankee Stadium.

Yankees Free Agent Priority; Matsui then Damon

Johnny Damon still believes he fits on the Yankees even though they have acquired center fielder Curtis Granderson.

“I don’t think it affects what I can still do. Either they come out and pursue me or they don’t,” Damon told the New York Post. “I still know how to play baseball and will make any team better.”

The Yankees could figure out a way to make it work if they bring back Damon (although I don’t like the idea of having Damon and Granderson in the same lineup), but not on a four-year deal. Two years is the maximum I see the Yankees going. If Damon and the Yankees come to terms, either Melky Cabrera or Brett Gardner become expendable. Finding potential trade suitors for Cabrera of Gardner shouldn’t be hard since some teams have already expressed interest in the young outfielders. 

Nothing but silence has come out of Matsui’s camp meaning they are weighing their options and realistically evaluating the market for slugger. Matsui has to be the Yankees priority over Damon for the mere fact that signing Damon gives the team excess outfielders and without Matsui, the Yankees don’t have a defined DH. The fact that Damon is a better option in left field than Cabrera and Gardner takes a back seat to the Yankees’ unwillingness to give Damon a four-year contract. If Damon’s asking price doesn’t come down to where the Yankees want it, they’ll be content with putting Cabrera in left field and having Gardner as their fourth outfielder.

If Damon lowers his contract standards to two years and Matsui accepts a one-year deal, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that both guys are back with the team next year. The Yankees should be more concerned with brining back the World Series MVP before Damon. 

Read more on the Yankees and Matsui
Also read about Matsui and Damon

Curtis Granderson Base Stealing

Newly acquired center fielder Curtis Granderson brings a fresh, youthful look to the Yankees. He has good power and speed. His speed, though, doesn’t translate into stolen bases. He stole a career high 26 bases in 2007 and stole 20 bases in 2009. With his speed, I’m wondering why? 

It’s not the fact that he only stole 20 bases in 2009 that concerns me. It’s the fact that he only attempted to steal a base only 26 times. A guy with that speed should attempt to steal at least 50 bases a year. He didn’t have a great OBP in 2009 (.327), which adds to the reason why he didn’t attempt more steals, but look at 2007 and 2008. He had good OBPs (.365 in 2008 and .361 in 2007) and attempted 27 steals in 2007 (caught 1 time) and in 2008 he attempted a mere 16 steals (caught 4 times).

Yes, there’s more to stealing bases than just pure speed but Granderson has the pure speed. With such great speed he might as well gamble. He was only caught six times in 26 attempts last season. He’s been in the bigs for four full seasons, he should have learned how to read pitchers and get better jumps by now. If he hasn’t then shame on the Tigers coaching staff.

They say you don’t have to be fast to be a good base stealer, but if you are fast you can be a great base stealer. It doesn’t make sense that he only attempted 26 steals last year. Even if he is awful at reading pitchers and doesn’t get great jump, his speed alone should give him reason to attempt more stolen bases. He must be doing something right, though, if he converted 20 of 26 attempts in 2009 and was thrown out just one time in 2007. If he was forbidden to steal a base unless directly told to by the coaching staff then I understand. If he had the green light to take it upon himself to steal a bag then I question why he didn’t make more attempts. Maybe it’s because he was too busy hitting home runs.

Alfonso Soriano never attempted less than 40 stolen bases from 2001-2003 when he was with the Yankees. If Girardi gives Granderson the green light, I’d like for him to attempt over 50 in the season. He has the ability to convert around 40 of them because of his speed alone. 

Can Granderson be a 30-30 player with the Yankees? As a leadoff hitter, usually the 30 home runs are what keeps a player from being a 30-30 guy. In Granderson’s case it’s the stolen bases. Granderson has to get that OBP up to above .360 again and he needs to burn up the base paths. Don’t get caught too many times, Teixeira and A-Rod are due up.

Austin Jackson, Curtis Granderson and the Trade

I won’t lie, I was lukewarm about the chatter three weeks ago that the Yankees were looking to acquire Curtis Granderson from the Tigers. I didn’t like the fact that he only hit .249 in 2009 and that he only got on base 32.7% of the time. I didn’t like that he strikes out so much and that for a guy with his speed, he only stole 20 bases last year. His .183 average against lefties in 2009 bugs me too. But there’s just something about him putting on the pinstripes that makes me believe he is going to turn it up as the Yankees center fielder over what could be a good portion of the next decade. 

Again, at the beginning I didn’t like this idea. Then, when I inserted Granderson into the Yankees lineup, something dawned on me. The Yankees lineup is so tenacious and deep that hitting between Jeter and Teixeira (against righties) will only make him a better hitter. Something is strikingly wrong if you only hit .250 when batting before Teixeira and A-Rod. After saying this, however, I’m still quite concerned about Granderson’s poor numbers in 2009.

Continue Reading…

Granderson Fits Well With Yankees

It’s official. The Yankees, Tigers and Diamondbacks completed a three-way trade today that sent center fielder and center piece of the trade Curtis Granderson to the Yankees. Granderson becomes the Yankees starting center fielder and will bat in the number two spot against right-handed pitchers. It’s uncertain in what spot of the lineup he will hit against lefties. 

The Yankees like that Granderson is a professional player with a good work ethic. They also like that he hit 30 home runs in a ballpark that plays much deeper than the new Yankee Stadium does. With the wind tunnel to right, the lefty-hitting Granderson should be able to eclipse the 30 home run mark again in 2010. 

The 28 year old center fielder hit only .249 with an OBP of just .327 in 2009. Home runs aside, 2009 wasn’t Granderson’s best body of work. He has struck out over 140 times three of the last four seasons. Compare that to Johnny Damon, who has never struck out over 100 times in a season in his career. 

The Yankees are hoping they acquired the Granderson of 2008 who hit .280 with a .365 OBP and struck out 111 times. This is the second year in a row the Yankees acquired a player who had a down season the year prior. The Yankees got Nick Swisher from the White Sox before last season coming off a 2008 season in which he batted a low .219 with a .332 OBP with just 21 doubles and 69 RBIs. With the Yankees in 2009, Swisher improved in all of those categories. 

The depth of the Yankees’ lineup makes hitters better. Granderson will see better pitches to hit batting in from of Teixeira and A-Rod. The Yankees look at Granderson as the first all-around center fielder they’ve had since Bernie Williams. Pretty big shoes to fill, but Granderson’s tools give him the ability to live up to the task.

Yankees Official Press Release on the Acquisition of Granderson

The following is the official statement released by the New York Yankees about their acquisition of Curtis Granderson from the Detroit Tigers:

The New York Yankees today acquired outfielder Curtis Granderson from the Detroit Tigers in a three-team, seven-player deal, sending left-handed pitcher Phil Coke and outfielder Austin Jackson to Detroit and right-handed pitcher Ian Kennedy to the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Continue Reading…

Impact of Granderson Trade

The Yankees’ acquisition of center fielder Curtis Granderson has an impact on some other players in baseball.

Now that the Yankees have the center fielder they’ve longed for, where does Johnny Damon fit into the equation? Granderson slides into the number two spot in the lineup between Jeter and Teixeira where Damon used to bat. Granderson is also inserted onto a team that has several outfielders already on the roster not including Damon. Damon’s days in pinstripes are just about over.

The addition of Granderson makes it unlikely that the Yankees will acquire Roy Halladay from the Blue Jays. Austin Jackson was a player the Jays wanted in a deal, but he was shipped off to Detroit in the Granderson deal. That means to get Halladay the Yankees would have to give up two players out of Phil Hughes, Joba Chamberlain and Jesus Montero. That isn’t going to happen. Of the four guys the Yankees didn’t want to part with, only one would remain with the team and there’s no way they package Hughes and Joba together in a deal. That means Montero would have to be in the trade with one of the two pitchers. You won’t be seeing Halladay in the Bronx.

Excludng pitching (which is a while different topic in itself), this is what I would do if I were Brian Cashman; Sign Matsui to DH, let Damon walk, move Melky to left field, use Brett Gardner as the fourth outfielder, and fill in the bench with young, inexpensive utility players.

This is how the Yankees lineup will look:
1. SS Derek Jeter
2. CF Curtis Granderson
3. 1B Mark Teixeira
4. 3B Alex Rodriquez
5. C Jorge Posada
6. DH Hideki Matsui
7. 2B Robinson Cano
8. RF Nick Swisher
9. LF Melky Cabrera

Not a bad lineup if you ask me. If the Yankees were to re-sign Damon, where would he bat in the lineup? Ninth? It’s hard to picture Granderson and Damon fitting in this lineup together.

The Granderson trade to the Yankees will shakeup some things around baseball. It also gives the Yankees leverage over Damon. If Damon wants to come back to the Bronx that bad then he’ll lower his asking price because the Yankees found his replacement in the lineup and don’t need his services anymore.