Category: Baseball

Greg Bird will be just fine!

Good afternoon everyone, So the latest person to be DFA’ED off this 2018 Yankees team is now Greg Bird, Yankee Twitter has DFA’ED Basically half the team so far. April it was Gardy, May it was Didi, For the first 2ish months Stanton was DFA’ED every other day, Late May/June Sanchez was the next victim, Walker has been DFA’ED multiple times (That one is warranted), Now in July we have Greg Bird being DFA’ED by the masses (Which is NOT warranted at all!). If we got rid of every young player who struggled you know what kinda team we would have? The 2012-’15 Yankees. Now that was fun right folks!?

Greg Bird’s stats when healthy…

2015: 46 G, 42 GS, 41-157, 26 R, 9 2B, 11 HR, 31 RBI’S, 19 BB, 1 HBP, 53 SO, .261/.343/.529/.871

2017: 29 G, 24 GS, 22-87, 14 R, 4 2B, 8 HR, 25 RBI, 9 BB, 20 SO, .253/.316/.575/.891

2018: 32 G, 28 GS, 21-105, 8 R, 6 2B, 1 3B, 5 HR, 9 RBI, 13 BB, 1 BB, 3 HBP, 33 SO, .200/.306/.419/.725

Greg Bird’s 2018 season (A breakdown)
May 15th to June 17th…
18 G, 16 GS, 15-66, 4 R, 6 2B, 1 3B, 3 HR, 5 RBI’S, 4 BB, 2 HBP, 19 SO, .227/.292/.485/.777

From June 18th to June 24th…
7 G, 6 GS, 1-18, 1 R, 6 BB, 8 SO, .056/.292/.056/.347

From June 25th to July 4th…
7 G, 6 GS, 5-21, 3 R, 2 HR, 4 RBI’S, 3 BB, 1 BB, 1 HBP, 6 SO, .238/.360/.524/.884

Bird is 25 years old he’s a Power hitting Lefty 1st Baseman who plays a damn good 1st base! His UZR/150 is at 16.3 right now. There is more to Baseball then just offense folks.

Why are so many people just giving up on him when he hasn’t even had 200 AT-BATS YET! Was he supposed to be a GOD and go 45-105!!??.

I think Bird gets so much crap cause he’s been here the longest of the Baby Bombers (But also hasn’t since he missed all of ’16 & most of ’17 with us). Just give him a bit longer folks that’s all I’m asking you for (I don’t think one more month will kill this team!)

P.S. If you’ve hopped off the Greg Bird train already you are NOT allowed back on once he gets on a roll (Which is going to happen). Don’t try crawling back either!!

Oh yeah btw he was AWESOME in the playoffs! He’s been clutch there (No not just the Miller Home Run either!)

2015: WC Vs HOU 1-3, 1 SO, .333/.333/.333/.667

2017: WC Vs MIN 1-3, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 2 SO, .333/.500/.333/.833

2017: ALDS Vs CLE 4-18, 3 R, 2 HR, 3 RBI, 3 BB, 7 SO, .222/.364/.556/.919

2017 ALCS Vs HOU 5-20, 2 R, 2 2B, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 8 BB, 8 SO, .250/.464/.500/.964

If you combine 2017 and the Playoffs Greg Bird put up these numbers!!…

The Neil Walker hate needs to stop.

I’ll be the first to admit I got on Neil Walker too through those 85 PA’s where he started out just dreadful!. But the fact of the matter is he’s been much better since the Angels series (Had two home runs robbed from him) & over the last 7-14 days he has started to really turn a corner, His walks are leading to Rally’s, He got that huge game tying double that set-up Gleyber’s game winning 3 run home run. He’s giving us Pro At-Bats!!!

👀👀👀👀👀 Look at that OBP!!! Once May hit Neil Walker finally got going and for Yankee fans to still be saying to DFA him is crazy to me. He’s finally starting to hit and you still wanna release him LOL, Come on.

Let’s give Walker another 150 PA’s like my friend’s @liveforsports14 & @Thatsabadtake have said we should all do.

I was too hasty with wanting to DFA Neil Walker eariler this season and I think everyone else is going to start coming around as well.

Twitter- @RustySportsTalk

My Projections/predictions for the 2018 Yankees

These are my opinions on what each Yankees Starting Pitcher & the lineup (Sans 2nd base) will do in 2018… No Projections for Clint Frazier, Miguel Andjuar, or Ronald Torreyes cause I just don’t know how many games each will play in & I don’t wanna even try to guess at it. The bullpen as well is not being projected cause it’s hard to figure out.

SP 1. Luis Severino…
18-5, 2.84 ERA 33 G, 33 GS, 208.2 IP, 146 H, 60 R, 53 ER, 11 HR, 53 BB, 242 SO

SP 2. Masahiro Tanaka…
14-8, 4.36 ERA, 30 G, 30 GS, 186.1 IP, 174 H, 86 R, 73 ER, 24 HR, 37 BB, 188 SO

SP 3. Sonny Gray…
13-10, 3.43 ERA, 29 G, 29 GS, 173.1 IP, 151 H, 74 R, 66 ER, 21 HR, 64 BB, 148 SO

SP 4. CC Sabathia…
12-6, 3.77 ERA, 28 G, 28 GS, 161.1 IP, 143 H, 66 R, 63 ER, 18 HR, 59 BB, 119 SO

SP 5. Domingo German…
10-7, 4.93 ERA, 20 G, 20 GS, 115.2 IP, 113 H, 63 R, 58 ER, 12 HR, 43 BB, 156 SO

RF/LF/DH Aaron Judge…

158 G, 119 R, 28 2B, 4 3B, 46 HR, 109 RBI, 13 SB, 123 BB, 194 SO
.276/.398/.604/1.002

LF/RF/DH Giancarlo Stanton…
156 G, 121 R, 30 2B, 54 HR, 137 RBI, 89 BB, 187 SO .273/.367/.587/.954

C. Gary Sanchez…

154 G, 93 R, 24 2B, 36 HR, 103 RBI, 53 BB, 130 SO, .282/.356/.556/.912

SS. Didi Gregorius…

157 G, 81 R, 29 2B, 1 3B, 31 HR, 97 RBI, 4 SB, 30 BB, 79 SO, .289/.321/.485/.806

LF. Brett Gardner…

150 G, 101 R, 27 2B, 5 3B, 22 HR, 67 RBI, 23 SB, 75 BB, 124 SO .269/.358/.435/.793

1B. Greg Bird…

119 G, 64 R, 16 2B, 1 3B, 22 HR, 78 RBI, 54 BB, 113 SO, .256/.319/.476/.795

CF Aaron Hicks…

141 G, 74 R, 24 2B, 1 3B, 23 HR, 86 RBI, 15 SB, 70 BB, 118 SO, .271/.386/.489/.875

3B. Brandon Drury…

96 G, 47 R, 14 2B, 1 3B, 11 HR, 59 RBI, 3 SB, 39 BB, 68 SO, .276/.328/.463/.791

2B. Gleyber Torres…

139 G, 62 R, 19 2B, 3 3B, 28 HR, 43 RBI, 14 SB, 42 BB, 82 SO, .276/.327/.418/.745

JD Martinez makes long awaited debut with the Red Sox, Promptly flies out.

This sucks dude, as much as I hated seeing JD Martinez go to the Red Sox, Part of me was excited for the renewal of the Yanks-Sox rivalry. It’s been a long time since both of these teams were really, really good at the same time, and I thought that was finally going to be the case in 2018, but apparently I was wrong.

Like I said, it sucks. The Red Sox won back-to-back division titles, Then the Yankees responded by trading for the National League MVP, and then the Red Sox countered by signing the guy who led the majors in slugging percentage. I thought to myself, this is great. The time has finally come. Two young cores now supplemented by a brand new offensive juggernaut on each side. After all the anticipation for the rivalry to once again rise from the ashes, awake from its slumber after a decade-long period of dormancy…and then this is what we get.

The game of baseball is so much better when the Red Sox and Yankees are going at each other’s throats either head-to-head or in the standings, but this was a real letdown. Maybe Hanley Ramirez has a big comeback year this year. I don’t know. I really don’t. But if we’re relying on Martinez to be the lightning rod that sparks this thing back up again, then I think we’re all headed down a path of regret and despair.

State of the MLB Hot (Cold) Stove

Yu Darvish originally says he didn’t receive a deal then says he did, Now @BryanHoch is reporting that Yu Darvish is lying so I’m officially fried.

JD Martinez may not sign till Spring training, Josh Donaldson and the Blue Jays pretty much fucked over the Red Sox when they settled on 23 million for this upcoming season, Yeah they play different positions and all but I think JD can look at Donaldson and be like that’s what I believe I should be making if not more.

Arbitration is going to be settled with all the players before any of the big time free agents sign, regarding that the Yankees have signed all their Arb eligible players….

Adam Warren 3.3 million

Didi Gregorius 8.25 MM

Dellin Betances 5.1 MM

Sonny Gray 6.5 MM

Austin Romine 1.1 MM

Aaron Hicks 2.8 MM

Tommy Kahnle 1.3 MM

Chasen Shreve 825 K

The only two real Free afents to sign so far have been Jay Bruce with the New York Mets for 3 years at 39 million and Carlos Santana for 3 years at 60 million with the Philadelphia Phillies. If you had told me at the beginning of this off-season that Bruce and Santana would be the first two to sign of the bigger FA’s I’d of said you were freaking crazy.

Will Gerrit Cole ever actually be moved during this off-season? I’m gonna say no and he’s traded towards the July trade deadline. 

It’s January 12th, we are 5 weeks from pitchers and catchers reporting yet none of the big FA have signed. Hopefully the dam breaks wide open soon cause this has been one of the most boring off-seasons I can ever remember.

The Yankees should sign Greg Bird to an early extension and here’s why…

Credit to @emichael888 for this article idea

So Eric and I think the Yankees should give Bird an extension of 4 years at 24 million with 2 club options at 10 and 12 mil with incentives achieved which would bring the total to 46 mil over 6 years and he should take it. Here are our reasons…

1. It’s high risk, high reward. If Bird is what we all believe him to be, then it’s a steal for the Yankees, if he ends up being a bust or just too injury prone then it isn’t a big money commitment. We don’t lose very much. He can always still be a back up since he won’t be making a lot.

2. With how his injury history has been so far (He also had injuries in the Minors) so why not take the safe bet if you’re Bird. He’s only 25 so a 6 year deal would take him until he’s 31 or 32 and can still get one big contract. If I were Greg Bird I’d be wary of betting on myself so I’d take the guaranteed money.

3. The Yankees would be crazy not to do this because the upside for Bird is amazing! Dude could for real hit 40+ bombs and drive in 90+ RBI’S a year. If he isn’t durable, well we haven’t lost very much except a bit of money. You don’t usually extend guys like this but Bird is different.

4. Factoring in buying out his Arbitration years… He’d probably get between 1-4 million next year maybe 5 mil???. So 24 million sounds about right, It’s right at the 6 mil range but it’s less than 7-8 a year which would still be a steal.

Note: extensions do not take affect immediately so it wouldn’t mess with the Luxury Tax & we would still be under it for the 2018-19 off season.

I feel like this is a good thing to do for the Yankees? And for Greg Bird. What do you think? Sound off in the comments below.