New commish Manfred saw Mantle hit homers at Yankee Stadium.

New York Times | Tyler Kepner: So new commish Rob Manfred is a Yankee fan. "I was a big Bobby Murcer fan during the down years." He goes on for a quick Q&A with hot takes on the designated hitter, the international draft and day games in the World Series.

Beyond the Box Score | Bryan Grosnick: If you're a podcast kind of person, Beyond the Box Score spends some time on their podcast with Grantland writer Ben Lindbergh, who talks about how Derek Jeter may have saved the Yankees' bottom line in 2014.

Grantland | Bryan Curtis: An interesting take on the worst question in sports interviews: the one that starts with the phrase "Talk about..."

New York Post | Dan Martin: Alex Rodriguez met last week with Rob Manfred, but he'll have to wait to have a similar meeting with Brian Cashman. See you at spring training!

Associate Press: Former Yankee Ted Lilly is in trouble for insurance fraud. Apparently he took his RV to a body shop to assess some recent damage, then bought insurance, then tried to put in an insurance claim for a little less that $5k. A 15-year career and $80M in career earnings, you'd think he be smart enough to realize that it's not worth the risk.

There's a blizzard heading for the Northeast. Maybe it's good that baseball is not quite back yet. Nah! Pitchers and catchers report in 25 days.

Baseball? Yeah, still not on at all. The Yankees have done nothing. There's a blizzard that's about to hit the tri-state area. Also, nobody posted any comments about the NFL Pro Bowl yesterday. After careful research, Pinstripe Alley scientists have concluded that the score was "ZZzzzZZZzzz" to "Seriously, why isn't Calvinball on instead of this?"

Comments of the Day

If only there were some kind of regenerative knee treatment. Or kneegenerative, if you will!

Again, if you think Martin Prado being gone because of his offensive performance last year is an issue, I don't think you quite understand the problem.

/pours one out

Gotta say, I'm with Harlan on this one. I'm not enjoying it that much either. It's weird. Plus, Milbetrob Smash was a thing I was looking forward to.

GIF of the Day

There were no GIFs worthy of the GOTD yesterday. As always, this makes PSA sad.

Honorable Mod Mention

The HMM award goes to both Matt Appel and Nikhil Chaturvedi. They both joined the staff and posted their first articles for Pinstripe Alley yesterday. Make sure to give them a proper Pinstripe Alley hello. This can include GIFs.

• Favorite term for an impending blizzard? (Snowpocalypse, snowmaggedon, etc.)
• Given a choice, which would you rather do: Snowboarding, skiing, or sitting next to a warm fireplace inside the cabin with a cup of hot chocolate?

The Chase from The Rock is today's entry into Hans Zimmer week on Pinstripe Alley. Definitely one of the best car chase scenes in movie history, and a lot of it has to do with this track. It adds to the bad-assery and Bayplosions that incorporate this sequence. As always, please link us your Song of the Day.

Feel free to use this as your open thread for the day. For those PSAers living in the tri-state area, are you properly prepared for the coming storm? For those PSAers not living in the tri-state area, are you properly laughing at us for having to deal with all this snow?

I'm only borrowing your Humvee!

One of the last spitballers was also the only former "Highlander" to later play in a World Series with the Yankees.

Name: Jack Quinn
Position: Starting pitcher
Born: July 1, 1883 (Stefurov, Slovakia)
Died: April 17, 1946 (Pottsville, PA)
Yankee Years: 1909-12, 1919-21
Primary number: N/A
Yankee statistics: 81-65, 3.15 ERA, 2.89 FIP, 228 G, 145 GS, 1,270 IP, 478 K, 83 CG, 6 SHO, 94 ERA-, 89 FIP-, 14.0 rWAR, 19.6 fWAR

Biography

Longevity is occasionally an underrated quality in a ballplayer. Sometimes, pitchers can be extremely valuable in a short period of time, as pitchers like Sandy Koufax and Johan Santana can attest. However, there is definitely value in staying productive for quite a long time, even if it's not in a Hall of Fame caliber career. Jack Quinn is a fine example of someone who managed to put together a fine MLB career through such consistency.

Quinn was his generation's Jamie Moyer, pitching well after his 40th birthday. The spitballer got his start in New York, and he would become the one player who survived the craters of the Highlander years to resurface when the Yankees at last won their first American League pennant.

Unclear upbringing

The first 20 years or so of Quinn's life is absolutely fascinating. He enjoyed keeping his past shrouded in mystery, and over the years, there was a tremendous amount of speculation as to where he was from. Was he Welsh? Polish? Irish? Native American? Greek? French? Russian? All were suggested as possibilities during his life, but the now-widely accepted conclusion is that he was born on July 1, 1883 in Stefurov, Austria-Hungary (present-day Slovakia). Quinn was unsurprisingly not his birth name; it was Johannes Pajkos.

When Quinn was less than a year old, his parents Michael and Maria immigrated to the United States on the SS Suevia. Sadly, his mother did not survive long after the trip and Quinn never knew her. Michael brought his son to Hazleton, Pennsylvania, where he made ends meet as a coal miner while Slovak friends and later his second wife, Anastasia, helped raise Quinn. Around this time, Pajkos anglicized his name to Picus, so his son changed from Johannes Pajkos to John Picus. The "Quinn" was added to further catch potential scouts' attention.

Growing up in poverty meant that Quinn could not have much schooling, and he began helping his father in the mines at the meager age of 12. The taste of coal dust was dreadful, and Quinn was far from the only young man who dreamed of escaping the mines through baseball. He had come to know the game through community activities with other immigrants; he would often work early shifts so that he would have time to play baseball with his friends.

After an unusual childhood that even saw him ride a freight train to Montana and back looking for work, Quinn began pitching in 1900 for a semi-pro team in Dunbar, about an hour outside of Pittsburgh. Quinn honed his skills for several years with a few different Pennsylvania teams before getting a chance to break in with a legitimate minor league team. The Macon Brigands of the South Atlantic League signed him up at age 23 in 1907. Quinn rewarded his manager, Perry Lipe, by recording a 2.35 ERA and 1.025 WHIP in 107 1/3 innings.

Having impressed in his first professional season, Quinn next spent time with the Toledo Mud Hens and the Richmond Colts. Quinn was outstanding, particularly with Richmond, where he notched a perfect 14-0 record, a 1.10 ERA, and a 0.832 WHIP in 16 starts. Quinn even added a no-hitter in there. One of the opposing player-managers in the league was Al Orth, from the Lynchburg team. Orth had been a fine pitcher in his own right with the New York Highlanders, and was good enough to land the #82 spot on this list. Orth let his old team know that the young pitcher was definitely worth their interest, and so the Highlanders drafted Quinn from Richmond that September. The major leagues beckoned.

Tumultuous twenties

Much like the aforementioned Moyer, it took Quinn awhile to truly break out in the pros. Quinn's debut seasons were just fine as he pitched well above league average in 1909 and 1910, making 42 starts and pitching 354 1/3 innings between the two seasons, posting a 2.24 ERA and 2.51 FIP. He had remarkable control over his spitball, a challenge which he was happy to master:

"I didn’t take up the spitter because I especially like it although I learned to like it later. My fingers were so short I couldn’t get a grip on the ball well enough to throw an effective curve. With a fast ball and a spitter, however, I have developed a control that I think will rank as good as anybody’s in this circuit. If you bother to look up the records, you’ll find that I give up fewer bases on balls, year after year, in proportion to the amount of work I do, than almost any hurler in the league." - Quinn, as told to F. C. Lane in Baseball Magazine, September 1930, cited in Charles Faber, SABR.

Unfortunately, the early success did not last for Quinn, who was only okay in 1911 and even worse in 1912 for a Highlanders team that finished dead last and lost 102 games. Quinn was farmed out to the Rochester Hurlers of the International League during the 1912 campaign and though he pitched better there both in '12 and 1913, he struggled to find consistency at the major league level.

The NL's Boston Braves purchased him late in the '13 season, and he did pitch to a 2.40 ERA down the stretch. He was one of many players to jump from the established two leagues to the new third major league, the Federal League, and with the Baltimore Terrapins in 1914, he went 26-14 with a 128 ERA+ in a career-high 342 2/3 innings. The next year though, he fell backward to 9-22 record and a 93 ERA+, then found himself out of a job when the Federal League folded.

Unable to catch on with a major league club, Quinn headed out west to the well-regarded Pacific Coast League. He pitched well for the Vernon Tigers over the course of three years, but his career still appeared to be at a crossroads. At the time of his 35th birthday, he hadn't pitched above the minors in almost three years, and his major league resume included just seven up-and-down seasons with league average pitching (103 ERA+). No one could have predicted that he would amazingly end up throwing 16 more seasons in the majors.

Resurgence

Quinn's time in Vernon was not in vain. Chicago White Sox owner Charles Comiskey liked what he had done and signed him to pitch six games down the stretch in 1918. In the off-season however, a dispute over who had the right to Quinn's services emerged. The Yankees had gone directly to the Vernon club to negotiate for him whereas the White Sox had first sought permission from the National Commission, which governed the game prior to the establishment of a sole commissioner. AL president Ban Johnson intervened and said that the Yankees were entitled to Quinn. His decision was one of many that led to Johnson's ouster from the game, as Comiskey never forgave him for the slight.

Credit: Pinstripe Birthdays - MLBlogs

Both the Yankees and Quinn saw their futures at last get on track, as under Miller Huggins, the Yankees finished third in 1919 and Quinn excelled. He entrenched himself in the Yankees' rotation with a 2.61 ERA and 2.95 FIP in 266 innings and 18 complete games. The following year with the incomparable Babe Ruth now in tow, the Yankees came even closer to the top with 95 wins. It was a tight pennant race from which the Cleveland Indians eventually emerged victorious, but the blame could hardly be rested on Quinn. The spitball was now illegal, but he was allowed to continue throwing the pitch since he was grandfathered into the post-spitball era. His control remained precise with a league-best 1.7 BB/9, and he threw 253 1/3 innings of 120 ERA+ ball.

At last in 1921, the Yankees reached the top, winning the first AL pennant in franchise history. It was a bit of an off-year for Quinn as he split time between the bullpen and the rotation, but he still had a fine 111 ERA+ in 119 innings. For the first time in his career, the 38-year-old was going to the World Series. Alas, the '21 campaign would not include the Yankees' first championship, as they fell in the best-of-nine series five games to three. In his one game relieving a battered Bob Shawkey, Quinn also struggled.

The loss was deflating, but Quinn would get another chance at the title. It would not come with the Yankees, however. Leery of his advanced age, GM Ed Barrow dealt him to the Red Sox as part of a package in the off-season for a few players who would go on to help the Yankees win that elusive title: Joe Bush, Sam Jones, and shortstop Everett Scott.

Oldest player to...

The parting of ways worked out for both sides. Quinn defied his critics by pitching well despite playing around some awful Red Sox teams for a few years (he had a 115 ERA+ over four years at Fenway Park). At age 42, the old architect of the Philadelphia Athletics, Connie Mack, decided to add Quinn to his club in 1926. It turned out the long-toothed spitballer still had some pitches left in his right arm. He recorded a 3.51 ERA and 121 ERA+ for Mack over five and a half seasons in Philly, winning that hard-fought World Series ring in 1929 with an amazing team powered by Jimmie Foxx and Lefty Grove. He was the oldest man to ever start a World Series game when he took the mound in Game 4.

The A's repeated in 1930 to get Quinn his second ring, and Quinn moved on to the National League for three more seasons. Now a reliever, he helped pioneer the closer's role by specializing in finishing off games for starters who couldn't quite finish the job. He led the NL in games finished and saves (not yet an official stat) for two years in a row from '31 to '32, finishing 61 total games and notching 22 saves. Quinn's unusual 23-year career came to a close in 1933 with the Reds. He was the second-to-last legal spitballer in the majors. A little more than a decade after throwing his last major league pitch, Quinn passed away due to liver disease at age 62.

Quinn was still pitching after his 50th birthday. For 80 years, he held the record for oldest man to win a major league game, before Moyer passed him in 2012. Hell, for over 70 years, he oddly held the record for the oldest man to ever homer in the majors until the similarly ageless Julio Franco came along. If that's not a remarkable career, then I don't know what else would be. Quinn's career was a comeback story, yet one forgotten by most Yankees fans. His longevity should be remembered though, so here's to Quinn and a fascinating career.

Andrew's rank: 75
Tanya's rank: 69
Community rank: 81.5
WAR rank: 81

Season Stats

Stats from Baseball-Reference and FanGraphs

References

Appel, Marty. Pinstripe Empire: The New York Yankeesfrom Before the Babe to After the Boss. New York: Bloomsbury, 2012.

BR Bullpen

Deadball Era

Faber, Charles. SABR bio

Reisler, Jim. Before They Were the Bombers: The New York Yankees' Early Years, 1903-1915. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2005. (online)

Other Top 100 Yankees

• #78 Mark Teixeira
• #79 Sparky Lyle
• #80 Orlando Hernandez
• #81 Kid Elberfeld
• #82 Al Orth

The 41-year old outfielder could contribute significantly in 2014.

Finding a fourth outfielder was on the Marlins' list of priorities after the organization extended Giancarlo Stanton. Ichiro Suzuki was not. But after the two sides were able to work out a deal that can be worth up to $5 million, one of Major League Baseball's best outfields just got even better.

Suzuki, 41, posted a .284/.324/.340 batting line to complement one home run and 22 RBIs in 143 games with the Yankees last season. Age is a key component, however the Marlins were seeking a veteran, and Suzuki has a notable amount of experience. He has played for contending teams and teams that are rebuilding. That should prove to be beneficial, since the Marlins are somewhere in between.

Although advanced metrics may suggest Suzuki will regress offensively in 2015, it may not be notable. He was once a consistent .300 hitter, but is still a key bat, and one that is close to 3,000 career hits. Suzuki will likely not be in the lineup more than twice or three times a week, if that, but his presence should also prove to improve the clubhouse. The Marlins add Suzuki to a group of leaders featuring Michael Morse, Martin Prado, Jeff Mathis, and Stanton.

The Marlins had a solid outfield in 2014, led by Stanton, Marcell Ozuna, and Christian Yelich, and the trio should only improve in 2015. Unless one of the three gets hurt, Suzuki will not see much starting time. But that might make him that much more useful late in games.

By adding Suzuki, the Marlins not only addressed the need for a fourth outfielder, but they also added a left-handed pinch hitter. The Marlins typically break spring training with one lefty to come off the bench in the later innings, and Suzuki should prove to be valuable in that respect, too. He is also flexible defensively, which could be valuable for the Marlins' younger outfield as the season progresses.

Miami was open to a multiyear deal with Ichiro, but ultimately settled for the one-year contract. The deal could benefit both parties, as the Marlins could look to upgrade again next offseason, and Suzuki could find a new squad where he can earn a starting spot.

Before signing Suzuki, the Marlins considered trading Dan Haren for a fourth outfielder. Since Miami does not want to include a large portion of Haren's 2015 salary, which it received from Los Angeles, in a potential deal, Haren has not been drawing much interest. As a result, the Marlins will likely benefit from not using him to acquire another outfielder.

Suzuki was not too expensive, and should continue to thrive. The Marlins' outfield was not a problem in 2014, and it now looks even better for 2015.

With his range, maybe Brendan Ryan could play safety?

Baseball and football weirdly seem to have had the most crossover athletes in American sports. Bo Jackson managed to have a pretty decent career in both, while Deion Sanders played in both a World Series and a Super Bowl. Maybe it's because they're played at different times of the year, leading to less of an overlap than there is any combination of other major sports. It seems like baseball and football have generally pretty different skill sets, but it's been done before, so maybe I'm wrong. I'm probably wrong. Anyway, for this week's Pinstripe Q&A, I asked the PSA staff what Yankee they want to see try and play some football?

Q: The Super Bowl is this coming Sunday. What Yankee do you think would best adapt to playing football? Or, what Yankee would make a bad football player, but you would like to see try to play for comedic reasons?

John

I think "like to see try to play for comedic reasons" applies to Tex in any sport at this point, don't you?
Football's a much simpler game than baseball from an athletic standpoint; very few football players have the hand-eye coordination you'd need to hit a 95 mph fastball much less adjust to a curve. Football players can play with injuries that would sideline a baseball player. But that's my bias.
I can imagine most of the Yankees' outfield as a running backs or wide receivers. Since none of the current Yankees look like Mo Vaughn, I don't know that there's anyone who could play on the defensive side of the ball.

Arun

Brett Gardner and Jacoby Ellsbury might have made it as a pair of wideouts.

What would really be fun though, is Alex Rodriguez as a punter. He'll film an Instagram video of himself punting in practice, the media will vilify him for preparing for his offense to fail... Usual stuff but at least a different sport.

Jason

I want to see Mark Teixeira try his wrist out as a quarterback and see him attempt to run around. He'd get TRUCKED in no time.

Harlan

If we're counting former Yankees, then Paul O'Neill: Kicker and Kyle Farnsworth: Linebacker.

A-Rod was a star quarterback in high school and was offered the chance to be a two-sport athlete at Miami. Maybe he can give it a shot again at 39 - he's got the arm strength and prototypical size. Could he be any worse than Geno Smith?

Matt P.

A-Rod would be the most fun to watch as a football player, and it's not even close. Deflating the footballs? Duh. Flopping to cause pass interference? Of course. Yelling 'I'm open!' from the sideline to confuse the opposing quarterback? Done and done.

Jim

CC Sabathia might be a world class left tackle and Dellin Betances could be his bookend on the right side. Brett Gardner's patience and speed makes him ideal to be a 3rd down running back while Jacoby Ellsbury's combination of size and quickness could be useful at cornerback or safety. The way A-Rod handles pop-ups it would be fun to see him try and return punts and kicks. Tom Coughlin would have steam coming out of his ears.

Martin

Gardner: I think he'd be perfect as a wide receiver for the Patriots. He could join Amendola and Edelman. We all know Brady and Belichick love those speedy white guy receivers. I think Gardy could be a legit punt returner too though.

Betances: Stick him on the defensive line somewhere. He's huge.

Garrett Jones: He's 6'5" 235... something tells me he could throw the football a little bit. Plus, i like his name for a QB.

McCann: If his knees hold up, I could see him being a solid middle line backer. The veteran kind, defensive captain. Making sure all of the unwritten rules of the game get upheld.

Ellsbury: I'd stick him at WR or CB. He's got all that speed to work with. I could see him buring a DB, or hauling in a pick-6.

Matt A.

In light of #DeflateGate, perhaps Michael Pineda would find himself a nice little home in the NFL.

Andrew

In his prime, the answer would probably be A-Rod since he was apparently a tremendous quarterback in high school. Given his present-day hips, which are held together by what I can only assume are paper clips and bubble gum, the best football player would be Brian McCann since he would probably make a mean left end. Would you want to be shoving against him? I doubt it.

Of course all that being said, the Yankee I most want to play football is Mark Teixeira because he would make such doofy faces at quarterback that Eli and company would be put to shame. Also that would mean he would no longer be on the Yankees' payroll. Win/win.

Greg

Brett Gardner would be the best wide receiver in the entire game of Football. Now if you wanna talk Aussie Rules Football, I'd go with Nunez. Cause he's insane!!!

Nikhil

Technically not a Yankee anymore but I'm pretty sure Ichiro channeled Darren Sproles here:

Matt F.

He has been mentioned a lot, but I think the funniest scenario is one where Mark Teixeira plays football. I would love for him to play quarterback. I can imagine him just getting sacked over and over again and the ball flying out every time and him crumpling to the ground in new and interesting ways. Since he probably wouldn't be good enough to play, he would likely be the backup, meaning he might have to help out with play calls. And we all know how good he is at signaling to people several yards away.

Those are our answers and now it's your turn. What Yankee would you most like to see put on some pads and attempt to play football?

More controversy is brewing between the Yankees and Alex Rodriguez.

The New York Yankees plan on challenging Alex Rodriguez's ability to collect bonuses in his contract, according to Andrew Marchand of ESPNNewYork.com.

Rodriguez is eligible to receive bonuses per the "milestone home run" marketing agreement he signed as part of his contract in 2007. If the 39-year-old Rodriguez hits six more home runs, which would tie him with Willie Mays for fourth on the all-time list at 660, he is in line for a $6 million bonus as part of the 10-year, $275 million contract he initially signed.

Per Marchand, the Yankees plan on contesting the deal's validity given the revelations about Rodriguez's steroid use and his year-long suspension in 2014. The 20-year veteran would also receive $6 million apiece for tying the milestones reached by Babe Ruth (714 home runs), Hank Aaron (755), and career leader Barry Bonds (762), and for setting the all-time mark.

Rodriguez and the MLB Players Association will have the opportunity to file a grievance regarding the issue, which would then require a re-examination of all the details surrounding the third baseman's involvement in the Biogenesis scandal. Obviously Biogenesis remains a thorny issue for MLB, and any decisions regarding steroid use and a player's earning potential will get the MLBPA's attention.

Ever since arriving in New York, Rodriguez has been a figure of controversy, most notably for his links to steroid use. Moreover, the Yankees' hopes of claiming back some of the money they owe Rodriguez have been documented in the past.

Even still, the strength of the Yankees' case remains hard to determine. Their argument likely rests on the notion that Rodriguez made the marketing agreement essentially worthless after using PEDs and with the way he acted during the investigations into Biogenesis. According to Marchand, Rodriguez was supposed to receive each $6 million bonus in return for the Yankees' exclusive ability to market the third baseman's accomplishments.

As it stands, the Yankees still owe Rodriguez $61 million over the next three seasons to finish off his contract.

Yankees looking to avoid paying A-Rod bonuses, Rob Refsnyder projects to be the team's most productive prospect in 2015 and more.

Fangraphs | Carson Cistulli: Robert Refsnyder leads all Yankees prospects in projected WAR for 2015.

New York Daily News | Bill Madden: The Yankees are preparing to attempt to void the "milestone bonuses" Alex Rodriguez is close to receiving, starting with passing Willie Mays' career home run total.

NJ.com | Brendan Kuty: The Yankees are littered with injury risks, starting with ace Masahiro Tanaka.

ESPN New York | Wallace Matthews: Whatever grudge the Yankees have against Alex Rodriguez, they need to make sure it doesn't get in the way of attempting to win.

Plenty of us have complained that Tex won't go the other way against the defensive shift, but how much does that really hurt him?

In light of new MLB commissioner Rob Manfred's comments about being "open" about potentially altering baseball's rules to ban or limit defensive shifts, I've had the chance to read a fresh batch of comments taking hitters like Mark Teixeira to task. I often see the phrase "can't or won't beat the shift" tossed around.

This is not meant to be a post taking Pinstripe Alley's readers "to the Matt's," but rather an attempt to think through what a different hitter Tex would look like if teams didn't or couldn't employ a defensive shift against him. Narratively, the argument that these pull hitters are actively refusing to hit the other way feels to me akin to the argument that Alex Rodriguez couldn't hit in the clutch.

With more and more research pointing to the expanded strike zone and strikeout specialized relievers, rather than the shift, being at the core of declining offense, I feel a certain responsibility to stand up for our much maligned pull hitters. So first, what makes a hitter a "pull" hitter?

To make Noah Woodward's list of right-handed hitters who should fear the shift from a couple years ago, a pull percentage in the high forties to low fifties seemed to be a flag. As a left-handed hitter, with 56% balls in play to right, 30% balls in play to center, and 14% balls in play to left, Tex certainly meets the criteria. (That 14% to left as a lefty is basically in line with his career balls in play to left as a lefty, so it's not as though going the other way was ever a skill he showed much of).

So a couple graphs, courtesy of Fangraphs:

Take a look at all those green dots on the right hand chart (groundballs) that become gray dots on the left hand chart (outs).

Looking at the numbers behind the graphics, we see that last season, Tex had 129 at-bats as a lefty against a right-handed pitcher in which he put the ball into play in right field, a few less than his career average, but right in line with what we'd expect given his injury-limited playing time. He also posted by far his lowest batting average of any season other than his injury-ravaged 2013: a .326/.326/.721 mark, compared with a .379/.376/.799 career mark. So yes, the shift is clearly robbing Tex of a few singles and maybe one double each season.

Now let's take a step back and look at Tex's full numbers as a lefty facing a righty: in 2014, .213/.304/.413, compared with .263/.355/.510 for his career. That's a much bigger drop, especially in OBP, than his balls in play to right field would suggest. (*Bonus analysis: if you were wondering about the big drop in Tex's slugging percentage, I blame that on plain old getting older. From 2003-2009, Tex averaged 5 homers and 6 doubles per season to centerfield. From 2010-2014, he averaged exactly 1 homer and 2.6 doubles per season to centerfield as a lefty hitter.) His batted balls as a lefty (22.2% line drive, 37.6% ground ball, 40.2% fly ball) are comfortably in line with his career averages.

Not hitting the ball is actually what has hurt Mark Teixeira the most: in 2014, 10.8% of his at-bats against a righty ended in a walk, just about in line with his career average of 11.3%; but his 23.5% K-rate is significantly above his 18.2% career mark. So if Tex really wants to beat the shift, the most important thing he can do is put the bat on the ball.

If you're like me, and you're searching for a silver lining to all this, it's that Tex's numbers in the first half of last season were much more in line with his career marks for BB% and K%; they spiked sharply in the second half as he wore down and the nagging injuries mounted. I'm hoping that a healthier offseason leads him to a stronger full season in 2015.

Just a fan-friggin'-tastic start to Rob Manfred's tenure as commissioner.

Baseball is almost back, as pitchers and catchers report to spring training in less than a month. There are really only two off-season events most fans are tracking as the calendar nears mid-February. Former Royals ace James Shields has yet to sign anywhere, but his destination will almost certainly be answered before long. The other matter, however, concerns 19-year-old Cuban phenom Yoan Moncada.

More fans are beginning to learn about Moncada, a young player so talented that some scouts have said he would be at least a Top 5 pick if he was eligible for the MLB Draft. More importantly, a number of high-profile teams have been linked to Moncada throughout the off-season, including the Yankees, who recently held a workout for the infield prospect. Moncada won't be cheap, but if the Yankees do sign him, he would instantly become the best prospect in their system. Regardless of where Moncada's ultimate position on defense is (he's a shortstop now but there are questions about whether or not he could stick there), there is little doubt that he would make the minor league team to which he is assigned a must-watch.

The problem is that Moncada is not presently allowed to sign with any major league teams. If he is not cleared before June 15th, then the Yankees will not be allowed to sign Moncada since they spent way over their allotted cap on international prospects last summer. For awhile now, it has seemed that the barrier between MLB teams and Moncada was the federal government, more specifically the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). This morning though, it was reported by Ben Badler of Baseball America that the organization blocking Moncada isn't OFAC, but MLB itself:

The holdup is that MLB won’t let Moncada—or any Cuban player, for that matter—use the general license any more. That wasn’t always the case. Yasiel Puig, for example, signed using the general license. It’s not clear what exactly changed, but at some point in 2012 after Puig signed in June that year, MLB no longer allowed Cuban players to sign using the general license and instead required them to apply for the specific license, which is a written document from OFAC. That goes beyond what the government requires from Cuban players to be able to begin their careers, and with some players waiting six months to receive their licenses, MLB’s policy has added a significant bottleneck for those players.

MLB has made it more complicated than it was before for Cubans to sign with MLB teams. Badler noted that Moncada was not alone in limbo--fellow prospects Hector Olivera and Andy Ibanez are among other players who have yet to be cleared. Isn't that wonderful? Talented players have, in several cases, risked their lives and their family's wellbeing just for the chance to sign with an MLB team and some bureaucratic bullshit is preventing them for attaining that goal at the moment.

Badler speculated that MLB's extra security measures are likely to help them avoid problems with false documentation. Questions of age have been present in the past for international players, such as when former Yankees prospect Rafael de Paula was suspended for a year when it was revealed that he had lied about his age. Nonetheless, it seems strange for MLB to add these further clearances when they have already met the OFAC and government standards.

As of now, we can only hope that MLB and new commissioner Rob Manfred get their affairs in order and allow these awesome players to begin their journeys to Major League Baseball as soon as possible. It would be absurd and pretty damn unfair to the players and teams if, for some reason, they remain uncleared past the June 15th deadline. I don't think it will happen, but for all we know, it's still well within the realm of possibility. It's just an annoyance that this process has to be dragged out for so long considering how many months these Cubans have been in the news trying to get signed.

Get it done, Manfred.

Should we give Hal Steinbrenner more credit?

The New York Yankees entered this offseason on the heels of a second straight year without a trip to the postseason, the first time in 21 years that the Bronx Bombers missed out on back-to-back October baseball. Caitlin's post from about four weeks ago, about the different feel to this offseason compared to recent years, still rings true as we draw closer to the start of spring training. What might have once provoked a winter spending spree, and perhaps an angry Boss clearing house, instead resulted in an extension for general manager Brian Cashman, virtually no talk about the job security of the manager, and roster moves that largely flew under the radar. Where in years past we might have expected a late run at Max Scherzer in an attempt to keep up with the arms race in the American League East, this time the Yankees stayed true to their offseason agenda that involved regulating payroll.

It's worth remembering that regulating payroll here doesn't mean cutting it. Barring further moves, the Yankees will spend $214 million purely in player payroll next season. Add approximately another $12 million in player benefits and this number is now about $37 million over the luxury tax line, which means the Yankees will write a check to the league worth nearly $20 million, coupled with another check, this time for revenue sharing, for roughly $95 million, further eating into their near-$461 million in revenue. Major League Baseball may not have a salary cap, but over the last few years it has attempted to level the financial playing field on multiple fronts, now with increasing success. The Los Angeles Dodgers look set to take up residence at the top of the big-league payroll picture for the foreseeable future, and increasingly distributed television revenues have allowed previous mid-market teams to compete in the free agent market and extend their stars through their primes.

The Yankees remain, of course, the wealthiest team in baseball. It's simply becoming increasingly difficult, and expensive, to make that advantage count in free agency. While Max Scherzer would have improved the Yankees in 2015, should we blame Hal Steinbrenner for choosing not to push Brian Cashman into paying him $27 million a year in present value, taking the associated luxury tax hit, and having to commit to a 30-year-old pitcher for seven seasons? Even if his father might have, back when the team operated in a different economic climate? Especially when it's increasingly evident that the Yankees are in fact willing to spend money towards improving the team, even if it's not always as visible or with as much immediate impact as with the big-league payroll.

A big part of the recent need for the Yankees to add veteran talent through free agency has been the relative inability to produce talent internally. Hal Steinbrenner addressed this last offseason with an overhaul of the organizational player-development and amateur scouting. The Yankees invested heavily in multiple ways, most notably with their record spending in the international amateur market last July. As Michael pointed out recently, we should start taking the Yankees seriously when they leak that they aren't interested in a player, but considering how clearly they stated their intentions for the international market this year, we should probably take it seriously when they say they are interested as well. The Yankees have have been busy adding new teams within the organization to create more opportunities for talent to develop in the lower minors. The combined effect of all this has helped this franchise build a farm system that is knocking on the top-10 in the league, and is perhaps the deepest of any organization.

Spending so steeply in the international market this year, despite the penalties in taxes and spending restrictions over the next two signing periods, might have been an attempt to take advantage of the current system before the introduction of an international draft, something new commissioner Rob Manfred clearly intends to introduce. The franchise's financial strength is also applied by the way it approaches minor league free agency. By willing to spend significantly more than any other team, the organization regularly adds potentially useful players like Yangervis Solarte that can ultimately help the big league club.

This commitment to minor league talent might have factored into the decision to replace David Robertson with Andrew Miller. They pocketed the $2.5 million a year difference in salaries, but the extra top-40 draft pick could end up as the real prize. Meanwhile, the long-time policy of avoiding extensions appears to have been relaxed, with Brett Gardner receiving a four-year deal last year at what appears now to be below market value.

The Yankees continue to make decisions with a long-term vision towards building a pipeline of talent that builds a sustainable, annual contender. For the most part, we can expect that the players who have boosted the farm system to a potential top-10 unit will remain in the minors through 2015. On the plus side, this means the Yankees are likely to have a system pushing for a top-5 spot heading into 2016 and could be even higher with the potential addition of Yoan Moncada. The downside here is that, unusually, the New York Yankees are likely another year from contention. In the long run though, the decisions being made by Hal Steinbrenner, Brian Cashman and the Yankees front office appear like they could well be in the best interests of the franchise. Especially if the payroll space opening up in coming years is used to extend the young talent that will hopefully be pushing through to the Bronx.

The Yankees were dangerous when they were significantly more free-spending than everyone else, but they can be even more so by remaining the wealthiest team while being run by one of the smarter and more innovative front offices. If this is Hal's goal, than I'm happy to support this organizational path.

If it seems impossible to root for A-Rod as a player, hear me out. You can just root for him to exist.

A sentence I'm not qualified to finish: Alex Rodriguez is the most hated player since ____. I can tick off the contenders in my lifetime -- Barry Bonds, Albert Belle, even Pete Rose -- but I can't tell you what the public perceptions of Ty Cobb or Dick Allen were. Not enough to rank them against each other. The only way I'm comfortable finishing that sentence is by hedging. Alex Rodriguez might be the most hated player since Barry Bonds, but he also might be the most loathed player of all time.

As something of an expert on Barry Bonds-related loathing, I'll give the nod to A-Rod in a head-to-head hate-off for a simple reason. Bonds could walk onto the field at AT&T Park in the middle of a close game, stop the action mid-pitch, and the crowd would still chant "BAR-RY BAR-RY BAR-RY" until security escorted him off. You will not find the same hometown love affair with Rodriguez. It's not as if Yankees fans are uniformly disgusted with him, and when he gets a hit to win a game this year, he might even get a curtain call. When the Yankees win another World Series, though, it's hard to imagine Rodriguez roaming the streets of New York, sharing the love and getting just as much back.

This comes up now because the Yankees are fighting to withhold a series of possible home run bonuses from Rodriguez. They're claiming that because Rodriguez was busted for performance-enhancing drugs, the records are illegitimate. This is not something you will see again. This is not a precedent-setting case, to be used by future teams in the event their mega-stars cheat their way to bonuses. This is something the Yankees are trying because exactly zero shits are given about Rodriguez right now. The risk is nothing. The reward is that they save millions of dollars.

It's not as if there aren't folks who see this for what it is. Tim Brown wrote a scathing, well-stated article on the mess, but this isn't going to stick around the baseball news cycle. It's the dead of January, and it's almost a forgotten topic already. It's like the Niemöller quote:

First they came for the aloof, narcissistic, oblivious baseball player with ungodly talent who needed to be loved but eventually turned into a comical villain with self-portraits of himself as a centaur hanging in his house, and I said nothing.

Then they didn't come for anyone else because that dude was one of a kind. What a weirdo.

Then they came for me, and I was like, hey, cut it out, and other people agreed they should cut it out.

Rodriguez is an easy target. No one will stand up for him. The Major League Baseball Players Association will, but only because they have to, like the ACLU taking on a particularly odious case, public relations be damned.

I'm rooting for Alex Rodriguez, though. I will make the case that you should root for him, too.

The first thing to consider is how incapable we all are of empathizing with Rodriguez, how he's the product of a life we will never understand. Without pretending that we've spent 300 hours with A-Rod lying on a couch, telling us his darkest fears, we can still get an idea of the basics. Once-in-a-generation talent that everyone recognizes when he's a kid. Everyone wanting a piece of that talent. Success. Money. Fear of failure. Being hated. Scrutiny. More money than you can imagine, and then more money after that. Being the embodiment of hope for people who use sports as a proxy for the dreams that have already deserted them. Failing those people. Actively spurning those people to make more money. More scrutiny. Being hated even more. Slowly losing that precious talent because age is undefeated.

A-Rod can't look into anything that isn't a funhouse mirror, and while it's only natural to form opinions on what we know, it's inappropriate to think we can understand him. He's not someone who is actively trying to hurt you and the ones you love. He's a flawed person sucked into a public maelstrom of impossible, unrepeatable circumstances.

That's the first step: Realizing that it's probably not worth your time to hate the guy. It's only worth your time to study him, to be fascinated. He was Mike Trout, remember. He was as exciting, as brilliant, as awe-inspiring as Mike Trout is today. Now he's a punchline that the Yankees will mess with to save a buck because no one will care.

The second step to rooting for Alex Rodriguez: Remembering that baseball is supposed to be theater, not life. The results mean something, dammit, and you wouldn't watch if they didn't. But it's still a level or two removed from real life.

The third step: Knowing there has to be a villain, a foil, a complicated anti-hero who makes the game worth watching on his own. Usually, you have to use another team, but only because you have to find something to root against. This is where A-Rod becomes someone to watch, even if it's to hate-watch. This is where he becomes almost endearing.

We'll take a step back to August, 2013, when Ryan Dempster was a latter-day Michael Barrett, inviting us to live vicariously through him.

Dempster was clearly winging the ball at Rodriguez, much to the delight of a national audience. The ESPN crew suggested it might be a message that Dempster doesn't like A-Rod and "what he stands for." Okay. Seems odd to keep going with the political statement after the first pitch made it pretty clear, but whatever. It was a little spice added to another seven-hour Yankees/Red Sox game on ESPN. Joe Girardi had a stellar meltdown, as these things go. It was fun.

Watching and re-watching the video, though, I'm fascinated with Rodriguez's body language and facial expressions. The stoic face betrayed by the sad eyes. The way he digs into the box, sharp with the affectations of a man who really doesn't give a crap, even though he can't quite pull it off. The way he spits out his sunflower seeds.

None of us will know what it's like to be reviled quite like this. Rodriguez is still processing it himself. He's not blameless, not even close. Still, there's no analogy, no anecdote that will get you within six parsecs of how he's really feeling.

Later in the game, Rodriguez hit a long, long home run. It's worth watching:

If you get a second, go back to 0:26 of the video and listen to the audible reaction from the crowd when Rodriguez points skyward. You rarely get that sort of thing captured on video. The gesture to the sky took a half-beat longer than it normally might have, and it was a great moment in passive-aggressive middle fingers to the universe.

The whole display made me think over and over again: Thank goodness for Alex Rodriguez.

He was always disliked, but now he's the guy you pay to dislike in person. The idea of sitting in a box seat and loathing Alex Rodriguez with all of your might is something strong enough to sell tickets. The idea of Rodriguez being a money-grubbing, cream-slathering, aloof mercenary was a thing long before he started crumbling, before he was suspended, before he had the temerity to use due process to challenge that suspension. Now he's an interstellar star-child of an anti-hero. He's taken his next form.

lf he were a wrestler, he'd be Oblivious Ted DiBiase, and he'd take an extra moment to preen and soak up the boos, but he can't quite pull that off. He isn't cartoonish enough; there's just enough humanity and need to be loved to make him something a little too real, even as he's made up of intentionally artificial everything-else. Baseball functions just fine without this sort of player, but isn't there just a little extra excitement when the Yankees come to town? Isn't there a morbid curiosity to flip on the TV and see just how loud the booing can get? Before the Biogenesis scandal and suspension, A-Rod was already probably the #1 villain, but that was Anakin Skywalker before the lava bath. Now he's on another level.

This makes A-Rod a fantastic, important anti-hero. When Dempster chucked a bunch of baseballs at him, I felt -- bad for Rodriguez? And when he hit that booming home run, I -- really enjoyed it? Inconceivable. Unimaginable. But it did happen. The head-whip of Dempster on the homer was one of the best parts, if you're interested in dissecting the video for cheap thrills.

Baseball doesn't always need a supervillain, but now that one's here, isn't it kind of awesome? If you can't root for Alex Rodriguez, the person -- and I'm not sure I can ask you to go that far -- root for how amazing and rare it is for him to exist in the first place. Think about the next time Rodriguez strikes out with the bases loaded. The roar will be twice as good as any other player, I'm thinking. The stakes are raised. Here is a villain so perfect, his own team can mess with him and no one cares. That's a villain, alright. Considering that we're talking about a game, though, he's a harmless one. He's Hans Gruber, not a genocidal warlord, and I've never stopped being glad that Hans Gruber existed.

There's another word to describe Rodriguez: underdog. You know how America loves those. You don't have to root for Alex Rodriguez, but it's almost impossible to root against the idea of him existing in the first place. Here's a player who can shine the spotlight back on fans and reveal something about how their brains and hearts work, too. Here's a Rorschach test of a player, and we don't know how much longer we'll have him. What a complicated person. What a complicated story. What a spice this adds to baseball in 2015.

It's a new season, but the sentiment stays the same. Thank goodness for Alex Rodriguez.

Kiley McDaniel has a lot to say about the farm system overall, and it's certainly encouraging.

Whether you are a prospect nut (like many of us here) or you know absolutely nothing about Yankees prospects, you need to check out Kiley McDaniel's "Evaluating the Prospects" piece on the Yankees' system. It's the most comprehensive and up-to-date list you'll find on the web, and it's free. Anyway, I want to take a look at the analysis offered here, because it definitely gives a much rosier view of the system than what we've been hearing over the past few years.

The piece opens up regarding the Yankees' international spending this year and there are a couple of interesting tidbits, starting with this one:

The big story with the Yankees farm system is their July 2nd spending spree last summer and the harsh critiques ownership gave the player development and scouting departments the summer before that.

We here at Pinstripe Alley had wondered whether structural changes around scouting and player development would actually have an effect on the outlook of the club (and were not just cosmetic changes), but it appears it has worked thus far. It seems like this is not Fool's Gold–the front office and ownership have committed to the farm system through investments and also through the structure of their minor league clubs:

the Yankees have the most short-season clubs of any other organization: two in the DSL, two in the GCL and two more in Pulaski and Staten Island. With that many roster spots to fill, the team can sign as many players as they want and not be forced (like many teams are) to avoid signing multiple high profile players at the same position that are at the same level. Yankees officials joked that making their Low-A Charleston roster is much more difficult now, with one comparing it to being a top recruit for Alabama’s football team, but struggling to get on the field because they’re so deep with touted players.

That's certainly good to hear. This strategy is as old as the hills; Branch Rickey reportedly helped the Cardinals put together 32 (!!) farm teams to stockpile young talent. Having as many teams as possible gives you more room to sign players, naturally, and the Yankees have done just that.

After detailing the structural doings of the franchise, McDaniel (and Dave Cameron) outline "Big League Growth Assets", and then the overall outlook of the team. The big league growth assets are as follows:

It's no surprise that two of these were acquired via trades this offseason. The idea that both Nathan Eovaldi and Didi Gregorius are not done growing is an exciting proposition, and the possibility of a league-average shortstop (at 24, no less) and an above-average starting pitcher who are both cost-controlled gives the Yankees even more financial flexibility in the coming years. I was a bit surprised by Chase Whitley's Future Value of 45–I personally would peg him closer to 40–but age is certainly on his side so we'll see.

On the overall outlook side, Cameron states the following:

The Bronx Bombers still spend plenty of money, but they’re not lapping the league in payroll anymore, and are now attempting to compete on a more level playing field. This culture shift means the team is actually getting younger for the first time in a while, moving away from rosters constructed heavily through free agency. It also means the Yankees aren’t as strong as they used to be, and probably have another year or two before they can begin to enjoy the fruit of their current labors. The emphasis on youth and value will pay dividends, and it’s inevitable that the Yankees will become a dominant force in the AL East once again; it just probably won’t happen in 2015.

Sure, it is true that 2015 may be yet another mediocre year in what would be three straight, but the future is much brighter. There's no reason to go full-rebuild like the Phillies because, frankly, they've acquired enough young talent to hopefully help them get out of this rut and into a new direction.

To no one's surprise, the top prospect in the system is Luis Severino. McDaniel gives a loose comp to Yordano Ventura, but he warns not to take that literally. Overall, he gives Severino a 60 Future Value with moderate risk; his realistic role would be as a mid-rotation starter or closer, and I would be totally fine with that.

He then goes on to describe Aaron Judge, the second best prospect in the system by his standards. The key with him is that expectations were pretty low to begin with and he has proven them all wrong at each level. There are no physical comparisons historically at his development stage and age, so it's pretty tough to tell how he'll fair as he moves up the ladder. He's also described as having moderate risk associated with him, but I will say the possibility of .270/.340/.490 and 30 home runs gets me pretty excited. I would take that any day of the week.

The number three spot is occupied by Greg Bird, and that makes enough sense. McDaniel said he got reports that Bird "...looked like a young, healthy version of Nick Johnson", so that would be something the Yankees need desperately. A left-handed power hitter with patience is cut right from the Yankees' mold. Excitement regarding Bird prompts the obligatory GIF:

Jacob Lindgren as the fourth spot makes sense as well, considering he is so close to the big league level that risk is extremely low; even if the Yankees extract a few wins out of him in his career, it's very much worth it considering how quickly the organization gets a return on their investment. A win in 2015 is worth much more than a couple in 2019. McDaniel believes that as well:

Maybe his value craters next year and future draft studies just see him as a bust that looked good for a minute, but there’s significant trade value here and that’s the definition of a good pick: creating value.

There's the possibility that Lindgren could flash four average pitches, and we all know he has a wipe-out slider that is easily a 65.

Jorge Mateo rounds out the top five, and the likes of Ian Clarkin and Rob Refsnyder fall into the "45 FV" category, for better or for worse. There's understandably a lot of excitement around Mateo, and McDaniel states that his full season debut at Low-A this year is one of the most anticipated in all of baseball, so while there is a chance he falls flat on his face, he could start to rocket up prospect lists next year. Clarkin falls into the category of a decent prospect with a profile that fits into the middle of the rotation, and Refsnyder is described in the following way (certainly an important profile for many Yankees fans):

Refsnyder’s swing is a little awkward, but he makes it work: he starts with high hands and has a high leg kick, but it’s controlled and he loads his hands lower late, allowing him to have a short, direct stroke. The expectation is that he’ll compete for the second base job this year and if the bat, power and defense all play as expected, this could be a solid everyday player.

Prospects described as 40+ FV are the following: Eric Jagielo, John Ryan Murphy, Luis Torrens, Gary Sanchez, Bryan Mitchell, Miguel Andujar, and Jake Cave. An interesting note is how far Sanchez has fallen that he is now among the company of Andujar and Cave, so clearly his makeup is an obvious concern. He's now become a fringe prospect at best. He has time to turn it around, but he is definitely heading in the wrong direction.

The key to the Yankees' current upswing in minor league talent comes from depth. There aren't any described as having a 65+ FV, but there are more 40 FV's out there than for most clubs. All you need is a few to break in the right direction and you have major league contributors. There are 21 on this list in total, and I definitely can't cover them all here, so I would certainly recommend reading all of their reports.

Another interesting fringe prospect that Carson Cistulli is a fan of is Mike Ford. I'm actually pretty familiar with him myself. He went undrafted out of Princeton and was signed as a free agent after ripping the Cape Cod League to shreds a couple of years ago. He was the Ivy League Player and Pitcher of the Year in 2013 and put up ridiculous numbers there, as well. I watched him play a doubleheader at Cornell right at the end of the season where in one single game he threw 140 pitches over ten innings and then hit a game-winning grand slam. He continued to perform well at both Low-A and High-A with the Yankees, and Cistulli had similar praise but from a statistical standpoint:

He’s been nearly as proficient as a professional, recording markedly above-average strikeout rates and isolated-slugging marks (10.6% and .166, respectively) — the two metrics, those, most predictive of future major-league success for batters in the low minors — over 433 plate appearances, always while younger than the league-average age.

There are some more notes about other interesting prospects in the rest of McDaniel's report which I won't cover here, but it's safe to say that the Yankees' system has gone through a sharp turnaround from a couple of years ago when they were looking over a cliff–they had an increasingly aging roster with large contracts and seemingly no minor league relief on the horizon. That has certainly changed. I can't say for sure who will work out and who won't, but I think it's safe to say that at least a few of these players will contribute in the future, however small their role may be. Hopefully a few turn into solid, everyday players, but only time will tell. Prospects will break your heart, but once in a while they give you some hope.

The wait for Yoan Moncada to be declared an MLB free agent seems to be nearing its end as the 19-year-old Cuban no longer needs an unblocking license to play in the United States, per Jeff Passan. The Obama administration has recently made changes that allow Cubans who establish residency in a third country to avoid the long process at OFAC by granting them a general unblocking license. Moncada has established residency in Guatamala after leaving Cuba, making him eligible for the general unblocking license once MLB verifies his residency. The hold up to this point has been because Moncada was awaiting a specific unblocking license instead of the general variety.

According to Passan, MLB drafted a letter to OFAC Tuesday to set up a meeting to clarify the rule changes and possibly change the league policy. MLB basically just wants to make sure that they cannot be held responsible for the penalities that might occur due to false documents and bribes that have been an issue in the past. Once that matter it settled, it sounds like there will be real progress toward teams being able to actually bid for Moncada's services. Thanks to these changes, Moncada could be declared a free agent in as soon as two weeks.

The Yankees, Dodgers, Red Sox, and Cubs remain the favorites to land Moncada with what is expected to be a record-breaking contract. The Yankees have the advantage (?) of being able to spend wildly for Moncada if they wish because they have already far exceeded their bonus pools after an international spending spree last July. The penalties will keep them from being able to spend in the next signing period that begins July 2nd, 2015, so Moncada would be an extremely nice way to cap off what is seen as a successful investment for them in the previous period.

Moncada is not expected to make a big league impact right after signing, but he'd immediately become the Yankees' (and most other teams') best prospect upon signing. After all the improvements to the Yankees' system the last season or so, adding Moncada to the mix would put their farm system easily into the top 10 and add a highly-regarded five-tool player to a mix of promising talent. It will take a lot of money, without a doubt, but the payoff could be more than worth it.

Digging into A-Rod's milestone bonuses, making the bullpen even more dominant, and the rest of the morning's news.

LoHud Yankees Blog | Chad Jennings: Rob Crain is out as team president and general manager for Triple-A Scranton, plus all the other news about all of the Yankee prospects.

NJ.com | Brendan Kuty: These are all the various arguments lawyers say the Yankees could use to try to avoid paying Alex Rodriguez any of the milestone money that's currently in his contract.

New York Daily News | Teri Thompson, Michael O'Keefe: The Major League Baseball Players Association will back Alex Rodriguez if the Yankees try to get out of paying him his bonuses.

It's About the Money | Brad Vietrogoski: Why the Yankees should take a hard look at signing Rafael Soriano or Francisco Rodriguez to create a terrifying bullpen that might mitigate some of the risks that exist in the Yankees shaky starting lineup.

LoHud Yankees Blog | Chad Jennings: Looking ahead to who the Yankees' non-roster invitees to spring training might be this season.

As we get closer to Opening Day and rosters are close to set, how do the Red Sox rank on a position-by-position basis with the rest of the division?

Over the next couple of days, I’ll be looking at how the Red Sox stack up on a positional basis with the other teams in the American League East. Today, we’ll be covering the position players, and the pitchers will come tomorrow. For Boston, I’m going to be using the following players as the starters to make this exercise a little less complicated.

C: Christian Vazquez

1B: Mike Napoli

2B: Dustin Pedroia

3B: Pablo Sandoval

SS: Xander Bogaerts

LF: Hanley Ramirez

CF: Rusney Castillo

RF: Mookie Betts

DH: David Ortiz

Obviously, the lineup situation is much more complex than this, with some details still needing to be worked out. But there aren't any straight platoons in Boston's lineup, and spreading out the lineup by playing time percentages would be far too complicated for this exercise. For the other teams, I used the lineups from rosterresource.com. A quick note before we get started: these rankings are for 2015 only. Future value is not being considered here.

Catcher

The competitors: Vazquez (BOS), Russell Martin (TOR), Matt Wieters (BAL), Brian McCann (NYY), Rene Rivera (TB)

1. Martin

2. McCann

3. Wieters

4. Vazquez

5. Rivera

The Red Sox finished fourth behind the plate, and it really wasn’t all that close. Martin’s on-base ability and premiere defense made him an easy choice for number one. McCann and Wieters could be switched depending on how comfortable you are with the latter’s return from Tommy John surgery, but neither could reasonably be placed behind Vazquez at the moment. Boston’s catcher just doesn’t have the offensive skills or the experience to be ranked any higher heading into the season, but the future is still bright for the 24-year-old defensive wizard.

First Base

The competitors: Napoli (BOS), Edwin Encarnacion (TOR), Chris Davis (BAL), Mark Teixeira (NYY), James Loney (TB)

1. Encarnacion

2. Napoli

3. Davis

4. Loney

5. Teixeira

It wasn’t very difficult placing Napoli second on this list. Encarnacion is one of the very best hitters in the game. He’s the rare power hitter who can also limit his strikeouts, and over the last three years he has an OPS+ of 149. The Red Sox first baseman is clearly a cut above the rest of the players on this list, though. Davis is coming off such a tough season that it’s tough to bank on a bounce-back in 2015. Loney’s power is too limited for his offense to have any ceiling. Teixeira has been in decline over the last few years and has also struggled to stay on the field.

Photo Credit: David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports

Second Base

The competitors: Pedroia (BOS), Maicer Izturis/Steve Tolleson (TOR), Jonathan Schoop (BAL), Stephen Drew (NYY), Nick Franklin (TB)

1. Pedroia

2. Drew

3. Franklin

4.  Schoop

5. Izturis/Tolleson

Until I did this exercise, I didn’t realize just how weak the keystone position was in the AL East. The gap between Pedroia and Drew is probably bigger than any other 1-2 punch on this list. Not only is he easily the best defensive second baseman in the division, but he’s the cream of the crop offensively as well, despite his decline. The rest of the group was kind of hard to order, but I’m still a believer in Drew’s game, attributing a lot of last year’s struggles to the strange free agent situation. Franklin and Schoop is somewhat interchangeable as young players still trying to prove they belong at this level.

Third Base

The competitors: Sandoval, Josh Donaldson (TOR), Manny Machado (BAL), Chase Headley (NYY), Evan Longoria (TB)

1. Donaldson

2. Longoria

3. Machado

4. Sandoval

5. Headley

For as weak at the group of second basemen were, this crop of third baseman is at least equally as great. All five of these guys have a legitimate argument to be All-Stars this season if everything breaks correctly. Donaldson is clearly number one, as he was one of the best third baseman in baseball with Oakland and now gets to play in a much better offensive environment. I don’t believe Longoria’s 2014 is representative of who he is as a player now, and expect him to get back to being one of the game’s all-around elite in 2014. I wanted to put Sandoval above Machado, but the latter’s youth, potential and defensive chops won out for me. This ranking is less about how I feel about Sandoval and more about how I feel about the rest of the division.

Shortstop

The competitors: Bogaerts, Jose Reyes (TOR), J.J. Hardy (BAL), Didi Gregorius/Brendan Ryan (NYY), Asdrubal Cabrera (TB)

1. Reyes

2. Bogaerts

3. Hardy

4. Gregorius/Ryan

5. Cabrera

While Sandoval ranked a little lower than I originally thought I would have him, Bogaerts was a little higher. I’m still a big believer that the Red Sox shortstop will turn into a star in this league, but after last season I think it’s important to manage your expectations. Reyes is clearly above him, with injuries the only thing that will hold him back. The only place I struggled here was whether or not to put Hardy above him. However, Bogaerts’ offensive ceiling is much higher than the Baltimore shortstop, and I believe he’ll come closer to that ceiling than he did a year ago. That was enough to outweigh the defensive gap in Hardy’s favor for me.

Left Field

The competitors: Ramirez, Michael Saunders/Kevin Pillar (TOR), Alejandro De Aza/Delmon Young (BAL), Brett Gardner (NYY), Steven Souza (TB)

1. Ramirez

2. Gardner

3. Saunders/Pillar

4. Souza

5. De Aza/Young

It’s kind of strange to say that the best left fielder in the division is someone who has never played in the outfield, but here we are. Offensively, we all know that Ramirez is an outstanding hitter with the ability to be an elite one. Defense is the worry with him, but I think some of that concern is overblown. There will be growing pains in the beginning, but he’s athletic enough to make the proper adjustments and be fine out there. Gardner is very good in his own right, but Ramirez’s offensive abilities put him at the top spot here.

Center Field

The competitors: Castillo, Dalton Pompey (TOR), Adam Jones (BAL), Jacoby Ellsbury (NYY), Desmond Jennings (TB)

1. Jones

2. Ellbury

3. Jennings

4. Castillo

5. Pompey

Center field and right field are the positions I expect to catch the most criticism for. To me, it’s pretty obvious that Jones and Ellsbury are at the top of this list. They both are all-around contributors who have done it for a long time. Jennings is another player who has proven that he’s a very solid player both at the plate and in the field. All of the positive reports for Castillo tempted me to put him above Jennings, but he’s just too much of an unknown to put him above anyone in this division other than Dalton Pompey.

Right Field

The competitors: Betts, Jose Bautista (TOR), Travis Snider (BAL), Carlos Beltran (NYY), Kevin Kiermaier/Brandon Guyer (TB)

1. Bautista

2. Kiermaier/Guyer

3. Betts

4. Snider

5. Beltran

Here is the one where people are definitely going to let me have it. Don’t get me wrong, though, because I still like Mookie Betts. I just think people have been a little out of control with what the expect in his first full season. Everyone should be able to agree the Bautista is number one, I hope. I’m expecting something like a league-average offensive season from Betts, but I also think that Kiermaier will finish somewhere around ther. However, the latter’s defense is a cut above Betts’. This is prediction that could very well look silly at the end of the year, but I’m much more comfortable being conservative with a player of Betts’ experience than aggressive.

Designated Hitter

The competitors: Ortiz, Dioner Navarro (TOR), Steve Pearce (BAL), Alex Rodriguez/Garret Jones (NYY), John Jaso/Logan Forsythe (TB)

1. Ortiz

2. Rodriguez/Jones

3. Pearce

4. Navarro

5. Jaso/Forsythe

Ortiz has been the class of designated hitters in the entire league for most of his Red Sox career, and I won’t bet on his offense to die until I see it with my own eyes.

Bench

1. Red Sox

2. Yankees

3. Blue Jays

4. Orioles

5. Rays

Of course, the Red Sox offense is incomplete right now, and some of this depth will almost certainly be traded before Opening Day. As of right now, though, having guys like Shane Victorino, Daniel Nava, Allen Craig, Brock Holt and Ryan Hanigan is just too much for any other team here to overcome.

It looks like Boston’s stable of position players compares very favorably with the rest of the league. Though it’s not all that surprising, I was a little taken aback by them finishing slightly ahead of Toronto. It’s close enough that it’s safe enough to call it a draw between the Red Sox and the Blue Jays for the position players. I’ll be back tomorrow to look at the pitchers.

Ichiro Suzuki is now on the Miami Marlins. The Yankees are, hopefully, waiting to sign Yoan Moncada. Baseball is under a month away. Pitchers and catchers report in 23 days.

Remember what I said yesterday about two to three feet of snow being dumped on NYC? Yeah, that didn't happen. The New England area got hit a lot worse than we did. In non weather related news, Ichiro Suzuki's one year deal with the Miami Marlins is now official. Farewell Ichiro.

Comments of the Day

If anyone knows all about "special balls," it's Alex Rodriguez

Your 2015 New York Yankees, ladies and gentlemen.

Who would the Joker be in this scenario?

All the batters need to do is beat that shift like it owes them money!

The news that MLB is blocking Yoan Moncada did not go over well.

Again, Manfred being a Yankee fan just isn't a ringing endorsement to me.

Go Win's take got high praise yesterday.

Seriously. If his username were referring to COTD awards, he indeed won!

GIF of the Day

Farewell Ichiro. Good luck in Miami.

Yoan Moncada. Get it done, Cash.

Honorable Mod Mention

John Beck earns the HMM award for his take on Mark Teixeira and the shift! It might be quite the topic of discussion moving forward.

I cooked takoyaki pic.twitter.com/VxVSIXKgdf

— 田中将大/MASAHIRO TANAKA (@t_masahiro18) January 28, 2015

• Takoyaki. Google it, then tell us if you would try it or not!
• Are you adept at remembering your dreams? If so, do you have a favorite?

My original Hans Zimmer SOTD idea was to use Dream Within A Dream, but that's been blocked quite heavily. Still though, Time is a pretty great track. Dream Is Collapsing also could have worked. It's elementary, my dear Pinstripe Alley reader. As always, please link us your Song of the Day.

Feel free to use this as your open thread for the day. Or maybe this COTD thread is all a dream...

BWOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGG!!!

It remains to be seen how Manfred will react to many issues, but what does the Pinstripe Alley staff think about the game's biggest questions?

Welcome to the new age. Bud Selig's long tenure as MLB commissioner is over, and in comes Rob Manfred. MLB certainly had its share of issues throughout Selig's reign. Although Manfred might very well carry similar perspectives on many of them since he was so close with Selig prior to his appointment, it will be interesting to see how he addresses the hundreds of questions brought to his attention.

Since we're at the start of a new era for baseball, I decided to poll the Pinstripe Alley staff about seven of the more prominent questions Manfred must address (and one unrelated question). Fourteen writers responded to my survey, and some of them explained their votes. What did they think about the state of the game?

1. Would you support the proposed "pitch clock?"

Yes: 21.4%
No:50%
Indifferent: 28.6%

Responses

"No. I think it would actually make things slower. More pickoff throws to reset the clock. Arguments about the clock. Etc." - Harlan Spence

"Yes-but super, super hesitantly. My main issue is that it could really take away from a pressure situation. Isn’t half the fun of a bottom of the 9th, bases loaded situation the long stare-in from the pitcher?" - Matt Appel

"Indifferent. I guess I would be interested in seeing how it works in the minor leagues." - Caitlin Rogers

2. Is it Major League Baseball's business to impose penalties of some kind for personnel who are arrested for DUIs, domestic violence, and similar off-the-field trouble with the law?

Yes: 64.3%
No: 14.3%
Indifferent: 21.4%

Responses

"Yes. These are people in the public sphere that may be seen as role models, and MLB has a responsibility to punish these players in some way to show that it does not condone these actions. Obviously, not every crime should be accompanied by a suspension/fine from major league baseball, but for DUIs and domestic violence, MLB should take a stance, and some form of punishment is the easiest and most visible." - Scott Davis

"No. Let the legal process take its course. If MLB tacks on suspensions in addition to any legal penalties, I think they should be only on conviction and not when charged." - Arun Krishnan

"Yes. Like any employer, the league should hold its employees to whatever moral standard they see fit." - Martin Stezano

3. Do you think MLB should make rules to ban extreme defensive shifts?

Yes: 0%
No:92.8%
Indifferent: 7.2%

Responses

"No. The NFL gets ridiculed on a weekly basis for its rules that have made playing defense nearly impossible. If a professional hitter can’t figure out that it may be in his best interest to go the other way, then that’s on him." - Matt Appel

"No. No rules to outlaw shifting. Hitters need to adjust." - Martin Stezano

4. Has MLB done enough to expand instant replay?

Yes: 50%
No: 42.9%
Indifferent: 7.1%

Responses

"Yes. I think it's sometimes not enforced correctly, but i think its expanded enough." - Martin Stezano

"No. The fact that there are plays that can't be challenged means they haven't done enough." - Harlan Spence

5. Are you satisfied with MLB's PED policies?

Yes: 42.9%
No: 28.6%
Indifferent: 28.6%

Responses

"Yes, for the most part. I think A-Rod’s case has been handled poorly and unfairly (and handing down punishment without an actual positive test/shady MLB investigating sets a bad precedent), but in most other cases, the policy of escalating suspensions based on positive tests seems fair." - Scott Davis

"No. MLB's policy is designed to point fingers and 'out' users more than it is to actually address the PED problem. Also, teams have too much to gain from high-priced players getting 'busted.' There should be some kind of national pro sports anti-doping agency that governs all the major pro leagues and acts independently of the leagues themselves. The leagues can design their own punishments, but doing the testing themselves is a conflict." - Harlan Spence

6. Acknowledging that realistically, the DH isn't getting eliminated because the Players' Union isn't going to accept a possible job being cut, should the National League adopt the DH?

Yes: 71.4%
No: 28.6%
Indifferent: 0%

Responses

"Yes, I don't think people understand how much of an asset it is to be able to sign a player and not remotely care about his defense." - Nikhil Chaturvedi

"No. I like the fact that there are differences between the two leagues. It brings some character to the game, and it adds a nice wrinkle to the World Series by letting the NL team pick a DH and the AL pitchers whiff away." - Scott Davis

"Yes, and it’s crazy it’s taken this long! The same sport having two entirely different rules for 40 years is something only imaginative in MLB. Everyone is so concerned about declining offensive numbers, while half the sport throws out eight-man lineups on a nightly basis. What am I missing?" - Matt Appel

7. Name one MLB policy you would most like to change that has not been mentioned already.

Hall of Fame voting: 35.8%
Blackout policies: 28.6%
MiLB salaries: 21.4%
Expansion teams: 7.1%
Qualifying offer system: 7.1%

Responses

"The BBWAA Hall of Fame voting needs massive changes. The 10-year limit needs to be done away with, the 10-player limit for voters needs to be done away with. An idea that has been proposed this offseason that I am growing increasingly fond of is a binary ballot. Voters (of which there are, roughly, 250 too many of) simply vote yes or no on each player, depending if they think that player is Hall-worthy. Gets rid of the whole concept of "first-ballot" guys, which is another absurd issue in all of this." - Matt Appel

"The blackout policy needs to be changed. There's no reason why someone can be blacked out from watching up to six teams, but can't actually subscribe to any of them via a TV package. If MLB wants to attract a younger and more diverse audience, they need to make sure that everyone can actually view all of their live content." - Matt Provenzano

"Minor league salaries, definitely. The Hall of Fame process annoys me, but it doesn't matter in the end, really. The real travesty is that a $9 billion a year sport can't pay its young players a living wage, while asking them to put in the hours and effort involved with playing baseball professionally, and in the case of at least (and hopefully just) one team, charging them to attend offseason training." - Arun Krishnan

"The qualifying offer system needs to go. Teams should at least need to offer a multi-year deal that a player might take in order to get a first round pick. Either the team should have to match the player's best offer in order to get a pick, or install a tiered system, where a three-year offer gets you a 1st rounder, two-year offer gets you a 2nd, and one-year only gets you a 3rd." - Harlan Spence

Bonus

8. Finally, a Yankees-specific question: Which retired Yankee do you next want to see honored with a plaque in Monument Park?

Bernie Williams: 42.9%
Willie Randolph:42.9%
Jorge Posada: 7.1%
Dave Winfield: 7.1%

Responses

"Bernie Williams. He was inexplicably cut out of the Core Four^TM, but he was a key part of just about every dynasty team. At 44.3 fWAR, he's also the third best center fielder in franchise history." - Matt Provenzano

"Bernie Williams, but I think that's already happening this year. So Willie Randolph." - Harlan Spence

"Willie Randolph. One of the best second baseman of all time. Show him some love, Yankees." - Scott Davis

"I'd be happy with any one of Willie Randolph, Graig Nettles or Bernie Williams." - Jim Griffin

"I'm looking at the most recent list of honorees, and I don't see Dave WInfield on there. that's a bit ridiculous if he isn't." - Nikhil Chaturvedi

***

Many thanks to the writers who participated in this survey. So that's what we think; what about you? How would you vote on these issues?

Brian McCann's quality of contact plunged in 2014

With the move to Yankee Stadium last year, both professional scouts and projection systems predicted Brian McCann would see a strong rise in production. It makes sense; a pull heavy LHB moving to the short porch in Yankee Stadium should see a rise in production, particularly in home runs. But that isn't what happened. In fact, McCann had the worst (healthy) year of his career, posting a .232/.286/.406 line with a 92 wRC+ and a worse AB/HR ratio than he had the previous year with the Braves.

McCann had a similarly poor year in 2012, but he played that year through a bad shoulder injury that required offseason surgery. Last year, McCann had mild foot and finger injuries, but there were no reports that these were the type of injuries that would have caused a dramatic drop in production.

There is a chance Brian McCann is already in a steep physical decline just one year after signing his 5 year, $85 million dollar deal with the Yankees. For McCann, the most alarming trend is that his quality of contact has dropped off significantly.

Overview

Here’s a quick breakdown of McCann’s 2014 production in comparison with the rest of his career.

And here are the two most recent full season samples:

A LHB moving from the run scoring environment of the NL East to the run scoring environment of the AL East should expect to see a rise in production, yet McCann's numbers surprisingly dropped across the board. Why did this happen?

Declining walk rate

McCann's on base percentage dropped last year to a putrid .286, which was ninth worst in baseball amongst qualified hitters. It was over a 50 point drop from 2013. McCann's walk rate fell below 6% last season, the lowest mark of his career.

Extreme infield shifts

There’s a thought that McCann has been hurt by moving to the shift heavy division of the AL East. Hitting into the shift will decrease the chances of a ball finding a hole, so it's logical that more shifting has affected McCann to some degree. John Dewan of Bill James Online wrote,

Based on research that we have done at BIS, we know that the shift lowers the batting average on grounders and short liners (the ball in play types most affected by the shift) by about 30 points. So far this season, the batting average on grounders and short liners on shifted plays has been .230, and on non-shifted plays it has been .265. That's a significant difference.

McCann says he's been facing shifts since 2010, but he's facing more extreme and more plentiful shifts now. John Harper of the NY Daily News wrote,

On the other hand, baseball’s new emphasis on defensive shifts could explain some of what would otherwise be called bad luck. McCann says teams have shifted on him, to some extent, since 2010, but he admits they are more extreme and plentiful now.

So is this the new normal?

"I haven’t really delved into the numbers," he said, "but I know when you hit a bullet up the middle and the shortstop is standing there…"

McCann stopped himself, not wanting to acknowledge the obvious.

"It’s frustrating," I said, finishing his thought.

"Well, yeah," he said finally.

The shifts amount to something of a conundrum for McCann. He’ll go to the opposite field if pitched that way but doesn’t want the shift to dictate his approach.

"You change to beat the shift," he said, "and then you get into bad habits."

Harper added later in the season,

McCann has downplayed the impact of the shift on him but on Wednesday night he admitted, "With the shift, sometimes it feels like there are 12 guys out there."

There’s no doubt the shift has frustrated the heck out of him, and teams aren’t going to stop using it just because McCann foiled the shift on Tuesday night by pushing a bunt down the third base line for a single.

Although more shifting explains some drop in production, it's not the most alarming trend.

McCann's quality of contact nosedived in 2014

The most concerning trend is that McCann had a massive drop in quality of contact in 2014. His hard hit rate fell from 20.6% in 2013 to 15.4% in 2014.

The chart above is scary. McCann had consistently been above the MLB average in hard hit rate every year the stat has been tracked until last year. In 2010 and 2011, he was at the top of the league. Even in his injury plagued 2012 season, where McCann put together the worst wRC+ of his career, McCann’s hard hit rate was better than the league average.

In addition to the drop in his hard hit %, McCann saw a steep drop in his average true distance on his home runs. It fell from 398.2 feet in 2013 to 370.2 feet in 2014, a 28 foot drop. League average avg. true distance in 2014 was 392.2, so McCann was well below average. In fact, according to hit tracker, McCann had the lowest avg. true distance on his home runs in baseball amongst hitters with 18 or more home runs in 2014.

McCann just isn’t generating the same force behind his contact that he used to.

Is McCann in a physical decline?

This past summer, two scouts noted that McCann had to start putting more effort into generating power in 2014, which may signal physical decline. John Harper of the NY Daily News wrote,

This season he’s healthy, but two AL scouts say it looks as if McCann, at age 30, has to work at generating power.

"It doesn’t look easy for him," one scout said. "It’s possible all the years of catching, and the shoulder injury, have taken a toll. Maybe we all overestimated what his impact would be in New York."

Don't buy into McCann's September stats or transition year narratives

I have seen some cite hope in 2015 for McCann based on his September statistics. McCann hit 8 HR in 89 PA and had a 121 wRC+ in September, a dramatic difference from the rest of the season, where McCann hit 15 HR in 449 PA and had an 86 wRC+.

Don’t get sucked into this. Baseball is random. Unless there is a tangible, significant change in process at the plate, it’s a bad idea to analyze any small sample like that when it differs dramatically from the rest of the season. September is an even worse month to do that because of September call ups, where a player is theoretically more likely to face a Triple A quality pitcher than any other month of the season.

It’s important in fantasy baseball to not make too much out of small samples.

I also wouldn't buy into the "transition year in New York" narratives. This is often a simple way to attempt to explain why a newly signed player is not performing up to expectations in New York, but there's no way to quantify it. I don't think McCann's hard hit % dropped so significantly because of media pressure or adjusting to a new city. It's more likely that he's in a physical decline.

Should you draft McCann in 2015?

Your league rules will determine how to value McCann in 2015. Despite the concerns of a physical decline, I expect McCann to provide good HR, RBI and R totals for a catcher, but I expect him to drain the other offensive categories.

For this reason, I would be wary of drafting McCann in any league that adds in OPS based on the data I showed you above. For example, I play in a league that adds OPS to AVG, R, HR, RBI and SB for a total of six offensive categories. Drafting McCann in a league like mine would be worse than drafting him in a standard league because you risk him draining both your average and OPS. In a standard league, he only drains your batting average.

McCann will still have value in standard leagues for the reasons stated above.  He’ll probably hit around 20 HR again with the short porch in Yankee Stadium, and the AL East is one of the best run scoring divisions in the game which bodes well for his RBI and R chances. The Yankees have invested a lot in him and he's a good defensive catcher, so he is in no danger of losing playing time. He has the DH slot available to help get extra cracks at more RBIs and Rs, too.

A fantasy catcher who hits 20 HR with good RBI and R totals has value, but I would look elsewhere. He’ll likely be overvalued based on his name, his contract and the home stadium he hits in, and a lot of fantasy owners will be betting on him bouncing back in 2015. You probably won’t be able to get him at the draft slot he should be valued at.

One key to winning your fantasy league is to draft players who will outperform their draft slots. I don't think McCann will fit this description in 2015.

. . .

Talk baseball/fantasy with Tim on twitter at @TimFinn521

The Yankees farm system is beginning to boom with talent after years of scrutiny, both deserved and undeserved. Kiley McDaniel of Fangraphs recently declared the organization to be about the 11th best in Major League Baseball. He also recently released the Yankees top prospect list with loads of information about prospects you have and haven't heard of before. For the last year or so, Yankees fans have been obsessed with names like Luis Severino and Jorge Mateo, and McDaniel backs up our excitement by ranking them No. 1 and No. 5 in the system. There has also been much talk about potential Cuban free agent Yoan Moncada and how much he makes sense for the Yankees. It's good to get excited about young players like this, but caution has to be exercised because we won't see any of them in 2015 and possibly even 2016.

We don't know if Moncada will be a Yankee or not, but if he signs with New York, don't expect to see him in the Bronx anytime soon. The 19-year-old infielder will need to learn a whole new position as a professional. Right now he is a shortstop, but evaluators don't believe he will be able to stay there at the next level. It will take time for him to adapt to the nuances of second or third base, at least to the point where he would be a major league upgrade out there. Even if he catches on quickly (at second base, since they already have Chase Headley at third), he's still going to need plenty of time in the minors. Since he's so young, the Yankees can allow him to get his feet wet in rookie ball. Then they can push him up to Low-A Charleston and see how that goes. If he excels, he could reach as high as High-A Tampa or maybe even Double-A Trenton, but he isn't going to be a factor on the 2015 New York Yankees. It's just unrealistic and irresponsible for the team to ask much more of him.

There's been a lot of hopes and dreams put into Jorge Mateo as of late. The promising shortstop is also 19 and is already capturing the imagination of Yankees fans around the internet. The only issue is that he's played just 15 games of rookie ball after disappearing for much of the season with an injury. Scouts and evaluators love him, and McDaniel's ranking shows just how talented he seems to be, but he's is far, far, far too far away to even place him into the Yankees' considerations at this point. He obviously won't be helping the big league team this year, but it's also likely that he won't be on the major league radar in 2016 or even 2017. This season could be key to see how fast he can develop and push his way up the ladder, but we need to remember to not get so excited about players who have yet to earn a track record.

That leaves us with Luis Severino, the most likely of these three players to make it to the majors in 2015, but it's still not something to count on happening. Everything seems to be going well for the 20-year-old righty, but that doesn't mean everything will be perfect going forward. As McDaniel breaks down for us, there is some concern over his delivery and what it means for his long-term health. He also still needs work in honing his third pitch and for them to rush him to the majors before he is ready would be a crime. It's very likely that he could get big league hitters out right now, but it wouldn't be the best Luis Severino he could be and at that point, they'd be putting a countdown on his time with the team when they don't have to. He's going to get plenty of time to figure things out in Double-A and Triple-A this year, and if everything goes perfectly, which almost never happens, he could get a September call up. Still though, I'd bank on him getting a shot to win a rotation spot in 2016–if he proves that there's nothing to worry about.

As Yankees fans, we're impatient. We've been spoiled with the best over the last 20 years and now we want what everyone else has. I want it too, but these things take time and blowing through the minors isn't always a good thing. Signings like Stephen Drew and possibly even Chase Headley aren't going to block players like Mateo or Moncada. We know the Yankees are a cautious organization. Maybe too cautious at times, though in this instance I would err on the side of caution. The Yankees have a bright future ahead of them, but in the mean time you just have to play it cool so you don't get burned if things end up falling apart.

NJ.com | Brendan Kuty:Yankees minor leaguer Tyler Palmer has been suspended 50 games after testing positive for amphetamines. This was Palmer's second positive test for the drugs. He played shortstop and second base for the Yankees' two rookie ball teams last season.

LoHud | Chad Jennings: A look ahead at the potential roster battles that will be happening when the Yankees head to Tampa for spring training. Obviously all eyes will be on what role Alex Rodriguez will have upon rejoining the team. Jennings also speculates that Stephen Drew as the starting second baseman isn't necessarily set in stone.

It's About the Money | Brad Vietrogoski: How will Joe Girardi construct his lineup in 2015? Here are a couple possibilities.

New York Daily News | Anthony McCarron: Brian Cashman named Chase Headley, Didi Gregorius, Stephen Drew, and Mark Teixeira as the team's starting infielders, but mentioned that injuries and performance could change that. Cashman also believes Drew will hit more in line with his career numbers than the dreadful performance he turned in last season.

SB Nation | Grant Brisbee: If you can't root for A-Rod, at least you can root for more moments like when he totally demolished Ryan Dempster after having baseballs intentionally thrown at him.