So...
CC
Kuroda
Nova
Pineda
Tanaka???
That doesn't look bad at all.
Sorry, but in what universe?
CC - coming off the worst year of his career by every metric
Kuroda - lone bright spot but is 38 years old
Nova - not bad, but gotta build the innings back up, may not be able to do 200 next year
Pineda - exactly 1 year of experience, in 2011, then showed up fat and got hurt (throwing shoulder). Even if healthy, isn't going the distance.
Tanaka - new posting system is gonna kill the Yankees here, their big chance was to put up a 75M posting bid, now it's a max of 20M and multiple teams can negotiate. And team that owns him may not post him out of protest.
You say "not bad at all", I see between 1-2 pitchers that have any chance at being decent, or even above replacement level. CC bounces back (a LOT), you've got 3 decent pitchers (but no ace).
But that 5 man rotation could be a good one.
Just for fun, what are your projections for those 5, assuming Pineda actually pitches and you win Tanaka? Just real rough ERA and Innings Pitched. I don't see it working out...
I totally forgot about Pineda, he's been on the damn DL for so long. He's still playing, is he?
A little more in line with reality. Certainly a far cry from him being a rotation-saver.
He was the next coming of King Felix when we got him. He should be ready for a full season.
Pitched ONE year, at a 3.74 ERA. Misses Felix by about 1.5 runs per 9
Solid outfield.
L - Gardner
C - Ellsbury
R - Soriano/Ichiro
Can't really argue there, at least in the short term. Good fielders, fast. Although, Ells' arm in CF is going to be a little adventure, and when he loses a step in a couple years, going to be fun. For now, though, looks good. Provided Soriano wasn't a fluke last year. Can he play RF? See him more as a LF guy, even though you'd much rather platoon him with Ichiro. Soriano would be a shit-show in RF at Fenway!
3rd - Munez?
ss - Jeet
2nd Ryan
1st - Tex
McCann behind the plate.
We have the makings to dethrone Boston.
You keep almost being reasonable, and then throw out things like this
Where are you seeing those pieces? The pinstripes alone aren't worth an extra 15 wins a season, you know. Yankee Mystique is long gone, no one folds up shop when you come by anymore. Munez (if that's what sticks at 3B) sucks, Jeter has zero range at this point if he can get off the bench at all, Ryan hit about .200 with no power or speed. Tex only played 15 games last year, and had a down year the year before. McCann's been decent, although missed some time and been downa bit the last 2 years. Constant vision problems for some reason. The little league right field porch is probably going to give him a nice boost, though. 6 year deal there, though, could be fun.
So again, where's this world-beater, 'dethroning' team coming from? Couple ok pitchers and a decent outfield, good catcher and rest are question marks or coming back from repeated or lingering injuries.
There's optimism, and then just blind irrational fandom. Yankees are a mess right now, not really a way around that. And there's not a ton out there to really fix it, and nothing coming in the minors. Problem is, Yankees refuse to be seen as 'taking a step back', so they just keep throwing money at it to try and fix it. Been doing it consistently since like 2002, and kicking the can down the road. We'll see what happens with ARod, but it just looks like it's catching up with them. Too many long term deals for huge money, and the player doesn't go away when the skills do. Been dodging that for a while, but starting to stack up fast...
Cano was the best thing the Yankees had going, by far. Only one left that really was a threat to hurt you. Now he's gone, and it's replacement-level at 2B, if that.
