Bronx Rumors 100th Anniversary

Well, it's finally here. This is Bronx Rumors' 100th post!!! To celebrate this event, we have created another means of receiving Yankees news via Bronx Rumors. I am pleased to announce that Bronx Rumors will have its very own Youtube channel which is up and running now! There, we will post videos that have to do with Yankees news. These will include weekly videos of game highlights, up-to-date news and rumors, and tributes to great Yankees. If you would like to, subscribe to us or add us as a friend on Youtube! The first video will be posted this weekend so look for it here! However, these videos will not be posted on the websites themselves, only Youtube (Twitter and Facebook will give video updates and links to the videos). I hope you enjoy!

Who's Getting In?

I've noticed a lot talk about A-Rod not getting into the Hall of Fame now that it's been revealed that he has taken steroids. Well does this mean that Alex was going to get in the Hall before he took 'roids? I've heard the term "future-hall-of-famer" thrown a lot recently (*cough* *cough* Michael Kay) especially when talking about guys like A-Rod and Jeter. Well that brings me to my main question: who are the "future-hall-of-famers" and what did they do to get that honorable title. Players with a "*" next to their name have won a major award (Cy Young, Rookie of the Year, MVP) Well I've selected the bunch that I believe will make it (in no particular order):

The Sure-Things:

• Greg Maddux*: If you go up to someone, in this day and age, and tell them that a pitcher, that pitched during the steroid era and in the age of 5-man rotations, would rack up 335 career wins, a 3.16 ERA, 109 complete games, 3371 Ks and over 5,000 innings, they would think you're crazy (especially for that giant run-on sentence). But none the less, Greg Maddux did all that. He might even get the first unanimous Hall of Fame election ever.
• Derek Jeter*: One of the things that I would be amazed to see in my life, is an argument against putting the captain in the Hall. He's a sure bet for 3,000 hits, he's one of the greatest leaders, shortstops and post-season performers of all-time. There really isn't any limit on the good things you can say about Jeter. He's definitely going to make the 218 mile trip to Cooperstown sometime soon.
• Mariano Rivera: Another Yankee, another post-season great. In the post-season, "Mo" is 8-1 with 34 saves and a 0.77 ERA. You put that with more sub-2.00 ERA seasons than Dennis Eckersley, Bruce Sutter, Lee Smith and Trevor Hoffman combined, and you've got yourself the greatest closer of all-time. Looks like he will be the first pitcher ever to make the Hall with one pitch.

The Probablys:

• Alex Rodriguez*: He had it all. He was young, rich, and was possibly more talented than any player in MLB history. But in 2003, Alex Rodriguez took a turn to the dark side when he took performance-enhancing-drugs. However, that is the only mark in what could be, the greatest career in big league history. A-Rod is pretty much a sure bet to break the home run record and some have even speculated that he could even reach 800 career big-flies. I think that says enough.
• Ken Griffey Jr*: Once called the best player of all-time, Griffey put up possibly the best clean-numbers of anyone during the "Steroid Era." "The Kid" blasted his 600th home run this past season and probably could've even hit 700 if he had stayed healthy. However, the one mark against Griffey is that he's never won a championship; something that could play a big role in his Hall-consideration.
• Manny Ramirez: Manny is definitely one of the greatest right-handed-hitters of all-time. I really don't need to go into statistics, just know that they're huge. There isn't much reason to keep him out of the Hall other than his personality (which I'm sure you all know about). However, I highly doubt any writer will care that much.

Other "probablys" include:

Randy Johnson*

Tom Glavine*

Pedro Martinez*

Albert Pujols*

Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez*

Ichiro Suzuki*

Trevor Hoffman

Frank Thomas*

John Smoltz*

Chipper Jones*

Jeff Kent*

Omar Vizquel

Mike Mussina

Jim Thome

Carlos Delgado

Curt Schilling

Gary Sheffield

Todd Helton

Roy Halladay*

Jorge Posada

Andy Pettitte

Troy Percival

Todd Jones

Vladamir Guererro*

Kerry Wood*

Jamie Moyer

The Close But Not Quite (no description):

Mark Prior

Roy Oswalt

Andruw Jones

Adam Dunn

Johnny Damon

Tim Wakefield

David Ortiz

Bobby Abreu

Vernon Wells

Jason Giambi*

Carlos Beltran

Carlos Lee

Jermaine Dye

Travis Hafner

Torii Hunter

Troy Glaus

Nomar Garciapara*

Alfonso Soriano

Aramis Ramirez

Derek Lee

Jason Varitek

The Too-Young-To-Tell, But Promising:

Johan Santana*

Miguel Cabrera

Mark Teixeira

Francisco "K-Rod" Rodriguez

David Wright

Joe Mauer

Hanley Ramirez

Evan Longoria*

Grady Sizemore

Lance Berkman

CC Sabathia*

Brandon Webb*

Joba Chamberlain

Chien-Ming Wang

Robinson Cano

Dustin Pedroia*

Kevin Youkillis

Jason Bay

Fausto Carmona

Matt Holliday

Jonathan Papelbon

Joe Nathan

Nick Markakis

Felix Hernandez

Tim Lincecum*

If there are any players you feel were left off this list, please leave a comment.

Week Overview: A-Rod Admission and Other Yankee News

Hey Yankee fans. I'm sorry for not posting for a while, I've just been really taken back by all this new news springing up. But I gotta cover it so here it goes; a quick summary of the events that have taken place lately and my thoughts on them:

A-Rod's Admission:

Alex was very emotional during his interview with ESPN's Peter Gammons. He admitted to taking steroids in 2003 and perhaps even years before. A-Rod listed being young, stupid, and feeling an enormous pressure after signing a giant deal with the Rangers, as his reasons. I, along with many players including former Yankee, Jason Giambi, am glad to see Rodriguez come clean with this. It would've been much worse had he done what Roger Clemens did, and flat out deny it. Instead, he chose the clean, virtues path of admission. It will allow people to forgive him easier, something I hope all of you do.

First Days at Camp:

At the beginning of the off-season, Yankees GM Brian Cashman had one thing, or rather person, on his mind: CC Sabathia. Sabathia helped the Yankees reach their goals of better pitching, getting younger, and adding some life to the clubhouse! His, and A.J. Burnett's ('cause lets not forget him), signing(s) represent two things: hope, and anxiousness. Immediately after Sabathia's signing was announced, every Yankee fan had one thing on their mind: I wanna see him pitch! Well that day finally came this week, as Sabathia took his first pitch in a Yankees uniform, in a bullpen session at, newly renamed, George M. Steinbrenner Field. It was a great moment that again made Yankee fans anticipatory for another date: April 6th.

Other Yankees News and Notes:

• Alfredo Aceves withdrew his name from consideration for a chance to play for Team Mexico in the World Baseball Classic. He will instead be at Yankee Camp for all of Spring Training.
• Chien-Ming Wang, Jorge Posada, and Mariano Rivera are all recovering from their recent surgeries quite nicely; Wang took a bullpen session today and Jorge and Mo will be ready for Opening Day.
• The Yankees signed Brett Tomko to a minor-league deal.
• Joe Girardi, Jorge Posada and other members of the Yankee team will, literally, stand by A-Rod during his press conference on Tuesday in Tampa.

Yankees Off-Season Moves

Here's a quick look at the moves the Yankees have made this off-season (this list is as of February 8th, 2009):

Controversy Around A-Rod; Nothing New

Well, it seems as though once again, Alex Rodriguez cannot avoid scandals in the media. It was first reported by SI.com that A-Rod failed a steroid test in 2003, a season in which he blasted, a career high, 57 HRs. This story has already been interpreted many different ways: some say it was only a matter of time, others say they knew it all along, even some think he should be suspended! Well that last one isn't happening because the test was more of an anonymous survey that MLB held just to see if players were "doping." They then planned on destroying all testing records (which obviously didn't work). This means that A-Rod failing the "test" will have no repercussions. He also won't have any issues with the Yankees organization as all of this happened before he joined the team, and they had no knowledge (he may have not either) of any of this. 

So what's to make of this whole thing? Should we be angry? Sad? Maybe even happy (Red Sox fans)? Well I say, it's nothing new. A-Rod always has, and always will have scandals surrounding him in the media and to help illustrate this point, I've created a little summary of the scandals he's had in the past:

2001: Signed a 10-year, $252mm contract with the Texas Rangers. The contract immediately drew media attention as it was the largest in MLB history (a record he still owns). 

2005: Was bashed for his lousy playoff performance when he only hit .133 in October.

2006: Once again drilled for even worse playoff performance: he only had one hit and was doing so badly that Joe Torre even dropped him down to 8th in the lineup. There were even talks of trading him during the off-season.

2007: A-Rod's (now ex-) wife, Cynthia, was seen wearing a shirt that said **** you at one of her husband's games. Later in the year, A-Rod said he had been tested for steroids 10 times, which the media quickly caught onto as no player would be tested that many times unless they had tested positive in the past. A-Rod quickly came back and said that he was merely exaggerating the number.

2008: The media caught on to a possible scandal involving A-Rod and pop-signer Madonna. It was reported that A-Rod spent many late nights at her house doing, what he said was, "helping her son with baseball." All of this was happening during his divorce with his wife, and mother of his two daughters, Cynthia. 

2009: You already know.

So as you can see, this is nothing new for A-Rod as he has had to deal with controversy in the media quite a bit in his great career. The only challenge now, is figuring out an effective way of dealing with it and not letting it slip into his mind (as it has in the past). The one positive thing I would like to say about this topic however, is that as we've seen in previous years, A-Rod always follows up big (see 2007).

In-Depth Look at All-Prospect Team: Lineup

Previously I posted a look at the Yankees "All-Prospect Team". I have decided to a little more in depth and include scouting reports, projections, and reasons for why I placed them on the team. Today we look at the starting lineup:

Lineup:

1. R Austin Jackson (22) CF: Austin Jackson is the Yankees top prospect. He's young, athletic, and has a good mix of all 5 tools. He will start the year in Triple-A Scranton Wilkes-Barre, and will most likely join the major league club later in the year. Expect him to be the Yankees CF for years to come after that call-up.
   
2. S Melky Cabrera (24) RF: This ranking was not actually because I truly believed that Melky Cabrera is going to play RF for the Yankees in the future, far from it. I simply put him here because he is the Yankees third best outfield prospect and this is where he fit in. Unless he beats out Brett Gardner (see below) for centerfield this year, the "Melk-man" will most likely be used as trade bait.
3. R Jorge Vazquez (27) 1B: I'm not going to go too in-depth with Vazquez because I've already written a bit about him right here. The main stuff to know about him (if you're too lazy to just click the link) is that he's a power-hitting first basemen that the Yankees signed out of the Mexican league and he's been tearing up the Yankees winter leagues. However, with the recent long-term signing of Mark Teixeira, he probably won't get very much playing time in the future. Still, he fits this list.
4. R Jesus Montero (19) DH: Montero is the Yankees' second-best prospect and probably their best-hitting one. He absolutely killed Class-A pitching last year when he hit .326! However, his body isn't fit for behind the plate and most people see a position change in the future, most likely to first base. However, since Vazquez is already occupying that position, I decided to put him at DH (where he actually may wind up in the future). You can expect big stuff out of this kid, who has already reached the Bronx despite being in single-A (he played in the futures game at Yankee stadium in 2008) and will probably return in the future.
5. L Robinson Cano (25) 2B: Cano doesn't really need any introduction. He's been in the major leagues for three years already. After hitting .322 in 2006 and .306 in '07, he "only" hit .271 in 2008. I put the "only" in quotes like that because .271 is still pretty good. In fact, I was recently reading "Moneyball" by Michael Lewis (a book a strongly recommend for all you baseball fans out there) and it talked about the difference between a .270 hitter, and a .300 hitter. Do you know what it is? It's .3 of a hit per nine at-bats. That is almost nothing! And yet we continue to rank .300 hitters way higher than their .270 counter-parts. But back to Cano, the only reasons he's getting bashed so much, is how it's less than his previous seasons, and because of his very slow start at the beginning of the year. I fully expect a bounce-back season from him.
6. R Austin Romine (20) C: Romine got put on this list because he's the Yankees top catching prospect behind Jesus Montero. However, Romine is a much better defensive catcher than Montero and thus gets the nod behind the plate. In fact, his defense is his best attribute. His time to second base ranges between 1.78 and 1.85 seconds which, on a scale of 1-10, puts him at about a 9.5! If you put that with an decent, non-power bat, you got yourself a catcher.
7. L Eric Duncan (24) 3B: After being drafted by the Yankees in the first round a while back, Duncan has yet to really do anything. He's risen through the Yankees system, but has found himself stuck at Triple-A for some time now. The Yankees are also implementing a position-change to first base due to the long-term contract of 3B Alex Rodriguez. However, for this lineup, Duncan remains at third.
8. L Ramiro Pena (23) SS: One of the major concerns that Yankee fans have had recently, is "who will replace Derek Jeter?" Because, lets face it, Jeter's not going to be around forever. Well unfortunately, the list is pretty thin. The Yankees actually don't have any very good prospects at short but this guy heads the list (if there even is one) of them. Pena offers a big switch from Jeter as Ramiro's an amazing defender but his bat is lacking. Jeter's pretty much the opposite. Expect the Yankees to make a move for a short stop and use this guy as a utility guy in the future.
9. L Brett Gardner (25) LF: People have doubted Gardner's ability lately. They think that he's doesn't have a good enough bat to play CF. Well that's where they're wrong. Gardner's actually got an average bat for a center fielder, with his projected .270 BA falling right into the norm. He also has an un-teachable trait that is very, very valuable for all Yankee players: clutch. After notching only 142 ABs last year, Gardner actually had two walk-off hits! That's more than Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter had combined! Not to mention he's one of the fastest guys in the major leagues. Expect him to be in the Yankees outfield for years to come.

Tune in later for the starting rotation...

Yanks Deal Prospect Wright to Brewers

In a minor-deal (that has received a lot of media attention due to the stillness of the free agent market) the Yankees have dealt LHP Chase Wright to the Brewers for (former outfielder) catcher Eric Fryer. Fryer, 23, sent last season in Class A playing for the West Virginia Power in the South Atlantic League. There he hit .335 with 10 HR and 63 RBI in 104 games. He was picked in the 10th round of the 2007 draft by the Brewers and the Yankees have said that he will be assigned to Class A Tampa.

26-year-old Chase Wright (left) was designated for assignment last week when the Yankees added LHP Andy Pettitte to the 40-man roster. He spent most of the year with Double-A Trenton where he went 8-2 with a 2.96 ERA in 16 starts. He was then promoted to Triple-A Scranton Wilkes-Barre where he went 2-1 with a 2.41 ERA in 6 starts. However, Wright is most well-known for what he "accomplished" at the major league level: he went 2-0 despite a high 7.20 ERA. But on April 22, 2007, in a game at Fenway Park, Wright broke history: he became just the second pitcher in major league history (Paul Foytack of the Angels in 1963 was the first) to give up four straight home runs in one game, a record I'm sure he would've loved to stay away from. But never-the-less, this move is one that adds minor-league depth to both teams with the Brewers most-likely getting the better end of the deal.

Wang Throws Off Mound

Yankees RHP Chein-Ming Wang took his first bullpen session of the year Tuesday as he rehabilitating from the foot injury he recieved while runing the bases in a June inter-league game in Houston. Wang also had many bullpen sessions in October but this was probably the most successful one as Wang threw 27 pitches before calling it in. Yankees pitching coach, Dave Eliand said: "He's full go for spring training. He felt strong. He really looked good. A good day for him." This comes as a good news as Wang, a 19-game winner in 2006 and 2007, really could've helped the club last season. Wang also played long-toss with fellow-rotation member, Joba Chamberlain. A rotation that has been much improved due to the signings of CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett and the permanent addition of Joba Chamberlain. However, those moves have also caused Wang to be over-looked. With him most likely receiving the 3rd spot in the rotation, Wang won't have all the pressure he had as the Yankees' ace and thus will be more likely to succeed. 

In other injury-news, longtime Yankee catcher, Jorge Posada, made 140 throws on Monday and plans to throw even harder on Wednesday. He won't catch a spring training game until somewhere around March 8th, but expects to be ready and willing for Opening Day.