January 29th, 2021: Tanaka, O’Day, Roster Check-in, Six-Man Rotation, Mailbag
Spring Training is a little more than two weeks away and players are already filing into Tampa. Erik Boland...
2021-01-29 13:54:05 +0000 UTC View Post
RAB Thoughts activity
January 26th, 2021: Ottavino, Minor League Signings, Hall of Fame
Only two weeks and six days until pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training, people. Keep your fingers crossed and hope the pandemic cooperates. Here’s what I wrote about the Jameson Taillon trade 2021-01-26 13:56:47 +0000 UTC View Post
Thoughts after the Yankees acquire Jameson Taillon
Two former Pirates in the rotation is better than one. (Getty)
The Yankees have brought in an...
2021-01-25 00:49:33 +0000 UTC View PostJanuary 22nd, 2021: Blue Jays, Kluber, Moore, Prospects, Mailbag
Seven years ago today the Masahiro Tanaka race came to an end and he agreed to join the Yankees. That was a happy day. It was a long pursuit -- it wasn’t clear he would even be posted earlier that offseason -- and the Yankees paid him handsomely, and it was well worth it. It’s a damn shame th...
2021-01-22 14:53:29 +0000 UTC View PostJanuary 19th, 2021: Musgrove, Castillo, Tanaka, Gardner, Kluber, Arbitration Signings, Payroll, Ottavino
Pitchers and catchers are due to report to Tampa for Spring Training four weeks from yesterday. We’re inside a month, people. Hopefully the pandemic cooperates and MLB and the MLBPA put their differences aside and begin Spring Training and the regular season on time. 2021-01-19 14:49:59 +0000 UTC View Post
Thoughts after the Yankees sign DJ LeMahieu and Corey Kluber
Look, he already shaved. (AP)
The Yankees finally joined the offseason yesterday. In the span...
2021-01-16 15:23:13 +0000 UTC View PostJanuary 15th, 2021: LeMahieu, Arbitration, International Free Agency, Hendriks, Kluber, Mailbag
David Laurila has a great interview with certified pitching nerd Clarke Schmidt. Among other things, Schmidt discussed the origins of his ultra-high-spin curveball -- it has slider velocity but itâ€...
2021-01-15 14:59:32 +0000 UTC View PostJanuary 12th, 2021: LeMahieu, Chacin, Lyons, Cole, Prospects
Quick reminder: Friday is the open of the international signing period and also the deadline for teams and their arbitration-eligible players to submit salary figures. I’ll preview both events Friday...
2021-01-12 14:43:32 +0000 UTC View PostJanuary 8th, 2021: Lindor, Allen, Felix, Bell, Minor Leagues, Mailbag
The Yankees are scheduled to play their first Grapefruit League game in seven weeks and one day. That’s good news, right? I have my fingers crossed hoping Spring Training and the regular season will begin on time. Let’s get to today’s thoughts.
1. The Francisco Lindor trade. 2021-01-08 14:42:12 +0000 UTC View Post
January 5th, 2021: Hot Stove, 2016 Trade Deadline, Hughes
Two important dates are coming up. Well, one date with two events, really. Next Friday is the start of the 2021 international signing period and also the deadline for teams and their arbitration-eligib...
2021-01-05 13:50:22 +0000 UTC View PostJanuary 1st, 2021: New Year’s Resolutions, Tanaka, Medina, Mailbag
Welcome to 2021. New year, new beginnings, still the same old Yankees. They’ll get around to make some moves this offseason eventually. Here is today’s mailbag heavy post (you folks are always good for content, plus I kinda wanted to milk the holidays a little longer).
1. New Ye...
2021-01-01 14:35:03 +0000 UTC View PostDecember 29th, 2020: Hot Stove Action, Roster Check-In, Torres, Sanchez
Welcome to the final RAB Patreon post of 2020. It was a pretty crummy year from top to bottom, but I sincerely thank you all for sticking it out with me, and I hope I was able to provide a little escape twice a week. 2021 will be better. It almost can’t be worse. Let’s get to today’s though...
2020-12-29 15:14:31 +0000 UTC View PostDecember 22nd, 2020: LeMahieu, Gardner, Castillo, A's, Expansion
Quick reminder: Barring breaking news, there will not be a post this Friday because of the whole Christmas thing. I hope you all are having a good holiday season. 2020 was a pretty crappy year for many reasons but better days are ahead. Let’s get to today’s thoughts as the 2020-12-22 13:46:40 +0000 UTC View Post
December 18th, 2020: Stanek, Bowman, Velazquez, Warren, Miller, Winter Ball, MLB-MLBPA, Mailbag
Fun story I read this week: David Schoenfield looked at the biggest star traded away by each team. He went with Rickey Henderson for the Yankees, which is a fin...
2020-12-18 14:30:34 +0000 UTC View PostDecember 15th, 2020: Torres, LeMahieu, Cortes, Bullpen Targets
Quick note: I’m planning to skip next Friday’s regularly scheduled post. Sorry for the short-ish notice, but Christmas snuck up on me. I will happily cover any breaking news, otherwise I’m going to lay low that day. Christmas morning is no time for baseball blog posts. Thanks as always for ...
2020-12-15 14:32:47 +0000 UTC View PostDecember 11th, 2020: Schwarber, Bell, Taillon, Rule 5 Draft, Reds, Gardner, Mailbag
The Yankees have made two major trades on Dec. 11th. On this date in 1959, the Yankees acquired Roger Maris (still the American League’s single-season home run king) from the Athletics for a package that included Hank Bauer and Don Larsen. And, on this date in 1975, the Yankees acquired Willie ...
2020-12-11 14:08:20 +0000 UTC View PostDecember 8th, 2020: Urshela, Hot Stove, Odorizzi, Catchers, Rule 5 Draft, Sanchez, Sugano
On this date in 2009, the Yankees acquired Curtis Granderson in a three-team trade with the Tigers and Diamondbacks. The Yankees got Granderson, the Tigers got Max Scherzer, and the D-Backs got Ian Kennedy and Edwin Jackson. Granderson is one of my all-time favorite Yankees. He was a fun player a...
2020-12-08 14:42:00 +0000 UTC View PostDecember 4th, 2020: Non-Tenders, Schwarber, McCann, Brantley, Garcia, Mailbag
The Winter Meetings are next week. Did you know that? Really snuck up on me. The Winter Meetings will be held virtually this year, so I’m a bit worried it’ll feel like every other week of the offseason because executives aren’t meeting face-to-face. Then again, the rumor hounds will probabl...
2020-12-04 14:52:56 +0000 UTC View PostDecember 1st, 2020: Non-Tender Deadline, Scherzer, Pitching Market, Winter Ball
Did y’all have a good Thanksgiving? Hope so. I’m out of leftovers already but I did put up my Christmas tree this weekend, which is definitely a record. I've never had it up this early. I had nothing better to do Saturday and figured I might as well get it out of the way. Anyway, here are tod...
2020-12-01 14:38:15 +0000 UTC View PostMailbag: Judge, Pitching, Offseason Plan, Non-Tenders, Urshela, Murphy, Hicks, Alternate Site, DH
Happy Thanksgiving Eve, everyone. I have an inbox full of mailbag questions gnawing away at me, so I figured I’d throw them all together in an old school RAB-style mailbag post for today. These are questions I planned to answer at some point but kept pushing back for whatever reason. So here I ...
2020-11-25 14:52:50 +0000 UTC View PostNovember 24th, 2020: Rule 5 Draft, Cubs, Chapman
Reminder: I am skipping this Friday’s post for Thanksgiving. If there’s breaking news, I will happily cover it, otherwise I’m going to lay low around turkey day. I hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving. Thanks for reading.
Gonna start you off with a must-click link: 2020-11-24 14:47:11 +0000 UTC View Post
November 20th, 2020: Cano, Pitching, Lynn, Hall of Fame, Mailbag
The 2020 Yankees Sporcle quiz is out. They sure did use a lot of random players in a 60-game season, huh? I got 40 of 43 but quit with five minutes to go because I’m impatient. I missed three pitchers, ...
2020-11-20 14:12:54 +0000 UTC View PostNovember 17th, 2020: ZiPS, Rule 5 Draft, Lindor, Hill
The Dominican Winter League season began Sunday and Domingo German struck out seven in the first four innings of a combined no-hitter in his first game action in over a year last night (Sunday’s game was postponed due to wet grounds). 2020-11-17 15:13:13 +0000 UTC View Post
November 13th, 2020: Simmons, Molina, NPB Players, Winter Ball, Mailbag
Awards season is over and now we enter what is traditionally the busiest few weeks of the offseason. Teams like to get their major business handled before the holidays (and free agents like to sign before then too) so they can focus on arbitration and fine-tuning the roster in January and Februar...
2020-11-13 13:35:20 +0000 UTC View PostNovember 10th, 2020: Minor League Restructuring, Top 10 Prospects, Garcia, LeMahieu
The Dodgers won the World Series two weeks ago and the dominant MLB headlines at the moment are an ex-GM suing his former team* and a...
2020-11-10 14:56:20 +0000 UTC View PostNovember 6th, 2020: Player Evaluations, 90/90 Club, Minors, Mailbag
Just a heads up: I am planning to skip the regularly scheduled post on Friday, Nov. 27th. That’s three weeks from today. It's the day after Thanksgiving. If there’s breaking news, I will happily cover it, but I have family obligations for the holiday and would like a little break. Thanks for ...
2020-11-06 15:11:22 +0000 UTC View PostNovember 3rd, 2020: Britton, LeMahieu, Kahnle, Kluber, Minor League Free Agents, Awards, Stanton
In case you missed it, my 2020-21 Offseason Plan went live yesterday. Hope you enjoyed it, or at least used it to help pass the time. Before we get to today's thoughts, let me just implore you to get o...
2020-11-03 15:24:33 +0000 UTC View PostOctober 29th, 2020: Options, World Series, Rule Changes, Mailbag
Offseason Plan update: It will be published Monday. I want to see the options decisions around the league (most are due tomorrow) as well as free agent contract predictions from MLBTR and FanGraphs cro...
2020-10-29 22:50:28 +0000 UTC View PostThe Yankees and the 2020-21 Offseason Calendar
The Dodgers are the 2020 World Series champions and the 2020-21 offseason begins today. Gotta say, after the shutdown this summer, I’m not looking forward to another long stretch without baseball. Feels like we were just doing this, you know?
Anyway, now that the offseason has begun, itâ€...
2020-10-28 15:16:26 +0000 UTC View Post