Slow News Day

It's the baseball off-season, the Hot Stove!  But not every day is a big news day.  Yet columnists still need stories to write.  Let's file this one under "Interesting Item that will be Quickly Forgotten".  According to Michael Axisa at River Ave Blues, the Yankees are considering hiring Jeff Pentland for their vacant hitting coach position.  Who is Jeff Pentland?  He's a 68-year old veteran who's bounced around the majors for the last couple of decades and presided over some pretty bad teams with mostly lousy hitting.  Here's a look at those teams, their records when Pentland was acting as hitting coach, their league rankings in both Average and OPS, as well as the standout from that season.

TEAM	YEAR	RECORD		Rank AVG	Rank OPS	Team Best
Marlins	1996	80	82	9	10	Sheffield, .314-42-120
Cubs	1997	68	94	5	12	Sosa, .251-36-119
	1998	90	73	5	6	Sosa, .308-66-158
	1999	67	95	14	15	Sosa, .288-63-141
	2000	65	97	13	12	Sosa, .320-50-138
	2001	88	74	8	6	Sosa, .328-64-160
	2002	67	95	15	11	Sosa, .288-49-108
	AVG	74	88	10.00	10.33
Royals	2003	83	79	4	7	Beltran, .307-26-100
	2004	58	104	13	14	Sweeney, .287-22-79
	2005	56	106	10	12	Sweeney, .300-21-83
	AVG	66	96	9	11
Mariners	2005	69	93	14	14	Sexson, .263-39-121
	2006	74	84	10	12	Ibanez, .289-33-123
	2007	88	74	2	6	Ibanez, .291-21-105
	2008	61	101	9	13	Ibanez, .293-23-110
	AVG	73	88	8.75	11.25
Dodgers	2010	80	82	10	12	Ethier, .292-23-82
	2011	82	79	6	10	Kemp, .324-39-126
	AVG	81	81	8	11

For the most part, Pentland's teams were bad, the worst one being the 2005 Royals.  To be fair, Tony Pena walked away from the team in May and the coaches soon followed.  Remarkably, Pentland managed to find work quickly with the Mariners and led their hitters... well, nowhere.  The 2005 Mariners finished dead last in the AL in both average and OPS.  It only got slightly better in 2006.  But in 2007, the Mariners busted out and gave Pentland his best season as a hitting coach.  Led by Ichiro's .351 average and three players with an OPS over .800, the Mariners finished 6th in the AL in OPS.  By the next season, though, the M's OPS dropped to 13th in the league and Pentland was gone again.

Now, I don't know much about Jeff Pentland beyond these numbers.  He was apparently good enough to keep getting hired, in spite of the apparent lack of success he brought to his teams.  But if I'm looking to replace Kevin Long, a hitting coach with a long record of success in New York, Jeff Pentland is not first on my list.  Or second.  Or, well, you get the idea.

I happen to like the idea that was floated a few months ago: bringing back Jason Giambi to coach.  These aren't the Royals or Marlins.  Even an unproven coaching commodity like Giambi makes more sense than a small-town, semi-successful, retread like Pentland.

The More Things Change, the Yankees Don't

The Hot Stove season is underway, and the Yankees are making moves.  Underwhelming, head-scratching, and downright bone-headed moves. 

They began by re-signing Chris Young, a player the Mets didn't want.  (Let that sink in for a moment.)  But Young will be the 4th outfielder, a guy who can play all three OF positions, and someone who's not expected to do much.

Today, though, the Yankees addressed a much bigger need.  With a Derek Jeter-sized hole at shortstop, the Yanks traded for Didi Gregorius.  Gregorius is primarily a glove-first guy, having shown only marginal success hitting at the major-league level.  I would question the need to acquire a glove-first SS, considering they already have that in the form of Brendan Ryan.  But I will also agree with those who say Ryan cannot hit, while Gregorius has hitting potential. 

The head-scratcher, though, is that the Yankees chose to part with Shane Greene, a major-league ready starting pitcher, in exchange for Gregorius.  While his sample size was small from his rookie year, Greene put up good numbers: 81 strikeouts in 78 innings and an ERA under 4.  Sure, Greene might not rise very far above a 3rd or 4th starter.  But for a team with a question-mark riddled rotation, a Gregorius for Greene swap may amount to nothing more than patching a hole here while creating another over there.

But for me, the worst move of the off-season so far has been the signing of Andrew Miller.  While I think Miller is a good reliever (at least he was last season), in no way is he worth $36 million over four years.  Miller, you'll recall, is a failed starter.  No big deal there, as nearly every successful reliever is a failed starter.  However, successful teams don't pay $36 million for someone else's reclamation project.  There are cheaper alternatives to be found everywhere, and teams that put together those great bullpens with arms no one else wanted -- see Royals, Kansas City or Orioles, Baltimore -- reap the rewards.  (It's no surprise that Miller was part of that outstanding Baltimore pen, and also not a surprise that the O's didn't want to pay to keep him.)  It remains to be seen how long Miller remains an elite reliever and whether the Yanks will earn a return on their hefty investment.

It's only December, and the Yankees still have needs.  Third base, starting pitching, maybe second base, too.  But I don't see any obvious fixes or any evident plan that puts the Yankees on a course correction for 2015.  With other teams in the East getting better, the Yanks might be playing catch-up during the regular season, too.

Singin' the Maize and Blues

Back in March, I came across an article about Wilton Speight, a freshman QB prospect for Michigan.  Around that same time, I mentioned to my brother, a Michigan alum, that I wouldn't be surprised to see Speight in the starting lineup before season's end.  His response?

"You think he's just going to leapfrog Morris?  And a QB with no experience over a 5th year senior with talent? No thank you, I'll stick with Gardner."

Fast forward a few months, or an eternity in Michigan football time.  Gardner's already been benched following a lackluster start.  Unfortunately, new starter Shane Morris didn't look much better.  It's probably less an indictment of Morris than of the Michigan offense as a whole.  Gardner was slightly better in his mop-up role, but ran for nearly as many yards as he gained passing.  It may take some more time before the team can effectively run Doug Nussmeier's new Wolverine offense.

And speaking of time, with the Wolverine's losing 3 games in September for the first time in their 135-year football history, has the clock started ticking on Brady Hoke?  Chants of "Fire Brady!" were heard in the waning moments of the Minnesota game.  Fanning the flames may be the additional controversy surrounding Hoke's handling of Morris during the game.  Though replays showed Morris was nearly knocked silly, he remained in the game for one more play.  Hoke was unapologetic in the face of the growing criticism.

I'm not a huge fan of Brady Hoke.  While he was a good, stable choice to step into the abyss following the Rich Rodriguez disaster, I don't know that Hoke is the long-term answer for Michigan.  His football team has gotten progressively worse -- from 11-2 in his debut season to last year's 7-6 mark, and then to this year's 2-3 campaign.  By now, the roster should be filled with Hoke recruits, players he brought in to play his style of football.  The team should be getting better, not going backwards.  I'd also be hard-pressed to recall another signature victory since beating Ohio State in 2011.

Of course, all this hand-wringing is over a football season that is only one-third complete.  There are many games left to play.  That said, how many games will this Michigan team win with the likes of Michigan State, Penn State and Ohio State still on the schedule?  In fact, without going out on too much of a limb, I'll make another prediction: unless Michigan beats Ohio State, Brady Hoke will have coached his last game from the Michigan sidelines.  Of course, Hoke will need to make it to that point first.  And who knows who'll be playing quarterback?

Return of The King

To be honest, I didn't pay much attention when LeBron James entered the NBA.  At the time, the Knicks were one of the worst franchises in basketball and my interest in the NBA was pretty much zero.  You couldn't escape the hype or the headlines, of course, so it wasn't as though I didn't know about James' exploits and his takeover of the NBA.

But nearly seven years into James' career, the Knicks appeared to have a plan.  A plan, in fact, that prominently featured a certain free agent from the Midwest.  So when LeBron spurned the Knicks, made a "Decision" and trotted on down to South Beach to join D-Wade and CB, I officially joined the LeBron Haters Club.

When the Spurs prevailed in this year's Finals -- knocking off LeBron's Heat -- I was giddy.  Sure, the Heat were in four straight Finals but they only managed to win twice.  Not quite the LeBron guarantee.  And, I suppose, not quite what LeBron had in mind, either, because it became quickly apparent that a return to Miami was not a done deal.

For the past week, we were all caught in the Speculation Vortex, as theory after theory was floated about where James might land.  And then, to the surprise of most of us, King James gave us his answer: Cleveland.

I must tell you: whether it was genuine and heartfelt, or merely a manufactured P.R. smoothie, LeBron' open letter hit all the right notes.  "I'm coming home," he declared.  He didn't apologize for going to Miami, but said he'd "obviously do things differently" if he had to do it again.  While he still cares about winning titles, winning a title for Cleveland is most important of all.

To be honest, my hatred of LeBron was basically manufactured, a "He screwed my team and ran off to play with a bunch of other all-stars" grudge.  A Schadenfreude perfect storm.  But now I'm finding it hard to root against a guy who left the cushy gig to take on a real project in his home town.  I heard that the Cavs are now the favorites in the East next season, so it probably won't be so hard to win, but winning this way just seems right.

Don't get me wrong -- I'll still be rooting against LeBron and the Cavs, but only when they're facing the Knicks.  I'll take an Eastern Conference Finals matchup any time.

First Impressions

It was $155 million in the making, but Masahiro Tanaka made his Major League debut last night against the Blue Jays.  On his third pitch, Tanaka was rudely welcomed to the big leagues with a long home run off the bat of Melky Cabrera.  But Tanaka settled down quickly and closed out the inning with a pair of strikeouts -- more firsts on the night.

Tanaka got into more trouble in the 2nd, thanks in part to some sketchy defense.  Then a pair of run-scoring singles gave Toronto the lead.  But again, Tanaka got out of the inning on a pair of strikeouts.  The Yankees came back in the 3rd with a couple of runs, once again handing Tanaka the lead.  He didn't give it back.

All told, it was a good debut.  Tanaka got the win, going 7 solid innings while striking out 8.  He had excellent control, throwing 65 of his 97 pitches for strikes and not walking a batter.  Other than the homer by Cabrera, there weren't very many hard-hit balls against Tanaka, either. 

For a 4th starter, Tanaka was great.  But then Tanaka isn't really a 4th starter, is he?  For $22 million a year, you'd think you're buying an ace.  In Tanaka's defense, one game does not a season make.  Let's compare the last great Japanese import, Yu Darvish.  Darvish was pretty shaky in his big league debut, and didn't get out of the 7th inning until his 4th start.  But he finished the year strong, winning 16 with a sub-4 ERA.  And in his 2nd season, Darvish was even better.

So where does Tanaka go from here?  I think he's probably a lot closer to Darvish than he is to Hideki Irabu.  But will he be able to match his performance to his paycheck?  Only time will tell.

An Embarassment of Riches Is Sometimes Just Embarassing

It's hard being a Yankees fan sometimes.  Yeah, yeah, my wallet is too small for my $50's and my diamond shoes are too tight.  I get it.  Fans of other teams would love to have these "problems".  But seriously -- you can only hear "Ah, you bought the pennant" so many times, especially when it's true.

The latest news is another mega-millions signing: Japanese superstar Masahiro Tanaka has taken the money thrown at him by the Yankees.  And while it sounds good -- I think Tanaka will be a lot closer to Yu Darvish than Kei Igawa -- it's no slam dunk.  And for $155 million, you should be paying for slam dunk.

Isolated, the Tanaka deal is fine.  The McCann signing, while for too much money and too many years, filled a void.  It was S.O.P. Yankees: have a problem, throw some money at it.  Yes, McCann will be a very expensive and under-producing DH by the time his deal is up, but I can live with it for now.  But after McCann, the Yankees off-season took a bizarre turn.

The mystifying move to bring in Jacoby Ellsbury haunts me still and casts a pall over the 2014 Yankees.  "Overpaid" doesn't even begin to describe the ridiculous contract handed out to a player with one good season who can barely keep himself on the field.  Add to the fact that the Yankees already had a crowded outfield and it makes even less sense.  And of course, the equal and opposite reaction that sent Robinson Cano to Seattle made the deal even that much more maddening.

Signing the aging Carlos Beltran was a desperate grab to patch the gaping hole in the lineup left by Cano.  Another "too long for too much" contract for a player on the decline, sheer payroll overkill for sheepish fans of the Pinstripes. 

And now Tanaka.  The 2014 Yankees will bear little resemblance to the team that represented New York in 2013.  Based on their 2013 record, that's not a bad thing.  How the Yankees got there, though, well, that's another story.

Bye-bye, So Long, Farewell

Steriods?  Who, me?

At long last, baseball fans got what they wanted: Alex Rodriguez is no more.  After an arbitrator ruled that A-Rod's original 211-game suspension was being "shortened" to 162 games, it all but spelled the end of Rodriguez's career in Major League Baseball.  Having missed most of the 2013 season with a hip injury, by the time the 2014 season has ended, A-Rod will have played all of 44 games in 2 years.  At age 39, with two surgically-repaired hips, it hardly bodes well for a comeback in 2015.

However, I think there is a chance, albeit a small one, that A-Rod can play in the majors again.  The scenario itself is actually plausible -- the hiccup is that it requires Rodriguez to actually accept baseball's punishment and move on.  (So far, that doesn't seem likely.)

But let's assume that A-Rod exhausts all his legal avenues prior to Spring Training and finally faces the reality that he will not be playing baseball for the Yankees or anyone else in the major leagues in 2014.  What's a shamed superstar to do?  Hop on a trans-pacific flight and sign up to play in the Japanese league.  

That lets Rodriguez show us if there's anything left in the tank.  Prove to us that a clean A-Rod is still a viable player.  Granted, the competition in Japan isn't quite major-league caliber, but it will be easy to see if he's still a man among boys, or simply an aging, over-matched veteran seeking one more season in the sun.  If he plays well, a return to MLB wouldn't be far-fetched.

Well, sure, A-Rod still has a contract with the Yankees.  But don't you think it's worth $30 or $40 million to the Yankees to buy out his existing deal and make him go away?  With that cash in hand, it makes it easier for A-Rod to accept a lesser offer from some other MLB team.  And it's not like the other convicted drug offenders haven't been welcomed back in the fold following their suspensions.  Maybe the Marlins, in desperate need of a drawing card, bring down South Florida's own for a homecoming?  Maybe it's the A's, looking for a potential bargain and a short-term solution for some offense? 

While we're all glad to see Alex Rodriguez go, part of that glee has to do with the whole sideshow that always accompanies him.  Perhaps a year away in a foreign land, with nothing to focus on except baseball, will change him.  Perhaps not.  But it's a scenario that I'd like to see play out by the time 2015 rolls around.