Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Former Boston Red Sox Player Kevin Youkilis Will Be a Yankee in 2013

It's happened.  Youk will now be a Yank.  

According to Andrew Marchand's article on ESPN.com, "Kevin Youkilis has verbally agreed to become a New York Yankee...."  

The Yankees are also in the process of re-signing Ichiro Suzuki, according to Marchand's article.  

So that means next season's batting order and starting lineup for the Yankees will look something like this:

Batting 1st: Derek Jeter/SS
Batting 2nd: Brett Gardner/LF
Batting 3rd: Robinson Cano/2B
Batting 4th: Mark Teixeira/1B
Batting 5th: Alex Rodriguez/DH
Batting 6th: Curtis Granderson/CF
Batting 7th: Ichiro Suzuki/RF
Batting 8th: Kevin Youkilis/3B
Batting 9th: Somebody/C

I like this lineup as a fan.  Picking up Kevin Youkilis is kind of cool because, as I wrote last week, there's something strangely appealing about picking up a player who you used to hate.  It's also kind of cool for my favorite baseball team to have Ichiro.  Aside from that, all the other players slated to be in 'stripes next season are guys I already know and love from seasons past.  

But there is a problem with this lineup: It's old.  I know my above list isn't perfect.  A-Rod will miss a good portion of the season, which means he won't really be affecting the lineup at all during that time, good or bad.  Still, on opening day, the average age of those eight players I listed will be 33.875.  

That's not exactly a team full of spring chickens.

Their age concerns me because I know they won't be able to keep putting up good numbers forever.  Ichiro hit well over .300 in his time as a Yankee last season, but can he do that again next year?  And will Derek Jeter be able to keep up his numbers, especially now that he's broken his ankle at 38 years young?  

I'm not upset about the Yankees roster for the coming season, but I'm also not sure it's one that will bring them their 28th Commissioner's Trophy.  They needed to add a little bit of youth to their roster, but they can't be all that much younger than they were a season ago.  

And they're certainly not built to keep contending into 2014 and beyond.  Come the end of next season, Cano, Granderson, Ichiro, Youkilis, Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte, and Hiroki Kuroda will all be free agents.  That means the Yanks will have to either have a massive re-signing next offseason like they did this year, or start re-building.  

The cracks are showing, and, much as I hate to say this, I'm not so sure the Yankees of 2013 will be as good as the Yankees of the late 90s, early 2000s, or even 2012.  

Friday, December 7, 2012

Someone Says the New York Yankees are Trying for Third Baseman Kevin Youkilis

Will you believe it if it happens?  Youk to the Yanks?  

An ESPN.com article by Andrew Marchand cited "sources" as saying the Yankees offered Kevin Youkilis a contract.

As a big fan of the New York Yankees, I can't help but be a little intrigued by the fact that the Yanks are interested in Youk, former first and third baseman of their arch-nemesis Boston Red Sox.  He was always one of the players I loathed most, and it seemed like Yankee reliever Joba Chamberlain wasn't too fond of him either.  

So how would he fit in with his new teammates?  

After all, Youkilis has been hit by a pitch 99 times during his 9-year MLB career, and 11 of those HBPs came at the hands of current New York Yankees.  And of the eight Yankees who have hit Youk, Mariano Rivera has beaned him most (3 times in just 15 plate appearances).  I can't help but wonder what Youkilis' relationships with his teammates will be like should he end up joining his former enemies.  

But at the same time, I'm not exactly angry about the potential of my favorite baseball team picking up the guy baseball-reference.com has referred to as The Greek God of Walks.  There's something ironically appealing about the Bronx Bombers picking up one of the baseball players I've disliked most, though I was somewhat less enthusiastic when I read Jimmy Kraft's blog on si.com that mentioned Youk's "constant whining at the plate when a strike is called...."

Brian Cashman isn't talking to the media about Youk.  "Yankees general manager Brian Cashman declined to say whether he has made Youkilis an offer," Marchand wrote in his story yesterday.

But you never know with the Yankees, and I'm sort of hoping that come the 2013 MLB season, the Yanks will have a new starting third baseman ... at least for a little while.