Chapman switches agents

Saturday November 21, 2009 2:40 PM By Erik Boland

Lefty Cuban fireballer Aroldis Chapman, who has the Yankees and Red Sox, among other teams, very much interested, switched agents, firing Edwin Mejia and replacing him with Randy and Alan Hendricks. 

Included in the Hendricks' stable of high-profile players is Andy Pettitte.

The switch was first reported by the Florida Spanish newspaper El Nuevo Herald on Friday.

"Athletes Premier International is greatly surprised and deeply disappointed that Aroldis Chapman has decided to change agents," the agency said in a statement to ESPN. "The agency has put forth a lot of time and effort towards helping him achieve his goal of becoming a major league pitcher and he gave us no indication that he was unhappy with our advice or the way he was treated. We will have more to say about this matter at a later date, but in the meantime we wish Aroldis luck in his future endeavors."

Last week Mejia took Chapman, 21, on a tour of media outlets, including the AP and ESPN Deportes, last week.

"He’s a once-every-40-years player," Mejia said in the AP story.

Chapman attended Game 6 of the ALCS at the Stadium.

Yankees add seven to 40-man

Friday November 20, 2009 7:04 PM By Erik Boland

The Yankees late Friday afternoon added right-handed pitchers Hector Noesi, Ivan Nova and Romulo Sanchez, infielders Reegie Corona, Eduardo Nunez and Kevin Russo and outfielder Austin Jackson and to their 40-man roster, protecting them from the Rule 5 Draft, which is Dec. 10. Their roster stands at 39 as Shelley Duncan was outrighted to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

For those, and I include myself in this category, needing a refresher on some of the intricacies of the Rule 5 draft -- not to mention a handful of other transaction rules and regulations -- this is a very good link.

Anyway, the full release from the Yankees:

"Noesi, 22, appeared in 26 combined games (20 starts) with Single-A Charleston and Single-A Tampa in 2009, going 6-4 with a 2.92 ERA and 118 strikeouts in 117.0 IP. He also combined to hold opponents to a .220 batting average (96-for-436) with only 15 walks and was named a midseason All-Star with Charleston. Noesi was originally signed by the Yankees as a non-drafted free agent on December 3, 2004, out of the Dominican Republic.

*** Nova, 22, made 24 combined starts with Double-A Trenton and Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in 2009, going 6-8 with a 3.68 ERA (139.1IP, 57ER). He also made two postseason starts for Scranton/WB, going 1-0 with a 1.93 ERA, allowing just three earned runs in 14.0 IP and striking out 10 batters. Originally signed by the Yankees as a non-drafted free agent on July 15, 2004, Nova was selected by San Diego in the 2008 Rule 5 Draft before being returned to the Yankees.

*** Sanchez, 25, was acquired by the Yankees on May 16, 2009, from the Pittsburgh Pirates in exchange for RHP Eric Hacker. He spent the year at the Triple-A level, combining to go 6-5 with a 4.09 ERA (77.0 IP, 35 ER) and 79 strikeouts in 29 games (13 starts) with Indianapolis (PIT) and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre (NYY). Sanchez was originally signed by the Dodgers as a non-drafted free agent on March 8, 2002, out of Lara, Venezuela.

*** Corona, 23, combined to bat .257 (120-for-467) with 69 runs, 28 doubles, six home runs, 40 RBI and 16 stolen bases in 129 games with Double-A Trenton and Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, earning midseason All-Star honors with Trenton. The Caracas, Venezuela, native was originally signed by the Yankees as a non-drafted free agent on July 2, 2003. A switch-hitting infielder, he was selected by Seattle in the 2008 Rule 5 Draft, and was returned to the Yankees on April 3, 2009.

*** Nunez, 22, batted .322 (160-for-497) with nine home runs, 55 RBI and 19 stolen bases in 123 games with Double-A Trenton in 2009, making 120 starts at shortstop. In his first season at the Double-A level, he ranked second in the Eastern League in hits and third in batting average, and was the lone Thunder player to earn both midseason and postseason All-Star honors. Originally signed by the Yankees as a non-drafted free agent on February 25, 2004, Nunez was a non-roster spring training invitee in 2009.

*** Russo, 25, was named to the International League’s 2009 postseason All-Star team after batting .326 (115-for-353) with 51 runs, 18 doubles, five home runs, 31 RBI and 13 stolen bases in 90 games with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. He also walked 42 times, ranking fourth in the IL with a team-high .397 on-base percentage. Russo was selected by the Yankees in the 20th round of the 2006 First-Year Player Draft

*** Jackson, 22, was selected as the 2009 International League “Rookie of the Year” after batting .300 (151-for-504) with 67 runs, 23 doubles, nine triples, four home runs, 65 RBI and 24 stolen bases in 132 games with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. In his first full season at the Triple-A level, he led the IL in triples and ranked second in hits. Originally selected by the Yankees in the eighth round of the 2005 First-Year Player Draft, Jackson entered 2009 rated as the organization’s top prospect as well as its “Best Athlete” and “Best Defensive Outfielder” by Baseball America. He attended 2009 spring training as a non-roster invitee, batting .333 (12-for-36) with three home runs in 23 games."

Girardi to be honored by Knicks

Friday November 20, 2009 4:41 PM By Erik Boland

Joe Girardi will be at the Garden Sunday as he will receive the Sweetwater Clifton "City Spirit" Award from the Knicks.

The complete release:

"The New York Knickerbockers have announced that Yankees Manager Joe Girardi is the winner of the Sweetwater Clifton "City Spirit" Award for the month of November. The award, named in honor of Nat "Sweetwater" Clifton, the first African-American to play for the Knicks, recognizes individuals who have made a significant difference in the lives of others. Each month, a winner is chosen by members of the Knicks front office staff and honored at center court during a Knicks game with a $2,000 donation in his or her name made out to a charity of their choice.

After leading the New York Yankees to the 2009 World Series crown on Nov. 4, Girardi served as a good Samaritan by stopping to aid Marie Henry, who had a car accident on the Cross County Parkway in Westchester County. Ms. Henry, 27, lost control of her automobile and crashed into a wall in the early morning hours. Girardi, who was driving home, came to her assistance and flagged down police. Luckily, Henry sustained only minor injuries, but Girardi’s efforts on and off the field that night embodied the essence of what the “City Spirit” Award means.

At Sunday’s game versus the Boston Celtics, Joe Girardi will accept the City Spirit Award at Madison Square Garden. Girardi will donate the award money to Catch 25, a foundation he created to support families and individuals who have been affected by ALS, Alzheimer’s disease, cancer and fertility issues.

To nominate your hero, or to read more about this month’s winners and other past winners, please visit nyknicks.com."
 

Countdown to midnight

Thursday November 19, 2009 2:29 PM By Erik Boland

Free agency officially kicks off at 12:01 Friday morning and Brian Cashman has big plans for then.

“I will be sleeping,” the Yankees’ general manager said. “I hope anyway. I certainly won’t be working.”

This isn’t the NFL where as soon as the clock strikes midnight sometime in late February signaling the start of free agency, you have situations like Rex Ryan waiting in Bart Scott’s driveway to make an initial pitch or Albert Haynesworth agreeing to a $100 million contract at around 3 in the morning (tampering, anyone?).

Granted, last offseason, Cashman was on the phone almost immediately to start his pursuit of CC Sabathia but the landscape is far different this year. Conventional wisdom is the Yankees won’t be nearly as busy this offseason in terms of free agency as they were last offseason but, as Cashman said, “clearly we’ll be doing stuff.”

The safest way to evaluate things, whether it be big-name free agents or trades? The Yankees are always in the game until they’re not.

*** Speaking of the free agent pool, Ken Davidoff ranked this year’s class using a little different method.

“For my rankings, I took away all of the subjectivity and relied exclusively on WAR, or Wins Above Replacement,” Davidoff wrote. “It's a metric devised by respected statistical analyst Tom Tango -- he now does work for the Mariners -- that calculates how many victories each player produced relative to the "replacement-level player" at his position. It incorporates both offense and defense for position players, and if you notice the absence of relief pitchers, that's because there isn't as wide a gulf between accomplished relievers and their replacement-level equivalents as there is for, say, a good shortstop and his replacement-level equivalent.

"I added each free agent's WAR of the last two years, figuring that teams would be somewhat willing to overlook a shaky 2009 in favor of a better 2008, and would keep a bad 2008 in mind even with a good 2009.”

Definitely worth reading.

*** As is this story that emanated from the owners meetings in Chicago where Commissioner Bud Selig expressed a desire to tighten up the length of playoff series, essentially trimming the absurd number of days off built into series. Mike Scioscia, as you remember, called the playoff format “ridiculous,” among other things, during the ALCS. The final word, of course, will be up to television, which is responsible for said ridiculousness.

Stay, um, tuned.

*** Today’s BBWAA award was the NL Cy Young which, for the second straight season, went to the Giants’ Tim Lincecum. Lincecum got 11 first-place votes to finish with 100 points, edging the Cardinals’ Chris Carpenter, who got nine first-place votes and finished with 94 points.

The next award will be the AL MVP, scheduled to be announced Monday. The NL MVP will be announced Tuesday. 

Also, Andy Pettitte filed for free agency this afternoon.

Scioscia, Tracy win Manager of Year awards

Wednesday November 18, 2009 2:20 PM By Erik Boland

Mike Scioscia and Jim Tracy both won their league’s Manager of the Year awards by large margins in results just released by the BBWAA.

In the AL, Scioscia got 15 first-place votes in earning 106 points to finish ahead of Ron Gardenhire, who got six first-place votes and finished with 72 points. Joe Girardi finished third with 34 points, getting four first-place votes. It was Gardenhire’s fifth second-place finish.

Tracy, who took over the Rockies when they were in last place in May and led them to the NL wild card, picked up 29 first-place votes and finished with 151 points. Tony La Russa was second, earning two first-place votes and 55 total points. Joe Torre came in third, getting one first-place vote and finishing with 33 points.
 

Chamberlain on 2009 and recruiting Pettitte

Tuesday November 17, 2009 9:15 PM By Erik Boland

A few of us caught up with Joba Chamberlain today, who was at the Garden participating in Wrap to Rap, an event put on by New Yorkers for Children, a charity which helps children in foster care

No, Chamberlain had nothing new regarding the starter/reliever debate.

“I haven’t heard anything,” Chamberlain said with a smile, asked if he was preparing to go to spring training as a starter or reliever.

Reflecting on his up-and-down 2009, Chamberlain said there was frustration at times but he was ok with the much maligned Joba Rules.

“As a baseball player, you play this game to be the best, that’s why I play it,” he said. “I’ve had moments where I’ve been really good, I’ve had moments where I’ve been really bad, and I understand that. But I also understands that they have enough confidence in me to limit those innings because they know or have an idea of how special I can be and I thank them for that because there’s not a lot of people that would do that – they’d just run you out there and not worry about you. But I’m excited to get that opportunity [next season without restrictions] to just to go out and pitch and help the team win, whether it’s out of the bullpen or as a starter every fifth day.”

Since the season ended Chamberlain has been active in one area – trying to persuade Andy Pettitte to come back. The two talk fairly often.

“It’s always worth a shot,” Chamberlain said. “Andy’s become one of my best friends and we pull no punches with each other…I always throw a jab in there every once in a while. I always tell him I’ll keep him young no matter what.”

Chamberlain said it would be “huge” to have Pettitte back in the rotation.

“I mean just for the fact of the type of leader he is,” Chamberlain said. “He really doesn’t say much but just the way he goes about it, gets his work in and the way he prepares himself big game after big game. You look at the postseason, all three clinching games the man pitched and to do that at 36 [actually 37], I don’t care if you’re 26, 36, whatever you are, that’s special. And to know that every time you give him the ball he’s going to give you a chance to win. And I think he’s so much bigger than just on the field.”

As for Chamberlain’s appearance at Wrap to Rap – Chamberlain helped wrap gifts for those in foster care – it is a charity that hits close to home for the pitcher. Chamberlain’s father, Harlan, was in foster care growing up.

“I do it because it means something to me,” Chamberlain said. “I have a direct correlation with somebody who was involved and how it helped him and how he learned from it and the advantage of being in that compared to not having that opportunity. It was something I was excited to get involved in.”

CC finishes a distant fourth in Cy Young

Tuesday November 17, 2009 2:12 PM By Erik Boland

It was a landslide victory for the Royals’ Zack Greinke as he was announced this afternoon as the winner of the AL Cy Young Award.

Greinke had 25 first-place votes and finished with 134 total points. Felix Hernandez of the Mariners finished second, accruing two first-place votes and 80 total points. CC Sabathia finished fourth with 13 points, one behind the Tigers’ Justin Verlander. Roy Halladay placed fifth with 11 points.

More from the BBWAA web site:
 

“Pitching for a team that was next to last in the AL in average runs per game, Greinke compiled a 16-8 record with a 2.16 ERA. No AL starter had won the Cy Young Award without winning at least 18 games. Greinke fell two victories short and equaled the output of 2006 National League winner Brandon Webb, who was 16-8 that year for the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Grienke, 26, who held opponents to one run or fewer in 18 of his 33 starts, was named first on 25 and second on the other three ballots cast by two writers in each league city for a total of 134 points, based on the 5-3-1 tabulation system. The righthander’s league-best ERA was the lowest in the AL since 2000 Cy Young Award winner Pedro Martinez had a 1.74 ERA for the Boston Red Sox. Greinke also was second in complete games (6), shutouts (3), strikeouts (242) and opponents’ batting average (.230). He was the only pitcher named on all ballots.

Seattle Mariners righthander Felix Hernandez (19-5, 2.49 ERA), received two first-place votes and finished second in the balloting with 80 points. The other first-place vote went to Detroit Tigers righthander Justin Verlander (19-9, 3.92 ERA), who placed third overall. Hernandez and Verlander were tied for the AL lead in victories. Hernandez led the league in winning percentage (.792) and batting average against (.227) and Verlander in innings (240) and strikeouts (269)."

*** 

The Yankees announced this afternoon they had declined their 2010 option on Sergio Mitre. He is still under the team's control and is arbitration eligible.

Bailey wins AL Rookie of the Year

Monday November 16, 2009 2:19 PM By Erik Boland

Andrew Bailey's standout, and somewhat under-the-radar, season for the A's was rewarded today as it was announced he was the AL's Rookie of the Year. Marlins outfielder Chris Coghlan won the NL's award. 

Bailey had 88 points. Elvis Andrus of the Rangers was second with 65 points. The NL race was tighter with Coghlan getting 105 points compared to 94 for J.A. Happ of the Phillies.  

The rest of the awards will be announced on this schedule:

Tuesday, Nov. 17: AL Cy Young Award.
Wednesday, Nov. 18: AL & NL Manager of the Year Awards.
Thursday, Nov. 19: NL Cy Young Award.
Monday, Nov. 23: AL Most Valuable Player Award.
Tuesday, Nov. 24: NL Most Valuable Player Award.

Red carpet treatment

Saturday November 14, 2009 1:58 PM By Erik Boland

I had never done the red carpet “thing” as a reporter until Friday night before the Joe Torre Safe at Home Gala at Cheslea Piers, and it has its merits.

As much as standing around mostly talking with other media members can have merit.

There is a cross-section of media at these things and the sports media generally got the celebs – from the sports world and beyond – after the entertainment press had gotten their questions in [they have jobs to do as well so it’s not really a big deal]. But there was some overlap, creating sometimes uncomfortable exchanges. Take this one with Derek Jeter, who received two baseball questions before staring down, and quickly dismissing, this one:

Reporter: “How have you been celebrating with Minka?”

Jeter: “C’mon, now.”

Mike Puma from the Post tried to bring things back to baseball, but a random guy holding a video camera interrupted, it seeming he might explode if he didn’t share with Jeter the fact he had once made some kind of cameo on “30 Rock.”

In other words: "I'm a celebrity too!"

It was a moment that might have made even the Most Interesting Man in the World feel awkward, but here’s how good Jeter is at this kind of thing. He smiled at the guy and says, “[then] you should be on this side [of the ropes].”

Smooth.

But not as smooth as when another guy thrust a digital camera at Jeter and asked for a picture. Jeter took the camera, pointed it at the buffoon and snapped said buffoon's picture.

Haven’t seen so many hangers-on since, well, the Yankees’ clubhouse before just about any regular-season home game.

Anyway, nothing huge in the way of news coming out of the red carpet scene but here are some highlights:

*** Not surprisingly, Jeter said he would like to see the Yankees bring back their three most prominent free agents – Hideki Matsui, Johnny Damon and Andy Pettitte.

“I would love it,” Jeter said. “We won so I would love to bring everybody back but you understand that it’s a business. Unfortunately there’s a business side to things but you’d love to see everybody back. They had a pretty good year.”

Matsui, stopping on his way into the dinner, said to his knowledge there have been no talks as yet between his agent, Arn Tellem, and the Yankees.

“My feelings are still with the Yankees but as far progress is concerned, I don’t think anything has happened yet and we’ll just wait and see,” Matsui said through his translator, Roger Kahlon.

If things don’t work out with the Yankees, still his first choice for next year, Matsui said he’ll be ready to move on.

“If that that happens, yeah, I think that would be disappointing,” Matsui said. “On the other hand it’s something to look forward to. It means that it’s going to be a new change, something different for me, a new challenge for me. So in that sense, I’ll definitely take it in a positive way. The Yankees have their own plans, too, and you have to respect that.”

Matsui, who will have options if the Yankees pass, said returning to Japan was currently not an option.

“As of right now, no, I’m not thinking about going to Japan,” Matsui said.

*** Don Zimmer attended the dinner and was thrilled that Joe Girardi, who came up as a rookie with the Cubs when Zimmer was their manager, won the World Series.

“I was pulling so hard for him,” Zimmer said.

Zim’s nostrils flared a bit when discussing some of the second-guessing of Girardi that went on during the postseason.

“I waited for about three days and I called him [and] just told him that I was so happy for him,” Zimmer said. “He took a lot of heat from the media during the series. I remember all that, second-guessing every move he made and if they would have lost, I’m sure he would have heard more. Now that he won, he’s on top of the world. That’s how baseball works.”

Asked if he would be back with the Rays as a senior advisor, Zimmer smiled, saying, “I just signed my 62nd contract [in professional baseball].”

*** Another big topic of the night was reaction to the getting-stranger-by-the-moment John Westteland story, which I wrote about for Saturday's paper. 

David Cone, an ex-teammate of Wetteland’s, probably had the best synopsis of the story to this point.

“John’s always been a complicated guy,'' Cone said.

“I'm still confused about what actually happened, to tell you the truth,'' Cone said later. "I'm glad to see that he's out of the hospital and doing better. I've heard conflicting reports on exactly what happened so I'm not sure how to respond one way or the other, but I certainly care about him a lot. He's a great guy. He's been through a lot in his life, on and off the field.''

***

Interesting story from the AP the other day on Cuban pitching phenom Aroldis Chapman, a lefty the Yankees and several other teams, including the Red Sox, remain interested in.

Just one of the many storylines to follow as free agency begins next week.

And with that, enjoy another college football Saturday and NFL Sunday.