WHAT IS MACHADO'S SIGNING IMPACT ON BASEBALL?

Source: CBS Sports

The text messages raced into my inbox on Tuesday afternoon as we learned the fate of the late great short stop who played the first six years in his MLB career with the Baltimore Orioles.  Manny Machado got his 10-year $300 million dollar contact but he had to go to baseball's lost land to retrieve it.

Source: NY Daily News

"It took 113 days of free agency to play out, but Manny Machado is headed to San Diego on the largest deal ever handed out to a free agent," reported ESPN.  Is this considered a good signing? ESPN elicited its experts to unpack the impact of the deal for the Padres and the rest of baseball.

Source: USA Today

"Machado becomes the face of the franchise and by midseason will likely be teaming with rookie Fernando Tatis Jr. to give the Padres one of the best left sides of the infield in the majors. For a franchise that hasn't had a winning season since 2010 or made the playoffs since 2006, they finally are moving in the right direction," said ESPN's David Schoenfield.

Source: San Diego Tribune

I hadn't ever placed the words good and San Diego in the same sentence before.  Isn't that where the Yankees shipped Phil Hughes, Bryan Mitchell and eventually sent back Chase Headley? Yep, that's the same team.  But the ESPN baseball analysts seemingly are on to something.

"The Padres probably won't be very good this year, but with the best current farm system in baseball they probably will be quite good in many of the next half-dozen years, and players like Manny Machado aren't just freely available to pick up when a team decides to flip the switch and compete. They just got an MVP candidate for the middle of the lineup and all it cost them was money," said ESPN's Sam Miller.

Source: NESN.com

As far as Machado's impact on the rest of baseball? Well, he's out of the American League and the American League East, so that's good for the Yankees.  Cleveland is jumping for joy because the White Sox didn't win the free agent over despite inviting a bunch of Machado's family to the payroll. Byrce Harper is a winner here too because likely he will get what he wants too.

Source: USA Today

Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred stated in a press conference on Tuesday that this signing is good for baseball.  "I think it’s good in baseball to have big stars present in some of our smaller markets and see those markets really being out there willing to compete for the best talent.” 

Source: The Athletic

As far as the impact on the White Sox, in a word, they feel "defeated."  “I’m still in a bit of disbelief. (Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf) really, really stepped up. If the acceptance of the offer that I’m seeing is true, then actually our offer had the opportunity for Manny to surpass that. But in the end we went after the guy and we didn’t get him," said Executive vice president Ken Williams as reported by the Chicago Tribune.  And he added that the similarity of the two teams is clearly evident.  "You’ve got to give it to them. They are in a similar trajectory as we are. And for the same reasons we were after him, they were after him. Their ownership group did a great job in trumping everyone else.”

Source: Camden Chat

So, Manny Machado rides into the sunset presumably with his top down on his convertible.  Hey, the weather is great out there, Manny, not like Chicago or Northeast weather, which starts cold and ends up steaming hot in the summer months.  He goes to a small market team with very little post season visits but recall that Dave Winfield was Padre before heading to the Yankees, so maybe he will do well being a big fish in a small pond.  At least he's out of the Yankees mind and they can get down to the business of winning...something Manny won't see for sometime.

--Suzie Pinstripe
BYB Managing Editor
Twitter: @suzieprof

SLADE WILL RISE AGAIN BECAUSE SLADE BELIEVES IN SUCCESS!

I chatted with Slade Heathcott on the phone for nearly an hour. He's a cool cat. Not only that... he's honest, emotional, sincere and most of all, passionate. Passionate about his life, about his son, about baseball and about what's next.  I hope you realize something about this young man. When baseball ended for him... he didn't end. Slade was just getting warmed up.  He's alive and well and ready for his next thing... making a difference.  What you're about to read is the most opened and honest interview we've ever done here at BYB.  And it's provocative. The main topic is minor league baseball and a behavior against these young players so controversial and wrong, it needs to be not only be exposed, but corrected immediately.

Listening to Slade speak about the way minor league ballplayers are treated, and doing my research for the past few weeks, the information that's out there is disappointing, shocking and almost criminal in my humble opinion. We are talking about young athletes that are taken advantage of because they have a dream to play baseball.  And the owners know this... and in my opinion they take advantage just to line their own pockets. It's the equivalent of cattle. It's a farm system to them... literally. It's disgusting.  You'd almost question where we live in the world. But this is America, land of the brave, home of the free.  But in this case, minor league athletes are treated so badly, the abuse almost feels like they're not free.  It must stop now.

I loved every minute of this interview with Slade.  Check this out...

He's making life changes involving being a pilot, as well as working on other project, one of them being a 501c3 called More Than Baseball, or MoreThanBaseball.org. A not for profit that is making people aware of how minor leaguers are treated in a Major League baseball world.  It was eye opening. I let him speak... and speak he did.

Slade Heathcott:  Do you know how much a 6 year guy gets paid as a minor leaguer? Today’s estimate is $12,000. That’s less than a hot dog vendor at that player’s major league stadium. I want you to think about that. How do you live on that? You don’t. It’s not enough for training. It’s not enough for good food. 

Casey: Are you kidding me?

Slade: No man! Let’s not forget that minor league baseball players are athletes. They are the farm team of the Bigs. Without feeding and helping to protect these minor leaguers correctly, you end up with a lot of broken down minor leaguers that just don’t survive in the game or never make it to the pros.

Casey: But how long has this been going on and what can be done about it? 

Slade: We decided to put together More Than Baseball. The goal is to find a way to get all 30 Major League teams together to be able to raise money to help minor league players. Enough with the friction between players and owners and enough with controversy. The goal should be to get these teams help, through community, through fundraising, be it affiliates or otherwise to improve the lives of minor leaguers. 

Casey: It just seems so crazy to me because as I know from my sons. I mean, my 16 year old plays baseball and all his coaches talk to him about is solid training and good nutrition. So it makes a ton of sense. That nutrition is fuel.

Slade: Nailed it. We need to get them good food, not fast food. Heck, even if there was a deal between the team affiliate and restaurants and stores around that area where their minor league park was. Like maybe 15% off a healthy meal, that could help their bank account and still allow them to get better food for their bodies. 

I am trying to nail down something with a group called “Get your Elements”. Food that’s packed with nutrition for these young players. Without solid nutrition, how do you think these guys will perform on the field? They currently eat fast food. Imagine the talent pool if these young players were eat right and had the money to train better. 

Casey: I love that. Maybe teams could team up with big stores. Harris Teeters, or Shop Rite or restaurants. 

Slade: Yup. But not only that. These players also need better equipment. We need to get them better equipment rather than a minor league player or a player’s parents buying it for them. Good bats and better helmets, or extra training. 

Think about baseball for a second. It’s not like they come out to a 7 PM game at 6 and just run around the outfield and they’re ready to go. It’s a 10-hour day. Players are playing every single day. There are early workouts, Cages, hitting the field for BP. Minor Leaguers are athletes. Does it make sense for them to ride a bus for 10 hours and find a Wendy’s at 10pm because they don’t have enough money to eat good food? 

If owners collectively agreed to bump up their $12,000 minimum salary, even that would help. How much better would a team’s farm be if owners and teams took the time and money to feed their players properly instead of weeding out the crop. 

Casey: True. How did it effect you early on?

Slade Heathcott: My first year in Charleston for the Yankees minor league system I made $6600. That didn’t cover my training costs. But thank god I was represented so that was taken care of. For a lot of players, they don’t even have that. Their parents are paying for it. There are tons of fans out there that love this game but have no idea what’s going on with the minor leagues. It’s bad. We need to educate them. 

Luckily, guys like Tony Clark, Xavier James are on board to say “Hey, let’s look at this, let’s raise money and let’s try to improve the minor leaguers conditions." 

Casey: Well that's really good.

Slade: Yup. Hopefully we can bring the game together. Check out MoreThanBaseball.org . There's a lot to read and learn. I hope your audience checks it out. It's exciting. I'm energized by it.

Casey: I can tell, I love it. Let's change gears. Your debut at Yankee Stadium and as a Yankee in the majors. I want to know the feeling and I want to know how it all went down. 

Slade: May 20, 2015. Well, that night I ran for Mark Teixeira in the 9th inning. This is how it happened that night before. I got back to my place. I was feeding my son and I was with a bunch of guys… Bryan Mitchell, some others. I didn’t really have my cell on me at that moment. One of the guys says “Hey, Jacoby Ellsbury went down.” I didn’t think anything of it, but in the mist of that, I had missed calls on my phone. I called back Dave Miley who was trying to call me. Great guy... really great dude.

“Pack your bags, you’re going to New York,” Dave said.

I said “Stop messing with me, man'". He said he wasn’t and I was shocked. I packed and went.

Casey: Love it. It just happens that way. Just like they say. What's it like to put on the pinstripes?

Slade: Standing there in that uniform is amazing. Looking around me, there is literally nothing like putting on pinstripes. A center field debut. CC Sabathia is on the mound. There's nothing like that. Nothing.

**Quiet**

Casey: You're getting emotional right now.

Slade: I am. And even more than wearing them was that home run in Tampa.

Casey: You read my mind. Tell me about that.

Slade: Tampa Bay. 2015. Top 9. I had no intention of going in. I was literally filling water cups for my teammates. It's what I did as a young player. Make sure the big guys are hydrated. Joe calls my name. 

I think it was Chris Young that was supposed to be batting and Brian McCann's on first. I assume I'm running for McCann and I start stretching. But no, I’m hitting. I was like "What?" 

I got no swings in and John Ryan Murphy is literally telling me what Brad Boxberger throws. Well, the boss man upstairs wanted that moment to happen for me. But that wasn't the best part. 

I hit it and I'm running around the bases in a Yankee uniform and all the guys, my teammates... guys like ARod, they are all going crazy. It's hard as a teammate to not do anything as a player, but when you do something like that home run, it's amazing to see the guys support you like that.

Casey: Damn, that's awesome. I never heard that story behind the scenes.  What else can we talk about?

Slade: I can talk all day. But look, I'm on a mission to do different things now in my life and I'm going to. Only what's impossible is possible. Like this pilot stuff I'm doing.

Casey: I was just gonna ask you about that. Tell me what got you into this pilot stuff. You're flying planes?

Slade: Well, I knew I wanted to be a pilot before baseball was even gonna happen for me. I knew I wanted to join the military. I wanted to fly fighter jets.  I always did and so it's going to be reality for me. I want to fly in a fighter jet. In 2011 and 2012, I would wake up and fly in Tampa and then I went to the field and played. Now I'm not playing ball so I'm going back to get CFI, 10 rating, 7 months and I'll be busy, it will go through the summer, but I'm gonna do it.

Casey: What else do you want to do in your life. You seem full of energy right now.

Slade: Ah man, I have a bucket list. And listen to this. I want to climb Mount Everest.  And on the other side of it, I want to open an orphanage. I know, the 2 don't even go together and the orphanage sounds weird, but I'm so committed to it. I have made it my mission to serve in my life.  My life is to dedicate and serve. I also want to do things that I've only thought about and dreamt of before. Like running my first half marathon. I hate running but I'm going for it.  I want to raise money for non-profits. I want to help others. I just want to do it all.

Casey: OK, I'm exhausted. Ha!

Slade: Ha. This is me, man. Real deal.

Casey: Any last words?  

Slade: We can’t always control the cards we’re deal. We can you control what we’re playing. 

Ladies and Gentlemen... Slade Heathcott is my buddy.  I love this dude. He's inspirational and has more energy than anyone I know.

I hope you enjoyed this interview. Slade, thanks for taking the time.

HEADLEY & MITCHELL... GONZO

And just like that, Chase Headley is headed back to the Padres where he used to play.  Bryan Mitchell is gone too.  That is brought to us by multiple sources, but we'll give the coverage to the New York Post here:

"The Yankees have dealt Chase Headley and Bryan Mitchell to the Padres for outfielder Jabari Blash, The Post’s Joel Sherman reports.

The trade of Headley opens third base for perhaps a Todd Frazier reunion or for top prospect Gleyber Torres, who missed most of last season following Tommy John surgery, and helps the Yankees’ pursuit of getting underneath the luxury-tax threshold. Headley had $13 million left on his contract...

Photo: SI

Mitchell, a 26-year-old starter and reliever, has shuffled between the majors and minors the last few seasons. In four years, mostly out of the bullpen, he has a 4.94 ERA in 98 1/3 innings."

David Hahn/Icon Sportswire

Yanks get Blash.  You can review his stats if you click on his name.  Not much there, but the big reason for this trade was unloading Headley.  Blash could develop over time.

Nice move again, Brian Cashman.

I HAVE SOMETHING ELSE TO SAY ABOUT THE MONTGOMERY DEMOTION

 Source: David Maxwell/Getty Images North America

You think I was fired up when I heard that the Yankees were demoting young ace Jordon Montgomery (see BYB DOESN'T UNDERSTAND DEMOTING MONTGOMERY).  Then, you thought I was really enraged when they decided to start him in Triple A on Saturday. How do you think I felt when I read this:

Are you serious Brian Cashman or Joe Girardi or whomever made this utterly ridiculous move?

"(Brian) Mitchell was recalled from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in advance of Tuesday's matchup with the Blue Jays. Mitchell last saw the majors with a spot start July 17, when he surrendered one earned run on six hits and two walks in a no-decision. He'll be back in the bullpen this time around, taking the roster spot of Jordan Montgomery, who was demoted to Triple-A on Sunday. Look for Mitchell, who has a 4.29 ERA in the majors this season, to serve in low-leverage situations, as well as a potential long-relief candidate," reported CBS Sports.

 Source: David Maxwell/Getty Images North America

Just another nugget of information to make me over the top furious, if fired up and enraged was not enough. "Few rookies are even close to competing with Montgomery’s stat line. In all true pitching outcomes—strikeouts, home runs, and walks—Montgomery is near or at the top of the leaderboard. Rockies pitcher, German Marquez, has a slight edge on Montgomery with K/9 and K/BB ratios. However, Montgomery owns a better K%, striking out 23% of his batters and Marquez only 22.6%," reported SB Nation back in mid-June.  He had a tough July, but his last outing he only threw 65 pitches in a dominating game against the Cleveland Indians.

Source: Mike Stobe/Getty Images North America

I don't understand it. The Yankee organization wants to cut down on Montgomery's innings, but wants to stay competitive at the same time and oh, he is scheduled to start for Scranton on Saturday. It's too much and I am done trying to defend the Yankees or even figure out a plan in this mess.  If you can figure this all out, go for it and Tweet us.

I have no idea what they are thinking.

--Suzie Pinstripe

BYB Managing Editor
Follow me on Twitter: @suzieprof

IS THIS THE END OF CC SABATHIA?

This may be bad....really bad.

Photo: Getty Images

In case you missed it, CC Sabathia exited last night's game in the third inning with a knee injury. In the post game show he sounded defeated. He sounded hopeless. It definitely made the loss last night even worse.

Until last night, CC's last season looked pretty damn good. I didn't expect to see such a dependable CC and after DON'T LOOK NOW BUT SABATHIA IS 9-4 this is deflating. He didn't get the recognition for his good work this year and now that is overlooked by this. Let's hope this is minor.

Photo: Getty Images

Some are calling this the end of his Yankee career. Today CC is flying back to New York to meet with doctors and find out where we go from here. Hopefully there is some good news. The last thing he wants to hear is that his knee injury in August means he won't be back and last night's three innings.....are his last three as a Yankee.

I'm hoping for some good news here, but CC as had problems with this same knee since he was diagnosed with a degenerative condition in 2014. He had major surgery on it in July of 2014 and has pitched with a knee brace since then. His right knee is basically bone on bone at this point and has frequent injections to help drain excess fluid and also help lubricate. It's definitely complicated.

Following the game CC mentioned that this was a sudden injury, so it's not something that has been nagging him and becoming more painful over time. This came out of nowhere which makes this scenario even scarier. At this point, a trip to the disabled list sounds likely but I really hope I am wrong.

Source: David Maxwell/Getty Images North America

If CC does hit the DL the obvious replacement would be recalling Jordan Montgomery from Triple-A but I don't see that happening. Joe Girardi says he has an innings limit of around 180 and he's only at 115.2 innings soooooo I really don't understand the logic here especially since he is still pitching down in Triple-A. Figure if Montgomery had 10 regular season starts left without skipping him for any reason that would allow him to pitch six innings per game. I'm not counting postseason, we have to get there first. The math just doesn't make sense here but....whatever.

Photo: Getty Images

At this point I wouldn't be surprised if the Yankees rely on Bryan Mitchell or Luis Cessa to takeover his spot. I just don't see the Yankees changing their plan with Montgomery at this point.

So last night sucked for many reasons. Our offense died, we lost the game and we lost CC early in the game. I just hope he isn't lost for the rest of the season. He's been healthy all season and he's a gamer. He doesn't want to go out like this and quite frankly, neither do I.

I'm waiting to hear some good news on CC.....we need some.



--Jeana Bellezza

BYB Managing Editor 
Follow me on Twitter: @NYPrincessJ

NO. ADAMS PROBABLY WON'T REPLACE TANAKA

(June 5, 2017 - Source: Mike Stobe/Getty Images North America)

Or maybe he will. No one knows... and that's the truth.

The whole thing with Masahiro Tanaka is that the Yankees want him to work out his problems and if that means he's in games to do that... so be it.  There's a feeling that it's about consistency and not injury and they are convinced they need to work through that.  I have no problem with it... especially seeing how the Yankees have been doing this season.

(Icon-Sportswire/Getty Images)

There is this feeling though that the Yankees should just suddenly replace him with Chance Adams.  Hey, I'm all for youth and definitely Adams, but what the hell are we doing here? Tanaka is still our starter.  We just turn him over to the trash after a bad spurt? Why? Even pitchers have slumps, folks.  You sitting on your coach acting like GM is silly.  What do fans really know? Not much or we'd be doing the job.

Now there are other ideas with alittle more Bigs experience as well.  And while everyone wants Adams... the Yankees probably won't go there... yet.

NJ.com has this:

Photo: New York Daily News

"While Adams might be the most talented option, there are a few other arms that might be smarter choices.

Right-hander Chad Green is already on the Yankees' 25-man roster, so he wouldn't require a roster move. And he's been quite good...

there's right-hander Bryan Mitchell. He's got plenty of big-league experience and he's slated to start Saturday for Triple-A....

Photo: NJ.com

Then there are a pair of longer shots. Domingo German, a 24-year-old righty, has pitched well at Triple-A and is on the 40-man roster. And Yefrey Ramirez.... has done the same at Double-A. He's on the 40-man roster, too, but, yeah, we're just thinking outside the box."

Now let's be honest... the idea of Green and Mitchell, 2 of my least favorite temporary replacements makes a ton of sense, just not to me.  But German? Ramirez? Kind of silly if you ask me.  If Green and Mitchell wouldn't deliver, it would have to be Adams.  There needs to be some sort of pecking order.

But wait... let's not replace Tanaka yet. 

Bottom line, let him try and work out the consistency kinks.  Who knows... Sunday could be the day he finally figures it out.

Stay tuned...

A CHANGE AT FIRST BASE IS COMING....

Not that I want to draw too many comparisons from last season....but just like last year there is a problem with first base. I'm not going to say "Oh it can't get worse than this" because I think we have all seen that it can. With only two months into the season the Yankees have a definite area of opportunity to address because the lack of production and consistency at first base is pretty scary.

As much as I love and defended Mark Teixeira I knew it was his time to bow out. His production last year was AWFUL (sorry Tex, please forgive my brutal honesty) so I thought there was NO CHANCE that this season could be any worse. He did have a .204 BA and 14 home runs so predicting a better 2017 seemed like a bet I just couldn't lose....until I did. So far this season the combined average for everyone filling in at first base is .167 and before you go back an re-read that to double check you didn't transpose any numbers I can promise that you haven't. It's just plain ugly.

Photo: Presswire

The Yankees have had seven different players either start or make appearances at first and some of them (Bryan Mitchell, anyone?) really had no business being there at all. Then there are some like Rob Refsnyder who does try, but really just don't have a feel for the position. When you can't field routine plays and make catches it's not a good solution. You can't blame the guy, the Yankees literally gave him a one day crash course lesson on how to play first last season. The Yankees just don't have a lot of first base depth right now. In fact, the Yankees are so short handed when it comes to first base that Aaron Hicks is even taking grounders at first base, read that HERE. I understand why the Yankees have him playing there. They want to capitalize on his versatility and find ways to get his bat into the lineup anyway possible I just hope they only put him there in an emergency situation. Hopefully that doesn't happen.

Photo: New York Post

I'm crossing my fingers here but it sounds like help is on the way....and possibly a new everyday first baseman. I' actually pretty excited about this one because it sounds like Tyler Austin our own Wonderboy will be back very soon! Joe Girardi said they would want Austin to have 50 at-bats before returning to the team, read that HERE and on Wednesday he was well over the halfway mark, probably closer to 30-35. If all goes well it looks like Austin would be ready for a call-up when the Yankees return home to face the Red Sox!

Photo: Presswire

So as Greg Bird continues his own rehab, the Yankees may decide to exercise more caution and extend his time down in the minors. I think with how inconsistent Bird was earlier this year they will probably wait to bring him back up and maybe even keep him down long enough to try and manipulate his service time. Who knows. But a healthy and rehabbing Austin means the Yankees could finally get a regular first baseman that could bring some fresh offense and fielding to the position. He may not hit for high average but, Chris Carter hasn't and Refsnyder isn't the right guy either.

I have a feeling the Yankees are going to use Austin pretty soon and when they do I wouldn't be surprised if they send down the eighth reliever of Refsnyder. No offense to Carter, but he had his chance and it hasn't worked. First base is supposed to be a big contributing offensive position and maybe Austin can give us some more pop and I have to admit.....it would be nice to have Wonderboy back!

--Jeana Bellezza
BYB Managing Editor
Follow me on Twitter: @NYPrincessJ