Over at Fangraphs, Mark Hulet looks at the waning Yankee dynasty:
Sabathia is a horse. The 31-year-old southpaw has pitched at least 230 innings for the past five seasons, and his highest FIP during that time was 3.54 (highest ERA was 3.37). He produced the second-highest strikeout rate (8.82 K/9) of his career in 2011 and posted his third seven-win season in the past five years. The issue with Sabathia, though, is that he can opt out of his contract this off-season and pursue a larger contract elsewhere. I find it hard to believe that he won’t be wearing pinstripes in 2012 but stranger things have happened and this remains a huge question mark that needs to be answered quickly, as it could shape the club’s entire off-season approach.
The organization has shed some young pitching talent over the past two years that it may have given up on a little too soon (Ian Kennedy, Tyler Clippard, Mark Melancon) but it wisely held onto David Robertson. Although pitchers such as Joba Chamberlain and Phil Hughes have had more hype, it could be Robertson, 26, who eventually replaces ‘Rivera The Robot’ in high-leverage situations with New York. The right-hander had one of the most dominating seasons by a reliever throughtout the Major Leagues in 2011. He posted a 1.84 FIP (1.08 ERA) in 66.2 innings and struck out batters at a rate of 13.50 K/9. He also improved his ground-ball rate almost seven percent to a career-high 46.3 GB%. One thing Robertson does need to work on is his control (4.73 BB/9). If he can continue to command his fastball-curveball combination like he did in ’11, the Yankees could have the best one-two punch in the late innings in the American League for the next few seasons.
Will C.C. leave? That’s the $64.000 question, ain’t it?
Ha is that a joke? Hasn't the "dynasty" been waning for over a decade? I'm pretty sure I've run across that sentiment before.
yea the big man is the big question.
we'll see - i hope he stays and he is still good by the end of his contract.
i don't register disappointment about melancon or clippard. kennedy would almost certainly not be putting up those kind of numbers in the al east but i think he would have been a sold mid-level rotation piece. however he was also quite useful in landing the yankees a great piece in granderson. the yankees had to give up something real to get granderson and kennedy was part of that.
the in hindsight (and maybe for some in plain sight) poor trade was vizcaino to the braves for javy.
it will be great for some of the pitchers in the high minors to continue to develop so the yankees will have less a need to go through this pitching worries every damn off-season.
[1] Or more accurately, what dynasty? One WS in 2009 does not a dynasty make. The dynasty ended in 2001, or maybe 2003 if one is generous.
[2] As far as I see it, they traded Kennedy because he had the audacity to give a cocky press conference. Take that, rookie! Granderson was aesome this year, but last year not so much. We'll see how that works out in the long run.
Five of the nine "core" players he mentions didn't get to the team until 2009. I mean the Yankees always have an oldish core. But it's not like that's still Tino Martinez out there. They've already shown since the late 90s they can reconstitute and continue to contend.
Sabathia, A-Rod, and Tex are due a combined $77 million in 2012 or the same amount as the entire combined 2011 rosters of the Rays and Royals. Yikes!
This is definitely at least the third major incarnation of the Yanks since 1996.
1996-2001 (or 2003). 2002 (or 2004)- 2008. 2009-present.
I think a dynasty can still have different players and be dynastic. Look at the Patriots.
Maybe we can call this Jeter. Mo and Cashman's dynasty?
What will ultimately bring this dynasty crashing down will be the cumbersome contract they signed with ARod and possibly an extension for CC and they have Tex locked up for probably too long too.
ARod's contract was based on the fact that they thought he would have the "clean" home run record. Now he might not even get there, and after his confession, it will be a -so what- record at that. Interestingly, it could be much worse for ARod than Bonds with all the asterisk talk because with Bonds there was no admission of guilt prior to his setting the record. (Hell, Bighead/Small Nuts hasn't admitted it to this day!)