River Ave. Blues

It will be 2019 in exactly two weeks. Pretty crazy, huh? The Winter Meetings are over and the hot stove is kinda sorta starting to heat up, but there’s still a lot that needs to happen between now and Opening Day. That goes for the Yankees and the other 29 teams out there as well. […] The post Thoughts following the 2018 Winter Meetings appeared first on River Avenue Blues.

?The Arizona Fall League season wrapped up nearly a month ago now, but the various Caribbean winter league seasons are still going strong. Here are some minor league notes, including a pair of injury updates, before we get to the performance updates: OF Clint Frazier (concussion) has resumed baseball activities, he announced on Twitter. Hooray […] The post DotF: Albert Abreu, Nestor Cortes wrap up winter ball stints appeared first on River Avenue Blues.

The Winter Meetings are over but the hot stove marches on. The Yankees are still looking for a middle infielder and two relievers, plus general depth. “I got a lot of lines out and we are still fishing. We are going to try to catch a very particular type of fish in very particular categories. […] The post Hot Stove Rumors: Machado, Tulowitzki, Miller, Kikuchi, Gray appeared first on River Avenue Blues.

At the moment the Yankees are a little more than halfway through their offseason. It has been 68 days since their ALDS Game Four loss and there are 58 days to go until pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training. Hooray for being closer to Spring Training than the ALDS. Baseball is approaching. The Yankees […] The post Taking stock of the 2019 Yankees with two months to go until Spring Training appeared first on River Avenue Blues.

2018 Regular Season Record: 100-62 (851 RS, 669 RA, 98-64 expected record), second in ALE 2018 Postseason Record: 2-3 (22 RS, 29 RA), won WC Game, lost ALDS Top stories from last week: The Yankees filled their final rotation spot by agreeing to a two-year contract with J.A. Happ. The deal is worth $34M to […] The post Fan Confidence Poll: December 17th, 2018 appeared first on River Avenue Blues.

If any of my students are reading this, please stop, lest you think your current or former English teacher is a hypocrite, as I’m about to make a claim with very little–possibly no–evidence to support it. Based on his public statements and actions, Brian Cashman intends to sign Bryce Harper to the New York Yankees. […] The post Holding out Hope for Harper appeared first on River Avenue Blues.

This past week’s Winter Meetings were a dull affair. The Yankees did bring back J.A. Happ to fill out the rotation and it was reported that the team will meet with Manny Machado in New York in the coming days/weeks, but by far the most interesting Yankee rumor was their (brief) connection to Marlins’ catcher […] The post Gary Sanchez is One of Baseball’s Best Catchers appeared first on River Avenue Blues.

Welcome to December. The offseason’s busiest month has arrived and that means gobs of rumors and transactions. That is every bit as true for the 2018 going on 2019 Yankees as it was the 2013 going on 2014 Yankees. In fact, this month’s edition of our MLBTR Archives series includes over 1,600 words of copied […] The post Revisiting the MLBTR Archives: December 2013 appeared first on River Avenue Blues.

The Winter Meetings came and went, and so, too, did a few of the potential bullpen options. The Yankees are still on the hunt for a couple of relievers to replace the free agent duo of Zach Britton and David Robertson – both of whom are still available as of this writing, and both of […] The post Scouting the Free Agent Market: The Middle Relievers appeared first on River Avenue Blues.

There are ten questions in the first post-Winter Meetings mailbag of the offseason. Make sure you send your questions to RABmailbag (at) gmail (dot) com and I’ll answer as many as I can each week. Several asked: What about Troy Tulowitzki? I figured these were coming. The Blue Jays released Tulowitzki earlier this week with […] The post Mailbag: Tulowitzki, Carpenter, Brantley, Sanmartin, McMahon appeared first on River Avenue Blues.

The 2018 Winter Meetings came to an unofficial close earlier today with the annual Rule 5 Draft. It is baseball’s way of ensuring players aren’t trapped in the minors indefinitely. The Yankees have a fairly deep farm system and it is no surprise then that they lost several players in this year’s Rule 5 Draft, […] The post Yankees make one selection, get raided in 2018 Rule 5 Draft appeared first on River Avenue Blues.

J.A. Happ is returning to the Yankees. There was some confusion about that for a bit — Ken Rosenthal swings and misses less often than Jose Altuve, but that was a big ol’ whiff yesterday — but Happ and the Yankees have indeed agreed to a two-year contract with a third year vesting option. The […] The post Thoughts after the Yankees agree to re-sign J.A. Happ appeared first on River Avenue Blues.

The final day of the 2018 Winter Meetings has arrived. These last few days have been pretty boring, huh? There haven’t been any blockbusters and even the rumors have been slow by Winter Meetings standards. (Please trade J.T. Realmuto already. I’m sick of hearing about him.) I guess that’s what happens when half the league […] The post 2018 Winter Meetings Rumors Thread: Thursday appeared first on River Avenue Blues.

Ryder Green | OF Background Green, 18, grew up in Knoxville and attended three high schools in four years. He spent his freshman and sophomore years at Hardin Valley Academy, his junior year at Knoxville Christian School, and his senior year at Karns High School. Green made a name for himself with his batting practice […] The post Prospect Profile: Ryder Green appeared first on River Avenue Blues.

Finally, some good injury news this offseason. Didi Gregorius, who underwent Tommy John surgery on October 17th, is progressing well with his rehab and is on track to return sometime next season, he told Ken Davidoff over the weekend. We still don’t know when he’ll return, exactly, but the expectation is Gregorius will play for […] The post Didi Gregorius is doing well post-Tommy John surgery and the Yankees still want to sign him long-term appeared first on River Avenue Blues.