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Yankees fire hitting coach Kevin Long as team shakes up Joe Girardi’s coaching staff

The Yankees’ offense struggled all year, ranking 13th out of 15 in the American League with 633 runs scored. Long had been the Yankees’ hitting coach since 2007.

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Kevin Long is out as Yankees hitting coach after Bombers produce dismal year at the plate.

BALTIMORE – After missing the playoffs for a second straight season, the Yankees are shaking up Joe Girardi’s coaching staff.

Hitting coach Kevin Long was relieved of his duties, according to a source, while first-base coach Mick Kelleher will not be brought back, either.

Long had one year remaining on a two-year contract which he signed last winter.

The Yankees’ offense struggled all year, ranking 13th out of 15 in the American League with 633 runs scored. The Bombers also ranked near the bottom of the league in average (11th, .245), on-base percentage (14th, .307), and OPS (12th, .687).

Free-agent acquisitions Brian McCann and Carlos Beltran struggled through their first season in pinstripes, while Mark Teixeira battled injuries and inconsistency during another down year.

Long had been the Yankees’ hitting coach since 2007, when the team led the majors in runs with 968. The Yankees ranked first or second in the league in runs in five of Long’s first six seasons as hitting coach, but they have dipped during the past two injury-riddled campaigns.

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Nothing better than coming home from training and being presented with good news. Half a season from Granderson, that's what the Yankees got from Long.
I'm not so sure about the 1st base coach though.

What are they waiting for to fire the 3rd base coach? They led the league in runners thrown out at the plate for christ's sake!

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Wait, do the Yankees know about this thing called 'logic' that you're talking about?!

Because I just read that Cashman said they might try A-Rod at 1st next season. Imagine that, Teixeira and A-Roid the 1st base platoon for your New York Yankees. Talk about overpriced and over the hill...

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Don't even go there Y4L. If they read this, they might get the idea that he can still man shortstop.

Both Girardi and Cashman suggested that he might back up Teixeira at first because of all the time he spent away and injury record. According to them, 3rd might be too much for A-Rod at this point.. If you ask me, a place on the roster is too much for that asshole.

Even if he's still able to hit, he'll be a huge distraction and disruptive presence in the clubhouse. The Yankees have to get away from this megastar crap they've been on for the past decade. Take a look at the Cardinals and the Giants, how many superstars do those teams have? And every year they're fighting for rings. That's what the Yankees should be about.

It's good to have superstars.
It's better to win.

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If he hits 280, 20 home runs and drive in 80 RBIs. I bet he will be cheered in Yankee Stadium. Just look at David Ortiz in Boston. :)

As for the part where he will be a huge distraction, I don't see that coming. No Yankee player so far have complained about A-Rod returning. Mark Texeira and Joe Girardi have welcomed him back with open arms. Besides, apart from steroid allegations, he wasn't in any big controversy.

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If he hits 280, 20 home runs and drive in 80 RBIs. I bet he will be cheered in Yankee Stadium. Just look at David Ortiz in Boston. :)

I bet he will but I don't see that happening.

As for the part where he will be a huge distraction, I don't see that coming. No Yankee player so far have complained about A-Rod returning. Mark Texeira and Joe Girardi have welcomed him back with open arms. Besides, apart from steroid allegations, he wasn't in any big controversy.

It's not like they have a choice not to have him back, so why pick a fight? And he has been in plenty of big controversies.

Like when he chose to opt-out.

Teammates and former teammates have gone on the record saying how obnoxious and self-absorbed he is.

Joe Torre wrote in his book that A-Rod is more interested in how it looks than in winning.

And while I think a man's private life should remain private, all the distractions in his tend to affect the Yankees clubhouse because they're so public.

I still hope I'm wrong and that he comes back to being productive.

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It's not like they have a choice not to have him back, so why pick a fight? And he has been in plenty of big controversies.

Like when he chose to opt-out.

Teammates and former teammates have gone on the record saying how obnoxious and self-absorbed he is.

Joe Torre wrote in his book that A-Rod is more interested in how it looks than in winning.

And while I think a man's private life should remain private, all the distractions in his tend to affect the Yankees clubhouse because they're so public.

I still hope I'm wrong and that he comes back to being productive.

Yeah you're right. His teammates are saying all the right stuff right now because they know they can't do anything about it. But it is still my hope that Rodriguez comes back a changed person and really contributes.

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Somehow Yankees continue to perpetuate Bronx tale that they are close to winning World Series every year — they’re not

The Yankees, with general manager Brian Cashman getting a new three-year contract, basically say they aren’t going to change. It means they are going to keep spending like drunks. They have spent about $3 billion to win one World Series since 2000. But we still talk about them like it’s the ’90s, and they are just a couple of moves away. They’re not.

By Mike Lupica, Ny Daily News

The Final Four in baseball this year is Orioles, Royals, Cardinals, Giants. Right now, because of the way they begin the playoffs, the big story is the Royals, who haven’t been in the playoffs since 1985. They were a very bad team for a very long time but finally built a farm system, made trades like the one they made for Big Game James Shields and Wade Davis, and here they are, lighting it up.

So that is one way to do it, the hard way. Very hard. A better way is the Cardinals, who have become the model organization of the sport without buying their way here. They are now in the NLCS for the fourth consecutive year, have won two World Series over the past decade, lost two others to Boston. The Giants, who don’t buy their way to October, are looking to win a third World Series in five years.

The Yankees, with general manager Brian Cashman getting a new three-year contract, basically say they aren’t going to change. It means they are going to keep spending like drunks. They have spent about $3 billion to win one World Series since 2000. But we still talk about them like it’s the ’90s, and they are just a couple of moves away. They’re not.

Cashman said the other day that they’re always in a “win now mode.” And that is an admirable position to take, and a good thing to sell to his fan base.

But win what?

CC Sabathia said not long ago that players want to play for the Yankees because they have a chance to win the World Series every year. Actually, they don’t. Over the past decade, the Yankees are far more likely to either lose in the first round of the playoffs or not make the playoffs than they are to win the Series, something they last did five years ago when they spent money and microwaved a team the way they tried to microwave one this season.

The Red Sox have spent money, you bet, over the past 10 years. But they have won the Series three times and when they did it again last season, they did it with guys like Mike Napoli and Jonny Gomes and Shane Victorino and Koji Uehara and David Ross. If you see a $100 million contract in there, a real bad contract in the name of a quick fix, raise a hand.

The Yankees see what Sabathia looks like in his middle 30s, at the back end of his contract — one the Yankees even extended — and may be about to sign Max Scherzer or Jon Lester or Big Game James to the same kind of contract.

What kind of player is Jacoby Ellsbury, even after a pretty good season in his first season at Yankee Stadium, going to be by the fifth year of his seven-year, $150 million contract?

And how did Mark Teixeira work out for them?

They can talk about injuries all they want, and maybe they could have found enough runs to make it to October if Carlos Beltran had been healthier, or Teixeira. They can also say that Beltran’s elbow wasn’t an old-man injury. But the idea that you can have all these geezers around and not expect them to get hurt is thinking as flawed as their win-now mission statement has become.

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What kind of player is Jacoby Ellsbury going to be by the fifth year of his seven-year contract?

This week they fired their hitting coach, Kevin Long, to make it look as if there is real accountability in the franchise. And finally, finally, they are going to make a change at the head of their farm system, after not developing a star position player since Cano and no star starting pitcher, really, since Andy Pettitte. Hal Steinbrenner goes through the half-hearted motion of talking like a tough Steinbrenner owner, like he’s learning a new language on Rosetta Stone. But one of the reasons that Brian is coming back is that even if Steinbrenner had wanted to hire a new general manager, he wouldn’t have had a clue about who it should be. All we know for sure is that he’s decided that the general manager he has is indispensable.

In fairness to Cashman? He did go out and hire the best bats available in the last offseason, and got the one pitcher — Masahiro Tanaka — he had to have, the way he had to have Sabathia once. Then Tanaka had a partial tear of the ligament in his pitching elbow. He made two starts at the end of the regular season and we’re to believe, despite the way he looked, especially throwing the splitters he threw, that he is cured. Sure he is.

Two straight years out of the playoffs, the first time that has happened in 20 years, despite the outlay of nearly half-a-billion in new contracts in the past offseason. In 2012, they got swept in the ALCS by the Tigers, only got past the Orioles in the first round because Sabathia had broken Nick Markakis’ hand at the end of the regular season. The year before that? They lost Game 5 of the first round to the Tigers at home.

The best thing for the Yankees would be for Cashman to go outside the organization for somebody to run his farm system, and to go outside his organization for some different voices regarding player personnel, different sets of eyes. People who are going to challenge the general manager, instead of acting as bobblehead dolls. Maybe they should go try to hire somebody from the Cardinals. Or the Giants.

Somehow the Yankees continue to perpetuate the Bronx tale that they are right there, every year, a couple of players away. They’re not. And please tell me which one, out of the players they have under contract, is the one you want to pay big money to watch next season.

Now there’s the idea that they might need a bust-out case like Alex Rodriguez to come back and sell tickets for them. It is pathetic. You want to know where the Yankees are? That’s where. The guy first showed up at the Stadium 10 years ago, and has made more Yankee money than anybody has since. How has THAT worked out for everybody?

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I've grown to realize that ever since George Steinbrenner passed, the Yankees have been more about selling you their brand over their product on the field, and if it hasn't clearly been shown since 2009, it has now...

What do you think their "brand" is KC? For me it was very obvious that they were more concerned with putting Jeter ahead of the team every single day this season. I mean what ever happened with the for-the-good-of-the-team philosophy? They were more concerned with not stepping on his toes then the good of the team.

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  • 3 weeks later...
Korean pitcher Hyeon-jong Yang, possible Yankees target, to be posted: source

Yang, who throws a fastball that sits between 92-95 mph, as well as a curveball, slider and changeup, projects as a No. 3 starter in the big-leagues, although he could develop into a No. 2, according to a scout who has seen him throw.

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Korea's Yang Hyeon-Jong is ready to make the jump to Major League Baseball next season.

The best pitcher in Korea appears ready to test himself in the majors.

Lefthander Hyeon-jong Yang will be posted by the Kia Tigers in the coming weeks, according to a source, thrusting the 26-year-old into the pool of available starting pitchers this winter.

Yang projects as a No. 3 starter in the big-leagues, though according to a scout that has seen him throw, he could develop into a No. 2. With a fastball that sits between 92-95 mph, Yang throws four pitches - fastball, curveball, slider and changeup - using his slider as his out pitch.

The southpaw won the inaugural Choi Dongwon Award this year, Korea's equivalent to the Cy Young. According to statistics on baseball-reference.com, Yang went 16-8 with a 4.25 ERA in 28 starts, his ERA coming in about a half-run lower than the league-average in the offensive-minded league.

Lefthander Hyun-jin Ryu was posted by the Hanwha Eagles in 2012, garnering a $25.7 million bid from the Dodgers. Ryu went on to sign a six-year, $36 million deal with Los Angeles, going 28-15 with a 3.17 ERA in his first two seasons after becoming the first player to make the jump from the Korean Baseball League to the majors.

The team submitting the highest posting bid to the Tigers will win the rights to negotiate exclusively with Yang, then have a 30-day window to work out a contract with the lefty.

Yang has previously expressed his desire to make the move to the majors, but he would have to pitch two more seasons in Korea before becoming an unrestricted free agent.

Max Scherzer, Jon Lester, James Shields and Ervin Santana are the top pitchers available on the free-agent market this winter, while Brandon McCarthy, Francisco Liriano, Justin Masterson and Jake Peavy are also available.

The Yankees are not expected to make a play for any of the top three or four starters on the market, but they could be intrigued by Yang. Other teams looking for pitching this winter include the Cubs, Red Sox, Giants, Astros and Pirates.

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Not saying he's not worth the money, but woudln't you rather go for a proven pticher like Scherzer or Shields?

Maybe. But then the Yankees are trying to stay away from those binding long-term contracts now. Look how well Sabathia, Teixeira and Rodriguez worked out for them.

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  • 3 weeks later...
Brian Cashman hints Yankees still won't target top free agents

The Yankees are still looking to bolster their rotation with at least one starter — Brandon McCarthy remains atop their list — although Cashman said Thursday that adding two new starting pitchers isn't out of the question, considering the health concerns of Tanaka, Sabathia and Ivan Nova.

Will the Yankees pursue a big-time free agent such as Max Scherzer or Jon Lester? Brian Cashman isn't saying, although he hinted Thursday night that it is not in the Bombers’ plans.

The general manager — who was in Manhattan to take part in the Covenant House’s “Sleep Out” for the fourth straight year — cited Major League Baseball’s collective bargaining agreement as he declined to answer most specific questions about the Yankees’ free-agent plans, but when asked whether the team was looking to make a big splash with one of the top pitchers on the market, Cashman seemed to choose his words carefully.

“It’s not in my best interest and I don’t even think it’s allowed for me to legally say,” Cashman said. “So I’ll pass, other to say that we’re looking at ways to improve our club. But we’re looking at smart ways to improve our club. I guess I can say that much.”

Those “smart ways” don’t appear to include shelling out another nine-figure contract to a pitcher, especially given that the Yankees already have two such arms — Masahiro Tanaka and CC Sabathia — on their roster.

The Yankees are still looking to bolster their rotation with at least one starter — Brandon McCarthy remains atop their list — although Cashman said Thursday that adding two new starting pitchers isn't out of the question, considering the health concerns of Tanaka, Sabathia and Ivan Nova.

“I would be open to that,” Cashman said. “I think we have good pitching, but there’s obviously some volatility in it because of the health status and health histories of some of them.”

Cashman still hasn’t heard whether Hiroki Kuroda has decided to play next season, although he expects that he ultimately will. Could a return to New York be in the cards?

“Every dollar counts to something. Everything we do has to be accounted for, so it will have an impact on something else,” Cashman said. “It depends on the entire context of the roster. But I do need starting pitching so he’s clearly an area that would solve some issues. We’ll see.”

Cashman wasn’t surprised Russell Martin landed himself $82 million over five years in free agency, although he never expected the Blue Jays to be the team signing the former Yankee catcher.

“I was surprised he wound up in Toronto, because I think everybody expected a different location for him,” Cashman said. “I thought two other places, if I had to predict before the winter where he might wind up. Toronto got themselves a hell of a player. I’d rather it not be them because they’re in our division. But I’m not surprised by his contract.”

ROSTER ROUNDUP: The Yankees added outfielders Tyler Austin and Mason Williams and righthanders Danny Burawa and Branden Pinder to their 40-man roster, protecting them from next month’s Rule 5 Draft at the Winter Meetings. Among those left unprotected were shortstop Cito Culver, a 2010 first-round pick, and righthander Mark Montgomery, who was hyped as the next David Robertson a couple years ago before posting a pair of mediocre seasons in 2013-14. . . . The Yankees also sold the rights to infielder Zelous Wheeler to the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles of Japan’s Pacific League for $350,000. The Yankees’ 40-man roster now stands at 38 players. . . . The Yankees also signed 16-year-old Colombian outfielder Bryan Emery to a $500,000 deal. . . . The coaching staff won’t be finalized for another week, Cashman said.

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