Posts

Welcome to the Blog

Hello and welcome to Jimmy Sez, a blog that will mostly be dedicated to content on the New York Yankees. There's been no shortage of Yankee blogs floating around the internet,  some  of  which  I have contributed to over the years. So what's this one all about? I'm so glad you asked! A couple of years ago I got an email from an editor at Lyons Press who was looking to publish a series of books chronicling all-time All-Star teams in professional sports. It turns out I had written an article doing  just that  for the Yankees back in 2014 and he wanted to know if I was interested in expanding that into a full-length manuscript. I immediately said "yes", paying no mind to the fact that I knew nothing about writing a book. I'd figure that out later. This was my golden opportunity to write a book about my favorite team. For about a year thereafter I stumbled my way through writing that full-length manuscript. While nobody I've ever met would consider me word...

Yankees on the 2025 BBWAA Hall of Fame Ballot - Championship Edition

Image
In the first two installments of this series we focused on players who had only brief stints with the Yankees and were mostly remembered for playing with other teams. Now we're ready to take a deep dive into some players who are known primarily as Yankees, mainly because they won the only World Series championships of their careers in pinstripes. Each of these guys has a viable case for the Hall of Fame, but for various reasons only one is likely to be elected this year. For each player, their JAWS (Jaffe Average WAR Score, developed by Jay Jaffe) value is given along with the average Hall of Famer's JAWS at the player's position. JAWS is a Hall of Fame rating system based on WAR that incorporates both career and peak value. If you're interested in learning more about this,  click here . CC Sabathia - Starting Pitcher - JAWS: 50.8, HoF JAWS: 61.5 In December 2008 George Steinbrenner responded to the first playoff-less season the Yankees had since 1994 with the fire of...

Yankees on the 2025 BBWAA Hall of Fame Ballot - Outfield Gold

Image
In our first look at former Yankees on the 2025 BBWAA Hall of Fame ballot, we focused on players who don't really stand a chance at election. Here we'll dig into a batch of players whose chances are much better. In fact, at least one of these players is virtually guaranteed to be heading to Cooperstown this summer. The common thread for this group is that they're all outfielders who earned Gold Gloves at some point in their career. Between the four of them, they account for 24 of the awards given to the best fielders at each position for a given season. But these guys didn't just flash the leather. Each of them could impress spectators in various ways and all are worthy of consideration for baseball's highest honor. For each player, their JAWS (Jaffe Average WAR Score, developed by Jay Jaffe) value is given along with the average Hall of Famer's JAWS at the player's position. JAWS is a Hall of Fame rating system based on WAR that incorporates both career an...

Yankees on the 2025 BBWAA Hall of Fame Ballot - One and Done

Image
We're in the thick of Hall of Fame season and the results of the 2025 BBWAA election will be announced in just a few weeks. This year's ballot is bursting with former Yankees - 11 of them, to be exact - which means we've got some work to do over here at Jimmy Sez. To start things off, we'll take a look at some of the debutants on the ballot, specifically those that are likely to get less than the 5% of votes needed to stay on the ballot next year. Don't get it twisted, each of these guys were multiple-time All-Stars that had extended runs of high quality play. They just weren't good enough for long enough to truly be considered Hall of Fame material. For each player, their JAWS (Jaffe Average WAR Score, developed by Jay Jaffe) value is given along with the average Hall of Famer's JAWS at the player's position. JAWS is a Hall of Fame rating system based on WAR that incorporates both career and peak value. If you're interested in learning more about t...

Yankees on the 2025 Classic Baseball Era HoF Ballot

Image
A few weeks ago the Baseball Hall of Fame announced their candidates to be considered by the 2025 Classic Baseball Era Committee . As has been the case for a few years now, there are eight former players on the ballot, and this batch contains those who made their greatest contributions to baseball prior to 1980. Two of the eight are former Yankees. Just like the BBWAA election that will take place later this year, candidates need 75% of the vote from the 16-member committee in order to gain enshrinement. With each committee member limited to just four votes, this is a tall task. However, more often than not these committees elect at least one new Hall of Fame member each year. Here's hoping that when they announce the results on Dec 8th, a man whose name is attached to the most famous surgery in sports gets his due. Tommy John - Pitcher Nolan Ryan is one of just two pitchers in Major League history to pitch when he was as young as 20 years old and again when he was as old as 46. By...