Jimmy Sez

Yankee baseball that counts is almost here, and it can't come soon enough. For every feel good story we had this spring - like Giancarlo Stanton's resurgent form - there's been a mysterious elbow injury for Gerrit Cole or another foot injury for DJ LeMahieu or a bum shoulder for Oswald Peraza. Just start the season already... But before we do, let's see what's happening down on the farm in Yankeeland. Last month Keith Law released his annual Top 100 MLB Prospect List as well as his system rankings across the league. In recent years the Yankees have been slowly climbing up Law's rankings , coming in at #14 in 2023, but after a blockbuster trade for Juan Soto is the cupboard bare? All that and more will be answered below as we take a Sergio Leone-style dive into Law's treasure trove of information. The Good The Yankees' system is in the top ten of the major leagues! Despite last year's top prospect Anthony Volpe graduating to the majors and unloading

Last year I told the story of meeting Don Mattingly and from there committed to the quest of getting the rest of the living Yankees All-Time All-Stars to sign a copy of the book. Luckily, the folks at Hall of Fame Signings hosted another Pinstripe Pride event earlier this month in north Jersey. There, I was able to get the autographs of five more legends, which means seven of the 17 living All-Stars have now signed. While it was thrilling to meet each of the five who signed this year, I won't have nearly as much to say about the encounter as I did with Donnie Baseball. Ya know, you only get to meet your childhood hero for the first time once. So here's a brief description of each exchange with a picture of my ugly mug next to some guys that you'd much rather see. Before digging in, I do need to give a shout out to Hall of Fame Signings for a dramatically improved experience at the event for 2024. There was far more space at the venue, organization, and predictability wh

Here we are, the thrilling conclusion of our 2024 Hall of Fame coverage at Jimmy Sez. In our last installment we covered some of the more controversial characters on this year's BBWAA ballot, and this crop of players will be no different. Steroids? Sign-stealing scandals? Obesity? It's all here. The players below all joined the Yankees at a ripe old age, which allowed me to use another 80's TV show in the title. No one from this group will get elected this year, but the two most controversial candidates will continue to have their cases pondered, whether via the BBWAA or a Veterans Commitee in the future. 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 . Bartolo Colon - Starting Pitcher, JAWS:

The Yankees may have missed out on the Yoshinobu Yamamoto sweepstakes this winter, but they did land a major score by acquiring Juan Soto for a five-player package that included four pitchers. For years now, it's been no secret that the Yankees need a quality left-handed bat to balance out their lineup. In Soto, they didn't just get a quality bat but a transcendant one that could potentially get the Yankee offense back to the top of the American League. Just how good is Soto? Let's look at this from a number of different angles to put it in perpsective. For the traditionalists The 25-year old Soto has played in only six seasons but has already proven to have one of the greatest batting eyes in baseball history in that short time. In each of the past three seasons he has drawn at least 130 walks, leading the majors each time. He ranked in the top ten in the NL in walks for the three seasons before that and since 2018 has walked a total of 640 times. Bryce Harper's 504 in

Our Hall of Fame coverage here at Jimmy Sez continues with our first look at the recently released BBWAA ballot for 2024 . The list includes eight former Yankees, and most of them have garnered enough support from the electorate to settle in for a nice, long stay on the ballot. That's certainly the case with the first four candidates we'll dig in to, who were put into a group simply because their first or last initial allows me to reference an 80's TV show in the title of this post. Only one player from this group has an outside chance to gain election this year, but it wouldn't be surprising to see all of them in the Hall of Fame eventually. Even if it's through the back door via a Veterans Committee vote further down the road. 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