Yankees land McCann

[Trendy Bastard]

Brian McCann joins Yankees with best days likely behind him | HardballTalk

Turning 30 in February, Brian McCann is pretty young as far as free agents go, even though he decided to forgo his first two years of eligibility as part of a long-term deal with the Braves. He clearly has several more years as a regular catcher in his future, and he was worthy of being regarded as the No. 1 catcher on the market this winter before agreeing to a five-year, $85 million deal with the Yankees on Saturday.

All of that said, McCann isn’t on a very good trajectory as he hits age 30. Here are his OPS+s by year:
143, 99, 135, 119, 124, 122, 87, 115

The 87 from 2012 can be discounted, given that he was battling a shoulder injury that required surgery. But even so, that still looks like a downward slope. His career OPS has tumbled five straight years, from .859 after 2008 to .823 now. Last season, he finished at .796.
Fangraphs WAR also shows the same general pattern:
4.3 – 1.9 – 5.3 – 4.0 – 5.1 – 3.9 – 1.7 – 2.7

According to Baseball-reference’s similarity scores, Lance Parrish is the player most comparable to McCann through age 29. And it seems like a great comparison. McCann’s OPS+ through age 29 is 117, Parrish’s was 113. McCann caught 1,046 games through age 29 (11th all-time), Parrish 1,007. Basically, the difference was that McCann had a great season at 22, while Parrish struggled as a rookie.

McCann’s OPS+s: 143, 99, 135, 119, 124, 122, 87, 115
Parrish’s OPS+s.: 86, 112, 121, 100, 135, 119, 100, 118

Parrish went on to have a great two-thirds of a season at age 30, finishing with a 122 OPS+ in his last year with the Tigers. He then signed a big free agent contract with the Phillies and was a bust, amassing OPS+s of 85 and 89 there before being shipped to the Angels. He had just one more strong offensive season in his career, finishing with a 123 OPS+ at age 34. Overall, he hit .244/.317/.416, good for a 102 OPS+, from ages 30-34. Those are the ages McCann will be during his five-year deal with the Yankees.

Of course, McCann could do better; Hall of Famers Gary Carter, Yogi Berry and Bill Dickey are also on his list of similars. But it certainly looks like McCann already climbed that mountain. The Yankees need hope it’s a smooth descent and that no cliffs lie ahead.

[Hammer]

im not upset with it. even if he is declining, and as much as i liked the stewart/romine platoon last year... the 2 of them, combined with cervelli, couldnt equal mccanns bat. and we've carried worse contracts, on worse humans.

being the typical yankee fan that i am... he was on my wish list along with bringing back cano and kuroda, bringing over tanaka, and adding an outfielder less old and horrible than ichiro and/or wells.

[LJMets1989]

They've completely given up on getting under the luxury tax threshold. Either that or they've given up on Cano.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Mach]

why not both?

[Hammer]

theyre still like 60 mil under that 189 threshold.

[Kingdom]

At worst, he provides what Martin provided.

At best, he kills David Ortiz after he gloats on a homerun.

[LJMets1989]

theyre still like 60 mil under that 189 threshold.

With only about 15-18 players locked up.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Hammer]

cc, nova, phelps... they need two starters
robertson, claiborne, kelley, logan... they need an 8th inning guy, they can use warren or nuno as a mopup guy, with montgomery looming
mccann, stewart/romine/cervelli
teixeira and arod on the corners, with nunez/adams and an mlc [overbay, reynolds, whoever they wanna bring back] as the backups
nunez and jeter up the middle [without cano], with nix as the backup
gardner, soriano, ichiro and wells in the outfield... we could use one more, its not a necessity to fill out a roster, but if they have hopes of making the playoffs itd be nice.

65 mil should be plenty enough to fill out cano [22], balfour [7-8], kuroda [12] and tanaka [10 or so + incentives] [with his posting fee not counting]. if they wanna throw in granderson or beltran at about 13 a pop, itd fit as well. i dont know the exact cap number theyre at right now... theyre fine to bring back cano and still fill out the rest of the team.

[Mach]

At worst, he provides what Martin provided.

At best, he kills David Ortiz after he gloats on a homerun.

oh, I like this idea.

[Mach]

Ryan's likely getting a spot on the roster.

[Hammer]

ok, ryan instead of adams or nix. the exact names are more or less irrelevant to my point.

[Mach]

Anyway, I'll update my excel sheet on the Yankees later. We don't have that much money left though. Factor we have to account for all 40 man roster guys too.

[Hammer]

boo to realism and logic that i forget about when im drunk. i like the ootp way of doing things.

[Kingdom]

I think there's actually more stupidity on OOTP than real life. Narrow margin

[Kingdom]

oh, I like this idea.

Yankee-Red Sox fights have gained talent. They have taken their game to the next level!