Kuzul

The New York Yankees look to replicate the pitching success they enjoyed down the stretch and in the playoffs this past season.They agreed to bring both starter Andy Pettitte and the greatest closer of all time, Mariano Rivera, back to the team for the 2013 MLB season.Pettitte, who made his season debut on Mother's Day, was limited to just 12 starts thanks to an ankle fracture. He pitched very well in his return to the majors after retirement in 2011, pitching to a 2.87 ERA, 1.14 WHIP, and a 146 ERA+. He also pitched well in the playoffs, allowing just five runs in 13.2 innings.Rivera pitched just nine games this season, out since May due to a freak accident during batting practice, tearing his ACL. However, he immediately decided that he would not retire and would work his way back. Both moves, along with Hiroki Kuroda returning last week, make the ...

******UPDATE (10:07p.m.)**********According to Buster Olney of ESPN, the Yankees never even made an offer to Russell Martin this winter.  The Yankees never made an offer to Russell Martin; they haven't made any offers to position players so far this offseason.— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) November 30, 2012   We had heard that Martin was waiting to see what the Yankees would do, but I guess he couldn't wait any longer and pass up on the Pirates offer.********************************************************The New York Yankees officially have a vacancy at catcher for 2013.Their catcher for the last two seasons, Russell Martin, has reportedly signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates, according to Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports.   Source: #Pirates reach agreement with Russell Martin, pending physical.— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) November 30, 2012  The deal is pending a physical and it's for a two-year deal worth around $17 million, according to David Waldstein of the New York Times.   Russell Martin has agreed to ...

Russell Martin has reportedly agreed to sign with the Pittsburgh Pirates, according to Ken Rosenthal (via Twitter): Source: #Pirates reach agreement with Russell Martin, pending physical.— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) November 30, 2012 David Waldstein of the New York Times announced the terms of the deal shortly after the announcement by Rosenthal (via Twitter): Russell Martin has agreed to a 2-year, $17 million contract with the Pirates, according to a person with direct knowledge of the deal.— David Waldstein (@DavidWaldstein) November 30, 2012 Martin, 29, was also considering a two-year offer to stay with the Yanks. Other interested parties joined in on the bidding as well.The Seattle Mariners and Texas Rangers both made offers, according to Jon Heyman of CBS Sports. The seven-year MLB veteran catcher played with the Los Angeles Dodgers for five seasons and spent the last two years with the New York Yankees.Last season, Martin was a Gold Glove ...

Russell Martin is one of the top catchers available on the free-agent market right now.The New York Yankees are interested in bringing back the 29-year-old Canadian as their starting backstop, but according to Andrew Marchand of ESPN, his asking price is pretty high:  I'm told Martin is looking for four years and $9-10M per. Doubt Yanks will do that.— Andrew Marchand (@AndrewMarchand) November 27, 2012  Martin turned down a three-year, $20 million extension to stay with the Yankees back in the offseason last year, but many felt he should have taken it given how his 2012 campaign went.Martin hit just .211, but had 21 home runs and 53 RBI in 133 games for the Yankees.After they transitioned Jorge Posada to the designated-hitter role in 2011, the Yankees brought in Martin on a one-year deal for $4 million and liked how he handled the pitching staff, which led to them giving him another ...

After an embarrassing end to the 2012 postseason, the New York Yankees will be looking to upgrade their roster and make another run at a twenty-eighth World Series title. Age was a huge factor in the Yankees laying an egg in this year’s ALCS. This team will have to get younger to stay competitive in a league full of rising young stars. The quieting of the Yankee bats come playoff time is beginning to feel like a perennial postseason phenomenon in New York. This Yankee clubhouse is in need of a change in atmosphere and philosophy, something that can be fixed by replacing the players with reoccurring postseason slumps.Here are three Yankees who need to be replaced after disappointing postseason performances.Begin Slideshow

The first five months of the 2012 season couldn’t have been much worse offensively for New York Yankees catcher Russell Martin. When he woke up on Sept. 1, he was hitting a woeful .198 (66-for-333) with 14 home runs and 36 RBI. His triple-slash line was .198/.301/.366. Martin was never going to be confused with Mike Piazza when it came to his prowess as an offensive catcher. Coming into the season, he was a lifetime .267/.359/.398 hitter with 72 homers and 365 RBI in five seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers and one with the Yankees. He was also coming off career-lows in 2011 with his .237 average and .324 on-base percentage, marking the fourth straight season his batting average had tailed off from his career-high .293 mark in 2007 with the Dodgers. Martin belted a three-run home run Friday night in the sixth inning to give the Yankees a ...

The New York evening was growing older, fans getting restless and the Yankees looking for someone to step up and lift them one step closer to the postseason. Leave it to their dedicated, hard-working catcher Russell Martin to deliver the big blow in last night's enormous 10-inning victory over Oakland.Russell Martin?Yes, the much-maligned catcher has become a critical part of the Yankees' success late this season and his contributions have helped bolster the lineup just enough to get the Bombers on a nice win streak. Martin has a nearly .900 OPS in the month of September (.896 to be exact) and has cranked out some enormous home runs.From a momentum-shifting, three-run shot in Baltimore two weeks ago to help lead the Yankees to victory, to a game-changing, opposite-field three-run shot last Sunday against Tampa, to last night's walk-off bomb deep into the left-centerfield seats at Yankee Stadium, Martin has been ...

2012 has been an up-and-down season for the New York Yankees thus far. Some players have been surprisingly hot, while some have been uncharacteristically cold. The team as a whole has gone on hot streaks and cold streaks as well, usually coinciding with the offense.Players like Derek Jeter, Curtis Granderson, Nick Swisher and Raul Ibanez have been red-hot to start the 2012 campaign, and are really the only reason that the Yankees have managed a 20-15 record at this point in the season.  The heart of the order has stumbled out of the gate, as has the starting pitching staff as a whole, and when Mariano Rivera went down with a season-ending ACL injury, even the Yankees' greatest strength, their lock-down bullpen, took a major hit.However, as of late, things have begun to turn around for a handful of key Yankees figures. If these guys can keep moving in the ...

Stop the presses! Hold the phone! Tweet, tweet, tweet! A Yankee catcher admits he has no fondness for the Boston Red Sox. Not since Tom Brady admitted his lack of affection for the New York Jets last year has there been such an earth-shaking announcement.Russell Martin told the media how much he hates the Red Sox! In Boston, such earthquakes generally run around 3.0 on the Richter Scale, hardly more than a grumble over spilled milk. Russell Martin flirted with the Red Sox in the offseason when inquiries were made to spend a few million dollars on him, but he blew cold when the flowers and candy proved to be less substantial than a New York speed-dating minute. In Red Sox and Yankee catcher wars, you have to go back to Carleton Fisk and Thurman Munson to find more fireworks, though Jason Varitek notably stuck a mitt into Alex Rodriguez’s ...

This is a slideshow on the top 10 Yankee performers right now.  Keep in mind that the entire show is not based on past seasons' performances.  It is only based on the future, which I think is the most relevant tool that we can look to at this point.  Thus, don't be surprised if you see some major names kept off of this list.Begin Slideshow