The Yankees: Minors to Majors

Boone Logan Does Not Suck

2011-08-09T14:14:00.005-04:00

"Seriously, how bad is Boone Logan?" -Mike Axisa, June 21st, 2001.

Boone Logan has been the object of a great deal of scorn in Yankeeland this year. The nadir of Logan's year was probably on June 20th, when he hit the only batter he faced in Cincinnati and prompted the quote above from Mike Axisa of River Ave. Blues. The next day, Axisa actually advocated replacing Logan on the roster. At the time, he had a valid point; Logan was giving up a slash line of .300/.383/.425 to LHB. Since then, however, things have been looking up for the much-maligned LOOGY.

After his dreadful albeit brief outing in Cincinnati, Logan has turned things around. In 13.2 innings, Logan has struck out 20 batters, walked only 3, and lowered his ERA from 3.94 to 3.03. For all of 2011, Logan has had a 9.40 K/9 and a 3.34 BB/9 in 29.2 innings. He has been especially effective against lefties, posting an 11.57 K/9 and a 2.89 BB/9 (18.2 IP).

The other thing to point out about Logan is that it should come as no surprise that he has been pitching as well as he has as the Yankees' only LOOGY. Logan has been doing it for his entire career. In 106 IP against LHB, Logan has piled up 10.10 K/9 and 3.48 BB/9; a more-than-respectable 2.90 K/BB.

Boone Logan is an easy target for a lot of fans. He typically only pitches to one or two batters every game, and could fail spectacularly, like when he hit Joey Votto on July 20th. But the fact of the matter is that he is an acceptable LOOGY who is inexpensive (signed for a 1-year/$1.2 million contract for '11) and is under team control for 2012, as well (he is arbitration-eligible, however). There are many reasons to like Boone Logan, and for those reasons he indeed does not suck.

Burnett Really Not An Enigma

2011-08-07T15:06:00.009-04:00

Throughout most of A.J. Burnett's 2.5-year tenure with the Yankees, many individuals have expressed consternation and frustration with the flame-throwing righthander. When Burnett's impressive, if small, arsenal of an explosive fastball and nasty spike curveball are observed, it is expected that Burnett would pile up huge strikeout numbers and dominate the opposition. But unfortunately for the Yankees and Burnett, this has not quite been the case.

Burnett's performance with the Yankees has not exactly been commensurate to his de facto status as the Yanks' #2 starter (and has not justified his 5 year/$82.5 million contract). The Yankees expected something better than a 4.60 ERA and a K/BB ratio of 1.95 (7.8 K/9; 4.0 BB/9) in his short career in pinstripes. But if one were to peruse Burnett's career statistics, one would see that Burnett's performance as a Yankee is not appreciably different from his career numbers.

The funny thing about Burnett's 2011 is that it essentially approximates his career averages (and falls neatly between his '09 and '10 stats). His K/9 is just a touch lower than it is for his career, his BB/9 just a little bit higher, and his ground-ball rate is almost identical to his career mark. His spike in HR/9 is likely explained both by pitching half his games in the current incarnation of Yankee Stadium (notorious for inflated home-run rates) and his diminishing fastball velocity (averaging 92.6 MPH in 2011; averaged 94.2 in '09). So basically, Burnett is an older version of himself pitching in a park that allows more homers than usual.

The Yanks were wowed by Burnett's 2008 season, when he was a workhorse for the Blue Jays (221.1 IP) and struck out more than a batter per inning while having a fair walk rate of 3.50. But 2008 was his walk-year, and players have been proven to perform better in their contract years (see Baseball Between the Numbers, edited by Jonah Keri). In addition, Burnett's performance in '08 was far greater than in any other season of his career to that point. There's a good chance 2008 was an outlier.

When the Yanks guaranteed $82.5 million to Burnett, they were paying for his awe-inspiring 2008, but have received roughly the same performance Burnett gave throughout his career. It is obvious the Yankees can no longer expect Burnett to ever be the #2 pitcher he was ordained to be; he is simply a durable mid-rotation innings eater than will frustrate you from time to time. But the truth is that he never should have had those expectations thrust upon him. Burnett's abilities were overrated by the Yankees, and now they will have to literally pay the price until his contract expires.

YANKEES GREAT ROY WHITE TO SERVE AS AN OFFICIAL STARTER FOR DAMON RUNYON 5K AT YANKEE STADIUM

2011-06-18T13:42:00.003-04:00

PRESS RELEASE

NEW YORK, June 9, 2011 - When thousands of avid runners, passionate baseball fans, cancer survivors, and supporters from across the country gather at the Damon Runyon 5K starting line on August 7 to support the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation, they will get the signal to run from New York Yankees great Roy White, one of the race's official starters.

The only charitable run/walk that uses the legendary ballpark as its course, the third annual Damon Runyon 5K at Yankee Stadium will take place on Sunday, August 7, 2011. Participants will run or walk the Stadium's concourses, climb stairs between levels, appear on the video board, and follow in the footsteps of their favorite players by taking their own victory laps on the warning track that circles the field. The event is on track to reach a three-year total of $1 million raised to fund groundbreaking cancer research by the nation's most innovative young scientists.

White spent his entire 15 year career with the Yankees. As starting left fielder, he helped them to an American League pennant in 1976 and two World Series Championships in 1977 and 1978. He still ranks in the Yankees top ten in several categories, including games played, hits, at bats, stolen bases and walks. For his career, he batted .271 with 1803 hits, 160 homers and 233 stolen bases.

In addition to serving as an official starter for the race, White will be featured at a private reception for the Runyon's 5K leading early fundraisers on June 21 at Mickey Mantle's Restaurant in New York City. He will tell stories about his days with the Yankees, participate in a Q&A, sign autographs, be available for photos and watch the Yankees play the CIncinnati Reds in an interleague showdown.

This year marks the 35th anniversary of the 1976 Yankees team that won their first American League pennant in 12 seasons before being swept by the Cincinnati Reds. The year was important in Yankee history as it marked their first pennant under late owner George Steinbrenner, who promised a swift return to the World Series when he bought the team in 1973.

The Foundation, established in 1946 and based in New York City, has a long history with the Yankees. Joe DiMaggio was on its Board of Directors. Damon Runyon himself was a New York writer who began his career as a baseball journalist, revolutionizing how the game was reported and often covering Yankee games.

Last year's event raised more than $400,000 and drew a capacity crowd of 4,000 participants from 29 states. Click to see videos and photos of the 2010 Runyon 5K. In addition to the New York Yankees' support, other event sponsors include the MetLife Foundation, White Rose, 24 Hour Fitness, the New York Daily News, SiriusXM Radio, and WNBC 4 New York.

Registration is still open for a free of $40 and a minimum fundraising requirement of $60. After July 7 the registration free will increase to $50. Family members and supporters will have the opportunity to view the vent from the Delta SKY360 Suite overlooking home plate.

Please come out and support this terrific cause.

Brian Gordon to make Yankees debut today

2011-06-16T14:10:00.002-04:00

What a crazy journey it must have been for Brian Gordon. From going to a struggling outfielder, to a struggling pitcher, to a Major Leaguer, to a minor league reliever, to the starting pitcher for the New York Yankees.

The story about how Gordon became a Yankees is pretty interesting. Gordon had a provision in his contract that gave him an opt out for his deal for June 15 - if he was not in the majors by then (with the Phillies), he could be offered to join any other team's Major League club. According Brian Cashman's interview with Brian Heyman, Cashman, Gene Michael, and Larry Rothschild looked at video of Gordon. He was described as a control pitcher along the likes of "Darrell Rasner" and "Aaron Small."

To make room on the roster, the Yankees demoted Lance Pendleton and flat-out released Amauri Sanit.

Yankees Add Wade

2011-06-16T11:58:00.002-04:00

Before last night's game, the Yankees signed and added Cory Wade to the Major League roster, and sent down RP Kevin Whelan.

Wade, a former Dodger, had just opted out of his contract with the Tampa Rays' Triple-A affiliate, where he had put up a 1.23 ERA on the year, striking out 34 in 36.2 innings.

He made his Yankees debut last night, picking up a scoreless inning.

To make room for Wade on the 40-man roster, they transferred Rafael Soriano to the 60-Day DL.

Yankees Hit 5 Homers En Route to Victory

2011-06-16T11:21:00.002-04:00

(38-28) YANKEES DEFEAT (36-33) TEXAS RANGERS 12-4 AT YANKEE STADIUM

IVAN NOVA VS. DEREK HOLLAND

This game seemed like it would be a close one in the first few innings, with the lead going back and forth, resulting in a 4-4 tie in the bottom of the forth. However, from there, the Yankees offense took off. They took the lead for good in the bottom of the 5th off of RBI singles by both Andruw Jones and Francisco Cervelli.

Then the home run bats came out again. Ramiro Pena, in his first start of the season, crushed a no-doubter to rightfield in the bottom of the 6th for his first homerun, which Mark Teixeira would follow up on with a two-run homerun, his second of the game. Cano would later add one for himself in the 8th.

Ivan Nova struggled tonight, getting behind most of the hitters. He left the game with two outs in the 6th, giving the ball to Luis Ayala, with two runs on in a two-run game. Ayala gave up a walk, then a single up the middle on which Curtis Granderson threw Yorvit Torrealba out at home-plate on.

Yankees Bats Explode Against Indians in 9-1 Victory

2011-06-12T17:37:00.002-04:00

(36-27) YANKEES DEFEAT (34-29) CLEVELAND INDIANS 9-1 AT YANKEE STADIUM

FREDDY GARCIA VS. JOSH TOMLIN

The Yankees bats exploded against Josh Tomlin and the Cleveland Indians in Sunday afternoon's game. The Yankees collected eighteen hits behind a nice bounce-back performance from Freddy Garcia.

Jorge Posada, Derek Jeter, Robinson Cano, and Nick Swisher each picked up two hits, Alex Rodriguez and Brett Gardner both picked up three, and the man, Curtis Granderson, collected four hits for the Yankees today.

On the other side of the spectrum, Russell Martin looked absolutely lost at the plate today, hitting into two double-plays, a strike out, and seven men left-on-base. He is now down to .232.

Freddy Garcia (5-5, 3.60) bounced back from his second shortest outing of his career, going 6.2 innings of 1-run baseball, supported by scoreless appearances from Boone Logan (.1 inning), Luis Ayala (1) and Kevin Whelan (1).

3,000 WATCH: Jeter collected two hits, bringing him to 2,993 for his career. He has four more games in this homestand if he wants it to happen in Yankee stadium.

Colon Out with Strained Hammy

2011-06-12T17:21:00.003-04:00

In the 7th inning of Saturday night's game, the hamstring of Bartolo Colon collapsed under great pressure, while Colon ran to cover first base. Colon was in the middle of the 7th inning of yet another gem, having allowed only two runs to the Indians at that point.

MRI's came up "pretty good" according to Colon, and he personally expects to be back after only 15 days on DL, which would be fantastic.

As expected, Colon was indeed placed on the DL after the game. Called up to take a spot on the roster was pitcher Hector Noesi, who was sent down just a few days ago.

The Yankees need Colon if they are going to make it this season without a major acquisition. They better make sure that he's 100% when they reactivate him.

Sanit to DL: The Yankees also placed RP Amaury Sanit on the 15-day DL with a elbow inflammation. Sanit has a 12.86 ERA as a mop-up reliever for the Yankees. OF Chris Dickerson has been called up to take his place on the roster.

Whelan Called Up

2011-06-11T01:58:00.001-04:00

Before tonight's game against the Indians the Yankees made a small addition to the bullpen, by calling up RP Kevin Whelan.

Whelan, who has never pitched in the Majors, has had great success this season, pitching to the tune of a 1.67 ERA with Scranton as their closer.

To make room for Whelan on the roster, the Yankees demoted OF Chris Dickerson.

Yankees Re-Shuffle Bullpen: Noesi, Joba, Marquez, Sanit

2011-06-07T20:43:00.000-04:00

Prior to last night's game, the Yankees reshuffled the bullpen a bit, adding some fresh and healthy arms to the pen.

Firstly, rookie Hector Noesi was sent back down to Triple-A after throwing six solid innings in relief on Tuesday night, after Freddy Garcia's short outing. This was simply a case of a team taking advantage of a player having options and getting a fresh arm.

Amaury Sanit, the Cuban defector, was called up in order to get a fresh arm in the pen. Additionally, the Yankees claimed P Jeff Marquez off of waivers from the Chicago White Sox, and placed him on the active roster.

Additionally, Joba Chamberlain was placed on the DL and will be getting shoulder surgery...more on that soon.

Swisher's Approach from the Left Side

2011-06-02T11:44:00.006-04:00

Nick Swisher was a huge part of the Yankees' 2009 and 2010 campaigns, pairing average defense in right field with huge numbers at the plate (.270/.365/.505 in '09 and '10 combined). This year has been a far different story, however. Swisher's defense has remained adequate, but his boomstick has disappeared. Few people expected Swisher to match last year's career year numbers, but nobody expected this drop-off, to the tune of .215/.338/.331.

Two things about Swisher's 2011 numbers stick out; his batting average is flirting with the Mendoza line, and his power has disappeared. Swisher's low batting average in '11 (.215) is even lower than his career average (.250). This could be explained by Swisher's low BABiP; his .252 BABiP is well south of his career BABiP of .284. He might be hitting it right at the fielders.

Swisher's power numbers are tougher to explain. His slugging percentage (.331) and isolated slugging percentage (.116) are impotent compared to his career numbers (.462; .212). Swisher only has 4 home-runs through 210 plate appearances this year; he hit exactly 29 in each of the last two years.

Perhaps we can clear things up a bit by checking out his platoon splits. As a RHB, Swisher's line actually isn't terrible: .308/.400/.462 (.265/.399/.439 career). As a lefty, however, Swisher has been dreadful (and pulled off the neat trick of having a OBP higher than his SLG): .175/.310/.275 (.246/.339/.472 career).

What happened to Swish's power from the left side? Well, let's compare Swish's spray chart from last year to this year. (Spray charts are from Texas Leaguers)

Nick Swisher- LHB, 2010

That's a beautiful spray chart. The vast majority of Swisher's hits in 2010 from the left side are pulled. Swisher gets a lot of pull power. According to HitTracker, 12 of Swisher's 29 homers in 2010 were hit to right field. In addition, Swisher also hits a lot of ground-balls to the right side of the infield. How is he doing this year?

Nick Swisher- LHB, 2011

Swisher's approach seems to have deviated. He's still hitting a boatload of grounders to the right side, but his pull power seems to have completely dried up. He is also hitting a lot of balls to the opposite field. Unfortunately, these opposite field balls are turning into outs.

Nick Swisher is obviously unlucky as a LHB. This year, his BABiP as a lefty is an impossibly low .213. Eventually, some hits will begin to fall in for Swish. But it is undeniable that his spray chart for this year is much different from last year's results. He appears to have eschewed pulling the ball for an approach to take the ball the other way. Unfortunately, it's not working, and it's taking a toll on his offensive value.

Cervelli Almost Ready for Return

2011-04-23T01:36:00.000-04:00

According to Marc Carig of the Star-Ledger (source), Yankees catcher Francisco Cervelli should be back from his foot injury sometime during the Yankees' next homestand. The Yankees return to the Bronx on Monday, so Gustavo Molina's time in the Bronx may be limited.

Molina, the current back-up catcher, has played in only one game for the Yankees during his time with the team. The large, borderline obscene number of off-days and rainouts that the Yankees have had have allowed them to rest Russell Martin plenty, allowing them to not even need to use Molina.

Cervelli, 25, has been rehabbing with the Tampa Yankees and is currently 2-7.

RAINNNNNN

2011-04-23T01:34:00.001-04:00

Tonight's scheduled game versus the Baltimore Orioles was rained out once again, the third rained out game of the season already.

CC Sabathia, the scheduled starter for last night's game, will instead pitch tonight against the Orioles. He will be followed by Freddy Garcia and Ivan Nova.

The Yankees made a small move before the game as well: they demoted P Hector Noesi to Triple-A and purchased the contract of RP Buddy Carlyle. Carlyle, who spent all of 2010 in Japan, has pitched five games for the Yankees' Triple-A affiliate. The move was done so Noesi, a starter by trade who has yet to make his Major League debut, could pitch regularly in the minors. Carlyle is nothing special and should not be used in anything other than middle relief.

In order to make room for Carlyle on the 40-man roster, the Yankees DFA'd LHP Jose Ortegano, who was claimed off waivers from the Braves this offseason.

Sabathia's Massive Platoon Split

2011-03-31T16:53:00.004-04:00

During today's Opening Day telecast, Ken Singleton complimented CC Sabathia on his good change-up. This comment piqued my interest, so I checked out Fangraphs' pitch values. According to Fangraphs, his change-ups were worth 1.45 runs per 100 pitches in 2010. In 2009, his change-up was worth 3.54 runs per 100 pitches, good for third in the majors (minimum of 100 IP).

With Sabathia's strong change-up, we would expect him to have a small, if any, platoon split. To my surprise, however, I saw a rather substantial platoon split. Last year, Sabathia torched left-handed hitters to the tune of a 10.87 K/9; good for a 2.67 FIP. Against RHB, he records a K/9 of merely 6.52 (3.78 FIP). His BB/9 was stable to both lefties and righties (2.45 v. LHB, 2.90 v. RHB). This stat line has been true for his entire career; in '09, when he possessed the third-best change-up in the game, Sabathia only struck out 7.02 RHB per 9 innings (while K'ing 9.94 LHB per 9). His career line shows that this is not a fluke:

Still curious, I checked out how often CC offered his vaunted change-up to right-handed hitters. In both '09 and '10, Sabathia threw change-ups to RHB around 22% of the time. What was really puzzling to me, though, was that Sabathia threw sliders around 13% of the time to righties. This is odd because sliders have a huge platoon split. Change-ups, however, are more effective against batters of the opposite handedness since it runs down and away from them.

Wouldn't it be a good idea if CC subbed out some of those sliders for some more of those Bugs Bunny change-ups against righties? I don't mean to mess with success, and it's not as if Sabathia is a slouch against RHB, but Sabathia has the weapon to do better against righties; why not utilize it?

Minor Moves: Millwood, Pendleton, Sanchez

2011-03-29T10:57:00.002-04:00

Nothing major being announced here, but the Yankees added two more players to their system, and lost one.

SP Kevin Millwood signed a minor league deal with the Yankees. The terms of the deal would allow him to opt out by the end of April if he is not on the Major League roster.

Furthermore, pitcher Lance Pendleton was returned to the Yankees from the Astros via the Rule V Draft.

Finally, Romulo Sanchez's rights were sold to a Japanese team, but not much is known about this deal yet. Sanchez was out-of-options and was not going to make the team, so with his permission, a Japanese team acquired his rights in exchanged for cash most likely.

Yankees Claim Braves Pitcher

2011-03-25T13:42:00.002-04:00

The Yankees added some more pitching depth to the minors by claiming pitcher Jose Ortegano off of waivers from the Atlanta Braves.

Ortegano, a 23-year-old lefty, started 20 games for the Braves' Triple-A affiliate last season, suffering to a 6.20 ERA. He also did not fair much better in his seven starts with their High-A affiliate. Basically, Ortegano had a miserable season in 2010.

Ortegano seems like a decent reclaimation project. He had a solid 2009 season between High-A and Double-A, with a career K/9 of 7.56 and BB/9 of 2.66.

According to the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre blog, his fastball (as a starter) is 90-92 MPH, he has an okay curveball, and his change-up in his outpitch.

Yankees Looking to Gustavo?

2011-03-25T13:33:00.005-04:00

With Francisco Cervelli's injury, and Jesus Montero and Austin Romine having underwhelming springs, the Yankees have been stating openly that they are looking at Gustavo Molina for the back-up catcher job.

Molina caught Freddy Garcia in his minor league game on Thursday, and manager Joe Girardi has openly stated that Molina is in the mix for the back-up catchers job and the Yankees want to get a better look at him. (Source)

I personally think that they should have been giving Molina a look a while ago. Simply put, Montero and Romine would benefit more from playing full-time in the minors rather than limited duty in the majors. Furthermore, Molina's playing time would be extremely limited anyway. With all the days off that the Yankees have in March/April, I would be surprised if Molina had more than one start. Simply put, it would not matter if they had a below replacement level player in that job for a month or so.

Updates from Spring Training

2011-03-15T10:30:00.003-04:00

Montero to Make Roster?
All signs seem to support this idea. With Francisco Cervelli out until at least early April with a broken foot, they are going to need another back-up catcher on the roster. The only options are Jesus Montero, Austin Romine, and Gustavo Molina. Romine is simply not advanced enough to hit on the Major League level, and the Yankees have only given Gustavo Molina ten at-bats, in which he is 1-10. It seems like they will give Montero a cup-of-coffee at least towards the beginning of the season, and have him on the Opening Day roster.

Montero, who is only 5-27 this Spring Training, would be making his Major League debut.

My opinion on this subject - bad idea. Even if it's giving Montero some experience in the Majors, it likely would not be enough that it would be worth all the missed at-bats he would be missing in Triple-A; not to mention this could cause unnecessary service time issues.

Just give Gustavo Molina the spot. He's barely going to play anyway - if he was on the roster for a month I would be surprised if he got 20 at-bats, especially with all the off-days. Either that or just bring in someone - such as Chad Moeller (for this third tour of duty) that has experience with the Yankees pitchers.

Rule V Picks
The Yankees, quite dissatisfied for the production of their Rule V picks Daniel Turpen and Robert Fish, waived them both.

Turpen, who was claimed off the Rule V Draft from the Red Sox, was sent back to them successfully.

Fish, who was claimed in the Rule V Draft from the Marlins, was claimed off of waivers by the Royals, who will see what Fish can offer them.

Furthermore, George Kontos, who was claimed in the Draft by the San Diego Padres from the Yankees, was successfully returned to the Yankees. He will begin the season as a middle reliever for either Trenton or Scranton.

Lance Pendleton, who was claimed by the Houston Astros, is still on their active roster at the moment.

Curtis Injured Shoulder
Back-up outfield candidate Colin Curtis's chance of making the Yankees roster is now down to zero. The outfielder separated his right shoulder while making a catch last Sunday. He will be rehabbing for a month and likely will not be ready for the beginning of the minor league season.

Cotts, Maxwell, Noesi

2011-02-16T14:10:00.002-05:00

The Yankees already made their first move of the Spring, just days after pitchers and catchers reported: RP Neal Cotts has been released. According to the Star Ledger, he hasn't been over his number injury issues yet, so they gave him the boot already.

Furthermore, Hector Noesi has not been able to report yet due to visa issues. He's a legitimate contention for a rotation spot so he better get here soon.

Moves Since Last Update

2011-02-16T01:43:00.003-05:00

The Yankees have added a plethora of minor league free agents since the last update, many of them injury-plagued veterans looking for a final chance...let's take a look at them:

Luis Ayala: The relief pitcher signed a minor league deal. Ayala, only 32, didn't pitch in the majors in 2010 and bounced around various minor league teams. His last solid season was 2007, finishing off a great run with the Expos/Nationals.

Bartolo Colon: The big starting pitcher will fight for a rotation spot in Spring Training. He last pitched in the majors in 2009 after an injury plagued season with the White Sox.

Freddy Garcia: Garcia, a favorite to win a rotation spot, put together a 4.64 ERA with the White Sox last season.

Warner Madrigal: The reliever has a 6.10 ERA in the Majors in his career.

Ronnie Belliard: The infielder had a .216 BA and .622 OPS with the Dodgers last night.

Eric Chavez: The oft-injured infielder had a .610 OPS with the A's last year in 123 at-bats.

Jordan Parraz was DFA'd and not claimed, so he is still with the Yankees. RP Brian Schlitter was DFA'd but was not as lucky - he was claimed off of waivers by the Philadelphia Phillies.

Andruw Jones to Sign

2011-01-20T18:48:00.001-05:00

The Yankees, according to various sources, are nearing a one-year deal with free agent outfielder Andruw Jones.

Jones, now 33, has basically been reduced to a part-time player, and Yankees fans can basically refer to him as 2011's Marcus Thames.

Jones will be the back-up outfielder, and get some starts against lefties - probably giving Jorge Posada a decent amount of rest. Jones has killed lefties over his career, and is still very good against them even as his effectiveness has decreased.

UPDATE (6:48PM, Jan. 20):

According to Jon Heyman, the Yankees and Andruw Jones have agreed to terms: 1-year/$2 million dollars with potential incentives worth up to an extra $1.2 million.

The Yankees, who have a full 40-man roster, will have to remove someone from the 40-man roster in order to complete this. My guess is Reegie Corona.

Rafael Soriano: The Best Scenario From This

2011-01-17T15:56:00.004-05:00

The Yankees in-fact did sign Rafael Soriano. The Yankees in fact did sign Rafael Soriano - and to more money than I thought: a three-year/$35 million dollar deal that allows him to opt out after every season. Reports are saying that this was not Cashman's decision at all - the Steinbrenner's overruled him due to the question marks in the rotation and the bullpen.

So it happened - nothing can be done at this moment so I might as well hope for the best. As far as I see it, there is one way they can get the maximum value out of this deal: let Joba Chamberlain fight for a rotation spot in Spring Training.

Joba, still only 25 years old, is clearly not as bad as the press is trying to portray him. Last season, he did make considerable improvements, albeit as a reliever as opposed to a starter. His K/9 went from a 7.6 to a 9.7, his BB/9 went from 4.3 to 2.8, and his WHIP went from 1.544 to 1.298. And we all remember he absolutely did have his moments as a starter in 2008 and 2009.

What's the harm in this? Give him a chance in Spring Training - if Nova or Mitre are clearly superior candidates, then throw him back in the bullpen.

A side note: on my last post I did say I was very against this move. However, this does make the Yankees bullpen simply fantastic at the moment though - a core of Feliciano, Logan, and Robertson leading up to Soriano and Rivera? Probably one of the best in baseball.

So in conclusion, since the Yankees' bullpen is pretty fantastic without Chamberlain, they might as well give him a chance to start.

Steve Says No to Soriano; Cashman Says Yes

2011-01-13T21:22:00.003-05:00

I have been spurred to come out of my hiatus to post by the surprising signing by the Yankees of Rafael Soriano. According to Jon Heyman, the Yankees have come to terms with Soriano for a 3 year, $35 million contract. This is surprising because as of last week, Buster Olney tweeted that the Yankees were not interested in Soriano, and Yankees' GM Brian Cashman also

Steve did a pretty good job of underlying the problems with Soriano. I would just like to emphasize the cost of losing that 1st round draft pick. As of right now, the Yanks were scheduled to have the 31st pick in this year's amateur draft. According to Victor Wang, that pick's surplus value would have been worth roughly $2.5 million. So not only will the Yankees be forking over an Average Annual Salary of over $12 million to Rafael Soriano to pitch the eighth inning, they'll also be losing out on that $2.5 million from the draft pick. In addition, as Steve stated, this year's draft is very deep, so the Yanks might be missing out on a prospect that normally would not fall to them in most years.

In addition, the Yankees will be paying Soriano $12 million in 2011 to pitch in the eighth inning. That is a serious overpay, and not terribly necessary considering the Yankees' bullpen is very strong, with David Robertson, Joba Chamberlain, and Boone Logan forming the bridge to Mariano Rivera. Granted, the Yanks can and will always overpay for their free agents, but I would rather they pay for an area of need (like a starting pitcher or a outfielder that can handle LHP) instead of an area they actually are strong in.

Rafael SoriaNo

2011-01-09T14:09:00.002-05:00

When it comes to bad ideas, the idea of the Yankees signing Rafael Soriano should be near the top of the list. There is literally no justification in the Yankees signing Rafael Soriano to a multi-year deal worth well over $10 million dollars, all while losing a 1st Round Draft Pick.

Brian Cashman has literally come out and insist that the Yankees will not surrender their 1st Round Pick, but still, various sources are saying that the Yankees are still talking to Soriano and his agent.

Firstly, what incentive does Soriano have to come to New York? If I am Soriano, I am commanded at least $7 million/year, for at least 3-years, to close. The Yankees would only offer him a set-up spot, and the closer role is taken by Rivera for at least two more years. If the Yankees gave him his money, that would be $26 million dollars spent on the 2011 payroll on three relievers; that is not the big issue - teams have spent money on relievers before, it's just that Soriano is not the guy that the Yankees should be investing this money in.

One of these reasons is Soriano's injury history. He missed most of 2004 and 2005 due to Tommy John Surgery, and a majority of 2008 with another elbow surgery. That's a warning sign right there. Soriano has yet to go through his nine-year getting through 2+ years of relief work without having to miss a year with elbow surgery.

Another reason - the history of signing relief pitchers. Obviously Soriano is a different player than the others signed in recent years, but odds are not in his favor based on the success of past deals with relievers.

Finally, the 1st Round Pick. Various minor league experts have stated that this will be one of the deepest drafts in a long time. The Yankees should do what they can to take advantage of their financial advantage here. As of now they will have all of their draft picks, in addition to the supplemental pick after the first round for losing Javy Vazquez. In addition to their obvious financial advantage when it comes to the draft, they have a payroll $20-$30 million dollar lower than in 2010 - money which they can just invest into the draft to really take advantage of one of the best classes in a while.

And really, I think the Yankees' relief corps will be just fine. They still have the greatest closer in Major League history who is still showing no signs of decline, and a combination of David Robertson, Boone Logan, Pedro Feliciano, and Joba Chamberlain, along with guys that seem like they could be useful in Romulo Sanchez. Also, I wouldn't be surprised if they threw a guy like Brackman into the bullpen temporarily if need-be.

Say No to Soriano.

Pettitte, Schlitter

2011-01-07T16:51:00.006-05:00

According to Brian Costello of the New York Post, Andy Pettitte still has not made a decision about whether or not he will return to the Yankees in 2011.

Recent reports state that the Yankees are willing to offer Pettitte $12-$13 million dollars to return to the Yankees. But considering the state of the rotation and Pettitte's great 2010 season, it would not surprise me to see Pettitte request up to $16 million.

_______________________________________________________

The Yankees claimed RHP Brian Schlitter off of waivers from the Chicago Cubs yesterday.

Schlitter, 25, pitched seven times for the Cubs last year, spending the majority of the year in the minors. In 45.2 IP, he had a 3.15 ERA in the Cubs' Triple-A affiliate.

How 'bout Some Competition for Catcher?

2011-01-03T16:53:00.003-05:00

Back-up catcher, that is. Russell Martin vs. Jesus Montero is a good enough competition for starter.

As of now, Francisco Cervelli is the only competitor for back-up catcher. Cervelli seems like he can do a fine job in a small role - he had a .694 OPS over 266 at-bats last season. However, he was basically useless for half of the season - he put up a nice April and May, but hit in the high .100's-low .200's from June to August, followed by a great September. In conclusion, he's okay, but it couldn't hurt the Yankees to see if there are any alternatives that could be had for cheap.

If you look at the free agents, there is no one useful. Bengie Molina seems like he is going to retire, and would want some sort of guaranteed deal in order to come out of retirement. Josh Bard only put together a .634 OPS with the Mariners last year in 112 at-bats last year, hasn't been good since 2007, and is 32-years old.

So, any other options out there? Well, the Rangers just DFA'd catcher Max Ramirez today. Ramirez once a highly regarded prospect, is still only 26-years old. In 2008 with the Rangers' Double-A affiliate, in 243 at-bats, Ramirez hit .354 with 17 homers and a 1.096 OPS. He however has yet to reproduce these numbers in the bigs, hitting .217 with a .700 OPS in 115 at-bats. He may be worth claiming and bringing into Spring Training - the Yankees have two open 40-man roster spots and an easily expandable one in Reegie Corona.

Anyone else out there worth looking at?

Blast From the Past

2010-12-27T14:12:00.002-05:00

In the barren, baseball-less season of winter (winter leagues in Mexico and the Dominican excepted), the only semblance of a game fans can get are "classic" games televised as filler on the team-owned cable channels. Most of these games are interesting in some way: sometimes, they are thrilling extra-inning affairs, or are big playoff games, or are regular-season games that had some kind of importance. The Yankee game that YES aired on Thursday was the Yankees' 1996 home opener, which took place on April 9th of that year. This game really had some personal significance for me because I didn't really start watching and really understanding baseball until '96. Also, it was almost like a blast from the past to see some of these grizzled vets looking very young (except for Paul O'Neill; he appeared to be fairly grizzled in '96). Also, I thought it would be appropriate to post about this game on this wintry, snow-filled day.

I had several observations about the game in general:

*Michael Kay (YES only used the radio audio) kept on saying that Pettitte had been throwing change-ups; it was fairly obvious that he was throwing curveballs, but I could be wrong. At least Michael Kay hasn't changed very much since 1996.

*It was (somewhat famously) snowing for the duration of this game, and the moment the Yankees took the lead (and probably even before) Kay and John Sterling (yes, they were the radio team back then) were hoping very strongly on the broadcast that the umpires would call the game.

*One part of the game elicited a chuckle from me when Kay discussed Pettitte's pick-off move and how he had "established" it in his previous start. So there was a time when Andy Pettitte's pick-off abilities were not feared....

*Johnny Damon is on the Royals, in his pre-caveman days. He's actually clean-shaven and well-kept.

*The Royals first-baseman, Bob Hamelin, just did not look like a baseball player (although he's much more of a ball-player than I'll ever be). He was rather, um, round, and looked a little ridiculous with these glasses. Hamelin actually won the Rookie of the Year for the AL in the strike-shortened '94 season with a .282/.388/.599 slash-line in 374 Plate Appearances. He never hit enough for a first-baseman, though: his career OPS+ of 109 wasn't that great for a first-baseman who was obviously defensively challenged.

*Steve Howe actually pitched for 1.2 innings in relief of Pettitte and Bob Wickman. I didn't evenknow that Howe was on the Yanks' 25-man roster at any point in '96, let alone for enough time to log more than 17 innings. He was very effective when inserted into the game; he struck out two and stranded the runners he inherited. Unfortunately, the rest of his season was not quite as successful; his 5/6 K/BB ratio probably left something to be desired, and the Yanks cut him in June of that year. '96 was the last year of Howe's tumultuous Major-League career.

*Joe Torre's line-up on that day was rather curiously constructed; actually, it was sort of predictable. Young Derek Jeter was slotted in the nine-hole, while Trusted Veteran Joe Girardi, who up to that point had a .315 career OBP, was in the #2 position in the line-up.

*Ah, good 'ole Gerald Williams. It's a miracle that the Yanks gave Williams 258 PAs in '96, most of which was spent in the corner outfield positions. His .319 OBP did not exactly light the world on fire.

It is a lot of fun to just ride on this time machine of a game. Jeter, Pettitte, and Damon looked like babies. Pettitte actually pitched very well in this game: 6.1 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 6 K, 2 BB. It was foreshadowing for his career. Damon was also giving peeks of his ability in the game: he reached base three times and scored two of Kansas City's three runs, although he was picked off once (by Pettitte, of course). Naturally, the Yankees took out the Royals by the score of 7-3 and were on their way to their first World Series victory since 1978.

Yankees Offseason Review (Thus Far)

2010-12-25T02:52:00.000-05:00

Well the Yankees sure have had quite an interesting offseason thus far. Unfortunately, the big news is regarding who the Yankees have not signed. Well, let's take a look at all of the transactions that the Yankees have made thus far.

Added to 40-Man Roster

Dellin Betances: Highly rated prospect. Probably a Top 100. Should start year at Trenton.
Ryan Pope: Mediocre numbers. Better when moved to relief. Scranton.
Brandon Laird: Powerful 22 year old 1B/3B/OF. 22 homers in 400 at-bats in Trenton.
Melky Mesa: Seen as a 5-tool player. 23 years old with a .813 OPS in Tampa.

6-Year Free Agents and Releases

Jason Hirsh: Rebounded nicely from his poor last few seasons (3.90 ERA in 122 IP). Probably will go elsewhere where he can legit spot at a roster spot.
Ronny Marte*: 24 year old who spent the year in Charleston and Tampa. No big deal.
Jon Ortiz: Lot of strikeouts and few walks. 24 year old spent the year in Tampa (2.47 ERA). Already signed with Oakland.
Zack Segovia: 4.19 ERA in Scranton. Already signed with Milwaukee.
John Van Benschoten: Rehabbed at various minor league levels.
Wilkin de la Rosa: Taken off 40 man roster and let go. Once a decent lefty prospect, but his poor season dropped his spot in the organization. Signed with the Dodgers.
Jose Quintana*: 5 games in Charleston
Ronny Calderon: Never played in the states.
Jose Gil: Catching depth - re-signed with the Yankees.
Robbie Hammock: Catching depth.
P.J. Pilittere: Catching depth.
Rene Rivera: Catching depth.
Brian Baisley: Retired last year.
Myron Leslie*: 28 year old that did nothing in Tampa
Marcos Vechionacci: Had a nice season and is only 23, but opted to go to Japan.
Eric Bruntlett: Back-up infield depth.
Justin Christian: Former Yankee. Incredible speed. I would like to see him brought back.
Edwar Gonzalez: 27 year old that didn't hit in Scranton.
Reid Gorecki: 29 year old that didn't hit in Scranton
Rudy Guillen: Hasn't played since 2007.
Kai Liu: Never played
Jonathan Albaladejo: Let go so he could go to Japan. Yankees received cash.
Justo Arias: Played 14 games in the GCL
Harold Garce: Played 12 games in the GCL
Charyln Garcia: Played 7 games in the GCL
Matt Jernstad: 24-year old played 14 games with Staten Island
Juan Marcano: Played 9 games in the low minors
Erick Tapia: Played 9 games in the GCL
Trent Lockwood: 24-year old 1B; .680 OPS in Tampa
Luis Parache: .653 OPS in the low minors
Ronald Morillo: Never played in the states
* = Re-signed

Non-Tenders

Alfredo Aceves: They non-tendered him after missing most of 2009 with back problems and breaking his clavicle this offseason. I really didn't, and still don't agree with this move. They have the room of the 40-man roster, so if I were the Yankees I would offer him a Major League deal, and a chance to win a starting spot in spring training.
Dustin Moseley: Mop-up/spot starter that was easily replaceable. Signed a Major League deal with the Padres.

Minor League Signings

Re-signed Ronny Marte, Jose Quintana, and Myron Leslie from above.
Doug Bernier: .626 OPS in AAA; will likely be a backup in Scranton
Buddy Carlyle: 33-year old who spent last year in Japan; 5.62 career ERA
Neal Cotts: 30-year old lefty; missed all of last year; 4.64 career ERA
Gustavo Molina: no-hit catcher; likely will back-up at Scranton; 5-41 in the Majors
Andy Sisco: tall 27/28 year old lefty reliever who strikes out and walks a ton; 4.32 ERA in AAA last year with SF
Brian Anderson: former outfielder, converting to pitcher
Mark Prior: pitched in 1 professional game since 2006
Daniel Martinez: spent last 4 years in Dominican and Venezuela; no control; 22 years old
Jose Vizcaino: signed after impressive DSL performance; 543 career games - 4.33 ERA; was with Yankees in 2007; did not pitch in 2010; still only 33 years old
Leonel Vinas: 19-year Dominican native living on Long Island; see article here
Steve Evarts: 23-year old former Braves first round pick from Italy; hasn't pitched since 2008; trying to come back from injuries; was arrested 4 times...

Major League Signings

Derek Jeter: Hank talks. Agent talks. Jeter wants six-years. Yankees laughs. Signs. The terms of the deal is confusing, but he basically signed a 3-year deal for about $15 million per season, with a cheap option for the 4th year.
Mariano Rivera: Signed a 2-year/$30 million deal with no problem.
Pedro Feliciano: 34-year old who led the lead in appearances the past 3 years. Will be a LOOGY for the most part, but could possibly get a bigger role (that may depend on other factors such as Boone Logan); 2-year/$8 million dollar deal.
Sergio Mitre: quietly had a 3.33 ERA in 54 innings; re-signed to a 1-year/$900K deal, with a potential to earn $200K more
Russell Martin: After being non-tendered by the Dodgers, signed to a 1-year/$4 million dollar deal. I thought that this was a great signing. He will allow Montero more time to develop in Triple-A - if Martin does well, the Yankees own his rights for 2012 and could trade him for a nice haul if he returns to his previous levels.

Trades

Traded IF Matt Cusick and RP Andy Shive to the Indians to complete the Kerry Wood deal.
Cusick hit .243 between Double-A and Triple-A. Shive had a 4.56 ERA in the low minors.

Traded 1B Juan Miranda to the Diamondbacks for SP Scottie Allen.
Miranda had no room on the Yankees; Allen is a 19-year old starter who pitched a A-ball
Acquired OF Cody Johnson from the Braves in exchange for cash considerations.
Johnson is a 22-year old with a lot of power and little contact.

Waiver Claims

Jordan Parraz: Doesn't seem like he'll be more than emergency outfield depth. As a 25-year old hit .266/.350/.410 with 11 homeruns with Kansas City's Triple-A affiliate.

Rule V Draft

Selected LHP Robert Fish from the Angels and RHP Daniel Turpen from the Red Sox.
Fish is a lefty reliever with a K-rate over 9, but that was almost his ERA in Double-A last year. Turpen had mediocre numbers (ERA in the 4's) with the Giants and Red Sox' Double-A affiliate last year.
Had RHP George Kontos selected by the Padres and RHP Lance Pendleton selected by the Astros.
Kontos, 25, was coming back from an injury and rehabbing most of the year, but played 17 games with Trenton. Pendleton, 26, had a 3.43 ERA as a starter with Trenton and then had a 4.24 ERA after being promoted to Scranton.

Should the Yankees buy some Lotto Tickets?

2010-12-21T15:51:00.001-05:00

With the failure of the Yankees to ink hot free agent target Cliff Lee and the probability increasingly likely that Andy Pettitte will retire, the Yankees are only will likely have to pursue alternative avenues to fill out their starting rotation; After C.C. Sabathia, Phil Hughes, and A.J. Burnett, questions abound in the rotation. What could the Yankees do to try to off-set this lack of pitching depth?

The first option would be to slot Ivan Nova into the rotation as the #5 starter. Brian Cashman has stated that the Yanks are considering Nova as a candidate for the starting rotation. While Nova did not exactly embarrass himself in his 42 IP stint in the majors last year, his 4.49 xFIP was not exactly overwhelming. Having said that, a 4.49 xFIP is not awful coming from a fifth starter. But 42 innings is not enough to evaluate a pitcher; Nova is far from a known quantity.

After Nova, the Yankees' major-league-ready starting pitching depth lacks something to be desired; the likes of Kei Igawa are not a legitimate option for the 25-man roster, and the rest of the Yanks' minor-league starters (Andrew Brackman, Dellin Betances, Manny Banuelos) are far from the majors at this point in time. Joba Chamberlain, in the abstract, could be an option, butCashman essentially ruled Joba out as a starter, Joba's status as a reliever was again reaffirmed after Lee was not acquired. After Cliff Lee, the free agent market for starters falls off dramatically; Carl Pavano is probably the best remaining free agent signing, and it is unlikely that the Yanks will make a trade for a starter.

So what should the Yankees do? I advocate using the money that would have been spent on Pettitte/Lee on potential "lottery tickets," or pitchers that are coming out of 2010 injured and would come at a low, incentive-laden single-year deal. The Boston Red Sox attempted to utilize this strategy in the 2008-2009 off-season when they signed Brad Penny and John Smoltz to one-year fliers. This would be an easy way to add some depth to the pitching side while not making a multi-year commitment on a questionable commodity.

Ideally, the Yanks would target a player like Jeff Francis, whose current value is very low, but has succeeded in the past at the offensively charged Coors Field. While managing to avoid being homer-prone at Colorado (career: 1.11 HR/9, 43.2% groundball rate), Francis has good control (2.93 BB/9 career, 1.90 in 2010) and has tolerable strikeout rates (6.15 K/9 career, 5.78 in 2010). The issue with Francis is that he had dreaded shoulder surgery in and missed all of 2009, and only pitched 104.1 innings in 2010. But his fastball is as fast as it has been in four years and his peripherals were not terrible in 2010. He probably would not make for a bad 5th starter.

Another possible fit for the Yankees is the aforementioned Penny. Penny was downed in May by a back sprain; to that point he had posted decent peripherals in the admittedly low sample size of 55.2 IP: 5.66 K/9 and 1.46 BB/9. Penny's career K/BB ratio (2.20) also inspires some confidence. If Penny is healthy, the Yanks just might catch lightning in a bottle and get a solid performer in the rotation.

Granted, it is not the greatest idea in the world to invest money in oft-injured pitchers, but the return on investment could potentially be very great (high risk/high reward: Economics 101). While the Red Sox attempted to implement this strategy in 08-09 and failed to see very much from either Penny or Smoltz, it should be noted that the Red Sox were just increasing depth; they, like the Yankees, had young starters like Clay Buchholz waiting in the wings. One of Manny Banuelos, Dellin Betances, and Andrew Brackman could develop by mid-year, thus rendering the depth signings as trade bait. It would be ridiculous to suggest that the Yankees bank on getting 200 innings from Penny or Francis, but it doesn't hurt to have options, especially in the starting rotation. You never can have too much pitching, after all.

Yankees Add Various Minor Leagues

2010-11-23T00:49:00.002-05:00

The Yankees added a bunch of minor leaguers via trade and minor league signings: Cody Johnson, Neal Cotts, Rafael DePaula, Neal Cotts, and Daniel Martinez.

Firstly, the Yankees picked up OF Cody Johnson in a trade with the Braves in exchange for cash considerations. Johnson has a lot of power but also strikes out a ton. He spent time with the Braves and Rangers' systems, and shouldn't be more than filler.

Rafael DePaula was a big signing in the International Free Agent market. The 19 year old right handed pitcher from the Dominican Republic was signed for $700,000 and reportedly hit 97 MPH.

Neal Cotts is a familiar name. The seven-year major league vet missed all of last season with an injury. He has a career 4.64 ERA and could fight for a bullpen spot out of spring training.

Finally, the Yankees signed P Dan Martinez. All I could find out about him was that he was a 20-year that walks a lot of people.

Yankees Add 3 to 40-Man Roster

2010-11-22T23:43:00.002-05:00

In order t0 protect them from the Rule V Draft, the Yankees protected three prospects - SP Dellin Betances, RP Ryan Pope, and 3B/OF Brandon Laird to the 40 man roster.

Dellin Betances, 22, had a breakout season as he recovered from ligament enhancement surgery. With Single-A Tampa, in 71 innings he recovered 88 strikeouts while walking only 19, and allowing only 43 hits. This was followed by a late season promotion where he recorded 20 strikeouts in Double-A over 14.1 innings.

Ryan Pope, 24, moved to the bullpen during the 2010 and had solid success, with encouraging peripherals. Despite a mediocre 4.20 ERA, he recorded 85 strikeouts over 95.1 innings. Expect him to begin the season in Scranton.

Brandon Laird, 23, had a breakout season of his own. In only 409 at-bats, he crushed 23 homers along with a .291 batting average and .351 OBP in Double-A Trenton. He struggled during his month-plus in Scranton (.621 OPS), but there is a lot to like here. He will be moving to the outfield from third base the upcoming season.

Juan Miranda to the D'Backs

2010-11-22T23:38:00.002-05:00

A little while back Brian Cashman hinted that a minor move would be made, and a minor move has indeed been made. The Yankees have traded Cuban 1B Juan Miranda to the Arizona Diamondbacks in exchange for minor league pitcher Scottie Allen.

Miranda, 27 (at least), has had 46 at-bats with the Yankees over the last 3 seasons after signing a 4-year deal after exiling from Cuba. He had no role with the Yankees so he is fortunate to be getting an opportunity with the Diamondbacks.

In exchange for Miranda, the Yankees picked up Scottie Allen, a 19-year old that was selected in the 11th round of the 2009 draft.

The following is the BaseballAmerica scouting report on Allen (via WasWatching):

Scottie Allen, RHP
Age: 19
Born: July 3, 1991 in Lyman, Calif.
Ht.: 6-1. Wt.: 170. Bats: R. Throws: R.
School: Lyman HS, Longwood, Fla.
Career Transactions: Selected by Diamondbacks in 11th round of 2009 draft; signed June 19, 2009 ($125,000 signing bonus).

Allen throws four pitches, three of which grade as average at times, but lacks the one dominating offering to put batters away. He sinks his fastball at 87-91 mph and occasionally breaks out a swing-and-miss slider in the high 70s or a changeup in the same range. His curveball is less refined, but he’s around the zone with it and all his pitches. Wiry strong, Allen has a quick arm, but he tends to tire visibly by the fourth inning. Still, he’s worth taking a flier on because he’s a teenager who already shows a feel for pitching.

Cashman: Posada Virtually Done as Catcher

2010-11-12T11:33:00.002-05:00

For the first time since 1999, it looks like Jorge Posada will not be the opening day catcher for the Yankees.

Various sources are reporting that Brian Cashman and the Yankees have informed long-time Yankee Jorge Posada that his days as a regular catcher are basically over, at least with the Yankees.

The Yankees will be giving catching prospect Jesus Montero a legitimate shot to win the starting catcher job in Spring Training, as well as having Francisco Cervelli and Austin Romine get a look as well. Furthermore, I would not be surprised to see them bring in some sort of veteran on a minor league deal or a cheap Major League deal as some sort of back-up option. Say a guy like Rod Barajas or perhaps a reclamation case such as Gerald Laird, who may have incentive to come here, seeing as his little brother Brandon will probably be reach the Majors with the Yankees this year, assuming nothing goes wrong.

This news should be very encouraging to Yankee fans - it shows that they are going with their brains rather than their hearts. They understand a guy like Posada's history with the Yankees, but at the same time they realize he is significantly hurting the team as catcher, and they have a young, cost-effective option ready. This also implies that they are going to make someone like Derek Jeter happy with his contract, but not do something crazy that hurts the team - they are using sound business and statistical sense here.

Furthermore, Posada recently underwent surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his left knee (coincidentally the same exact surgery that I will be undergoing in a little over a month.)

In conclusion, this is clearly the right move to make. Without having to go through the wear-and-tear of being a catcher, Posada's offensive production will likely increase (his OPS dropped to .811, although he did hit 18 homeruns in only 383 at-bats, and his ability to walk is still basically at career norms.) Hopefully Jesus impresses during Spring Training, and this will be touted as a blessing next season.

Source

40 Man Roster Additions and Subtractions: Mesa, Ring, Gaudin

2010-11-11T15:00:00.002-05:00

The Yankees did a few roster-spot saving moves in order to prepare themselves for free agency and the Rule V Draft.

First of all, as of now, every Yankees that was eligible to be a free agent is no longer on the 40 man roster - this means Kerry Wood, Andy Pettitte, Mariano Rivera, Javier Vazquez, Lance Berkman, Nick Johnson, Austin Kearns, Derek Jeter, Chad Moeller, and Marcus Thames.

Furthermore, they outrighted two players off of the roster - Royce Ring and Chad Gaudin, allowing them both to become free agents.

Finally, they added one player to the 40 man roster in order to protect from being a minor league free agent. They added 23-year-old outfielder Melky Mesa to the roster. Mesa hit .260/.338/.475 with 19 homeruns and 49 total extra base hits in 446 at-bats last year with Single-A Tampa. He would have been a six-year minor league free agent had he not been added to the roster.

Girardi Re-Ups for 3 Years

2010-11-03T00:27:00.002-04:00

In the least surprising managerial move of the offseason, the Yankees re-signed manager Joe Girardi to a 3-year deal worth $9 million dollars.

I know many people were upset with his performance this postseason, but this is the right decision. Girardi has been known to trust match-ups a lot and that is what he did in the playoffs - and unfortunately he got burnt by that a few times.

But in the end this is my opinion - all human managers suck. If a team wanted the ideal leader they would use a computer to make the decisions for them. But as long as they do not hurt the team too much and he is competent in their interactions with the players and coach, they are fine.

So in conclusion, my reaction to them re-signing Girardi - "Whatever."

Dave Eiland Firing: A Not-So-Difficult Mystery to Solve

2010-11-02T23:34:00.002-04:00

As you surely know, the Yankees fired pitching coach Dave Eiland after their ALCS loss to the Texas Rangers.

Brian Cashman has basically refused to comment on the matter, but the clues that the Yankees have left behind lead to a not-so-happy reason for the departure.

Dave Eiland missed almost an entire month early on in the season for undisclosed personal reasons. This right away seemed to be a clear sign that something is amiss. Then there are various rumors around the blogosphere that basically say the obvious - Dave Eiland missed time because he was in rehab.

All the signs point to this, all thought I am in no way saying that this is a fact. This is purely speculation. There has not been any official statement in any way stating this.

The Yankees have however been looking for replacements for him for the next season. Various sources say they have been considering at least Gil Patterson, Mike Harkey, and Scott Aldred for the job.

Lee is Great, but Sky Yet to Fall

2010-10-18T12:53:00.002-04:00

On Twitter Sunday night, Benjamin Kabak of River Ave. Blues made a very valid point about the tough task the Yankees face with Cliff Lee potentially pitching against them in two of the five remaining ALCS games scheduled. I think it is very fair to be concerned about Cliff Lee and his mastery of pitching, but I feel that the discussion about that point has unnecessarily risen to a decibel level that rivals that of cries that the sky is falling. It is imperative to recall that there are several things that the Yankees have going for them against Cliff Lee that should (somewhat) dampen the concerns of Yankee fans.

Firstly, let us not forget that in the 2010 regular season, the Yankees were tops in the American League in wOBA at .347. They also led the AL in OBP (.350) and were third in SLG (.436). The Yankee line-up is stacked with professional hitters; it is not impotent by any stretch of the imagination and has the ability to hold its own against even a world-class pitcher like Lee. (As a side note, it should be noted that, while the southpaw Lee enjoys similar success against both lefties and righties, the Yankees' line-up is mostly RH or switch-hitting, and that of their three regular LHB, only Curtis Granderson posts a poor platoon split. So there's that.)

Secondly, people should take solace in the fact that Cliff Lee actually is not a robot. He is as vulnerable to being sup-bar as every other major-league player. It is not outside the realm of possibility that Lee does not pitch well in this series. If the Giants' middle-of-the-road offense (.318 wOBA, 9th in the National League) managed to put some chinks into Roy Halladay's armor, the Yanks could certainly manage something against Lee.

Last, but certainly not least, anything can happen in the playoffs. It is often said that the playoffs are a crapshoot; teams are at the mercy of luck in five and seven-game contests. Anything can happen in a series, from Francisco Cervelli getting a big hit to a future Hall of Famer like Alex Rodriguez going 1 for 16. So it shouldn't be a surprise if Lee falters; anything can happen in the sample size of one or two games.

The intention of this article is not to understate the ability of Cliff Lee; he is an amazing pitcher whom the Rangers were savvy enough to trade for this summer. With that said, he is not invincible, and the Yankees have, bar none, the best offense in baseball. Yes, having to potentially face Lee twice over the next five games is unfortunate, but it definitely does not spell the end for the Yanks.

Is Phil Hughes Getting Enough Swinging Strikes from his Curve?

2010-10-11T13:40:00.007-04:00

In Saturday's series-clinching victory against the Minnesota Twins, the Yankees' Phil Hughes posted a sparkling line of 7 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 1 BB, and 6 K. Three of his strikeouts came with Minnesota hitters whiffing at 2-strike curveballs. However, Hughes only induced swings-and-misses on 5.6% of his curves. This wasn't any kind of aberration from his career numbers, though; Hughes' whiff percentage on curveballs in the 2010 regular season was at 5.8%. Hughes' lack of swings and misses from his curve should be very troubling.

Even though Hughes' curveball was very highly regarded as he was coming up from the minors, it is below average in getting hitters to swing and miss. This year, the league whiff percentage has hovered around 11.6%. Hughes' whiff rate on curves is roughly half that. What is also troubling is that Hughes also has had trouble throwing the curve for strikes. Check out this called-strike plot from his game on Saturday night (click to enlarge):

This inability to get the curveball over the plate has also been a season-long pattern. In 2010, Hughes has gotten strikes with his curve 53.9% of the time; the league average is 57.9%.

Phil Hughes is already a pretty good pitcher right now. But if he is to fulfill his promise as a #1/2 pitcher, he is going to have to tighten up his curveball. Fortunately, time is on Hughes' side. He is only 24 years old and already has two 2+ WAR MLB seasons under his belt. Hopefully, his curve will continue to mature as he moves past his first full season of starting in the majors.

All Pitch f/x data was provided by Texas Leaguers

Gardner Batting First Against Righties

2010-09-10T12:52:00.001-04:00

For the past couple of weeks, it appears that Brett Gardner has been given more of a chance to lead off games for the Yankees. Interestingly, it appears that Girardi has opted only to start Gardner against righties. Since August 17th, Gardner has led off 14 games. In 12 of those games, the opponents starters' were right-handed pitchers. In the other two games, which happened to occur this past weekend, Gardner led off against two lefties: Mark Rzepczynski, a sinker/slider pitcher, and Brett Cecil, a pitcher who throws a change-up (which has a reverse platoon-split) over 20% of the time.

Initially, I did not really understand why Joe Girardi was not putting Brett Gardner in the lead-off position all the time if he was already willing to lead off Gardner against RHP. Firstly, Gardner leads the team in OBP at .390 (while Gardner does show a small platoon split, he has still managed to post a .382 OBP v. LHP). He also leads the majors in pitches per plate appearance at 4.61 (4.63 P/PA against LHP, also tops in the majors), so he clearly can work an at bat and make pitchers throw pitches. In addition, Jeter has been floundering in the lead-off position, leading to some to call for him to be removed from the top of the line-up.

But something had caught my eye the other day that I realized was the impetus for keeping Jeter in the lead-off spot v. LHP. Matt Imbrogno at The Yankee U wrote about Jeter's platoon splits last week. It's a good post, and he basically pointed out that while Jeter was sucking eggs against RHP, he was still killing it v. LHP to the tune of a .382 wOBA (and a .380 OBP).

Sometimes, I do not like Joe Girardi's line-up construction. There have been times this season where I have questioned having Curtis Granderson bat second while Nick Swisher bats sixth or seventh (an occurrence, I might add, that happened less often as the season wore on). With that said, Girardi should be lauded for identifying Jeter's weakness v. RHP and using a superior option (Gardner) at the top of the batting order. This shuffling of the batting order is the epitome of optimal line-up construction.

Robbie Cano's Phantom Walk-Rate

2010-09-01T15:09:00.002-04:00

On the surface, it appears that Robinson Cano has taken a major step forward in his overall game. His line of .325/.389/.562, combined with his slightly above-average defense (3.6 UZR/150, +3 on Total Zone), has brought Cano into the Most Valuable Player discussion. If one searches for the term "Robinson Cano MVP," Google fetches roughly 65,000 results. Cano's 2010 campaign for MVP has been buttressed by his increased power (his .237 ISO is a career-high) and his spike in walk-rate (his 8.7% walk-rate is also a career-high). While I believe the power is real, I think it would be prudent to look deeper into Cano's walk-rate.

Cano's walk-rate has jumped significantly; in his previous two seasons, Cano had posted underwhelming walk-rates of 4.1% and 4.5%, respectively. Cano, in his short career, had never posted a walk-rate greater than 5.8% prior to 2010. From observing this year's games, though, Cano has appeared to become a more patient hitter, but more rigorous analysis is needed than the old-fashioned eye-ball test.

With Cano's aforementioned power surge, it appears that managers are becoming more unwilling to pitch to him; this year, Cano has drawn 12 intentional walks, which also happens to be a career-high (and by a large margin; he's never drawn more than 5 in a season, and we still have September to go). Those IBBs make up roughly one quarter of all of Cano's BBs this season (49). When we remove Cano's IBBs, his on-base percentage goes from a very impressive .389 to a still-good .375. In addition, Cano's walk-rate, when removing the IBBs, becomes 6.7%; a fairly large discrepancy.

Even after intentional walks are taken out of the equation, it is apparent that Cano is walking more than ever. While a 6.7% walk-rate is still a career-best for Cano, it is, however, far from impressive. With this information in mind, we should temper our enthusiasm (slightly) for Cano's great year. Nevertheless, Cano's walk-rate will continue to improve with age, and is a good companion for his contact, power, and defensive skills.

Yankee Prospects Derailed by Injury

2010-08-30T22:58:00.003-04:00

After reading this somewhat-depressing, yet well-written article by Joe Posnanski on the volatility of pitching prospects (TINSTAAPP, anybody?), I decided it would be fun if I made a quick-and-dirty little list of Yankee prospects who had a promising shot at the big leagues, but were derailed by injury. All pitchers on my list were drafted in the first round or the supplementary round, so no 2nd round guys. This qualifier also removes any Yankee prospects from prior to the beginning of the First Year Player draft in 1965. I will list I'm sure there will be obvious people I have missed, and this is not meant as really a comprehensive list, but I think this should be interesting, anyway.

1977: Steve Taylor (drafted in the 1st Round, 23rd overall): Information on Taylor is rather sparse, but we do know he was drafted out of the University of Delaware after pitching there for one year, in which Taylor piled up 114 strikeouts and a tiny 1.59 ERA. After toiling in the minors for four years, Taylor hung up his spikes, apparently prompted by injury. The first comment of this post indicates that Taylor suffered a shoulder injury. Interestingly, Taylor's life after baseball included politics. As a member of the Delaware State House of Representatives, he played a major role in building a stadium for the minor league Wilmington Blue Rocks.

1991: Brien Taylor (drafted 1st Round, 1st overall): Most of you know the story about Taylor. Taylor was the consensus top talent in '91, was a can't-miss prospect, and he fell into the Yanks' lap. Unfortunately, Taylor got into a bar fight, hurt his shoulder in said bar fight, and was never the same again.

1993: Matt Drews (drafted 1st Round, 13th overall): Drafted out of Sarasota High School in Florida, Drews was rated the #13 prospect by Baseball America in 1996 and was rated at #39 by draft maven John Sickels prior to the 1996. Unfortunately, according to Sickels, Drews suffered a major arm injury in 1996. Drews, like all the others on this short list, never threw a pitch in the major leagues.

2001: John Skaggs (drafted 1st Round (Supplementary), 42nd overall): Skaggs was drafted out of Rice University, which has a reputation for abusing the arms of its pitchers, so it was not a surprise to me when I learned that Skaggs blew out his elbow in his first professional start. Skaggs was on prospect radars for a long time; back in 2000, the Baltimore Orioles drafted him in the 4th round, but could not woo him away from Rice. He did return from Tommy John surgery, but he probably was never the same: the Yanks saw fit to let him walk away as a minor league free agent after the 2005 season.

Whew, there really weren't that many pitching prospects I could find that were injured. But there were many draft picks who, for reasons I could not discover, left baseball after only a handful of seasons in the minors or majors; I couldn't find very much on why Bill Burbach (the Yanks' first ever draft-pick in 1965), Brian Ryder (1978), or Jeff Pries (1984) left baseball, for example. Technically, you could count Dave Walling (1999) in the injured column, who appeared to leave baseball for psychological reasons. If you want to break my rule about not including undrafted players, you could mention the infamous Jim Bouton, who had a couple good years with the Yanks in the '60s, but injured his arm and later learned a knuckeball in an attempt to salvage his career. Also of note is 2008 Supplemental pick (#44 overall) Jeremy Bleich, who went down with shoulder surgery in May of 2010. Of course it remains to be seen how Bleich will return from the injury, and I wish him the best, but operating on a labrum does not usually end well.

In any case, it's fairly obvious that not even the Yankees have been immune to heartbreaking injuries to young pitchers. It also highlights the fact that the Yanks have been extraordinarily lucky with Joba Chamberlain, Ian Kennedy and Phil Hughes, who (to this point- knock on wood) have not had to undergo arm surgeries (and in Kennedy's case, helped them land Curtis Granderson). The Big Three certainly seem to be the exception, though, and not the rule.

The Real Problem with Granderson

2010-08-27T16:28:00.002-04:00

Curtis Granderson has not exactly lit the world on fire with his bat in 2010. His line of .249/.320/.441 does not inspire a great deal of confidence. While Granderson's wOBA (.335) grades out as league-average, he is certainly a weakness in the Yankees' line-up. In addition, Granderson's anemic bat against left-handed pitching (.239/.288/.341) has forced Joe Girardi to sit Granderson in favor of a line-up that has Brett Gardner shifting from left to center field and slotting Austin Kearns into left. There have been some bright spots in Granderson's game, however.

What should be encouraging is that Granderson has retained at least some of the power that he flashed in 2009, when he smashed 30 home runs and put up a .204 ISO. In 2010, Granderson has posted an ISO of .193. Skeptics will say that homer-friendly Yankee Stadium is inflating Granderson's ISO, but Granderson's home ISO is .197; his away ISO is .187 (for those interested, Granderson's ISO against RHP is .237; by comparison, his ISO against LHP is a miniscule .103).

What is also good news for the Yankees is that Granderson appears to be doing a good job of playing center field. Granderson has made quite a few dazzling plays in center, and to an extent, the statistics are verifying what our eyes are seeing. Granderson's UZR/150 is 5.3, on par with his career average of 4.1 UZR/150, and the Fans' Scouting Report also rates Granderson favorably (by contrast, Baseball-Reference's TotalZone has Granderson at -4, but I am more confident with UZR). With the combined league-average bat and above-average fielding, Granderson has provided some value for the Yankees; he has racked up 2.2 Wins Above Replacement in only 391 Plate Appearances. While Yankees fans would love it if Granderson figured out left-handed pitching, he has been far from a black hole on this Yankee team in 2010.

The real concern lies in how Granderson will perform in the future. Granderson has already justified his 2010 salary ($5.5 million); according to Fangraphs, Granderson has already generated $8.9 million in value from his play. But will Granderson ever figure out southpaws? If he has yet to learn to hit LHP at age 29, he probably will never learn how. Fortunately for the Yankees, Granderson's contract is fairly team-friendly (Granderson is owed $8.25 MM for 2011, $10 MM, and the team holds a 2013 option for $13 MM w/$2 MM buyout). But if Granderson's defense starts to take a dive as he ages and he no longer will be able to play center, that contract will start to look bad for the Yankees: it is not ideal to fill a roster-spot with a corner outfielder that can't hit lefties and is making $10 million.

Logan's Turnaround a Godsend or a Mirage?

2010-08-23T23:49:00.004-04:00

As I alluded to yesterday, Boone Logan has been pitching rather well in the absence of Damaso Marte (currently on the DL, and not slated to return until after rosters expand on September 1st). Since June 16th (Logan's first appearance after returning from a stint in the minor leagues), Logan has pitched 20.0 innings and struck out 20 hitters, while walking 7 (3 of which were intentional walks) and only giving up one home run; which have culminated to a sparkling ERA of 1.35. Logan's pitching has also helped bolster an already-strong bullpen. But is Logan really this good, or is this just a tease?

For one thing, Logan has been rather lucky. In the stretch of time since June 16th, Logan's opposing hitters have had a BABiP of .240; it is probable that a lot of balls in play have been finding the gloves of Yankee fielders at an unusually high rate. It should also be noted that we are dealing with very small sample sizes here, and the performance of relievers over small samples are notoriously volatile and unpredictable.

Having said that, there are things that we can take from the data that are very encouraging. It is quite miraculous that of the 76 Batters Faced since June 16th, Logan has only unintentionally walked 4 of them; that is fairly impressive control. In addition, in the entire season, Logan has been chewing up left-handed hitters to the tune of .176/.276/.216* over 58 Plate Appearances (small sample size caveats included). Logan has also put up a strong 3.00 K/BB ratio. Comparatively, Logan's numbers against righties are ghastly (an even 1.00 K/BB ratio against RHB says it all) and appearances against RHB should be limited at all costs. If Damaso Marte can't come back strong for the Yanks this season, though, Boone Logan has positioned himself as a defensible LOOGY option.

*It should be noted that Logan's BABiP against LHB is .273, so he's getting a little lucky here as well. That slash line is still miniscule, though. A .216 slugging percentage!? LHB have only managed 1 extra-base hit against Logan this year (a triple). Sure, his performance is going to regress to the mean, and he's going to give up some XBH and homers to lefties at some point in time, but he's still going to be good.

The Trainwreck

2010-08-22T21:10:00.001-04:00

When the Yankees traded for Javier Vazquez and Boone Logan from the Braves in exchange for pitching prospect Arodyz Viscaino, LOOGY Mike Dunn, and everybody's favorite 4th outfielder (Melky Cabrera), the idea was not that the Yankees were trading for an ace. The Yankees did not expect Vazquez to replicate his 2009 numbers, which netted Vazquez a 4th place finish in the NL Cy Young voting. It was a career year for Vazquez; he had never posted a higher K/9 (9.77), and he had only registered a BB/9 lower than his 2009 mark (1.81) once in his entire career. Vazquez also did much of his pitching against an inferior National League. Still, it was not totally preposterous that the Yanks slotted Vazquez into their rotation as their 4th starter.

It is safe to say, however, that Vazquez' performance has not met the expectations of the Yankees' Front Office. By pretty much every measure of a pitcher's performance, from tERA (5.37), to xFIP (4.78), to even plain-old ERA (5.05). Vazquez K/9 has fallen to a pedestrian 7.13, while his BB/9 has skyrocketed to 3.67. And in Saturday's start, Vazquez was pulled after only 3 innings of work and gave up 4 runs and 3 home runs. Vazquez is also posting a career-low ground-ball rate of 34.2% (which is the fourth-lowest in the mark amongst starting pitchers in the AL), while having a career-high fly-ball rate (47.2%) which is the fourth-highest mark in the AL. When so many of the balls hit into play against you, it stands to reason that more of them are going to go for home runs; not including today's start, Vazquez has served up 23 long-balls.

What exactly is wrong with Vazquez? Is he hurt? Is his fastball velocity declining because he's aging (he has recently turned 34)? We simply don't know. One of the few positive things we can point to about this trade is the fact that the Yanks sold high on Melky Cabrera, who is currently lighting NL East pitching on fire to the tune of .263/.322/.374 and has actually been worth -0.5WAR, according to Fangraphs (I'm partial to Fangraphs, but Baseball Reference has Cabrera at 0.0 WAR, not exactly impressive). In addition, Boone Logan has actually pitched passably in the absence of Damaso Marte as the LOOGY (3.40 K/BB ratio against LHP this season). Arodyz Viscaino could indeed pan out as a prospect, but he's still far away from the majors and is currently on the Minor League Disabled List with a partially torn elbow ligament. Vazquez' performance has certainly been disheartening for Yankee fans this season, but it's not like the Yankees traded the farm to get him.

Injury/Transaction News: A-Rod, Nunez, Nova

2010-08-22T15:47:00.002-04:00

In Friday's game, Alex Rodriguez was taken out after one at-bat with a strained left calf, the same injury that had been bothering him for some time. The Yankees decided not to risk any further injury, by placing him on the 15-day DL.

To take his place on the roster, the Yankees called up SP Ivan Nova, who will make a few starts, the first of which will be Monday.

Rookie Eduardo Nunez will get the majority of the time at third base while A-Rod is out.

Felix Shut Them Out; Yankees Win Despite Vazquez

2010-08-22T15:36:00.002-04:00

The last two games can be easily described in two words: ugly and okay.

Friday the Yankees faced Felix Hernandez and the Mariners with AJ Burnett on the hill, and the result was exactly as you would expect. Hernandez destroyed the Yankees over 8 innings, striking out 11, while allowing only 4 hits. AJ Burnett gave up 12 hits and 6 earned runs over 7 innings of baseball, in the Yankees 6-0 loss. I was there in person to see this debacle.

Yesterday, with the exception of how Javy Vazquez pitched, was a much better game. Things looked like a repeat of Friday early on after Vazquez gave up two first-inning homeruns to Ichiro and Branyan. But the Yankee offense picked up the slack. A 4-run first inning concluded by a 2-run Jorge Posada homerun gave the Yankees the lead, but the Mariners would pick up 2 more runs in the 4th, one of them off of Ichiro's second homerun of the day. Vazquez would leave the game after only 3+ innings pitched.

But that is when the game would change - as Chad Gaudin would come in. Gaudin went 3, 1-hit, scoreless innings, followed by Logan (1), Robertson (.2), and Rivera (1.1).

The Yankees would take the lead back in the 7th when they picked up 3, and would pick up 2 more in the 8th.

The Yankees would end the gain on top 9-5, with Boone Logan getting his first win of the season.

News from Around the League

2010-08-20T14:41:00.002-04:00

Just a quick summary of what has been going on...

The Rockies DFA'd LHP Randy Flores.

2.96 ERA is nice, but the 5.9 K/9 and 4.3 BB/9 in the National League isn't. He's a LOOGY that has been doing better against righties this year.

The Rockies DFA'd OF Brad Hawpe.

With the Rockies out of contention, the playoff contention deadline coming up, and with the Hawpe becoming a free agent this offseason who will not be offered arbitration, and Hawpe's poor performance, the Rockies felt no need to keep him. He has a .776 OPS this season and is not a great defender. He will make a little under $2 million the rest of this year. The Yankees have no room for him with Thames, Kearns, and soon to be Berkman. He needs to join a team by September 1st in order to be eligible for the postseason, although a team might not care; they could just add him after just so they can actually make it - not caring if he's eligible or not.

The Padres signed OF Jody Gerut to a minor league deal, who was released by the Brewers.

He had a .596 OPS in limited action this year. He comes back to the Padres after being traded for Tony Gwynn, Jr. last year.

The Cardinals acquired 3B Pedro Feliz from the Astros in exchange for a minor league pitcher.

.554 OPS. Always hated that signing.

The Mets placed RHP Francisco Rodriguez on the disqualified list. The MLBPA filed a grievance.

The Braves acquired 1B Derrek Lee from the Cubs in exchange for three minor league pitchers.

Lee has a .751 OPS on the year and a .939 OPS since the All Star Break.

The Rays signed SP Ramon Ortiz to a minor league deal.

The Rangers signed RP Jesus Colome to a minor league deal.

The Dodgers released RP Claudio Vargas.

The Rangers signed IF Alex Cora to a minor league deal.

The Giants released SP Todd Wellemeyer.

The Reds DFA'd SP Micah Owings.

The Phillies DFA'd 3B Greg Dobbs.

Aceves, A-Rod Almost Ready for Return; Pettitte Not

2010-08-19T16:54:00.002-04:00

INJURY NEWS:

Chad Jennings and Brian Heyman (source, source) has some news regarding the statuses of Alfredo Aceves, Alex Rodriguez, Andy Pettitte, and Lance Berkman.

Aceves will probably have one or two rehab starts, and then he should be ready. It sounds as if he will be ready very early September. He will not be a rotation option.

Lance Berkman will be back once his 15 days on the DL are up. He was placed on it retroactive to August 16, so he will be back when rosters expand on September 1st.

Alex Rodriguez should be ready in a couple of days. He will DH at first.

Andy Pettitte felt a groin strain while pitching a bullpen session. The Yankees are hoping to get him back sometime around mid-September. Any later and the Yankees will need to worry. Losing Andy Pettitte for the playoffs would be a crushing blow.

Hughes Picks up 15th Win over Tigers; Berkman DL'd

2010-08-19T16:20:00.003-04:00

The Yankees picked up their 75th win of the season, as they defeated the Tigers 11-5, also picking up the series win.

The Tigers got on board early with 2 first-inning runs off of Hughes in the first. The Yanks did nothing off of RIck Porcello early on, but in the 4th inning they picked up 2 runs off of four singles.

In the 6th inning however the Yankees unloaded with 9 more runs - it was a quite a show:
Teixeira walk
Cano double
Swisher walk
Posada single
Granderson walk
Kearns double
Pena ground-out
Gardner walk
Jeter triple
Teixeira ground-out
Cano homer
Swisher single
Posada ground-out

That inning allowed the Yankees to take out Hughes (who was rolling) and bring in Mitre. Mitre did not have the greatest of nights (allowing 7 baserunners and 3 runs in 3 innings), but he saved the rest of the bullpen and even got himself a save.

The Yankees ended up winning the game 11-5, and will welcome the Seattle Mariners into town tomorrow night.

TRANSACTION NEWS:
Before the game, the Yankees placed OF Lance Berkman on the 15-day DL with the ankle injury he suffered a few games ago. Eduardo Nunez was called up and made his Major League debut today, fouling out behind the plate.

A-Rod's Perplexing Platoon Splits (Now with more alliteration!)

2010-08-16T15:21:00.000-04:00

It is fairly obvious that Alex Rodriguez' 2010 season has not exactly met expectations. His line of .267/.335/.488 certainly leaves something to be desired. There have been some theories about his sub-par production, including from Frankie Piliere, who believes that A-Rod has lost some bat speed and that he is not generating enough power from the lower half of his body. Curiously, A-Rod is also posting a reverse platoon split. Against right-handed pitching, Rodriguez is hitting a respectable (but far below his career averages) of .294/.354/.535. Against southpaws, however A-Rod's line shrinks to .198/.292/.372.

How does one explain A-Rod's bizarre reverse platoon split? Well, a quick glance at the BABiP column shows that A-Rod's BABiP against LHP is a miniscule .208 (compared to .305 against RHP). While A-Rod's line-drive rate at 14.4% is 4.6% below his career average LD% against LHP, I think it's safe to say that A-Rod is experiencing quite a bit of bad luck; his career BABiP against LHP is .283.

On the surface, A-Rod appears to be having a down year. But A-Rod's bad luck on balls in play has exacerbated his poor performance at the plate. And while A-Rod has posted a lower ISO this year (.222 in 2010 vs. .268 in his career), HitTracker actually has A-Rod with a longer average True Distance on his home-runs in 2010 (408.6 feet) than in 2009 (402.4 feet). A-Rod is certainly in the decline phase of his career, but he is far from done as a productive baseball player.

P.S. Stephen R. over at The Yankee U broke down A-Rod's BABiP by batted ball type, and after adding the caveat that A-Rod will indeed age, Stephen plans on "buying" if A-Rod were stock. I would buy some shares, as well. His article was fantastic, so I urge you all to read it (if you haven't already).

Chan Ho Claimed by Pirates

2010-08-06T18:51:00.000-04:00

The Pittsburgh Pirates have claimed Chan Ho Park off of waivers and will take responsibilty for the remainder of his contract, which is about $1.3 million dollars.

Dear Pirates Fans,

I'm so sorry.

Sincerely,
Steve S

Albaladejo Doing Work in AAA

2010-08-06T16:04:00.001-04:00

Over the past three years, Jonathan Albaladejo has seen a lot of split time between the Yankees' minor league teams and the big league team. Between 2008 and 2009, Albaladejo threw 47.0 innings in the minors and 48.0 innings with the Yankees. Albaladejo did not especially distinguish himself in that timespan, with a FIP north of 4.50 in the majors and a better but unspectacular FIP under 4 in the minors. 2010 has been a different story, however. Except for a stretch in July after the Andy Pettitte injury, Albaladejo has spent his time this season with the Yanks' AAA squad in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. While pitching there, Albaladejo has been making the case to get back onto the Yankees' 25-man roster.

Albaladejo has been mowing down hitters all year. In 51.0 innings, Albaladejo has a sparkling K/9 of 11.47, while maintaining respectable BB/9 of 2.65. This all translates into a gorgeous 2.18 FIP. Minor League Splits' Major League Equivalent projects that Albaladejo would have racked up a 3.27 FIP in the majors. These numbers have not been enough to compel the Yankees to keep Albaladejo on the major league roster for an extended period of time, however.

You can appreciate why the Yankees are skeptical. Albaladejo has never pitched this well in his career, the sample size this year is not that large, and his stuff is not indicative of a great reliever. Albaladejo's fastball is not terribly intimidating; in his brief stint with the big league club earlier this year, Pitch F/X measured Albaladejo's average fastball speed at 91.6 MPH. Albaladejo also throws a curveball and a slider, but he comes with the fastball nearly 70% of the time; it's his number one option.

I'm not necessarily advocating that the Yankees put Albaladejo in the big league bullpen, but it's tough to ignore a 5.26 K/BB ratio. It's easy to understand why Albaladejo is still in AAA; he doesn't wow scouts and he has never put up numbers this strong. Having said that, I think he's still a better option than some of the lesser parts of the Yanks' relief corps, like Chad Gaudin. In any case, it's almost an injustice that Albaladejo is still not in the majors after the way he's been carving up AAA hitters.

Jorge Posada, Ageless Wonder

2010-08-02T20:22:00.005-04:00

Quietly, Jorge Posada has been putting together another spectacular year with the wood. Amidst the myriad injuries Posada has fought through over the course of the season, he has managed to put up a wonderful slash line of .267/.373/.481, which converts into a .374 wOBA. These numbers are even more eye-popping when you consider that Posada is a 38 year-old catcher.

Posada compares very favorably with other players at his position. As a matter of fact, Posada has the 4th best wOBA among MLB catchers (min. 200 PA). In addition, the four men in front of him (Buster Posey, Giovanni Soto, Miguel Olivo) all get the benefit of playing in the National League and seeing pitches from pitchers like Jeff Suppan, who put up -0.3 WAR.

Another thing about Posada's performance that I would like to point out is his power. Even at 38, Posada is managing to put up a .214 ISO, which is actually greater than his career average (.203). It should also be pointed out that no other catcher in ML history has managed to put up a higher ISO in his age-38 season. I find it astonishing that Posada is still managing to hit with so much power at such a late age.

Over the years, Yankee fans have been spoiled by Jorge Posada's offensive output at catcher. I'll grant you that his defense is not top-notch, and his health has been giving some at bats away to the light-hitting Francisco Cervelli, but his performance this year has been rather historic. It is very surprising to me that Posada has been able to defy the aging curve and continue to be a strength in the Yankee line-up.

Monday Links

2010-08-02T15:38:00.002-04:00

Here are some links to keep you all pacified:

I wrote a guest post at The Yankee U about Brett Gardner's surprising success against left-handed pitching this year. Forgive me, but I think it's pretty good, so go read!

Also, Frankie Piliere of AOL Fanhouse wrote up a scouting report of Alex Rodriguez' swing. Basically, he says that he's not generating enough power from his bottom half, which can explain his alarming decline in power numbers.

Yankees' Deadline Dealings Make Some Sense

2010-08-01T11:51:00.004-04:00

I felt I would be remiss if I did not comment on some of the acquisitions the Yankees made just before yesterday's non-waiver trade deadline. All of the additions clearly improve the team at what appears to be very little cost. It appears that a lot of high-fives and pats on the back should be in order for the Yankees' front office.

The trade for Lance Berkman definitely makes the DH position stronger for the Yankees. He now gives the Yankees a much better answer at DH versus RHP than Juan Miranda; Miranda didn't exactly get the chance to show anything meaningful in 67 PA this year, but it is safe to say that he will not approach the .256/.390/.471 line that Berkman has been putting up against RHP this season. In addition, the cost for Berkman was not especially steep, but we'll talk more about that later.

In separate trades with the Indians, the Yankees acquired Austin Kearns and Kerry Wood. In exchange for Kearns, the Yankees pledged to send either a player to be named later or cash the Indians' way. Kearns is an upgrade over Marcus Thames in the sense that he actually can play the field without drawing snickers from the opposition. Thames has the better bat versus LHP (.373 wOBA v. southpaws for Thames in 2010; Kearns has put up a .315 wOBA, but he's probably closer in skill to his .353 career wOBA), but he is mind-numbingly awful in the field. R.J. Anderson thinks both corner outfielders should continue see playing time for the Yankees, but I would not shed my tears if Kearns gets the lion's share of playtime for the Yanks.

As for Wood, the Yanks also agreed to the PTBNL/cash return, in addition to picking up at least $1.5 million of Wood's 2010 salary for the Indians. I'm least impressed by this move, partly because the gentleman getting the ax on the Yankees' roster to make room for Wood, Chan Ho Park, has put up rather similar peripheral statistics in 2010, fluky home-run rate aside. Park has a K/9 of 7.39 and a BB/9 of 3.06, good for a 4.35 xFIP. Wood has a higher K-rate (8.10) but a rather large walk rate of 4.95, which all culminates to a rather unimpressive 5.04 xFIP (in a small 20 inning sample that may not tell us much, however), and Wood, like Park, has spent a good amount of time on the DL this season (and has a very checkered, well-known injury history). The Yankees are certainly buying low on Wood and could be gambling that they see a return to 10+ K/9 that Wood put up in 2008 and 2009. Having said that, I would have rather seen Gaudin or Sergio Mitre (or possibly even flash-in-the-pan Dustin Moseley) get dismissed, but it honestly is not that much of an impact. Wood is still averaging 95 MPH on his fastball, could very well become a reliable bullpen arm, and the Yanks did not appear to give up very much for Wood, something I feared they would do in order to supplement the bullpen.

One other qualm I had with the trade was the loss of Mark Melancon in the Berkman deal. I thought he would have made for a fine bullpen piece on the Yanks' major-league club, but I at least would rather get someone of value for him rather than having him languish in the minors. Kudoz to Brian Cashman for converting Melancon and toolsy infielder Jimmy Paredes into a rental on Berkman. On the whole, Cashman's decisions over the past couple of days were very easy to swallow.

Defending Cervelli's Defense

2010-07-28T12:12:00.007-04:00

There seems to be a wide range of opinions regarding back-up catcher Francisco Cervelli. Many individuals, such as Mike Axisa, have been criticizing Cervelli's play, even the backstop's defense. Axisa attempted to quantify how well Cervelli prevented opposing baserunners from advancing via steals, wild pitches, and passed balls. Axisa found that Cervelli did not compare very favorably to other Major-Leaguers (I'm not entirely certain of the validity of Axisa's analysis, but it seems to be fairly legitimate). This indication of poor defense, coupled with Cervelli's fairly subpar work with the wood (.338 OBP, .328 SLG, .304 wOBA), seems to paint a picture that Cervelli is not suited to being a starting catcher, let alone Jorge Posada's oft-used understudy. On the flip side of the coin, people continue to be fans of Cervelli, including the Yankees' Front Office. Inside this piece written today, 660 WFAN's Sweeny Murti indicated that "several in the Yankee organization now believe [Cervelli] can be....an everday guy." In addition, Cervelli had built a reputation for defensive prowess throughout his minor-league career, being anointed the best defensive catcher in the Yankees' farm system for three consecutive years before his promotion to the big leagues.

I get the feeling that that Cervelli's true talent lies somewhere between "detriment to the team" and "everyday catcher." Firstly, his defense may not be as bad as it appears to be at this point in time. For one thing, quantifying catcher defense is notoriously difficult to do; Fangraphs' UZR does not even count UZR for catchers. While the Total Zone metric (which can be found on Baseball Reference) is rating Cervelli very poorly this year (-4 Fielding Runs Above Average, -9 FRAA/1,200 inn), it was singing his praises last year (in 241 and 1/3 inn., an admittedly smaller sample than you would like to have, Cervelli compiled 5 FRAA). Baseball Info Solutions' Defensive Runs Saved Above Average has Cervelli at 1 DRSAA in 2010 (and 3 DRSAA last year). Not exactly awe-inspiring, but is it not a condemnation of Cervelli's defense. In addition, I asked Baseball America's Jim Callis in his chat on July 28 (yesterday) about what he thought of Cervelli's defense, speculating that his defense was heralded in the Yankees' minor league system because the Yanks did not have depth at the catcher position. He had this to say:

Cervelli's defense is his strong suit. All the WP and SB this year are surprising. Most of the Yankees' many catching prospects are bat-first guys, but Cervelli's reputation for having good catch-and-throw skills was well-deserved.

Could Cervelli's defensive ability have suddenly eroded in the majors? I find that difficult to believe. While yes, some of these defensive statistics are rather discouraging (including his awful 17% caught-stealing %), there seems to be a little bit of disagreement between the numbers. Back-up catchers should be able to field, and in the past, Cervelli has shown the ability to be a capable defensive catcher. I don't see any good reason why he cannot continue to be a good defensive catcher and a serviceable back-up in the future.

Yankee Bullpen Troubles Exaggerated

2010-07-24T10:31:00.006-04:00

Note: I apologize for the lack of posts from my end, but I have been in Greece for about the last month. I'll try to get some more content up when I get stateside later this week.

In the lead-up to the trade deadline, many Yankee fans have been agitating for Brian Cashman and the Front Office to shore up the much-maligned bullpen. Undoubtedly, this has been brought on by the perceived ineffectiveness of Joba Chamberlain (5.66 ERA), Chan Ho Park (5.74), and Chad Gaudin (6.54), amongst others. I believe that much of the criticism of the bullpen has been unwarranted and that the Yankees do not necessarily require a bullpen upgrade.

The focii of the bullpen angst have been Chamberlain and Park, whom, as mentioned before, have posted some ugly ERAs. Looking at the underlying statistics, however, we can observe that Park and Chamberlain actually have not been pitching all that poorly. Chamberlain has been plagued by a ridiculously high BABiP of .405 (most pitchers usually post BABiPs around .300, and while Chamberlain has posted very high BABiPs in his career, there's no way that he can sustain a BABiP over .400 . Meanwhile, Park has been victimized by an inordinate amount of long balls. His home-run/flyball rate is an uncharacteristic 16.3% (for his career, it has been 12.1%). Both gentlemen have been victimized by bad luck; Joba has posted an xFIP of 3.33, and Park has posted a respectable 4.09 xFIP.

With this said, the Yankee bullpen has not been terrible. Yankee relievers rank 8th in the American League in ERA (4.14); not exactly awe-inspiring, but nor is it cripplingly bad. Advanced metrics smile upon the Yankee bullpen more favorably. The Yanks' bullpen ranks 7th in the AL in FIP (4.04), and 4th in xFIP (4.19). In addition, the Yanks rank 3rd in the AL in relievers' BB/9 (3.43). Admittedly, the Yanks are only 7th in the AL in bullpen K/9 at 7.68, but I think it's safe to say that the Yankees' bullpen is well within the the upper half of the American League. The stud-like K-rate of David Robertson (10.32 K/9; that 4.78 BB/9 needs to go down, though) and the consistent excellence of the Hammer of God himself, Mariano Rivera (3.08 xFIP) should also be mentioned.

While many people view the Yankees' bullpen as a weakness that requires augmentation via acquisitions, I have to disagree. With dead weight like Chad Gaudin and Dustin Moseley in the 'pen, some improvement could be made. However, I think the Yankees would be better served filling the holes with in-house options rather than wading into the trade market for an overvalued reliever. I have in the past advocated recalling Mark Melancon, and there are other minor-league arms on the 40-man roster who could possibly give a boost, including RHP Ivan Nova (3.77 FIP in AAA). In addition, Phil Hughes will eventually be slotted into the bullpen when he inevitably reaches his innings limit as a starter. These may not be the most palatable options for the Yankees, but the bullpen really is not that bad. They should be using their trading chips to get Dan Haren or another bat, not a reliever that probably wouldn't even contribute 1.0 Wins Above Replacement in the remaining months of the season.

What's Been Going On in the Bigs...

2010-07-24T03:30:00.002-04:00

With today's win over the Royals the Yankees are now 61-34. This now gives the Yankees a 4 game lead over the Tampa Bay Rays in the Eastern Division and are 7 games ahead of the Wild Card leading Red Sox.

How have the Yankees ben at where they at at the moment? Well starting pitching has been great for the most part. CC Sabathia (13-3, 3.18) has really come on strong after a iffy start to the year, Phil Hughes has been okay (11-3, 3.99), and the injured Andy Pettitte - who will be out for a little over a month, has been amazing (11-2, 2.88). Even Javy Vazquez (8-7, 4.68) has been excellent since his dreadful April. A.J. Burnett (8-8, 4.77) has been up-and-down.

The offense has been just fine. Behind the plate Jorge Posada (.273/.381/.495) has been great offensively while Francisco Cervelli (.269/.344/.339) has been a fine back-up, although he is getting exposed in semi-regular playing time. Mark Teixeira has picked it up a little bit after the ugly start (.260/.372/.473). Robinson Cano has slowed down a little, but is still putting up MVP-type numbers (.334/.391/.565). Derek Jeter has been really, really brutal lately (.271/.334/.387). Alex Rodriguez lately has looked much better and is contuining to be awesome (.278/.350/.500). Brett Gardner is continuing his breakout season (.298/.394/.400, 26 SB) and Nick Swisher could also get himself into MVP talks with his career-year (.303/.377/.536). Curtis Granderson has been a disappointment thus far (.239/.304/.390) and has looked plain ugly at times.

The bench at the moment is being filled out by Francisco Cervelli, Juan Miranda, Ramiro Pena, Marcus Thames, and Colin Curtis.

Mariano Rivera has continued his dominance but the guys behind him have been shaky. Joba Chamberlain has been terrible all year and cannot be trusted in a key situation. After a tough start, David Robertson seems to be back to normal. The Yankees still never know what they will get out of Chan Ho Park and Boone Logan. Dustin Moseley and Chad Gaudin are mop-up guys and make the other redundant. Jonathan Albaladejo was just called up and could be an interesting piece. Sergio Mitre is taking Pettitte's spot in the rotation. Alfredo Aceves is likely done for the year with his back injury and Damaso Marte is on the DL as well.

Other guys that have made cameos for the Yankees this year are current St. Louis Cardinal Randy Winn, Nick Johnson - who is still on the DL and likely to be out for a while, Kevin Russo, Chad Huffman, Chad Moeller, Greg Golson, Ivan Nova, and Romulo Sanchez.

After an almost completed deal for Cliff Lee was backed out of by the Mariners, the Yankees have been talking with the Arizona Diamondbacks regarding SP Dan Haren, which would be a great addition. Rumors have been circulating that Ivan Nova would be the centerpiece, with the Yankees maybe also having to take a guy like Aaron Heilman, Chad Qualls, or Chris Snyder.

The Cost of Revenge

2010-06-28T04:47:00.002-04:00

C.C. Sabathia has picked up the habit of sticking up for his fellow Yankees. During Friday night's affair against the Dodgers, C.C. Sabathia plunked Vicente Padilla after Padilla had hit Robinson Cano with a pitch. To me, this was ill-advised on multiple fronts. Firstly, retaliatory HBPs offend my sensibilities because I find the practice of trading beanballs to be dangerous, primitive, and infantile. In addition, I feel it is impractical to essentially gift the opposing offense with a base-runner, especially in close games. Giving the opponent the opportunity to score a run is irresponsible. This post will focus on the latter point.

Sabathia hit Padilla in the bottom of the 5th inning. While this wasn't exactly a high-leverage situation, the game was very close at the time (the score was knotted at 1). With one out, Sabathia had given away a near-sure out and put a man on base for the top of the Dodgers' order. Fortunately for the Yankees, Sabathia induced a ground-ball from the next hitter, Rafael Furcal, and a 6-4-3 double-play resulted. In a similar scenario earlier in the year, however, the Yankees did not fair as well.

On May 8th, with Sabathia again on the hill for the Yanks against the Red Sox, Sabathia drilled Dustin Pedroia with two outs in the bottom of the 3rd inning. With the Yankees ahead by only one run, Sabathia had, like on Friday, needlessly put a runner on the basepaths with an above-average hitter coming to the plate. Unlike Friday, however, the Yanks got burnt in the next at bat. Victor Martinez stepped up to the plate and proceeded to stroke a 2-run homer over the Green Monster at Fenway. The home-run resulted in a 21% swing in win expectancy, according to Baseball Reference. The Yankees ended up winning this game by the score of 14-3, but was drilling Pedroia really worth raising Sabathia's pitch count and falling behind in the game?

I understand the desire to protect your teammates, but to me, the cost of putting your team in a position to lose a game far outweighs the intangible benefit of being "manly" and showing that you are willing to back up your teammates. The objective of Major League baseball clubs is to win baseball games; any macho nonsense is extraneous. Maybe Joe Girardi should have a little talk with Sabatha about toning down the intentional HBPs.

Yanks Call up Curtis for "Boost" on Bench

2010-06-23T01:19:00.003-04:00

Before Monday's game the Yankees called up OF Colin Curtis. Curtis, 25, made his Major League debut after hitting .280 with a .357 OBP (with no homers) and a .725 OPS over 125 at-bats in Triple-A.

To make room on the 25 and 40 man roster for Curtis, the Yankees designated third catcher Chad Moeller for assignment.

This is a move they made in order to have an extra bench player for the DL...but I don't understand why they added Curtis. One would think that Jorge Vazquez would be a move useful player to add to the roster (or Juan Miranda) despite Vazquez's limited at-bats above AA ball.

The Draft Post

2010-06-17T01:04:00.003-04:00

1st Round: Cito Culver, SS, Irondequoit HS NY
2nd Round: Angelo Gumbs, OF, Torrace HS CA
3rd Round: Robert Segedin, 3B, Tulane TX
4th Round: Mason Williams, OF, West Orange HS FL
5th Round: Thomas Kahnle, RHP, Lynn NY
6th Round: Gabe Encinas, RHP, St. Paul HS CA
7th Round: Taylor Anderson, OF, Woodland HS LA
8th Round: Kyle Roller, 1B, East Carolina NC
9th Round: Taylor Morton, RHP, TN
10th Round: Benjamin Gamel, OF, Bishop Kenny HS FL
11th Round: Zachary Vance, RHP, University of Portland WA
12th Round: Daniel Burawa, RHP, St. John's NY
13th Round: Christopher Austin, C, Heritage HS GA
14th Round: Travis Dean, RHP, Newton South HS MA
15th Round: Chase Whitley, RHP, Troy University AL
16th Round: Evan Rutckyj, LHP, St. Josephs Catholic HS Canada
17th Round: Preston Claiborne, RHP, Tulane TX
18th Round: Kevin Jacob, RHP, Georgia Tech GA
19th Round: Kevin Jordan, OF, Northside HS GA
20th Round: Michael Ferraro, LF, U of SD CA
21st Round: Dustin Hobbs, RHP, Yavapai College NV
22nd Round: Trevor Johnson, LHP, College of the Desert CA
23rd Round: Shane Brown, C, Central Florida FL
24th Round: Conor Mullee, RHP, St. Peters College NJ
25th Round: Casey Stevenson, 2B, UC Irvine CA
26th Round: Richard James Hively, RHP, Santa Ana College CA
27th Round: Martin Viramontes, RHP Loyola Marymount CA
28th Round: Josh Dezse, RHP, Olentangy Liberty HS OH
29th Round: Stewart Ijames, OF, Louisville KY
30th Round: Zachary Nuding, RHP Weatherford College TX
31st Round: Mike Gipson, RHP, Florida Atlantic FL
32nd Round: Kramer Sneed LHP Barton (N.C.) N.C.
33rd Round: Michael Hachadorian RHP San Diego Mesa JC Calif.
34th Round: Keenan Kish RHP Germantown Academy, Fort Washington, Pa.
35th Round: Will Oliver, RHP, Palomar JC CA
36th Round: Nick McCoy, C, San Diego CA
37th Round: Cameron Hobson LHP Dayton Ohio
38th Round: James Ramsay OF Brandon (Fla.) HS Fla.
39th Round: Jaycob Brugman OF Desert Vista HS, Phoenix Ariz.
40th Round: Mike Gerber OF Neuqua Valley HS, Napierville, Ill. Ill.
41th Round: Tym Pearson OF Columbia Basin (Wash.) JC Wash.
42nd Round: Mike O'Neill OF Olentangy Liberty HS, Powell, Ohio Ohio
43rd Round: Kyle Hunter LHP Kansas State Kan.
44th Round: David Middendorf LHP Northern Kentucky Ky.
45th Round: Tyler Johnson, OF, Alamagardo HS NM
46th Round: Nathan Forer RHP Southern Illinois
47th Round: Freddy Lewis LHP Tennessee Wesleyan TN
48th Round: Alex Brown RHP Amphitheater HS, Tucson Ariz.
49th Round: Will Arthur OF Abbotsford (B.C.) SS
50th Round: Matt Rice C Western Kentucky Ky.

When Tex Hits'em, He Crushes'em

2010-06-16T16:59:00.003-04:00

Last week, I wrote about Mark Teixeira's perceived struggles, and I concluded that he was just the recipient of some bad luck. I think it's safe to say that Tex's fortunes are due for a turnaround. That conclusion is buttressed by some information I looked up at the indispensable HitTracker website.

HitTracker records the distance, speed, and trajectories of every home-run hit in the major leagues, including all of those hit by Teixeira. HitTracker classifies home-runs into three groups: "No Doubt", "Plenty", and "Just Enough." No Doubt and Plenty home-runs are fairly self-explanatory, and Just Enough homers "cleared the fence by less than 10 vertical feet, or that it landed less than one fence height past the fence." Click here for a full explanation of HitTracker's classifications.

According to HitTracker, of Teixeira's 9 home-runs that have been classified (not including last night's wall-scraper), 4 have been No Doubts, which is tied for fourth amongst AL hitters. The remainder of Tex's home-runs have been classified as Plenties. Furthermore, Tex's 434 ft. bomb that was hit on May 30th ranks as the fifth-longest homer hit by Yankee hitters in 2010, and Tex has 3 of the 10 longest homers. Here's a chart of all of Tex's homers:

Mark Teixeira's ISO is still at a lower-than-usual .173. I expect that number to continue to trend upward, however. As evidenced above, Tex is still hitting balls a long way. It is only a matter of time before Tex starts to take advantage of the short porch in left field from the left side of the plate. Yankee fans just need to be reminded that patience is, indeed, a virtue.

Making Up for Lost Time

2010-06-15T06:43:00.002-04:00

Sorry for the lack of posts lately...I clearly haven't been as active as I used to.

Basically, the Yankees have been taking advantage of the lack of ability of the Orioles and Astros, and will be taking on the Phillies tonight, with CC Sabathia taking on Roy Halladay.

The other day the Yankees added Chad Huffman to the roster, who made his Major League debut, going 1-4. Marcus Thames was placed on the DL with a hamstring issue to make room on the roster.

I'll post some stuff on the draft today, and hopefully a minor league update ASAP.

Burnett's New Strategy a Cause for Concern?

2010-06-12T21:01:00.010-04:00

Lost amid much of the early-season trials and tribulations of this year's Yankees squad has been the performance of the Yanks' lead pie-thrower, AJ Burnett. While Burnett can boast of an improvement in his walk-rate (3.11 BB/9 in 2010; 4.22 in 2009; 3.75 career), his strike-out rate has seen a steeper drop (2010 K/9: 6.43; 2009: 8.48; 8.27 career). David Golebiewski of Fangraphs recently wrote an article in which he pointed out that hitters are making much more contact this year than in past years off of Burnett. Golebiewski posited that this was due to the ineffectiveness of Burnett's knuckle-curve, but I believe that Burnett's diminished fastball velocity and overall approach to pitching has also played a role in making him more hittable. Here are Burnett's velocity charts (click to enlarge):

In 2007, the first year in which velocity data was available from Pitch F/x, Burnett was averaging 95.9 MPH (the gap you see in the velocity chart can be explained by a two month-long stay on the disabled list for a shoulder strain). In 2008, Burnett's velocity saw a rather large drop to 94.4. The velocity held steady in '09, when he averaged 94.2 on the fastball. This year, however, Burnett's velocity has dropped down to 93.2.

There are two possible explanations for Burnett's decrease in velocity. It is very possible that Burnett is toning down his velocity in order to have better command, and the decreased walk rate appears to indicate that. The decrease in overall fastball velocity could also do with the fact that Burnett has added a two-seam fastball to his repertoire, throwing it 25.1% of the time, in comparison to his four-seamer, which he throws 46.8% of the time. As a side-note, the four-seamer and the two-seamer have similar velocities (4-seam: 93.3; 2-seam: 93.1).

Apparently, Burnett has adjusted his pitching philosophy. He has spoken of his wishes to "become more of a pitcher" (Mark Feinsand) and to "pitch to contact" (Chad Jennings). Developing the sinker seems to go along with that thought process. Catcher Chad Moeller, as quoted in the Jennings piece, indicated that the two-seamer away to left-handed hitters should induce more groundballs. Indeed, it has. In 2010, Burnett has posted his highest ground-ball rate against lefties (51.1%) since 2007, when it eclipsed 53%. Overall, Burnett is inducing ground-balls at a rate of 48.4%, which is good, but not great.

Usually, it's good to have a third pitch, especially if you are a starting pitcher. I laud the fact that Burnett has started using a two-seam fastball and is trying to be smarter about pitching, but the overall approach that he has adopted this year has robbed him of his gargantuan K-rate. The meager improvements in walk rate and ground-ball rate are not enough to justify losing nearly 2 K/9 innings. Keeping balls on the ground is great and all, but the strength of Burnett's game has always been inducing swings and misses. Getting away from his bread and butter does not appear to be working.

Andy Pettitte Overperforming

2010-06-11T23:03:00.003-04:00

In 2010, the Yankees have thus far been adept at preventing runs. The Yankees' pitching staff has put up a 3.82 ERA, good for third in the American League. Part of this success on the mound has been due to the stellar hurling of the old stalwart, Andy Pettitte. Pettitte has posted a sparkling ERA of 2.46, but there are indications that he is due for a regression.

Pettitte's peripheral statistics tell a story much different than that told by his ERA. In 80.1 innings, his K/9 is a pedestrian 6.16, while maintaining fairly good command (2.46 BB/9). Pettitte has also been the beneficiary of some good luck; his BABiP is a lower-than-average .256, and he has an unsustainable LOB % of 82.1%. This all computes to a 3.73 FIP and a 4.08 xFIP.

Going forward, we should temper our expectations about Pettitte's performance. There is some good news, however; Pettitte is pitching like a third starter, which is precisely what he is on this Yankees' ballclub. Not bad for a soon-to-be 38 year-old lefty that has a fastball that sits at 88-90.

Yankees Should Take a Flier on Old Cuban LOOGY

2010-06-10T16:45:00.003-04:00

Just a though - clearly this is nothing important or that will have any significant impact...

The Baltimore Orioles DFA'd LHP Alberto Castillo, a 34-year old Cuban lefty who has floated around indy leagues and minor leagues for years, before being a member of the Baltimore Orioles from 2008 to 2010, albeit in limited duty.

In 2008 he had a 3.81 ERA in 26 innings (28 games) and in 2009 a 2.20 ERA in 12 innings (20 games). As you can see from the number of innings he has had, he is a LOOGY.

Last year lefties had a .653 OPS against him and in addition to the 2.20 ERA in the majors, he had a 2.77 ERA in Triple-A, with a 1.269 WHIP, a 9.3 K/9, and a 2.9 BB/9, all in his second season in affiliated ball since 1998!

He's been awful so far in the Majors this season, but they can easily just claim him and stash him in the minors and see if he can work things out. The 40-man roster is not an issue because Alfredo Aceves can easily be moved to the 60-day DL (he won't be back anytime soon) and Castillo can easily be DFA'd again if they need the spot.

All I'm saying is that Castillo looks like an interesting player.

What's up with Tex?

2010-06-07T14:09:00.003-04:00

Mark Teixeira's performance up to this point into the 2010 season has been a source of a great deal of agitation and discomfort for Yankee fans. Teixeira's lack of offense has been cushioned somewhat by the tremendous lines put up by Robinson Cano (.363/.402/.611; .432 wOBA) and Nick Swisher (.305/.394/.532; .405 wOBA), but it is hardly needed to be said that the Yankees would prefer to have Teixeira's bat running on all cylinders. It remains to be seen whether Tex's sub-par play is simply a slump (or a consequence of sample size issues) or an indication of a change in talent. I believe it is the former and not the latter, but we should dig deeper nonetheless to determine this.

Looking at Teixeira's peripheral statistics may tell us something. After perusing his walk rates and strikeout rates, it can be observed that they are similar to his career averages (2010: 13.0% BB rate, 20.2% K rate; career: 11.4% BB rate, 20.1% K rate). Shifting over to the BABiP column of Tex's statistics, a possible reason for Tex's struggles may be illuminated: bad luck. This year, Tex has posted a BABiP of .229. In his major league career, Teixeira has never posted a BABiP below .288, and has a career BABiP of .304. Some balls just are not falling in for Tex, but that does not completely explain away Tex's low ISO (.152), which also falls well below his career average (.249).

Is the low ISO purely a function of Tex's bad luck on balls in play, or is there something else going on? Tex's batted-ball data should be scrutinized if the answer is going to be found. In 2010, Tex's line-drive %, ground-ball %, fly-ball %, and infield fly-ball % are all within 2% of his career norms. A precipitous drop, however, can be observed in Teixeira's rate of home runs per fly-ball (HR/FB). His 2010 HR/FB % is 11.0%, well under his career average of 18.5%.

It is probable that Teixeira has simply run afoul of the baseball gods, and isn't getting any breaks on balls in play. In addition, there isn't any indication that he's hitting the ball any differently than he used to; he's hitting the same amount of line-drives that he has hit for his entire career. It appears that some of his fly-balls just have not had enough distance to fly over the fences. I anticipate this to change, and so does the ZIPS projection system. Going forward for the rest of the year, ZIPS sees Tex posting an ISO of .208. That may be a little pessimistic, but I feel it captures the idea that the 30-year old switch-hitting slugger is due for a bounce-back.

Free Mark Melancon!

2010-06-04T00:05:00.003-04:00

When David Robertson had to leave a game last week due to a strain in his lower back, I wondered if he would end up landing on the DL. My mind raced to the topic of who his possible replacement would be from AAA. The best candidate, in my mind, is one Mark Melancon.

The 6'2", 215 lb. right-hander had once been anointed as the Yankees' "future closer," and now has nothing left to prove in the minors. In 2009, Melancon posted tremendous numbers in AAA; he posted a shiny 2.69 FIP, which was supported by a 8.73 K/9 and a 1.78 BB/9. And this came after a 2008 in which he skipped three levels of the minors, and posted a cumulative 3.04 FIP. Melancon has shown spectactular command throughout his minor league career; he has never posted a BB/9 above 2.70, and that was in 2006. This year, however, Melancon has posted an unusually high 3.90 BB/9, but has been striking men out at a higher rate (10.50 K/9) in 30.0 innings. It should also be noted that he posted a 4.52 FIP in 20.1 major-league innings, but those statistics come from a sample too small to draw conclusions from.

While the increase in free passes may be of concern, something else jumps out about Melancon. In his minor league career, Melancon has induced ground-balls on 57.3% of balls in play; a huge number. In addition, Melancon does not show a noticeable platoon split. These factors, combined with his good control, make Melancon a good right-handed option out of the Yankees' major-league bullpen. While it is certainly hopeful that the Yankees' current bullpen remains healthy, if somebody else goes down with injury (or is ineffective), Melancon should be the first person the Yanks call on.

Tex Claimed by the Royals

2010-06-03T16:16:00.002-04:00

In a move that RAB actually kind-of predicted, the Kansas City Royals claimed reliever Kanekoa Texeira off of waivers from the Seattle Mariners. The Rule V rules this apply - he must stay on the roster for the rest of the season, or he would have to clear waivers once again, and then be offered back to the Yankees.

Considering the struggles of the Yankees' bullpen lately, I bet the Yankees were hoping that he could squeak through. Oh well. Best of luck to Tex II.

Posada to DH for Good?

2010-06-03T16:10:00.002-04:00

The Yankees made the right call yesterday by demoting Juan Miranda. But the unexpected thing is that they announced that for the time being, Jorge Posada will be the DH. And what's more unexpected is that it basically seems like this will be a semi-permanent move, or at least until Nick Johnson returns from his wrist injury.

This means that the starting catcher for the New York Yankees is Francisco Cervelli. When Cervelli was called up early last year, did you think that you would proudly be saying that one year later? In addition to his great game-calling and youthfulness, which everyone seems to be eating up, he is putting together a .756 OPS, just fine for a catcher, nonetheless a 24-year old one.

Chad Moeller's stay as a New York Yankee is extended for the time being.

Lindsay Claimed; Other Tex DFA'd

2010-06-01T18:25:00.001-04:00

Recently DFA'd relief pitcher Shane Lindsay was claimed off of waivers by the Cleveland Indians. Lindsay, who the Yankees recently claimed off of waivers from the Rockies, was DFA'd to make room for Chad Gaudin on the roster. Lindsay did not throw a game in the Yankees' organization and was assigned to the Indian's High-A affiliate.

Furthermore, the Seattle Mariners DFA'd RP Kanekoa Texeira. Texeira was taken by the Mariners in the Rule V draft this offseason and made the roster out of spring training. This move means that if Texeira passes through waivers, the Yankees have the option of taking him back, which they very likely would. Texeira, 24, had a 5.30 ERA in 18.2 innings with the Mariners. I wouldn't be surprised however if some other team struggling for relief help and a young arm took a flier on him. There are some pretty terrible bullpens out there...

The Miranda-Cervelli-Posada Conundrum

2010-06-01T17:54:00.004-04:00

Jorge Posada is likely going to be activated from the DL Wednesday. This would mean that the Yankees get a big bat back in the lineup. And with Granderson back, and A-Rod and Teixeira looking like there are back to form, the Yankees' lineup could be a huge threat again.

One wonders what the Yankees will do in response to Posada's return though. So far this season Francisco Cervelli has hit .320/.388/.400 and has done an excellent job behind the plate. With Nick Johnson gone until who knows when, Juan Miranda has gotten the majority of the starts at DH.

Well, how has Juan Miranda been doing so far? Just looking at his stat line one could say he's just been doing a mediocre job. He's hitting .227/.306/.455 which says he doesn't hit the ball all the time, but when he does, it's going to be hit hard. Let's take a look at some other numbers though...

According to Fangraphs.com, through 44 at-bats he has struck 8 times (18.2%), lower than his past minor league numbers where he averages a pretty consistent 22-23%. His BABIP is a low .235, compared to his minor league average of .328. This makes it look like Miranda has been getting unlucky. According to MinorLeagueSplits.com, his line-drive percentage is 11.1% compared to his usual 17-20%; his ground-ball percentage is 33.3% compared to his average of around 40%; his fly-ball rate is 55.6% compared to his usual 43%. A dropped strikeout and groundball rate would make would think he would do better, but his increased flyball rate shows why he might not be. One would guess that he has changed his approach in the Majors; perhaps he is swinging for homers all the time, causing a lot of flyballs.

So based on this information regarding Miranda and Cervelli, what do the Yankees do when Posada returns? Do they keep Cervelli as the catcher and move Posada into the DH role, which would mean that Chad Moeller stays on the roster and that Juan Miranda is demoted? Do they keep Miranda as the full-time DH, with Cervelli getting reduced playing time, which would mean that Moeller is demoted? Do they split have Posada split time between DH and catcher, with Miranda and Cervelli getting on-and-off playing time, meaning that Kevin Russo would be the one demoted?

Give me your thoughts on what the Yankees would do with Cervelli and Miranda.

Should Brett Gardner Play Everyday?

2010-05-31T19:48:00.004-04:00

When Curtis Granderson went down with a groin injury, I thought that his stint on the DL would prove to be an interesting trial for Brett Gardner against left-handed pitching. I believe that there was a consensus that Gardner should be platooned whenever possible, but there was still an inkling of curiosity in me wondering whether or not Gardner should be platooned.

Gardner has had a history of modest success against lefties. In 397 career at bats in the minors against southpaws, Gardner posted a rather respectable .292/.361/.406 line. On the surface, these numbers seem pretty good, but they were supported by a lucky .372 BABiP; comparably, Gardner posted a .350 BABiP against righties while posting a .288/.398/.373 slash line.

Gardner had a far higher walk rate against righties than against lefties in the minors, and this has held true in the majors (7.4% v. L, 9.5% v. R). His lackluster walk rate against lefties has been particularly exposed during Granderson's absence. In 2010, Gardner has gone .259/.310/.370 against lefties (58 PAs), which adds up to a .304 wOBA. A .310 on-base percentage just isn't going to help the Yankees win baseball games.

Normally, a .310 OBP and a .304 wOBA are usually unacceptable for a corner outfielder, but Gardner brings something else to the table: sterling defense. According to John Dewan's Defensive Runs Saved, Gardner has racked up 5 DRS this season (3 in CF, 2 in LF), and Gardner has put up a UZR of 2.3. Of course, we're dealing with small samples, but Gardner's career UZR/150 is 23.4 (!), which indicates a sustained period of absolute wizardry in the outfield. There is value in his glove; a good deal of the 1.3 WAR he has accrued this year has come from his fielding.

While it is true that Gardner's platoon-mate, Marcus Thames, mashes lefties (career wOBA of .364 v. LH pitching), Yankee fans can attest to the butchery Thames has committed in the field, and UZR is not kind to him, either (career UZR/150 of -2.3 in RF, -7.1 in LF). Thames offensive prowess against lefties is not enough to justify benching Gardner's far superior glove. While Gardner has difficulty getting on base versus lefties, he is probably going to do better than a .304 wOBA from here on out, and he is the best option on the Yankees' roster to play everyday in left field.

Amauri Sanit Suspended

2010-05-29T19:55:00.002-04:00

MLB has announced that Yankees' minor leaguer Amauri Sanit was suspended for 50 games due to violating the PED policy.

Sanit, who will be 31 in July, has been struggling thus far in his second professional year. The Cuba native had a 8.69 ERA in 12 games thus far, and was on the DL when he was suspended.

Steve at WasWatching sums up the situation pretty nicely: Without knowing, I would guess that his usage here was an uneducated panic move. Still, don't do the crime if you can't do the time..."

Yanks Pull One From the Dumpster, Throw One Away, and Get Grand

2010-05-28T18:49:00.002-04:00

The Yankees made a few moves of interest the last few days...

First of all, they brought back an "old friend" in Chad Gaudin. Chad Gaudin, who was released by the Oakland Athletics after accumulating a 8.53 ERA in 13 games, was signed by the Yankees and immediately added to the roster in place of Boone Logan, who was sent down. In order to make room for Gaudin, the recently claimed Shane Lindsay was DFA'd, but he should probably clear since the Yankees had last claim priority when he was claimed anyway, unless some team has a sudden change of heart.

Furthermore, today the Yankees activated Curtis Granderson from the DL after his rehab stint with Scranton. In a somewhat surprising move, the Yankees opted to DFA Randy Winn and allow Kevin Russo to keep a roster spot. Winn was a disappointment for the Yankees in 2010, OPSing only .595. Unless a team decides to give Winn a final shot, it would not be surprising to see him retire soon.

Derek Jeter's Newfound Pull Power?

2010-05-27T15:59:00.007-04:00

Yesterday, Derek Jeter was the big hero in the completion of the first game of the Yankees-Twins game that had been suspended on Monday due to rain. He managed to pull a Brian Duensing offering over the left-center field fence for a home run, which happened to be the difference in the game. When I watched that, I felt as though this had not been the first time this year Jeter had uncharacteristically displayed some pull power. This spray chart from Texas Leaguers' Pitch f/x Tool illustrates this to some extent.

The numbers, to a degree, bear out this power surge to left field. In 2010, Jeter's isolated slugging percentage (ISO) to left field is a robust .200. Jeter's career ISO to left field differs moderately: it is a modest .151. In addition, in 2008 and 2009, Jeter posted ISOs to left field of .081 and .105, respectively; this year's ISO marks a steep increase.

It remains to be seen whether this is actually a positive development, however. In '08 and '09, Jeter's BABiP to left field were .320 and .361 (career: .340). This year, however, his BABiP to left field has dropped to .269, and has pulled down his overall BABiP to .302 (career BABiP of .358). Conversely, Jeter's flyball rate has jumped to 13.0%; it was only 5.4% and 7.7% in '08 and '09 (8.1% for his career).

When Jeter hits the ball to left field this year, a larger number of them have been flyballs. While some of them have gone for extra-base hits, a lot of other balls hit by Jeter have been converted to outs. Whether this is a change in approach, change in skill, or a function of luck remains to be seen. This should be an interesting thing to keep an eye on, though, because Jeter has posted a BABiP below .320 on balls hit to left field only once in his career (.293 in 2005), and an abnormally low BABiP could be an indication that Jeter's offensive skillset is starting to erode.

A-Rod Seeing More Fastballs?

2010-05-26T16:44:00.002-04:00

Yesterday, while writing my post about Alex Rodriguez' at bat against Francisco Rodriguez, I noticed that A-Rod had seen a lot of fastballs from K-Rod, and also a bevy of fastballs from Johan Santana on Saturday. I wondered if A-Rod was seeing more fastballs in general from major league pitchers this season.

For his career, A-Rod has seen fastballs 60.4% of the time. Similar fastball percentages show up from 2008 and 2009: 59.8% and 59.3%, respectively. This year, however, A-Rod has been seeing fastballs 62.8% of the time. Compared with other major-leaguers, this is not an extraordinary amount of fastballs. A-Rod ranks 46th out of 245 hitters with at least 100 plate appearances in fastball percentage (David Eckstein leads all hitters with 73.5%, and Ryan Howard brings up the rear with 42.7%; neither mark is much of a surprise). Basically, A-Rod ranks in the top twentieth percentile of all MLB hitters in terms of fastball percentage.

This increase of more than 3% doesn't really seem to be significant on the surface, but I decided to check out A-Rod's ranking last year amongst hitters with at least 400 plate appearances. Out of 222 major-league hitters who qualified, A-Rod didn't even rank in the top 100. He ranked 108th, which barely puts him in the top fiftieth percentile. In addition, A-Rod ranked 109th out of 212 hitters in 2008. Comparatively speaking, A-Rod is seeing a lot more fastballs this year.

Why are pitchers loading up A-Rod with fastballs, though? This question could not be fully answered without input from a scouting perspective (and I am no scout), but the answer could lie in A-Rod's power numbers. In '08 and '09, A-Rod posted monster isolated slugging percentages (slugging percentage – batting avg.) of .271 and .245. This year, however, his ISO has dropped to a still good (but surprisingly low) .192. Major-league teams may have taken note of this and are now deciding to feed A-Rod more fastballs, less fearful of them leaving the yard.

A-Rod v. K-Rod

2010-05-25T19:41:00.002-04:00

I think one of the most attractive aspects of baseball is the battle between the pitcher and catcher against the hitter at the plate. Barring any espionage (i.e. stealing signs), all of the players on the field are, for the most part, isolated from this battle of wits. I believe these sequences are even more interesting than they normally are in high-leverage (clutch) situations, especially if these situations take place between some of the most talented persons who practice the craft of baseball.

On Sunday, in the evening affair between the Yankees and the Mets, Alex Rodriguez, arguably the best hitter in the Yankee line-up, had a very high-leverage plate appearance in which he faced the Mets' best bullpen arm, Francisco “K-Rod” Rodriguez. I would like to take a closer look at both at bats and see how exactly K-Rod pitched to A-Rod (please bear with me, the _-Rod nicknames may get a little dizzying).

In the ninth inning, with the score at 6-4 in favor of the Mets, A-Rod stepped to the plate with two out and the tying run on 1^st base. The Yanks had already pushed three runs across, and K-Rod was on the mound, trying to stop the bleeding (Fangraphs' Leverage Index had the LI of the plate appearance over 3 (this was the highest LI of the game), with 5 being the highest possible number on the LI). K-Rod and catcher Rod Barajas started A-Rod off with what Brooks Baseball and MLB Gameday call a change-up, but the pitch registered a speed of 88.7 MPH, so I think it's plausible that the pitch-type recognition software could have made a little error (K-Rod was averaging 90.05 MPH on his fastball Sunday), so we'll just assume he threw a fastball. The next four pitches were also fastballs. This pitch sequence resulted in a 3-2 count, with A-Rod fouling off two of the fastballs. K-Rod and Barajas then opted for the first change-up of the plate appearance, which A-Rod proceeded to foul off. The next pitch was another fastball, which A-Rod just missed. On the next pitch, A-Rod was sitting fastball, but K-Rod threw another change-up; A-Rod swung through it for strike three, ending the game.

Something that stood out to me was A-Rod's pitch recognition, or lack thereof. A-Rod seemed to be sitting fastball on the 3-2 count, and could not help but swing over the change-up. What I found odd was how the outcome of this plate appearance differed from another plate appearance earlier in the game. In the 8^th inning, with runners on 1^st and 3^rd, A-Rod laid off on a 3-2 change-up that was low from Johan Santana. Like K-Rod, Santana had also started the plate appearance against A-Rod with a healthy diet of fastballs (four, to be exact). In both cases, A-Rod saw a lot of fastballs, but he did not anticipate the possibility of a non-fastball in the case of K-Rod. Perhaps Alex saw that Francisco was hesitant to throw his secondary pitches on Sunday, or maybe he was too anxious. Either way, Alex didn't recognize the change-up and went down swinging.

Surprise, Surprise

2010-05-25T18:56:00.004-04:00

From MLB Trade Rumors, former Yankee hurler Brian Bruney has been non-tendered by the Washington Nationals. Bruney's always had a power arm (career 8.81 K/9) but his career 6.51 BB/9 prompted the Yankees to trade Bruney to the Nationals for essentially a bag of balls (officially, Bruney was traded for a player to be named later, and that PTBNL has yet to be named). This year, Bruney's BB/9 has ballooned to over 10, which probably made the decision to cut him easier for the Nationals.

In other unsurprising news, Marc Carig of the Newark Star-Ledger is reporting that Alfredo Aceves has re-aggravated his back injury. Those of you longing for Ace to shore up the beleaguered Yankee bullpen shouldn't be counting on him anytime soon.

Phil Hughes and Pitch Usage

2010-05-24T13:11:00.004-04:00

Yesterday, Matt Imbrogno of The Yankee U pointed out that Phil Hughes was throwing too few curveballs and change-ups in yesterday's affair against the Mets. He is not the first to notice this, and it is not a phenomenon limited to last night's start. In a tweet on May 17^th, I wondered why Hughes had thrown exclusively fastballs and cutters to J.D. Drew in the 5^th inning (Drew deposited the final pitch of the at bat, a cutter, into the right field bleachers). Hughes even admitted himself that he may have been overusing the cutter after the game. From a May 18^th blog post by Chad Jennings of The Journal News:

Hughes said he might have gone to the cutter too many times against Drew. “Any time I felt like he might be cheating in I went away (with the four-seamer),” he said. “And he seemed to be on that pitch pretty well too.”

And Drew was not the only hitter during that three-run fifth inning that did not see a curveball, according to data provided by MLB Gameday. Earlier in the inning, with two out, Marco Scutaro stepped to the plate. Hughes started off the plate appearance by firing off a fastball, another fastball, and a cutter, which resulted in a called strike, a ball, and another called strike, respectively. With the count at 1-2, instead of trying to get Scutaro to chase a curveball out of the zone, Hughes kept on going back to the well with his fastball and cutter. The next two pitches were fastballs, both of which were fouled off by Scutaro. The sixth pitch, a cutter, was also fouled off. The final pitch was another fastball, which was singled into center field. Curiously, in the next at bat, Hughes opted to throw 3 curves on 1-2 (two of which were thrown in consecutive pitches) to Dustin Pedroia. Pedroia then proceeded to double on a Hughes cutter. Pedroia was followed by by Drew, who, like Scutaro, did not see any curves. The next hitter, Kevin Youkilis, was retired by Hughes after three fastballs.

In that inning, Hughes used the curveball a grand total of four times, compared to 16 fastballs and 8 cutters. In addition, in the entire game, Hughes only used curveballs in six two-strike counts (3 in the Pedroia at bat, curiously twice against Drew in the 1^st inning, and once to Victor Martinez in the 4^th). As a matter of fact, according to Brooks Baseball, Hughes had only thrown 14 curves the entire game (and Imbrogno noted that Hughes only threw nine curves in the game against the Mets). Has Hughes lost confidence in his curveball? Let's check out his pitch type usage.

According to Fangraphs, here was Hughes' pitch selection in 2009: 62.8% Fastballs, 16.4% Cutters, and 20.3% Curveballs. Here are his 2010 numbers: 59.0% Fastballs, 27.2% Cutters, 11.7% Curveballs, and 2.2% Change-ups. Obviously, this indicates that Hughes is going more and more to the cutter, especially at the expense of Uncle Charlie.

Last October, Mike Axisa of River Avenue Blues noted that Hughes was toning down the number of curves that he threw once he transitioned into the bullpen. Did he lose some feel for his curve because he shelved it in the bullpen? That would be a shame, because his curveball has been labeled as plus by noteworthy baseball analysts like Jim Callis of Baseball America as early as 2007. It is integral that Hughes starts using his curveball much more than he currently does; you can't get by as a starter by throwing two pitches with the regularity that Hughes has been using the fastball and cutter. His curve is much better than a show-me pitch, and hitters are finding it easier to guess fastball and cutter.

Update: The Yankee U has posted another thought about differences between Hughes pitching to Jorge Posada and Francisco Cervelli. He finds that Posada is more stubborn about Hughes throwing non-fastballs than Cervelli is.

Yankees Lose Subway Series

2010-05-24T00:17:00.002-04:00

This continues to suck. The Yankees are still looking pretty bad right now. They just lost 2 of 3 to the New York Mets of all people.

In the first game, Vazquez looked amazing. He went six innings of shutout baseball before having to leave with a minor finger injury. Rookie Kevin Russo would also have a game-winning hit.

In the second game, Hughes had an up and down battle, looking amazing at times but terrible with 2 out situations.

In tonight's final game of the series, CC gets crushed and the Yankees cannot finish the comeback once again. A-Rod records the final out with runners on base down by 2.

They have a day off tomorrow and then will be facing the Twins, hoping to rebound - something that they really need to do...

Yankees Struggling Heading into Subway Series

2010-05-21T18:51:00.003-04:00

The Yankees are looking pretty lousy right now. They have lost 7 out of their last 11, their rotation has not been getting it done, and the basically every single player in the bullpen has been terrible as of late.

Not only that, but they keep rattling up more and more injuries. Jorge Posada will now be out 3-4 weeks with his foot injury, and Marcus Thames is day-to-day with an ankle sprain after running onto his own bat. Chad Moeller was called-up (with Nick Johnson being transfered to the 60-day DL), as was Kevin Russo. Mark Melacon was sent down once again.

The Yankees now take their struggles into CitiField for a three-game set against the Mets.

Nick Johnson Out Til July; Park Returns

2010-05-17T18:08:00.002-04:00

In the world's most unsurprising news, Nick Johnson will need to have surgery on his injured wrist and will likely be out until July. Johnson, who signed a one-year deal this offseason, hit only .167/.388 with only 6 extra-base hits in 72 at-bats before hitting the DL.

Furthermore, Chan Ho Park was activated from the DL after his rehab stint in the minors. Ivan Nova was sent down to Triple-A to make rom for him.

Shane Lindsay Claimed; Garcia Released; Redding Signed

2010-05-15T17:23:00.002-04:00

The Yankees made a move on the 40 man roster by claiming RP Shane Lindsay off of waivers from the Colorado Rockies. In order to make room for him on the roster, the Yankees released SP Chris Garcia.

Lindsay, a 25-year old Australian, was coming off a solid year with the Rockies' Double-A affiliate (2.60 ERA, 36K, 27.2 IP, but 19 walks) but was horrific for their Triple-A affiliate (6.59 ERA, 17 walks, 19K, 13.2 IP), and was placed on waivers. Lindsay has a high BB/9 in his career (5.9), but also a very high K/9 (12.5).

He will be assigned to the Yankees' minor league complex for now. Lindsay has a mid-90's fastball, as well as a knuckle-curve. Before 2009 he was a starter, so it is possible that they will move him back to the rotation.

Garcia was on the DL and going to miss the entire season.

The Yankees also added more depth by adding SP Tim Redding on a minor league deal. Redding was released by the Colorado Rockies after 5 minor league starts (4.32 ERA.) He was assigned to Triple-A Scranton.

Injury/News Updates

2010-05-15T01:47:00.003-04:00

For what it's worth, my freshman year is over. I got home today so expect a more active Steve.

Here is basically what has been going down the last 2 weeks in Yankee world, transaction wise:

Mark Melancon was called up when Curtis Granderson hit the DL...

Two days later he was optioned for Greg Golson...

Who was optioned three days later for Romulo Sanchez...

Then Kevin Russo was called up when Nick Johnson hit the DL...

Then 3 days after calling up Russo, he was demoted for Ivan Nova...

Then Alfredo Aceves was put on the DL with a bulging disc in his back, with Greg Golson being recalled....

Then Kevin Russo was demoted for Juan Miranda...

Got it?

The State of the Yankees

2010-05-07T15:32:00.002-04:00

Yes - I know. This blog has been fairly useless lately. Late with updates, news, and other pieces. I am currently in my two-week finals week so I've been preparing and trying to catch up with the classes that I am a little behind in. Let's just say that attending Micro and Macro lectures in Binghamton are not the most useful things ever...

But from here-on out, especially after Friday of next week, when my summer begins, expect the content that you are used to seeing. I apologize for my inability to post frequently.

On that note I may be looking for additional writing help on my website. So if interested, shoot an email to me (my address is on the right side of the blog, somewhere).

Now, as of now, let's take a look at the State of the Yankees...

Starting Pitching

THE GOOD

The dominance of CC, Pettitte, and AJ, the apparent coming-into-his-own of Phil Hughes have given the Yankees something to brag about. With respective ERAs of 2.74, 2.08, 1.99, and 1.44, they have been unstoppable.

THE BAD

Javier Vazquez has been brutal so far, putting together a 9.78 ERA over 5 starts and even being skipped in the rotation. Andy Pettitte will have to miss his next start most likely due to a minor injury, but it doesn't seem to be too serious.

POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS?

Sergio Mitre (2.79 ERA in 9.2 innings) is likely going to make the spot start for Pettitte. Vazquez is likely going to be given time to find his groove though. But if he can't put it together, the Yankees have two in-house starting options down in Triple-A in Ivan Nova (2.43 ERA in 37 IP) and Jason Hirsh (3.06 ERA in 32.1 innings).

Relief Pitching

THE GOOD

Mariano Rivera has been perfect thus far this season in save opps (7/7, 0.00 ERA) and Joba Chamberlain has been looking good as well (2.92 ERA). Aceves (3.29) has been doing well in middle relief and Mitre (2.79) has been too, when he is actually used.

THE BAD

Chan Ho Park hit the DL after 3 games. David Robertson's ERA is over 11 right now, and he looks lost. Marte has only been mediocre.

POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS?

Mark Melancon could be given a real chance. Jonathan Albaladejo is doing well in Triple-A and could be given his final chance. Royce Ring has a 0.00 ERA in Triple-A and could be a good LOOGY.

The Infield

THE GOOD

Robinson Cano is looking like a legitimate MVP candidate (.362, 9 homeruns) and Jeter (.310) continues to do his thing. At the plate, Jorge Posada does not seem to age (.290, 5 homers).

THE BAD

Mark Teixeira's typically early struggles continue (.178, 2 homers) and A-Rod has been less than mediocre (.253, 2 homers). Nick Johnson walks, but can't do much else right now (.176/.396, 2 homers). Ramiro Pena is 1-16.

POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS?

These are all veterans that will absolutely pick up the pace. No need to worry really. And since the team is doing amazing right now, there is no enormous pressure and constant spotlight on them. If they need a new back-up infielder, Kevin Russo and Eduardo Nunez are doing well in Triple-A.

THE OUTFIELD

THE GOOD

Nick Swisher is off to a very hot start (.295/.380, 5 homers) and Brett Gardner is shocking the skeptics with his incredible play right now (.346/.430, 13-14 SB). Marcus Thames (12-28) has been excellent is in limited playing time.

THE BAD

After a good opening series, Curtis Granderson struggles and then hit the DL, where he is expected to be for about a month (.225/.311, 2 homers). Randy Winn is only 3-19 so far.

POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS?

Randy Winn and Marcus Thames are going to be taking Granderson's playing time until he gets back. Colin Curtis had a .875 OPS in Triple-A until he hit the DL last week, and Greg Golson was called up to be a back-up outfielder. David Winfree also has a .758 OPS in Triple-A.

Record: 19-8, 2nd Place to TB (-1.5 games); 1st in Wild Card

Team Leaders:

Wins: A.J. Burnett, Andy Pettitte, and CC Sabathia (4)

Saves: Mariano Rivera (7)

K: CC Sabathia (30)

G: Joba Chamberlain (13)

BA: Robinson Cano (.362)

OBP: Brett Gardner (.430)

SLG: Robinson Cano (.695)

HR: Robinson Cano (9)

Tonight's Matchup:

Phil Hughes (1.44) @ Josh Beckett (6.31)

Games 20-27

2010-05-06T16:52:00.003-04:00

Game 20:

After losing the first at Baltimore, CC continues his mastery even when he is clearly not on top of his game. Even though he gives up 11 hits, he is able to go 7.2 innings and allow only 3 runs. The Yankees' offense supports him with 8 runs in the 8-3 win. Swisher picks up 3 hits, while Jeter, Gardner, Granderson, and Cervelli all have multi-hit games. Posada leaves the game with a minor calf injury.

W: CC Sabathia (3-1)

HR: Cano (6)

Game 21:

AJ Burnett (8) and Rivera (1) are magnificent as they shutout the Orioles in the 4-0 win. Cano hits two solo homers.

W: AJ Burnett (3-0)

HR: Cano (7, 8)

Game 22:

Jeter drives in 4 behind Andy Pettitte, who goes 6-innings in a no-decision. The Yankees end up winning 6-4.

W: Aceves (2-0)

S: Rivera (7)

HR: Jeter (4)

Game 23:

The Yankees lose 7-6 as Javy Vazquez is terrible once again. He cannot make it out of the 4th inning.

L: David Robertson (0-2)

HR: Swisher (3)

Game 24:

The Yankees destroy the White Sox behind Hughes who goes 7 scoreless, 4-hit innings. They win 12-3.

W: Phil Hughes (3-0)

HR: Gardner (1), Cano (9), Swisher (4)

Game 25:

The Yankees win 4-1, led by a 3-run homer by Randy Winn. CC throws another gem.

W: CC Sabathia (4-1)

S: Chamberlain (1)

HR: Winn (1)

Game 26:

The Yankees win another game 4-1, this time behind AJ Burnett, who also threw a gem. Cervelli leads the offense, going 3-3 with a triple.

W: AJ Burnett (4-0)

S: Chamberlain (2)

Game 27:

The Yankees complete the sweep of the Orioles by winning 7-5. With Rivera or Chamberlain not available, Robertson and Logan almost lose it in the 9th, but Aceves closes it out.

W: Pettitte (4-0)

S: Aceves (1)

HR: Swisher (5), Johnson (2)

Week 3+: Games 15-19

2010-04-28T14:43:00.002-04:00

Not the greatest week for the Yankees, who have lost 4 out of the last 5 games, losing a series against the Angels, and one to the Orioles.

Game 15:

Sabathia has a tough first inning but rebounds nicely, but that's not enough. He goes the complete 8 in the Yankees' 4-2 loss.

L: CC Sabathia (2-1)

HR: Thames (1), Teixeira (2)

Game 16:

Joba Chamberlain gives up a game-winning 2-run homer during a 4-4 game, during the Angels the 6-4 win.

L: Joba Chamberlain (0-1)

HR: Swisher (2)

Game 17:

Andy Pettitte continues his journey into the fountain of youth with 8 1-run innings in the 7-1 win.

W: Andy Pettitte (3-0)

Game 18:

Javy Vazquez's struggles continues as he gives up 5 runs in 3.2 innings. That's all the Angels would need as they win 8-4.

L: Javy Vazquez (1-3)

HR: Posada (4), Cano (5)

Game 19:

The Yankees lose another tough one as they fall 5-4, after almost completing the comeback in the 9th. Hughes only gives up one run in 5.2 innings, but the bullpen is terrible.

L: Phil Hughes (2-1)

HR: Posada (5)

Games 7-14

2010-04-22T16:49:00.003-04:00

Game 7:

Andy Pettitte puts together another impressive start, shutting out the Angels for six. Robertson almost coughs the game up, but they end up pulling out a 7-5 win.

HR: Johnson (1), Jeter (1)

W: Pettitte (1-0)

S: Rivera (3)

Game 8:

The Yankees seem baffled by Joel Piniero and Javy Vazquez has a mediocre outing as the Yankees lose 5-3.

L: Javier Vazquez (0-2)

Game 9:

Phil Hughes, making his season debut, strikes out 6 through 5, allowing only 2 runs. The offense is lead by Robinson Cano who hits two homers.

HR: Cano (3, 4), Jeter (2)

W: Phil Hughes (1-0)

S: Rivera (4)

Game 10:

CC Sabathia opens up the three-game series against Texas and throws a rain-shortened, 6-inning complete game as the Yankees win 5-1, with Cervelli behind the plate.

W: CC Sabathia (2-0)

Game 11:

Burnett throws a gem (7 scoreless innings) as the Yankees, led by Jeter and A-Rod, pick up the 7-3 win.

HR: Rodriguez (1), Jeter (3)

W: A.J. Burnett (2-0)

Game 12:

Andy Pettitte continues his hot start, this time with an 8-inning gem as Mark Teixeira finally hits his first homer of the year in the 5-2 win, in the Yankees' sweep of the Rangers.

HR: Teixeira (1), Posada (3)

W: Andy Pettitte (2-0)

S: Rivera (5)

Game 13:

Vazquez has a decent outing, but thats all the Yankees needed as they would put together 7 runs behind the offense of A-Rod.

HR: Rodriguez (2)

W: Javier Vazquez (1-2)

Game 14:

Phil Hughes finally arrives as he allows only an infield single through 7.1 innings in the Yankees' 3-1 win.

W: Phil Hughes (2-0)

S: Rivera (6)

Moves: Chan Ho Park is placed on the 15-day DL and Boone Logan is recalled from Triple-A.

Week 1: A Grand Debut

2010-04-12T11:23:00.002-04:00

The Yankees just completed their first week of the 2010 season, and they started it fairly well. After completing series with the Red Sox and Rays, the Yankees ended the week 4-2, winning both series 2 game to 1.

Game 1:

The Yankees end up blowing a 5-1 lead after CC Sabathia and Chan Ho Park struggle after the 5th inning. Curtis Granderson homers in his first at-bat and Brett Gardner goes 2-4. They end up losing 9-7.

HR: Granderson (1), Posada (1)

L: Chan Ho Park (0-1)

Game 2:

The Yankees, behind A.J. Burnett, take Game 2, 6-4. Burnett is solid enough, while the bullpen, lead by two perfect innings by Aceves, holds the Sox scoreless for 4 innings. Joba Chamberlain looks very impressive in the 8th by striking out the only 2 batters that he faces. Nick Johnson helps the Yankees gain the lead in the 8th with a bases loaded walk, followed by a 9th inning Cano homer. Mo picks up an easy save.

HR: Cano (1)

W: AJ Burnett (1-0)

S: Mariano Rivera (1)

Game 3:

Andy Pettitte faces off against John Lackey, in an excellent pitchers duel. Pettitte allows only 1 run in 6 innings, followed by 3 scoreless innings by Chan Ho Park. In the 10th inning, the Yankees pick up the lead with a Granderson homer and take the game 3-1.

HR: Granderson (2)

W: Chan Ho Park (1-1)

S: Mariano Rivera (2)

Game 4:

Javier Vazquez struggles in his Yankee debut giving up 8 runs in 5.2 innings. They lose to David Price and the Rays 9-3.

HR: None

L: Javier Vazquez (0-1)

Game 5:

CC Sabathia throws 7.2 no-hit innings before finally allowing a single to Kelly Shoppach, as the Yankees 2-hit the Rays, and win 10-0. A big day for Teixeira (3 hits, 1 walk), Cano (2 hits, HR), Granderson (2 hits, 2 walks), and Francisco Cervelli (2 hits, 1 walk), who got the start behind homeplate. Yankees win 10-0.

HR: Cano (2)

W: CC Sabathia (1-0)

Game 6: A.J. Burnett has an excellent start, giving up only 2 runs on 6 hits through innings, as the Yankees win 7-3.

HR: Posada (2), Swisher (1)

W: A.J. Burnett (2-0)

Yankees Claim Chad Huffman

2010-04-08T02:19:00.002-04:00

The Yankees made a minor move today by adding OF Chad Huffman. Huffman, 24, was designated for assignment by the Padres last week and the Yankees opted to add some more depth by claiming him off waivers.

Huffman isn't some scrub; he's a fairly decent prospect. He's coming off of a year where he hit 20 homers, hitting .269/.361/.469 with the Padres' Triple-A affiliate.

There's no doubt around the circles that Kevin Towers had input in this decision.

Yankees Add 2 More Catchers, Release Mike Rivera

2010-04-04T12:53:00.002-04:00

The Yankees mixed up their emergency catcher situation as they released C Mike Rivera after a 3-18, injury plagued showing in spring training. Meanwhile, they signed catchers Chad Moeller and Robby Hammock to minor league deals.

Chad Moeller, 35, had a fairly good season as a back-up catcher for the Orioles, putting together a .751 OPS. He spent 2008 with the Yankees, taking playing time during Jorge Posada's injury. Moeller was released by the Baltimore Orioles a few days ago after he lost the back-up catcher job to Craig Tatum.

Hammock, 33, was with the Diamondbacks from 2003 to 2008. He has a career OPS of .722 but hasn't even done anything somewhat respectable since the 2004 season. He had only a .591 OPS last year with the Orioles' Triple-A affiliate as well.

Moeller and Hammock are going to start the season in Triple-A, and expect Hammock to be the first to take over in case of more injury problems with Posada and Cervelli.

What the Opening Day Roster Should Be...

2010-03-30T16:58:00.002-04:00

Wow - Opening Day is Sunday; that's pretty crazy. At this point the Opening Day roster has sort of worked itself out, but there are still a few moves that the Yankees need to (and should make.)

The following is what I believe the Opening Day roster should look like...

DL: Alfredo Aceves

DL with back injury; retroactive to last day he pitched so he can be back earlier than 15 days

AAA: Phil Hughes

With the off-days at the beginning of the season, the Yankees can have Hughes in AAA for a little over a week, allowing them to have an extra pitcher.

SP: CC Sabathia

SP: A.J. Burnett

SP: Javier Vazquez

SP: Andy Pettitte

RP: Joba Chamberlain

RP: Damaso Marte

RP: Chan Ho Park

RP: David Robertson

RP: Sergio Mitre

RP: Boone Logan

RP: Royce Ring/Romulo Sanchez/Jason Hirsh

Of these, the most likely would be Sanchez because he is already on the 40-man roster.

CL: Mariano Rivera

C: Jorge Posada

C: Francisco Cervelli

1B: Mark Teixeira

2B: Robinson Cano

SS: Derek Jeter

3B: Alex Rodriguez

IF: Ramiro Pena

LF: Brett Gardner

CF: Curtis Granderson

RF: Nick Swisher

OF: Randy Winn

DH: Nick Johnson

25th Spot: Juan Miranda

I don't like Marcus Thames solely because Miranda is the free version of Thames. He mashes when he hits the ball, which is not frequent, and is not the greatest fielder.

Soon there should be some "out of options" players being DFAed as well. The list of those players can be found here, via MLBTradeRumors. Perhaps the Yankees should be looking at who is being waived and DFAed for that final roster spot...

Alan Horne's 2010 Already Done

2010-03-30T16:55:00.002-04:00

Yankees pitching prospect Alan Horne's 2010 is already over. The 27 year old prospect will miss the entire 2010 season to undergo torn rotator cuff surgery. He will undergo surgery on April 9 and when he can get back depends on the severity of the injury.

This is another tough break for Horne who has gone through so much in terms of injury. But don't give up on him yet; just wait until 2011.

(Source)

Aceves Could Start Year on DL (and other Notes)

2010-03-30T16:49:00.003-04:00

From Chad Jennings: "Joe Girardi remains optimistic that Alfredo Aceves will pitch in a spring training game this week, but if that doesn't happen, it's entirely possible he could open the season on the disabled list."

If Aceves has to miss a week or two, it's not a big deal. Mitre can take his role for that time without being a huge loss.

* Both Shelley Duncan (Indians) and Mike Dunn (Braves) were demoted to their respective team's minor league camp.

* Chad Gaudin signed a 1-year deal with the Oakland Athletics.

So...What's the Joba Situation?

2010-03-30T16:39:00.002-04:00

At this point it has been established by the Yankees that Phil Hughes has won the #5 starter spot, but honestly, it seems as if no one knows that is going to happen to Joba Chamberlain.

It seems as if he is going to be the set-up man for Mariano Rivera, and be part of a dominant bullpen. However, no one in the organization has defined what will be his long-term role.

The Yankees' pitching coach Dave Eiland has stated that the Yankees will not bring Joba out of the bullpen to start this year, but Brian Cashman has stated that there have been no organizatinal meetings regarding this, so his long-term role is not really known at this point.

I feel like the Yankees are just doing whatever the team's immediate needs are with Joba, and hoping that everything will work out - which may not be the worth plan in the world.

Hoffman Returned; Gaudin Waived

2010-03-23T19:20:00.002-04:00

The Yankees slimmed down the roster even more by returning OF Jamie Hoffman to the Los Angeles Dodgers, as well as waiving SP Chad Gaudin.

Hoffman, taken by the Yankees in the Rule V Draft from the Dodgers, was only 3-23 during his stint with the Yankees in Spring Training. He was competing for an outfield job.

Furthermore, the Yankees placed SP Chad Gaudin on waivers. Gaudin, who has struggled over spring training, can either be claimed off of waivers, traded, sent to the minors if he clears, or just be outright released. If sent to the minors he will be owed all of his $2.95 million dollar contract, but if released, the Yankees will only owe him a portion of that. The later option is the mostly likely one to occur.

This move means that Sergio Mitre has all but clinched his role of the team. He makes significantly less that Gaudin and has significantly more potential for the upcoming year.

Cervelli Cleared; Edwar Traded

2010-03-10T02:51:00.000-05:00

Just days after suffering from his second concussion in just months, the Yankees cleared Francisco Cervelli for baseball activities. Hopefully Cervelli doesn't lie about being okay and suffer a similar fate to that of Ryan Church.

Also, the Yankees traded Edwar Ramirez to the Texas Rangers in exchange for cash considerations. Ramirez was very likely to be claimed off of waivers so the Yankees made a few extra dollars off of this move.

Cervelli Suffers Another Concussion

2010-03-07T03:02:00.000-05:00

Yankees back-up catcher Francisco Cervelli suffered his second concussion in four months today after being hit by a pitch in the head by Zech Zenicola. After the HBP, Cervelli got a CT scan which proved the injury.

The Yankees think that Cervelli will be able to return by the middle of next week, but should problem occur, the Yankees always have Mike Rivera available to take over the role.

Yankees Sign Van Benschoten

2010-03-04T01:11:00.002-05:00

The Yankees made another minor move the other day as they added SP John Van Benschoten on a minor league deal.

Van Benschoten, 29, a former first round pick by the Pirates, is arguably one of the worst players in Major League history. In 90 career innings he has a 9.20 ERA and a WHIP of 2.144.