Spring Training Game Thread: The Captain Returns
By
Absent from the team since March 2nd, Derek Jeter returns to the Yanks’ lineup tonight following Team USA’s unceremonious exit from the World Baseball Classic. Jeter got just 33 plate appearances (.276-.382-.345) and played just six games in the field (couting the exhibition against the Yanks) during his 22-day hiatus, so he has plenty of work to get in before the team heads north.
Toeing the rubber tonight will be AJ Burnett, who struggled for the first time this spring in his last outing against his former team. He’ll be taking on the big bad Red Sox, against whom he’s 5-0 with a 2.56 ERA and 1.15 WHIP in 56.1 IP covering eight starts (just over seven innings per start) lifetime. For the first time this spring, Joe Girardi is sending what projects to be the Opening Day lineup out there:
Damon, LF
Jeter, SS
Teixeira, 1B
Matsui, DH
Posada, C
Cano, 2B
Nady, RF
Ransom, 3B
Gardner, CF
Scheduled Pitchers: AJ Burnett, Mariano Rivera, Damaso Marte, Edwar Ramirez, David Robertson
The game is on both YES and MLB Network, with first pitch set for 7:15pm. Enjoy.
Note: John Brattain of The Hardball Times and Baseball Think Factory passed away today due to complications that arose during a heart procedure. He was only 43. We’ve written about Brattain’s work as recently as six days ago, and he was kind enough to stop by and diffuse an argument in the comments with his usual witty humor. Brattain is survived by his wife and two teenage daughters. Our deepest condolences go out to John’s family and friends.
Photo Credit: Getty Images
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The Mason Williams Watch
What a shame.
Damn, I just finished reading his “5 Questions” THT piece on the Blue Jays upcoming season. I rarely agreed with him, but he was a good writer who had a good sense of humor.
Very sad. Condolences to the family.
Second straight game he almost get ripped by the ball.
I don’t know how anyone else feels, but I for one have to say thank you for making your posts easier to read.
Heh, AJ didn’t even look like he was trying on that strike three pitch to Ortiz.
Ramiro Pena apparently might makes the team. this utility infielder race is going to be interesting.
http://community.thetimes-trib.....e-mix.aspx
No matter how tight the battle is, it’s hard to get that excited about the race for the utility infielder spot.
It’s better than having to watch Livan Hernandez and Freddy Garcia duke it out for the fifth spot in your rotation.
Oh yeah. You could say that again. I hear there’s this guy Pedro though who’s still unsigned.
Funny how you give 2 million to Tim Reddings and now you can’t afford Pedro.
Yes, but Bernie Madoff means they can’t sign him. Because Bernie Madoff apparently has something to do with the Mets operating budget.
I would MUCH rather have Pena than Berroa. The only reason they would take Berroa is because he has experience and hit well in spring training.
I would be almost certain though that Berroa would contribute nothing offensively worth while in his short stint as utility inf. However he would probably make a few errors in the field. Pena would not. And it gives Pena a taste of ML which cant hurt.
The thing is that Berroa and Pena are likely to provide the same value, albeit in different ways. Both will basically be replacement level guys, except Pena will flash the leather and Berroa will hit a little.
However, Berroa is an easy guy to cut loose. They’re not going to DFA Pena when they need to call someone up this year or even next. They’re better off letting Pena hone his game in Triple-A and keeping the roster flexibility.
Not to mention that you start to burn options….
Seeing that starting line up posted gets me excited… less than 2 weeks…
Tex hitting righty vs the knuckler … nice
not that it did him much good …
Heh, I love O’Neill’s accent.
“John Schmoltz…”
There’s something dorky about Paulie that I find really likeable.
awesome throw by Nady.
Leadoff double, and you will get … NOTHING!!!
nice inning by Burnett to strand the leadoff double.
I’m tired of spring training..bring on the REAL games!!
SIDDOWN, MEAT!
EAT POOP JACOBY
Eat it, Dreamboat.
How about that swipe by Jetes!
man, seeing Cletus air out a strong throw to 2nd really makes me happy.
A.J. says: I pity the fool who doesn’t believe in me.
Hoch just said via Twitter that tonight’s crowd at George M. Steinbrenner Field is 11,113, the largest in the park’s history. That’s devotion to the Grapefruit League.
Oh what the “Miami” Marlins would do for that attendance during the season…
When I was in FL last weekend, I went to a STL-ATL Spring Training game in Jupiter and there were 6851 fans there. People like baseball in Florida. Maybe the new Marlins stadium will spur on attendance.
it’ll be interesting to see if they can actually get the stadium built … gonna be tricky to sell bonds in this economic environment (which is how i assume they’ll proceed).
It also relies on tourism based taxes
A lot of people say Florida can’t support a baseball team, but they’ve never had a chance to try. They’ve basically had 3 good seasons out of the (about) 26 seasons total. I would guess that if a team stay’s competitive for a few years in a row, then the fans will start to show up.
guess we’ll find out with Tampa Bay.
it’ll be interesting to see what attendance is like this year.
People tend to miss the inertia that exists in fan attendance. When a team is good for a number of years, they tend to get higher attendance, and those fans hold on for the first couple years that a team goes downhill. Just look at the late 90s Orioles – they drew over 3 million fans in 2001, even though their last year with a winning record was 1997. The same situation exists for teams that were bad and improve (the Phillies over the last 10 years are the best example I can think of).
The problem is location. I’ve been here in Tampa since I graduated high school in NY and came down here for college in 2000 (Univ. of Tampa same college as Tino and Lou)and I can tell you there’s a psychological barrier that exists with the bridges to St. Pete and Clearwater. People on the Tampa side (Hillsborough County)hate having to make the drive over to Pinellas County. It’s not that it is such a long drive, just a pain in the ass and people choose to stay in Tampa, thus low attendance. I always try and make it to 2-3 Yanks/Rays games as well as additional games where I can watch a Maddux vs Kazmir type matchup but I can tell you it is not fun trying to get over there and back to Tampa. Before the Bucs built their new facility, that would have been a great location for a new stadium (near Ray Jay and Steinbrenner field).
Add the fact that most people in St. Pete, Clearwater and Tampa (Tampa Bay) are from the northeast (NY, Mass, Conn mostly) and they grew up fans of other teams, its hard to fill the stadium on a constant basis unless the Yanks and Sox are in town. This year was the first year where I can honestly say at a Yanks/Rays game that there were more Rays fans than Yanks but it was only about 55% to 45%, nothing more.
pushups time, Slappy!
Nerd alert- For those of you playing as a pitcher in RTTS, have you added any pitches? If so which ones are good? I get the feeling some pitches, like the sinker, are not that effective against the computer. I’m rockin the Fb, Curve and Change and wanna add something good.
I have literally never gotten into that mode. Whether it be Madden or The Show, for some reason career modes just do not interest me one iota.
Oh, Resident Evil 5 = WIN.
You know what game is the shit? Left 4 Dead. Too bad they only make it for Xbox.
Gears of War 2 is probably the best game I have ever played.
Touche Mike, touche. Gears multiplayer is pretty effin good like Bond too.
Na, I agree. Gears is sick, I’ve played alot of it at a friend’s house. Maybe not the best game, because, ya know, I love hte N64 but it is a great game.
Sooo classic.
L4D fucking owns and its a PC game as well.
I don;’ blame you with not getting into madden. The freaking first person camera angle makes it almost impossible to play any postion but RB or QB.
I had a career with a LB for about a week. It takes some getting used too, but it’s a lot of fun once you get it down. My brother had one as a WR for a long time.
Defense pissed me off because I wasn’t getting involved in enough playes. On a whim i tried fullback which ended up being pretty fun because even if the ball is way downfield you can still truckstick “leadblock” unsuspecting defensive linemen and get points for it.
Doing it as an offensive lineman is fun. Tackle is fun, but as a guard you have to pull once in a while, which is a nice change of pace.
I’ve tried o-lineman but I’m so bad at their skill drills I wasn’t really getting any better. I could never ever capture the flag once the skill got above rookie.
Not sure about RTTS, but I’m most comfortable using two-seamers and changeups and pretty much anything that goes down. I just pound the zone down, both inside and out. If a guy has a good four-seamer, I’ll work upstairs a bit more.
I like to add a slider and a two seamer.
Hmm seems like slider is the consensus. Thanks homies
Splitters are good too, but you need a guy with top notch fastball velo.
I’ve never tried the splitter.
Did you happen to see the Prospect Mine on the Yanks from FanGraphs today?
Yeah, got a post about it going up at 10.
Sweet. FanGraphs is great.
Ahh see I used a little prospect knowledge I have gleaned from the pages of RAB and zllocated alot of my startup points on making my FB nasty above all. It’s maxed on velo and very high on control and sits at a steven strasburg-esqe 98 without puting the meter in the red. Ok ill stop talking about a made up video game character now.
Right now I’m sitting at 93-94, occasionally touching 96 up in the zone.
Damn yo. I use the Padres, and I have no one on my staff that can throw that hard. Peavy sits 93-94 and is by far the best pitcher and hardest thrower on my staff. Everyone else is 88-91, max.
I’m finding the velocity in ’09 to be much more realistic than ’08. In ’08, I routinely managed to hit 100 w/Joba–now I haven’t done it once (also because Joba’s out 2-3 months with a torn hammy, and Nady’s out for 2-3 weeks with a banged up knee).
Joba’s losing velocity?!?!?! OMG, put him in the 8th!
Hahaha, I thoroughly enjoyed this comment.
True to life, I’m able to miss spots more often high and over the middle as long as I’m bringing the gas.
Yep, me too. I really do love this game. By far the best game I’ve played since MVP 05.
Most definitely, mvp 05 was awesome. Then EA lost the license and the horrid @k franchise took over. They suck.
Yeah, I had 2K7 then switched in ’08. Definitely a good choice.
darn shift key, 2k sports is horrible, not @k
Hey Pat, couldn’t post in the other thread so here’s my arsenal:
- Cutter, 4 seam fastball, slow curve. I pretty much took Mariano’s pitches, along with his motion & delivery. I find playing the games as a closer allows me to rack up a lot more experience quicker — of course, I don’t get in every game, but I do get to slam the door when I do.
I keep getting stuck in AA, though. Any clue as to which stats I should be building up the most so I can advance faster?
I sure wish this game would have been able to make use of my MLB ’08 game saves. Suck to have to start over.
Heh, I actually use Mo’s windup too, it’s very simple and easy to time. I figured out you have to complete all those goals they set out for you in order to be promoted from MR to Su then CP. So even though you just wanna torque up the FB and cutter you have to work on friggin fielding and crap.
i mean 2 seamer, duh.
damn, AJ’s a GB machine tonite.
his health aside, me likey this new pitcher-not-just-a-thrower version of Burnett.
likey might be an understatement. if he sticks to this script, and stays healthly, look out.
What do you think the chances are that he reaches his 90th percentile CHONE projection:
184 IP, 157 H, 60 BB, 186 SO, 3.03 ERA
Not good. Not sure how he’s going to cut a run off his ERA, especially since he’s not facing the Yankees anymore (not a shot, at anyone, but he dominated last year) But I sure would be thrilled with those #’s. I’d just like the 184 innings, I think the rest of the #’s will fall where they need to be. But I would be utterly stunned, despite any new approach, to see him shave 0.27 off his career best ERA, which was done in the NL.
Yeah, I agree. I think he can put up numbers close to those in terms of peripherals (9.09 K/9, 3.1 K/BB), though.
i mean…peripherals are the basis of those other numbers right? obviously, factors like defense and luck play a part in getting from the peripherals to the “main” numbers…his career FIP is 3.75…i’m not sure how the rogers centre plays, but not having turf will probably cut down on some hits…i guess the defense isnt exactly better…but i could see him getting lucky if he keeps up w/ his peripherals and doesnt get injured…
Aaaaaaaaaaaand again my video player freezes after a certain amount of time. Regardless, I love what I’ve seen of AJ Burnett and I’m very excited to have him.
http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/.....l#comments
hmmmmmmm
We’ve talked about this several times here, I think. Like someone said in the comments there–if certain things go right, Wang will either be let go or traded. I’d obviously like to see him back because he’s a solid pitcher but if there’s no room…
figure more likely to be traded than just let go as a FA, at least if he can keep producing, and a few of the kids pan out.
I’m hoping that one (or more) of Hughes, Betances, Brackman and possibly Arodys Vizcaino pan out as true studs. We could be in a situation where we let Wang go simply because we have guys coming up who are better than him.
Let’s say Hughes takes Pettitte’s spot next year. That makes our 2010 rotation
CC-Burnett-Wang-Joba-Hughes
If Betances/Brackman are destroying AAA in 2010, who would you let go? Most likely Wang. He would be facing FA and while very solid, doesn’t have the upside/dominance of the others.
Please give me Wang and his 19-win potential just about every year over the uncertain futures of Hughes/Betances/Brackman, none of whom could ever pan out to even be MLB quality (though Hughes is closer than the rest).
Seriously, what does Wang have to do to convince folks he’s deserving of a relatively nice deal?
Don’t misunderstand, I’m a fan of his. But I was fast forwarding to 2010 in a scenario with us having a really nice problem to have. Getting to pick from which outstanding pitchers we want to retain. If Brackman/Betances come anywhere close to reaching their potential, its a clear choice. Their ceilings are huge. They’re also very unlikely to reach them.
I might give Wang an extension anyway, but it could be with the intent of possibly trading him down the road.
Exactly.
Would it be considered blasphemy to like Wang?
Joe does.
Come on A.J. baby. Get out of this one.
Ain’t nothing wrong with that speed!
HA. Brett made Jacoby dive and missed.
Gritty McLineDriveSwing!
no pushups for you!
brettyG has great legs, i hate all talk about Melky possibly starting
I love the Melkman, but I’m finally starting to face the facts.
I really wanna see gritner playing cf this year. I also find myself tweaking the current RAB nickname of grit gritner to guts gritner sometimes ill even go so far as to call him grits gutner.
SPEEED KILLLSSSS.
Someone kill me. Please.
Mo be praised.
Mo Rivera= best one trick pony ever.
I’m tired of hearing about how important it was for Pettitte to pitch in the new stadium. He didn’t seem too worried about it when he had a 3 year deal on the table from a mystery team.
Mitchell Report aside, interesting little note in a piece in the Boston Globe regarding Schilling in the HOF.
Andy Pettitte, who has an almost identical number of career wins (215) and as many top-5 finishes in the Cy Young balloting (four). Pettitte also excelled in a large, high-pressure market while compiling 18 career postseason victories, many of them in virtual must-win situations. No New Englander in his right mind would consider Pettitte a Hall of Famer so much as they would consider him one of the better pitchers of his era.
Pettitte’s ERA+ is 117, so while lower than Schillings 127, it’s better than quite a few HOF’s and HOF candidates. Pettitte, even without the Mitchell report would not have fared well in the voting, but if Schilling gets in easily, Pettitte should deserve a look. And by the way, who says Schilling was clean? He was 52-52 at the age of 30. He went 164-94 after his 30th birthday. Much of the credit for this transformation was attributed to a talk with none other than Roger Clemens. Could they have exchanged more than just pitching advice? Who knows.
Plus all three of his 20 win seasons took place in the climax of the steroid era. At this point we all know, it’s not innocent until proven guilty but rather the opposite in regards to PED’s.
we should photoshop acne onto Schilling’s back in a picture and then send it to Murray Chass, *that* ought to get the steriods rumor mill churning.
Also from the article:
Postseason accomplishments are memorable, but they constitute a relatively small portion of a player’s career on the whole. In Schilling’s case, 19 of his 588 career appearances came in the postseason, a number that translates into roughly 3 percent. What reasonable voter would weigh 3 percent more than 97 percent when assessing any dilemma?
Like Schilling, retired pitchers Jack Morris, Bert Blyleven, Dave Stewart, and Luis Tiant all were regarded as good big-game pitchers. None of them are in the Hall of Fame.
That play was definitely by design. I expect to see it whenever there is a runner on third with less than two outs.
Yes, I hope the Red Sox keep using it. Great thinking by Francona.
If it was Mo I would actually believe it.
nice to see “bugs” in good form.
Failures.
How can you not smile after seeing how happy that kid is?
lol it is good to see.
i feel weird cheering for a big hit from Berroa.
Shelly’s going DEEEP
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/.....BHeadlines
Sheesh.
She’s 43? He’s 20. Um, what the fuck is up with that?
Ashton Kutcher syndrome.
You read that story and THAT was what you found disturbing?
It doesn’t shock you in the slightest that a 20 year old baseball prospect is married to a 43 year old woman? It doesn’t hit at a problem?
No, and what problem would that be? Were not going to start psychoanalyzing his dating habits now, are we?
I was only busting on you, but the whole baby stealing thing was the troubling part for me. Call me crazy.
I could understand if it was the other way around. That someone was stealing his baby, kind of like the Ruben Rivera/Derek Jeter situation? I mean if the babies got skills that could be the gift that keeps on giving!
Maybe she has money. Or could su . . . . nah.
IETC
What does that mean?
I think it means “I see what you did there”
ICWUDT = I see what you did there.
IETC = I enjoyed that comment.
The mystery is finally solved.
I enjoyed that comment
To be blunt, nowadays, nothing in that story shocked me in the slightest.
Hell, just the other week some lady tried to forcefully impregnate her wife with the sperm of the former’s brother.
With a turkey baster.
If its the story I’m thinking of, I think it was a syringe.
Which of course, makes it MUCH better. Nothing creepy about using a good ol ‘made in the USA’ syringe. No siree.
You’re right, but when she reported it to the cops, she said it was a turkey baster, but when confiscated they discovered it was just a large syringe.
That’s one way to adopt a kid.
I was able to get tickets for May 3 against the Angels and for September 30 against the Royals. The Royals game is the last regular season game at home (hopefully not the last home game of 2009).
AJAX BASES JUICED
SALAMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
BASES UNJUICED!!!
Was that not the best moment of ST?
AJAX!
Uninspiring.
+1
Action Jackson, mother fucker.
I love you A-Jax!
A-JAX!!!!!
“blowing it open on Austin Jackson’s granny” just don’t sound right …
I laughed out loud just now, thanks.
HAHAH
damnt you just beat me out on that comment
HAHAHA
Poor Mrs. Jackson.
Sorry Ms. Jackson, I am for real!
Haha, beat me too it.
(Insert Outkast joke here)
haha the call by kay
the yankees blow it open on jacksons granny!
i wonder if his grandmas attractive lol
Yikes.
Wanna rephrase that, Mikey?
She’s alright. Tabata dated her briefly. It created a very strange club house environment.
Wow..nice shot by AJax!
BOMBS AWAY! Bronx Bombers strike again!
He just took my “Seeing Austin Jackson on TV” virginity, and i liked it.
yea that was my first ajax atbat
shades of marcus thames!
Saaaahhhhhhh-wiiiiiiiiiingggggg and a miss!
I wanna watch Ferris Buehler’s Day Off now.
What’s the score?
Nothin’-nothin’
Who’s winning?
…the Bears.
Mike,
A while back in a chat you said you were a fan of Propagandhi, I was wondering if you picked up their new album?
Yep, I approve. It’s not as good as Today’s Empires, Tomorrow’s Ashes, but that’s a high standard.
I appreciate a band that progresses from album to album, even if they aren’t great leaps.
I’ll see your Jose Tabata and raise you a Jose Mesa.
Jose Ramon Mesa…he and his wife Mirla have six children; sons Ralph (6/29/79), Juan Jose (8/4/85), Jesse (8/17/88), and Jose Jr. (8/13/93), and daughters Yamely (1/15/84) and Yenny (7/16/87)
Jose Mesa’s DOB is 5/22/1966.
To be fair, back in our countries it is more acceptable to a degree for people to have children at a young age. If you grab a group of 10 girls from Panama, DR, PR or Venezuela each, I’d say the majority of them will be married by the time they are 21, 22 years of age. Hell, three of my friends here in NYC are married now and the oldest just turned 20. It’s really just a different culture.
Yeah, but he was 12 when conceived, 13 when born. But hell, it ain’t as bad as Karl Malone by any means.
1 more out and the Yankees win!
who needs Tex, we’ve got Duncanstein to pick it!
Okay allow me to be a dick here. I know Shelley bears a striking resemblance to the creature, but the creature’s name is not “Frankenstein.” Frankenstein is the doctor who creates the creature, not the creature itself.
/literary snob
HAppens alot.
Me being a literary snob? Yeah, I know. But I’m okay with it.
Just go back to your books.
Just go back to your
booksspreadsheets.Fixed.
Isn’t it called “Frankensteins monster” though?
We’ve just been calling it “the creature” in class. I think it’s casually known as what you said, but it’s still not called Frankenstein.
Ya, when my class read it, we also called it the creature. Funny, cause kids dress up as the creature and they say they are Frankenstein. Ha, “stupid Americans”.
Was a great read though.
Haha, yeah. It’s not too bad. We had a nice debate yesterday about Shelley’s constant allusions to Paradise Lost and other works in the book and whether or not she was just trying to “show off” or whatever. One girl said it made her look unskilled, but I argued that the way Shelley can make the reader feel sympathy for the creature is evidence of great skill.
I find the most impressive part is that Shelley made the story in like 1 night when her and her friends were doing ghost stories. Also, she was like 19 when she wrote it (makes me feel unproductive in life).
Yeah, she, her future husband, and Byron were hanging around in a storm and started telling ghost stories. Theirs weren’t that good, but her’s stuck.
Yeah, I feel that way when I see dudes born in ’87 in the big leagues.
Dude, if you’re going to call yourself a literary snob you gotta bring something stronger than “‘Frankenstein’ is the name of the doctor, not the monster.”
Give me something else to go on then. Perhaps some Chaucer?
Nah. While the RAB Literary Circle seems quite popular, I’ll decline.
Haha, sounds good.
Which character tells this “Canterbury Tale” (It is my favorite, though I’ve only read a few):
“But with his mouth he kissed her naked arse
Right greedily, before he knew of this.
Aback he leapt- it seemed somehow amiss,
For well he knew a woman has no beard;
He’d felt a thing all rough and longish haired,”
“The Miller’s Tale,” baby. That’s my favorite one.
Yankees win!
Red Sox are trash
How long till Nick Green grows a “I’m on the redsox” goatee?
How long till Nick Green grows a “I’m on the redsox”
goatee?gritee?Fixed.
Girardi throws everybody for a loop and ajax is starting Cf with brett as backup OF and melkman GONZO??
Nope.
So I just played RTTS for like 3 hours without saving and on the following things happened-
A) Arod retired because of a “poor free agent market”
two minutes later…
B) I was traded to Seattle for King Felix.
I was pissed for a minute but now f*ck it I’m just gonna go with it.
A month (in the game) after I created my character for the Yanks (I was in Trenton) I was traded to the Mariners for a bunch of nobodys. Now I’m in my 5th year and the ace of the staff with King Felix backing me up.
I throw a 98-102 mph 4 seamer, ~95 mph sinker, 80-82 mph 12-6 curve, a 90-92 mph slider, and working on a change up. Picked Andrew Miller’s pitching motion, literally went through all styles and liked his the best. Also lied a little on my height, 6-7 is about 11″ taller than me, not too steep a difference.
Nice dude. The arod thing is very strange though because he had 7 more years left on his contract. And yeah I fibbed a little too, I’m not a 6’11 Lefty
Yea, there have been some absolutely crazy stupid trades made, wish I remembered any of them. I think the mariners picked up Rios or Beltre for some middle reliever. I’ll turn on the PS3 and look, they have really been, as Joe/Ben would say, “horrendously retarded” and completely unrealistic
Can’t find any details on past trades, but I was messing around and saw Mo, Schilling, Smoltz, Moyer, and the Big Unit were inducted in to the HOF in 2014. Weird…
haha very strange.