Game 143: Rookie No. 2
ByLast night the Yankees faced rookie Chris Tillman, No. 22 on Baseball America’s Top 100 Prospects. Today they’ll drop down three spots to face Brian Matusz, No. 25. The 2008 No. 4 overall pick has had some struggles early on, but that can happen to a guy who was in the majors less than a year after he signed his first pro contract.
Matusz spent three years at the University of San Diego, and was flat out dominant in the last two. In his junior year he struck out 141 in 105 innings, walking just 22 in that span and allowing four homers. That led to a 1.71 ERA and a 1.00 WHIP. In other words, he did not at all seem like an overdraft at the No. 4 spot.
After signing on the August 15 deadline, Matusz suited up for the Surprise Rafters of the Arizona Fall League. He got smacked around a little bit in the hitters’ league, allowing 16 runs, 14 earned, over 26.2 innings. He did strikeout 31 to just seven walks, but he surrendered six homers, two more than he had his entire junior season.
After that it was off to Advanced A ball, where he completely crushed the Carolina League, striking out 75 in 66.2 innings and walking just 21. That earned him a promotion to AA, where his strikeouts dipped a bit — though he was still fanning a batter an inning — but where his results improved: a 1.55 ERA through 46.1 innings. That led to his call-up on August 4, 354 days after he signed.
He got off to a rough start, allowing five runs over 2.2 innings to the Blue Jays in his second start. He’s settled down since then, especially in his last two starts, in which he’s pitched seven innings in each while keeping his pitch count under 100.
Matusz is a curveball-changeup-fastball guy with an average slider. His secondary stuff gets listed first because he leans on it more than most pitchers. His curveball is a plus pitch, though according to FanGraphs he’s used it less frequently than his changeup and slider. He throws his fastball just around 60 percent of the time. It averages around 91, though he can kiss 94 if he needs to blow it by someone. He could certainly cause trouble for the Yanks this afternoon.
On the other side, A.J. Burnett will try to replicate his last outing against Tampa Bay, only with fewer pitches. He tossed 99 through six last time out. That’s fine, but let’s see if he can go seven. Eh?
Damon is still out, but could pinch hit today and will probably start tomorrow. Ben had a David Robertson update earlier this morning.
Lineup:
1. Derek Jeter, SS
2. Jerry Hairston, LF
3. Mark Teixeira, 1B
4. Alex Rodriguez, 3B
5. Nick Swisher, RF
6. Robinson Cano, 2B
7. Shelley Duncan, DH
8. Melky Cabrera, CF
9. Jose Molina, C
And on the mound, number thirty-four, A.J. Burnett.
220 Comments»
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The Mason Williams Watch
Hey fans! For the rest of his career, the focus of fans will be on every Derek Jeter at-bat, because he can always break the hits record.
http://twitter.com/yesmichaelkay/status/3926144675
Kay will use this line at least one time today.
LOL
Very pleasantly surprised by how durable Burnett’s been this year.
Settle, A.J.
aj, some strikes my brotha
can’t wait to be done with nick markakis
good lord is he a thorn in the side of the yanks
So, Al, they sit breaking ball but catch up to the fastball? What?
Why is this guy playing CF, and not Pie?
the bigger question is why is Melky playing CF and not Gardner!! who happened to be 2 for 4 last night!!!
Wow that was an amazing jump. Molina had no shot at that.
good god that was NAAAAASTAAYY!!
Wow, that pitch was so far outside it’s not even funny.
i def agree, but i’ll take it
WOW WHAT A DOUBLE PLAY!!!
I’ll take that.
Cano’s so lazy, he positioned himself perfectly for that liner so he wouldn’t have to dive for it.
what a lazy ass genius he is
Well that was certainly a luck filled inning for the Yankees.
Burnett got some major good luck.
is this our C-lineup?
SHELLY SMASH DAY!
How epic would a leadoff homer be?
Solid base hit up the middle is alright, too.
jeterian
Ok, no-hitters are done for both pitchers.
/turns game off
What a lowly singles hitter Jeter is.
Does Jeff Fiorentino = Brett Gardner, but with less power?
Less power than Brett Gardner?
Looks like he hits for power in the minors.
My apologies to Jeff. Baseball Cube rates him 88 power. Don’t quite agree with that, but, whatever.
and the guy steals bases too
Jeter to Roberts: “Anything you can do I can do better.”
Anyone else embarrassed by those Matt Wieters Facts now?
He’s played 74 games.
I’d love to see Jeter get 30 SBs this year.
Why not have Shelley hit second just for shits and giggles.
attayboy marky t
No one was on base; that double doesn’t count, Alex.
So has anyone bothered to point out that A-Rod’s batting avg is higher than Tex’s? And not by like, 1pt either. By like, 6.
I think Tex is about due to go on another tear. He’s just been maintaining for awhile.
a-rod isn’t impressed by matusz
Daaaaaammit, Swish. Just a bit under that bad boy.
Reimold’s gotta be AL ROY, no?
damn he jumped all over that like free food!
Jorge Posada obviously caused that homer. Oh wait, Molina’s catching?
Posada’s calling the game from the dugout.
So, the Yanks score playing extreme small ball and the Os tie it on a home run.
Paging Dr. Sterling!
Luke Scott pays for A.J. Burnett’s transgression.
Al Leiter should’ve just said, “Like all pitchers, if Burnett has trouble locating his fastball, he’ll get in trouble.” The YES Network needs to give its announcers lessons in concision.
ty wigginton??!!???
man this ump gives the entire plate and batter’s boxes
i like him
Mike Aubrey’s my boy, yo.
fire
AJ’s playing with it
What, you have a Mike A Brotherhood or something?
Shitty little bloop. Bah.
wow i hate those damn bloops!
Faaaaaaaantastic.
oh
shit
Wow, that sucks!
At least Roberts is on my fantasy team.
WHY? WHY? WHY WOULD YOU MAKE THAT PICK?
Because he’s good at baseball.
haha i know, but i was mocking that AJ thing that he did in boston asking himself “WHY” a zillion times
Oh, duh. My bad.
DFA’d
Fuck, I hate Brian Roberts.
I can live with Burnett shitting the bed now, as long as he gets it back together soon.
Wow, there goes AJ shitting the bed again.
2 OUTS!!! YES!
whos catching? oh thats right, it doesnt matter because its up to the pitcher to make the pitch
Eiland’s got some eye twitch going there.
If the playoffs started today, vs. Detroit, I’d go CC-AJ-AP. The Tigers are slightly worse against RHP than LHP and are not all that great on the road, and A.J. has better home splits than Andy.
Yeah, same here.
Would you go with the long series, or the short one? Do you force them to throw Washburn, or space it out to best use Hughes and Aceves?
I think we have to space it out.
Doesnt that depend on Joba’s performance down the stretch?
where are these missing???
alright
now the comeback begins
Come on fans, you gotta interfere there.
HE MADE THE CATCH????
Jeter in the dugout: that little punk diving into the stands before me in this ballpark?
That kid in the Tex shirt has to assert himself more. He needs to get in there and break that catch up.
SHELLY SMASH TIME
LISA NEEDS BRACES
DENTAL PLAN!
Kay are you saying that Shelley has bad teeth?
Seriously? 6 runs in an inning?
you missed the grand slam he gave up
aj is just going through a rough time. hopefully he gets it out of his system just in time for the playoffs. an aj who has command of his fastball in the playoffs would be filthy.
Your last sentence applies to literally every pitcher who’s ever pitched ever.
sorry for being positive. i guess you should criticize me when i do that too.
It’s not being positive, it’s stating the obvious.
damn
nice K there
Yeesh.
jesus christ, every out is a deep fly ball
Look at that, 1-2-3 inning on 8 pitches.
Lol this start could potentially get uglier.
I’m going to vote for defense in the text poll because it’s retarded.
His offense, easily. How is this even a question?
Well he has a few starts to figure it out or we lose again
i def vote the offense
the other three turns him into jason varitek or brad ausmus, who suck monkey balls
I dunno, I’d rather have Jeter at short than either of those guys . . .
yeah but then you might as well have alex gonzalez or adam everett at short, who could easily give you the same tangibles if given a chance without the offense
haha
jason varitek does not suck. he is been very important to the red sox over the years.
jason varitek is complete garbage
like seriously
up until 2008 yes. last year and this year? no
7 innings to get 6 runs to atleast tie…unless the Yankee bullpen has other plans.
which they probably do.
Yes, the Yankee bullpen wants to lose the game.
JOSE MOLINA WITH TEH HUSLTE!
Ah, shitty Orioles shortstop play. Love it.
(I know, I know, Izturis has stabilized the position)
Clocked him at 3.1 Molinas!
hahahha IETC
Jose Molina was literally trying to get thrown out on that play.
AJ Burnett against the Orioles this year: 6.97 ERA
Against everyone else: 4.09 ERA
That contract is going to look absolutely brutal in a couple of years, let alone in in the 4th and 5th years.
yeah, too bad the other option has the same numbers (minus Ks), except hes in teh NL
I dont care about Lowe, I didnt want to sign him.
You really think Burnett is a 16 million dollar a year pitcher??? He cant even come close to living up to that this year, how the hell is he going to live up to that in a couple of years???
Wouldn’t surprise me.
Also wouldn’t surprise me to see him earn the contract and have the Yankees consider re-signing him.
I’m somewhat worried about this team in a 5 game playoff series the way Burnett has been playing.
I’d rather have this team with AJ in the rotation than be any other team in the league.
looks like AJ has settled down after another ass whoopin early at the hands of the O’s….
so is this going to be a “damn good job” or a “kinda good” pitching performance by AJ. should we blame it on the defense.
Well what if the Yankee offense scores 6 runs and AJ gets the win. Does that mean he pitched well?
ZOMG Burnett’s retired 8 in a row!1!
Eiland is going to have Burnett simulate his first two innings for the playoffs.
Burnett has pitched average in his win-drought. Remember the complete game he pitched and got the loss, how about not getting a decision in that extra inning game against the red sox. I think he turns it up a notch when he has to. If it weren’t for those stellar performances, he’d be way below average.
you forgot the 12ks in 6IP against texas and he got the loss?
he was dominant in that game and made one bad pitch
That game pissed me off to no end.
i was mad that we didn’t score 50 runs against that scrub rangers pitcher
So I guess his other starts vs Boston werent important enough to have to turn it up a notch????
man matusz is mowing them down with popups
The guy who plays W.B. Mason in those ads is like a more dignified version of Elaine’s “Whiz” boyfriend.
I think he has a little John Flaherty in him.
Well, he is proud of his office supplies.
I take pleasure in the Cubs’ misfortune.
Nice dive Melk.
chalk that one in the unnecessary dive category
/Pedroia’d
Wow, Melky dove about 30 seconds late on that play.
heres my video from the jeter hit last night
Yeah, losing the “buzz” made A.J. pitch poorly today.
Jeter selfishly stole the drive from all his teammates just to ease his own burden.
/Rice’d
i can’t believe Shelly even made contact with a pitch that wasn’t a fastball. is anyone going to have any interest in him whatsoever when remove him from the team.
Someone will. Maybe.
Unless that team has a burning desire for their Triple-A team to win a championship, no.
if cody ransom and angel berrora still get chances, shelly deserves a few too
what if the major league team is a AAA team. like the mets, nationals, royals.
ha a-rod, you get amped up my man!
I hope Sean Henn pitches
How depressing does it have to be to be Josh Towers? Knowing you’re only gonna pitch in blowout losses?
He should be extremely excited that he even made it back to the major leagues. he thought his career was over, last year im pretty sure he sucked with some AAA team, now he found a big league roster spot with the yanks. not like he was expecting himself to be a #2 then end up being a mop-up man.
Also, he does a good job in bench-clearing brawls. That comes in handy when we play Boston
Do you know who else does well in bench-clearing brawls?
Kyle Farnsworth
FUCK YES!
Did we even have any bench-clearing brawls when he was around?
So sad, to be denied his true purpose in this life.
He’s dug his own grave.
Let’s just hope he doesn’t drill a dude in the face today.
well at least AJ still has the filth
It’s not just that Michael is a “half-empty” guy on his radio show; his entire life is empty.
I like his radio show, but I’m not a fan of him when he is calling games. But then again, it feels very weird when he isn’t there.
1 Brett Gardner-CF
2 Jerry Hariston, Jr-3B
3 Eric Hinske-RF
4 Shelley Duncan-DH
5 Melky Cabrera-LF
6 Juan Miranda-1B
7 Ramiro Pena-SS
8 Kevin Russo-2B
9 Francisco Cervelli-C
Starter: Sergio Mitre
I’m looking forward to games like these in the last couple weeks of the season.
it gives opposing pitchers oppurtunities for shutouts while giving opposing hitters chances for completing the cycle at the same time. pretty generous for our opponents. i guess who cares when you have already won 91 games.
We’re not going to be seeing too many games started by a lineup like that. Ending, though . . .
Nothing more frustrating than a flyball pitcher.
damn is it already 6 innings??
this game has gone by really quickly
I hope this doesn’t revive the rookie pitcher meme.
It will.
We have Shelley Duncan, Jose Molina, and Jerry Hairston in the lineup. Of course we are being dominated.
you forget that the yanks were in line for the win yesterday
damaso marte and edwar ramirez didn’t think so though
there arent a lot of rookies in the playoffs. if there are we could be in trouble.
Facing a dominant rookie pitcher in the playoffs wouldn’t be any more trouble for the Yanks than facing ANY dominant pitcher.
The only rookie pitchers we’d face in the playoffs are really good rookie pitchers. So yeah we could be in trouble, but because they are good pitchers.
Without looking at each roster to confirm, the only rookie the Yankees could face is Rick Porcello and they scored 6 runs off of him in 3.2 innings the only time they faced him.
Also, haven’t the Yankees won like…18 games vs. rookies this year?
I hate every single person that votes in those stupid polls. The answer is offense.
Offense is last?
Text poll FAIL.
wow, according to a YES Network poll, 11% of people appreciate Derek’s defense over the years, which is more than the Offense
damn, he went through 7 innings!!
too bad 6 runs went with it…
Sterling- “Burnett pitched great today, though he is probably done..”
Huh?
Is he watching the same game..?
Take away the 2nd inning and he has a 0.00 ERA
/Kidding.
Take away the first hitting and we are getting two hit…
Inning not hitting*
Take away the first 7 innings and the game hasn’t even started yet.
well played sir
he comes from the Dela G and Salty Buggah school of pitching performance.
Can the Yankees call up Andrew Brackman then bring him in only when they need an unintentional intentional walk?
great hit for shelly!
Secretly Shelley wishes he was freezing his ass off in Scranton playing in some MEANINGFUL games.
pinch hitter? guess not…
nvm.
you got your man in the pinch hit
SEAN HENN OMG I <3 U!!!!
YES!! SEAN HENN !!!!
take the pitch jorgie
Have we hit a grand slam this year?
Jose Molina did
Matusz really has good control of that gyroball
or whatever that is
Does anyone actually throw a gyroball? Or has that been relegated to meme status
Wow, Jorge down on a fastball? Thought for sure Matusz would go for the curve there.
wow jeter and jorge = fail
Jeter can’t hit with runners in scoring position.
jeter sucks i cant wait till he’s off the team. im pissed off as shit right now. lets hope Towers knocks some teeth out here
The only downside to this time of the season is that everyone goes into cruise control. Makes watching the game a little boring. Can’t we just give the division to the Yankees and start the playoffs now.
Time to test out those new helmets
wait is that an 85 mph fastball??
ruh roh
steeeeep decline
Towers is pissed…he knows that De Caster would’ve made that play..
Haha, IETCVM.
We have two very incredible first basemen.
good inning for him
waaay too many Ks as of late for tex
14 in September
We are making it through an entire game without a spillover thread? Wow
ha that’s what a sunday 6 ER aj burnett start will do for you
Don’t you dare shorten my weekend like that. Today is saturday
there you go cano
grit has too much speed
i missed this whole game, so can someone tell me how this happened? How bad was burnett? i’m just shocked to see the yanks actually lose 2 games in a row.
he had one absolutely horrible inning, giving up a grand slam and solo HR in the 2nd inning.
Other than that, he seriously just proceeded to be calm AJ
it was very weird
what a terrible call you stupid ump
wow
what an odd end to the ball game
oh well, get em tomorrow
I stopped watching, what happened
jeter struck out to end the game with a man on with 2 outs
i totally expected him to deliver, which made it odd
Woohoo, make it home when the game just ended.