Archive for September, 2009
Staten Island walks off with the division lead
Posted by: | CommentsFor some reason, Yurendell DeCaster was released. All he did was hit .301-.369-.446 in 53 games for Triple-A Scranton.
Short Season Staten Island’s roster took a big hit today; Schaeffer Hall, Arodys Vizcaino, and Francisco Rondon were all shut down for the season. Homer machine Neil Medchill is out with a bum wrist.
Triple-A Scranton (8-6 win over Buffalo)
Kevin Russo: 0 for 5, 1 K, 1 E (fielding) – you mean he didn’t reach base? not even once? bust!
Freddy Guzman, Austin Jackson, Juan Miranda & Reegie Corona: all 2 for 5 – Guzman stole a base, tripled, drove in a run & scored two … Jackson did the same thing as Guzman, but added a strikeout … Miranda drove in a run, scored another & K’ed … Corona stole a base & scored a run
Shelley Duncan & Colin Curtis: both 2 for 4 - Shelley doubled, drew a walk, drove in a run & scored twice … Curtis doubled, walked & plated a run
Cody Ransom: 1 for 3, 2 BB
Chris Stewart: 1 for 3, 1 RBI
Anthony Claggett: 5 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, 2 WP, 6-4 GB/FB – 53 of 80 pitches were strikes (66.3%)
Jon Albaladejo: 1 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, 1-0 GB/FB – 13 of 14 pitches were strikes
Eric Wordekemper: 2 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, 0-4 GB/FB - 23 of 37 pitches were strikes (62.2%)
Kevin Whelan: 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, 0-1 GB/FB – 15 of 20 pitches were strikes
Game 133: CC for the sweep
Posted by: | CommentsWhen the Yanks last faced Jason Berken on July 22, the home half of the first went a little bit something like this: double, out, single, single, out, walk, single, single, out. With a 4-0 lead after the first inning, the Yanks cruised to a 6-4 over Baltimore that night. I wouldn’t mind if the Yanks could do that again.
Anyway, offensive dreams aside, let’s preview this baby. The Yankees are going for their sixth win in a row and are playing in their home away from home. The team is 5-3 in Baltimore this season and is searching for a three-game sweep of the Orioles. In fact, the Yankees, at 11-3 against Baltimore this year, don’t just enjoy beating up the Orioles; they own Camden Yards.
To the numbers we go. At home this season, the Yankees have played 65 games. They are, as a team, hitting the cover off the ball. In those 65 games, they have scored 373 runs, have hit 119 home runs and have produced a triple slash line of .278/.364/.495. The Yanks have played in Baltimore eight times. They have scored 49 runs, have hit 19 home runs and are hitting .281/.353/.559.
Project those Baltimore numbers to 65 games, and the Yankees would have 398 runs and 154 home runs. Of course, the Yanks are helped by the fact that they have faced the Orioles’ pitchers while playing in Camden Yards, but the truth is that the Yankees are just a very good hitting team, Yankee Stadium “bandbox” aside.
On the mound tonight and looking to build off of a successful August is CC Sabathia. While we questioned Burnett’s status as the Yanks’ second starter earlier today, CC has been a true ace, and lately, he has dominated. Over his last five starts, he is 4-0 with a 1.93 ERA. In 37.1 innings, he has 44 strike outs and has walked just six. Opponents have managed to hit just .194/.227/.313 off of the big lefty.
Jason Berken, the Orioles’ right-hander, is 4-11 with a 6.33 ERA. He gives up a lot of baserunners, a lot of walks and a lot of longballs. On paper, at least, this one’s a mismatch. But they don’t play the game on paper.
2 Jeter SS
18 Damon LF
33 Swisher 1B
13 Rodriguez 3B
55 Matsui DH
24 Cano 2B
53 Cabrera CF
14 Hinske RF
26 Molina C
52 Sabathia P
Number Updates: The recently called-up Michael Dunn is wearing number 31 for the Yankees this month. Dave Winfield, Tim Raines and Glenallen Hill — remember him? — want their number back.
Quick Hits: IPK, the Boss and Yom Kippur baseball
Posted by: | CommentsDrive-time link dump, here we go:
Ian Kennedy throws first BP session since April
Working his way back from an aneurysm, Yankee prospect Ian Kennedy threw his first bullpen session today since April. The right-hander threw 30 pitches from the mound and said he felt good. “It was fun to finally get some competitive juices flowing and to see some hitters,” he said to the AP reporter who stakes out the Yanks’ complex in Tampa. “I’m surprised I wasn’t tired at the end.”
Kennedy will throw another BP session on Saturday before getting in some tosses during a simulated game on Tuesday. He will join an instructional league team later this month and pitch in the Arizona Fall League in October. If all goes well, he should factor into the Yanks’ plans for 2010. Lost amidst this injury was the fact that Kennedy had a better start to his AAA season this year than Phil Hughes did.
In other injury news, Brett Gardner is set to join AAA Scranton tomorrow for a rehab assignment. He’ll be back some time next week.
Steinbrenner Yankeeography to debut tonight
At 11 p.m. or following the completion of the Yankees-Orioles game, the YES Network will debut the George Steinbrenner edition of their acclaimed Yankeeography series. Marc Carig offered up his take:
After seeing the clips, I wanted to keep watching, which I suppose is the point. The producers do a good job of capturing Steinbrenner’s many sides and interests. A bit about the Boss and his family life is particularly touching. Looking back, it’s easy to gain an appreciation for what Steinbrenner did to turn the ailing franchise around when he bought the team.
Carig notes that the YES-produced bio is a bit light on the criticism, and The Post echoed those sentiments today. It doesn’t delve much into the history of George’s legal troubles or his run-ins with baseball’s Powers-That-Be.
Yom Kippur game moved to 1 p.m.
Displaying a bit of religious sensitivity, Major League Baseball has agreed to move the Sunday, September 27 game between the Red Sox and the Yankees to 1 p.m. Originally slated as an afternoon game, MLB moved it to 8 p.m. a few weeks ago at the request of ESPN. Sunset on Sunday though marks the start of Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement. At the request of Jewish leaders and Congressman Anthony Weiner, baseball has agreed to move the game back to its original 1 p.m. start time, and my parents, ticketholders for the day, are happy to hear it.
Some self-promotion
I stopped by the YES studios last week to film a short web appearance on Pinstriped Weekly. While the video isn’t as timely today as it was last week, check it out right here.
Another reason to exercise patience with Joba
Posted by: | CommentsJoba Chamberlain is not currently a pleasant topic among Yankees fans. After three stellar starts to open the second half, he’s been on a slide since, pitching 23 innings and allowing 21 runs in August. His 18:15 K/BB ratio is not pretty either, nor is his .914 OPS against.
While the times haven’t been kind to Joba, many of us are still looking forward to his potential. This is why, to answer a commenter, why he gets so much attention. Poor results don’t take away from his potential as a front-line pitcher. It just means that he’s not accomplishing that at this moment — as a 23-year-old in his second full major league season.
How much patience should the Yankees exercise? Jonathan Lehman of the NY Post points to another young starter who came up as a reliever, then transitioned to the rotation: St. Louis’s Adam Wainwright. At age 24 he began the season in the Cardinals bullpen and moved himself into the closer’s role by season’s end. He was a revelation out there — much like Chamberlain, but over a longer period. The Cardinals then transitioned him back to the rotation, and he’s been a solid contributor ever since.
There are definitely differences between each player’s path leading to and through the majors. Wainwright, a 2000 draftee, didn’t even get a cup of coffee until 2005, and then came up full-time in 2006. This means he spent almost five full seasons in the minors. Joba, a 2006 draftee, spent May through July in the Yankees’ minor league system, missing April with a hamstring injury, and then being called up in August.
Joba dominated out of the gate as a starter in 2008, while Wainwright, despite his more than acceptable ERA, struggled at times. He allowed more than a hit an inning, his walk rate was up, and his strikeout rate was down by 2.5 per nine. Wainwright then showed some improvement the next year, though he spent some time on the DL, while Joba has seemingly regressed a bit in his sophomore campaign.
Most importantly, it appears that the Cardinals did a good job of keeping Wainwright’s innings in check. His 202 innings in 2007 might seem like a huge jump from the 76 he pitched out of the bullpen in 2006, but in 2005 Wainwright tossed 182 innings. He had tossed around 160 innings in 2001 and 2002, making the jump to 182 in 2005 easier to take. To that end, Wainwright has been mostly healthy in the majors, save for a finger sprain in 2008.
At age 27, Wainwright is experiencing what could be a Cy Young season. It wasn’t an easy path there, but the Cardinals were patient with their 6’7″ hurler, and it’s paying off now. Keep in mind, when Wainwright was Chamberlain’s age he had just two major league innings under his belt. He had just finished up a season in AAA in which he pitched 182 innings of 4.40 ERA ball. In 133.2 innings, that’s just about Joba’s ERA now, except he’s doing it at the major league level.
It’s easy to be down on Joba now. He hasn’t pitched well in a month. The Yankees odd handling of him, while completely defensible from a development standpoint, is unfamiliar and is the cause of even more criticism. I don’t think this string of bad starts, even when combined with his other poor outings this year, takes away from his long-term potential. Young pitchers go through growing pains, and patience is necessary. The Cardinals exercised it with Wainwright, and now they have a Cy Young candidate on their hands. The Yankees could find themselves in a similar position a year or two from now.
Bursting the Burnett bubble
Posted by: | CommentsIt is, I find, sometimes easy to forget that A.J. Burnett is making $16.5 million this year. He’s not the big dog in the starting rotation; that honor is reserved for CC. He doesn’t have the same Yankee cachet as Derek, A-Rod or Mark Teixeira either. And yet, there he is, pulling down a check for $634,615.39 every two weeks.
What is not easy to forget is how poorly A.J. Burnett has pitched lately. Since throwing a seven-inning, two-hit, zero-earned run game against Tampa Bay on July 27, Burnett has been nothing better than medicore with starts careening from good to awful. Over his last seven starts spanning 42.2 innings, Burnett is 0-4 with a 6.54 ERA. While he’s striking out a batter an inning, he has issued 19 walks and given up seven home runs. Opponents are hitting .287/.361/.456 against him, and that includes 7.2 innings of one-hit ball he threw against Boston in the 15-inning game on August 7.
As the Yankees hit the stretch drive — note the new Magic Number counter in the right-hand sidebar — the team is going to look to Burnett to pitch out of his funk. Right now, their pitching hopes rest on CC Sabathia and Andy Pettitte, and an effective Burnett would do wonders for this team’s October chances. Based on his season so far, though, there is hope that he could snap out of it and reel off a great run of starts.
With his start last night, Burnett has now thrown 27 games this year, and he season breaks down neatly into thirds. Through his first nine starts, he was bad. At just 2-2 through May 22, he had thrown 58 innings with an ERA of 5.28. He had struck out 50 but had walked 27 and allowed 10 home runs. Then, he turned up his game. Over his next 11 starts, he went 69.1 innings with a 2.08 ERA. He was 8-2 in that stretch and struck out 63. His walk total — 36 — was still too high, but he limited the longballs to just five.
Now, Bad Burnett, winless since July ended, is back, and Jason Rosenberg at IIATMS wonders if this streakiness is what Burnett will be. He writes:
Has any big ticket free agent been more under-the-radar, more in-the-shadows than AJ Burnett? If any other team, and I mean ANY, had signed Burnett and he posted the numbers he has thus far on the Yanks, is there any doubt there’d be some “overrated” or “bust” chatter? Yet, drafting behind CC, Teix and the rest of the shiny stars on the Yanks, AJ has been able to escape the scorn of the NY media. Does he get a free pass due to his cream pie surprises and he seems to be well-liked by all?…
What about his “value”? According to FanGraphs, AJ’s WAR is just 2.4, his lowest in years. Granted, we’re not done with the season, but AJ’s not delivering on his promise. And as far as dollar value earned, he’s at $10.9m (well below his annual salary of over $16m and prorated season-to-date salary paid of $13.6m). By comparison, AJ’s WAR last year was 5.7 and his dollar value earned was $25.5m.
Waaaaay back when AJ was signed, I called him an “expensive station car”, an analogy which several people seemed to enjoy. The smartest thing AJ did (besides having that opt-out option and having a career year at the same time) was not letting his ego get in the way of the decision process. He knew he wasn’t going to be the top dog on the Yanks staff and was seemingly OK with this fact (getting an $80m+ contract can do that). Not too dissimilar to his time in TOR when he thrived behind Doc Halladay or even in FLA behind Beckett. He hasn’t been asked to be the horse who carries the club. Merely be very good. He hasn’t been very good very often (though, at times he has) and he hasn’t yet earned his payroll. But he’s gone out there every turn and given the Yanks 6+ innings of decent performance. How would he have handled being expected to be The Ace of any other team?
Jason brings up some interesting questions to consider, but while those make for a good thought experiment, the reality is far simpler: The Yankees will need A.J. Burnett to rediscover his touch from June and July that made him one of the best pitchers in the AL for 11 starts. All of the walk-off cream pies in the world can’t disguise the fact that, right now, the Yankees aren’t getting their money’s worth out of their second starter.
The strike outs are there; the control and poise on the mound are slipping away. When push comes to shove, the Yankees will put their season into the hands of Burnett, a player who numerous commentators have noted will be making his first post-season start this year. Hopefully, Good A.J. will show up when the time comes.
A-Rod may not need second hip surgery
Posted by: | CommentsWhen word got out in March that Alex Rodriguez had a torn labrum in his right hip, it was just another pile-on moment in a forgettable offseason for the beleaguered star. Rumor had it that he could miss most of the 2009 season as he rehabbed from surgery, and of course all the “he’ll never be the same” talk got started. Then came the news that an alternative, hybrid procedure could be performed to minimize the recovery time and get the Yanks’ cleanup hitter back in the lineup sooner rather than later.
This hybrid procedure came with the caveat that Alex would eventually have to undergo the more extensive surgery this coming offseason, and everybody was pretty much fine with that because Alex would be back sooner. They were also watching Chase Utley OPS over 1.000 early in the season after he had the same procedure last winter. As it turns out, A-Rod might not need that second surgery after all. To quote Bryan Hoch’s report:
“I don’t want to jinx us, but there is a very good chance we can use conservative treatment,” Dr. Marc Philippon told the New York Post. “We will take our time and look at all the variables, but I am very optimistic and happy.”
. . .
Rodriguez, who has benefited from regularly scheduled days off this season, told The Post on Monday that it was “80 percent no; 20 percent yes” that he’d need offseason surgery.
Obviously, avoiding surgery is the preferable path. You don’t just cut into a world class athlete, especially a major joint of a super expensive athlete, unless you really have to. Yeah, it stinks that he needs more rest now than he did before, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. He’s been hitting like his old self for over two months now (.310-.423-.548 since the end of June), and his defense – which has certainly declined post-hip injury – is tolerable. If the options going forward are a) have the second surgery and hope it heals well, and if not who knows what, or b) not have the second surgery and give him some extra rest every week or two, I’d take the latter every day of the week and twice on Sundays.
After all that we’ve witnessed and all that he’s been through in his five plus years in pinstripes, it’s almost hard to believe that something like this could actually be going A-Rod’s way. I’m certain Dr. Phillippon and the team will do whatever is in the best interest of Alex Rodriguez now and his career going forward, and if that doesn’t require another surgery, then fantastic.
Finding success in an Andy Pettitte slider
Posted by: | CommentsAs Andy Pettitte ran through the Orioles’ line up on Monday with the threat of a perfect game hanging over Camden Yards, he put the perfect exclamation point on his post-All Star Break run. Since taking a few days off for the break, Pettitte has been as close to unbeatable as he ever has been.
He’s 4-1 since the break, and the Yanks are 7-2 in games Pettitte starts. His impressive down the line though are even more impressive. In 59.2 innings spanning 9 starts, Pettitte has an ERA of 2.56. He has allowed 45 hits and has walked just 15 while striking out 62, better than one batter an inning. Opponents are hitting .210/.260/.294 off of Andy, and he has allowed just three home runs after allowing 15 bombs during the first half of the season.
For many Yankee fans, what Pettitte has done this year reminds them of what Mike Mussina did last year. Pettitte is an old veteran who can’t blow hitters away, and he has had to change his style of pitching. By changing speeds and weaning himself off of his fastball, Pettitte has been a finesse pitcher who could keep going for years. Or so the narrative goes.
There is, of course, only one little problem with this story: It’s not true. Let’s start with Mike Mussina. While we have limited pitch f/x data for Mussina from 2007, we see that he threw around 50 percent fastballs and 50 percent breaking pitches. His fastball had an average velocity of around 88.5, and it was rated by Fangraphs as -15 runs above average. In 2008, Mussina changed his approach. He threw fastballs around 33 percent of the time and threw change-ups and breaking pitches that ranged from around 73 miles per hour to 80. He became a completely different pitcher.
Andy Pettitte hasn’t achieved the same metamorphosis. In 2008, Pettitte threw fastballs 45.6 percent of the time; in 2009, Pettitte has thrown fastballs 44 percent of the time. The velocity on those pitches clocks in at around 89 mph both years, and in fact, during Monday’s gem, Pettitte never reached higher than 88.2 mph on the gun.
Velocity, though, isn’t everything, and the secret to Pettitte’s success this year isn’t his speed or pitching approach. It is his ability to throw his slider and get more cutting action on his cutter. As 2008 drew to a close, Pettitte was a mess. He admitted that his arm hurt and that he could not pitch effectively. He went out there every five days because the other options were, frankly, awful. Sidney Ponson, as we like to forget, started 15 games for the 2008 Yankees.
This year, Pettitte has been the model of health. In fact, his arm feels so good that he sounds as though he won’t retire at the end of this season. With a healthy arm in tow, he is now throwing sliders 18.2 percent of the time, up from 5.3 percent in 2008. By mixing and matching his slider and fastball with his cutter ? ranked 11.2 runs above average by Fangraphs ? Pettitte has rediscovered his arsenal. He didn’t need to reinvent himself; he just had to feel and be healthy.
Going forward, this reality raises a few uncomfortable questions. Will Pettitte be able to maintain this success as the velocity on his pitches drops? What happens if and when his shoulder or elbow flare up again and that slider and cutter become unavailable? Pettitte turned 37 nearly three months ago, and he’s not getting any younger. As long as he’s healthy, he could be an effective pitcher for a few more years, and as Pettitte and the Yanks head for another winter contract, I just hope his arm holds up.
Just 21 days 'til pitchers and catchers report.
