Aug
30
A-Rod to begin minor league rehab assignment tomorrow
ByVia Peter Botte, third baseman Alex Rodriguez will begin a minor league rehab assignment with High-A Tampa tomorrow. He will DH in that game and if all goes well, he’ll play the field on Saturday.
A-Rod has been on the DL since late-July with a broken hand suffered when Felix Hernandez hit him with a pitch, and since then the team’s replacements at the hot corner have hit .319/.367/.555 with seven homers. Most of that stems from Eric Chavez‘s crazy hot streak earlier this month. With Mark Teixeira on the shelf with a calf problem, getting A-Rod back (even as a DH) would be a huge help to the offense.
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awesome news
indeed. Let´s hope for no setbacks!
Great news….
“Maybe now he’ll get some RBIs” – Stuart
“maybe now hell get some rbis” – stuart a
Fixed
maybe now……
he’ll get some….rbis…..
.
….
..
Fixed
His absence conclusively demonstrates how important he is to this team, even at a diminished level. Any fan who boos him at any point during his return should be publicly humiliated…on the field.
Whoever boos him should be publicly executed…
If you want some optimism, just look at the game log of Chase Utley in 2007 (Returned in 1 month on Aug 27) http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/pl.....?year=2007
and the game log of Eric Chavez in 2004 (Out Jun 2 to July 9) http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/pl.....?year=2004
They both seemed to mash right away.
Hopefully, this A-Rod kid can learn a thing or two from T. Austin and/or S. Heathcott.
/half kidding’d
Update: A-Rod experiences setback; has three weeks to live.
Well, we might as well get what we can out of him then. Get him on the field ASAP!
We’ll that’s one way to get out of his contract.
The offense has come to a stand still without him and Teixera. But go to any other club, take away their regular #4 and #5 hitters and see how they do. Jones has had to bat cleanup yesterday. He should be batting 7th or 8th. They need these guys back.
Of course, which is why you always want to keep a ML ready bat with upside, either on the ML roster for depth, or at AAA.
The Yankees have one of the deepest major league rosters in the game, but no matter how much depth you have, there comes a point when it becomes almost too much to overcome too many injuries to key players. They’re already playing some guys with ML bats full-time who were initially slotted for (and performing pretty damn well in) part-time roles. As for the minor leaguers, if they’ve got ML bats, they wouldn’t be in the minors. It’s real easy to sit around and quarterback the roster as if putting these things together was so simple, but that’s not how it works. The Yankees great depth is probably the main reason they STILL have a lead in the division. That doesn’t mean it’s a bottomless well of ML-quality bats at the ready every time a player goes down and you’re already at the bottom of your depth chart in several positions.
Going into the season, they had major age at 3B/SS, a 1B who has been declining v. RHP, a CF who may or may not have been coming off of a career year (looks like the former), and an offense-challenged catching position after having been fortunate enough to get above league average offensive production from that position for over a decade.
To supplement those potential vulnerabilities, they have/had no ML ready mL bats. So whatever depth they have/had is illusory.
Yet they have had a significant payroll advantage over the rest of MLB, which not only enabled them to spend big on the ML roster, but to also pay over slot in the draft and for IFA.
It’s easy to defend the status quo; most people do.
Gardner got hurt, leading to Jones/Ibanez playing more than planned.
Romine got hurt, and Cervelli struggled in AAA. At least 1 of them would have been up here.
Nunez’s defensive nightmare, combined with an injury cost them alot in terms of SS/3B, as well as speed and aggression.
That’s alot of depth.
Add on Alex and now Tiex.
That’s what has led to McGehee, and Ichiro, and Stewart and Martin getting so many AB’s.
It’s just been one of those years.
Romine and Gardner were injured last season too, Romine with the same injury.
Cashman went into the offseason saying that he was willing to trade offense for pitching.
I think the makeup of the roster and the mL system argued for adding one instead.
It’s one thing to be on the DL for two weeks, quite another to lose a guy for all but 11 games.
I’m not really disagreeing with you, just noting that the depth has been thinned by injuries to young players.
I didn’t want to trade Montero, as I felt he would be a good DH/BUC/occasional 1B to groom and learn from the All Stars/HOFers. But I know the desire to get front-line pitchers.
We could ave had Willingham or Ross but instead chose Jones. We could have had Doumit but chose Stewart. I don’t care how many pitches you frame, nothing beats a goodf hittig catcher.
sorry about the typos.
Doumit is terrible, terrible catcher.
While I agree with your assessment, our catchers are terrible, terrible hitters. I knew I’d miss Jorge, I just didn’t think it would be this much.
Jorge would be a terrible, terrible, terrible hitter right now as well.
Why U make me sad Robinson?
You’re right. That depth which helped allow them to build this lead is illusory. None of that depth did anything to get them this far. It was all a mirage.
It’s easy to say you’re railing against the status quo when you make shit up to try and prove your point.
The offensive depth was illusory because it was aging, fungible depth that was likely to decline, as it has.
The lead was really a product of starting pitching, which wasn’t a problem last season and hasn’t really been this season, despite Pettitte’s (and CC’s) injury.
You have no point, nor supportable arguments.
So yeah, go for the ad hominem attacks to try to obscure reality, but you’re still left with nothing.
It was superb pitching, yes. But, the offense as a whole is one of the top offenses in the game. With some of these injuries, the part time players are being exposed. Earlier in the year, they were able to excel in their roles.
The “aging, fungible depth” has declined because now it’s playing every day when it was never intended to because there have been starters who have gone down with injuries. When those players were playing in their expected part-time or platoon roles, they did quite well, and THATS HOW THEY HELPED CONTRIBUTE TO BUILDING THEIR LEAD. (along with that great pitching)
Pearce had to bat cleanup two days ago. He shouldn’t even be in the league.
I agree, but is any franchise truly prepared to have a better option D than Sam Pearce? Really?
Let’s hope A-Rod rehabs with Jeters dude and can rediscover some bat speed and some more power. Time off for an old fart like A-Rod isn’t the worst thing to happen, considering the replacements have filled in nicely; at the time it looked worse but since Chavez rediscovered his 2005 stroke it could work out as a positive.
Prediction: Arod will go 1 for 4 in his fist rehab assignment, and everyone here will demand he stays in the minors
Hi we only play you guys tough.
It seems as though the White Sox are vulnerable to LHP’s, with several of their big bats lefty. I also notice, I think, that neither CC nor Andy have made a start against them this year. Just food for thought if we wind up in a 5 game series with them.
stuart a = Jason Keidel?
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/20.....e-to-like/
Stop your fucking whining
We are still the New York Yankees
We are still in first place
We will still be in first place after the last game of the season
Carry on.
now this is a good post.
Reminds me of Custer’s speech to the troops right before Little Big Horn.
I’d rather hear this and you be wrong at the end than hear the endless Chicken Littles on here.
That’s true, but posturing from fans both pessimistic or optimistic make no difference.
The Yanks are what they are; an injury-riddled, struggling team trying to stay afloat.
Maybe (like with Andy) this could help A-Rods leg stay fresh for the stretch run.
/silver lining’d
Great. A-Rod back, Andy back in September, hopefully Tex next week, pick up Mauer, DFA Granderson, cut the entire bullpen….
Oh, wait. Not sure what happened to me on those last few points. I think I’ve been reading too many game threads.
We also need to bench Cano for lack of hustle and tell CC he’s not an ace.
Game thread’d
With A-Rod returning, I wonder if the Yankees will give some thought to sitting Ibanez a bit more and giving Chavez some of his ABs. Now that may come in the form of Chavy still playing the field while A-Rod DHs, but Chavez is the more productive hitter right now compared to Ibanez.