Open Thread: 3/6 Camp Notes
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What a perfectly fitting photo. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
The Yankees got thumped by Robinson Cano and the rest of the Dominican Republic team this afternoon, just before we all learned Mark Teixeira will miss 8-10 weeks with a wrist strain. They were getting no-hit until Zoilo Almonte hit a two-run homer with two outs in the seventh — Yankees farmhands Vidal Nuno (four innings) and Juan Cedeno (one inning) contributed to that — and finished the day with as many hits as errors (two, both miscues by interim first baseman Dan Johnson). Fun stuff. The good news is Hiroki Kuroda was very sharp, allowing two hits and no walks in three shutout innings. He was hitting the corners with his fastball and getting whiffs on his splitter. That was good to see. Here’s the box score and here’s the rest from Tampa…
- Mariano Rivera did not pitch today and will instead make his Grapefruit League debut on Saturday. The Yankees are on the road the next two days and Mo doesn’t travel. In other Rivera news, he has left the team to attend to a personal matter in New York. He’ll return in time for Saturday’s outing. [Chad Jennings & Erik Boland]
- Derek Jeter is happy with how his ankle has responded to increasingly intense workouts, but he needs to run the bases at full speed before appearing in a game. He won’t put a date on when that may happen. [Andy McCullough]
- David Robertson, who had trouble getting loose last night, has been cleared by a doctor and hopes to pitch in tomorrow’s game. The Yankees also seem to give guys that one extra day, so I wouldn’t be surprised if Robertson doesn’t return until the next home game on Saturday. [George King]
- Curtis Granderson (fractured forearm) was cleared to begin working out today. He can ride a stationary bike and lift with his legs, but he can’t do anything with his right arm (duh) or anything that puts him at risk of falling (also duh). [McCullough]
- Slade Heathcott (thumb) started hitting yesterday and feels fine. He said he plans to get back into a game on Saturday. [Chad Jennings]
- The Yankees are on the road to play the Cardinals in Jupiter tomorrow afternoon, but that game will not be on television at all. No YES, no MLB.tv, no nothing. Adam Warren gets the start.
Here is your open thread for the evening. The Knicks and Nets are both playing tonight, plus MLB Network will air a game a little later on as well. Talk about whatever you like here, go nuts.
86 Comments»
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Here’s an idea that may tide them over till Tex gets back, move Jeter to 1st (less strain on his ankle) and let Nunez sink or swim at short.
They would never do this, but you could probably make a case that it’s as good as what they end up doing.
I actually don’t hate this idea. Of course there is a better chance at me playing at 1st this April as there is of Jeter doing so, but still.
Also, having Jeter play 1B instead of DH keeps a Pronk like bat in the lineup.
Troll time.
1965…1965…1965…1965…1965…1965…1965…
FUCK YOU PAT!
Greetings from Grand Cayman everyone. Hope everything is going well with you all. Sucks about Tex…my two cents is that I still think the Yanks will contend just fine. Yay optimism. I’m going to go drink on the beach now. Later dudes.
Your opinion cannot currently be trusted, you’re on the influence of at least liquid enhancement and who knows what else.
Most likely turtle soup induced optimism.
So Shredder finally won, eh?
Hey Mike, some weird stuff is going on with the comments format. You might want to check that out.
I’m not seeing anything. What’s wrong?
I assume he’s talking about the mobile site appearing randomly that is continuing to happen.
Yep.
I can’t believe one week ago I was reading Mike’s piece of the importance of Teixeira. Very, very worried about this season.
It’s time for Brett Gardner to turn in that 14 HR April we all know he’s capable of.
Instead of jumping out of planes or sleeping with deranged women, maybe Cashman should put some time into actually improving the team that expects to sell 1500 dollar seats around home plate….
Because every other team is better equipped to withstand these kinds of injuries, right?
yeah, let’s give the guy with a 220mil payroll a pass….he signs a dh that cant play the field, a year after signing a dh only because he could play the field….he knows Arod is toast for a few weeks before the word gets out, and then moans because the word is out and he cant make a decent deal for a 3rd baseman….and it ‘s been 5 years since his historic “I must control the organization” speech…hows the prospects in AAA looking right now? Oh, five years isn’t enough time…ok….. This guy has been using smoke, mirrors, and pictures he has of Hal and Hank for years to cover up a very mediocre performance in a job that pays top dollar for top performance….the Cashman apologists will have a field-day with this…..but I assure you that ole George in his prime would have sent Cashman packing long ago…maybe when he pulled the Montero deal just when he was being exposed for his indiscretions with the wack-job blonde.
George Steinbrenner literally begged Cashman not to leave six years ago, and that team was in much worse shape.
Much worse shape than now? Sorry Mike..I love your work here, but he’s GM’d this team into a very old, lean team and now he has injuries to hide behind…you are the greatest, Mike, but we clearly disagree on this point.
Two years after he was begged not to leave, the Yanks won a WS.
Six years ago our primary firstbaseman was either Giambi or Mientkiewicz, Kyle Farnsowrth and Bryan Bruney were our primary set up men, Jeff Karstens, Chris Britton, Darrel Rasner, Tyler Clippard, and Matt Disalvo all started games for us. Not to mention apart from IPK, Joba, Hughes, and AJax our farm system was barren, meanwhile all four of them are now legit major leaguers. Now I’ll be the first to admit Cashman has had a rough couple years, but to call him a terrible GM is just laughable.
Please read. The word terrible was never used. Mediocre was the term used.
Okay, to insinuate he is terrible while calling him mediocre is laughable. Better?
Nope. Nothing I said “insinuates” terrible. He isn’t terrible. He’s been mediocre. He works for the premier team in baseball, with a stated vision of excellence, and he hasn’t performed to that level. I think there are a number of gms who could have done just as well, and MAYBE some who could have done better with the resources he’s had over the years, in spite of the interference from George. He’s mediocre, not terrible. But Yankee fans here on the blog do not expect mediocrity from this franchise, and the owners do not promote their product as being satisfied with mediocrity. Nor do they charge prices that support mediocrity. And clearly, in the past few months and maybe past few years, the gm’ing has been mediocre. The SF Giants and St L Cards have run far superior organizations over the past few years, with far less to do it with.
I think Cashman is overrated more than anyone else but c’mon now.
Here’s an anatomically correct doll. Please show the jury where dalelama touched you.
You said absolutely nothing to refute my point. Nice job, James Brown.
As soon as I saw that many ellipses I know it was going to be some garbled, nonsensical, ridiculous comment.
As soon as I saw the mis-use of present and past tense in the sentence I KNEW I was dealing with a Rhodes Scholar.
As soon as I saw the mis-use of present and past tense in the suasage link I KNEW I was dealing with a Rhodes Scholar
Suasage? What language is this, esperanto?
“I know stuart a. stuart a is a friend of mine. And you kenthadley are NO stuart a. ”
This “I blame Cashman for the rise of communism” schick has been done 1000 times before. And you don’t even do it as well as those guys.
Why does Nuno appear to be a major league pitcher this spring? Has his assortment of pitches improved? What’s the deal with him?
He was pretty solid back in AA last year (granted he’s 24, IIRC), and well, it’s spring training.
my cousin who lives in staten island said there are rumers that when teixeira performed on broadway this winter he fell and hurt his wrist then. the yankees should check this out to see if this true.
I have a cousin in Brooklyn that is selling a bridge for a decent price.
My cousin in Lahore is a French prostitute.
I know a guy who’s cousin might be Bill Clinton
I knew this guy, he saw bigfoot. He was about to bone his girlfriend, but then suddenly she yelled, so he looked up and it was bigfoot. He wanted to back to bone her, but the mosquitoes were going crazy and she said there was no way.
So to deal with the misery of being sick, losing my voice, the Teixeira injury, and crippling boredom, I bought the Mass Effect Trilogy. I’ll see you all around opening day.
I only played 2 but it was the tits.
According to jjyank, as well as a few of my RL friends it is the best sci-fi game ever and the story from the beginning of 1 through the end of 3 is possibly one of the best Sci-Fi stories in the history of the Sci-Fi genre, including video games, books, movies, everything.
A word of advice, turn off your console (or PC) when Shepard is looking out at Earth next to Anderson near the end of ME3.
You can thank me by not having 100+ hours of gameplay retroactively ruined for you.
So the Yankees are looking at Wang(who would be okay) and Vazquez but Derek Lowe the Yankees can’t give him a minor league deal.
The extra starters and bench which is what got them to the postseason last year is second to doing nothing.
I just saw that Lowe signed a minor league deal with Texas.
Cashman failed.
In fairness, the others on this site would scream from the rooftops about “all teh Old GUYZ blocking deh kidz!!!!11!” if Derek Lowe got picked up.
And for the record, 38 YO Derek Lowe’s grow on trees. At least Wang has “better than most” upside.
I think we may be forgetting that only a month of the season will pass until Teix and Grandy come back. I agree that it’s not going to be the team we’d like to see on the field, but they may be just good enough. We have to remember despite all of this that the pitching should be great this year, and that can keep the Yanks in it until the offense kicks in around June. You don’t win titles in March, or April, or May. Let’s wait and see.
The danger in not doing anything is that there are far more scenarios more likely than the Yankees being able to tread water, having Teix and Grandy come back with no set backs, and have no further injuries before they come back.
I think if by AS Break, we are 15 games out of wild card, that we should resign Cano and do everything possible to rid ourselves of Tex and ARod, (paying >90% of contract) not signing Granderson next year, and just see what happens. I feel like the 189 plan won’t make sense if we aren’t going to be able to win in 2014. Just sign Cano first, then trade everyone, start from the ground up.
There is no getting rid of Teix and ARod. Also the Yankees aren’t going to pay that much money for someone to not play for them.
What would the point of eating over 90% of Tex and ARod’s contract be?
To only save about $5M a year? Tex and Arod should be able to combine to produce enough to provide more than $5M worth of value. Seems like that would hurt more than help.
Also, the chances of being 15 games out of the wild card by the AS break are 0. Not even Houston (or any other team) was 15 games out of a WC spot at the AS break last year.
If you’re going to eat that much of Tex’s and A-Rod’s contracts, just keep them. You’re not finding upgrades anywhere.
I don’t think you realize just how bad 15 games out at the AS break is. Last season, a team would have to be 31-56 to be 15 back of the 2nd wild card at the break.
Anybody think the opening day lineup could feature Jeter, Gardner, Ichiro, and Cano at the top?
I think the Ideal line up would be:
SS Jeter
RF Ichiro
1B Youkilis
2B Cano
DH Hafner
3B Nunez
CF Gardner
C Cervelli
LF Mesa/Diaz/Almonte/Rivera
Obviously by “ideal” I mean “best possible with the players they have.”
Ideally I’d smack you upside the head for thinking that “ideal” was the right word to use in that situation.
And by “best possible with the players they have”, of course you mean “Cashman Failed”…
/Last Years’ Meme’d
Even before Tex went down, I was strongly considering being an advocate for a Gardner, Ichiro, Jeter (maybe in that order but not necessarily) top 3 in the order. Now with Tex out, I would definitely do that.
I know it drops Cano one more spot, but with so little over the fence power remaining, I combine the most serious speed and general hitting threats together (also because I think Gardner should especially be at the top but the other two are the least likely to be moved anywhere else) and try to create offense in other ways combining their speed and other abilities.
I have some faith in Nunez, but having Gardner after him really hurts that lineup, in my opinion. You’re also largely compromising their speed by putting them behind Hafner. And really, you have Cano at 4th anyway.
I say try the speed guys together to get each other in and then the couple of slow power guys left together to try to get a hold of a big fly periodically.
So like this?
Gardner CF
Ichiro RF
Jeter SS
Cano 2B
Youk 1B
Hafner DH
Mesa/Mustiller, etc LF
Cervelli C
Nunez, 3B
I will say, having Nunez, Gardner, Ichiro and Jeter all in a row makes me very excited and nervous at the same time.
That starting lineup might not combine to hit 100 homers this year.
The pitching staff better come ready to pitch like mofo’s this year.
Well, Bill James projections say that lineup would hit 114 homers next year. Besides, that won’t be the starting lineup for the whole season so I don’t get the point of saying something like that. When Tex and Granderson (and eventually ARod) return and replace Nunez and the left fielder, the Yankees lineup will be back to being above average.
Oh 114, look out 1961 Yankees.
Point is their lineup sucks to start the season. No one to blame and not much to do about it but fact is their opening day lineup is putrid.
One can only hope Arod, Tex and Granderson come back healthy and productive because as we’ve seen with guys like Gardner last year, not to mention Longoria, Kemp, Ellsbury and Tulowitski, it’s no sure thing coming back from injury.
Yeah, that’s pretty close, though I’m still not sure how much of Nunez we’ll see in the starting lineup (Tex being out certainly raises those chances though). I might reverse Cervelli and Mesa/Mustelier just for experience and contact sake, but otherwise the Gardner, Ichiro, Jeter part is basically what I’m thinking.
Best OBP at the top with world-class speed. Second guy is less likely to GIDP than the third guy, thereby hopefully leaving at least one of the top two on for your 4-5 (and 3) guys after them. He’s also faster than your 3 guy, which again may help avoid the GIDP from the 3 guy.
That’s more convoluted reading it than it is in my head though.
My concern with that lineup would be that there is a pretty good chance Cano, Youk, and Hafner could be the most productive hitters overall in the lineup (depending on matchups), and would be getting the 4th, 5th, and 6th most PA’s.
I’d prefer something like:
Vs. RHP
Gardner
Jeter
Cano
Youk
Hafner
Ichiro
Mesa
Johnson (?)
Cervelli
Vs. LHP
Gardner
Jeter
Cano
Youkilis
Diaz/Rivera
Nunez
Cervelli
Ichiro
Mesa
Yeah, dropping those guys isn’t ideal, but I’m also going on the assumption that Jeter and Ichiro are all but sure things to stay at the top of the order. Given that, between the option of having Gardner (likely with one of the best OBP’s on the team) batting 9th after several enormous question marks and the option of putting the three of them at the top and sacrificing a couple of AB’s over the same of the first month or so, I certainly choose to take the hit on the AB’s for the middle guys and try to combine the others in the top 3 spots.
Yeah, I definitely wouldn’t bat Gardner 9th. I figured since they were willing to bat Ichiro low last year they’d be willing to do it again, but I might be wrong on that.
I would give serious consideration into having Ichiro bat third. For the first six weeks or so this line up will be based on speed and on base abilities. I say go all in with that philosophy. All in meaning Jeter, Gardner, and Ichiro at the top of the line up. I would give the third spot to Ichiro based on his bat control and ability to move runners along. Thoughts on Ichiro batting third?
Ichiro isn’t all that good at getting on base anymore. All those slap grounders after Jeter would result in an ungodly amount of double plays.
“on base abilities”
Exactly why Ichiro should be as far away from the top of the lineup as possible.
Imagine the thrill of having tickets for the two games in Jupiter. Do I get over or under three players who will be on the opening day roster? Of course, the way injuries are piling up the number could be a lot higher than three
The solution is Eduardo Nuney. He should be getting more playing time anyway. Slide him into 3rd and put Youk and 1st. It’s going to be an offense based on speed and contact hitting instead of boom or bust that went bust in the postseason. The pitching is the strong suit of this team anyway and it’s still in good shape so they can easily tread water for 4-6 weeks. Better to get bit by the injury bug in March/April than September/October.
I think next weeks fan confidence poll might set a new record low.
I dunno, the one in the ALCS that had an average of like 4 will be tough to top.
Did it really?
I think I’ll be about a 5 next week.
I’d drop from a 7 to somewhere in between 5 and 6. Sure. Not much changes in the long term for me.
Pretty much this.
How about some positive thinking that the players injured will come back stronger and with a point to prove and its the hottest team in October who wins, not April
I’ll settle for “Come back fine and with dignity intact”.
You still have to get to October.
Oh Giancarlo, Oh Giancarlo, how we need your baaaat!
How hard do you think stuart a is fapping right now?
Who cares?
I’d rather not think about that.
I’m starting up a kickstart to buy some body armor and bubble wrap suit for Robbie to wear.
If something happens to him (God forbid), then I’ll start panicking and calling for the yankees to take Carlos Rodon with the #1 overall pick but until then, all I can say is this sucks.