Here’s yet another piece about how the Yanks’ barren wasteland of a farm system is so wonderful. That article also includes the understatement of the year, saying that Eric Duncan was “perhaps rushed a bit through the system.”
Get to know Phil Hughes (even more)
Nice little puff piece about Phil Franchise (hat tip to Pete Abraham for the moniker) over at the Worldwide Leader:
[Hughes agent, Nez] Balelo tells a story about the day in 2004, when the Yankees invited Hughes — their new No. 1 draft pick, out of Santa Ana, Calif. — to meet them on a trip to Dodger Stadium.
They gave him a uniform, then marched him out to the bullpen before a game to throw for Joe Torre and pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre.
When a group of fans around the bullpen began hooting at him, Stottlemyre walked over to Hughes and asked: “Is all the yelling bothering you?”
“I don’t even know what you’re talking about,” Hughes replied.
Sounds like pitching in the Bronx won’t be a major obstacle for the kid. All I know is that when I was 17 and muttered “I don’t even know what you’re talking about,” there was a damn good chance I new exactly what you were talking about, and I was just trying to hide it.
I missed 2 states, but they don’t have any baseball teams…
…so it’s okay. Feel free to post your results in the comments section.
(hat tip to DA Humber, whose blog you should be reading daily)
So much for that super-utility guy idea
If you don’t already know, Alberto Gonzalez – one of the guys picked up in the Big Unit deal – is basically the shortstop version of Marcos Vechionacci, meaning he’s frickin’ awesome with the glove. Since he plays a position occupied by someone whose name I forget at the big league level, there’s been thought of using Gonzalez as a utility guy.
Well, Gonzalez make an error in today’s game that ultimately cost the Yanks the win. Why is this signifcant? Because he was playing third at the time. This is Gonzalez’s second error of the spring, with the other error coming as he manned second. Granted this falls into the “small sample size” category, but still, he doesn’t seem as comfortable at non-natural positions.
He’s got some serious value as a trade chip, too bad Yankee fans most likely won’t ever get to see him pull a Rey Ordonez (with the glove, not the bat) impression in the Bronx.
Live Phil Hughes blog
Hughes is on the mound right now facing the Indians, here’s how it’s going:
First Batter: David Delluci walked
Second Batter: Ryan Garko struck out
Third Batter: Shin-Soo Choo GIDP’ed. Inning over.
Update: My bad, Dellucci was picked off first…
And we pick it up in the 5th (tied 2-2, Kevin Reese with a 2-run job):
First Batter: Hector Luna slapped a single
Second Batter: Mike Rouse GIDP’ed (no mistake this time)
Third Batter: Grady Sizemore good morning, good afternoon, good ni…ground out
Days likely over for Phil, who dropped his spring ERA from 8.18 to 2.70. His line: 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 K, 4-0 GB/FB ratio.
Top young outfielders
There’s a great feature at the great site Project Prospect about the top outfielders in the game under the age of 25, in which they noted this little tidbit about Melky:
So why the sudden ascension? Strike zone control. Cabrera walked 56 times while only striking out 59 in 460 at-bats. He nearly K’d twice for every walk in the minors.
Great stuff, never realized that about El Leche. (yes Tabata is on the list too…)