DotF: Joba’s gotta overcome a little adversity now and then

by 1 Comment

Courtesy of loyal reader Alan Hirsch, may I present Down on the Farm for Friday…

Joba got lit up, with Brian Cashman in attendance. He pitched 4.2 innings and gave up 9 hits (3 homers) and 7 earned runs. In the 2nd half of the doubleheader, Alan Horne did the same, lasting 2.2 innings and giving up 3 earned runs. Maybe the erratic schedule, with the rehabbing Hughes & Krastens did in the Trenton pitchers? We’ll see what happens to Joba next outing.

Thoughts of Austin Jackson cooling off are premature, as he went 3-4 with a homer and a double. Just when we’re ready to write off Eric Duncan, he’s starting to hit. Duncan hit a home run in his second consecutive night.

Justin Christian 2-5, R, 2 K Batting .345 since his call up
Angel Chavez 2-4, R
Kevin Reese 2-3, R, RBI, BB
Durazo (DH) 1-3. R. BB
Eric Duncan 1-3, HR, 3 RBI.
Chris Basak 2-4, R, 2 RBI
Colter Bean 2 IP, 6 H, 3 ER, 3 BB, 2 K Why’s he starting, with the logjam of pitchers at Trenton?
Sean Henn 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K
TJ Beam 3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB 3 K

[Read more…]

A three-man no-no in Tampa

by 13 Comments

While the Yanks won another game in the late innings due to Alex Rodriguez and Andy Phillips heroics, the Yankees’ farm system provided plenty of fodder for us today. Joe did a fantastic job covering the Phil Hughes Rehab Extravaganza, but the other big story of the day for the Yankees came out of Tampa.

Tonight, Kevin Whelan, David Robertson and Joshua Schmidt combined for a no-hitter against the Jupiter Hammerheads. Whelan, in Tampa working to become a starting pitcher, threw 5 innings of near-perfect baseball. He surrendered 1 walk and struck out 4 to start the no-hit bid. Robertson threw 2 innings, giving up 2 walks and striking out 3. Schmidt closed out the last two innings, also giving up 2 walks and striking out 3.

Offensively, Jose Tabata went 2-for-4 with an RBI, and Francisco Cervelli‘s double drove in the other two runs.

In other Yankees Minor League news, Jairo Heredia went 5 innings for the GCL Yanks. He gave up 2 hits and 1 run while walking a pair and striking out 8. Sounds like a good day overall for the Yanks’ farm system.

Meanwhile, in Mike’s absence, you all should feel free to add any other stand-out performances to the comments. I didn’t have time to do a full DotF post tonight.

Perfect night for the Yanks farm system

by 9 Comments

I’m trying to fill in for Mike while he goes through the wedding hoopla. Thing is, I’m headed out for vacation on Thursday. Funny how things work: Mike leaves San Diego for his honeymoon as I fly in for vacation. And Ben’s out in Cali on a stadium tour. You can’t make this up.

Anyway, onto the scores.

Triple-A Scranton (12-1 win over Indianapolis – beat this fat fuck)
Brett Gardner: 3 for 6, 1 3B, 1 K, 3 RBI – too bad we already have two center fielders in the Bronx
Justin Christian: 2 for 5
Angel Chavez: 2 for 5, 1 2B, 1 RBI – .313/.354/.468 for the season, .366 with 2 doubles and 2 homers in his last 10 games
Eric Duncan: 0 for 3 – le sigh
Chase Wright: 5.2 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 7 BB, 3 K – 7 walks?!? He now has more walks than strikeouts in AAA – 38-42
TJ Beam: 2.1 IP, 1 H, 0 BB, 3 K – betcha he’s up in August

[Read more…]

Hughes or Joba?

by 7 Comments

This is a couple of days old, so you may have seen it already. My bad for missing it.

Anywho, John Sickels asks a pretty interesting question over at his blog:

True or False:

Joba Chamberlain will win more major league games in his career than Phil Hughes. Discuss.

I recommend checking out the discussion in the comments, there’s some good stuff there.

As for me, I say FALSE because, well, Hughes is the better pitcher. His control is better, his command is better, his secondary stuff is better, he’s been healthier (Phil’s had some pretty fluky injuries), and I like his delivery better. Hughes has a chance to have one of those “15+ wins a year for 15 straight years” kind of runs. That said, Joba’s got a chance to do some serious damage, like 250+ K in a year.

Long story short, I think Hughes has a longer career with more wins, while Joba has a greater peak with more “holy crap” moments. Â

Jesus debut-eth

by 8 Comments

Austin Jackson’s incredible run with High-A Tampa has earned him the #4 spot on BA’s Hot Sheet, where he’s joined in the top 10 by . . . oh who am I kidding, you know who. I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that personal fave Phil Coke was named FSL Pitcher of the Week. Props go out to former Yankee farmhand Randy Ruiz, who honored his old mates by launching a 3-run job off a certain Red Sawx prospect (who’s stats really aren’t that much better than Ian Patrick Kennedy’s, by the way) tonight.

Oh, and if Torre is going to steadfastly refuse to use Edwar Ramirez, just send him back to Triple-A so he can get some regular work. This is effin’ ridiculous. Stats after the jump…

[Read more…]

Elbow woes for Betances

by 8 Comments

From the SI Advance:

Right-hander Dellin Betances left after three innings because of tightness in his throwing elbow, overshadowing what was an already forgettable 7-2 loss to the Vermont Lake Monsters yesterday at the Richmond County Bank Ballpark at St. George.

“We took him out because he was complaining of stiffness in his elbow. We wanted to error on the side of caution,” said Staten Island manager Mike Gillespie of Betances, a highly-touted 6-foot-9 prospect out of Grand Street Campus HS in Brooklyn, who received a $1 million signing bonus in June of 2006.

“He’ll be seeing the doctor (today),” said Gillespie of Betances, who was making his sixth start of the season for Staten Island yesterday after pitching last year for the Gulf Coast Yankees. “The good news was that he wasn’t complaining of pain. We’ll just keep our fingers crossed. There’s no real reason to think he’s done (for the season), but we’re a little bit worried.”

(hat tip to BAPR+)

Update: I had some time to think about it (mostly because my boss was looming over my shoulder), and I’m just thankful it’s not his shoulder. Elbows are relatively easy to fix (but they have a  crazy long recovery time), and this is his first trouble with it (as far as I know). I remain optimistic, and hope this isn’t a precursor to something more serious down the road.

Update Part Deux: I find it pretty funny that an injury like this would be devastating to most team’s farm systems, but the Yanks have so much pitching depth these days that they can absorb the injury without missing a beat. In the words of my Italian grandfather: Beautiful, fuckin’ beautiful.

Horne-ible

by 7 Comments

Did you see what I did with the post title there? Horrible . . . Horne-ible . . . eh, eh? Oh screw you guys… 

Anyways, it looks like Eric Duncan has become a platoon player for Scranton; tonight marks the 3rd straight time he’s sat when the opposing team started a southpaw. Even though E-Dunc has demolished LHP throughout his career, he’s hitting only .151-.258-.226-.484 against them this year, justifying the move.

Triple-A Scranton (3-1 loss to Louisville)
Brett Gardner, Justin Christian & Andy Cannizaro: all 1 for 4 – Gardner K’ed…Cannizaro scored a run
Shelley Duncan, Angel Chavez & Chris Basak: combined 0 for 12, 4 K
Mighty Matt: 7.1 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, 2-13 GB/FB - picked a runner off first…tough luck loss prior to what could prove to be an ideal situation in his Saturday start with the big league squad
Sean Henn: 0.1 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 1 K
Chris Britton: 0.1 IP, zeroes across the board – in other news, Kyle Farnsworth is terrible at his job

[Read more…]