Perpetual prospect Dellin Betances threw a scoreless inning on the road against the Astros this afternoon, and to quote Houston’s announcers, he was “scary wild.” That’s pretty typical for the right-hander, who had a nightmare season a year ago and has struggled to harness his admittedly impressive stuff over the last six years. The 25-year-old ranked 23rd on my preseason top 30 prospects list, and today he walked two, struck out two, hit a batter, and uncorked a wild pitch. We’ll start with the good stuff, like the big fastball in the .GIF above. More to follow — click to embiggen — after the jump.
Spring Training Game Thread: Split Squad
The Yankees are playing a pair of split squad games this afternoon. Half the team will stay in Tampa to play the Blue Jays while the other half travels to Kissimmee to play the Astros. You get one guess where the projected big league regulars will play. Hey, when you’ve made it to the show you don’t have to travel in Spring Training if it can be avoided.
Grapefruit League records mean nothing, but hot damn it would be nice if the Yankees won one of these games today just to keep up appearances. They’ve lost their last four games, including yesterday’s error-filled laughing stock. They’ll surely start winning some of these meaningless contests once the projected big league starters get into game action — Hiroki Kuroda will start tomorrow, coincidentally — but for now we’ll just have to wait. Here is the lineup for the home team in Tampa, which will be managed by Joe Girardi…
- CF Brett Gardner
- RF Ichiro Suzuki
- 1B Mark Teixeira
- DH Travis Hafner
- LF Juan Rivera
- C Chris Stewart
- 3B Dan Johnson
- 2B Jose Pirela
- SS Gil Velazquez
And on the mound is the right-hander from the St. Louis suburbs, David Phelps. Here are the second string pitchers and positions players courtesy of Chad Jennings.
Available Pitchers: RHP David Aardsma, LHP Clay Rapada, RHP Branden Pinder, LHP Juan Cedeno, RHP Chase Whitley, and RHP Jim Miller will all come out of the bullpen
Available Position Players: C Bobby Wilson, 1B Kyle Roller, SS Addison Maruszak, 3B Rob Segedin, LF Thomas Neal, CF Slade Heathcott, RF Ronnier Mustelier, and DH Gary Sanchez will all come off the bench. I guess Pirela will play all nine innings.
Here is the lineup for the road team heading about 90 minutes northeast to play the Astros, which will be managed by bench coach Tony Pena…
- SS Eduardo Nunez
- 2B Jayson Nix
- RF Zoilo Almonte
- LF Matt Diaz
- CF Melky Mesa
- C Frankie Cervelli
- 3B Corban Joseph
- 1B Luke Murton
- DH J.R. Murphy
And on the mound is the right-hander from the suburbs of Houston, Brett Marshall. Here are the second stringers, again courtesy of Jennings.
Available Pitchers: RHP Dellin Betances, RHP Mikey O’Brien, RHP Shane Greene, RHP Kelvin Perez, RHP Corey Black, and RHP Zach Nuding are all coming out of the bullpen.
Available Position Players: C Austin Romine, 1B Greg Bird, 2B Walt Ibarra, SS Cito Culver, 3B Kevin Mahoney, LF Ramon Flores, CF Adonis Garcia, RF Tyler Austin, and DH Francisco Arcia are all coming off the bench.
Both games are scheduled to start a little after 1pm ET and can be seen on MLB.tv (no local blackouts). Only the home game will be available on YES. Enjoy.
Open Thread: 2/27 Camp Notes
The Yankees dropped their fourth consecutive Grapefruit League game this afternoon, this one a truly ugly display of baseball. The club committed five (!) errors, including a botched pickoff attempt, a ball throw into the stands, and a flubbed double play transfer at second. Brett Gardner continued his hot hitting with a bases-loaded triple that was pretty much the only highlight of the day. Here’s the box score and here’s the rest from Tampa…
- MLBPA stopped by camp today for their annual dog and pony show. Union head Michael Weiner confirmed they have spoken to both Alex Rodriguez and Frankie Cervelli about the latest round of performance-enhancing drug allegations stemming from South Florida. [George King]
- Hiroki Kuroda will start on Friday, making him the first of the front-four big league starters to get into a game this spring. Ivan Nova will follow on Saturday. [Chad Jennings]
- Not much actual baseball stuff going on behind the scenes. Ivan Nova was the only projected big leaguer to throw, and that was just a bullpen. A few of his fellow staff mates are expected to face hitters in non-game action tomorrow. [Jennings]
- Phil Hughes (bulging disk) said he is pain free, but as we heard earlier, there’s a chance he might not be ready in time for the regular season. Kevin Youkilis (oblique) is fine but will sit tomorrow as a precaution anyway. [Meredith Marakovits & Jennings]
- The Yankees are playing a pair of split squad games on Thursday afternoon. David Phelps will start at home against the Blue Jays while Brett Marshall gets the ball against the Astros in Kissimmee. Frankie Cervelli, Austin Romine, Jayson Nix, and Eduardo Nunez will all make the trip as well. Both games will be on MLB.tv but only the home game will be on YES.
Here is your open thread for the evening. The Knicks are the only local squad in action tonight, but MLB Network will air a Spring Training game as well. You folks know how these things work by now, so have at it.
Hot .GIFs: Rondon’s slider & Kahnle’s fastball
It seemed a bit odd when the Yankees added left-hander Francisco Rondon to the 40-man roster early in the offseason, keeping him away from the Rule 5 Draft. The 24-year-old pitched to a 3.93 ERA with 80 strikeouts and 42 walks in 71 innings across three levels last year, mostly with Double-A Trenton. Solid, but he wasn’t talked about a top (or even good) prospect and didn’t seem 40-man worthy.
Rondon threw two scoreless innings in this afternoon’s game, allowing a walk and a single while striking out two. As you can see, the kid has a pretty awesome slider. Downright CC Sabathia-esque, if I may. After seeing that, it’s easy to understand why they added him to the 40-man now, that breaking ball gives him at least lefty specialist potential. Some more clips of the slider after the jump. Make sure you click to embiggen.
Girardi says Hughes may not be ready for start of season
This isn’t the most surprising news in the world, but Joe Girardi told reporters this afternoon that Phil Hughes might not be ready for the start of the season due to a bulging disk in his back. “It’s possible,” said the skipper to Chad Jennings. “I think it’s too early to tell that, though.”
Hughes, 26, completed his round of anti-inflammatory medication and is working out in a pool these days. He isn’t quite ready to pick up a ball and there simply might not be enough time left in Spring Training to fully stretch him out for the season. If Hughes doesn’t make his first Grapefruit League start in about two weeks, it’s unlikely he’ll be able to start for the Yankees the first time through the rotation in April.
Hot .GIF Action: Mark Montgomery
Well, congrats to right-hander Mark Montgomery for becoming the first two-time hot-.GIF subject at RAB. He walked one in an otherwise uneventful and scoreless inning this afternoon, breaking out some sliders that made wolverines purr. More after the jump.
Hot .GIF Action: Nik Turley
It was not a good Grapefruit League debut for left-hander Nik Turley. Not at all. The team’s 11th best prospect allowed five of the six batters he faced to reach base — in his defense, some hilarious defense contributed to that — and all five came around to score. The 23-year-old allowed those five runs (four earned) on three hits and a walk in just one-third of an inning. It was pretty obvious he was nervous given how he was overthrowing and wild. It happens.
Despite the poor showing, Turley still managed to break out a few .GIFable pitches, like the curveball you see above. He used both the curve and changeup in addition to the regular fastball, especially once all hell started to break loose and outs were needed. More .GIFs after the jump, and you can click them all for a larger view.
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 78
- 79
- 80
- 81
- 82
- …
- 125
- Next Page »