Fan Confidence Poll: July 7th, 2014
By · CommentsRecord Last Week: 3-4 (30 RS, 30 RA)
Season Record: 44-43 (353 RS, 385 RA, 40-47 pythag. record)
Opponents This Week: @ Indians (four games, Mon. to Thurs.), @ Orioles (three games, Fri. to Sun.)
Top stories from last week:
- The week started with three games against the Rays, who took the series opener in extra innings. Tampa won again the next day thanks to David Price, then they finished off the sweep and handed New York their fifth straight loss on Wednesday.
- The Yankees headed to Minnesota for four games against the Twins next. They took the series opener behind Masahiro Tanaka before winning the second game despite Chase Whitley‘s poor start. The Twins took the third game in extra innings thanks to a walk-off error, but the Bombers rebounded to win the fourth game of the series yesterday.
- Injury Updates: CC Sabathia (knee) suffered a setback and may need microfracture surgery, which would put his career in jeopardy. Carlos Beltran (forearm) is dealing with some lingering stiffness from his throwing program. Mark Teixeira (knee) had some fluid drained and has returned to the lineup.
- The Yankees acquired Brandon McCarthy and cash from the Diamondbacks for Vidal Nuno. They also designated Alfonso Soriano and Dean Anna for assignment. Anna was claimed off waivers by the Pirates. Jose Ramirez, Yangervis Solarte, and were all sent down while Jim Miller, Bruce Billings, and Zelous Wheeler were all called up.
- Before landing McCarthy, the Yankees exchanged proposals with the Cubs for Jeff Samardzija and Jason Hammel. Both righties were traded to the Athletics. The Yankees are not strongly pursuing Chase Headley at this point, and they offered to eat $4.5M of Ichiro Suzuki‘s salary in a trade with the Astros before the season.
- The Yankees spent over $26M on international prospects between bonuses and penalties when the signing period opened on Wednesday.
- Derek Jeter, Tanaka, and Dellin Betances are all heading to the All-Star Game next week. Jeter was voting in as the starting shortstop.
- Alfredo Aceves was suspended 50 games for a second positive test for a drug of abuse.
Please take a second to answer the poll below and give us an idea of how confident you are in the team. You can view the interactive Fan Confidence Graph anytime via the nav bar above, or by clicking here. Thanks in advance for voting.
Given the team's current roster construction, farm system, management, etc., how confident are you in the Yankees' overall future?
DotF: Refsnyder, Romine both homer in AAA loss
By · CommentsTriple-A Scranton (13-9 loss to Charlotte) they managed to hit five homers and lose
- RF Jose Pirela: 1-5, 1 R, 1 2B, 1 K, 1 E (fielding)
- 2B Rob Refsnyder: 1-4, 1 R, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 3 K — third homer in his last ten games
- 3B Yangervis Solarte: 3-5, 1 R, 1 2B, 1 3B, 1 RBI, 1 K — mashin’
- LF Adonis Garcia: 1-4, 2 R, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 1 BB
- DH Kyle Roller: 2-4, 1 R, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 2 K
- 1B Scott Sizemore: 0-2, 2 K — not sure why he was pulled from the game, though with all the recent roster moves, it wouldn’t be surprising if it was a call-up
- PH-1B Corban Joseph: 2-3, 2 R, 1 HR, 1 RBI
- C Austin Romine: 3-5, 1 R, 2 2B, 1 HR, 2 RBI — everyone once in a while he shows of flash of why he was once a highly touted prospect
- LHP Jeremy Bleich: 2 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 3 BB, 1 K, 1/3 GB/FB — 29 of 54 pitches were strikes (54%)
- RHP Danny Burawa: 0.1 IP, 6 H, 6 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 0 K, 1/0 GB/FB — 13 of 24 pitches were strikes (54%) … yikes, not what they needed with a short bullpen following the Jim Miller and Bruce Billings call-ups
- RHP Jose Ramirez: 0.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 2 K — eight of 13 pitches were strikes
- LHP Taylor Dugas: 1.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 K, 1/1 GB/FB — 11 of 16 pitches were strikes (69%) … yeah, the bullpen was so short they had to use a position player to pitch
- RHP Antoan Richardson: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 0 K, 0/3 GB/FB — only six of 17 pitches were strikes (35%0 … yeah, the bullpen was so short they had to use TWO position players to pitch
ByAs expected, Derek Jeter has been voted in as the starting shortstop for the AL All-Star team by the fans. His double play partner will be Robinson Cano. Masahiro Tanaka and Dellin Betances will also represent the Yankees at the Midsummer Classic. The full All-Star Game rosters are right here.
Jeter will be playing in his 14th All-Star Game and starting at short for the ninth time. His performance this year doesn’t really warrant the selection, but he’s a star of the first order and fans want to see him in the All-Star Game in his final season. That’s what the All-Star Game is all about in my opinion. Tanaka and Betances are obviously very deserving of their selections. They will be the first Yankees rookie pitchers to make the game since Spec Shea in 1947. Congrats to all three guys. · (35) ·
Sunday Night Open Thread
By · CommentsThe Yankees acquired Brandon McCarthy from the Diamondbacks earlier today, and he will make his first start with the team on Wednesday. McCarthy, in case you’re unfamiliar with him, reinvented himself as a pitcher in 2010 by embracing sabermetrics and PitchFX analysis. He focused on missing bats, limiting walks, and trying to keep the ball on the ground to avoid homers. I recommend this Eno Sarris post and this ESPN The Magazine piece on his career turnaround. “I didn’t want to suck at baseball anymore,” he said. Check the links out. Pretty interesting stuff.
Here is your open thread for the rest of the night. The ESPN Sunday Night Game is the Rays and Tigers (Price vs. Porcello), but before that the All-Star Game rosters will be announced at 7pm ET on ESPN. Yes, ESPN. Not MLB Network. My guess: Derek Jeter (starter at shortstop) and Masahiro Tanaka make it, Dellin Betances and every other Yankee do not. Remember, making it and deserving to make it are two separate things. Talk about any of that stuff and anything else right here.
Game 87: Win The Series
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(Hannah Foslien/Getty)
The Yankees took the first two games of this four-game weekend series in Target Field before dropping yesterday’s game on a walk-off error. I can’t even get mad about that game. You could see the loss coming a mile away. The Bombers have a chance to take three of four and win the series against the Twins this afternoon though, and that’s the most important thing. I’ll take three wins out of every four games from now until the end of time. Here is the Twins lineup and here is the Yankees lineup:
- LF Brett Gardner
- SS Derek Jeter
- CF Jacoby Ellsbury
- 1B Mark Teixeira
- C Brian McCann — his sore foot made it through batting practice fine
- DH Carlos Beltran
- 2B Brian Roberts
- RF Ichiro Suzuki
- 3B Kelly Johnson
RHP Hiroki Kuroda
The weather report makes it sound like an uncomfortable day in Minneapolis — temperatures around 90 with a bunch of humidity. There is also some rain in the forecast later this afternoon. Scattered thunderstorms, hopefully nothing that delays the game. First pitch is scheduled for 2:10pm ET and you can watch on YES locally and TBS nationally. Enjoy the game.
Roster Moves: In case you missed it earlier, the Yankees designated Alfonso Soriano for assignment and called up Bruce Billings to help the overworked bullpen. They also traded Vidal Nuno to the Diamondbacks for Brandon McCarthy (and cash!).
Yankees designate Soriano for assignment
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(Tom Szczerbowski/Getty)
The Yankees have designated Alfonso Soriano for assignment, the team announced. The move clears both a 25-man and 40-man roster spot for Bruce Billings, who has been called up from Triple-A Scranton to help the overworked bullpen.
Soriano, 38, hit a miserable .221/.244/.367 (61 wRC+) with six homers in 238 plate appearances this season. He started the year as the everyday DH and, thanks in part to Carlos Beltran‘s elbow injury, wound up as a platoon right fielder losing playing time to Ichiro Suzuki. Soriano went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts and some awful defensive plays yesterday, which might have been the final straw.
The Yankees are paying $5M of Soriano’s $18M salary this year — the Cubs are paying the other $13M — and they still owe him that. They now have ten days to trade him, release him, or place him on waivers. It’s inevitable he will clear waivers and be released with that salary. Soriano was a monster after being re-acquired last year, hitting .256/.325/.525 (130 wRC+) with 17 homers in 58 games. Father Time remains undefeated, unfortunately.
Earlier this season Soriano said he will consider retirement if he has a poor year and I have to think this qualifies. Another team can sign him for the pro-rated portion of the league minimum once he is released, so he might get another chance (Red Sox?) to show he still has something left in the tank. Soriano was as fun a player to watch as anyone when he was locked in, but the time had come to move on. He wasn’t helping at all this year.
Once the pitching staff gets settled in following the Brandon McCarthy trade, the Yankees figure to call up another position player to replace Soriano. Zoilo Almonte and Yangervis Solarte are on the 40-man roster, but Jose Pirela is an interesting non-40 man option. He has crushed Triple-A pitching this year (124 wRC+) and started playing right field about a week ago. That’s probably not a coincidence. We’ll see.
(Christian Petersen/Getty)
The Yankees have added some much-needed rotation help, and it came very cheap. The team announced they have acquired right-hander Brandon McCarthy from the Diamondbacks in exchange for lefty Vidal Nuno. Buster Olney says Arizona will pay half of the $4.1M owed to McCarthy through the end of the season. The Yankees will pay the $1M assignment bonus in his contract.
Arizona comes into today with baseball’s worst record at 36-53, and GM Kevin Towers has made it clear in recent days that they will look to deal veterans for young players in the coming weeks. The D’Backs traded lefty reliever Joe Thatcher and outfielder Tony Campana to the Angels just yesterday. I’d expect them to make more moves before the trade deadline. McCarthy is due to become a free agent after the season, so this is a pure rental for the Yankees. It seems like a salary dump for the D’Backs more than anything.
“Quality stuff. Pounds the strike zone. Lots of ground balls, which helps at our Stadium,” said Brian Cashman to Joel Sherman when asked about the deal. “[David] Huff was better than we had and McCarthy was better than what we had, so we improve when we can.”
McCarthy, who turns 31 tomorrow, has a 5.01 ERA and 3.79 FIP in 18 starts and 109.1 innings this year. Homeruns have been a big problem (1.23 HR/9 and 20.0 HR/FB%) and that doesn’t figure to change in Yankee Stadium, but his strikeout (7.63 K/9 and 20.0 K%), walk (1.64 BB/9 and 4.3 BB%) and ground ball (55.3%) rates are all solid. Clearly the Yankees are hoping his .345 BABIP and 66.7% strand rate return to his career norms (.296 and 70.5%, respectively) and he pitches closer to his FIP than ERA the rest of the season.
I wrote about McCarthy as a possible trade target just the other day. He is going to give up some homers, that’s inevitable, but the D’Backs are one the few clubs with a worse team defense (.669 defensive efficiency) than the Yankees (.682), so New York’s porous infield and all their shifts might actually be an upgrade for him. Either way, Nuno set the bar rather low (5.42 ERA and 5.15 FIP). All McCarthy has to do is chew up innings every fifth day to be an upgrade, and that’s not necessarily a guarantee given his worrisome injury history. Here’s a wrote I few days ago:
The biggest concern with McCarthy, by far, is his injury history. He has stayed healthy this season but has otherwise visited the disabled list with a shoulder problem at least once every year from 2007-13. Only once since 2006 has McCarthy thrown more 135 innings in a season (180.2 in in 2011) and this year he is already at 104 innings. Maybe he’ll stay healthy, but, given his history, you have to think a disabled list stint is coming at some point.
Nuno, 26, opened the season as the long man and was initially pushed into the rotation by Ivan Nova‘s elbow injury in April. He remained a starter as CC Sabathia (knee) and Michael Pineda (shoulder) went down with their injuries. The Yankees plucked Nuno out of an independent league a few years ago, got about a hundred replacement level innings out of him, then turned him into a half-season of McCarthy. Not bad at all.
McCarthy last started on Thursday and, according to Dan Barbarisi, he told reporters in Arizona he will start for the Yankees on Wednesday. In that case the Yankees will need someone to make Nuno’s scheduled start tomorrow. Bruce Billings, who is currently in the clubhouse after being scratched from last night’s start with Triple-A Scranton, will not make that start according to Joe Girardi. He’s there to help the bullpen. Shane Greene is scheduled to start for Triple-A tomorrow and seems like the obvious choice to make the spot start. Masahiro Tanaka can then start on Tuesday on normal rest.
I think it’s important to note that while McCarthy figures to be an upgrade over Nuno, perhaps a substantial one, this move alone won’t put the Yankees over the top. It can’t be their only move if they truly want to contend. They need help at third base and in right field, plus another reliever to ease the burden on Dellin Betances and Adam Warren would help as well. Another starter shouldn’t be off the table either. Sabathia and Pineda aren’t coming back any time soon and Chase Whitley has hit the wall and hard. The Yankees got better today, but hopefully the McCarthy trade is not the only move they make.
ByAccording to Ken Rosenthal and Jon Heyman, the Yankees and Cubs exchanged proposals for both Jeff Samardzija and Jason Hammel before the two were traded to the Athletics. It sounds like they were discussing them in separate deals, not one big trade. Heyman says the Yankees finished second in the bidding for Samardzija and lost out because they didn’t want to give up Dellin Betances and simply don’t have a prospect as good as Addison Russell.
With Chase Whitley crashing back to Earth and Vidal Nuno being Vidal Nuno, it’s clear the Yankees need at least one and maybe even two starters. It sounds like CC Sabathia is done for the year and who knows when or if Michael Pineda will return. Even if you think the Yankees won’t contend and have no business being buyers, they still need some kind of veteran innings eater to take some pressure off Betances and Adam Warren. Those two are already starting to show signs of being overworked and the Yankees need to scale back on their workload in the coming weeks. · (36) ·
DotF: Solarte partays in Scranton’s loss
By · CommentsTriple-A Scranton (6-3 loss to Buffalo)
- LF Jose Pirela: 2-5, 1 SB
- 2B Rob Refsnyder: 0-5, 1 K — this is only the fourth time in 25 games with at least five plate appearances that he’s gone hitless
- RF Zoilo Almonte: 1-5, 1 R, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 1 K — I know he can’t hit lefties, but I have a hard time believing he isn’t a better option than Alfonso Soriano at this point
- 1B Kyle Roller: 0-3, 1 BB, 1 BB
- 3B Yangervis Solarte: 3-3, 1 2B, 1 BB — hopefully he tears it up down here and forces his way back into the MLB picture
- DH Scott Sizemore: 0-3, 1 BB, 2 K
- C John Ryan Murphy: 1-3, 1 R, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 2 K — second homer in 13 games since being sent down
- RHP Edgmer Escalona: 3 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 K, 2/5 GB/FB — 37 of 47 pitches were strikes (79%) … got the spot start in place of RHP Bruce Billings, who was a late scratch … safe to assume Billings is on his way to join the MLB team to give the taxed bullpen a fresh long man
- LHP Francisco Rondon: 2 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, 1/2 GB/FB — 29 of 47 pitches were strikes (62%)
- SwP Pat Venditte: 0 IP, 1 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 0 K — six of 13 pitches were strikes
- RHP Matt Daley: 2 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, 1/3 GB/FB — 20 of 28 pitches were strikes (72%) … 36/7 K/BB in 25.1 innings at this level
