NY Yankees News, Information & Community

Roller seriously hurt in Trenton loss

July 2, 2013 by Mike 23 Comments

In a post about rising and falling farm systems (subs. req’d), Keith Law ranked the Yankees among the six most improved systems. They were in the three-team honorable mention category following the three featured teams. On Twitter, Law said the improvement stems from their three first round picks in last month’s draft.

Triple-A Scranton (6-4 win over Pawtucket)

LF Corey Patterson: 2-4, 1 2B, 1 BB, 1 K
C J.R. Murphy & RF Fernando Martinez: both 0-4, 1 HBP — Murphy struck out once, Martinez twice
DH Randy Ruiz: 1-5, 1 R, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 2 K — fourth homer in the last seven games
1B Dan Johnson: 2-5, 1 R, 1 HR, 1 RBI
CF Adonis Garcia: 1-4, 1 R, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 1 K
SS Brent Lillibridge: 1-4, 2 R, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 1 HBP
RHP Chris Bootcheck: 5.2 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 4 BB, 2 K, 1 HB, 5/5 GB/FB — 50 of 84 pitches were strikes (60%) … picked not one, but two runners off second base
RHP Dellin Betances: 1 IP, zeroes, 2 K — 14 of 22 pitches were strikes (64%) … nice job to pick up his second career save

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A-Rod goes hitless in first minor league rehab game

July 2, 2013 by Mike 30 Comments

In his first minor league rehab game with Low-A Charleston, Alex Rodriguez went 0-for-2 while playing three innings at third base as scheduled. He hit into a 5-4-3 double play and struck out looking. The other team tested Alex with two bunts, one he fielded cleanly while not having a chance on the other according to Bob Nightengale and Dan Martin. They were the only defensive plays he had to make.

A-Rod’s 20-day rehab window expires on Monday, July 22nd, and he told Pete Iacobelli that he believe he’ll need all 20 days before rejoining the team. That’s not surprising, they’re going to ease him back in and he needs basically a full Spring Training. Alex said he will play for the River Dogs again tomorrow night before joining High-A Tampa on Thursday. It’s been raining for days in Florida, which is why he had to start his rehab in Charleston.

Game 83: Keep Going

July 2, 2013 by Mike 337 Comments

The losing streak is over and the Yankees actually scored a whole bunch of runs in last night’s win over the Twins. It felt just like old times. The Bombers aren’t out of the woods yet though, not even close really. They have to jump three teams if they want to win the divisions and two if they want to sneak into the postseason as a wildcard. As I said yesterday, they really need to take advantage of all these games against the Twins and Royals before the All-Star break. One win ain’t enough. Here’s the lineup that will face right-hander Samuel Deduno:

CF Brett Gardner
RF Ichiro Suzuki
2B Robinson Cano
DH Travis Hafner
LF Zoilo Almonte
1B Lyle Overbay
C Chris Stewart
3B David Adams
SS Alberto Gonzalez

And on the mound is the 2004 First Team High School All-American, right-hander Phil Hughes.

Clear skies and sunshine in Minneapolis, so they won’t have any trouble getting this game in. First pitch is scheduled for 8:10pm ET and can be seen on YES. Enjoy.

Injury Updates: Jayson Nix (hamstring) is day-to-day. He felt some tightness after running out his double last night. Joe Girardi said it’s not considered a DL injury, but they don’t know when he’ll be able to return to the lineup … Mark Teixeira (wrist) had surgery as scheduled yesterday and everything went “as planned,” the team announced.

Update: Yankees sign Dominican shortstop Yonauris Rodriguez

July 2, 2013 by Mike 70 Comments

Tuesday 7/2: The Yankees have signed Rodriguez for $575k, reports Jesse Sanchez. The team still has a touch more than $1.3M left to spend barring a trade for more pool space. Rodriguez is the only player they’ve signed so far, but it’s worth noting Molina can’t sign until he turns 16 on August 1st.

Monday 7/1: Via Ben Badler (subs. req’d): The Yankees are expected to sign Dominican shortstop Yonauris Rodriguez to a mid-six-figure signing bonus when the international signing period opens tomorrow. Between him and Dominican outfielder Leonardo Molina, Badler says the Yankees are likely max out their $1.88M spending pool. They are trying to trade for more pool money, however.

Rodriguez, 16, is said to be a high-energy player who stands out more for his defensive tools — namely quick feet and soft hands — than his hitting ability. The right-handed hitter is listed at 6-foot-0 and 160 lbs. and has good speed. Rodriguez played in the Dominican Prospect League and at various showcase events at the Yankees’ complex. Badler did not rank him among the 30 best international free agents available this summer. Here’s video.

Rotation playing a part in Yankees’ recent slide

July 2, 2013 by Mike 50 Comments

Despite last night’s uplifting win, the Yankees have still lost six of their last eight games and 21 of their last 34 games. That dates back to the game after the 11-inning win/ninth inning comeback against Fernando Rodney and the Rays in Tampa. One win against a mediocre Twins club who was very willing to beat themselves by throwing the ball away on more than one occasion doesn’t mean the Yankees are out of the woods yet.

The offense has been the primary culprit behind this month-long slide. The so-called Bronx Bombers have scored just 112 runs during that 34-game skid, an average of 3.29 runs per game. The AL average this year is 4.36 runs per game, so we’re talking a full run below-average for more than a month by a team that plays in a very hitter friendly home ballpark. The Yankees have hit .228/.289/.335 as a team during that stretch, on par with the washed up Victor Martinez (.233/.290/.339). It’s bad.

The offense is not alone, however. The starting rotation, considered the strength of the team by pretty much everyone coming into the season, has been a let-down over the last month as well. The starters as a whole have a 4.64 ERA and 3.82 FIP during the last 34 games, so better than average peripherals with below-average results. Here are how the individual starters have fared during the slide:

	IP/Start	ERA	FIP	K/9	BB/9	HR/9	Opp OPS	BABIP
CC Sabathia	7.1	5.08	3.95	7.19	1.40	1.40	0.684	0.257
Hiroki Kuroda	6.2	3.33	3.92	7.04	1.37	1.37	0.664	0.261
Andy Pettitte	6.0	5.15	3.19	6.63	2.70	0.49	0.739	0.336
Phil Hughes	6.0	3.93	3.60	7.61	2.45	0.98	0.695	0.284
David Phelps	4.1	6.84	4.54	7.18	4.79	1.03	0.814	0.360

I’ve excluded Vidal Nuno (two runs in six innings) and Ivan Nova (three runs in 6.2 innings) because both made just spot one start during the 34-game stretch and haven’t contributed to the carnage every five days. Outside of Kuroda and maybe Hughes, it’s the regulars who have been let downs.

Sabathia has been crazy homer prone of late — he’s allowed 17 homers at the halfway point, just five fewer than the career-high he set last season — and he hasn’t just fallen victim to Yankee Stadium cheapies either. Hit Tracker classified five of the eight homers he’s allowed during the 34-game slide as “plenty,” meaning they cleared the fence by more than ten vertical feet or landed more than one fence height beyond the wall. Between his overall velocity loss and increased propensity for mistake pitches, the increased homer trend seems more likely to continue than improve going forward.

Since coming off the DL early last month, Pettitte hasn’t given up a ton of homers (just two) but he has given up a lot of hits overall (42 in 36.2 innings). Ten of those 40 non-homer hits have been doubles, so opponents are still hitting for power against him even though the ball isn’t going over the fence. Andy has never been shy about giving up hits, but he hasn’t had his usual stinginess with men on-base recently. Opponents are hitting .328/.377/.422 (.433 BABIP) against him with men on and .333/.367/.462 (.429) with runners in scoring position since coming off the DL. It’s easy to say that will improve as the season goes on, but you never really know with 41-year-old finesse pitchers. Andy Pettitte is guarantees to be awesome just because he’s Andy Pettitte.

Phelps’ poor numbers are the product of two exceptionally bad outings. He allowed five runs in one-third of an inning in late-May and nine runs in 2.1 innings over the weekend. In the four starts between the two duds, he’s allowed just seven runs in 23.2 innings (2.66 ERA and 3.27 FIP). That doesn’t excuse the two disaster starts obviously, but I prefer seeing two disasters and four strong starts than six consistently mediocre ones. At least the former suggests he might have just had two really bad games relatively close together and isn’t fighting through some kind of mechanical problem or injury. Either way, the Yankees do need him to be better than he has been of late.

Last night’s ten-run outburst is hardly an indication New York has gotten over their offensive woes. They have a lot of trouble scoring runs and they need their pitching staff to not just be good, they need them to be damn near great. The rotation has not been very good of late and that’s a big reason why they’ve been unable to string wins together. Nova is waiting in the wings if they need to make a change, but he hardly inspires any confidence. Nuno is out with a groin injury with no return in sight. Michael Pineda’s rehab window expires Monday but I find it very hard to consider a guy coming off major shoulder surgery to be a potential rotation savior. Besides, it seems more likely that he’ll be optioned to Triple-A next week than added to the big league roster. Long story short, the guys in the rotation simply have to start pitching better to keep this team in any kind of race.

King: Giants and Braves interested in Joba Chamberlain

July 2, 2013 by Mike 128 Comments

Via George King: The Braves and Giants have interest in Joba Chamberlain as the trade deadline approaches. Both clubs are looking for bullpen help and both had scouts on hand to watch his recent outings — the Braves over the weekend in Baltimore, the Giants last night against the Twins. Both appearances were scoreless.

Chamberlain, 27, has a 5.75 ERA and 5.07 FIP in 20.1 innings this year. He missed about a month with an oblique strain and has been just dreadful since returning, pitching to a 7.36 ERA and 6.14 FIP in 11 innings. Joba’s only redeeming qualities at this point are that he still throws hard (94.8 mph, hardest since 2008) and can miss bats (9.74 K/9, 22.9 K%, and 9.9% swing-and-misses). If the Yankees are lucky, his “name value” with fetch some kind of return. Otherwise half-a-season of an inconsistent, injury prone middle reliever usually nets you close to nothing.

2013 Potential Trade Targets — Part III

July 2, 2013 by Matt Warden 130 Comments

We’ve already covered a bunch of players in Part I and Part II of the 2013 Potential Trade Targets series, so for those of you who missed out those posts, be sure to get yourself caught up. For the rest of us, there’s no time like the present, so let’s jump into the next batch of names.

Justin Morneau
There was a time, not so long ago mind you, that most teams would be quite interested in a first baseman like Morneau. From 2004-2010, he hit 18 or more home runs each season (30+ home runs in his 2006 MVP season, 2007 and 2009). Throughout his career, he’s been largely considered a solid defensive player and an all-around good clubhouse guy as well.

Unfortunately, he’s not the same player he once was these days. In 2010, his season was derailed by a concussion (and lingering symptoms afterwards). The 2011 season required a neck surgery to fix of a pinched nerve. Shortly thereafter, Morneau experienced more concussion-like symptoms after suffering a shoulder injury (which ultimately shut him down for the rest of the season). He finally made it back onto the field in 2012, and posted very mediocre numbers (.267/.333/.440, .330 wOBA, 108 wRC+) though the former HR Derby champ did manage to hit 19 long balls in the process (.172 ISO).

This season has brought more of the same mediocrity (.288/.342/.407, .328 wOBA, 107 wRC+), except it’s now without the power. Morneau’s hit only four (!) home runs thus far. He’s also taking fewer walks (down about three percent from his career norm). Contractually, he’s owed approximately $7.5M for the rest of the season, after which point he’ll hit free agency. Personally speaking, the team can’t afford another guy incapable of hitting the ball over the fence, especially one who plays a position known for premium offensive production.

Now I can understand why Yankees fans may feel some trepidation about first base production for the rest of the season (and maybe even beyond). After all, Mark Teixeira is done for the year and Lyle Overbay was the same caliber player offensively and has cooled considerably since his hot start. I’m not sure Morneau is the answer though. We’re talking about an expensive past-his-prime-veteran rental, who’s basically been replacement level the past couple seasons. Granted, I don’t think it would take too much to acquire him in terms of prospects due to the power shortage and durability concerns, but who knows, maybe the Twins value him differently given his local popularity and past contributions. Frankly, I’d just prefer the team roll the dice on a guy like Mike Morse, who could play multiple positions and come at half the salary. Basically, Morneau is one Twinkie I’m okay passing on (see what I did there?).

Josh Willingham
When I think of Willingham, I think of a guy who has basically been the quintessential role player — which don’t get me wrong, certainly has value. As it turns out, my initial perception was about right on this one too. The now 34-year-old Willingham has been mostly a bit better than the average guy over the years (2.7 fWAR in 2008, 2.4 in 2009, 2.7 2010, 1.8 in 2011). Last season he managed to make the jump from “role player” to the type of guy I would probably categorize as “solid contributor” (3.6 fWAR).

The 2013 campaign hasn’t been as kind to Josh though. Despite the fact that he’s managed to lead the Twins in home runs (with 10), he’s slumped (.224/.356/.398, .336 wOBA, 113 wRC+). A lot. He’s also had to nurse a balky left knee. To his credit though, Willingham has managed to get on base frequently via the walk (13.1 BB%) though he does strike out often (25.8 K%). It’s also probably worth noting that from 2010-2012, Josh has had an increasing propensity to struggle against lefties. This season hasn’t followed suit though, as a reverse split has become noticeable instead (a tidbit I’m not real sure what to make of yet). Maybe he’s one of those guys who could benefit from a change of scenery; I know I’d find playing in Minnesota pretty tedious. Also, if he were in pinstripes, you’d be comparing Willingham’s slumping numbers against those posted by Vernon Wells which certainly bodes well for his cause.

Although the Twins are only a few games under .500, I do think they kind of stink, and I do expect them to be potential sellers at the deadline. Assuming the Yankees were one of Willingham’s suitors, they would potentially be on the hook for about $3.5M this season and another $7M next season. If I had to guess, I’d say a mid-level prospect and some salary gets it done. The real question isn’t whether he’s better than Big Vern though. It’s whether you’re comfortable with another role player patrolling the outfield for the next season and a half full-time. I’m not sure that I am, though if it wound up happening it wouldn’t be the worst move in the world.

Marlon Byrd
First off, it’s my official stance that anyone whose first name is Marlon should have the last name Brando, so that’s strike one. Secondly, the Mets outfield, as a whole, is terrible. They’re ranked 28th in wOBA (.298), 26th in wRC+ (91), and 28th in fWAR (0.2) — sounds a lot like another NY team I know actually — so Byrd gets strike two for guilt by association. He’s also on the wrong side of 35, which makes for a convenient strike three.

Superficiality aside, Marlon has been by far the best outfielder in an otherwise anemic group. He’s hit .262/.313/.489 (.341 wOBA, 120 wRC+) with 12 home runs and is on pace to end the season at about 3.0 fWAR which would be not only be pretty good generally speaking, but would mark the second best WAR produced by Byrd personally since his 2010 campaign with the Cubs. Historically, he’s been pretty inconsistent throughout his career in terms of production though. On the plus side, although Byrd’s patrolled right field for the Mets this season, he’s also capable of manning Center Field as well (which would provide some added depth behind Gardner).

Perhaps the best argument that could be made here for obtaining Byrd is that he’s dirt cheap right now ($700K) — remember he was close to retiring this past offseason (he would have called it quits had he not made the big league roster out of Spring Training). His stock was way down after his season ended rather abruptly last season after testing positive for Tamoxifen, a banned substance. If the Yankees could squeeze half a season of decent production out of him, they’d have no problems cutting ties afterwards — he’d certainly pose no threat to the austerity budget if that ends up happening.

The Mets have a lot of work to do in their own outfield, so I don’t know that it makes a whole sense for them to give up the one guy who’s been a productive contributor this season. While they may not be expecting to contend now, they might favor the idea of having Byrd as relatively cheap insurance policy (despite his age) in 2014. Perhaps a mid-level prospect is enticing enough to make it happen though — after all, salary isn’t an issue here. In any event, I’m okay passing on Marlon Not-Brando Byrd given the age.

Michael Cuddyer
Is it just me, or does Cuddyer’s name come up every single year around this time? I feel like he’s one of those players folks are perpetually advocating a trade for. Anyway, the former Twins first round pick is another Willingham type — that is to say a role player who has value, but is probably not a difference maker.

Other than 2010, which was awful (0.4 fWAR), I think Cuddyer has generally been considered a decent outfielder despite playing a pretty poor defense — though to his credit, he can fake it at first if necessary, which would certainly help the Yankees in terms of roster flexibility. Offensively, he’s a career .274/.343/.461 (.348 wOBA, 112 wRC+) hitter who averages roughly 13 home runs a year. He doesn’t take a ton of walks (career 8.9 BB%) but also doesn’t strike out a ton (career 17.9 K%) either. This is his age 34 season, and he’s owed about $5.25M for the rest of this season and another $10.5M next year.

I was dubious about the Willingham contract, and doubly so about this one. Cuddyer isn’t getting any younger, and I suspect the Rockies would require a decent prospect in addition to salary relief. Is he better than what the Yankees have deployed in right field thus far? Definitely. Is he the type of impact bat that’s worth the money, the prospects surrendered, and the additional year of service? Meh, I’m not convinced. Cuddyer is a fine player and every team needs guys like him. I just think cheaper alternatives who can provide comparable production probably exist elsewhere.