River Avenue Blues

  • About
    • Privacy Policy
  • Features
    • Yankees Top 30 Prospects
    • Prospect Profiles
    • Fan Confidence
  • Resources
    • 2019 Draft Order
    • Depth Chart
    • Bullpen Workload
    • Guide to Stats
  • Shop and Tickets
    • RAB Tickets
    • MLB Shop
    • Fanatics
    • Amazon
    • Steiner Sports Memorabilia

6/25-6/27 Series Preview: Texas Rangers

June 25, 2013 by Mike 34 Comments

(Jason O. Watson/Getty)
(Jason O. Watson/Getty)

The Yankees have played every AL team this season except for three, and they’ll cross one of those off the list this week: the Rangers. The Twins and White Sox will come along eventually. New York and Texas have some recent history, dating back to the playoffs in the late-1990s playoffs as well as the 2010 ALCS.

What Have They Done Lately?
The Rangers have been very hot and cold of late, and they’re coming off five straight wins. Not long before that, they lost six straight. Overall, they are 44-32 with a +26 run differential this season, the best record and fourth best run differential in the AL.

Offense
At 4.4 runs per game with a team 97 wRC+, the Rangers can score some runs even though they do not have the same kind of high-powered offense we’re used to seeing. They are without southpaw masher UTIL Jeff Baker (288 wRC+ vs. LHP) and CF Craig Gentry (64 wRC+), who are both on the DL with hand problems. Baker actually sprained his thumb high-fiving a teammate, in case you need to laugh at someone else’s injuries for once.

Andrus. (Tom Szczerbowski/Getty)
Andrus. (Tom Szczerbowski/Getty)

Manager Ron Washington has a deep lineup with seven regulars who are producing at a league average rate of better. 2B Ian Kinsler (126 wRC+) is fresh off the DL and the leadoff hitter, SS Elvis Andrus (52 wRC+) bats second, former Yankee DH Lance Berkman (104 wRC+) bats third, and 3B Adrian Beltre (121 wRC+) cleans up. OF Nelson Cruz (124 wRC+), C A.J. Pierzynski (111 wRC+), 1B Mitch Moreland (129 wRC+), and CF Leonys Martin (100 wRC+) usually follow the top four in some order. OF David Murphy (72 wRC+) is the final regular. Those are the nine guys Washington runs out there pretty much everyday.

The Rangers are actually carrying three catchers, though C Robinson Chirinos (37 wRC+ in limited time) can play a bunch of other positions as well. C Geovany Soto (76 wRC+) is the traditional backup. OF Engel Beltre was just called up and has yet to get into a game. Whenever he does, it will be his big league debut. IF Jurickson Profar (83 wRC+) is baseball’s top prospect and something more than a part-time utility infielder. The starting nine can mash overall, but guys like Pierzynski, Cruz, Murphy, Moreland, and Martin are worse off against same-side pitchers. The switch-hitting Berkman has traditionally fared worse against lefties than righties.

Starting Pitching Matchups

Tuesday: RHP Hiroki Kuroda vs. RHP Yu Darvish
Texas was nice enough to rearrange their rotation a bit so Darvish could start tonight’s game rather than their last game against the Cardinals on Sunday. Thanks for that. The 26-year-old has dominated this year, pitching to a 2.84 ERA (2.83 FIP) with an insane strikeout rate (12.17 K/9 and 34.2 K%). He also doesn’t walk many (2.75 BB/9 and 7.7 BB%) and gets a decent amount of ground balls (46.0%). You can take him deep (0.98 HR/9 and 13.8% HR/FB) on occasion, however. Darvish is a true six-pitch pitcher, sitting in the low-to-mid-90s with his two- and four-seamer and in the upper-80s with his cutter and splitter. A sharp low-80s slider is his top strikeout pitch, and he’ll also mix in a floating upper-60s curveball. He can varying the break on the slider — one goes side-to-side, another breaks hard and down — so he’s really a seven-pitch pitcher. Sounds like fun. Darvish struck out ten Yankees in 8.1 scoreless innings the only time he’s faced them, and that came early last year when New York had a much, much better lineup.

Grimm. (Jim Rogash/Getty)
Grimm. (Jim Rogash/Getty)

Wednesday: LHP Andy Pettitte vs. RHP Justin Grimm
The Rangers have almost a complete rotation on the DL, so the 24-year-old Grimm has been forced onto the staff for most of the year. His 5.57 ERA (4.32 FIP) is backed by decent peripherals: 7.18 K/9 (17.9 K%), 3.10 BB/9 (7.7 BB%), 1.24 HR/9 (11.6% HR/FB), and 42.7% grounders. Grimm sits in the low-90s with his four-seam fastball, which he uses to set up his upper-70s curveball and low-80s changeup. The curve is his go-to secondary pitch; he throws it almost 30% of the time and it keeps him from showing a platoon split. The Yankees have never faced Grimm, who has 86.2 career innings to his credit.

Thursday: RHP Phil Hughes vs. LHP Derek Holland
Holland, 26, is very quietly having an excellent year now that he’s gotten his homer problem under control (0.56 HR/9 and 6.3% HR/FB). Well, he’s probably at least a little lucky with the homers given that HR/FB rate, which is especially low given his home ballpark. Holland has a 3.43 ERA (2.80 FIP) with very good strikeout (8.35 K/9 and 22.2 K%) and walk (2.32 BB/9 and 6.2 BB%) totals. He gets a ground ball on 42.5% of balls in play. Working off a sinker that sits in the low-to-mid-90s, Holland uses low-80s sliders and changeups as his primary offspeed weapons. A mid-70s curveball will also make an appearance. The Yankees have faced him a bunch of times over the years and have typically hit him very hard — 41 runs and 75 base-runners in 39.2 innings.

Nathan. (Dilip Vishwanat/Getty)
Nathan. (Dilip Vishwanat/Getty)

Bullpen Status
Like the Bombers, Texas was off on Monday and they have a rested bullpen. Closer RHP Joe Nathan (2.90 FIP) has never met a big game he can’t blow, especially against the Yankees. Unfortunately this series really doesn’t qualify as “big.” RHP Tanner Scheppers (3.84 FIP) and LHP Robbie Ross (2.32 FIP) are the primary setup men while RHP Jason Frasor (4.07 FIP) and LHP Neal Cotts (2.23 FIP in limited time) do the middle relief thing. RHP Ross Wolf (3.43 FIP) and RHP Kyle McClellan (5.33 FIP) are the extra arms.

Both Mariano Rivera and David Robertson have had two straight days off, so they’re in good shape. Pretty much every middle reliever appeared in Sunday’s game, though that’s no real biggie. The Yankees are in fine bullpen shape going into tonight’s series opener. Our Bullpen Workload page has all the details. Now that Baseball Time In Arlington is defunct, Lone Star Ball is my (Texas) Rangers blog of choice.

Filed Under: Series Preview Tagged With: Texas Rangers

Thoughts following Monday’s off-day

June 25, 2013 by Mike 140 Comments

Yogi could probably catch like twice a week, right? (Presswire)
Yogi could probably catch like twice a week, right? (Presswire)

It will be three weeks before the Yankees enjoy another day away from the park — yesterday’s was their last scheduled off-day until the All-Star break. The annual 20 games in 20 days stretch is always brutal, so hopefully the Yankees can weather the storm before getting some of the injured guys back. Hopefully that will start to happen right after the break. Here are some miscellaneous thoughts.

1. Assuming Ivan Nova goes back to Triple-A before tonight’s game — “I don’t view Nova right now as a threat to [Phil Hughes],” said Brian Cashman to Andy McCullough yesterday, so it seems likely he goes down — I have absolutely no idea who the Yankees will call up to fill the roster spot. I would think it would be a position player so they can get back to normal 12-man pitching staff, but the only player in the minors who is both on the 40-man roster and not on the DL is outfielder Ramon Flores. He’s not coming up from Double-A. They do have an open 40-man spot after cutting Chris Bootcheck last week, so I guess someone like Dan Johnson or the recently acquired Brent Lillibridge could be the guy. Lillibridge can play all over the field and Johnson (gasp!) might actually hit the ball out of the park on occasion. We’ll find out soon enough, I guess.

2. Even though David Adams has been brutal for about a month now, I like that the Yankees installed him at third base full-time and put an end to the rotating left side of the infield. Playing part-time is tough and something Adams has never done before, so maybe getting back in the lineup on an everyday basis helps get his back going. I do think his at-bats have looked better of late, particularly when he drew two walks in Saturday’s win, but at some point the results will have to come. The Yankees have gotten nothing out of their third basemen this year and it’s unclear how much Alex Rodriguez will provide if/when he rejoins the team. Giving Adams a chance to sink or swim right now is the lesser of multiple evils and gives the team some more time to evaluate him before the trade deadline.

Zoilo. (Jim McIsaac/Getty)
Zoilo. (Jim McIsaac/Getty)

3. Zoilo Almonte won’t continue to hit to a 345 wRC+ the rest of the way, but his recent emergence has made the need to add a corner outfield bat a little less of a priority. Don’t get me wrong, the Yankees should still add one if the right deal comes along, but it’s no a longer absolutely imperative. If anything, a corner infield bat is the bigger hole now. Lyle Overbay stopped hitting about 40 games ago, and it’s sounding more and more likely that Mark Teixeira is heading towards season-ending wrist surgery. Maybe getting back in the lineup everyday will bring Overbay’s bat back to life, but I’m not optimistic. First baseman aren’t the toughest thing to find, and if the Yankees can drum up someone better than Lyle, I’d make the switch in a heartbeat. Hell, maybe Johnson is that guy. I appreciate what Overbay did earlier in the year, but goodwill never won anyone anything.

4. How awful have the catchers been this season? They’re hitting a collective .225/.290/.326 (67 wRC+) despite Frankie Cervelli’s insane start to the season (141 wRC+), something that probably wasn’t going to continue anyway. Even the most ardent Cervelli backers can acknowledge that. Austin Romine had been a disaster (-17 wRC+), and since taking over as the number one guy following Frankie’s injury, Chris Stewart is hitting .233/.299/.291 in 119 plate appearances. He has thrown out eight of 20 attempted base-stealers (40%), which is awesome, but overall I’ve felt his glovework behind the plate has really lagged behind his reputation. No amount of pitch framing can makeup for the offensive black hole and blah defense. The Yankees really dropped the ball by not addressing their catching situation this winter; it’s such an incredibly important position yet they completely ignored it. Hard to believe a self-proclaimed championship-caliber team thought this lot of catchers was a viable solution behind the plate.

Filed Under: Musings

Sanchez doubles and homers in Tampa win

June 24, 2013 by Mike 101 Comments

Some notes:

  • VP of Baseball Ops Mark Newman confirmed to Josh Norris that OF Ravel Santana will miss the rest of the year with a broken forearm. He suffered the injury two weeks ago. Once upon a time, Santana was one the team’s most exciting prospects. After losing two years to injury, he’s an afterthought.
  • Norris has some more general info from Newman to check out as well. Most notably, he says first rounder 3B Eric Jagielo is about a week away from returning from his hamstring injury. I don’t know if that means he is a week away from games or a week away from workouts, but Newman has a knack for being, uh, optimistic with recovery time frames (coughTimNortoncough).
  • Check out Matt Filippi‘s scouting reports on various Short Season Staten Island arms. He’s not the first person to be impressed by this summer’s 12th round pick, LHP Caleb Smith.

Triple-A Scranton had a scheduled off-day.

Double-A Trenton (11-4 loss to Erie)

  • LF Ramon Flores: 0-4, 1 E (throwing)
  • CF Slade Heathcott: 0-3, 1 HBP — got picked off first
  • RF Tyler Austin: 3-4, 1 R
  • 1B Kyle Roller: 2-3, 1 R, 1 BB, 1 K — his strong year continues … he’s now at .277/.366/.465
  • RHP Shane Greene: 5 IP, 5 H, 6 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, 1 HB, 6/4 GB/FB — 58 of 91 pitches were strikes (64%) … only the third time in 15 starts that he’s walked more than one batter, but he still has yet to walk more than two in a game this year
  • RHP Tommy Kahnle: 1.2 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, 1 WP, 0/3 GB/FB — 28 of 38 pitches were strikes (74%)

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Down on the Farm

Monday Night Open Thread

June 24, 2013 by Mike 130 Comments

(Al Bello/Getty)
(Al Bello/Getty)

The Yankees are off tonight and I hope you enjoy it. After tonight, their next off-day isn’t until the All-Star break in three weeks. A stretch of 20 games in 20 days starts tomorrow night, which is pretty much the exact opposite of what this old, injury-wrecked team needs at the moment. I guess the good news is that 13 of those 20 games are at home, including the final ten. By no means will it be a make or break stretch at this point of the season, but these next three weeks are very important for the Yankees as they try to hang around the AL East race.

Anyway, here is your open thread for the evening. There are only four (!) baseball games on tonight, or really five if you count Game One of the College World Series Finals (UCLA vs. Mississippi State). That can be seen on ESPN at 8pm ET. The Dodgers and Giants (Ryu vs. Bumgarner) will be on ESPN2 at 10pm ET, plus Game Six of the Stanley Cup Finals will air at 8pm ET on NBC. Talk about any of those game or anything else here. Go nuts.

Self-Promotion: I wrote this quick little post at CBS about Brett Gardner being an under-the-radar All-Star Game candidate. Check it out.

Filed Under: Open Thread

Cuban right-hander Miguel Alfredo Gonzalez declared a free agent

June 24, 2013 by Mike 75 Comments

Via Bill Shaikin & Ken Rosenthal: Cuban right-hander Miguel Alfredo Gonzalez has been declared a free agent by MLB. He must first be “unblocked” by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets before he can negotiate and sign with teams, but that should happen soon.

Gonzalez, 26, threw for clubs on Thursday in Mexico and will do so again on Friday. Rosenthal says the showcase was heavily scouted, though it’s unclear if the Yankees were in attendance. The righty is said to have a mid-90s fastball plus a changeup, a curveball, and a forkball. Gonzalez has not pitched much the last two years due to suspensions following attempts to defect. Because of his age, his signing bonus will not count towards the annual international spending pool.

I know nothing about Gonzalez beyond what’s in this post, but Rosenthal touts him as “likely to be the next big thing from Cuba.” The Yankees have been very conservative when it comes to big ticket international players in recent years, and I don’t have any reason to think that will change with Gonzalez. We’ll find out eventually.

Filed Under: Asides, International Free Agents Tagged With: Miguel Alfredo Gonzalez

Mo turns to two-seamer after recent struggles

June 24, 2013 by Mike 36 Comments

Not too long ago, Mariano Rivera went through a three-week stretch that was decidedly un-Mariano-like:

Date Opp IP H R ER BB SO ERA BF Pit Str aLI WPA
May 28 NYM 0.0 3 2 1 0 0 1.86 3 9 5 3.46 -0.826
May 31 BOS 1.0 2 0 0 0 1 1.77 5 13 11 1.11 0.033
Jun 3 CLE 1.0 1 0 0 0 1 1.69 4 15 12 .93 0.033
Jun 4 CLE 1.0 0 0 0 0 2 1.61 3 14 9 2.13 0.162
Jun 8 SEA 1.0 1 0 0 1 3 1.54 5 17 10 2.27 0.078
Jun 9 SEA 1.0 2 0 0 1 0 1.48 5 16 10 4.01 0.179
Jun 13 OAK 0.0 2 0 0 1 0 1.48 3 10 3 4.68 -0.371
Jun 16 LAA 0.2 3 1 1 1 1 1.80 6 25 17 3.63 0.039
Totals 5.2 14 3 2 4 8 3.18 34 119 65% 2.70 -0.673
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 6/24/2013.

Those last three appearances during the West Coast trip had a Murphy’s Law element to them. Rivera was getting blooped to dead rather than hit hard — I remember at least three broken bat bloops, one in Oakland and two against the Angels — and during that eight-game stretch you see above he fell victim to a .636 (!) BABIP. Rivera also walked a batter in four consecutive appearances for the fourth time in his career and the first since early-2002. Like I said, un-Mo-like.

Since that rough eight-game stretch, Rivera has settled down and rattled off three near-perfect appearances, allowing just one base-runner (a single) in the three innings. Coincidentally — most likely not — he has started to use his two-seam fastball a little more often of late. Here’s a pitch he threw to Evan Longoria on Saturday, just for a visual:

Here’s the zoomed-in, slow-motion replay, if you’re interested.

That wasn’t just a show-me two-seamer to Longoria, something to back him off the plate and keep him off the cutter. It was a nasty two-seamer that PitchFX clocked at 93.8 mph (!) with just under ten inches of horizontal movement. Bartolo Colon, who had the nastiest two-seamer in recent Yankees memory, averaged 9.5 inches of horizontal movement with his two-seamer back in 2011, for comparison.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about Rivera’s recent two-seamer usage is just how much he’s actually using it. He’s thrown more two-seamers than cutters in each of his last two appearances, and not by a small margin either — ten cutters and 17 two-seamers in those last two outings combined. Here is his cutter and two-seamer usage by appearance this season:

2013 Mariano Rivera Cutters and Two-Seamers

You can click the graph for a larger view.

That one little bump at appearance #21 was the blown save against the Mets, the start of the eight-game slump discussed above. These last five games, dating back to the final two games of the West Coast trip, are when Rivera really started to rely on the two-seamer. I don’t know if it took him some time to get a feel for a pitch or what, but the results have been better the last three outings rather than the first two. Then again, two games. Wouldn’t read much into that.

Believe it or not, this is not the first time Rivera has turned to the two-seamer following a slump. He did the same thing in late-May 2010, and we’ve seen him do it a few other times through the years as well. That two-seam fastball didn’t come out of nowhere, Mo has thrown it here and there over the years. I can’t ever remember him using it as much as he had these last few appearances, however. It was his primary pitches the last two times out.

Rivera has always gone back to using cutters almost exclusively after breaking out the two-seamer in the past, but who really knows what he’ll do this year. It is his final season, so perhaps he’ll just empty out the entire bag of tricks. I remember seeing him throw a changeup a few years ago (I think it was Spring Training, actually), so maybe that’s next. It would be kinda neat if Mo went back to his roots and broke out his starter’s repertoire from here on out, but as long as he gets outs, I don’t really care how he does it. Right now, he’s doing it with that wicked two-seam fastball.

Filed Under: Pitching Tagged With: Mariano Rivera

Cashman confirms Teixeira still has discomfort in wrist

June 24, 2013 by Mike 57 Comments

Via Wally Matthews: Brian Cashman confirmed Mark Teixeira still has some discomfort in his right wrist even after receiving a cortisone shot last week. “He’s still experiencing soreness … We’re trying to work through it,” said the GM, who also acknowledged season-ending surgery remains a possibility.

Teixeira, 33, missed the first two months of the season with a tendon sheath injury and lasted barely two weeks before having to be placed back on the DL with inflammation. The surgery typically requires a six-month recovery time, which means they could delay the procedure until about mid-August to see if he can return this year without jeopardizing the start of 2014. Either way, the Yankees might want to start looking for a replacement for Lyle Overbay, who has cooled off considerably since April and is down to .243/.287/.437 (93 wRC+) on the year.

Filed Under: Asides, Injuries Tagged With: Mark Teixeira

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • …
  • 1571
  • 1572
  • 1573
  • 1574
  • 1575
  • …
  • 4059
  • Next Page »

RAB Thoughts on Patreon

Mike is running weekly thoughts-style posts at our "RAB Thoughts" Patreon. $3 per month gets you weekly Yankees analysis. Become a Patron!

Got A Question For The Mailbag?

Email us at RABmailbag (at) gmail (dot) com. The mailbag is posted Friday mornings.

RAB Features

  • 2019 Season Preview series
  • 2019 Top 30 Prospects
  • 'What If' series with OOTP
  • Yankees depth chart

Search RAB

Copyright © 2025 · River Avenue Blues