JoVa homers again in SWB win

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Some news and notes…

  • Austin Romine has been placed on the disabled list due to his strained back, which isn’t at all surprising. Wilkins Arias has been activated off the phantom DL to take his roster spot. Hopefully Romine heals up well, but there’s a chance his season is over.
  • Steve Evarts has been suspended for 50 games after testing positive for “metabolites of Nandrolone, a performance enhancing substance.” The lefty had a 5.65 ERA in  seven starts for Low-A Charleston after being brought on as lottery ticket over the winter, but this likely ends his Yankees’ career.
  • Gary Sanchez is the tenth hottest prospect in the minors according to this week’s Prospect Hot Sheet. Four of his seven hits this week left the yard, bringing his season total to 14.
  • The Yankees signed some right-hander named Victor Lozada, but I can’t find anything about the guy anyway. Smart money is on him being filler anyway.
  • John Sickels posted a review of his preseason top 20 Yankees prospects. He used a lot of big and fancy words to say Andrew Brackman sucks, going so far to say it’s “an unspeakable waste of talent and money.” I think he forgot that this team pays LOOGY’s $4M a year not to pitch.
  • Remember Chris Garcia? He gave up one run in two innings of work for the Short Season Auburn Doubledays yesterday, his first game action sine blowing out his elbow in the first game of last season. Good to see him back, hope he does well.

Triple-A Scranton (8-4 win over Louisville)
Chris Dickerson, CF: 0 for 4, 1 R, 1 BB
Greg Golson, LF: 1 for 5, 2 K – threw a runner out at the plate
Jesus Montero, C: 1 for 3, 2 R, 2 BB – just wasting away down here
Jorge Vazquez, 1B: 2 for 5, 1 R, 1 2B, 1 HR, 5 RBI, 1 K – second jack in as many days, four in his last nine games
Brandon Laird, 3B: 2 for 4, 2 R, 1 2B, 1 K – 13 for 34 (.382) since being sent down
Mike Lamb, DH & Jordan Parraz, RF: both 3 for 4 – Lamb scored a run … Parraz doubled twice, drove in two, and struck out
Luis Nunez, 2B: 1 for 3, 1 R, 1 RBI
Doug Bernier, SS: 1 for 4, 1 R, 2 K
D.J. Mitchell, RHP: 6 IP, 9 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, 4-4 GB/FB – 61 of 101 pitches were strikes (60.4%) … gave up two homers, so that’s nine on the year
Josh Schmidt, RHP: 1 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 1 K, 1-1 GB/FB – seven of 12 pitches were strikes
Greg Smith, LHP: 0.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 K, 2-0 GB/FB – 11 of 15 pitches were strikes
George Kontos, RHP: 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 K, 2-1 GB/FB – 11 of 16 pitches were strikes

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Game 111: Bartday

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(Photo Credit: Flickr user Freddy Monterio via Creative Commons license)

In three days, one of these two teams will be alone in first place in the AL East. That would sound way more dramatic if it was late-September and not early-August, but it is what it is. The Yankees and Red Sox have identical 68-42 records, and they’ve both lined up what is essentially their three best pitchers to throw in the series. Here’s the lineup for the opener…

Derek Jeter, SS
Curtis Granderson, CF
Mark Teixeira, 1B
Robinson Cano, 2B
Nick Swisher, RF
Andruw Jones, LF
Russell Martin, C
Jorge Posada, DH
Eduardo Nunez, 3B

Bartolo Colon, SP

All three games will be national television this weekend. YES will carry this one along with MLB Network, with first pitch scheduled for a little after 7pm ET. Enjoy.

No roster move, Yankees sticking with 13 pitchers

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Joe Girardi hinted after last night’s game that the Yankees might make a roster move today to add a position player, but that will not happen and they will stick with a 13-man pitching staff through the weekend. Furthermore, Phil Hughes will be available out of the bullpen on Sunday (his throw day), but only in an emergency. Right now he is still scheduled to start Tuesday, and A.J. Burnett on Wednesday. That would change if Phil came on in relief this weekend. Ivan Nova will also remain on schedule, so it sounds like they’re going to do the six-man rotation thing for at least one more turn through the rotation, or at least are leaning that way right now.

A-Rod takes step forward in rehab

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Via the AP, Alex Rodriguez increased the intensity of his workout in Tampa today as he comes back from right knee surgery. He took a total of 60 ground balls (40 ground balls from his knees, ten from the edge of the infield, ten from normal third base depth) and then 118 swings (55 off a tee, 63 off soft-toss). Afterward, he hung around to talk to some Braves’ minor leaguers who were in town to play the Rookie Level GCL Yankees. What a jerk.

The report says the Yankees expect him back in mid-August, which is the first time we’ve seen anything resembling a date for his return. Yay.

Rolling the dice with Alex Hinshaw

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(Photo Credit: Flickr user Tom Clifton via Creative Commons license)

I’m a sucker for projects, and I think most people are as well. It’s a lot of fun to buy low on a talented player and dream about him figuring things out and reaching his ceiling in your favorite team’s uniform. Every so often one of these projects will work out (Phil Humber), but most of the time they don’t (Andrew Miller). I bring this up because the Giants designated Alex Hinshaw for assignment yesterday, sacrificing him to the roster spot gods so they could activate Mark DeRosa off the disabled list.

Hinshaw, a 28-year-old lefty reliever, is a classic project pitcher. His fastball sits 91-93 from the left side and his money-maker is a nasty low-70’s curveball, a pitch that has helped him miss bats everywhere he’s been. He’s struck out 49 in 45.2 big league innings, plus another 169 in 134 Triple-A innings. The problem is the walks, Hinshaw’s always been prone to ball four. His big league walk-rate is 7.1 BB/9, but it is a small sample and there are some intentional walks to right-handed batters inflating that number (6.3 uIBB/9). A 5.6 uIBB/9 in Triple-A is a little less unsightly.

Before being cut yesterday, Hinshaw was pulling the same act for San Francisco’s Double and Triple-A affiliates. He’s thrown 37.2 IP this year, striking out 45 but walking 24 unintentionally. He had a huge reverse split (lefties hitting .310, righties just .116), but that’s a function of sample size and is not consistent with the other five years of his career. Big league lefties hit .239/.343/.330 off him, righties .253/.427/.513. It’s worth noting that he hasn’t been in the show since 2009, and 2008 was the only year he spent considerable time in the bigs.

There was talk once upon a time about Hinshaw developing into the Giants’ closer of the future, but that obviously never happened. They used his final minor league option this season (by my unofficial count), so any team that grabs him would only have another month to evaluate him in the minors plus a possible September call-up. Hinshaw’s salary is in the mid-six figures, so a straight waiver claim would be perfectly fine. Not like you’d have to wait for him to clear waivers and elect free agency to avoid some kinda huge salary obligation.

The Yankees have some dead weight on their 40-man roster, and it’s likely that none of their six 60-day DL guys will be back this year. Hinshaw’s hard-throwing left-handedness is probably worth an eight week audition (four in the minors, four with the big league team in Sept.) and a roster spot over Jeff Marquez, for example. Chances are it won’t click and it’ll be a failed experiment, but there’s some talent there and the Yankees could luck into 15 great innings next month. Every little bit helps, and the move would be of no long-terms consequence to the organization.

The RAB Radio Show: August 5, 2011

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It’s been an eventful week since we last broadcast.

  • The trade deadline: not much happened, so not much is discussed.
  • The six-man rotation: they pretty much have to keep it that way for now, don’t they?
  • Ivan Nova: Working all four pitches and succeeding.
  • The Yankees offense: getting production from top to bottom, and even from the bench. They’ve beat up three of the five best pitching staffs in the AL in the past 10 days (and one of those five is their own).
  • The Red Sox: better than the Yanks by some measures, not by others.

Podcast run time 49:37

Here’s how you can listen to podcast:

  • Download the RAB Radio Show by right clicking on that link and choosing Save As.
  • Listen in your browser by left clicking the above link or using the embedded player below.
  • Subscribe in iTunes. If you want to rate us that would be great. If you leave a nice review I’ll buy you a beer at a meet-up.

Intro music: “Die Hard” courtesy of reader Alex Kresovich. Thanks to Tyler Wilkinson for the graphic.

RAB Live Chat

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