River Avenue Blues

Russell Martin tore into umpire Laz Diaz last night

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Via Marc Carig, catch Russell Martin ripped home plate ump Laz Diaz following last night’s game.”He told me I had to earn the privilege (to throw the ball back to the pitcher),” said Martin, a three-time All-Star. “Even at the end of the game after I get hit in the neck. I’m like, can I throw the ball back now? He’s still like no. I’m like you’re such a (expletive). Like for real. Unbelievable. I even told him like when there’s guys on base, I like to keep my arm loose. No. I’m not letting you throw a ball back. That’s pretty strange to me.”

Terrible umpiring is nothing new, but usually it’s limited to calls on the field. I’ve never heard of a catcher being told he has to “earn the privilege” to throw the ball back to his pitcher. That’s just petty. Of course, calling out an umpire publicly wasn’t the smartest move on Martin’s part. I’m thinking he’s going to have to work a little harder to get borderline calls going forward.

Yanks salvage series, win nail-biter over Angels

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Source: FanGraphs

It wasn’t pretty and it certainly wasn’t easy, but the Yankees beat the Angels by the score of 6-5 on Wednesday night to salvage their three-game set in Anaheim. The win gave New York a 4-2 record on the West Coast trip and … that’s pretty good. I would have signed up for that six days ago. Let’s recap…

  • Big Inning: Ervin Santana was wild and asking for trouble, and the Yankees gave it to him in the third inning. Curtis Granderson hit a three-run homer and Robinson Cano followed up with a two-run homer, all before the first out was recorded. Russell Martin (runner) and Derek Jeter (batter) pulled off a perfect hit-and-run to set things up. For the first time in the series, we could all relax and breath a little with a 5-1 lead.
  • One Bad Inning: Ivan Nova managed to escape a bases loaded, no out situation in the first by only allowing one run, but he gave back the four-run lead in the fourth by allowing a two-run homer to Mark Trumbo and a two-run double to Mike Trout. Half of the eight hits Nova allowed came in that inning, but he deserves credit for locking it down after that and taking the ball into the seventh.
  • Take The Lead: Raul Ibanez hit a stand-up triple over Peter Bourjos’ head off a left-handed pitcher with one out in the sixth. Think about that sentence. It’s “you can’t predict baseball” defined. Nick Swisher plated Ibanez with a sacrifice fly, giving his team the 6-5 lead that they held onto for dear life.
  • Relief Ace: The unsung hero of the game was easily Cory Wade. Dude stormed out of the bullpen to strike out Howie Kendrick with men on corners to end the seventh (despite the ump’s best efforts) before chipping in a perfect eighth. Seriously, he was down 3-0 in the count to Kendrick but fought back for the strikeout. That was money right there, just a huge out.
  • Closed Out: Things got a little hairy in the ninth inning, mostly because Rafael Soriano did himself no favors by walking Alberto Callaspo with one out to put the tying run on base for the meat of the order. Albert Pujols reached on an infield single, but Soriano escaped the jam by getting Torii Hunter to ground into a fielder’s choice and Trumbo to fly out routinely to left on a broken bat. It was nerve-wracking, but he took care of business. Nice job.
  • Leftovers: Curtis Granderson doubled to the opposite field in the first inning, already his ninth opposite field hit of the season (he had ten last year) … Grandy and Ibanez were the only Yankees with multiple hits (two each), but everyone in the starting lineup not named Mark Teixeira and Eric Chavez reached base at least once … Boone Logan allowed two dinky little ground ball hits to righties to set up that mess Wade escaped in the seventh … anytime you want to complain about Joe Girardi, remember that Mike Scioscia used Hunter as pinch-runner and Maicer Izturis as a pinch-hitter in this game … the Yankees are done with Anaheim, they don’t come back here this season. Thank goodness.

MLB.com has the box score and video highlights, FanGraphs some more stats, and ESPN the updated standings. The Yankees are off on Thursday and will open a three-game weekend series in Detroit on Friday night. The Tigers are calling up left-hander Casey Crosby to make his big league debut and start that game, but don’t worry, he’s not a soft-tosser. CC Sabathia will be on the bump for the good guys.

Sanchez homers, drives in seven in win

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Based on his Twitter feed, OF Jake Cave broke his knee cap at some point this spring and has been rehabbing. Doesn’t sound like he’ll be 100% ready to go when the short season leagues start in late-June.

Triple-A Empire State (5-2 win over Toledo)
CF Kevin Russo, LF Ronnie Mustelier & SS Ramiro Pena: all 1-4 — Russo walked and got caught stealing … Mustelier drove in a run … Pena doubled, scored a run, and struck out twice
2B Matt Antonelli: 1-3, 2 R, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 1 K, 1 HBP
1B Steve Pearce: 1-3, 1 2B, 1 RBI, 3 BB, 1 SB
DH Jack Cust: 0-2, 1 R, 3 BB, 2 K — seven walks in his last four games
RF Colin Curtis: 1-3, 1 BB
3B Brandon Laird: 0-3, 1 RBI, 1 BB — he’s in a 2-for-27 (.074) rut
C Gus Molina: 1-3, 1 R, 1 HR, 1 RBI — second straight game with a dinger
RHP Dellin Betances: 6 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 4 BB, 4 K, 1 WP, 1 HB, 9/2 GB/FB — 54 of 100 pitches were strikes … he got roughed up early but really settled down in his final three innings, allowing just two hits and no walks in three scoreless
LHP Juan Cedeno: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 0 K, 3/0 GB/FB — only six of his 14 pitches were strikes
RHP Ryota Igarashi: — 2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, 1/1 GB/FB — 22 of 31 pitches were strikes (71%), and he was running his fastball up to 95 … organizational debut after being claimed off waivers yesterday

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Game 50: Escape from LAnaheim

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Summing up this series in one picture. (REUTERS/Alex Gallardo)

The first two games of this series have been the typical Angels-Yankees nightmare, with bloop hits, amazing catches, infield singles, and timely hits all going against the Yankees. It’s frustratingly awful and I sorta hate myself for enjoying watching Mike Trout play. Can’t wait to watch him work his magic against another team. Anyway, here’s the lineup…

SS Derek Jeter
CF Curtis Granderson
3B Alex Rodriguez
2B Robinson Cano
1B Mark Teixeira
LF Raul Ibanez
RF Nick Swisher
DH Eric Chavez
C  Russell Martin

RHP Ivan Nova

Tonight’s game starts a little after 10pm ET and can be seen on YES locally and ESPN2 nationally. Enjoy.

David Robertson Update: With all the flat-ground work going well, Robertson will likely get back up on a mound and throw this Saturday. His return is not imminent, but it’s definite progress.

Brett Gardner Update: Gardner hit off a tee and soft toss today and everything went well. He’ll do the same tomorrow before hitting at full speed in a batting cage.

2012 Draft: Erlin Santos

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The 2012 amateur draft is less than one week away, so between now and then I’m going to highlight some prospects individually rather than lump them together into larger posts.

(www.woscbaseball.com)

Erlin Santos | RHP

Background
Born and raised in the Dominican Republic, Santos actually signed with the Royals as an international free agent a few years ago but was released after pitching to an 8.10 ERA in 13.1 innings for their Dominican Summer League affiliate in 2010. He enrolled at Western Oklahoma State, which recruits the Caribbean Islands heavily, and is draft-eligible this summer.

Scouting Report
Listed at 6-foot-1 and 190 lbs., Santos is a two-pitch guy with a low-90s fastball and a sharp mid-80s slider. He misses bats but is also prone to missing the strike zone despite a simple and compact delivery. Santos is an ace in Division II but profiles best as a reliever in pro ball because he lacks a third pitch and is unable to consistently throw strikes. He’s made it no secret that he wants to get back into professional baseball and should be an easy sign.

Miscellany
Santos is a late-round guy, currently projected to go somewhere in the 8th-12th round. I like him because his present stuff is pretty good and there’s a chance it’ll jump a notch with a move to the bullpen. His control problems aren’t extreme (4.23 BB/9 this spring), so it’s not like it’ll take a miracle for him to pan out. Santos has pretty good stuff and in the late rounds of the draft, there’s not much more you can do than gamble on stuff.

Wednesday Night Open Thread

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Good to know I'm not the only one who wants to strangle him. (REUTERS/Alex Gallardo)

Just one more night of West Coast baseball, at least until the Yankees come back for seven games in late-July. Don’t worry, they don’t have to play in Anaheim any more after tonight. They can pack up after the game and not worry about this place for a long time.

Here’s your open thread for the night. We’ve got a Lee vs. Gee matchup in Flushing (Cliff vs. Dillon), plus there’s some great NHL and NBA playoff action going on as well. Talk about whatever you like here.

Russell Martin and pitches down

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The Yankees have gotten a 78 wRC+ out of their catching duo this season, the fifth worst mark in the American League. Russell Martin has gotten warm of late — six hits and three walks in his last six games — but he’s still sporting a .190/.333/.339 batting line (91 wRC+) nearly two months into the season. The post-Jorge Posada era is off to an ugly start.

As Jonathan Scippa explained yesterday, Martin’s biggest problem is his complete inability to hit balls down in the strike zone. In fact, he has exactly one hit this season on a pitch down in the zone, everything else has come on pitches up around his waist and above. Make sure you click the link for a heat map that really drives the point home. Scippa notes that Russ has always had trouble with pitches down, but this season it’s been taken to an extreme. There’s an adjustment that has to be made on Martin’s part, but I’m not sure how easy it will be.