River Avenue Blues

Injury Updates: Gardner, Robertson, Jeter

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Got some injury updates on a pair of Yankees who are sorely missed these days, courtesy of Dan Martin and Chad Jennings…

  • Brett Gardner (right elbow strain) will be re-evaluated today and if all goes well, he could pick up a bat as soon as tomorrow. “It feels close,” said Gardner, who suffered the setback ten days ago. “There’s no way to tell until I swing.”
  • David Robertson (left oblique strain) still has some pain in his side and hasn’t performed any baseball activities since being placed on the DL five days ago. The plan called for him to be shut him down for 7-10 days anyway, so he’s not behind schedule or anything.

Update: Err, scratch that Gardner note. He has not yet seen the doctor today but Joe Girardi said he won’t pick up a bat until Thursday at the earliest. That will be exactly two weeks after he suffered the setback. They’re playing it safe, it seems.

Update Part Deux: Gardner went to the doctor today and will have an MRI in two or three days just to make sure everything’s okay. He’s headed to Tampa later in the week and will start swinging a bat soon thereafter if this latest round of tests comes back clean.

Meanwhile, Derek Jeter took a hot shot ground ball off his left wrist in the ninth inning this afternoon and was in obvious discomfort, but he downplayed the injury and is expected to play tomorrow.

Rutckyj dominates in Low-A debut

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Triple-A Empire State (4-1 loss to Columbus)
CF Kevin Russo & 3B Brandon Laird: both 2-4
2B Matt Antonelli: 1-4, 1 K
1B Steve Pearce & C Gus Molina: both 0-4, 1 K — Molina allowed a passed ball
DH Jack Cust: 0-3, 1 BB — 32 walks in 39 games
RF Ronnie Mustelier: 1-4, 1 R, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 1 K — hitting .348/.401/.584 with just 25 strikeouts in 40 total games this season
LF Cole Garner & SS Ramiro Pena: both 0-3 — Garner struck out twice
RHP Dellin Betances: 4.2 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, 1 WP, 1 HB, 4/3 GB/FB — 47 of 87 pitches were strikes (54.0%) … 39/38 K/BB in 44.2 IP
LHP Mike O’Connor: 3.1 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, 1 WP, 1 HB, 2/5 GB/FB — 38 of 68 pitches were strikes (55.9%)

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Sunday Night Open Thread

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Could you imagine baseball players doing that these days? Four guys like CC Sabathia, Derek Jeter, Robinson Cano, and Mark Teixeira going on Leno or Letterman or something and singing Take Me Out To The Ballgame? Man, things sure were different in 1958, eh?

Anyway, here’s your open thread for the night. The ESPN Sunday Night game is the Dodgers and Cardinals (Billingsley vs. Lohse), plus there some NBA playoff action going on a little later tonight. You folks know what to do by now, so have at it.

(h/t to reader Ben K. for emailing the video … not our Ben K., a different one)

2012 Draft: Mason Melotakis

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

Mason Melotakis | LHP

Background
A Texas kid who wound up playing for Northwestern State in Louisiana, Melotakis has settled in as the Blue Demons’ relief ace over the last three years. His prospect stock really took off when he shined with the Bourn Braves of the Cape Cod League last summer, striking out 22 and walking just two in 18.2 IP across 14 appearances.

Scouting Report
Listed at 6-foot-3 and 205 lbs., Melotakis went undrafted out of high school because he was undersized and could barely crack 90 mph. He’s since gone through a growth spurt and has developed into a legitimate power arm from the left side, sitting 94-96 mph in relief. His power slider is a true put-way pitch. Melotakis doesn’t have a third offering and there is some effort in his delivery, which is why he’s shown the propensity to wear down after a few innings when working as a starter. He’s a true relief prospect with two strong pitches, exactly the kind of guy who could zoom up the ladder and contribute to the big league team sooner rather than later.

Miscellany
Keith Law and Baseball America recently ranked Melotakis as the 63rd and 88th best prospect in the draft, respectively. The Yankees have a pair of second round picks (#89 and #94 overall) and he’d fit best there, not as their first rounder (#30 overall). I’ve never been a fan of drafting relievers in the first round, feels like a waste. Anyway, the Yankees have done a splendid job of turning late-round picks into a valuable relief arms under Damon Oppenheimer, so drafting one relatively high seems to go against the grain. In fact, they’ve only drafted three pure relievers in the top five rounds since Oppenheimer took over in 2005: J.B. Cox in 2005, Scott Bittle in 2008, and Tommy Kahnle in 2010. Melotakis would be an atypical pick for New York but not a bad one after the first round.

Game 41: Something Big

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(AP Photo/Kathy Kmonicek)

Call me delusional, but I feel like the Yankees are going on the cusp of putting something big together. Like a blowout win this afternoon and then five wins in a row or ten wins in the next 12 games. Something like that. Remember, they turned things around last year on a late-May trip to the West Coast and guess where they’re headed in a week? Maybe I’m wrong, but I really hope not. Take the series today and build on it tomorrow. Here’s the lineup…

SS Derek Jeter
CF Curtis Granderson
2B Robinson Cano
3B Alex Rodriguez
DH Raul Ibanez
RF Nick Swisher
1B Eric Chavez
LF Dewayne Wise
C  Chris Stewart

LHP CC Sabathia

This afternoon’s game starts at 1:05pm ET and can be seen on YES. Enjoy.

Late rally falls short in loss to Reds

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Source: FanGraphs

The Yankees continue to be plagued by the same ol’ problems — underwhelming starting pitching and a lack of hitting with men on base — but they had the tying run on third and the winning run on second in the bottom of the ninth against the Reds on Saturday. They were thisclose. Let’s recap…

  • Nova’s Dozen: The good news is that Ivan Nova struck out a career-high 12. The bad news is that he allowed five runs in six innings, including a three-run bomb by Joey Votto that essentially put the game away. Nova’s right ankle/foot seemed to be fine but he’s still not right. He again made several mistakes up in the zone but did a good job burying his breaking balls for swinging strikes — he had 23 swings and misses on the afternoon. Ivan still needs to find a balance between all these strikeouts (good!) and extra-base hits allowed (bad!).
  • Chip Away: The Yankees were playing from behind all afternoon, but they slowly chipped away at Cincinnati’s lead with a solo homer from Russell Martin, a run-scoring double from Raul Ibanez, and a solo homer from Jayson Nix before putting together an almost game-tying rally in the ninth. They went hitless with runners in scoring position until that ninth inning.
  • Almost: After getting blown away by Aroldis Chapman in the eighth — he went to a 3-1 count on all three batters, but they all made outs — the Yankees put something together against Sean Marshall. Ibanez (double off a lefty!) and Swisher started the inning with hits then Andruw Jones and Nix did the same after Martin’s strikeout. Derek Jeter came to the plate with the Yankees down a run and he tried his hardest to ground into a double play on the first pitch, but he beat the relay at first. Curtis Granderson managed to turn a 3-0 count into a 3-2 count before grounding out to end the game. I’ll never understand why they turned him loose on 3-0, but whatever. Take the walk and let Robbie Cano bat with the bases juiced. They had a chance to tie but couldn’t get that last run in.
  • Leftovers: David Phelps allowed what ultimately proved to be the winning run when he made a great diving catch and immediately threw the ball away trying to double the runner off first … Ibanez (two), Swisher (two), and Nix (three!) had multiple hits while the 2-3-4 hitters went 0-for-12 with a walk.

MLB.com has the box score and video highlights, FanGraphs the nerd score, and ESPN the updated standings. Call me crazy, but I feel like the Yankees are on the verge of something big. I feel an offensive explosion coming on, and I hope it happens when I’m in attendance tomorrow. Aces CC Sabathia and Johnny Cueto square off in Sunday’s rubber game.

Mustelier has huge night in win

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LHP Nik Turley left yesterday’s game after three innings because his blister problem flared up again. That’s both good and bad news. It’s bad because you don’t want him to miss any time but good because it’s not something more serious. Meanwhile, RHP Jose Ramirez was placed on the DL the other day with a lat strain. That’s another one for the “could be worse” pile. OF Ray Kruml was placed on the DL to make room on the roster for the recently claimed Matt Antonelli.

I need a breather, so you get bullet points tonight…

  • Triple-A Empire State (win): Ronnie Mustelier had three hits including a pair of doubles and Jack Cust went deep. Kevin Russo and Brandon Laird also doubled and Frankie Cervelli had a pair of knocks. Adam Warren allowed five runs in six innings but also struck out seven. Juan Cedeno, Chase Whitley, and Manny Delcarmen each threw an effective inning of relief.
  • Double-A Trenton (win): Corban Joseph had three singles and Cody Johnson continued his big season with two doubles. David Adams went hitless while playing the field. Adam Miller threw four scoreless in his first Double-A start before giving way to a parade of uninteresting relievers.
  • High-A Tampa (loss): Ramon Flores (two hits) and J.R. Murphy (one hit) each doubled while Rob Segedin chipped in a single. Southpaw Matt Tracy allowed two runs (one earned) in 4.2 IP with three strikeouts and seven ground ball outs.
  • Low-A Charleston (win): Dante Bichette Jr., Tyler Austin, and Gary Sanchez each doubled while backup catcher Francisco Arcia continued his hot hitting with a homer. Mason Williams and Angelo Gumbs both took 0-for-4s. Nothing noteworthy happened on the mound.