They’re not paying him $300M for two run singles!!!
Game 93: The new guy
Hey, kinda looks like A.J. Burnett, right?
It’s game two of the Yanks-Orioles series, and the story from the Yankees standpoint is Sergio Mitre. Normally I’d do a run-through of his career to this point, but Mike took care of that. We’ll just have to sit back and see what he can do against the Orioles offense, which ranks 10th in the AL in OPS.
The Yanks will face Rich Hill. The former Michigan Wolverine went in the fourth round to the Cubs in 2002. A fastball-curveball lefty, Hill had always been a strikeout pitcher. Problem was, he was also a wild pitcher, issuing an extraordinary number of free passes in college and his first few years in the minors. He broke out in 2005, though, getting his walk rate down as he pitched at three different levels of the minors. He also had an unsuccessful stint in the majors that year, but it was only 23.2 innings.
He got another chance in 2006, and pitched decently. His strikeout rate fell down to less than a batter per inning, but his walk rate settled a bit, too, to a manageable 3.5. He was even better in 2007, throwing 195 innings to a 3.92 ERA, striking out 183 and walking just 63. All the sudden, Hill looked like he’d reach his potential.
Yet 2008 was not so kind. Hill struggled early with his control, walking at least three batters per game in his first four starts, only one of which lasted six innings. On May 2 he walked four batters while recording just two outs. Manager Lou Piniella yanked him from the game, and the next day he was optioned to AAA. There he had back issues, and then in June was shut down and sent to work on his issues. In July the team said that Hill’s problems were more mental than physical. In August he faced more back problems and was placed on the DL, missing the rest of the year.
Over the winter the Cubs sent Hill to the Orioles for a player to be named later. He’s had enormous problems this year, with his walk rate up over 5.5 per nine. He’s had a few decent starts, but for every one in which he went six innings, three runs or better, he’s had an under-six inning, more than six-run start. Other than his standout start against Seattle on June 1, there’s nothing at all spectacular about Hill’s past two seasons.
Oh, and that failed cup of coffee in 2005? Part of that was at the hands of the Yanks. The Yankees were up three runs in the sixth inning on June 18, 2005. The Cubs starter, Glendon Rusch, came out to start the sixth, but walked Jorge Posada and gave up a single to Bernie Williams. In came Hill, who started off strong by striking out Tino Martinez, probably on one of those filthy curveballs. But he walked Robinson Cano — ROBINSON CANO — to load the bases. Derek Jeter was due up next. Perhaps this has jogged your memory. If not…
I was at a family gathering that day. Once Hill — I had no idea who he was at the time — came out and they cut to a commercial break, I guaranteed my uncle and cousin that when they came back they’d have up a note about how Jeter had never hit a grand slam in his career. Sure enough, they did. Moments later, Jeter took Joe Borowski deep, ensuring that commentators would never bring up that subject ever again.
Looks like the game will start at 7:30.
Lineup:
1. Derek Jeter, SS
2. Johnny Damon, LF
3. Mark Teixeira, 1B
4. Alex Rodriguez, DH
5. Jorge Posada, C
6. Nick Swisher, RF
7. Robinson Cano, 2B
8. Melky Cabrera, CF
9. Cody Ransom, 3B
And on the mound, the newly-minted number forty-five, Sergio Mitre.
Stadium Hits: Monument Park, God Bless America
Some Yankee Stadium story updates before the game thread arrives: In the Yankee notebook in today’s Times, Tyler Kepner reported on some Monument Park news. According to Yanks’ COO Lonn Trost, the team has no plans to move Monument Park out from underneath the giant Mohegan Sun sports bar in center field. Supposedly, the logistics of a move and the fact that the monuments are fragile and set in stone preclude an off-season move. That’s a mistake. There’s no reason to shove Yankee history under a restaurant, and the prominent place Monument Park had at old Yankee Stadium should have been maintained.
In other stadium news, C.J. Hughes followed some Yankee fans to that bathroom on Friday, and everything went a-OK. That, of course, sounds far sketchier than it is. Hughes’ story focuses around how the Yankees and their security guards are now letting fans move freely during Kate Smith’s rendition of “God Bless America.” After a recent lawsuit over the issue, politics, it seems, has been removed from the Seventh Inning stretch.
Brett Tomko, we hardly knew ye
As the Yankees prepare to hand the ball over to Sergio Mitre tonight, the team needs to clear a space on both the 25-man and 40-man rosters. Mercifully, they have opted to designate Brett Tomko for assignment rather than sticking Mark Melancon or David Robertson back on the Scranton shuttle. The Yankees now have ten days to trade the right-hander or else they will release him. Tomko, 36, was 1-2 with a 5.23 ERA in 15 games out of the pen. His tenure on the Yanks won’t be remembered at all.
Johnny and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad defense
This morning, an e-mail from Sports Illustrated landed in my inbox. This week’s issue of the magazine, appearing on newsstands tomorrow, features one of SI’s frequent player polls. The topic is worst outfield arms, and the winner is someone near and dear to our hearts.
Of the 380 MLB players polled, a whopping 54 percent of them fingered Johnny Damon as the one with the worst arm. Juan Pierre came in a distant second with 23 percent of the vote, and Coco Crisp was third with 11 percent. Players could not vote for their teammates.
Now, generally, I don’t give much credence to anything Major League Baseball players have to say. Being a baseball player doesn’t give anyone particularly insightful glimpses into most arguments. (See, for example, Goose Gossage and the Joba Chamberlain debate.) This time, however, the players’ views count. After all, if they think that Damon has the worst arm and know he’s in left field, they are far more apt to challenge Damon when facing the Yanks.
Beyond the players’ opinions, though, the numbers bear them out. Johnny Damon has been absolutely horrible in the outfield this year. Take a look at his defensive metrics. He has a negative arm factor, a negative range runs above average, a UZR of -9.6 and a UZR/150 of -15.6. Among all left fielders, he is fourth worst in fielding runs above average with a -9.6 in that category.
From the perspective of someone who watches every single game, though, we don’t need these numbers to tell us that Johnny Damon is bad at fielding. We can see him take poor routes to the ball. We can see him misplay or just flat-out miss easy fly balls. We can see him weakly heave the ball toward the infield. We can see Joe Girardi opt to use Melky Cabrera and Brett Gardner in the outfield in the late innings of close games. All in all, Damon’s defense has quickly become a liability.
In one regard, it’s really too bad that Damon has gone from an above-average left fielder to a defensive problem. On the other side of the ball, he is having one of his finest seasons ever. His weighted runs above average is now at 17.3, and he projects to a 25.7 wRAA, good for second best in his career. Damon is hitting .294/.398/.589 at Yankee Stadium with 12 of his 16 home runs coming in the new park. Those numbers a masking a .263/.331/.431 road split which is somewhat more indicative of a decline.
So where does this leave us with regard to Johnny Damon? Well, earlier this year, Damon reiterated his desire to stay in the Bronx, and at the time, we figured a two-year deal might not be the worst thing the Yanks could do. Yet as we’ve seen, defense is important, and Damon’s hitting outside of the Bronx has been underwhelming at best. As the Yanks come to grips with Damon’s lack of left field defense, they may be better off letting him walk after this year. That terrible, horrible, no good, very bad defense can be another team’s problem.
Who is Sergio Mitre?
With word of Chien-Ming Wang’s latest setback coming yesterday, it looks like newcomer Sergio Mitre might be sticking around for a while. I figured we might as well take a second to tell you about the guy, since we’re probably going to be seeing quite a bit of him over the next few weeks. Let’s start with a little background info.
Mitre grew up in San Diego and was drafted out of San Diego City College by the Cubs in the 7th round of the 2001 Draft. He was more of a mid-level prospect than a highly touted of stud, yet only Mark Prior reached the big leagues faster out of that draft haul. Mitre made his Major League debut in a spot start in Atlanta in July 2003, getting rocked for eight runs in under four innings. He made the Cubbies’ Opening Day roster in 2004, ironically filling in for the injured Prior. Sent back down once Prior came of fthe disabled list, Mitre did the up-and-down thing again in 2005.
With the Cubs looking to improve their offense and add a leadoff hitter, they packaged Mitre with prospects Renyel Pinto and Ricky Nolasco in December 2005 to acquire Juan Pierre from the Marlins. He started the 2006 season in Joe Girardi’s Opening Day rotation, but was shut down with shoulder inflammation in mid-May. Mitre came back in August and finished the year pitching effectively out of the bullpen. He started 2007 in the Opening Day rotation, and enjoyed his best stretch of success in the show that year. In his first 17 starts (102 IP) he put up a 2.82 ERA and a 1.25 WHIP while holding opponents to a .665 OPS against.
Unfortunately, Mitre spent three stints on the disabled list that year because of blisters and a hammy issue. He came into camp the next year and faced just three hitters before being shut down with forearm tightness, but it wasn’t until mid-July that he went under the knife and had Tommy John surgery. Mitre didn’t pitch at all in 2008, and was released by the Marlins after the season. The Yankees swooped in and signed him to a split contract worth $1.25M with an option for 2010 in November on Girardi’s recommendation. Two months later he failed a drug test because a trace amount of androstenedione showed up in his system. Mitre took full responsibility and was suspended for 50 games, but was allowed to serve the suspense while rehabbing from TJ.
Mitre’s Yankee career started with him rehabbing from TJ in Extended Spring Training. That was followed by a pit stop with High-A Tampa before a move up to Triple-A Scranton. His last two outings with Scranton have been dynamite (14.2 IP, 11 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 13 K, 25-7 GB/FB combined), but more importantly, he’s stretched out and back to throwing 80-100 pitches per start.
Stuff-wise, Mitre’s primarily a sinker-changeup guy, throwing the former 70.3% of the time and the latter 16.0% of the time in his big league career. He fills in the gaps with a curveball and a slider, though his reliance on the curve has waned over the last few years. Girardi says he remembers Mitre’s sinker being high-80’s/low-90’s, and Chad Jennings says he’s been 90-93 with Triple-A Scranton. He generally gets about six or seven miles an hour of separation with the change. As you can imagine, he’s a groundball guy. posting a 2.53 GB/FB ratio in his big league career. For comparison’s sake, the guy he’s replacing in the rotation has career GB/FB rate of 2.70.
It’s fitting that one groundball guy is replacing the other in the rotation, and considering how terrible Wang has been this year, Mitre doesn’t have to do very much to match his production. SG over at RLYW already looked at the numbers, so I’m going to point you over there rather than doing everything myself. Simply put, if he gives the Yanks five or six innings of three or four run ball every five days, I think they’d take that in a heartbeat. Anything else is a bonus. Mitre doesn’t have to be a rotation savior, he just needs to hold down the fort until the team decides how it’s going to address it’s pitching situation.
Photo Credit: The Times-Tribune
Tickets available for Friday’s game
A reader has some tickets they’re trying to get rid of for this Friday’s game against Oakland, and they’re not your typical upper deck/bleacher seats, either. These seats are located in Section 120, Row 21, which is field level right behind home plate. It’s not the fancy Legends Seats, it’s one section up behind the moat. The seller is asking for face value for the tickets, which is $375 each. He’s got four of them, so bring the kids.
Email me via the link on the far right sidebar if you’re interested.
Update (1:22pm): I’m an idiot. The tickets are Friday, August 7th vs Boston. Not this Friday. My bad, yo.
Update (3:55pm): The tickets are claimed.