Welcome to the bigs, kid.
Tabata done for year, Garcia suffers setback
Yankees outfielder Jose Tabata will miss the remainder of the season after surgery to remove the hamate bone in his right wrist.
The injury has bothered the 19-year-old outfielder since playing in the Venezuelan Winter League, and he’s seen five different hand specialists over the past year to get a proper diagnosis.
“It’s a six-week rehab and he’s going to be fine,” Yankees senior vice president of baseball operations Mark Newman said. “He tried to play through it and he shouldn’t. He’s had problems with it on an off for a while and it really bothered him on a swing. We got him in for an MRI that revealed the damage.”
Well at least he’s getting this fixed once for all. If the kid could hit .307-.371-.392 in the FSL as an 18-yr old with a bum hand, I can’t wait to see what he does fully healthy.
The same article has this on forgotten man Christian Garcia:
The Yankees got hit with more bad news recently when righthander Chris Garcia sustained a knee injury and needed surgery.
Garcia, a third-round pick out of a Miami high school in 2004, was rehabbing from Tommy John surgery at the time of the injury and isn’t expected to begin rehabbing again until November.
“He was doing some running as part of his rehab from (Tommy John),” Newman said. “As fate would have it, this happened. It’s like serving a concurrent sentence for a criminal. We expect him to be ready to go in the spring.”
The Garcia injury is no biggie, it won’t delay his return at all. That’s the good thing about TJ, if you hurt anything else while you’re rehabbing, you have plenty of time to let that heal as well.
Rivera not available again tonight
According to reports from the Yankee clubhouse, Joe Torre will not use Mariano Rivera tonight. While the Yanks’ closer and manager insist that number 42 is a paragon of health, this certainly raises my eyebrows. Last year around now, Rivera missed a month with a mysterious elbow injury that started with a few days’ extra rest after a few ineffective appearances by the Sandman. Is history repeating itself?
The Brackman Contract
(Check out which former Yanks’ son is having his shot blocked by Brackman in the photo)
As you’ve certainly heard by now, the Yanks signed first round pick Andrew Brackman to a monster contract. A Major League contract in fact. It’s nuts, I know. But hey, Damon Oppenheimer & Co. trust their people and believe the risk is worth the reward, and I can’t help but agree. I’ve noticed quite a few people around the interweb trying to figure out how the hell this deal works, and that’s what I’m here to explain.
Before we start dissecting the deal, let’s first understand the terms of the contract:
- Four years, $4.55M guaranteed Major League deal
- $3.35M signing bonus included
- Roster and performance bonuses can push the value of the contract to upwards of $13M.
The contract would be simple enough to understand if say, Brackman was a 10-year big league vet just looking to change teams. Then it’s simple; it’d be like every other free agent contract given out in the history of man. But he’s not, so the deal gets a bit more complicated.
If I’m Roger Clemens…
…my first pitch to Gary Sheffield is a fastball right under his chin on Saturday. Sheff can’t keep saying stuff like and not get a response from some Yankee pitcher.
Trenton masters “The Master”
Triple-A Scranton (9-6 win over Syracuse)
Brett Gardner: 1 for 3, 1 R, 1 BB, 1 SB, 1 HBP – picked off first
Alberto Gonzalez: 2 for 4, 2 R, 1 2N, 1 HR, 4 RBI – who are you and what have you done with the Attorney General??? (13 for his last 27 with 4 doubles, a triple & a homer)
Kevin Thompson: 1 for 4, 1 R, 1 3B, 1 RBI
Eric Duncan: 3 for 4, 2 R, 2 2B, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 1 K – must be pissed that I left him off my top 30…
Wil Nieves: 2 for 4
The Ghost of Kei Igawa’s Ghost: 6.2 IP, 7 H, 6 R, 5 ER, 1 BB, 8 K, 7-5 GB/FB – gave up only 2 homers…
Brian Bruney: 1.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 K, 1 HB
Jose Veras: 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K
Villone may be a professional, but he still sucks
With that home run, Ron Villone has now given up 5 runs over his last 6.1 IP. He’s allowed all of the runners he’s inherited since then to score as well. Tell me again why he’s on the big league roster while Chris Britton wastes away at AAA. Oh right, he is, in th words of Michael Kay, a “consummate professional.” Glad we cleared that one up.