River Avenue Blues

Yanks a-roundin’ third, and headed for home

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Well, beat the drum and hold the phone – the sun came out today!
We’re born again, there’s new grass on the field.

The Yanks were dead in the water in May. With Chase Wright, Darrell Rasner, Jeff Karstens, Kei Igawa and Tyler Clippard coming through the revolving door of the Yankee rotation, the Yanks quickly this year found themselves 14 games out of first place and in last place in the AL East. People were writing off this year while looking forward to next year.

But then a funny thing happened on the way to October: The Yankees started winning, and once again, baseball managed to become a great surprise. Going to games – something that seemed onerous on cold May nights – became a real pleasure as the mercury soared in July. As John Fogarty once sang, the Yanks were indeed born again. And what a run it’s been.

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If Alex leaves, we will be compensated

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Just read this bit over at Pete Abraham’s blog. It appears that should A-Rod opt out of his contract, the Yankees could (and by that, I mean will) offer him arbitration, thereby receiving a first rounder and a sandwich pick.

There has been much talk about this, and many people referred to the clause in Alex’s contract that says a team cannot offer him arbitration after the deal expires. Apparently — and this comes from Abraham via Brian Cashman himself — that clause does not apply for this opt-out years. It makes you wonder why the Dodgers didn’t offer Drew arbitration (or did Boras stick a “no arbitration” regulation in Drew’s opt-out clause?).

I’ll believe this for now, since it comes from Cashman. However, should it prove wrong, we might want to consider who we have running our baseball operations.

NYT: Edwar on the way back up

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Tempting to joke about Edwar taking the D train (Get it? Because his name has no D. HAH!), instead, I’ll just tell you that Tyler Kepner reported today on the Yanks’ plans to recall Ramirez as early as today. My guess is that Jeff Karstens of the 8 ER in 6.1 IP recently will be on the next bus to Scranton when Ramirez arrives in Cleveland.

Two days; two doubleheaders; four wins for Scranton

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Triple-A Scranton (4-2 win over Pawtucket in Game 1)
Brett Gardner: 1 for 4, 1 K
Bronson Sardinha: 2 for 3, 1 2B, 1 BB
Alberto Gonzalez: 1 for 2, 1 BB, 1 K
Eric Duncan: 1 for 2, 1 HR, 1 BB, 1 K
Wil Nieves: 0 for 3 — .194/.212/.194 since returning to Scranton. Good to see things haven’t changed
Steve White: 6 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 5 K
Edwar: 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K — and yet…

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Betances hopes to return to SI soon

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We’ve got, courtesy of loyal reading Marc Resnick, a Dellin Betances sighting. According to an article a PinstripesPlus.com (subscription required), Betances is set to throw a bullpen session today and hopes to return to Staten Island before the season ends in a few weeks. Hopefully, my unfounded idle speculation surrounding the state of his elbow is just incorrect musings of a wondering mind.