River Avenue Blues

Down on the Farm

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Six Tampa Yankees were named to the FSL All-Star Team: Mini-Moose Kennedy, Dan McCutchen, Eric Wordekemper, Frankie Cervelli, Reegie Corona and Kevin Russo. I’m guessing Joba hasn’t been down there long enough to earn a spot, though he’s certainly deserving of one based on performance.

If you would have told me before the season that 6 Tampa Yanks would make the All-Star Team, I wouldn’t have guessed it was any of those guys, save Kennedy. So that means the Yanks have some serious depth down there, right?

Triple-A Scranton (7-4 loss to Rochester)
Jamal Strong: 2 for 5, 2 R, 2 3B, – called up from Double-A to take Kevin Thompson’s spot…
Angel Chavez: 2 for 3, 1 R, 1 2B, 1 RBI, 2 BB
Andy Phillips: 0 for 3, 1 RBI, 2 BB
Eric Duncan: 1 for 5, 1 RBI
Shelley Duncan: 1 for 4, 1 R, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 2 K – threw a runner out at 2nd and home from RF…
Bronson Sardinha: 0 for 3, 1 HBP – picked off first
Alberto Gonzalez, Chris Basak, Omir Santos: combined 1 for 12, 7 K – Basak doubled and commited a fielding error… 
Sean Henn: 5 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 4 K – 50 of 72 pitches were strikes (69.4%)
Ben Kozlowksi: 1.2 IP, 3 H, 4 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 1 K – he’s on pace to throw nearly 97 innings this year…as a reliever…in a 140 game season!
Colter Bean: 1.1 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 1 K
Jim Brower: 1 IP, zeroes across the board

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The Mark Teixeira sweepstakes

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In his blog today, Buster Olney notes that tensions between Mark Teixeira and Ron Washington as well as the young first baseman’s upcoming free agency may lead the Rangers to trade Teixeira sooner rather than later.

Of course, I started salivating at the thought of Teixeira in a Yankee uniform manning first base. The timing couldn’t be better. Jason Giambi is down and possibly out for the season. The Yanks need to make some move to shake up the team. And Teixeira is an utter beast at the plate and good with the glove. Good bye, Doug Mientkiewicz, in other words.

But then I arrived at this paragraph:

The Yankees have little to no interest in trading for Teixeira, by the way, because they know Texas will want a substantial package in return and they have no interest in paying for him twice.

In one sense, that paragraph dashed my hopes. Teixeira, with his .300/.400/.500 line, won’t be arriving in New York any time soon. But hidden in those words is hope for the future.

Based on what Olney is saying – the Yanks “have no interest in paying for him twice” – it’s clear that when Teixeira hits free agency in November of 2008, the Yanks will throw the bank at home. Jason Giambi’s albatross of a contract will be off the books, and the Yanks will have to fill a hole at first base. What better way to do that than with Mark Teixeira.

Teixeira will be 28 at the time, and I’ll say now, that is one big-ticket signing I’ll be supporting loud and clear come November 2008.

Baseball Bracketology

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I just want to mention that the college baseball postseason kicks off today…well, not if you count last week’s Conference tournaments I guess. Anywho, I’m going to venture a guess that your office doesn’t have a massive pool akin to March Madness set up for baseball.

Well fear not my metal bat loving friends (and please, lets not forget ’bout those RBI Girls), you can head over to Baseball America and participate in their Bracket Challenge for a chance to win a couple prizes if you get lucky/actually know what the hell you’re doing.

I made my picks, you can check’em out here.

Five players that could help the Yanks (with no commitment for ’08)

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As the calendar turns to June, the Yanks are close to being dead in the water.

In April, they went 9-14, scoring 131 runs while allowing their opponents 125. Poor starting pitching performances spearheaded the loss column, though a potent offense mitigated some of the damage — which says a lot, considering the results.

In May, they went 13-15, scoring 137 runs while allowing their opponents 143. This was due to hitters not hitting for games at a time. However, the team line of .276/.351/.431 is comparable with the team April batting line of .268/.347/.421.

The pain of this season is simple: the highs are too high and the lows are too low. And, in the end, the stats balance themselves out. However, because their standing is based on the results of games, rather than an amalgamation of the entire season, they’re sitting in last place in the AL East. Only Kansas City, Texas, and Cincinnati have won fewer games than the Yanks (they share a win total with Tampa Bay, Washington, Chicago, St. Louis, and Houston).

Now Jason Giambi is out, leaving a hole at DH. There are a number of things the Yankees can do to fill that gap. The most likely is to rotate it among Matsui, Abreu, and Damon, leaving Melky in the outfield full time. Another is to add Josh Phelps to that rotation.

But the Yanks have other glaring problems that need to be addressed. Brian Cashman needs to work the phones to see if he can salvage this season with a few replacements. Because we could get them for less value than, say, Mark Teixeira, here are a list of five players I wouldn’t mind seeing Cashman trade for. Suggestions? Leave ’em in the comments or hit me with an e-mai: rabjosephp at gmail dot com.

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Down on the Farm

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Triple-A Scranton (8-6 loss to Toledo)
Angel Chavez: 2 for 5, 1 R, 1 K
Andy Phillips: 2 for 5, 1 R, 1 2B – .326-.391-.508
Eric Duncan: 1 for 5, 1 R, 1 K, 1 E (missed catch) – 12 for his last 35 (.343)
Shelley Duncan: 2 for 5, 1 R, 1 2B, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 1 K
Bronson Sardinha: 2 for 4, 1 R, 1 BB, 1 K
Alberto Gonzalez: 1 for 4, 1 2B, 1 K – 12 for his last 41 (.293)
Chris Basak: 2 for 4, 2 R, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 1 SB
Chase Wright: 3.2 IP, 6 H, 7 R, 7 ER, 4 BB, 3 K, 1 WP, 1 HB, 1 Balk – IP in his last 3 starts: 7.2-5.1-3.2…
Edwar Ramirez: 3.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, 1 WP – 48 K in 26.1 IP…get this guy in pinstripes…like fuckin’ yesterday!
Charlie Manning: 2 IP, 0 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, 1 WP – 1 H & 8 K in last 5 IP

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