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Wang, Ransom hit the DL

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We’ve got a couple of roster moves late tonight via the postgame. Chien-Ming Wang has been placed on the DL following an appointment with the team’s rehab specialist in Tampa, and has been replaced on the roster with David Robertson. Cody Ransom pulled his quad in the later innings of tonight’s game and has also been placed on the DL, but no word on his replacement yet. I’m guessing they’ll end up DFAing someone (coughHumbertoSanchezcough) so they can add Angel Berroa to the 40-man and have another infielder available.

Brian Bruney is also on the shelf, having been sent back to New York to have his elbow checked out tomorrow morning. That sucks.

Update (12:33am): The official word on Wang is “weakness in his hips,” which will require just physical rehabilitation. Phil Hughes is the far too obvious candidate to replace him in the rotation, and me thinks he’ll make at least four starts in Wang’s place.

Ransom has some sort of tear in his quad and that could be kinda serious, so he may end up missing a good chunk of time. Bruney wasn’t worried about his elbow and didn’t want to see a doctor, but the team ordered him too. There’s a chance he’ll be back with the team in time for tomorrow’s game.

Cold Cody

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There’s no denying that Cody Ransom is having a terrible start to the 2009 season. With A-Rod’s ramping up his rehab tomorrow, Ransom’s days on the Yanks are mostly numbered, but let’s take a quick look at how he’s doing. Ransom is 1 for 20 with 7 strike outs. So on balls hit in play, Ransom is just 1 for 13. That’s a BABIP of .077.

So while Ransom has been admittedly awful at the plate, he’s been rather unlucky too. If his BABIP were around .300 — generally the league average — he’d be hitting .200 on the season. While hardly stellar, that’s significantly better than .050. Hopefully, Ransom’s luck will turn around, and he can be even semi-useful until A-Rod returns. Six games in though, he’s been about as bad as Yankee fans feared, and those seven strike outs aren’t helping the cause.

Yanks offense projects better than last season

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For most of this decade we’ve been treated to powerhouse Yankee offenses. A-Rod, Sheffield, Giambi, Abreu, Matsui, Posada, Bernie for a couple of years, even Jeter. The team is always in the 1,000-run conversation, though reality has kept them from reaching that. This year, however, no one’s talking about a thousand runs. Not after last year’s offensive meltdown. The Yankees scored 4.87 runs per game, seventh in the AL. This represented an enormous drop-off from 2007, when the team scored 5.98 runs per game, a half-run more than the second best team.

Dave Pinto uses his Lineup Analysis Tool and Tom Tango’s Marcel projections to predict the number of runs the Yankees offense will score in 2009. No, it’s not a 1,000-run force — it’s doubtful any projection system would be optimistic enough to allow for that. Yet the showing should be better than last year, as one might have guessed. Pinto predicts the Yankees will score 5.72 runs per game with their best lineup (~927 runs) and 5.64 runs with their probable lineup (~914 runs). Not bad considering their mark from last year.

That, of course, doesn’t factor in the A-Rod injury. He’ll probably miss all of April, and right now Cody Ransom is the fill-in. Unfortunately, there’s no real accurate projection on him at this point due to his lack of big league experience (a scant 214 plate appearances over six seasons). Because of Ransom’s high OBP numbers in 2007 and 2008, he’s projected for a .351 OBP and a .450 SLG, which seems unreasonable if he’s going to play full time for a month. If he could pull off those numbers he’d have a starting gig somewhere.

With Ransom batting sixth, Pinto has the Yankees scoring 5.44 runs per game. I’m not that optimistic. Ransom will likely hit eighth, and he probably won’t hit to the Marcel projections. The Yanks will be lucky to put up five runs per game in April before A-Rod’s bat returns to the middle of the lineup. The hope is that the revamped pitching staff can hold opponents closer to four runs per game, which would more than make up for any offensive deficiencies — the Rays won 97 games last season while scoring just 4.8 runs per game, because their pitching held opponents to 4.1 runs per game.

In no way, shape, or form do the Yankees benefit with A-Rod out of the lineup. Since it’s only for a month, and since they have an improved pitching staff, they should be able to weather the blow. Still, it’s pretty clear that A-Rod helps the team score more runs, which makes winning games easier. If he comes back full strength a month into the season, the Yanks could be poised for an offensive year reminiscent of 2006 or 2007.

Melky, Sexson out; Ransom, Gardner in

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Saw this on MLB Trade Rumors a minute ago. It comes from a source we don’t enjoy citing, but the news is too big to pass up. Apparently, the team has waived Richie Sexson, and has sent Melky Cabrera to Scranton. Brett Gardner and Cody Ransom take their places. This is quite the strange turn of events. While I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that the source jumped the gun on this, it would be a welcome change if true.