River Avenue Blues

DotF: Florial and Green have big games in Tampa’s win

by Leave a Comment

RHP Domingo Acevedo was placed on the Double-A disabled list with a biceps injury, the team announced. Acevedo told Sean Miller he’s going for an MRI tomorrow. “During the week I felt excellent, and then this came out of nowhere. Most of the time you feel a little something in your arm, but this time it was getting worse, and I did not want to make it worse,” Acevedo said.

Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders (7-4 loss to Gwinnett)

  • LF Mark Payton: 0-4, 3 K — ejected for arguing balls and strikes
  • 1B Tyler Austin: 1-4, 1 K — with 1B Luke Voit on the way, I reckon Austin will see more time in the outfield going forward
  • DH Mike Ford: 0-2 — also ejected for arguing balls and strikes … not a good day for the home plate umpire
  • SS Abi Avelino: 1-4, 2 K
  • LHP Nestor Cortes: 7 IP, 8 H, 7 R, 7 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, 2 HR, 5/10 GB/FB — 66 of 95 pitches were strikes (69%) … had to wear this one because the bullpen is short due to recent workloads and all the trades
  • RHP Brody Koerner: 0.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 K — 13 pitches, nine strikes … he left the game after being hit by a comebacker
  • RHP J.P. Feyereisen: 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, 1/1 GB/FB — 17 of 31 pitches were strikes (55%) … 2.17 ERA and 46/18 K/BB in 49.2 innings this year … he certainly moved up a few spots on the bullpen depth chart after all the trades

[Read more…]

Yankees 6, Royals 3: A series win in Happ’s debut

by Leave a Comment

A good end to a series that was more annoying than it should’ve been. The Yankees picked up a stress-free 6-3 win over the Royals on Sunday to clinch the four-game series win. The new guy looked good and the Yankees beat a team they’re supposed to beat.

(Mike Stobe/Getty)

Hip Happ Hooray
Six strong innings for J.A. Happ in his Yankees debut. He did run some long counts early — Happ needed 55 pitches to get through the first three innings — before settling down and getting through his final three innings on 41 pitches. Happ threw 96 pitches and, by my unofficial count, only 24 came from the stretch. The Royals, admittedly the worst offensive team in baseball, did not have much traffic on the bases at all.

The Yankees are baseball’s preeminent anti-fastball organization — they have baseball lowest fastball rate (44.6%) by a mile this year (Rays are second at 48.6%) — and I was curious to see whether Happ would adopt a similar approach, because is very much a fastball pitcher. Going into this start Happ had a 74.3% fastball rate this year, third highest in baseball. Only Bartolo Colon (79.0%) and Lance Lynn (76.7%) throw more heaters.

On Saturday, Happ threw 75 fastballs (64 four-seamers and eleven two-seamers) among his 96 pitchers, or 78.1%. Right in line with his usual rate. Interesting! It’s only one start, but Happ may be an anti-fastball exception, and I think that’s the way to go. He’s been very good the last few years because the Pirates convinced him to throw more fastballs and elevate the pitch during his short stint there in 2015. Stick with what works!

Happ’s final line: 6 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, 1 HR with a CC Sabathia-esque 78.2 mph average exit velocity allowed. Salvador Perez, who wrecked the Yankees all series, hit the home run. It was the second-to-last batter Happ faced and the Yankees had a 5-0 lead with two outs in the sixth. If you’re going to give up a dinger, a solo shot in that situation is the time to do. Overall, very good debut for Happ. Now let’s see him against a good offense.

Building The Lead
The Yankees opted for several small innings over one big inning Sunday afternoon. They scored two runs right in the first inning. Didi Gregorius worked a four-pitch walk with two outs, and Aaron Hicks followed with a two-run home run off the facing of the second deck in right field. Hicks bunted foul against the shift on the first pitch of the at-bat. One pitch later, two-run dinger. Good thing he didn’t get the bunt down, eh?

Miguel Andujar gave the Yankees a 3-0 lead with a two-out single in the fourth inning — they were dangerously close to wasting Hicks’ leadoff double — and they scored two more runs in the fifth inning without hitting the ball out of the infield with the bases loaded. Brett Gardner and Giancarlo Stanton had back-to-back leadoff singles and Hicks drew a one-out walk to load the bases. Would the Yankees get a hit? They went into this game hitless in their last 15 plate appearances with the bases loaded. Their last bases loaded hit was July 11th.

Yes, the Yankees would get a hit with the bases loaded. Kinda. First Gleyber Torres hit a weak grounder to second base that scored a run because Whit Merrifield missed the tag on Hicks as he ran by. Replay overturned the original out call, sparing the Yankees an inning-ending double play. A run scored, the inning continued, and Greg Bird beat out an infield single (!) because Merrifield was playing way back in the shift. Gleyber and Bird didn’t hit the ball out of the infield and still managed to drive in two runs.

The Yankees took a 5-0 lead in the fifth and Stanton made it a 6-1 lead with a sixth inning sacrifice fly. A hit-by-pitch (Neil Walker) and a double (Austin Romine) set that run up. So many sacrifice flies lately. Anyone worried the offense is too sac fly reliant? Or do only home runs, literally the best thing a hitter can do, create those concerns? Don’t get me wrong, sac flies are cool. You need ’em. But maybe mix in some hits to score runs without making an out, guys.

Fixing The Bullpen
A (relatively) big lead against the Royals is exactly when a reliever who is trying to straighten things out should pitch, so Aaron Boone gave Chad Green the ball in the seventh. Green’s last five outings before Sunday: 6 IP, 7 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, 1 HR. Green’s first batter Sunday: Homer. Hunter Dozier the other way the right field. Green’s second batter Sunday: Double. Alex Gordon the other way to the wall. To be fair, look at this pitch location:

Kinda hard to pin that one on Green. How the hell did Gordon hit that? Anyway, Green retired the next three batters on a ground out, a strikeout, and a pop-up. He’s still struggling a bit. Seems to me hitters know he is close to a fastball only pitcher — the grounder came on a slider that was topped — and they’re ready for it. Green has to adjust back and do something to get hitters off his fastball. Slider, changeup, splitter, whatever.

Anyway, in the eighth, Boone went to David Robertson with a 6-2 lead. Robertson gave up the three-run home run Saturday afternoon but hasn’t really struggled of late — he went into yesterday’s game with a 1.31 ERA (1.46 FIP) and a .164/.208/.247 opponent’s batting line his previous 20 appearances and 20.2 innings — but it was good to get him out there quickly after the three-run homer. Robertson’s first batter face: Dinger. Short porch job by Rosell Herrera. So annoying. Robertson retired the next three batters with ease and Aroldis Chapman struck out the side in the ninth to close out the win. Hopefully the superbullpen starts being super again soon.

Leftovers
Big game for Hicks. He went 3 for 3 with a walk and was a triple short of a cycle. The best center fielder in the American League not named Mike Trout is hitting .256/.359/.491 (130 wRC+) on the season. Every starter had a hit except Gregorius and Gleyber. Didi drew a walk though. Torres went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts and is 3-for-16 (.188) in five games since returning from the disabled list. He’s still searching for it.

And finally, thank goodness the Yankees are done with Sal Perez this season. They couldn’t get him out. He went 2-for-4 with a homer this game. Perez against the Yankees this season: .416/.467/1.000 with four homers in seven games. Perez against every other team this season: .224/.258/.399 with 14 homers in 76 games. He has more homers and total bases against the Yankees than any other team this year, including all the AL Central teams he faces all the time. Good grief.

Box Score, WPA Graph & Standings
Go to ESPN for the box score and updated standings, and MLB for the video highlights. Here’s our Bullpen Workload page and here’s the win probability graph:


Source: FanGraphs

Up Next
An off-day. Players love mid-homestand off-days, especially after an afternoon game. Feels like two days off. Anyway, the Orioles are coming to the Bronx next for a quick two-game series after the off-day. Masahiro Tanaka and former Yankees farmhand Yefry Ramirez are the scheduled starters for Tuesday night’s series opener.

Game 104: Happ’s Debut

by Leave a Comment

(Rich Schultz/AP)

The Yankees needed another starting pitcher before they trade deadline and they got one Thursday, when they sent Brandon Drury and Billy McKinney to the Blue Jays for J.A. Happ. Happ is making his Yankees debut today and he has a pretty low bar to clear. Be better than Domingo German and Luis Cessa, basically. Those two have a 5.64 ERA (4.58 FIP) in 81.1 innings as starters this year. Most of that is German. Cessa’s been okay his last few times out.

Of course, the Yankees didn’t acquire Happ just to be better than German and Cessa. They want the guy who pitched to a 3.33 ERA (3.87 FIP) from 2016-17 and had a 3.56 ERA (3.56 FIP) this season as recently June 24th. A lot has been made of Happ’s recent struggles and that’s understandable, but one thing to keep in mind here: Happ will have a good infield defense behind him now. Some numbers:

  • Blue Jays: .271 BABIP allowed on grounders (highest in MLB)
  • Yankees: .253 BABIP allowed on grounders

Over at The Athletic, Katie recently explained the Yankees have been the best shifting team in baseball this season. That’ll surely help. Anyway, Happ arrived in New York yesterday, so it’s a quick turnaround for him, but he’s done this before. This is the fourth (!) time he’s been traded at the deadline in his career. He’s done this all before. Go beat the Royals and win the series. The lineups:

New York Yankees
1. LF Brett Gardner
2. RF Giancarlo Stanton
3. SS Didi Gregorius
4. CF Aaron Hicks
5. 2B Gleyber Torres
6. 1B Greg Bird
7. 3B Miguel Andujar
8. DH Neil Walker
9. C Austin Romine

LHP J.A. Happ

Kansas City Royals
1. CF Rosell Herrera
2. SS Adalberto Mondesi
3. DH Salvador Perez
4. 2B Whit Merrifield
5. 1B Hunter Dozier
6. LF Alex Gordon
7. 3B Alcides Escobar
8. RF Brett Phillips
9. C Drew Butera

RHP Burch Smith

Lovely afternoon for baseball in New York. Sunny with a few clouds for shade and a nice little breeze. Good day to be at the park. Today’s series finale will begin 1:05pm ET and you can watch on YES. Enjoy.

Roster Notes: The Yankees have made a lot of moves in recent days and both the 25-man and 40-rosters have changed quite a bit. Here’s quick state of the rosters update just to make things clear:

  • The Yankees currently have a three-man bench (Kyle Higashioka, Tyler Wade, Shane Robinson) and an eight-man bullpen (Aroldis Chapman, Dellin Betances, Zach Britton, David Robertson, Chad Green, Adam Warren, Jonathan Holder, A.J. Cole), so everything is back to normal.
  • Zach Britton took the 40-man roster spot that had been open since the last time the Yankees designated David Hale for assignment. Happ took Drury’s 40-man spot, Robinson took McKinney’s 40-man spot, Luke Voit took Chasen Shreve’s 40-man spot, and Gio Gallegos’ 40-man spot remains open. The Yankees can also slide Jordan Montgomery over to the 60-day DL to clear another 40-man spot when necessary.

Got all that? Good.

Yankees acquire international bonus money from White Sox

by Leave a Comment

Frare. (Presswire)

According to Jack Curry, the Yankees have acquired $1.5M in international bonus money from the White Sox for minor league southpaw Caleb Frare. Chicago is in the $300,000 penalty phase for past international signings and can’t really spend the money this year. The Yankees have not yet announced the trade, but there’s no reason to doubt Jack. (Update: The trade has been announced. Done deal.)

Between the Frare trade and the Luke Voit trade, the Yankees have added $2.5M in international bonus money the last two days. They started with a $4,983,500 bonus pool, so they’re now up to $7,483,500. The Yankees also acquired an unknown sum of bonus money from the Brewers a few weeks ago. They can max their bonus pool out at $8,721,125 this year, and if they haven’t done it already, they should be pretty close.

The Yankees have already signed — or agreed to sign — several international players since the 2018-19 signing period opened on July 2nd. Top Cuban prospect Victor Victor Mesa remains unsigned — he hasn’t been cleared to sign yet, of course — and the Yankees could make a run at him. I think they’re focusing more on other players though. The Yankees are in the smallest bonus pool bracket because of their market size and other teams can offer Victor² lots more. We’ll see.

Frare, 25, was New York’s 11th round pick in 2012. He had a 0.62 ERA (2.24 FIP) with 33.7% strikeouts and 8.9% walks in 43.2 Double-A innings this year before one appearance with Triple-A Scranton earlier this week. Frare is due to become a minor league free agent after the season and the Yankees have too many guys ahead of him on the bullpen depth chart, so chances are he would’ve looked for a greater opportunity elsewhere. The Yankees dealt him for bonus money rather than potentially lose him for nothing. Frare should get a look with the ChiSox. Good for him.

Luis’s Lost Whiffs

by Leave a Comment

(Presswire)

Yesterday was another clunker of a start for Yankees’ ace Luis Severino, making it two disaster starts in a row, following a not so great one against Cleveland and a meh-at-best one against the Blue Jays. On the plus side, he only gave up one home run against the Royals yesterday, after surrendering at two apiece in his last three starts prior. Another plus? He’s mostly kept the walks down while maintaining a high strikeout rate–except against Cleveland. Regardless, his performance in July was nothing like his performance in April through June, so what gives? The answer, my friends, is blowing in the wind that Severino’s pitches aren’t generating lately.

From the beginning of the season through his July 1 start against Boston, Severino’s (excellent) fastball netted him a whiff/swing% of 23.04. The changeup? 24.27. Slider? 37.82. Those are all solid marks befitting a hurler with the kind of stuff Severino has. But since then, through yesterday, all of those numbers have seen marked dropoffs.

In that time frame, Severino’s fastball whiff/swing% is all the way down to 14.29. His changeup’s whiff/swing% is down to a shockingly low 8.33%. The slider’s drop off to 33.33 isn’t alarming or overly big, but a drop is a drop. Not surprisingly, this has led to an increase in balls in play on his fastball, from 15.39 to 21.28. On all three pitches, his fly ball and line drive percentages have climbed, also leading to increases in HR/(FB+LD) rates on his fastball and slider. On his slider and changeup both, the ground ball percentages have dropped by about 5% each.

With regards to the fastball and its drop in whiffs, a big culprit seems to be that hitters against Severino aren’t swinging through fastballs in the zone like they were before. Now, especially in that top part of the zone, hitters are whiffing less. It’s not a velocity issue, as he’s still averaging in the high 90’s. Perhaps, then, it’s a sequencing issue or hitters are reading the ball out of his hand better. Another sign of that is the increase in swing rate on his fastball and the paired decrease in swing rate on his changeup.

Up through the Boston start, hitters swung at about half of Severino’s fastball–50.94%. In his last four starts, that number has crept up towards two-thirds–64.54. The swing rate on his changeup has gone from 44.40 to 34.29. This hints towards better pitch recognition on the hitters’ part or weaker deception on Severino’s part. Either way, it’s leading to issues and there needs to be a correction made.

This is only four starts in an otherwise brilliant season, but with the Yankees trying to chase down the seemingly indomitable Red Sox, each game matters. If I told you yesterday the Yankees would score five runs in a Luis Severino start, you’d think that was a win no matter what. It didn’t shake out that way and hasn’t for most of July. Hopefully August brings better returns for the Yankees’ ace.

Yankees trade Chasen Shreve and Gio Gallegos to Cardinals

by Leave a Comment

Please welcome Luke Voit to the team of large adult sons. (Presswire)

Following tonight’s win the Yankees announced they have traded lefty Chasen Shreve and righty Gio Gallegos to the Cardinals for first baseman Luke Voit and an undisclosed sum of international bonus money. The move clears a 25-man roster spot for J.A. Happ, who was acquired Thursday.

The Yankees had been carrying four starters and a nine-man bullpen these last few days and they had to unload someone to make room on the roster for Happ, and Shreve is the odd man out. Realistically, it was either Shreve or A.J. Cole, and Cole’s pitched quite well with the Yankees, so he stays.

Shreve, 28, had been on the 40-man roster bubble for what felt like three years before being traded away. He’s spent the bulk of the last four years in the big league bullpen after coming over from the Braves in a trade for Manny Banuelos. This season Shreve has a 4.26 ERA (4.98 FIP) with 46 strikeouts in 38 innings. He was rather emotional following the trade:

The 26-year-old Gallegos has been the quintessential up-and-down reliever the last two years, throwing 30.1 innings with 32 strikeouts and a 4.79 ERA (3.98 FIP) for the Yankees. Over the last two seasons he has a 2.79 ERA (1.99 FIP) with a 38.7% strikeout rate in 71 Triple-A innings. With Gallegos traded, I imagine Tommy Kahnle will take over as the primary up-and-down reliever.

Voit, 27, is essentially Garrett Cooper with more power. He’s a career .240/.307/.432 (95 wRC+) hitter with five home runs in 137 big league plate appearances scattered across the last two seasons. Down in Triple-A, Voit is hitting .299/.391/.500 (133 wRC+) with nine homers in 271 plate appearances this year. He’s a right-handed hitting first base only guy.

The Yankees already have Tyler Austin and Ryan McBroom, two other right-handed hitting first basemen, down in the minors. Voit is a better hitter than McBroom — he has more power, if nothing else — and, unlike Austin, he has minor league options remaining for 2019 and 2020. This is Austin’s final option year. For all intents and purposes, Voit is the new up-and-down first baseman.

To me, the trade was more about the international bonus money and getting something for Shreve rather than nothing. Had the Yankees designated him for assignment to clear a spot for Happ, he’d be lost on waivers. No doubt. Trading Gallegos clears a 40-man roster spot for … whoever needs one next. The Yankees have really cleaned up the fringes of the 40-man roster with their recent deals.

Update: Jesse Sanchez says the Yankees received $1M in international bonus money in the trade.

Yankees 5, Royals 4: Late rally gives Yanks doubleheader split

by Leave a Comment


Source: FanGraphs

What a dismal day of baseball. The Yankees dropped the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader against the Royals, and while they won the second game, it was like pulling teeth. Shouldn’t have to scratch and claw against arguably the worst team in baseball. Good grief. A win is a win though. Enjoy it. The final score was 5-4. This is the second game of a doubleheader, so let’s recap with bullet points:

  • An Early Lead: The Yankees put two runs on the board right in the first inning Saturday night. A Brett Gardner infield single and a Giancarlo Stanton rocket ground ball single set Miguel Andujar up for the run-scoring infield single and a 1-0 lead. Neil Walker got another run home with a sac fly, which seems to be the only way the Yankees score these days. Shane Robinson added a solo homer in the fourth (yes, really) to give the Yankees a 3-1 lead. Sac flies and Shane Robinson dingers. That’s where the Yankees are at right now.
  • CC Labors: The Royals are the worst offensive team in baseball by almost any measure, and neither starting pitcher Saturday was able to complete five innings. Brutal. CC Sabathia, who was making his first start in 13 days, danced in and out of danger all night. Then it caught up to him in the fifth. Sabathia walked the generally un-walk-able Salavador Perez to load the bases, then he walked Lucas Duda to force in a run. It was Duda’s second walk against a lefty pitcher this year. Sabathia’s final line: 4.2 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 8 K on 79 pitches.
  • A Blown Lead: The 3-2 lead disappeared in the sixth inning. Jonathan Holder put two men on base and Chad Green gave up the game-tying single to Rosell Herrera. Green’s given up some dingers lately, but this was a weak five-hop grounder against the shift. Herrera took a defensive little swing and found a hole. It happens. In the seventh, new pickup Zach Britton let the Royals take a 4-3 lead when he walked the No. 8 hitter (Alcides Escobar) and No. 9 hitter (Drew Butera) on eight total pitches to force in a run. Escobar and Butera might be the two worst hitters in baseball, and Britton walked them on eight pitches. Turrible.
  • Too Many Sac Flies: The eighth inning rally started with something that has been hard to come by lately: A home run. Greg Bird took lefty Brian Flynn into the bullpen for a game-tying solo homer. The Yankees now have five homers in eight games since the All-Star break. After the homer, the Yankees loaded the bases on a double (Walker), a sac bunt turned infield single (Austin Romine), and a walk (Gleyber Torres). Aaron Hicks gave the Yankees a 5-4 lead with another sac fly. The so-called Bronx Bombers lead baseball with 40 sac flies this season and with eight since the All-Star break. I’ll take it, but sooner the Yankees stop relying on making outs to score runs, the better.
  • Leftovers: Neil Walker! Never doubted the guy. He went 2-for-3 with a double in this game and 5-for-7 in the doubleheader overall. Walker is 17-for-41 (.415) in his last 13 games and his batting line went from .213/.295/.300 (63 wRC+) to .229/.306/.318 (71 wRC+) on Saturday … Dellin Betances and Aroldis Chapman each pitched around a leadoff single in their scoreless innings … every starter had a hit except Kyle Higashioka. Brett Gardner (single, two walks), Didi Gregorius (single, walk), and Walker (single, double) each reached multiple times.

Here are the box score, video highlights, updated standings, and our Bullpen Workload page. The Yankees and Royals will wrap up this four-game series Sunday afternoon. That’s a 1:05pm ET start. J.A Happ will make his Yankees debut in that one. Righty Burch Smith will be on the bump for Kansas City.