Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Gitcher Brooms

John Sterling often repeats that old baseball cliche "good pitching stops good hitting." Unfortunately for the Red Sox, the best pitching team in the majors, stopping the Yankees from hitting means that they only score 4.5 runs per game instead of the 7 they've averaged since the All-Star break.

The Yankees were really lucky to have the timing of this series coincide with their top three pitchers turns in the rotation. Chien-Ming Wang and the sinker of doom will attempt to lead the team to a sweep tomorrow, and I'll be at the stadium to watch. If anyone happens to be in the left field bleachers and wants to say hello, I'll be in section 49, row D. Just look for the reflection off my shiny, shiny head.

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Thank God That's Over

We may very well have seen Mike Mussina's last start of 2007, and possibly the last appearance of Sean Henn in a major league game. There's no word yet on exactly what kind of roster shuffling is going to happen, but here are my thoughts on the matter:

Obviously Henn will have to be sent down(or sent home, since his wife is about to have a baby). There's really no point in having a lefty in the pen that can't get lefties out. Just ask Mike Myers. The real question is, who is your new lefty? The system is dreadfully thin on lefthanded pitching, with the only candidate in Triple-A being Kei Igawa. Its enough to make me wonder how Ron Guidry's arm is feeling. In all seriousness, the team might be best off simply using righties like Jose Vizcaino and Joba Chamberlain, who've been just as effective against lefties as righties.

One guy who should never be sent up against a lefthanded hitter, though, is Edwar Ramirez. Its a pretty small sample size, but his splits are pretty astounding. Against righties, he's thrown a very solid seven innings allowing only five hits while walking two and striking out nine. Against lefties, he's struck out an impressive seven in just three and two thirds innings, but has walked six and given up four hits, two of which were homeruns. Granted, last night's homerun came from a righty, Placido Polanco, but that was the first time he's given one up to a righty, and has been generally effective enough against them to have some value in the pen.

One guy who has been able to get lefties out in his career is Mussina, who will either have to go to the bullpen or the DL. Considering that no one's got any idea what's wrong with him, there's really no reason to believe he'd be any better in relief, so the DL would be preferable. Neither he nor the Yankees have said that there's anything physically wrong with him, but at 38 years old there's got to be something that needs resting. The candidates for replacing him in the rotation consist of guys who have either been bad in the majors (Igawa, Jeff Karstens and Matt DeSalvo), or who have never been there (Ian Kennedy and Steven White).

Fortunately, the schedule is on our side. With three off days, the Yankees should only need a fifth starter three times in September. Even better, two of those games (Septembers 1st and 26th) are against Tampa Bay, a weak team if ever there was one. The other comes on the 16th, the final game against Boston, which may end up being a painful affair, but its still much better than it could have been.

The schedule's also on our side in the hunt for the wild card. Despite losing the last two series, the Yankees remain only two games behind Seattle for the wild card, and have a much easier schedule from here on out. Other than the six games against Boston and the three against Seattle, the Yankees only play two kinds of teams from here on out; mediocre and bad. Seattle, meanwhile, has seventeen games against contenders, and finish out the season playing a brutal 24 games in 24 days, with only one day off. Right now, I can't help but think that despite the standings, the Yankees have to be the favorites in this race.

Monday, August 27, 2007

Minor League Monday 8/27

Looking back over my first couple of weeks as a blogger, I've noticed that I'm somewhat erratic in my writing schedule. So in order to improve my posting regularity, I've decided to use the blogger's Metamucil; the weekly feature. Every Monday will be Minor League Monday here at Poughkeepsie Pinstripes, as I take a look at the next generation of Yankees. Today I'll be handing out a few awards for the best performances of the week.

Hitter of the Week - Kevin Smith

Apparently tired of making movies, or possibly just New Jersey, Kevin Smith has moved to Charleston to be the Riverdog's first baseman (sorry, but that joke was just too easy for me to resist). This Kevin Smith was a 25th round pick out or Cypress College in 2003, though he didn't actually start his professional career until 2006, for reasons I haven't been able to find. Regardless, he got a hit in all six games this week, and got three hits in each of the last three games. Overall he went .542/.577/.875 for the week.

Pitcher of the Week - Chase Wright

Chase Wright - Wright will forever be known as one of only two pitchers in major league history to give up four consecutive home runs, which he did following an April callup when the Yankees were desperate for starters, but didn't want to rush Philip Hughes. It wasn't terribly surprising considering he only had 20 innings of Double-A experience under his belt. Since being offered up as a sacrificial lamb, Wright's been a fairly mediocre pitcher, but Saturday he had one night of excellence, pitching a four-hit shutout. Wright will probably never see the majors again, but its good to see him find some success.

The Jason Tyner Silver Slugger Award - Brett Gardner

Named for the Minnesota Twins outfielder who hit his first homerun a mere seven years and 1,220 at bats into his major league, this award goes to the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre centerfielder who hit his first homerun in two years on the 21st. Even more impressive, that homerun came in the first at bat of the game and was the only run scored by the Yankees, as Rochester's Dave Gassner shut down the rest of the offense.

Eastern League Pitcher of the Year - Alan Horne

Finally, the most prestigious award, since it comes from some other than me. Horne has been the ace of a staff which is far and away the best in the league, and leads the league in ERA and strikeouts. With Philip Hughes and Joba Chamberlain now in the majors, Horne is one of the better prospects in the Yankees' system. If he wants to be a major league starter, he'll probably need to add a changeup to his arsenal, which is comprised of a heavy, low to mid 90s fastball, a hammer curve and a cut fastball. If not, he could still be a very effective reliever for the Yankees by the end of next season.

Sunday, August 26, 2007

The Sterling Shake

I never realized just how into his call John Sterling gets. He can be pretty corny, but his enthusiasm certainly has its moments.

Friday, August 24, 2007

The Sun Never Rises on the Britton Empire

Peter Abraham is reporting that Brian Bruney will be recalled from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, with Ron Villone likely being sent down. This is a pretty baffling move for me. I understand sending Villone down, as he seems to have lost the ability to throw a strike. What I don't understand is why Brian Cashman has again passed on calling up Chris Britton.

For those who don't know about Britton, he's the hard throwing righty obtained from Baltimore in the Jared Wright trade. When this trade happened, I assumed Britton would be in the major league pen from the get go, as he had pitched very effectively for the Orioles in 2006, posting a decent 4.36 RA (I prefer to use runs against rather than ERA, because, let's face it, official scorers are pretty lousy), and a strong 1.17 WHIP (that's walks and hits per inning pitched) in 53.2 innings. He's been dominant in Scranton with a 2.89 RA and a 1.13 WHIP, and allowed only one run in five innings in a short callup earlier this year. Considering the Yankees bullpen woes, I have to think that the Yankees have some sort of off the field reason for not bringing him up. So, I present to you my top 5 possible reasons that Chris Britton is still in the minors:

5. Mariano Rivera is afraid the 300 lb Britton will eat him if a game goes on too long. He also might use Edwar Ramirez as a toothpick.

4. He refuses to leave Scranton until Pam Beesly goes out with him.

3. Kicked Joe Torre's dog

2. He is the leader of a secret Scranton Army and is plotting to conquer neighbouring Wilkes-Barre

1. George Steinbrenner and Brian Cashman cannot bear to look upon him, for he is a reminder of their terrible shame for having signed Jaret Wright.

The State That I Am In

Bonus points for anyone who gets the reference from the title.

An off day is a good time to step back and take a look at the big picture of where the Yankees are. The team's record currently stands at 71-56, good enough for 2nd place in both the AL East and the AL Wild Card races. Lets take a look at what it'll take to make it to first.

The Red Sox are 5 games up on the Yankees in the pennant race at 76-51. At that pace they'll end the season with 97 wins. To match that, the Yankees would have to win 26 of their remaining 35, a ludicrous .743 pace. The Yankees have been the best team in the majors since the All-Star break, and even then they've been playing at a .683 clip, and if they keep it up through the end of the season, they'll be at 95 wins. Simply put, the Yankees aren't going to win the pennant without some help from the Red Sox. The teams face off against each other six more times this season, and if the Yankees don't win at least four of those games, they can forget about the pennant.

Of course if they can't overtake the Red Sox, there's still the far more attainable Wild Card berth. Seattle, at 71-53 is only a game and a half ahead of the Yankees, and are on a pace to win 93 games. To match that, the Yankees would have to go 22-13.

As fate would have it, the Yankees are scheduled to play 22 games against losing teams and 13 games against winning teams (actually, to be completely accurate, Toronto is sitting at .500, but its close enough). Thus, the path to the playoffs is pretty clear. If they can beat up on the bad teams, even .500 ball against the good ones ought to be enough. Its not a bad spot to be in.

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Tough loss

Last night was exactly the kind of gut wrenching affair we've come to expect from the Angels. Coming back against their bullpen is no small feat. To do so and still lose is pretty heartbreaking.

Joe Torre's taking the brunt of the blame after sending the lefty Sean Henn to face a talented righthanded hitter in Howie Kendrick, who would eventually score the winning run. This is probably a bit unfair, considering his options. The only righthanders left in the bullpen, were Joba Chamberlain and Edwar Ramirez. Chamberlain is only a year removed from the arm troubles that plagued him his final season at the University of Nebraska, and the Yankee brass has rightfully decreed that he not be used on consecutive days. While Ramirez is under no such restrictions, he had pitched two innings the night before, and the decision that Henn would be more effective is a valid one.

Overlooked amidst all this is the fact that Torre elected to bring in Kyle Farnsworth in the 8th inning of a tie game. Considering that everyone, myself included, wanted to see this guy traded, if not released outright, he acquitted himself pretty well. In fact, his past few outings have been pretty good, and I'm starting to think that its more than dumb luck. When he was struggling, Farnsworth's fastball had dipped down into the low 90s, but over the last few weeks its been 98mph at the knees; the kind of stuff he's paid to bring. I suppose it was inevitable that he catch the fire that's lit up the rest of the team.

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Mo Blues

They're not a particularly good team, but for whatever reason the Orioles seem to have the Yankees' number ths year. Today marks the first time the Yankees have lost a series and two consecutive games since the last time they played Baltimore.

Today's loss came courtesy of Mariano Rivera's Annual Summer Swoon. It really seems like he has a couple of bad weeks this time of year, and we all panic about life without Mo. By September he'll have bounced back into shape and we can marvel at his excellence all over again. Hopefully. Of course the question is whether or not the Yankees can manage to survive while Rivera works things out, and there was evidence in today's game that they could in the form of Edwar Ramirez, who replaced Jim Brower on the roster. I can't understand why this move wasn't made weeks ago. Don't get me wrong, I can understand the skepticism as to whether a guy who lives and dies with his changeup can be an effective major league reliever, no matter how fantastic his success in the minors. What I can't understand is thinking that Jim Brower would be any better.

Then there's the fact that the next four games (and eight out of the next eleven) come against Detroit, who has been playing some truly craptastic baseball lately, winning only 7 of their last 20 games. It sounds like a good way to get within striking distance of Boston by the time they come to town at the end of the month.

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

The Holiest of Cows

A 12-0 beating probably wasn't the tribute the Yankees wanted to give to Phil Rizzuto the player but it ended up giving YES a chance to give a surprisingly appropriate one to Phil Rizzuto the broadcaster.

I'm a child of the 80s, so what I remember of Phil Rizzuto broadcasts often involved the Yankees getting beaten. Much like Scooter, as the game got more and more lopsided, Michael Kay and Ken Singleton talked less and less about it. Instead they simply reminisced about Rizzuto, and it sort of became a strange sort of baseball wake. Even more impressive, at least in terms of today's media, YES filled the commercial break in the middle of the first with a montage of Rizzuto's highlights as a player. A pretty nice goodbye for a man who had been part of the Yankees for over 50 years.

Anyway, I'll get back to my normal baseball talk for tomorrow, but tonight I'll just encourage you to go over here to read some stories about Scooter and share your own. I especially like the one at the bottom from the Red Sox fan.

Saturday, August 11, 2007

A lack of options

I wrote last night that I'd take a look at who might fill in for Roger Clemens on Tuesday as he serves out his suspension. It turns out that there really is only one option for the Yankees; Jeff Karstens. Ideally they could call up Ian Kennedy, but he's not on the 40 man roster. As for guys who are on the 40 man, Tyler Clippard and Chase Wright have both needed to go back down to Double A, while Matt DeSalvo and Kei Igawa will have pitched too recently to be ready for Tuesday. Considering how Karstens has pitched lately, I'm hoping for rain.

On the subject of Igawa, it looks like he may not be a part of the Yankees by the time Tuesday comes along anyway. The Padres put in a waiver claim last night, and the Yankees now have until Tuesday (two business days after the Padres made the claim) to either work out a trade or take Igawa off waivers. I, for one, don't really see the Padres willing to trade away anyone worth giving up on Igawa. He is, after all, still a lefty with good stuff that comes at an affordable price. Of course my read on the situation may be wrong, and if Cashman can somehow get his hands on a good reliever, I'm all for it.

Lets temper our excitement a little bit folks. While tonight's win puts the Yankees into a tie with the Mariners for the wild card, its not a true tie. The Yanks have both one more win and one more loss than Seattle, meaning that they don't control their own destinies. One more loss by Seattle, and we can start talking about magic numbers.

Regardless, tonight was a big win. They faced Cleveland's best in Fausto Carmona, and Phil Hughes' first start back had been less than inspiring. However, there's nothing better for a struggling pitcher than a team that can't hit, and Hughes was able to shut down the Indians for six innings before giving way to the even more dominating Joba Chamberlain. These two performances weren't just big for this game, but for the rest of the year, because if they can continue like this it'll be like having traded for a great starter and setup man without giving up a thing.

Off the field, it appears I was wrong about Clemens holding off his suspension until they could skip his turn in the rotation. Instead, he elected to start serving it today, meaning that the team will need to find another starter for Tuesday. I'll be taking a look at who that starter might be tomorrow.

Friday, August 10, 2007

SI Yankee All-Stars

I was going to write a post about Clemens and Torre being suspended, but I realized that there's nothing really interesting to say. Torre will likely take tomorrow off, and Clemens will appeal his suspension and either get it reduced or serve it at a point in the schedule where the team can just skip his turn in the rotation.

Instead, I thought I might shift a bit of the spotlight closer to home, specifically Dutchess Stadium, home of the 2007 New York-Penn League All-Star game. The Yankees will be represented by two players from the Staten Island team; Justin Snyder (or, as the official Minor League Baseball site likes to call him, Justin, Snyder) and Zach McAllister.

Snyder was drafted out of the University of San Diego in the 21st round of this year's draft, a very low pick for someone Baseball America ranked as one of the top 200 prospects in the draft. I haven't heard a reason for why he fell so far, and he certainly hasn't played like a 664th pick. In fact, he's probably the NYPL MVP, hitting .385/.488/.569 (that's AVG/OBP/SLG). Those first two numbers lead the league, and the third only trails Mahoning Valley's Todd Martin. All the more impressive is that he's maintained this performance while bouncing around from second to short to third to center field, as the Yankees seem intent on turning him into a sort of super utility player. Obviously you can't get too excited about a partial season in the low minors, but Snyder's the kind of smart, scrappy player that can be very useful to a team. Think Chuck Knoblauch before he started throwing balls into the stands.

Zach McAllister, the Yankees' third round pick in the '06 draft, is a righthanded pitcher with a low 90s fastball, a good slider and a developing changeup. Now, it may seem that the Yankee farm system is filled with guys who fill that description, but thats only because it is. Damon Oppenheimer, the man in charge of the Yankees' scouting, seems to be a firm believer in the idea that it takes three pitching prospects to make one major leaguer. What makes McAllister stand out is his youth (he's only 19), and the fact that he shows remarkable command of his breaking ball and good feel for the changeup for someone so young.

Anyway, I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to make it to the game, but if you do, keep an eye on these guys and let me know what you think.

Wednesday, August 8, 2007

756

Barry Bonds is the new home run king. The Journal has some local reactions, which are understandably mixed. I'm surprisingly apathetic about it, which I suppose is a testament to how badly both Barry Bonds and Bud Selig have handled this whole thing. All I really want to say about it is that I'm rooting for A-Rod to be crowned the new home run king while wearing pinstripes.

Lets just skip the introductions, shall we?

Its a big night for debuts, as I write my first post following Joba Chamberlain's first game as a New York Yankee. It seems somewhat appropriate, considering that we both have unusual four letter names.

Anyway, Joba the Hutt had a fine couple of innings, striking out two while giving up a hit and two walks. His fastball was as advertised, sitting comfortably at 96mph, and touching 98, but the real eye opener was an absolutely filthy slider. The one problem seemed to be in hitting the left side of the strike zone, which is where those two walks came from. Given his sterling minor league track record (just 27 walks in 88.1 innings this year), I think we can chalk it up to nerves.

Of course, the big story of the game was Josh Towers' plunking A-Rod in the third, which led to the benches being cleared twice, Roger Clemens retaliating by hitting Alexis Rios in the seventh, and the subsequent ejections of Clemens and Joe Torre. Looking at the replay, I really don't think that Towers meant to hit him, but after being hit yesterday, I can understand why A-Rod might've thought so. What I can't understand is why after the initial bench clearing, after everyone was set to get back to the game, Towers couldn't keep his big mouth shut. Not that it really mattered, as Clemens was going to retaliate no matter what. This is, after all, a guy who once threw at his own son at an exhibition game.

Tomorrow brings us a showdown of aces between Doc Holliday and the Taiwan Kid. Should be a good one, folks.