Links

On Monday I promised to share any further information I could dig up on Alfredo Aceves, the righthanded pitcher who has been so successful for the Tampa Yankees and Trenton Thunder. Well, Mike Ashmore of the Hunterdon County Democrat sat down with Aceves for a short chat which you can read over at his blog. It's a short interview, as Aceves' English isn't great, but it does provide some insight into where he came from and why he didn't pitch in the US until he was 25.

As long as I'm linking to other blogs, now is as good a time as any to point out that I've added a small list of non-Yankee baseball blogs on the right. The first is Warning Track Power, written by fellow Poughkeepsie Journal blogger Matt B. If you're interested in keeping up with the Mets, or with Willie Randolph (one of my favorite Yankees as a child), I reccomend you check it out.

If, on the other hand, you're interested in an experience that's almost the polar opposite of being a Yankee fan, I suggest reading Rany on the Royals. Baseball Prospectus writer and dermatologist Rany Jazayerli is always entertaining as he shares the "painful, humiliating, soul-sucking" experience of rooting for the Royals.

Finally, for a look into the inner workings of a Major League front office, head over to It Might Be Dangerous... You Go First. Paul DePodesta, former General Manager of the Dodgers and current Special Assistant for Baseball Operations for the Padres, doesn't give up any secrets on his blog, but he does provide a fascinating look at how decisions get made in baseball. It's an especially interesting time to be reading as DePodesta and the Padres ready themselves for the draft next week.

The Silver Lining

I hate to say I told you so, but after his strong start against the Orioles last week, I wrote that Ian Kennedy couldn't repeat that success if he continued to rely heavily on his fastball and didn't throw more breaking balls for strikes. On Thursday, Kennedy started the game by throwing thirteen fastballs and just four breaking balls to the first five batters, and none of those breaking balls were in the strike zone. There's one event in baseball where a hitter doesn't have to worry about breaking balls and can wait for a 90mph fastball to hit. It's called the home run derby, and the Orioles proceeded to hold their own as Kevin Millar and Ramon Hernandez knocked back to back homers to give Baltimore a three run lead.

Thankfully, those two home runs seemed to help Kennedy realize that, as he proceeded to throw fifteen breaking balls in his next thirty-one pitches, seven of which seemed to be in the strike zone. By keeping the hitters off balance, he proceeded to cruise through the rest of the second inning, as well as the third, with the only damage coming thanks to errors and passed balls.

Of course in keeping with this season's theme, Kennedy followed this success with an injury, but at least he's given us reason to be optimistic about his return.

Minor League Monday 5/26/08

For some reason, my Minor League Monday post from last week seems to never have been posted. Rather than waste some perfectly good writing, I'm going to present the players of the each past two weeks this time around.

Hitter of the Week 5/12-5/18 - Juan Miranda, 1B, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees (Triple A):

A Cuban defector, Miranda didn't make his American debut until last season, when he was already 24 years old. He's quickly made up for the lost time, however, climbing the organizational ladder to Triple A in just one season, where he's had encouraging early success. A classic slugger, Miranda has a patient approach at the plate, waiting for a pitch upon which he can unleash his light tower power. He returned to the Scranton Yankees on the 12th after losing a couple of weeks to a shoulder injury and promptly hit a home run and drew a walk. Overall he hit .294/.478/.706 on the week with two home runs and six walks.

Unfortunately, once that week was up he proceeded to head back to the disabled list, having reaggravated his shoulder injury. If he can come back from the injury and remain healthy, Miranda should be in line to replace Jason Giambi next year. However, Miranda has huge problems against lefties putting up a .393 OPS versus a 1.013 OPS against righties, so if he did take Giambi's place he would almost certainly need a platoon partner.

Pitcher of the Week 5/12-5/18 - Dellin Betances, RHP, Charleston Riverdogs (Single A):

There might not be a more exciting pitcher in the Yankees' system than Betances. Standing 6'8" and throwing in the mid to upper 90s, his stuff and potential is undeniable. In fact, I think that even at this early stage in his development, major leaguers would have a hard time getting hits off of him. The problem is that those major leaguers probably wouldn't bother swinging, since Betances often doesn't know where the ball is going when it leaves his hand. His May 16th start is a good example of this, as he no-hit the Asheville Tourists for six innings, but gave up a run thanks to a wild pitch. At 20 years old, he's still got time to learn command, and if he does, he'll be a real force to reckon with.

Hitter of the Week 5/19-5/25 - Austin Jackson, CF, Trenton Thunder (Double A):

The year's first repeat MLM, Action Jackson had a very strong week highlighted by a seven RBI game on Wednesday in Reading. There's very little I can add to that, as the numbers speak for themselves. In six games last week he hit .333/.467/.750 with two home runs, a triple, two doubles, six walks, and a stolen base to boot. In other words, he hit for average and power, showed patience at the plate, and speed on the basepaths. Add to that good range in center field and a solid arm, and you've pretty much got the whole package. Obviously he has to show that he can perform over the course of a full season, and do the same in Triple A, but don't be surprised if he's fighting for a starting job with the Yankees come spring training.


Hitter of the Week 5/19-5/25 - Alfredo Aceves, RHP, Trenton Thunder (Double A):

Some of you may be asking "Who is Alfredo Aceves?", and you're not alone. It's a question I asked myself several times after seeing him put up strong starts for the Tampa Yankees. Unfortunately, the information I've been able to gather is pretty thin. Aceves is 25 years old and in his first minor league season, having been signed by the Yankees out of the Mexican League last year. He throws a four seam fastball, cutter, curve and changeup. Oh, and he's the first pitcher to throw a complete game shutout in the Eastern League this season, as he shut down Altoona last night. This performance comes after he held Reading scoreless for seven innings in his Double-A debut on Tuesday. That makes for 16 innings, no runs, 13 strikeouts, 5 hits, 1 walk, and a little bit of a mystery. I'll be sure to share any further information about where this guy came from and how he's been so successful as soon as I can uncover it.

Most Valuable Facial Hair

Over the past week we have finally seen the Yankees become the team they were supposed to be this season; a team whose inconsistent pitching would be bailed out by a punishing offense. After weeks of offensive struggles, the team averaged just over 7 runs a game, while going 5-1. A lot of credit for this turnaround has been given to Alex Rodriguez, and deservedly so. Since returning to the team on Tuesday, A-Rod has scored a run and gotten a hit in all but one game, and his presence as the only big power threat from the right side seems to have boosted the lineup as a whole.

However, I'm surprised by the lack of attention being paid to the team's newest member, as he's been just as hot as A-Rod. I'll admit, I was surprised to see Fridriech Nietzsch playing first base, but I guess he really is an Ubermensch.

In all seriousness, though, Jason Giambi's moustache has done a heck of a job, hitting .526/.625/.947 on the week, and with any luck it'll continue to follow in Don Mattingly's moustache's footsteps.

The cloud in the silver lining

Regular readers of this blog know that I'm generally an upbeat person, often trying to find hopeful signs in even the worst losses. So, you might expect that I'd have found Ian Kennedy's performance last night to be cause for celebration. After all, it was Kennedy's best start by far this season, and one of only two which didn't result in a Yankee loss. Surprisingly, however, what I saw last night didn't seem like good pitching from Ian Kennedy, but bad hitting from the Baltimore Orioles.

Kennedy started the game by throwing twelve straight fastballs to retire the first three batters, and continued to rely heavily on that pitch for the rest of the game, throwing it around 80% of the time. This was fine last night, as the Orioles weren't able to hit that fastball particularly well, but it's not a strategy that I think will work for him very often. Kennedy simply doesn't have the kind of overpowering fastball that you need to be able to pull that off, and he needs to use his other pitches to keep hitters off balance. Unfortunately, none of those other pitches seemed to be working for him last night, and therein lies the problem. Of the few off speed pitches that he threw, less than half were strikes. Unless Kennedy can improve upon that, I think we're going to see hitters simply ignore his off speed pitches and wait for a fastball they can hit hard, much as they've done before.

What a difference a day makes

On Tuesday night the Yankees played about as badly as a team possibly can. First, their defense let them down, with Derek Jeter and Johnny Damon commiting costly errors. Then their pitching collapsed, as Mike Mussina was unable to recover after Jeter's error and failed to make it out of the first inning. Finally, their offense was completely stymied by Daniel Cabrera and Lance Cormier, who only allowed seven Yankees to reach base in the game.

Twenty four hours later, they looked like a completely different team. Every starter managed to reach base at least once, and only two (Melky Cabrera and Bobby Abreu) failed to either score or knock in a run. Meanwhile, Darrell Rasner absolutely sparkled, holding the Orioles to just five hits, one walk, and no runs while striking out six over seven innings.

The only constant over the two games was Alex Rodriguez, back from injury in style, as he knocked three long home runs into nearly the same spot in right center field (though one was erroneously ruled a double). The past couple of days have shown that the Yankees aren't as bad as they've shown so far, but they're also not as good as they ought to be. If anyone can elevate them to that level, though, it's A-Rod.

Saturday Afternoon Pics

Friday was my birthday, and I celebrated by heading down to the stadium for Saturday afternoon's game against the Mets. Unfortunately, no one told the Yankees as they suffered a pretty sloppy loss to the Mets. The goat of the game was obviously Kyle Farnsworth, who came in with the Yankees down by just one run and proceeded to allow two homers and a walk to the first three batters he faced, putting the game well out of reach.

What was almost even more disheartening, however, was watching Derek Jeter make a very rare mental error on the basepaths. In the bottom of the sixth Jeter got a clean hit into center field which he inexplicably tried to stretch into a double. It didn't work out.


As you can see, Jeter wasn't anywhere close to making it to second, and I have no idea what could have made him think that he should try.

On the bright side, Andy Pettitte did a good job dominating the Mets in the first three innings and recovering nicely after putting the first four batters on in the fourth inning.


In off the field matters, the Yankees have been conducting a little ceremony after the fifth inning of each game to count down the final games at Yankee Stadium.

Considering all the nostalgia and schmaltz that's going into the Yankee Stadium farewell hoopla, I think it's pretty weird that they would choose to set the background music for this particular ceremony as Europe's "The Final Countdown". So much for dignity.

Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc

"Post hoc ergo propter hoc," is a Latin phrase that translates to "after this, therefore because of this". It's a logical fallacy where a person assumes that one event causes another just because it happened in that order, and they're often wrong. For example, if you stepped on a fissure in the sidewalk and then your mother had a spinal injury, you might believe that "step on a crack, break your mother's back". It's lazy thinking, and I hope Hank Steinbrenner is smart enough to avoid it. The fact that the Yankees won on the night after he ranted about them having to play "smarter and harder" doesn't mean that he's the reason they won. Just as Mike Mussina didn't start pitching lefthanded, Mariano Rivera didn't suddenly realize he hadn't been trying the night before, and Robinson Cano didn't think his way into four hits.

All that happened last night was the same thing that happened the night before. The Yankee hitters stranded lots of men on base, and the Yankee pitchers did the same. The only difference was that this time the hitters managed to plate one extra run. In the great scheme of things, that's not a lot, and anyone who thinks that last night was evidence of real improvement is fooling themselves.

Minor League Monday 5/12/08

It's deja vu all over again, as this week's Minor League Monday honors the same two players I honored last September.

Pitcher of the Week - Ryan Pope, RHP, Tampa Yankees (Single A Advanced):

There was a lot of competition for this award this week, as pitchers on every one of the Yankees' farm teams threw scoreless starts. Pope, however, gets the nod thanks to his excellent command, as he struck out six over six innings without allowing a walk, and because he's an intriguing prospect. Last year, Pope managed to continue pitching well despite the jump from the relatively weak competition in the NAIA to the much stronger New York-Penn League. Now he's skipped a level again, and still hasn't had any problems. With a fastball that tops out around 93mph, he's not overpowering, but his strong command of it and his plus curveball and changeup makes him a good candidate to be a back of the rotation starter in a couple of years.

Hitter of the Week - Austin Jackson, CF, Trenton Thunder (Double A):

After his breakout season last year, Jackson came into with high expectations, so it's easy to be disappointed by the .268/.358/.349 line he put up in April. However, like all stats, those numbers are useless without context; specifically the facts that Jackson is young for the league, and he plays half his games at Mercer County Waterfront Park, which is a notoriously bad place to hit. Last week, with a month of Double A experience under his belt, Jackson took advantage of a road trip to show us what he's capable of. In six games he hit .348/.444/.522, with two doubles and a triple. Granted, he still has yet to hit a home run, but this improvement makes me think that it's just a matter of time.

Comebacks

Yesterday afternoon I made my way down to the stadium for the first time this season and was rewarded with a win that was filled with great signs from players who have been struggling. The first came from Robinson Cano, who entered the game as arguably the worst hitting regular in the American League. In retrospect, it's pretty obvious that his performance wasn't going to remain so terrible. Beyond the fact that he's just too talented a player for that to happen, his .165 BABIP is just too low to be anything but horrible luck. It's one thing, however, to know that he'll turn it around and another thing altogether to see it happen. He had two hard hits with the double and the home run, and the flyout he made in the third inning was hammered as well. He's now hitting .273/.304/.591 in May, and I think we can declare this slump officially over.

Also making a comeback is Wilson Betemit who hit a solo home run right after Cano's. He's now got two hits in as many games since coming back from the DL, and has looked solid at third base. It's a far cry from how he performed while struggling with corneal ulcers in April, and proof that sight is a valuable tool for a baseball player. Just in case anyone was wondering.

Then there were the rebound performances of Joba Chamberlain and Ross Ohlendorf. On Tuesday, Chamberlain revealed that he's some kind of strike throwing cyborg sent from the future by blowing the lead and picking up the loss. Yesterday he showed that, while he is human, he's a resilient one, striking out the man who hit the big home run against him, David Delucci, as he retired the top of the Indians lineup in order. Ohlendorf, meanwhile, continued to show that the beatings he took in the last half of April really were the product of overwork. He threw two efficient, scoreless innings, and as long as he doesn't have to continually throw three or more innings at a time, I think he'll be very dependable.

Minor League Monday 5/5/08

I'm a little late with this week's Minor League Monday, but I decided to add a new award. I realized that relievers rarely play enough in aek to really merit recognition as the pitcher of the week, so I've added a Relief Pitcher of the Month award:

Relief Pitcher of the Month - Wilkins De La Rosa, LHP, Charleston Riverdogs (Single A):

It probably seems a little strange for me to be giving this to a guy who walked 11 batters in just 15.3 April innings but, as I've mentioned before, these awards aren't just for performance; they're for newsworthiness as well. De La Rosa has done a good job working around those walks, striking out an exceptional 26 and holding hitters to a .154 batting average, resulting in a very nice 1.15 ERA. What makes him stand out from the other dominating relievers in the Yankee organization, however, is that he does it by throwing a high 90's fastball with his left hand.

The Yankees have a lot of power pitchers in their system, and a few left handed ones, but very few that are both. There's no doubt De La Rosa is raw. A converted outfielder, this is only his second season on the mound and he's still learning how to throw the slider and changeup, but that electric fastball makes him a guy well worth keeping an eye on.

Hitter of the Week - Eric Duncan, 1B, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees (Triple-A):

Duncan's name might be familiar to many of you. A first round pick in 2003, he was hyped the way only a Yankee prospect can be, by being mentioned in possible trades for a future Hall of Famer. Even though the Yankees did end up landing Randy Johnson without him, the drive to raise his trade value pushed him up the minors and set him up for a series of disappointing seasons which have destroyed his status as a prospect in the minds of many. However, he's quietly been putting together a solid season in Scranton, and went 6 for 19 this week with a double and a home run to bring his season line up to .270/.382/.429 line thus far. It's possible that, at 23, Duncan has finally learned the lessons he missed when he was rushed up the minors.

Pitcher of the Week - Zachary McAllister, RHP, Charleston Riverdogs (Single A):

I've written about McAllister before, and most of what I wrote still applies. He's still a pitcher with unusually good command of four solid pitches; two and four seam fastballs, a slider and a changeup. This week that command brought him two wins and only one earned run in fifteen innings. Even more impressive is that he walked only one batter while striking out ten. For the season he's struck out 29 while walking just 5 in 39 innings, and has amassed a miniscule 0.92 ERA.

The Hits Keep Coming

I know I promised to do some nitpicking, but apparently my list of disasters that have befallen the Yankees was not complete. Barely an hour after I finished that post, it was revealed that Phil Hughes had suffered a stress fracture to his ninth right rib. It will be at least four weeks until he's even allowed to throw a baseball again, meaning he probably won't be back with the team until July. However, there's more to this story than just the time Hughes will miss.

First, this sheds new light on Hughes' performance this season. Stress fractures develop gradually, and it can take anywhere from two to four weeks before you can see them on an X-ray. This means that he could very well have been pitching with this injury since the season began. It's impossible to say whether or not it hurt his performance, but it certainly would make sense.

More important than how this injury affected his past, however, is how it affects his future. A stress fracture of the rib isn't a common injury among pitchers, and one on the ninth rib is even more unusual. As far as I know, no explanation has been provided as to what might have caused it, and that makes me worry. The most obvious explanation, after all, is that it was his pitching motion that placed so much stress on the rib. If that's the case, then what's to stop it from happening again once he returns to the mound?

I have no idea if the Yankees will ever answer those questions in public, but I hope that they're at least asking them in private.

April is the Cruelest Month

The first month of the baseball season is over and the Yankees find themselves in third place with a losing record. While this is certainly an improvement over last season, I don't think it's what any of us expected. Baseball, however, is all about the unexpected and a lot of what has gone wrong for the Yankees are things that no one could have seen coming, let alone do anything about:

• A schedule which started by playing twenty games straight without an off day.


• Miserably cold and/or rainy conditions in the first thirteen of those games.


• A Papal visit to Yankee Stadium which created a schedule where the team would play a Major League record 18 road games in April, with only two days at home between 8 and 10 day trips.


• Injuries which caused Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada and Alex Rodriguez, three of the most valuable and durable players in the game, to miss significant time.


• Injuries to the backups for Jeter and Posada, with Jose Molina only able to catch sporadically as he worked through a hamstring strain and Wilson Betemit unable to play at all thanks to corneal ulcers.


• The freakish coincidence of A-Rod going pulling his quad the night before his wife gave birth. This kept him from getting an MRI, something which might have kept him from aggravating the injury.


• Pneumonia which hospitalized Joba Chamberlain's father and caused the pitcher to leave the team in order to be with his family.


• A torn Lisfranc ligament in Brian Bruney's foot which may cause him to miss the rest of the season

Looking at that list, I have to say that it's something of a minor miracle that the team is only one game under .500. This isn't to say that the team shouldn't be doing better. While you can't really blame anyone for the above mishaps, you can question how Brian Cashman, Joe Girardi and the rest of the Yankees' staff have reacted to them, and I'll be doing that tomorrow.