Minor League Monday 4/28/08

I somehow managed to miss Minor League Monday last week, so these awards will cover two weeks.

Pitcher of the Fortnight - Daniel McCutchen, RHP, Trenton Thunder (Double A):

When a pitcher faces a team two times in a row, he often finds himself at a disadvantage, since hitters have a better idea of what to expect. On Friday, however, the New Britain Rock Cats had no idea what to expect, as McCutchen struck out twelve of them over seven one-hit innings in Trenton just five days after he held them to two runs over seven innings in New Britain. As I've mentioned many times before, the Yankee farm system is packed with righthanded pitching prospects, so it can be hard for someone like McCutchen to stand out since he doesn't have the kind of high ceiling of a Dellin Betances or Andrew Brackman. However, McCutchen's polish and excellent curveball could make him a very useful Jon Lieber kind of fifth starter.

Hitter of the Fortnight - Matt Carson, OF, Trenton Thunder (Double A):

The current owner of a 15 game hitting streak, Carson has been absolutely pounding the ball in a stadium that's very pitcher friendly. Over the past two weeks he's hit .407/.458/.833, including four home runs. Still, as good as he's been, it'd be a stretch to call him a prospect. Carson is 26 years old, and it's only after a 186 mediocre games at Double A over the past few years that he's managed to find this success.

A few other notes:

• Darrell Rasner is making a strong argument for taking Ian Kennedy's place in the rotation. In five starts, Rasner has walked more than one batter only once, on April 16th, and has yet to allow more than one earned run in a game.



• Austin Romine, who has been alternating with Jesus Montero between catcher and DH in Charleston, had just started to get into a groove when he strained his groin last week. There's no word on the severity or how long it'll be till he comes back. It's turning out to be a really bad spring for Yankee catchers.

Posada heading to the DL

Usually watching Chien-Ming Wang dominate opposing hitters makes for a great day. However, as I watched today's game, my usual enjoyment was soured by a sense of impending doom. Minutes before the game, Jorge Posada was scratched from the lineup with no explanation, and the Yankees provided no information as the game wore on. Finally, the New York Times reported that Posada had suffered a muscle tear in his subscapularis muscle. It's uncertain whether he'll need surgery or how long he might be out, but he's already been put on the DL for the first time in his 13 year career.

Anyway, I'm sure some of you are wondering which of the shoulder's many muscles is the subscapularis. The shoulder's a bit too complicated for me to try and make a diagram, but there is an easy exercise you can do. First, raise your right arm with your elbow at a ninety degree angle, like you're taking an oath. Then, stand in a doorway so that your palm and forearm are pushing against the wall. As you lean forward, you'll feel your subscapularis stretch in your chest and shoulder. Now imagine trying to throw a baseball without full use of that muscle, and you'll understand the predicament Jorge Posada finds himself in.

Wang's Velocity

If you're watching tonight's game on YES, you might be wondering why Chien-Ming Wang's fastball has only been hitting the high 80's in the first inning. I can't be completely certain, but I think YES's radar gun is broken, because that sinker looks as lively as ever, and MLB.com's gun has him sitting in the 95-97mph range. I think the guys over at YES must've figured that out too, because they've stopped showing the readings.

As for those of you keeping track of the game on MLB.com's Gameday application, you might be wondering when Wang started throwing a cutter. The answer is that he hasn't, it's just that the pitch tracking software is misidentifying his slider.

Haranguin' Hank

I'm starting to find myself cringing every time Hank Steinbrenner opens his mouth. At this point, I'm sure you've all read about the comments he made to the New York Times on Sunday about moving Joba Chamberlain into the rotation immediately. Of course the media was all over him and Brian Cashman, and he's since backed off, saying that he's onboard with the plan to keep Chamberlain in the bullpen until later in the season. However it's his comment about Mike Mussina, which has been largely overlooked, that really made me shake my head:

"[Mussina] just needs to learn how to pitch like Jamie Moyer"

Now, I'm guessing that Steinbrenner picked Moyer to be Moose's new role model because he's an aging pitcher who has been somewhat succesful even though his fastball doesn't hit 90mph. The problem with this is that the reason that Moyer has been able to remain effective is that he's left-handed. Lefties have always been able to get by with less velocity than their righthanded colleagues. Now either Steinbrenner doesn't understand this fairly basic baseball fact, or he thinks Mussina should start throwing with his left hand. Either way, it's the kind of idiot suggestion you usually hear from the drunk sitting three rows in front of you, not the co-chairman of a Major League Baseball team.

Minor League Monday 4/14/08

The weekend did not go well for the Yankees, but it's Monday and that means talk of conjuctivitis and hamstrings can wait. Today we look to the future:

Hitter of the Week - Jesus Montero, C/DH, Charleston Riverdogs (Single A):

Montero showed why he's one of the Yankees' best prospects this week, getting a hit in all seven games last week, including four doubles and two home runs, resulting in a robust .375/.394/.688 (AVG/OBP/SLG) line. That performance becomes even more impressive when you put it in context, as he's the second youngest player in a league and park that's not so friendly to hitters.

Of course the big question about Montero is whether he has the defensive ability to remain a catcher, where his fantastic bat has the most value. Most scouts don't think he has the agility to compensate for his already large size (6'4", 225lbs), but the Yankees are giving him the opportunity to prove them wrong by alternating him with Austin Romine between the catcher and DH spots. It's a great move on the team's part, as it gives two catching prospects who are raw defensively the chance to hone their game while limiting the injury problems that come with moving to a full-time professional workload for the first time. For Montero, the results have been mixed so far, as he's thrown out a healthy three of nine basestealers, but allowed an unhealthy three passed balls in just seven games behind the plate.

Of course, without being able to see him in person, it's impossible for me to get a real read on what his future is like defensively, but even as a first baseman or DH, his offensive future seems bright.

Pitcher of the Week: Eric Hacker, RHP, Tampa Yankees (Single A Advanced):

For the second time in as many weeks, a Yankee pitcher came close to perfection only to be denied thanks to his pitch count. Hacker, who missed the 2006 season with shoulder injuries, pitched seven perfect innings against the Dunedin Blue Jays on Tuesday before being pulled. He then proceeded to retire the first seven batters he faced on Sunday, giving him a total of 9.1 perfect innings. All told, he threw a total of fourteen scoreless innings this week, striking out ten, walking one and allowing only two hits. It's extremely hard for a 25 year-old righthander in Single A who doesn't have electric stuff to stand out in a farm system that's packed with young pitching, but Hacker certainly did so this week.

As always, here's a few more items of interest:

• Last week I mentioned that Double A infielder Kevin Russo had left the team after doctors found some abnormalities in his blood work. I'm glad to report that further testing revealed no problems, and he celebrated his return to the Thunder by hitting a home run in his first game back.


• Shelley Duncan has been taking whatever frustration he might have about his demotion out on the pitchers of the International League. He hit a home run in each of his first three games with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, and in five games has posted a ridiculous .500/.560/1.136 line. While still at the mercy of injuries and roster mechanics, Duncan is making a strong case to be called back up as soon as possible.

Almost Perfect

Yesterday I questioned whether the Yankee offense would be able to produce against the Red Sox pitching. The answer, it seems, was only in the most frustrating way possible. The team managed ten hits and four walks, which was very nice, but stranded a whopping nine baserunners. Thankfully, the four runs they did manage to score were enough, and I think it's only a matter of time before they start stringing these hits together.

Of course the big story last night wasn't the Yankees stranded on the basepaths, but the one standing on the mound. Chien-Ming Wang came within a hair's breadth of a perfect game last night, and in a very different way from the previous time he came close to a perfect game last May. Instead of sinker after unhittable sinker, Wang increasingly mixed in sliders, four seam fastballs, and splitters. It was these pitches that Wang was working on with Dave Eiland in spring training, and that work seems to have taken his game to a new level. Considering the level he was at before, that's pretty impressive. The true test, however, will come on a day when his sinker isn't working for him. If he's truly improved his secondary pitches to the point where he can still win without the sinker, we could see a Cy Young type of season.

Stay Calm

You can shuffle lineups, review tape and tinker with swings all you want, but nothing jump starts an offense like bad pitching. After being held to just two runs over the first two games of the series, the Yankees were able to knock in six runs off of journeyman John Bale and the long past his prime Hideo Nomo. Unfortunately, the Red Sox are going to be sending far better pitchers to the mound this weekend, and it remains to be seen whether the Yankee offense is ready to face them.

Of course no matter how the weekend goes, we should all remember that it's still far too early in the season to be panicking, In fact, I think we should be pretty happy with the fact that the team remains at .500 despite it's troubles at the plate. This lineup has too much talent to remain cold for long, and as long as the pitching remains solid, the rest will fall into place.

Hijinks

It's been a very strange couple of days for the Yankees, and even stranger ones for Yankee fans as the team made some very confusing moves in response to injuries and the weather. Let's see if we can straighten this out.

First, Derek Jeter is out till Friday at the earliest, but will almost certainly stay off the DL. Also avoiding the DL is Jorge Posada, as an MRI revealed no structural damage in his shoulder. What's unclear, however, is how long it'll be until he can actually play. That's all pretty straightforward. What's bizarre is what the Yankees did next.

With Posada and Jeter unavailable, it was obvious that some kind of move needed to be made to get some help. They elected to call up Alberto Gonzalez to start at shortstop tonight, which is not the move that I would make. Wilson Betemit may have looked shaky in yesterday's game, but I think the greater need is for a catcher to back up Jose Molina. Right now, if Molina were to get injured in a game, he would be replaced by Morgan Ensberg, who, as far as I can tell, hasn't played the position in this millenium. However, that's just a questionable move. The bizarre move came when it was time to make room for Gonzalez on the roster.

First, Joe Girardi told reporters that Ensberg had injured his ankle and implied that he was headign to the DL. This, apparently, was news to Ensberg, who told Tyler Kepner of the Times that he was fine. Finally, after tonight's batting practice was over, the team revealed that Shelley Duncan had been sent down to Triple A.

So that's all there is for the injuries, but the wackiness didn't end there. About fifteen minutes before gametime, the Yankees stopped Ian Kennedy from warming up and announced that he had been scratched from his start, without providing any reason. Thankfully, it turns out that there was no injury. What happened was that Joe Girardi, perhaps because of the advice of team meteorologist Al Roker (no, seriously, he really is on staff), felt that the game would be postponed or delayed due to rain and didn't want to waste a start by Kennedy. It probably would've been a good decision, except that tonight's umpires are apparently a little crazy, as we're now in the sixth inning, even though it's been pouring all night and the field is an absolute mess. Meanwhile, Kennedy has finally taken the mound after Brian Bruney, Billy Traber and Kyle Farnsworth combined for four good innings, and one not so good one from Farnsworth.

Minor League Monday 4/7/08

Pitcher of the Week - Kei Igawa, LHP, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees (Triple A):

There were some fine pitching performances this week in Scranton, but only one of them could be described as perfect. The much maligned Kei Igawa did not allow a single member of the Lehigh Valley Ironpigs to reach base in the first six innings of the Yankees' opening game. Unfortunately, Igawa was on a strict pitch count, and the Scranton coaching staff decided to pull him after the sixth rather than allow him to chase perfection. Still, six innings of perfect baseball is impressive, and is probably enough to push him to the top of the list of potential replacements should something happen one of the major league starters. Even more impressively, it may be enough to keep me from cringing if that happens.

Hitter of the Week - Brett Gardner, CF, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees (Triple A):

I'll be the first to admit that these "awards" aren't always given to the week's best players. This week's best hitter, for example, was probably either Jason Lane or Brad Suttle. However, since I'm forced to write about whoever gets the award, I'm inclined to give it to the best story, and this week that's Brett Gardner. I wrote about Gardner back in my first Minor League Monday when he hit his first home run in two years. Thankfully it's taken a lot less time for him to hit another, as he went deep off of the Ironpigs' Brian Mazone in Saturday's win. Even more surprising was that this home run didn't sneak over the wall, but instead soared over the "371 feet" sign in right center by a healthy margin. Whether this is a sign that Gardner is adding the one missing element to his game remains to be seen, but you can rest assured that if he is it's not at the expense of his formidable speed. Gardner remains so fast that, even though he was in his home run trot, he nearly made it to third base before the ball landed.

A few extra notes:

• Those of you who check the box scores might have been worried by Mark Melancon's appearance for the Tampa Yankees on Thursday, which said that he left the game without facing the batter. If so, then you can put your mind at ease, as it had nothing to do with the oft-injured Melancon's health. It turns out that when he took the mound someone noticed that his name had been accidentally left off the lineup card by manager Luis Sojo, making him ineligible to pitch. Since then, Melancon has pitched 3.2 mediocre, but completely healthy, innings.
  
  
• Those of you who like to worry should feel free to do so for Trenton Thunder infielder Kevin Russo, who left the team and headed back to Tampa after doctors found abnormalities in his blood work. Here's hoping that it's nothing more than a little scare for the 23 year-old.

Tidbits

In one of the stranger stories I've heard lately, a hawk that has been nesting in Fenway Park for the past few years attacked a 13 year-old girl named, I kid you not, Alexa Rodriguez. Fortunately she's fine, only suffering a few minor scrapes, so I feel no guilt in finding the story so amusing.

In more hopeful portents of things to come, Peter Abraham of the Journal News took a peek inside Joe Girardi's office and noticed that, among other things, the new skipper has a copy of the Baseball Prospectus 2008 annual on his bookshelf. For those who don't know, Baseball Prospectus is a collection of some of the best baseball writing out there, and they're especially well known for their statistical analysis. It's good stuff, but for some reason there are a lot of people in baseball who absolutely hate it, and I'm glad to hear that Girardi isn't one of them.

Finally, I've added a new blog to the list on the right. As the Yankees continue to turn to players young enough to have grown up with the internet, it was inevitable that one would start a blog. That one is Phil Hughes, who has been blogging for a few months now. It's definitely a must read.

Opening Day Live Blog 2.0

It seems to be a pretty nice spring evening in the Bronx, so we should finally have some baseball this evening. The lineups remain the same as they were yesterday:

Yankees
1. Johnny Damon - LF
2. Derek Jeter - SS
3. Bobby Abreu - RF
4. Alex Rodriguez - 3B
5. Jason Giambi - 1B
6. Robinson Cano - 2B
7. Jorge Posada - C
8. Hideki Matsui - DH
9. Melky Cabrera - CF
Pitcher: Chien-Ming Wang

Blue Jays
1. David Eckstein - SS
2. Shannon Stewart - LF
3. Alexis Rios - RF
4. Vernon Wells - CF
5. Frank Thomas - DH
6. Lyle Overbay - 1B
7. Aaron Hill - 2B
8. Marco Scutaro - 3B
9. Greg Zaun - C
Pitcher: Roy Halladay

Update 7:00PM: I wonder if the rainout meant that the pregame performances were changed, because it just doesn't seem right for "Oh Canada" to be played without a singer. Though I suppose it's better than that badly mangled version of "The Star Spangled Banner."

Update 7:15PM: By my count Chien-Ming Wang threw 14 pitches in the first inning and 13 of them were sinkers. Simple, but effective, as only Alexis Rios managed to get a solid hit.

Update 7:25PM: It looks like Halladay had the same idea as Wang, throwing 11 sinkers in his first 13 pitches. Unfortunately for him, A-Rod seemed ready for it, as he knocked that 13th pitch for a double and the season's first RBI.

Update 7:32PM: Of course the danger in using the sinker to induce grounders is that sometimes the ball finds the home. Alexis Rios remains the only Blue Jay to put solid wood on the ball, and yet Toronto has four hits and a run.

Update 7:43PM: One of the big improvements Robinson Cano made last season was becoming more selective at the plate, but he jumped on the first pitch he saw so quickly that YES barely managed to get the camera on it. Can't argue with the result, though.

Update 7:52PM: Now that he's making his way through the Jays' order for a second time, Wang's decided to bust out the slider. It works on David Eckstein, who swings right past it for the first strikeout of the night, but not so much on Alexis Rios. Rios seems to be able to see the slider coming, and lets them go by in order to work the first walk of the night.

Update 8:04PM: It's nice to see that Melky Cabrera hasn't fallen asleep waiting for a ball to be hit to the outfield, as he makes a nice play on Lyle Overbay's long fly ball, and a great one to rob Aaron Hill of an extra base hit. After being victimized by cheap hits in the first few innings, Wang's got to appreciate the fine work by his center fielder.

Update 8:10PM: Good lord this game is going by fast. I barely finished typing that last update before the Yankees' half of the inning ended. Wang and Halladay are both pitching extremely efficiently.

Update 8:14PM: Marco Scutaro certainly seems to have Wang's number on the basepaths. He's now stolen two bases with great jumps.

Update 8:32PM: Wang finally cracks, such as it is, as a leadoff walk makes its way home on a weak groundball. Meanwhile, Halladay is cruising. At least Jorge Posada made him work a little bit before striking out.

Update 8:37PM: Can anyone explain the commercial YES just showed for Fox Business' Happy Hour show? Am I supposed to be taking financial advice from drunk people?

Update 8:42PM: God bless that short porch. Melky's home run may have barely cleared the fence, but it counts just the same.

Update 8:51PM: As nice as it is to see Giambi make a nice play at first, snatching a hard line drive out of the air, it does make me worry that he'll end up playing there regularly. With his injury history, that's just asking for a trip to the DL.

Update 9:03PM: Apparently it's Jason Giambi Fundamentals night, as the big G keeps himself out of a double play with some smooth baserunning, keeping out of reach as Aaron Hill tries to tag him out.

Update 9:08PM: Giambi's baserunning pays off, as Hideki Matsui's ground out results in the go-ahead run rather than the end of the inning.

Update 9:11PM: That's it for Wang, as Joba Chamberlain takes the field. No midges in sight so far.

Update 9:23PM: Chamberlain wasn't quite as sharp as he was last season, but that's a pretty high bar. Even with a slightly slower fastball and a little less control, he still gets the Joba done (sorry, couldn't resist).

Update 9:30PM: I'd absolutely love it if Johnny Damon tried to steal home right now. With a lefty on the mound and the shift pulling the third baseman off the bag, it's certainly the perfect time.

Update 9:32PM: So much for that hope. Jason Giambi grounds out and Scott Downs escapes the inning unscathed after giving up a leadoff triple.

Update 9:40PM: On comes Mo, and out go the Blue Jays in order. I don't think you could ask for a better game to start the season.