Friday Night Lights In the Bronx

The Blue Jays are in town as part of their 11 day road trip.  They are coming off a strong series against the Texas Rangers where they took 3 of 4 games in Arlington.  The Yankees are ready for this three game divisional series after splitting the last 4 games with the White Sox.  The Yankees offense was non-existent the first two games against the Sox due to the White Sox pitchers throwing an obscene amount of breaking balls to keep the Yankees from hitting Home Runs. (Pretty smart strategy).  The Yanks were able to grab the next two games with explosive offensive production, especially during last nights game where they scored 12 runs.

The Yankees now lead the AL East by 1.5 games & have not lost a home series yet!

TONIGHT'S STARTERS

Ricky Romero: 1-3, 3.00 ERA vs. Freddy Garcia: 1-0, .69 ERA

Romero has lost his last three starts, but pitched extremely well in his last game against the Tampa Bay Rays.  Romero struck out 10 batters, and only allowed 5 hits.  The Jays gave Romero no run support and they lost 2-0.  The 2 runs allowed by Romero was from a Ben Zobrist home run.  (Zobrist is dangerous at the plate this year!)

Romero is 2-2 against the Yankees with a 5.70 ERA over his career

• Brett Gardner is hitting .444 off Romero.  Career stat.
• Swisher is hitting .308 off Romero.  Career stat.
• Cano is 2 for 16 against Romero.  Career stat.

Garcia has only started twice for the Yankees this season, but each performance was solid. In his first start against the Rangers, he pitched 6 scoreless innings.  He followed that up with an even more impressive second start against the Orioles, pitching 6 scoreless innings, but striking out 7 along the way.  Not bad for a veteran making a mere 1.5 mil this year!

UPDATED @ 4PM:  Francisco Cervelli is off the DL and back the with New York Yankees. Gustavo Molina has been optioned down to AAA.

Todays Lineup

Jeter SS
Swisher RF
Texeira 1B
Arod 3B
Cano 2B
Jones DH
Granderson CF
Martin C
Gardner LF

YANKEES NOTES

The Yankees have won 21 of the past 35 games against the Blue Jays in Yankee Stadium.

The Yankees pitching has been outstanding as of late.  Following CC Sabathia's performance last night, the Yankees starting pitchers have allowed only 1 earned run or less over the fast 5 games.  Each of those starters has pitched into the 7th inning allowing the overworked bullpen to rest a bit.  Their ERA over these past 5 games is .76.  UNBELIEVABLE!

During the 5th inning in last night's game against the White Sox, the 1st 9 Yankees reached base without any outs.  This is the first time since 2002 this has happened.

Cano is on quite a hot streak.  Although he lost his hitting streak, he still has hit in 19 of the 22 games played this season.  He has also hit safely in the past 16 of 17 games. 

The last save that Soriano has received was against the Blue Jays during that two game set in Toronto last week.

Swisher is batting .458 when hitting right handed this season.

Granderson is batting .318 against lefties this season.

BLUE JAYS NOTES

The Blue Jays are 6-8 on the road this season, after taking 3 of 4 from Texas.

Jose Bautista is ON FIRE!  Bautista has reached based safely in 21 of 22 games played this season.  He is now batting .360 which leads the AL.  Bautista also leads the league with 8 home runs.

Adam Lind was hot during the Jays previous series against the Rangers going 8-17 in those four games with 3 home runs.

Juan Rivera is on a 7 game hitting streak.


SIDE NOTES:  25 Years ago Today, Roger Clemens struck out 20 batters against the Seattle Mariners, becoming the first pitcher to ever strike out 20 batters.  Unfortunately, he was on the Red Sox at the time.

Andrew Brackman will face off against Jake Peavy tonight for the AAA Scranton Yankees.

Trying to Pitch His Way Into the Rotation

Right now the Yankees starting rotation is CC Sabathia, AJ Burnett, Bartolo Colon, Freddy Garcia and Ivan Nova.  In the last week they have been extremely successful.  I was not expecting Colon to last very long as a starting pitcher, but he has been a pleasant surprise since Hughes went on the DL.  Garcia has pitched well too, although only in a limited capacity since he has only pitched 2 starts.  Ivan Novo has struggled but continues to show potential and his last start was great.  Unfortunately though, the season won't work out as perfect as the first month and at some point one of these starters will falter.  Since Hughes is out of the picture right now, the Yankees have already started to use their backups.  So it's time to look at a possible mid-season call-ups

Adam Warren has been the most successful starting pitcher for the AAA Scranton Yankees.  Although he has only started 4 games this season, he has posted a 3.75 ERA over 24 innings, allowing 22 hits and striking out 13 batters. 

Warren's last start was this past Tuesday and he went 5.1 innings allowing 7 hits and 5 Earned Runs.  Although he did allow 5 runs, he had a very strong start to the game.  Over the first 4 innings of the game, Warren only allowed 3 hits and no runs.  He had a terrific first inning putting the side down 1-2-3 in 9 pitches.  7 of those 9 pitches were strikes too.  Warren got himself in a small jam in the 5th inning allowing 2 singles.  He was one pitch away from getting himself out of the inning, when he threw a fastball in the zone allowing a 3 run home run.  This home run basically ruined Warren's line for the day, but if it was not for the home run, it could have been a very successful start.

Warren's last start was similar to his second start of the season.  In the second start he allowed only 1 run over the first 5 innings, but got himself in a jam in the 6th inning.  He allowed two batters on base then hung a curveball which allowed the 2 runners to score.  Warren said after the game it was just a bad pitch.  He finished the day going 6 innings allowing 3 runs on 5 hits.  Again, it was only one inning he got himself into a jam after a strong start.


Warren's third start was extremely successful and is the reason I believe he is the 'star' of the Scranton Yankees.  He went 8 shutout innings allowing only 5 hits.  He struck out 3 batters in the process.  Warren is stretched out and throwing roughly 100 pitches a game now.  Warren throws a fastball in the mid 90's, a cutter in the low 90's a two seam fastball in the low 90's and a changeup in the low 80's.  He has quite an arsenal!  He also throws a curveball, but it is his weakest pitch.  If he continues pitching like this, I would bet the Yankees call him up for a spot start or two throughout the season.  Keep an eye on Warren.

That being said, I'm sure that Cashman is trying to work out a trade for another proven starting pitcher.

UPDATED MONDAY MAY 3

Adam Warren pitched this past weekend against the Braves minor league team and had another succesful outing.  Warren pitched 4 scoreless innings before getting himself in a little trouble.  He allowed two home runs in the 5th and 6th innings, but managed to limit the damage to only three runs.  He finished the day going 6 innings allowing only 3 hits and 3 runs.

The Red Hot Alex Rodriguez



That Arod is so hot right now!



Well, the Yankees were shutout last night at Yankee stadium and nearly no-hit by Philip Humber. 
Both Cano & Martin who were both on hitting streaks, couldn’t squeak a hit off Humber.  It was not until the 7^th inning when Alex Rodriguez finally broke up the no-no with a line drive single.  Arod has now reached base safely in all 16 games he has played this year.  Last night’s hit by Arod shouldn’t come as a surprise to anybody who has been watching Arod lately.  He continues to be that Superstar the Yankees signed him to be. 

This winter was the first year since 2007 that Arod has been fully healthy throughout the offseason.  Over the past few years, he has been dealing with a hip issue that took time and effort to heal.  In the winter these past couple years, Arod has been going through physical therapy/rehab for this hip problem.  The rehab disrupted his offseason routine, but this year he was physically healthy and able to concentrate solely on baseball training.  Specifically, Arod has been working in the batting cages on his swing.

The results of his participation in offseason training have not gone unnoticed as Rodriguez is on fire.   It began in Spring Training when he hit .388 in the Grapefruit league with 6 home runs.  In this first month of the regular season, he is batting .346 (7^th highest AL) with a .478 on base percentage and a .750 slugging percentage.  It’s amazing that he reaches base nearly half the times he gets an at bat!  His slugging percentage is second hightest in the American League, only surpassed by Jose Bautista with .788%! His slugging percentage this April is higher than any other years average, which includes his steroid years of 2005 (.610 %) and 2007 (.645 %).

Although we are looking at a rather small sample size, Arod is “Locked In” and hitting the ball better than I can remember seeing him in the past.  In fact, his career batting average is only .303, with a .388 on base percentage and .572 slugging percentage.  Arod is not necessarily known for his batting average, and has only hit .300 in half of his 18 seasons in the MLB.  His highest batting average for any season was .358 in ‘96 with Seattle and he is right there again this year except now it’s 15 years later!  This is due to his quickness that developed this past offseason and has improved his timing of fastballs which creates more contact and more hits.

Over the past 52 at bats, Arod has 18 hits & 14 walks, with 5 home runs.  His last homerun was a Grand Slam Saturday night in Baltimore off Josh Rupe.  He now has 22 career grand slams which leaves him in second place to Lou Gehrig with 23.  During Saturday’s game at the Orioles, Arod had 6 RBI’s as well.  Those RBI’s pushed him to 10^th place on the all-time RBI list with 1,847.  He is now 3^rd in the AL with 17 RBI’s.

Last April, Alex’s numbers were quite different as it took him longer to heat up.  This would most likely be attributed to less time practicing in the cages.  In April of 2010, Arod had a .250 batting average, with a .337 on base percentage and .440 slugging percentage, with only 2 homers.  These numbers are not terrible but you can see this year is something special.

One item that I did notice was unusual was his splits this year.  He clearly is seeing the ball better against righties for whatever reason.  Normally a righty batter would have better numbers against lefties but not Arod.

·         Against Lefties:  .231 BA, 0 Home Runs, 1 RBI

·         Against Righties:  .385 BA, 5 Home Runs, 16 RBI’s



It's just such a funny pic that I couldn't help myself

AROD BY THE NUMBERS

BATTING AVERAGE

·         Career Batting Average:  .303

·         2011 Batting Average:  .346 – 7^th in AL

·         2010 April: .303

·         Career High Batting Average:  .350, 1996 Seattle Mariners

SLUGGING

·         Career Slugging:  .572 %

·         2011 Slugging:  .750% - 2^nd in AL

·         2010 April Slugging:  .440%

·         Career High Slugging:  .645 %, 2007 NY Yankees

RBI’s

·         2011 RBI’s:  17 – 3^rd in AL

·         2010 April RBI’s:  14

·         Career RBI’s: 1,848 - 10^th All Time Leader

·         Season High RBI’s:  156 – 2007 NY Yankees

·         Season Low RBI’s:  84 – 1997 Seattle Mariners

SIDE NOTES:

The Yankees have not been shut out at home since August 20 of 2010 against the Seattle Mariners.

The Yankees are 18-4 over the last three years in games immediately following shutout losses.

Ivan Nova and Gavin Floyd pitched head to head last season on August 29^th.  Nova got his first win that night when the Yankees won 2-1.

The Yankees are the ONLY MLB Team who have not lost 2 games in a row this year.

Quick Report on Sox's Starter, Philip Humber

Not too much to say about Philip Humber as he hasn’t pitched much over his short career.  He only has a total of 40 innings over the previous three seasons, and has bounced around between the Mets, Twins, Royals, A’s & the White Sox in the past four years.

Although he was picked up in the offseason as a relief pitcher, Humber got a chance to be the #5 starter since Peavy is injured.  Peavy is not scheduled to come back until early May, so Humber may actually get another start after tonight’s game.  Right now, Humber is 1-2 with a  4.00 ERA.  Although his first start was good against the Rays, he pitched against them again last week and allowed 6 hits in 5 innings with 4 runs.  Humber has never pitched against the Yankees.

Humber throws a fastball that sits around 90-91 mph and doesn’t have many strikeouts (11K’s in past 3 starts).  He learned to throw a cutter this year, so I would imagine he would use it often tonight.  The Cutter has been helping his groundball rate which is 45%.  Humber can be really hit or miss tonight.  The Yankees seem to have trouble with new pitchers, but at the same time, the Yankees are red hot right now at the plate.  Even if Humber’s stuff is good, the Yankees will make him throw as many pitches as possible so they can exploit the White Sox bullpen early in this series.

Struggling Sox Come To The Bronx

The Yankees come back to the Bronx today and begin a 7 Day Homestand.  The first games are against the struggling White Sox before the Blue Jays come to town this weekend.  The Yankees are on a three game winning streak.

The White Sox have lost 10 of their last 11 games, and are in last place in the AL Central.  During these past 11 games, the Sox are batting only .193.  They were just swept in a three game series in Detroit and are now 8-14 on the year.

The Yankees have won 18 of the past 26 games against the White Sox (going back to 2001)

The Yankees won 4 of the 6 games they played the White Sox in 2010.

Here are the pitching matchups

Monday Night

AJ Burnett (3-0, 4.37 ERA) vs.  Phil Humber (1-2, 4.42 ERA)

Humber began the season in the bullpen for the Sox and will be making his 4^th start tonight.

Humber’s last outing was at Tropicana Field last week against the Rays where he allowed 4 runs over 5 1/3 innings.  He pitched well except for allowing a home run.

Humber has never started against the Yankees before.

Humber has pitched a total of 21 innings this year in 5 games allowing 9 earned runs and 19 hits.

Humber has a 7.36 Career ERA in Road Games

AJ would be 4-0 if it wasn’t for Mo’s blown save last week.  (As I read this back to myself, I almost started laughing as it sounds so bizarre)

AJ still hasn’t pitched beyond 6 1/3 innings.

Tuesday Night

Ivan Nova (1-2, 7.63 ERA) vs. Gavin Floyd (2-1, 4.00 ERA)

Floyd won his last start against the Rays at Tropicana Field striking out 7 batters.

Brett Gardner has a .600 batting average against Floyd in 6 appearances.

Nova is making his 4^th start of the season and hoping that his fastball can stay down in the zone.  If he can keep his fastball down, he may actually make it into the 6^th or 7^th inning.

Nova has not started a game since April 15.  He was called for one inning of relief work last week.

Wednesday Night

Bartolo Colon (1-1, 3.50 ERA) vs. Mark Buehrle (1-2, 5.40 ERA)

Buehrle is the only lefty the Yankees will see this series

Buehrle is attempting for the 5th time, to get his 150^th win.  He has not gotten a win since Opening Day.

Buehrle’s last game was Friday in Detroit where he took the loss allowing 6 runs over 5 2/3 innings.  He allowed 8 hits and struck out 5.

Robinson Cano’s batting average is .455 against Buerhle over 11 at bats.

Bartolo Colon is still high from his first start last week allowing only 2 runs over 6 2/3 innings.  Colon looked great in his last start and is again trying to claim a spot in the rotation.

Colon has already struck out 20 batters in 18 innings.

Thursday Night

CC Sabathia  (1-1, 2.73 ERA) vs. Edwin Jackson (2-2, 4.48 ERA)

Jackson is not having a good year and has already given up 39 hits over 31 innings, but he has struck out 30 batters.

Jackson has given up 23 hits in his previous two starts.

Sabathia finally got his first win of the season on Saturday after pitching 8 innings and allowing only 3 runs. 

SIDE NOTES:

Robinson Cano has a 13 game hitting streak and is batting .345 in that period.

Adam Dunn is struggling this season.  He has only two hits in his last 30 at bats with 15 strikeouts!

Curtis Granderson has an 8 game hitting streak and is hitting .424 in that period with 9 RBI’s.  Granderson has 4 home runs in the last 5 games!

Hughes threw a bullpen session today before batting practice began and was shut down early.  This doesn't look good for Hughes.

Rafael Soriano was not available yesterday due to a sore back.  No word yet as to whether he is available today.  All we know is that it’s not considered serious.

Countdown to 3000

Derek Jeter now has 2945 hits and needs only 55!  Jeter had 4 hits Sunday against the Orioles.

Jeter is batting .519 in his last 7 home games against the White Sox.

Sunday Morning Notes

Posada is the DH in today's lineup and I can't help but wonder why Girardi isn't sitting him more.  Eric Chavez is having a great start to the season batting .389 in the 20 plate appearances he has made.  Posada is having trouble getting going, and it just seems logical to use Chavez while he is hot. 

Right now, Posada only has 3 hits in the past 22 at bats and went 1 for 5 yesterday.  Posada really can't do much other than hit some home runs, so it would be worth a try to keep him on the bench and use him later in games if necessary.  It's not like he is playing catcher anymore.  I'm not saying that he shouldn't DH, he really needs to find his rhythm as the DH, and while he is searching they should plug Chavez into the lineup. 

TODAYS LINEUP
Derek Jeter SS
Curtis Granderson CF
Mark Teixeira 1B
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Robinson Cano 2B
Nick Swisher RF
Jorge Posada DH
Russell Martin C
Brett Gardner LF

Russell Martin is also in the lineup today after catching last night which is somewhat surprising.  Something tells me that Martin is still fired up after getting hit by a pitch last night.  Although I would normally want to see a catcher get a game off, especially when they have another 15 games in a row to play, I like Martin in the lineup.  Martin has had a great start to the season and may have been the best offseason pickup.

HUGHES UPDATE

Not too much to report but Phil Hughes is still on the DL and working on getting some arm strength back.  He has been rehabbing by throwing long tosses and yesterday he did a lengthy bullpen session which was the toughest workout he has done so far.  He is going to have one more bullpen session Monday and then the plan is to throw in a minor league game by Thursday. No word on whether his velocity has increased yet.  We probably won't hear anything until he pitches in a few games.

Who is Buddy Carlyle ??

The Yankees just announced that Hector Noesi was being optioned back down to the AAA Scranton Yankees and moving Buddy Carlyle to the major league roster.  Noesi never actually had an opportunity to pitch after being called up by the Yankees last week when Luis Ayala went on the DL.  The closest Noesi got to pitching for the Yanks was on Wednesday night when he was warming up in the bullpen, but Pendleton was called in for the 9th inning instead.  It's probably a smart move to option Noesi back down to AAA as he is a starting pitcher and should keep himself fresh, rather than hanging around the bullpen waiting for an opportunity.  If Noesi continues to pitch well in AAA, it's likely he may be optioned back up for a rotation spot.  Find out more about Hector Noesi here

Calling up Buddy Carlyle seems like a somewhat unusual move for the Yanks.  Carlyle was signed as a free agent in December to a minor league contract.  He was yet another, low risk possible high reward signings by Cashman this offseason.  I think most people though Carlyle would just be used as a spot filler in AAA to eat up innings while the young prospects rest between starts.

Carlyle has pitched for three major league teams since 2007 and last year played in Japan.  He has not had much success in the Majors or Japan.  He has started 27 major league games and had an ERA of 5.61.  Last season in Japan, he only pitched 27 innings allowing 35 hits and went 0-3 with a 4.88 ERA.

This spring he only had one opportunity to throw 2.1 innings for the Yankees in the Grapefruit league.  He was not very succesful this spring allowing 7 Runs in those 2 innings on 5 hits, two of which were homers, against the Twins.  The Yankees had spent nothing more than a minor league contract so they held onto him.

Carlyle has done a bit better in AAA as a relief pitcher.  He has appeared in 5 games and pitched 7.2 innings.  He has struck out 11 batters in those 7 innings and only allowed 3 runs.

I suppose Girardi is calling him up to use as an extra relief pitcher out of the pen.  I doubt they will allow Carlyle to start a game like they did in spring training.  Between Pendleton and Carlyle, they can eat up some badly needed innings as the starting pitching hasn't pitched far into any games.

Side Note:  Carlyle actually pitched in the minor league system for the Yankees back in 2004.

WHO IS HECTOR NOESI  ??

WHO IS LANCE PENDLETON ?? 


UPDATED MAY 5, 2011:  Carlyle has been used sporatically by the Yankees for mop up duty later in games and has done pretty well.  He has pitched in 5 games with a total of 4.1 innings.  Carlyle has only allowed 1 hit and struck out three.  He retains the lowest ERA on the Yankees with a 0.00

UPDATED JUNE 22:  Carlyle has just been recalled from Triple-A Scranton to replace Marquez on the Yankees roster as Marquez is going on the DL.  Since being sent down to Scranton, Carlyle has appeared in 13 games, pitching a total of 27 innings.  He was used as the starting pitcher in two of those games and it didn't end well.  In his 2 starts he went 0-2 and since has been used in relief.  His Triple-A ERA is 4.67. 

On the bright side, he does strike out a lot of batters and has 25 strikeouts in the 27 innings pitched.  He is more effective against righties than lefties, so I would imagine he wouldn't be used too often against a lefty late in the game as lefties are hitting .314 off him compared to righties only at .204.

This isn't a big move and Carlyle probably won't last too long on the Yankees roster.  Last time he was called to the big leagues, he pitched in 7 games and only 6.2 innings.  Although he struck out 8 batters, he did allow 5 walks and 2 runs.  To be honest, he seems to be nothing more than a band aid for a bullpen that is bleeding, but somebody needs to do the mop-up duty!

New Joba Rules

Overall the bullpen has been doing it’s job this season and the 7^th, 8^th & 9^th innings are locked down for the most part.  Joba has taken over the 7^th inning since Soriano is now Mo’s setup man.  He has been doing a great job with a few exceptions.  Joba has now pitched in 10 games so far (out of 16) and only allowed a hit in 4 of those games.  His ERA is 3.63 but it’s only that high due to three problematic outings this season.  The first came against Detroit in that opening series on April 3.  Joba allowed three hits & one run.  I like to think this was just a bad start for Joba.  There really doesn’t seem to be much reason to it.

The next hit he allowed was not until April 10 against Boston.  Joba did not have a good outing that game when he allowed 2 Hits, 2 Walks and 2 Earned Runs.  What should be noted is Joba pitched the day before against the Red Sox and delivered a scoreless inning.  It seems the Yankees used him two days in a row and he had some problems on the second day.

The Yankees then used him three games in a row on April 14, April 16 & April 17.  The first of those games, April 14, Joba was lights out for 1.2 innings allowing no hits.  This was possibly his best appearance so far this season.  He then pitched again two days later on the 16^th and pitched a scoreless inning, allowing only 1 hit. 

The Yankees then pushed their luck and used him two days in a row and three times in four days, when he pitched on the 17^th.  Joba had a terrible outing on the 17^th allowing his only blown save of the season.  He didn’t last a full inning either after Girardi pulled him after allowing a run.

It’s a very small sample size but it seems like Joba shouldn’t be pitching two days in a row.  When he pitches two games in a row, he gets hit hard and is wild.  Joba is actually having quite an impressive season and I think he looks better than last year already.  His slider looks like Joba from 2007 and his fastball is averaging 93.6 mph.  The highest his fastball hit this season, so far, was slightly higher than 96 mph. Last season he averaged a 94.6 mph fastball, but I have a feeling Joba’s velocity will get higher as the weather gets warmer and he adjusts.

 Maybe it’s time for Girardi to impose some new Joba rules, and not allow him to pitch two days in a row, at least for the first couple months of the season.  Robertson is always a good option when there is more than a 1 run lead.

Welcome To Scranton

The Scranton/Wilkes Barre Yankees are looking good so far in their first 11 games.  This Yankees system is filled with promising prospects, who may make an appearance at the Major League level soon.  Even if they Yankees don’t call them up, they can be used as trade bait for a starting pitcher.  Right now, these are the guys to keep an eye on! 

Jesus Montero:  Although he had a very slow spring, he has started to heat up in the first 11 games.  Girardi though Montero was pressing too hard in spring training to make the team, which hurt him offensively.  He was sent to AAA to get some confidence and build his offensive numbers.  He now is batting .423 on the season and is 22-50 at the plate.  His slugging percentage is at .558.  By far the most impressive stat is the amount of 3-Hit games he has, which is now 6!  Montero has 3 hits in more than 50% of the games he played so far.  He had a shot to make the Yankees as the backup catcher, which he blew in the Spring with poor offensive numbers.  It seems like he is trying to make a case for himself again before Cervelli makes his way back.  If Montero continues to hit like this…. Cervelli who?

Side Note: Cervelli is beginning his rehab assignment tonight in High –A Tampa.

Jorge Vasquez:  I don’t think anybody expected Vasquez to have such a strong spring or start to the season.  Vasquez was one of those players in spring training that was crushing the ball and was even leading the Yankees in batting average.  Prior to spring training, Vazquez was playing down in the Mexican league and hitting .346 witha  .647 slugging percentage.  Those numbers continued to climb as the AAA Season started.  In Scranton, Vasquez is leading the team with 7 home runs through 11 games, and is hitting .321.  Even more impressive is his slugging percentage which is .714!  Vazquez was named batter of the week, last week when he went 11-26 with 5 Homers and 11 RBI’s.  I don’t know where he fits with the Yankees, but if he keeps hitting like this, I am sure the Yankees will find a spot.

The only thing he needs to work on is the strikeouts.  He struck out 41 times in 36 games in the Mexican league and has already struck out 12 times in AAA.

Justin Maxwell:  Maxwell was another name that was floated around as a backup outfielder for the Yankees this season, but didn’t make the cut after the spring.  Maxwell is widely known for his speed on the bases, and has already stolen 4 bases in the first 11 games in AAA.  Although his batting average is mediocre at .267, his on base percentage is .400 and he has a .625 slugging percentage.  Maxwell has been on fire this past week hitting a home run in every game this week.  With Gardner totally crapping out so far, Maxwell may have an opportunity.

Andy Sisco:  Sisco is a lefty relief pitcher, and I have a strong feeling we may see him get called up at some point throughout the season.  Right now the only lefty in the Yankees bullpen is Boone Logan.  Luis Ayala who started as the other lefty in the pen, went on the DL last week and Lance Pendleton was called up.  Pendleton is a righty, which makes me think that Girardi will eventually drop Pendleton within the next month or two as the odd man out, when they really want to play the numbers and use a lefty specialist for a batter or two.  Sisco & Logan would be those late inning lefties.  Right now Sisco is on fire in his first 6.2 innings.  It may be a very small sample size, but he has a 0.00 ERA and only allowed 3 hits.  He has struck out 7 batters in those 6 innings and his WHIP is 1.05.  If Pendleton pitches like he did on Wednesday night against the Jay allowing one hit and walking a batter, Sisco will get called up sooner than expected. 

Hector Noesi:  Last week the Yankees called up Noesi and I wrote about him HERE.  Noesi has not been used yet by the Yankees, but he was warming up the other night in Toronto before Pendleton pitched the 9^th inning.  Noesi was in contention this spring as a possible 5^th starter, and has only pitched one game for AAA going 5 innings and allowing 2 earned runs.

UPDATE:  Noesi was optioned down to AAA today for Buddy Carlyle.  The Yankees want Noesi to be a starting pitcher and he wasn't getting any action with the Yankees.  Better to keep him fresh in AAA for now.

Lance Pendleton:  Pendleton was called up by the Yankees last week and has appeared in two games so far for them.  I wrote about him HERE, when he was called up.  He was used last Friday in mop up duty for three innings against the Rangers after Nova was pulled from the game.  Since everyone was wearing #42 that night, nobody really noticed Pendleton pitch three scoreless innings.  Pendleton looked great in that appearance, and was given another opportunity on Wednesday night against the Blue Jays.  His second appearance was much shakier when he was called in for the 9^th inning.  The Yankees were up by four runs, but Pendleton walked the first batter and allowed the second batter to hit a single.  Girardi didn’t mess around and quickly called in Soriano to put out a fire before it began.  Pendleton may have had an off night, but his control was poor and more notably, his fastball never hit 90 MPH.  Normally he pitches 90-92, but the highest it hit on Wednesday was 89.  If Pendleton continues with those control issues and lack of velocity for a relief pitcher, he will surely be replaced. 

Adam Warren:  Warren started Wednesday night for Scranton and pitched 8 shutout innings.  He was totally dominant and even when he began to get himself in trouble in the 4^th inning, he pitched his way out of it.  The leadoff batter in the 4^th laid down a bunt and the second batter his a single, allowing the first batter to reach third.  With no outs and a man on first and third, Warren forced two ground outs and a strikeout to get out of the jam.  He allowed 5 hits on the night, and walked one batter.  If he continues to pitch like this, I know a team that needs a few starting pitchers!

Warren has quite a few pitches in his reportoire, with superb command.  He throws a mid 90's fastball, cutter, two seamer and a changeup in the low 80's. 

More updates to come soon on the Killer B’s, but the sample size is too small at this point.  You can check out the Killer B’s HERE until we get some updates.

Homer Happy!!

The Yankees just split the last two games with the Blue Jays after a solid outing by Bartolo Colon to uplift the team after Mariano’s blown save.  (I guess Mo is a mere mortal after all).  They have now won 6 of the past 8 games they played and are holding onto first place in the AL East.  In fact, they are still the only team with a winning record in the AL East.  Tampa is in second with a .500 record.

The biggest stat to jump out during this first three weeks of the season, is the amount of home runs the Yankees are hitting.  They now lead all of MLB with 30 Home Runs on the season in only 16 games!  The Yanks have now hit a homer in 14 of the 16 games played so far.

Oh Curtis you are something sort of Grandish

Curtis Granderson & Mark Texeira are the team leaders, each hitting 6 homeruns.  Granderson has actually hit a homer in each of the past three games.  Hopefully he will bring that slugging streak with him into Camden yards this weekend.  Howie Kendrick is the only other player in the AL has 6 homeruns.

Jorge Juiced One

Jorge Posada has the third most homeruns with 5.  This is somewhat unusual as Posada only has 8 hits on the season, and 5 of those hits are homeruns.  Posada is tied with Miguel Cabrera on Detroit & Nelson Cruz on Texas.  I would say that is pretty good company for Posada to be in.

An A-Bomb for A-Rod

Robinson Cano, Russell Martin & Alex Rodriguez each have 4 homeruns.  Arod is on fire this year and after giving everyone a big scare with a possible injury, he was back in the lineup yesterday and crushed another home run. 

Cano is on a hot streak as well.  He has an 11 game hitting streak this season.

The only everyday players without a home run are Nick Swisher, Derek Jeter & Brett Gardner.  Nick Swisher is really beginning to heat up though, so I am sure the bombs will start dropping soon.  It may be a little longer for Jeter & Gardner.

On an interesting side note, the Yankees are the only team in MLB to NOT have scored 4 or more runs in an inning this season.  I have a feeling that could change soon.

2 New Commercials

This is my new favorite commercial.  I hope New Era continues to make these throughout the season.

I just saw this commercial during the Yankee game tonight.  Pretty cool commercial and always great to see CC representing!

Taking On the Jays

After taking 2 of 3 games from the American League champs, the Yankees have today off and will be flying up to Toronto this evening for a two-game series.  The Yanks are coming off a homestand where they went 4-1.  They are now the ONLY AL East team with a winning record at 9-5.

The Blue Jays are in second place in the AL EAst, but have not been playing well.  The Blue Jays have now lost 7 of their last 9 games including losing 3 out of 4 games to Boston this past weekend in Fenway.  They made the struggling Red Sox look great over the past few days.  In fact, the Jays were outscored 21-3 in the past three games, scoring only 1 run in each of those games.

Toronto needed to make a change after last year, after going 85-77 and not making the playoffs again.  The Jays have only finished a season better than 3^rd place, once since 1993, when they won the World Series.  During the offseason, they hired a new manager, John Farrell.  Farrell was the former pitching coach for the Red Sox.  His first year with Boston was 2007 when they won the World Series.  Farrell is credited for the success of the Red Sox young pitchers, Lester, Buchholz, & Papelbon.  He has some young players on the Jays and will be looking to continue his success with the Jays.    

YANKS NOTES

The Yankees have been hitting for power to start the season.  They now have 27 home runs over the past 14 games.  This past weekend, 10 of their 14 runs scored against Texas were from homers

Cano has a 9 game hitting streak and is now hitting .351 over these past 9 games.

3000 Hits Countdown – Jeter only needs 61 more hits.  He should reach this milestone in early to mid June.

JAYS NOTES

The Blue Jays had a winning record against the Yankees last season going 10-8.

Over this past weekend the Jays stole 9 bases against Boston.  They have now stolen 21 bases over the first 14 games of the season!

The Jays have a young very hyped catcher behind the plate this season, JP Arencibia.  He is batting .308 this season.  He has 4 multi-hit games with 2 Home Runs and 6 RBI’s. 

PITCHING MATCHUPS

Tuesday :  AJ Burnett (3-0, 4.67 ERA) vs. Kyle Drabek (1-0, 1.93 ERA)

Burnett has a win for each start he has made this season.  Although he hasn’t been lights out, AJ has been looking pretty good. 

Drabek is a young stud of a pitcher.  Baseball America ranked him #12 best prospect in the 2006 draft.  His father is former Cy Young winner Doug Drabek.  Drabek managed to get through his 3 starts with minimal damage, but his control has become an issue in each game.  He has allowed 11 Walks over 18 total innings, but he has struck out 17 batters in those 18 innnings.  I watched him pitch in spring training and believe that he will have a great future with the Jays.  Drabek had one start against the Yankees this spring, pitching 4 innings and allowing only 2 runs after struggling early.

He throws a cut fastball and a sinker, but his best pitch is his curveball which sits in the low 80’s.  Last year he added an offspeed/changeup pitch as well, which he uses on lefties often.  In the minors he had a difficult time getting lefties out, but has been more successful since using the changeup.

Wednesday:  Bartolo Colon (0-1, 3.97 ERA) vs. Brett Cecil (1-1, 6.19 ERA)

It has been 633 days since Colon started a Major League game, so this should be pretty interesting.  Worst case scenario they can bring in Hector Noesi or Lance Pendleton for middle/long relief if Colon gets into trouble.  Colon has only pitched 11.1 innings so far in 2011, but has 13 strikeouts.  He should only be stretched out to 85 pitches, so hopefully he can get into the 5^th or 6^th inning.

Cecil started this season with a lack of velocity on his fastball.  This was originally a cause for concern but this past weekend in Boston he regained some of his mojo and was hitting 92 mph.  Over the past 16 innings he has thrown in 2011, he struck out 11 batters.  Last year in his first full season, Cecil won 15 games going 15-7 with a 4.22 ERA.  Cecil had four wins against the Yankees last season, going 4-0 on the season in five starts!

Pictures From The Trop

The Twins are down in Tampa this weekend playing the Rays and Michael Cuddyer has posted some pictures to his flickr account.  Cuddyer is a versatile player for the Twins who plays first base, outfield and third base. He is now playing second base as Nick Swisher broke Nishioka's leg on that slide at second a couple weeks ago.  These are pretty cool pictures taken from areas of Tropicana Field.  It's worth checking out.

Check out Michael Cuddyer's Pictures here 

On a side note for the Twins, they have named Matt Capps as the new closer.  Joe Nathan who was a solid closer, wasn't cutting it this year and Gardenhire wanted to take him out of pressure situations.  Nathan has not been the same pitcher since surgery which kept him out in 2010.  He has lost about 5 mph on his fastball which isn't cutting it as the closer.  Nathan's has now blown his last two saves, including Saturday's game at Tampa.  He will be used in middle relief situations from this point out.  

Capps hasn't been especially efficient this season, so it should be something to keep an eye on.  Capps has allowed 3 Earned Runs over his last 1.1 innings.  The Twins need to make some moves if they want to compete in the AL Central, which has gotten much tougher from last season.

 UPDATE @ 1:00:  The Twins will be calling up a relief pitcher from AAA after today's final game against the Rays.  It's very possible they bring up Jim Hoey who was sent to AAA right after spring training.  Hoey had a decent spring, but Gardenhire wanted him to work out his Split Finger Fastball to better compliment his For Seam Fastball. His Four Seamer hits 96 mph, which makes him a strong possibility for the call-up into the bullpen. 

Who Is Lance Pendleton ??

On Friday the Yankees put Phil Hughes on the DL with a "dead arm" and Lance Pendleton was called up from AAA Scranton.  Pendleton was not called up as a starter to fill in for Hughes, as Bartolo Colon will make the spot starts.  Pendleton will be used as a relief pitcher and possible long man, as he did on Friday night against the Rangers.  On Friday Pendleton didn't even get to Yankee stadium until a couple hours before game time.  He didn't let that affect him and pitched 3 scoreless innings allowing no hits and striking out two.  It was an impressive first Major League Appearance.

Pendleton was drafted by the Yankees back in 2005 in the amateur draft.  He has worked his way through the minors over the past few years after receiving Tommy John surgery.  Last season he made the jump from AA Trenton to AAA Scranton.

In 2010 he went 12-5 with a 3.61 ERA in AA & AAA.  He only appeared in 6 games in AAA Scranton for a total of 34 innings.  The majority of the season he spent with AA Trenton going 10-4 with a 3.43 ERA over 120 innings.  He hasn't been talked much about in the minor leagues and seemed to be just another pitcher on the minor league roster.  It was somewhat surprising seeing Pendleton getting the call on Friday.

During the offseason, Pendleton was drafted by the Astros in the Rule 5 Draft.  The right hander was named the 29th best prospect in the Astros organization by baseball america this past winter.  They called him a fifth starter/long/middle reliever type pitcher.  He throws a fastball, sinker, curveball, slider and changeup.  Pendleton generally works off a fastball which is somewhere in the 90-91 mph range, and uses a curveball consistently.  Last year in the minor leagues he added a slider to his reportoire.

This spring Pendleton contended for the 5th pitcher spot on the Astros, but Nelson Figueroa beat him out for the job.  Pendleton's spring was somewhat lackluster as he had control issues.  He went 1-0 in the Grapefruit League with a 5.87 ERA in seven appearances (1 start).  Ultimately, Houston had no use for him and Pendleton was returned to the Yankees.

• He is 31-22 with a 3.42 ERA over the past three seasons, with 382 strikeouts and 149 walks in 431 innings.  
• This season Pendleton has gone 1-1 in Scranton with a 1.59 ERA.  
• He has only allowed 3 hits in his two starts. 

Who Is Hector Noesi ??


UPDATED MAY 5, 2011:  Lance Pendleton has been used by the Yankees as a long reliever/mop up duty similar to Buddy Carlyle.  Pendleton has pitched 5.1 innings in 3 games so far.  He has only allowed 3 hits and struck out 2 batters.  He has a 0.00 ERA.

The State of the Yankees

The Yankees tied the series 1-1 after today's win against the Rangers and maintained their half game lead in the AL East.  The Yankees are now 8-5 on the season.

Freddy Garcia pitched 6 scoreless innings and got the win.  Garcia pitched very well, especially for a guy who hasn't started since March 29, nearly three weeks ago.  He doesn't have the speed that he used to, but Garcia is a different pitcher these days.  His fastballs are only hitting 87-88 mph, but his command today was perfect.  Garcia mixed in breaking pitches and offspeed pitches, that kept the Rangers guessing all day.  He only allowed 2 hits, as the Rangers looked confused against him.

The bullpen came in and finished things off with Chamberlain in for the 7th, Soriano in the 8th and of course Mo finishing it off in the 9th getting his 6th save of the season.  The bullpen has looked dominant so far, and today was no exception although Soriano came close to giving up a homer to Beltre today.  The Yankees bullpen has only allowed 3 Earned Runs in the past 23 innings!

The last two games, the Rangers have used left handed starting pitching.  The Yankees bat Jeter leadoff against lefties due to his strong career numbers against lefty pitchers.  Since Gardner is having some trouble offensively, Andruw Jones has been starting in left field.  Without Gardner in the lineup, Nick Swisher gets moved up in the batter order to #2.  He seems to like batting in the 2-spot, as Swish has four hits over the last two games batting second.  This formula seems to be working so far.

Tomorrow night the Yankees will try to win this series before hitting the road to Toronto & Baltimore.  CC Sabathia will get the final start against Alexi Ogando.  Sabathia has yet to get a win despite strong starts and only a 1.45 ERA.  Ogando who is a converted relief pitcher, is 2-0 with a 0.00 ERA.  He has pitched 13 scoreless innings over his previous two starts.  He has never started a game against the Yankees and has only pitched very limited innings in relief, so tomorrow may be a battle of starting pitchers.  Hopefully CC will get a win already!

Burnett will pitch Tuesday in Toronto but after him the starting rotation is a big question mark.  Hughes has been placed on the DL with a "dead arm" so Colon will likely take his spot, but it may be possible to see Nova get the start on Wednesday in order to allow Colon to try and stretch himself out a bit.  Right now, Colon can only pitch about 80 pitches.  Since the Yankees have Thursday off, that should give Freddy Garcia the chance to pitch Friday night in Baltimore, followed by Sabathia who would pitch Saturday giving him 5 days rest.  It's entirely possible that Sabathia may pitch Friday rather than Saturday and Garcia or Colon would start Saturday night. 

Girardi needs to make some big decisions with the starting rotation as the only reliable starters are CC Sabathia and AJ Burnett, although after last season, I don't think anybody likes using "reliable" as a adjective to describe Burnett. 

ALCS Rematch

The Rangers are stopping in the Bronx on their road trip for a three game set beginning tonight.  The Rangers are 9-3 this season, but only 3-3 on the road.  The last time these two teams faced off was ALCS game 6, when the Rangers won the American League pennant.  Tonight's matchup is between Ivan Nova for the Yankees and Matt Harrison for the Rangers.  Neither of tonight's pitchers  on the postseason roster.

Matt Harrison:  Harrison is the Rangers young lefty who has started the season hot.  He is now 2-0 after his previous start last Saturday against the Orioles where he pitched 7 total innings allowing only 1 run on 2 hits.

Last season, Harrison pitched both in the bullpen and as a starter.  He didn't make the postseason team as he ended the season as a starter goiong 3-2 with a 4.71 ERA.  He made 37 total appearances in 2010 with 6 starts.

Of those 6 starts, 2 of them were against the Yankees.  Harrison went 1-1 in his starts against the Yankees.  His ERA against the Yanks last season was 7.53 over 5 games, 2 of which were starts.

Ivan Nova: Nova is starting for the Yankees tonight and is looking to improve on his previous start in Boston last Saturday.  Last week, he had a rough outing but was able to keep the game manageable for the Yankees to win.  In Boston, he allowed 4 runs over 4 and a third innings.  He constantly allowed baserunners but managed to get himself out of jams.

Nova is now 1-0 on the season with a 6.10 ERA.  Nova needs to keep his fastball down, and he should be OK tonight.  He is still a rookie as has trouble the second or third time through a batting order, but on the bright side Josh Hamilton is injured and won't be taking him deep.

Keeping an eye on things - AL East

Looking back over the past week to my prior posts about Russell Martin & Jarrod Saltalamacchia, as well as the Red Sox Preview, the Yankees have now lost their first series to the Red Sox, 2-1.  Hughes pitched batting practice to the Red Sox on Friday allowing Boston to get their first win.  Saturday, the Yankees won with Nova on the mound.  Nova struggled but was able to keep the game in check and allow the Yankee offense to steal the show. Beckett pitched a gem of a game on Sunday night with a two hit shutout.  Saltalamacchia was not behind the plate though, as Varitek got the start.  Following the game, Beckett had high praise for Varitek with the way he called the game, and how calm he was behind the plate.  I wouldn’t be surprised to see Francona to designate Varitek as Beckett’s personal catcher.  Take a look below at Beckett’s numbers since coming to the Red Sox.

Beckett's ERA with Varitek :  3.90 ERA  in 731 innings

Beckett's ERA with other Red Sox catchers:  5.53 ERA in 201.2 innings

I think these numbers speak for themselves.  Varitek needs to catch games with Beckett on the mound. 

After the Yankees series, the Red Sox hosted the Rays.  Dice K pitched the first game and got shelled.  Maybe I am just being an arrogant Yankee fan, but I really think Dice K is going to have a terrible year.  He is 0-2 with a 12.86 ERA.  It didn't help that Saltalamacchia was behind the plate during this blowout.

Russell Martin on the other hand has been doing very well.  In Fenway on Saturday, Martin stole the show with two home runs.  He has been effective behind the plate as well, coaxing AJ through 3 wins.  (AJ has more wins than the Red Sox!)  Martin has played in every game so far, and is hitting .294 with a .333 on base percentage and a whopping .618 slugging percentage.

Tuesday night the Red Sox lost again making their record 2-9.  Varitek started this game with Lester on the mound and called a solid game.  Lester pitched well in this game going 7 innings allowing only 3 ER's.  David Price pitched for the Rays and reminded them that he is an Ace.  Price went 7 2/3 and allowed only 2 ER's.  Kyle Farnsworth, now with the Rays, picked up the save striking out two.  Joe Maddon must be desparate to plug Farnsy into the closer role.  (the Rays did lose their entire bullpen this offseason)  Crazy Kyle is always one pitch away from a meltdown, but it worked out Tuesday against the lackluster Red Sox.

For a team destined to win the World Series by everyone before the season started, it’s pretty funny watching the season play out for Boston.  I don't think the Red Sox will play like crap all season, but they are sure digging a big hole for themselves to work their way out of.